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FITREC’s DNA Ambassador, Rachel Young, used to believe that it was best to have a “stiff upper lip” approach to life and knuckle down and crack on with it all. However, the pandemic gave her time to reflect, re-evaluate, refocus and dramatically change her approach to some things. Read on to share in her thoughts…
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
I was thinking about habits and how I’ve formed new habits since the impact of the pandemic, and I realised that our fitness industry consumers have also formed new habits. Gym goers, for example, have started training at home as we all know; the fit are worried about their performance, and the unfit or the unhealthy are seriously concerned for their health.
So, food for thought: when it comes to your facility in this new pandemic-affected landscape, how are you going to do things differently?
I totally appreciate there’s going to be distancing and rules and regulations to abide by for some time to come – that’s a given. But what other new or different things are you going to do to accommodate the new demands or expectations that your members and staff now have?
- How are you going to look after your people, who – as I always say – are the most important element, regardless of the size of your business.
- How are you going to look after your employees and get them back into this new normal, and make them aware of your new best practices? Because it's critical that they know of any changes, so that they can inform your existing members when they come back, and highlight them for your potential new members.
- On that, what have you been doing during the pandemic, to look after your existing members? Are you communicating with them constantly, to reassure them that you’re doing things differently – because as a member myself, that’s what I'd want to hear. I’d want you to extend that effort to build up some trust with me, to clearly show me what you’re doing differently, so that I can feel safe to train with your business.
It’s time to be compassionate when it comes to looking after your existing employees and members.
The other thing to consider, is that there’s a whole potential new market now, which is people who have realised they need to look after their health.
After looking at hundreds and hundreds of online workouts and seeing what’s available out there, I can say there are some fantastic offerings; but there are also some things that would put people off. As a fitness professional or facility owner/manager, now is absolutely the time to be sharing sound health tips and advice with your entire community – we need to do what we can to try and get everyone moving.
What other new or different things are you going to do to accommodate the new demands or expectations that your members and staff now have?
While we’ve all made our own kind of new habits, my questions to you are:
- What habits are you taking back to work?
- What are you doing to look after your people – and that’s employees and members?
- And what are you doing to make a difference in your community, to just get people moving
RACHEL YOUNG
Rachel is a DNA Ambassador for FITREC. She is also the Director of Business Development at Myzone EMEA. Vice-Chair of EuropeActive’s advisory group for Inclusion. WIFA Global Ambassador.
