Why does my business exist?

What’s our vision?

How do we do things around here?

We occasionally hit the pause button on the weekly continuing education staff meeting and instead revisit our vision and values. What I’ve come to learn in well over a decade of business ownership is that self-awareness isn’t always a gift that is guaranteed to the people establishing the direction our business is headed.

More specifically, “who we think we are” doesn’t always jive with “who our clients believe us to be.”

What Does the Client Think?

Knowing this to be the case, we afford ourselves the opportunity to course-correct from time to time by inviting a longtime client to join the discussion. We plug them into the middle of a staff meeting, encourage them to contribute as they feel necessary, and watch where the conversation takes us.

When our business is firing on all cylinders, and we’re delivering the client experience we strive toward, the client in question takes a liberty that warms my business owner's soul...

They start using the word “we” when talking about our business.

"We pay attention to detail around here."

"We make every client feel like the most important person in the room."

Again, these are the client’s words, not my own.

“We” is the unofficial temperature check on my gym culture thermometer. “We” is music to my ears when spoken by someone who isn’t collecting a paycheck from my operation. “We” means we’ve given a client the keys to talk about our operation like they own it.

“We” means we’ve officially built ourselves more of a tribe than a roster of clients.