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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.

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Welcome to Rethink Culture, the podcast that shines the spotlight on business leaders

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who are rethinking workplace culture and putting people first.

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My name is Andreas Konstantinou and I'm your host 
and I'm also Chairman and Founder at SlashData.

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I'm an accidental micromanager who turned servant leader over the years.

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And developed a personal passion for workplace culture.

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If you have any thoughts that you'd like to share about the podcast,

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please let me know by emailing 
Rethink@RethinkCulture.co.

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Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Erik Lilla.

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He's the founder and CEO of Metro Stars Gymnastics.

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They celebrated their sweet 16th anniversary in January.

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He's going to tell us more about that.

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He is not a gymnast.

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However, he runs a large gymnastics company where they teach over 3000 people every week.

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And he tells me he has a few hobbies that he likes to change from time to time.

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His current hobby is climbing to the highest point of all 50 states in the US.

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What an amazing feat that will be.

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And his passion is also to coach and inspire others so that we can all together celebrate their success.

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What a humble and pivotal passion that is.

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Erik, very much welcome to the Rethink Culture podcast.

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Hey, thank you for having me today.

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So tell us a bit more.

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I mean, there's so many questions I want to start with.

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Tell us a bit more what drew you to start a gymnastics company given you're not a gymnast.

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Okay, so what's funny is actually my business partner who is also my wife

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was my girlfriend at the time and she tricked me basically is what happened.

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One day she came to me with a VHS cassette tape

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and she said, will you please take a look at this for me because I just need your help.

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And of course I said yes.

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So she popped this VHS cassette tape into the VCR and she hit play.

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And what I saw was is a bunch of little people running towards a vault table trying to do a gymnastics vault.

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And she said, if you watch this, Erik, they're just they're not doing very well and I'm not exactly sure what's going on.

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And I said immediately, I can tell you what they need to do.

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And she said, what? Please.

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And I'm like, they need to do some running drills.

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I go, they are not very fast and they just don't have enough energy.

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And she said, OK.

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And so I had actually been a pole vaulter in high school.

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And so a lot of the mechanics were similar, right?

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You're running as fast as you can towards an immovable object.

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And then you've got to figure out your steps and there's just a whole bunch of things you have to do.

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So she invited me into the gym to come and do running drills with these students.

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And so I went and I did that.

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And I'll be honest with you.

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It was a little awkward.

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It was a bunch of little girls.

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They were between probably eight and 13 years old.

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I'd never worked with any children before.

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And so I finished and I was like, okay, I, I endured that, lovely.

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And as I'm making my way out

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the head coach said, Erik, that was incredible.

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Will you please come back again and do that with us on Monday?

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And at the time, if I had said no, I would have been lying.

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I didn't have anything else going on.

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So I ended up coming back on Monday and working with the kids again.

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And this went on for a few weeks.

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Well, after a few weeks time, I showed up and they didn't need to do vault that day.

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They were supposed to tumble.

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And so she said, OK, take him to tumbling.

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And I'm like, OK, why don't I know nothing about that?

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She said, no problems.

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If it looks bad, tell me and I'll tell you what's wrong with it and then we'll go from there.

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So, OK.

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So the first student does a skill and like bounces off of her head kind of.

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And I'm like, that's obviously not right.

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Like, hey, a little help there.

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What's going on with this?

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And she said, well, she needs to keep her arms straight. And I said, okay.

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So, I said, please keep your arms straight.

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And, and at that moment I really became an apprentice, you know, like, like a plumber or an electrician.

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And I just started asking questions and I started getting really curious.

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And before long I had fallen in love with, with working with these kids.

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I just had such a great time building relationships with them, getting to know their parents.

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And it was very clear to me that this is what I wanted to do.

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In the meantime, I was also applying to go to graduate school.

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So I have a mechanical engineering degree.

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And I was looking at getting a master's degree in engineering.

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And I received my acceptance letter from the University of Michigan and it said, um, Hey, welcome to the program.

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I soon after got a second letter that said this is going to cost $80,000.

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And as I was reading this, I remember very vividly, I'm sitting in my mother's basement.

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I'm looking at this letter.

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I'm like, I'm, I'm feeling something and I'm like, 
I don't want to, I just don't want to do this.

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I think if I do this, I'm going to be miserable.

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And so I called Liz and I said, Liz, I'm not going to 
go to school anymore.

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And she's real quiet.

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And she says, well, what, what do you think you're 
going to do instead?

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And I said, I just want to coach gymnastics.

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And then she got real quiet and we waited a while and 
she said to me, um, okay, well, I kind of just want to 
coach gymnastics too.

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And then she got real quiet and we waited a while and 
she said to me, um, okay, well, I kind of just want to 
coach gymnastics too.

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And that sort of launched this, this whole path of, 
of coaching gymnastics together.

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And at the time there weren't any full-time jobs 
for a guy with six months experience coaching gymnastics.

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Like that wasn't a thing.

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And I think as entrepreneurs, we know if there's 
not an opportunity, we have to make one.

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And so that's, yeah, we had to go out and create this 
opportunity.

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So for ourselves at the time, and since I think you 
mentioned my why statement, which is to coach and 
inspire others so we can celebrate their success.

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At some point, this pivoted to where we realized 
that we could provide this opportunity for others 
to have a career in this field.

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And that really just, it just blew our minds that 
this was even possible.

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And so really what drives us today is how can we do 
more of that?

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How can we create opportunities?

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for members of our team to do this thing that they love and are passionate about? How can we create

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opportunities in our community for kids to have a chance to do this sport that we all love and has

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given us so much? Um, and, and that's,

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that's the driving force today.

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Culture is important to you and we discussed about 
this

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Before hitting the record button.

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And I want to start with what's behind your back.

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So for those listening on audio, it's like a star.

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Can you tell us more about it?

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Absolutely.

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So what's over my shoulder is what's called our 
high five board.

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And so what we've done is one of the really the core 
driver for us.

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I mean, they're called core values for a reason.

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And we have put them at front and center.

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In everything that we do.

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So there, we, we are not shy about it.

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We broadcast it everywhere.

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So this is one spot.

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So on this high five board, we have a, um, it's a 
star, which is, which is also incorporated into 
our logo and it's a five point star.

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And each point of that has one of our core values.

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So, um, we've got contagious enthusiasm, learn 
and grow, trust and respect, confidence with 
humility and...

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and own it.

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And so what we do is we have actually a program at the 
gyms and all of our staff are constantly looking 
for other staff members that are exuding our core 
values.

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And for those of you that are looking at this we've 
got these little cards and so the cards are shaped 
in the shape of a hand and it's called a high five.

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And what we do is we'll, one coach or one team member 
will notice someone doing something where 
they're exemplifying our core values.

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They'll put their name on it.

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They'll write their compliment on there.

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And then each month we pin these up onto our

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onto our high five board. And then we kind of count them up and we're able to track,

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you know, how many learning grows do we see this month? How many opportunities for contagious

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enthusiasm? How many people owned it? And it's just a great way for us to constantly be looking

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around and finding those core values and our team members living those on a day-to-day basis.

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It reminds me of another culture technique or hack that Arnie Malham used,

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which is these thank you cards, which he has staff write one thank you card to another card. And

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in his book, he shows a desk of one of his six-month-in employees that's covered with

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thank you cards from other employees as a way of really not just rewarding and recognizing

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people, but creating purpose. Like we all like to help each other. And if you can make that

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immediate and visual and recognize the effort, it just hits so many spots.

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Yeah. And I think what's important for us is always we want to make sure that we're building

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connection all the time, because at the end of the day, life is short, right? And life is too

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short to be miserable. But we are going to spend a lot of our time in the workplace. So how can we

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make the workplace a joyful place for us? And part of that is having really great relationships

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with our co-workers and working with people who believe what we believe. And so by really

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shining a spotlight on these core values, what it does is the people who really, really buy into

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our mission vision values, they're all in and we have a lot of fun together. And for the people

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that aren't, they tend to self-select out, which is which is OK, because while while in many

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cases, in all cases, they're wonderful people, but they may have more success and they may thrive

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in a different environment. And so let's let's get the folks that really rally behind what we're

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doing here. Let's get them together. And for the people that are not, let's help them find

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the thing that really gets them excited as well.

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How did you land with this passion for culture

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and values? Was it always on the back of your mind? I want to build a culture of significance

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or was it like, you woke up one night and said culture is important?

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I think it was it was a culture of

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necessity. So I think I so I previously I was employed places where I was a terrible culture

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fit. I didn't know that at the time. I mean, I could probably feel that like something was off

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or I was always like a like the counterculture person. And I just contrary all the time. Right.

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Just not very not buying into the mission and vision values. And so I kind of had that in the back of my

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mind of places I didn't fit. What really, really hit at home for me was so I was a student at the

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EO's Entrepreneurial Master's Program, which is touted as the most transformational program

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in the EO ecosystem. And I wholeheartedly believe that. And as part of that, we began with we had

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Vern Harnish came and gave us an opening. And and he said something along the lines of like,

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you own the culture at your company. If it's bad,

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it's your fault. And I was like, oh, and it was such a kick in the gut at that moment, because

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I knew when he's saying that, I'm like, you know what? It's not what it should be. It's not as good

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as it could be. We have folks that maybe aren't good fits. And that is my fault. And so now I'm

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feeling bad. And I'm like, OK, well, that stinks. Well, then the next speaker was a Simon Sinek

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facilitator who started talking about your why. And I was like, this is really interesting to me.

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I love this content. And so out of that work came the why,

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for myself and the company, which is to coach and inspire others so we can celebrate their success.

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So I'm like, OK, well, that is a good kernel. Well, then Artie came on and started talking

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about culture with all of these little tips and tricks. And all of a sudden I realized,

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like the culmination of those three speakers made me go home and say, I have some work to do and I'm

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really excited about this. So at that time, we we as I came back to my leadership team and they all,

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of course, thought I was nuts. Right.

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Because I went away to this training. I'm gone for a week or two and I come back and I I have so

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much energy and enthusiasm around this that they're like, OK, I think we're going to have to at

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least entertain him a little bit. But very quickly, they also saw the value of where I was going with

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this. And so at that time, we consolidated our core values. We wrote descriptions of them.

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we actually did a whole launch. This was in 2018. I did a whole company meeting where we

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launched the core values officially. We launched all the descriptions and you could feel things

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start to shift already. We started making them very customer focused. So we give out these

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welcome boxes when we start. And so we started putting in this rack card inside that talked

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about our core values and shared them with our customers. And we just started integrating them

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into everything that we did. And what that did is one, for some people, they're like, oh, I knew

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this. I knew this was my place. For some people that weren't weren't necessarily bought into what

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we were doing, they started to feel really uncomfortable. And it wasn't it wasn't on

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purpose. It was it was with a purpose, actually. But those folks, they weren't good fits and they

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didn't necessarily believe what we believe philosophically as we were

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as as teachers, as gymnastics coaches, as business owners. And so it took a probably

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12 to 24 months from that launch to where some of those folks self-selected out and decided to

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make a switch. But it also started attracting all of the right people to us and more importantly,

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the right customer, because now the customers know exactly where we stand, what we're trying

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to do. And the people that wanted that sort of the the positive,

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um, learning environment for their children. Um, that's what we started getting those. And some

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people, they want their kids to be coached really hard. They want like really tough, um, coaching on

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their kids and they want like, um, and they want that for their children and that that's not who we

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are. And so they said, OK, well, this isn't for me. We're going to go somewhere else. And what it did

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is it also made it really easy to make recommendations because we also know the cultures of, um, of our

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neighbors. And so we were able to say, hey, listen, I think maybe this would be a better fit for you.

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And what's nice is everybody sort of parts ways as friends, um, by really having the focus on the

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culture that we that we have.

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Yeah, it's not a criticism. It's it's either a fit or it isn't, right?

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Correct. Exactly. Yes.

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And so, Eric, before we dive deeper into your culture, I know you have

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lots of stories to tell. Let's play this game of two truths and one lie. So what are two truths

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and one lie for you in no particular order? In no particular order. Excellent. All right. So, um,

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we'll start with the first one is, um, I once won an engineering contest by building an incredible

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balsa wood structure. Okay. And that's the first one. All right. The next one is, um, I got a

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pilot's license to fly airplanes in only three months time. Okay. Okay. And then the third is,

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is, um, I once won an all expenses paid trip from a cup at the McDonald's.

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They all seem equally unlikely. So.

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Let you chew on that for a while.

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Let’s chew on that and we’ll get to it at the end of the episode.

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So back onto values and culture and, um, Steven, who introduced us,

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our common friend, he told me about,

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one or two people from your staff that have tatooed your company on their body.

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That is correct. So how long, I don't remember when it was I wanted, there's a company here in,

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um, in the US it's called Anytime Fitness. And I was, I saw this either online or one of their

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posters or something that they had like a tattoo program. Okay. And I thought who would get an

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Anytime Fitness tattoo? That seems very unlikely.

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However, I was also intrigued because I know that, you know,

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the brand that we're building is it's a feeling right of what we're providing for folks.

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And also we're a place in some people's journey and sometimes a big place of where this may be their first job.

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It may be it may be an important milestone for them.

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They may get some leadership training that propels them forward.

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We've got kids that have started gymnastics with us at five years old,

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and then they start working for us when they're 16 and we're their first job.

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So I realized, like, this brand actually has different meaning to different people.

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And I thought, how cool would it be if somebody wanted to get the logo as a tattoo to sort of mark that journey?

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And so I launched a program. I said, you know what, if someone wants to do that, I think that's so cool.

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I will gladly write the check to do that. I will go with you as well, because I think it's so cool.

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And of course, they'll be I'll buy lunch, too, of course.

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So so up to now, we have had we've had two of our team members that have gone and got the got the tattoo.

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And what was really cool was it's not small either. One of our team members, it was her whole foot.

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She actually got the whole top of her foot tattooed with the Metro Stars logo.

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And then we've got another team member that it's on his it's on his calf on his leg.

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And it's it's it's large. I mean, it's a it's a large tattoo on his leg.

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We actually just got done with an event over the weekend.

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And I've got four other four other people that have told me, like,

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probably this maybe before the end of the year or next year, they're ready to take me up on it.

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So we may up the tattoo count. We could go from four to six here in the next, you know, 12 months.

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Maybe there's a Guinness record of, you know, tattooing your company name on.

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Yeah.

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I think. Yeah, it's just what a testament to, you know, the impact that we're able to have on our team members.

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And I just I think I think it's so cool.

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So you told me earlier about your learn and grow value, which is right behind you on the video.

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And there's a few things you do about it.

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But I like that you really live that value. So tell us more.

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I think you are running an annual summit.

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We do. So so the the learn and grow has always been a really important thing for me personally.

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And I think I think that stems from just a natural curiosity about the world.

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I also think that in business, you know, we always say if we're doing the same thing we were doing a year or two ago,

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we're probably doing something wrong.

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And and the way forward through that is to

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is to learn and grow as a team.

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So we run an annual it's called Summit.

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And what we do is we actually close the facilities for an entire an entire work day.

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We bring in our entire staff and we just plan a whole learning day together.

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So that day starts off with, you know, we have a registration.

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We do some cool swag for everybody.

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And then we come together and we do some connection games.

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So we'll do some things where we get to know each other.

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One of the challenges that we have is that our our team is spread across three different facilities.

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So it's important for us, again, to to make that connection

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and to get people to learn from each other and to get to know people across facilities.

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So we start with some connection things.

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I love to do a year in review.

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And so I'll do a kind of a kickoff.

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And one of the things I talk about every year is

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just to give everybody kind of our story a little bit a different

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spin on what I told you at the beginning of the podcast today.

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I've just. How did we get from where we are or where we started to where we are?

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Because this company started with five students in a little itty bitty space.

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And how do we get from that place to where we are today?

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And what did that journey look like?

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Just so that they can understand what they're part of a much bigger thing than they may realize.

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So that's always a wonderful time for us.

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We bring in an outside speaker so that they can learn some things.

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So we had a speaker.

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Her name was Lisa Evans, who came and visited with us.

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And Lisa talked about our ripple effect,

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which is very important as coaches that to understand the impact that we're having on

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other students and parents and in our community.

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And then we give our our team an opportunity to be the experts.

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And so we do a whole afternoon of of learning events.

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And so we'll have four learning events going on at a time.

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They could be things of maybe dealing with behavioral issues in class.

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We may have event specific things like coaching bars.

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We may have some customer service tips and tricks.

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And so we'll actually have four sessions going on at a time and then the groups will split up.

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And so we'll do a bunch of sessions in the afternoon.

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And then we bring it all together in the in the at the end of the day just to send people off.

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And so this year we had a really cool video where we actually collected a bunch of interviews with students

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talking about their favorite part of the gym.

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And and what was really cool was, is that the message was

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the coaches, they just talked to so much about how much the coaches made an impact on them.

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And and again, it's just a great opportunity.

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So that's something we do annually with our team.

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In addition to that, we also offer hands on training that is done every other month.

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And so we'll have an internal expert.

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We'll run a hands on training.

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And again, maybe it's on balance beam

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and they may run a 90 minute session on coaching opportunities for people on balance beam.

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And and what's cool is, is then at the as we review folks and we do one on ones and things.

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We're actually looking for examples of this learn and grow core value

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and as part of our compensation rubric, that's a that's a piece that goes into it.

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So if you are actually actively participating in learn and grow throughout the year,

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you're going to actually be compensated for that more highly

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than someone who hasn't done any of those things, because

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it's that's how important it is to us and our and our team.

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You have even more, let's say, culture initiatives that you haven't talked about yet.

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But how do you coordinate and run all these?

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Do you have like a people and culture person?

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Do you do them yourself?

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Do you delegate them to members of the team like Arnie Malham does?

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How do you like ideate and execute on all of those initiatives?

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So we have yeah, we have a bunch of it's interesting.

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So we don't have a one.

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It's no one person does one thing.

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So as an example, so our summit, we actually have a summit committee that's put together.

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And the summit committee.

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Actually ran the whole thing.

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My partner, who's also my happens to be my wife as well.

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So Liz actually sort of chairs the committee.

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But she'll tell you this year, the committee really did did almost all of the work.

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So they they set up, you know, there's a lot of logistics that goes into planning an event for 100 people from

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gathering lunches to setting the schedule, to putting the speakers together, to making sure the A.V. is all set up.

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And that team again. Shout out to them.

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They did an amazing job this year putting that all together and it ran very smoothly.

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We have some other pieces like our book club and so our book club actually.

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So the managers will review the book.

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So we have a facility manager in each facility.

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They'll actually go over and do we have a review sheet that the team member fills out.

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They'll go over with the review sheet with the team member

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or they'll actually do it at the we actually have an all facility meeting at each each week.

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So they may go over it there, and then that gets submitted to payroll department.

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We've got our anniversary program.

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So actually, Liz, Liz actually is in charge of the anniversary program, but then again, pulls in other people.

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And I’m trying to think what other pieces we have. The hands on training.

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Actually, we've got we have we actually have trainers that at each of our facility.

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And so the trainers are actually actually run the hands-on training portion of our program.

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And so they'll alternate which facility it's run at.

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They coordinate who the speaker is going to be.

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So I think it's one of those everyone's responsible for culture and they all take it very seriously because they understood,

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they've seen what happens when it's not good or when we have someone that

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that just, you know, it isn't a good fit and it just makes life hard for everybody.

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And I also am always a big preacher of like, don't

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don't keep around someone that isn't a good culture fit

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because you end up losing people who are good culture fits because of it.

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Right.

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What you what you permit, you promote.

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And so if we permit bad culture fits to stay here, we promote bad culture.

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And so and I think everybody really subscribes to that and can

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feel when that's not the case and is willing to make a move when we need to.

355
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And when did you start taking culture seriously?

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Like how many years ago?

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It was it was 2018.

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I was actually just going through my present.

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And so 2018 is the year where we basically we launched Core values.

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We started discussing what they looked what they looked like and how people would live them.

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And then and then it's just after that, it's a continuous improvement.

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You know, we're always looking like, what can we do better?

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So so this board that that we have that that we have behind me

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actually started out as thumbtacks and yarn at one of the facilities.

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So they actually stuck thumbtacks in the wall in the shape of a star.

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They wrap yarn around it.

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And then they were using just post-it notes.

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And again, that was just an experiment that one of our team members started doing and it just took off.

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And so then we started putting some resources behind it.

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And and so we're all about continuous improvement.

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And again, I think that's that learn and grow core value of like, what can we be doing better tomorrow that we're not doing today?

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And those ideas can come from anywhere.

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And we really try to, one of our core values is confidence with humility.

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And so I think part of that is like great ideas can come from anywhere.

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And we have the humility to accept that and try to build up that confidence in others so that they're willing to bring those ideas to us.

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Do you have any way of bubbling up those ideas from anyone in the organization.

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We do, so actually in our, we actually do a monthly net promoter score with our team.

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And so essentially, very simple survey, we do it monthly, and it says, how likely are you to recommend Metro Stars Gymnastics as a workplace, you know?

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And if it's a 10, tell us why.

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And that's great fishing for compliments.

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But we also then have a follow up question.

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Is there anything that we could be doing better?

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And then if it's a seven or eight, we start asking questions around like, hey, what do you see that we could be doing better?

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Our leadership team reviews that on a monthly basis and we go and we look at, you know, what kind of feedback and opportunities there are.

385
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And and in some cases, you know, I'm sure anybody out there

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who has done a net promoter score before and look for that feedback.

387
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Sometimes this stuff is not possible, right?

388
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Like people, they want, you know, we I don't know, let's I'm trying to think of something nutty like we'd like live entertainment every day.

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And you're like, OK, that's something.

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Could we do that? I suppose we could.

391
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I don't think we're going to be incorporating that into our culture, but, you know, that thank you for the idea.

392
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And sometimes it's real simple.

393
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Like, I think at one point people, they wanted some.

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They wanted some snacks and water because they're coaches, so they're very active and doing stuff.

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And we're like, we can fix that immediately.

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So the next day we went and bought cases and cases of water, got them in a refrigerator and had them available for coaches in between.

397
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So what we also do is we address those things in written form.

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And we also have, we actually have an all staff meeting at each facility.

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And so the managers will actually talk through, hey, listen, this is what we heard this month.

400
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Here's how we're addressing it, where this is something that, you know, we're not able to.

401
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We can't do this or we're not able to do this at this time.

402
00:28:58,875 --> 00:29:01,666
So we're very forthright with all of that as well.

403
00:29:01,666 --> 00:29:03,041
And we do a net promoter score.

404
00:29:03,041 --> 00:29:06,083
We do that survey on a facility by facility basis, too.

405
00:29:06,083 --> 00:29:08,541
So we end up with three, one for each facility.

406
00:29:08,541 --> 00:29:11,208
That way we get specific feedback from each one.

407
00:29:11,208 --> 00:29:13,625
And that's employees, not customers, right?

408
00:29:13,625 --> 00:29:15,208
That's employees. Correct. Yes.

409
00:29:15,208 --> 00:29:18,333
That's all internal. We actually we don't do it with customers.

410
00:29:18,333 --> 00:29:19,958
We just it's just with employees.

411
00:29:19,958 --> 00:29:24,291
And if you started five years ago working on culture, where are you on this journey?

412
00:29:24,291 --> 00:29:25,958
Are you like starting?

413
00:29:25,958 --> 00:29:27,958
Are you halfway? Are you almost there?

414
00:29:27,958 --> 00:29:30,291
Where do you see yourself?

415
00:29:30,291 --> 00:29:32,708
I, I always think of culture like a garden.

416
00:29:32,708 --> 00:29:37,833
So I would say in 2018, we probably had a weed patch, OK?

417
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And so the first step was, OK, we got to get this patch ready to even grow a healthy culture.

418
00:29:44,833 --> 00:29:48,041
And after that, you know, you start planting some easy crops.

419
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And so we kind of picked the low hanging fruit and we did that.

420
00:29:52,833 --> 00:29:54,708
And so I'd say we're midway through the journey.

421
00:29:54,708 --> 00:29:55,916
You know, we've got,

422
00:29:55,916 --> 00:30:00,583
we've got a nice garden growing, but it could be it could always be better.

423
00:30:00,583 --> 00:30:07,958
And so like and part of it is always thinking about like, you know, maybe there's a kind of soup that we want to make and we haven't planted that vegetable yet.

424
00:30:07,958 --> 00:30:10,208
Right. And so we need to keep looking.

425
00:30:10,208 --> 00:30:13,541
And so we're always on the lookout for what's new.

426
00:30:13,541 --> 00:30:16,000
What are some companies doing?

427
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,500
What are some new ideas like and how will this evolve tomorrow?

428
00:30:19,500 --> 00:30:24,791
And so actually, that was one of the things we did this year very recently was with our compensation package,

429
00:30:24,791 --> 00:30:32,166
is we actually just started really, again, having more of an open book and showing people exactly.

430
00:30:32,166 --> 00:30:37,083
Hey, listen, if you want to be here, here's the things you need to do and actually laying it out.

431
00:30:37,083 --> 00:30:43,041
And it's less feelings and more facts now of how much experience do you have?

432
00:30:43,041 --> 00:30:44,625
How much, how are you,

433
00:30:44,625 --> 00:30:49,875
how are you living the core values and putting some objective metrics behind all of that?

434
00:30:49,875 --> 00:30:54,666
And so that's relatively new, but it's been well received because then

435
00:30:54,666 --> 00:30:58,875
there's no guessing about like, OK, well, why am I making what I'm making?

436
00:30:58,875 --> 00:31:00,666
It's very clear what it is.

437
00:31:00,666 --> 00:31:06,416
It's also been helpful with recruiting because some people maybe thought, like, could I have a career here?

438
00:31:06,416 --> 00:31:08,166
Well, I don't know what the compensation is.

439
00:31:08,166 --> 00:31:13,333
And now, hey, there's a chart and you're like, hey, if I've worked here five years, I've got this much gymnastics experience.

440
00:31:13,333 --> 00:31:15,375
I have this level of responsibility.

441
00:31:15,375 --> 00:31:18,833
I'm showing these, I've demonstrated these leadership characteristics.

442
00:31:18,833 --> 00:31:20,291
I'm doing this Learn and grow.

443
00:31:20,291 --> 00:31:22,083
I have this education.

444
00:31:22,083 --> 00:31:23,458
It all filters into that chart.

445
00:31:23,458 --> 00:31:26,583
And again, did we get it right the first time? Probably not.

446
00:31:26,583 --> 00:31:27,958
And I'll be the first to admit that.

447
00:31:27,958 --> 00:31:30,166
But it was a huge step forward.

448
00:31:30,166 --> 00:31:33,166
So and what's the next step forward?

449
00:31:33,166 --> 00:31:34,416
The exciting part is I don't know.

450
00:31:34,416 --> 00:31:36,250
I don't necessarily know. Right.

451
00:31:36,250 --> 00:31:40,416
It's going to it'll unveil itself to us as we kind of continue forward.

452
00:31:40,416 --> 00:31:43,833
But so I would say we're always in the middle of the journey.

453
00:31:43,833 --> 00:31:45,833
There's no real finish line to culture.

454
00:31:45,833 --> 00:31:47,416
It's always like that garden.

455
00:31:47,416 --> 00:31:48,583
You're always replanting it.

456
00:31:48,583 --> 00:31:50,250
You're always finding new crops.

457
00:31:50,250 --> 00:31:52,291
You're finding a new kind of seed to plant.

458
00:31:52,291 --> 00:31:54,458
And sometimes it doesn't work out.

459
00:31:54,458 --> 00:31:56,375
And it's a failure. That's OK, too.

460
00:31:56,375 --> 00:31:58,458
There's learning in that as well.

461
00:31:58,458 --> 00:32:04,833
Are you the gardener or are you the just the person that enjoys living there?

462
00:32:04,833 --> 00:32:10,458
So, like, do you make the decisions on culture or are these collective decisions?

463
00:32:10,458 --> 00:32:14,875
At this point, at this point, it's a collective decision.

464
00:32:14,875 --> 00:32:18,625
And if anything we do, we work with the leadership team.

465
00:32:18,625 --> 00:32:22,250
The advantage, I may be the idea person.

466
00:32:22,250 --> 00:32:24,250
I may be an idea driver a lot of times.

467
00:32:24,250 --> 00:32:27,250
And part of that is, is like, I really love to learn.

468
00:32:27,250 --> 00:32:37,958
So I have the, I'm blessed to have the opportunity to interact with entrepreneurs, you know, again, all over the globe through my involvement with Entrepreneurs' Organization.

469
00:32:37,958 --> 00:32:42,250
And so I get, I'm privy to seeing kind of, I guess what people are doing.

470
00:32:42,250 --> 00:32:44,500
And so a lot of times I'll bring those in.

471
00:32:44,500 --> 00:32:51,625
And again, if a giant Fortune 500 company is doing something, sometimes it's not right for us, you know, for a variety of reasons.

472
00:32:51,625 --> 00:32:54,250
But I try to just bring the ideas.

473
00:32:54,250 --> 00:33:00,250
And then as a leadership team, we got to decide together if that is a thing that fits or not.

474
00:33:00,250 --> 00:33:09,250
Another thing I've learned over time is that if I may have the best idea, but if everybody isn't bought into it, it doesn't matter.

475
00:33:09,250 --> 00:33:17,833
Actually, a worse idea that everyone's bought into is going to actually be executed in a better way than the best idea that nobody likes.

476
00:33:17,833 --> 00:33:19,416
Right.

477
00:33:19,416 --> 00:33:22,666
Is there something that you would feel proud?

478
00:33:22,666 --> 00:33:25,916
Is there an idea, a culture

479
00:33:25,916 --> 00:33:27,166
initiative

480
00:33:27,166 --> 00:33:29,916
you'd be proud if someone stole from you?

481
00:33:29,916 --> 00:33:36,708
And the second part of that question, is there another culture initiative you've seen elsewhere that you'd like to steal?

482
00:33:36,708 --> 00:33:38,250
Sure.

483
00:33:38,250 --> 00:33:46,041
I think if people steal our high five board, that's one that I would love to see.

484
00:33:46,041 --> 00:33:49,833
Just because, again, this is for those on audio.

485
00:33:49,833 --> 00:33:51,791
This our high five board is out.

486
00:33:51,791 --> 00:33:52,875
It's in the gym.

487
00:33:52,875 --> 00:33:54,041
Everybody can see it.

488
00:33:54,041 --> 00:33:55,250
It's front and center.

489
00:33:55,250 --> 00:33:58,916
And, you know, we also do some open playtime things in here.

490
00:33:58,916 --> 00:34:00,375
I would love to see that.

491
00:34:00,375 --> 00:34:02,541
Another one to steal, and we haven't chatted about yet.

492
00:34:02,541 --> 00:34:06,583
But one of our pieces, this is from the last year we started doing a community piece.

493
00:34:06,583 --> 00:34:13,000
And so we have these open play times at the gym that are open to anybody to come.

494
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:19,250
And each month we've actually selected a charity partner and then we donate 20 percent of the proceeds off the top.

495
00:34:19,250 --> 00:34:22,208
And so we've been able to this last year work with

496
00:34:22,208 --> 00:34:28,250
some very local charities that are very small where we can make an impact on their budget with our donation.

497
00:34:28,250 --> 00:34:39,250
And I would love people to steal that of just like finding those organizations locally that they that are making an impact in a different way perhaps than we do.

498
00:34:39,250 --> 00:34:42,250
And so we just we just posted this at the summit.

499
00:34:42,250 --> 00:34:48,250
I think we ended up donating over thirteen thousand dollars last year to these local charities.

500
00:34:48,250 --> 00:34:51,416
And we look forward to growing that number this year as well.

501
00:34:51,416 --> 00:34:54,250
As far as stealing things.

502
00:34:54,250 --> 00:34:57,250
Gosh, I think everything we've got is stolen.

503
00:34:57,250 --> 00:35:01,250
I mean, you know, the the old replicate and duplicate.

504
00:35:01,250 --> 00:35:05,250
I'm convinced like that we probably don't have an original idea.

505
00:35:05,250 --> 00:35:06,250
I'm sure somebody could come in here.

506
00:35:06,250 --> 00:35:11,625
All of this is so I think the thing I look forward to stealing is the next thing.

507
00:35:11,625 --> 00:35:16,250
So I don't know what that is quite yet, but I look forward to stealing the next thing.

508
00:35:16,250 --> 00:35:19,250
And if you were to...

509
00:35:19,250 --> 00:35:26,250
This is a question I’ve started pondering recently.

510
00:35:26,250 --> 00:35:40,250
If you were to start a new business and you had big plans about the culture like this is the business where it's going to be at least one person's best ever job.

511
00:35:40,250 --> 00:35:44,250
How would you start thinking about the culture?

512
00:35:44,250 --> 00:35:47,250
What would be the foundational principles?

513
00:35:47,250 --> 00:35:52,250
I think I'm a big believer in start with why and having that,

514
00:35:52,250 --> 00:36:02,250
I think that purpose driven piece is the is the largest piece because again, once people, you know, we think about like the Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

515
00:36:02,250 --> 00:36:08,250
And once people's basic needs are met, right, we start looking at this self actualization phase of life.

516
00:36:08,250 --> 00:36:16,250
And in order for us to really fill that need in ourselves and in others, they have to have a purpose.

517
00:36:16,250 --> 00:36:24,750
And so starting with why we're doing this in the first place and keeping that as the North Star is foremost.

518
00:36:24,750 --> 00:36:28,250
And so from that and that’s kind of how we drove

519
00:36:28,250 --> 00:36:31,833
this is that to coach, inspire others so we can celebrate their success.

520
00:36:31,833 --> 00:36:34,041
Just captures for me.

521
00:36:34,041 --> 00:36:38,500
And what's nice is like it sort of transcends just the business as well.

522
00:36:38,500 --> 00:36:40,750
And then from their values.

523
00:36:40,750 --> 00:36:47,166
And I guess just based on my experience, having those two pieces in place.

524
00:36:47,166 --> 00:36:54,083
And getting crystal clear on what that means, what actions, what that means from an action perspective.

525
00:36:54,083 --> 00:36:57,500
And having that clarity has made all the difference.

526
00:36:57,500 --> 00:36:58,583
Everything else follows.

527
00:36:58,583 --> 00:37:03,250
When we set those things up, life became easy, right?

528
00:37:03,250 --> 00:37:08,458
Whenever we had a difficult decision, we just hold it up to those those tenants.

529
00:37:08,458 --> 00:37:10,375
And if it's a yes, it's a yes.

530
00:37:10,375 --> 00:37:12,125
If it's a no, it's a no.

531
00:37:12,125 --> 00:37:16,250
And very, very rarely is there a gray area for us.

532
00:37:16,250 --> 00:37:22,708
And it allows us to have a laser focus on where we're going and what we're trying to achieve at all times.

533
00:37:22,708 --> 00:37:33,250
I was also thinking about this topic when I just read Seth Godin's latest book called The Song of Significance.

534
00:37:33,250 --> 00:37:45,833
And he talks about the need to move away from treating people as resources to giving them work and jobs that add meaning and significance.

535
00:37:45,833 --> 00:37:47,541
To them and to the world.

536
00:37:47,541 --> 00:38:07,666
And so I thought about if I start a new business, then the first thing I need to do is, of course, make sure that that business adds value to the world and then hire the people for whom that has very intense and tangible meaning.

537
00:38:07,666 --> 00:38:10,250
And that's probably a very small subset of the people.

538
00:38:10,250 --> 00:38:12,875
So now my next business is on culture.

539
00:38:12,875 --> 00:38:14,208
So I have to find that

540
00:38:14,208 --> 00:38:20,416
you know, the relatively small subpopulation that cares a lot about workplace culture.

541
00:38:20,416 --> 00:38:32,208
And like Robert Glazer said in an earlier episode, they attract about one or two percent of the people that apply to them.

542
00:38:32,208 --> 00:38:39,916
Or that's the number of people they employ because they have a very specific culture.

543
00:38:39,916 --> 00:38:41,208
But that's fine.

544
00:38:41,208 --> 00:38:43,208
You know, every company is a little bit weird.

545
00:38:43,208 --> 00:38:48,208
Like Verne Harnish likes to say, it's a little bit special.

546
00:38:48,208 --> 00:38:55,208
And so I think it's fine to have a very clear purpose and then find this niche.

547
00:38:55,208 --> 00:39:06,750
Of people that really resonate with that purpose and whose day to day job will be so much easier because they’re contributing to something they care about.

548
00:39:06,750 --> 00:39:08,208
And that was actually.

549
00:39:08,208 --> 00:39:11,250
And what's fun is that was the theme of our summit really is

550
00:39:11,250 --> 00:39:19,250
shining a spotlight on the impact that our coaches have on the students that they interact.

551
00:39:19,250 --> 00:39:29,250
And what was really fun at the end of the day was we said, hey, how many of you were actually students here and enjoyed it so much that you've come back?

552
00:39:29,250 --> 00:39:36,625
And we had, you know, 20 percent of our staff had part of their childhood in the facility.

553
00:39:36,625 --> 00:39:37,625
Hmm.

554
00:39:38,250 --> 00:39:41,250
And so. And I think for everybody that's also sitting there.

555
00:39:41,250 --> 00:39:54,958
It's like, oh, we're having an impact on these kids and teaching them again about our core values and learning and having confidence and being positive.

556
00:39:54,958 --> 00:39:58,750
And they're going to carry that with them throughout the rest of their life.

557
00:39:58,750 --> 00:40:01,583
And so, again, I 100 percent agree.

558
00:40:01,583 --> 00:40:05,750
It's that how can we have a bigger impact on the world around us?

559
00:40:05,750 --> 00:40:08,500
And we're very blessed that we get to do that.

560
00:40:08,916 --> 00:40:10,250
Blessed and grateful.

561
00:40:10,250 --> 00:40:11,541
Absolutely.

562
00:40:11,666 --> 00:40:12,416
Absolutely.

563
00:40:12,791 --> 00:40:21,250
Eric, before we wrap, which of the three facts is a lie and which is a truth from what you shared earlier?

564
00:40:21,250 --> 00:40:31,250
And I would dare place a bet that the lie was the McDonald's Cup.

565
00:40:31,250 --> 00:40:32,541
OK, excellent.

566
00:40:32,541 --> 00:40:33,250
All right.

567
00:40:33,250 --> 00:40:36,541
So unfortunately, you're going to lose.

568
00:40:36,541 --> 00:40:40,166
I was sitting in a McDonald's with my children.

569
00:40:40,166 --> 00:40:42,041
They were eating very slowly.

570
00:40:42,041 --> 00:40:45,583
And they have you know, they have a little contest that you pull the tab off the cup.

571
00:40:45,583 --> 00:40:47,250
So I pulled the tab off.

572
00:40:47,250 --> 00:40:49,875
I entered the little code in their little app.

573
00:40:49,875 --> 00:40:58,958
And about three months later, I actually got a, it looked like a phishing email, if I'm honest, but I got an email and it was called the Prize Redemption Center.

574
00:40:58,958 --> 00:41:05,791
So if anybody out there ever gets an email from the Prize Redemption Center with a Chicago address and phone number, it's legit.

575
00:41:06,541 --> 00:41:08,916
And he said, Eric, you've won.

576
00:41:08,916 --> 00:41:13,625
You've won a trip to a U.S. men's national team soccer game.

577
00:41:13,625 --> 00:41:19,166
And so Liz and I went, we traveled after, this was in the Brazil World Cup.

578
00:41:19,166 --> 00:41:21,250
That was the grand prize. I didn't win the grand prize.

579
00:41:21,250 --> 00:41:23,458
So we got to fly to Hartford, Connecticut.

580
00:41:23,458 --> 00:41:27,875
We had locker room passes for the U.S. men's national team.

581
00:41:27,875 --> 00:41:30,666
And if there's any football fans out there.

582
00:41:30,666 --> 00:41:34,750
So Landon Donovan from the U.S., it was his last national team game.

583
00:41:34,750 --> 00:41:36,708
So we saw his retirement game.

584
00:41:36,708 --> 00:41:38,500
And then we had field passes.

585
00:41:38,500 --> 00:41:42,708
So after the game, Liz and I went on the field and we were actually on ESPN.

586
00:41:42,708 --> 00:41:44,375
We talked to Landon Donovan.

587
00:41:44,375 --> 00:41:49,250
And the funniest part was, is all the press was located in this itty bitty tiny space.

588
00:41:49,250 --> 00:41:54,333
But with our field pass, we were just out on the field, like walking around and had the whole place to ourselves.

589
00:41:55,125 --> 00:41:57,250
So that one was true.

590
00:41:57,250 --> 00:42:00,250
All right. So then we're down to two.

591
00:42:00,250 --> 00:42:04,958
The I did, I do have a pilot's license and I did get it in only three months.

592
00:42:04,958 --> 00:42:06,250
So, again, I love to learn.

593
00:42:06,250 --> 00:42:08,125
And so that was a thing where

594
00:42:08,125 --> 00:42:12,250
I just went all in and basically did all of my education and all my flying.

595
00:42:12,250 --> 00:42:15,625
And 90 days later, I was an airplane pilot.

596
00:42:15,625 --> 00:42:21,250
I did. I never did win a engineering competition with a balsa wood structure.

597
00:42:21,250 --> 00:42:24,250
I did have a competition once.

598
00:42:24,250 --> 00:42:25,666
Not the winner. So.

599
00:42:25,666 --> 00:42:29,250
OK, you fooled me.

600
00:42:29,250 --> 00:42:35,958
And so, Erik, wrapping up, what do we as leaders need to rethink about culture?

601
00:42:35,958 --> 00:42:36,708
What do you think?

602
00:42:36,708 --> 00:42:47,250
I think the most important thing that we have done is to really put it front and center in everything we do.

603
00:42:47,250 --> 00:42:55,916
In my experience, I see people they'll have done some of the work and then it just sort of slides away and they don't actually use it.

604
00:42:55,916 --> 00:43:02,250
And this is I had a, I got some advice from a mentor very early on before we started the gyms.

605
00:43:02,250 --> 00:43:07,083
And he said, Erik, he goes, whatever reason that you're starting this company.

606
00:43:07,083 --> 00:43:09,250
He goes and he goes, I don't care what it is.

607
00:43:09,250 --> 00:43:11,666
He goes, but write that down on a piece of paper.

608
00:43:11,666 --> 00:43:18,250
And whenever you have any sort of decision that you need to make any critical decision, pull out that piece of paper and look at it.

609
00:43:18,250 --> 00:43:21,250
And and so and he said, hey, maybe it's to make millions of dollars.

610
00:43:21,250 --> 00:43:26,791
That's fine. I mean, we can imagine a scenario where if that was our our guidepost, we'd have to look at it.

611
00:43:26,791 --> 00:43:33,250
And and so we had that knowledge, but we weren't very forthright with it as a company.

612
00:43:33,250 --> 00:43:35,250
We didn't broadcast it to our team.

613
00:43:35,250 --> 00:43:38,250
It was something we really held on to personally.

614
00:43:38,250 --> 00:43:43,250
And and as soon as we started focusing that outward, that's where everything changed.

615
00:43:43,250 --> 00:43:52,250
Well, we actually started being our authentic selves and really sharing who we were as people, who we were as a company.

616
00:43:52,250 --> 00:44:02,250
And at that point, the culture shifted and it really it really took on a life of its own, one that I'm very proud to be a part of.