Managing Short Term, Costing Long Term

If you haven’t heard of the Doorman Fallacy, here’s the short of it

A consultancy firm walks into a 5-star hotel and tells the owner they can save thousands by replacing the doorman with a revolving door.

Except the doorman doesn’t just hold doors. He welcomes guests, gives directions, trades info with other doormen and keeps trouble out. Remove him and you save a salary - but the whole experience decays, the guests stop coming and revenue drops

That’s what happens when you optimise for short-term sales over long-term business growth, and that’s what we see from the fitness industry’s own consultants, in the form of ‘mentors’*

*Most mentors - I’m grateful to work with one of the very few who doesn’t act in this way

They forget that not every metric lives on a dashboard, and that the constant pursuit of money now can harm the business in the long-term.

Cash flow matters - no one’s saving starve for the sake of principle. But most coaches have lots of moves they’re making to try and bring in money right now

Yet nothing when it comes to growing their brand and business over 6, 12, 60 months.

The obsession with fast money (ironically driven by aggressive posts reminding an audience about the power of ‘delayed gratification’)

Means coaches take on bad fits, market aggressively and have a feed full of shouting

Coaches would do well to think about their own ‘doorman’ - brand, connection, intimate conversations and real relationships.

The businesses that I see winning in the space right now are just carrying out projects that have been a year in the making, or are cashing in on 2-3 years of brand awareness and trust development.

24/7 chasing of money will lead to a 24/7 pursuit of short-term tactics

That ultimately could harm the business, making the money chase that bit harder