FROM GOOD OLE UNCLE VIC

September 2007

   As my good buddy Jamie Hayes from Australia once said “Sometimes I just sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits.”   Well, I’ve been sitting and thinking. More on that later.

   First, the answer to last month's trivia quiz: What is the largest hotel in Las Vegas? Actually, there are two answers. The largest hotel by square footage is The Venetian. Those that got it right were: Pam Phipps, Mike Kimball, and Pam Monacelli. The largest in terms of the number of rooms is the MGM Grand with 5,690 rooms. Those that got this answer right were: Laurie Gaston, Jessica Sheffield, Nicole Varzandeh, Tish Brice, Ann Jensen, Rosemary Owings, Todd Guntner, Kim Duda, Jill Hogan, Elizabeth Cushing, Erika Ruddie, John Krainer, and Jennifer DeHoff.

   This month's quiz: How did the tradition of a wake for a funeral come to be? Turn your answers in to Jami at Jami.Mignogna@BrickBodies.com.

   Now, back to the sitting and thinking. Last month Lynne and I presented at the Can-Fit-Pro fitness convention that our buddy Patch (David Patchell-Evans) puts on in Toronto, Canada each year. Not only is Patch’s Goodlife health club chain the largest health club chain in the world owned by a single individual (144 clubs or so. It changes so quickly I can’t keep count!), but he also runs one of the biggest fitness conventions in the world with over 6,000 attendees. Lynne and I presented a joint session on Venus Management in a Mars World and I participated in two panel discussions, one on marketing and the other on Lessons I Have Learned.

   In the Lessons I Have Learned session, I discussed the importance of having a mastermind group to motivate you and to help you grow, both personally and professionally. Did you know that Harvey Firestone, the inventor of the pneumatic tire, Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, Thomas Edison, the most prolific inventor in American History, and John Burroughs, a wealthy industrialist, all lived on the same street and hung out together? Talk about a mastermind group. Lynne and I have dear friends in the health club industry that serve as our mastermind group. Here is what I have learned from them.    

1. From Frank Napolitano I have learned to know your facts. Frank is a University of Pennsylvania man and a graduate of Georgetown Law. He was instrumental in taking the third largest American health club chain, Town Sports International (TSI) public. He is now the CEO of Global Fit, a corporate wellness services company. He also is one of the few guys who ever challenges me on my history stories and sports stories and, dammit, is often correct! You don’t take a company public without getting your facts straight.
   
   
2. From Geoff Dyer I learned to stay close to your numbers. Geoff is the CEO of Lifestyles Family Fitness Centers. In 1977 he had 7 clubs and was doing less than 10 million dollars. Now he has 48 with 9 under construction and is closing in on $100 million. He has matrix and paradigms by which he measures all programs and projects and makes all decisions based on this matrix. The numbers drive the decisions.
   
   
3. From Phillip Mills I learned to do everything World Class. Phillip runs the largest choreographed group exercise program company in the world, LMI (BodyPump, BodyFlow, etcetera). He also runs the most successful health club chain in New Zealand. Everything he does for both companies is world class. He spends $10 million a year just on the music for the LMI programs because he wants original music, not cover music. World Class!
   
   
4. From Patch I learned that it is all about the size of the dream. Patch started with one 2,000 square foot health club that didn’t even have a bathroom so he dated the girl in the flower shop next door so his members could use their bathroom! And now 144 clubs! All about the size of the dream!
   
   
5. From Joe Cirulli I learned about focus. Joe owns three clubs in Gainesville, Florida. He dominates his market like no other. His flagship club does 4,000 visits a day. 4,000! He does back care and rehabilitation so well that Florida Hospital closed its’ rehab center and just sends everyone to him! Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
   
   
6. From Tony DeLeede I learned that you have to care but not that much. Tony is the operating director of the Australian Division of the world’s most successful health club chain, Fitness First, headquartered in the U.K. The company recently sold for $1.6 billion (with a “b”) and in the next go-around could go for as much as $3 billion and he is still part-owner! He also owns the most popular health retreat in Australia in addition to other business and real estate ventures too numerous to count. And he has never had a headache, a sore throat or a cold. No joke. Never. He simply does not worry about things. He never let’s the pressure get to him. Never. He cares, but not that much!
   
   
7. From Tony’s childhood buddy, Mike Abbott, I learned to choose your own attitude. Mike grew up with Tony in Cronulla Beach, a suburb of Sydney. He recently lost his youngest son to leukemia. His wife is suffering from kidney failure and is waiting for a transplant. But you would never know any of this hanging around Mike. He always has a smile on his face and a razor sharp wit. He chooses his attitude daily. And he chooses to be happy.
   
   
8. From my lovely wife, Lynne I learned that people will never care how much you know until they know how much you care. I will never forget that day when I took Lynne into the hospital for her brain surgery to remove a non-malignant tumor. The attending nurse recognized Lynne and began to ask her questions about losing weight. The lasting image of that day will be Lynne walking down that long corridor to the operating room with her arm around that nurse, her butt sticking out the back of that silly hospital gown, consoling her about her inability to lose weight. Usually it is the nurse consoling the patient. But here she was, with no concern for her own situation, thinking of others, just as she always does. And that is what makes her special. She cares.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY