Gym Culture Emails

I absolutely love Gym Owners Facebook Groups. I was in two when I owned my CrossFit gym, as well as the Gymnastics Owners and Managers group. I love it because it's a great place to seek answers and share Best Practices.

December 4th, 2018 marked 12 months in business. We had just made hire #30 (we started with 9). A lot had changed in one year. We were in no way the same business Day 1 as we were on Day 365.

I decided to take to the exercise of writing a series of emails about our gym. In this series of emails I would go over why we started, what we value, what kind of culture we want, why we make changes, why we work hard, why we do what we do, etc.

Currently I'm on my twenty-fourth email.

And you know what? Our staff loves it! I've heard on multiple occasions that it, "peels back the curtain on us as owners".

As much as you want to think not, your employees do see you in a different light. It doesn't matter how close, or how good of friends you are. You are still the owner and they are the employee. In a sense, your the wizard behind the curtain.

But the good news is, I think this bridges the gap. There's something about the medium of the written word that opens lines of communication that verbal can't always do.

Instead of having a several all staff meetings (usually someone always can't make it) or a meeting that goes for 2 hours. I write to my staff daily what's on my mind or things I would like to work on, etc.

These series of emails has created openness with our entire staff and has even helped address issues that we didn't even know existed.

So here's my challenge to you owners or a managers. Write to your staff daily for 20 days. That's Monday-Friday for 4 weeks and watch your culture change for the better.