Black Box Summit: Can you Forcast?

Hey y’all. I wanted to share a brief outline of the next BBS and mention an important feature that will be offered at this gig. Here is a brief outline for the event:

Robb Wolf:
Nutrition tweaks for:
1-Performance (Crossfit, power athletics and beyond)
2-Body composition shifts: Fat loss, muscle gain.
3-Matching nutrition to changes in training.
Also offering free personal nutrition consult with one lucky attendee!

Michael Rutherford:
History and Elements of MEBB (Max Effort Black Box)
Prevention of ACL injuries in Female Athletes and Anterior Core Progression Plan.

James Fitzgerald:
Pain, intensity, and higher levels of thinking. Personal experience in training, business systems, and facility operations and how these key factors contribute to forward progress.
Also, One free online consult for one lucky attendee

Nicki Violetti:
On ramp programs and introducing the new client to your box.

Aimee Anaya & Greg Everett:
Hands on Coaching clinic of the Olympic Lifts. Also offering book and DVD give aways, as well as Personal video analysis for one lucky participant.

Dutch Lowy:
Identifying and addressing weaknesses in an Athlete. Also, giving one free programming consult to one lucky attendee.

So, a pretty action packed weekend all and all but I wanted to highlight one offering that I think is particularly valuable: Forecasting. Not the weather (just poke your head out your window for that) and not markets (Buy low! Sell high!)  but your ability to forecast how a change in your business will affect your bottom line. A significant part of forecasting or modeling your business is having a very tight understanding OF your business. What are your operating expenses? How are you paying your employees? Do you still think those people coahing classes for you are “independent contractors”…wink, wink, nod, nod? What if you want to change your pricing structure because it seems “cool”? Well, you can do it the hard way: Enact the change, see what happens. Or you can use a model of your business to game play something which initially might seem snazzy, but would actually BANKRUPT you. Check out this post from Nicki’s Blog. I’m going to pull out one section of that post:

I recently had a CrossFit affiliate contact me for feedback on a new pricing structure for their box.  It sounded like a pretty good concept and the reasoning behind it (some pricing incentives based on how long a client was a member) seemed logical.  The word doc I received to review the new model showed the yearly revenue per client to be the same as this affiliate’s current pricing structure.  At first blush it seemed like a totally reasonable model.  Alas the shortcomings of the simple word doc!

Truth is in the numbers, and a word doc doesn’t show everything we need to see when evaluating a significant change to one’s business model.  Yearly revenue was the same for the first year only!  When I projected the model out 3 years I found that the box would be profitable only during months 5-10 and would never be profitable again….in fact the model clearly showed the affiliate would be bleeding an increasing amount of money each month of operation!

We did stuff like this all the time in our gym. We learned the hard way…but many people are not learning these lessons fast enough to keep their doors open. Nicki has received about 30 emails from CrossFit Affiliate alone who would have closed their doors had they not enacted the OnRamp Program and some stratified skill levels to their classes. These are simple concepts you see in most successful service oriented businesses. Similarly, successful businesses are able to forecast potential changes to get at least an idea if it’s a smart or a dumb idea.

If you run a fitness related business you might find my wife’s presentation on how to use XL in your forecasting useful. Or you can just sit back and enjoy the pseudo-science!

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The Paleolithic Solution – Episode 18

Back with episode 18 and every day that passes we are creeping ever closer to Robb actually finishing his book!

Show Topics:

  1. Cheat meals
  2. Crohns disease
  3. Eboost & FRS
  4. Meal frequency
  5. Cured of peanut allergies
  6. Sauces / Alcohol
  7. Pancreatitis
  8. Gout
  9. Gestational Diabetes

Show Notes – The_Paleolithic_Solution_Episode_18

The Paleolithic Solution – Episode 18

 
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Interview with Keith Thomas

I  try to put original material on this blog but I thought this interview with Keith Thomas over at Conditioning Research was too important to pass up. Why? Well…there was a time when there were not dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of paleo/primal oriented blogs and websites. When I came onto the paleo concept, around 1998-1999, there was Art Devany’s old UC Irvine site, paleodiet.com and a few odds and ends. The Eades Protein Power: Lifeplan was a few years in the future as was Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival. Much of Loren Cordain’s best work was yet to be written…it’s trite to say, but it was a different time.

Prof. Devany’s original UCI site and his essay were AMAZING. His message of brevity, intensity and variability in training coupled with a nutrient dense paleo diet was (and is) truly remarkable. Art had quite a book that was “just around the corner” and a pretty solid following…but then he was flamed one time too many times and he pretty much told everyone to go pound sand. Folks were hungry for more Evolutionary Fitness but there was none to be had. Enter Keith Thomas. Keith started his site, Evfit.com to “keep the flame alive” until Prof. Devany finished his book, but it quickly went to places the original Evolutionary Fitness never explored. Ecology and many social issues that are central to being human but are often overlooked with the focus on fitness and nutrition. Keith has updated the site and his thinking over the past few years and it is a treasure trove of information and deep thinking.

I’ll pat myself on the back a little and point out that it was our Performance Menu interview with Prof. Devany that brought him back and lit a fire under him to start his very popular website. I hope to hell I manage to beat Art to publication of my book!

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Paleolithic Solution Seminar: OneWorld!

The Pseudo-Science was thicker than a Catalyst Athletics lifters fanny! Thank you to Freddy “I’ll have that beer” Camacho for hosting the event at OneWorld and everyone who came out for the day.

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Mat Lalonde Nutrition Seminars!!!

He’s Young, strong, good looking and can draw out the synthesis of cholesterol starting with a carbon atom, and not omitting the Squalene intermediate!! Mat Lalonde is offering Nutrition Seminars and here are a few he has one the books:

Capital Strength & Conditioning in Ottawa on Sunday, March 14 from 9am-4pm.

Crossfit Plateau on Friday, March 12 from 5pm till closing time. This event will be a bit shorter and slightly less technical than Mat’s usual offerings as it ill be in FRENCH!!! The following day, March 13 Mat is offering his full-meal-deal, in English! this is from 9am to 5PM.

We are still working on the details of advanced topic seminars with Prof. Cordain which will include university credits…stay tuned.

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