IHRSA 2019 Thoughts From Angela Morton
What was your IHRSA 2019 highlight – from an education perspective?
The one thing that really resonated with me this year was the importance of club culture. I’m sure for a lot of people this seems like a really simple idea but for me this was that lightbulb A-HA moment. Just as a quick back story as to what I was looking for this conference, our club is in a unique position in which we are restructuring EVERYTHING. We have this opportunity to strip our business plan down to the studs again and rebuild. Listening to this year’s speakers, the underlying theme of their club’s success really comes down to the culture that they’ve created. I realized how important it is for us to define our club’s culture and use that as the foundation on which to build. A lot of the questions that we’ve been asking ourselves up until this point can be answered once we’ve rediscovered our why behind what we do.
What are 3 Golden Nuggets you are leaving with?
Again, just a little context about myself, I am the type of person that writes down everything. I can always tell from the amount of notes I took how much I liked a presenter or idea. These are the three things that I have the most notes about (and also starred and underlined) and can’t wait to share with everyone at work:
- Marisa Hoff’s ‘Hire Well, Onboard Strong, Continue to Lead’: even though her presentation was front desk specific, those key steps are something I’m going to apply across all our departments.
- Chantal Brodrick’s ‘Don’t start your day with emails or you’ll end up as someone else’s priority’: This is a personal golden nugget for me but I realized most days I go into work and I immediately sit down at my computer and start answering emails. Then I’m stuck at my computer for the majority of that day. Instead, I started today by walking around our club and catching up with members and staff. Some of them mentioned emails they had sent while I was away, so instead we talked about it in person.
- Aaron Moore’s ‘Asking at day 60, what’s the habit?’: Aaron talked about their member onboarding process at Vida Fitness and at day 60 of that person’s membership, they ask a) what is the habit, b) what are we doing to keep that habit or change it. They look at if that person is happy or unhappy with their experience so far. If they’re unhappy, they go back to their lead stage (identifying interests and goals and why they’re important) and reassess that person and try to dig a little deeper. I love how they talk about that person’s experiences as a habit instead of usage or attendance.
Why should someone attend IHRSA?
Each time I attend a conference, I go into it with certain questions I’m hoping to have answered or ideas on which to expand. What I end up coming out with is a completely different experience than what I originally imagine. Having these opportunities to learn and interact with all of these successful fitness professionals is so incredibly valuable, both on a professional and personal level. We’ve gotten so many awesome ideas from IHRSA. It’s great to get out of our own fitness bubble and see what else is happening out there, what other people are doing and saying. I always come out of these events with this renewed energy and motivation to not only better our business but also myself.
Thank you JT and Active Management for this opportunity to share my experience!
I have been with Commonwealth Sports Club for almost 9 years now. I started at the front desk and realized how much I loved working in the fitness industry. My previous background was in the restaurant and music industry (a weird mix, I know). Starting in fitness was definitely an eye opener, and now I can’t imagine doing anything else. I spent the majority of my career so far learning about the business/customer experience side of things, working as front desk, then sales, then Operations Manager. These past couple years, I’ve been learning more about the fitness side, now teaching Spinning, Pilates, and Barre.