Thinning The Herd
I periodically direct you to my friend Alwyn Cosgrove's blog. He always has valuable things to say - but recently he made a post titled "Crab Theory" that really hit home. You can read it here:
http://alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/2006/11/crab-theory.html
Virtually all of my adult life I've been in a position that would make me subject to the attacks that Alwyn alludes to. Being a college baseball coach led to a lot of "armchair quarterbacking." Everyone from parents to journalists came after me at one point or another.
After I moved into the mainstream fitness industry full-time (following years of working with athletes only) - this phenomenon continued. However, the biggest surge has been since I started giving my knowledge away for free in newsletters and on my blog. Strangely enough, the people who pay the least complain the most.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, I occasionally talk about firing clients. There's no since in going through life dealing with people that try to bring you down. Here's how I'd approach it:
Rate your clients on a 1-3 scale. 1's are those clients you can't wait to show up. 3's are those clients you can't wait to leave. Now - simply start gradually ridding yourself of the 3's.
No, you don't have to tell them all to get out in a weeks time. Just don't renew them.
Quick Story - One season when I coached our reigning conference player of the year was injured to start the season. We won 19 of our first 21 games. He came back and was disruptive...we lost 7 of the next 8. I did the unthinkable - I "booted" him - our supposed best player - we won 28 of our next 35 and finished 5th in the country.
Moral of the story...life's too short to deal with negative shit. Even if we'd have continued to lose, dropping the player would have been worth the trouble because 80% of my headaches came from him. Even if you couldn't replace your 3's - it would be worth it because the headaches would be gone. (But you will replace them - every time.)
So go rate your clients and start replacing 3's with 1's. I'll be busy unsubscribing the people that complain :)
http://alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/2006/11/crab-theory.html
Virtually all of my adult life I've been in a position that would make me subject to the attacks that Alwyn alludes to. Being a college baseball coach led to a lot of "armchair quarterbacking." Everyone from parents to journalists came after me at one point or another.
After I moved into the mainstream fitness industry full-time (following years of working with athletes only) - this phenomenon continued. However, the biggest surge has been since I started giving my knowledge away for free in newsletters and on my blog. Strangely enough, the people who pay the least complain the most.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, I occasionally talk about firing clients. There's no since in going through life dealing with people that try to bring you down. Here's how I'd approach it:
Rate your clients on a 1-3 scale. 1's are those clients you can't wait to show up. 3's are those clients you can't wait to leave. Now - simply start gradually ridding yourself of the 3's.
No, you don't have to tell them all to get out in a weeks time. Just don't renew them.
Quick Story - One season when I coached our reigning conference player of the year was injured to start the season. We won 19 of our first 21 games. He came back and was disruptive...we lost 7 of the next 8. I did the unthinkable - I "booted" him - our supposed best player - we won 28 of our next 35 and finished 5th in the country.
Moral of the story...life's too short to deal with negative shit. Even if we'd have continued to lose, dropping the player would have been worth the trouble because 80% of my headaches came from him. Even if you couldn't replace your 3's - it would be worth it because the headaches would be gone. (But you will replace them - every time.)
So go rate your clients and start replacing 3's with 1's. I'll be busy unsubscribing the people that complain :)
posted by Pat Rigsby at 1:46 PM
<< Home