This past week I had an interesting conversation with a CEO of a prominent health club chain. We were discussing our member retention, retention programs and how to effectively set up a Circuit Line program with extreme detail to staffing, hiring, training and supervision. His response was, “You (Gainesville Health and Fitness) can afford to do those things because you have over 27,000 members.” I smiled when that statement reminded me of a story I heard when I worked at Disney many years ago.
“Bump the Lamp”
In the 1988 Disney film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” there is a scene in which the detective played by Bob Hoskins grabs the cartoon rabbit and hoists him through the air, repeatedly bumping his head on an overhanging lamp. The lamp swings back and forth, casting a shadow that covers both people and cartoon consistently and realistically. The amount of time and resources it took to produce this was staggering. At one point, there was discussion to not even attempt this because 99 percent of the audience would never notice the shadow. When asked to press on with the moving shadow, a subcontractor said, “You can bump the lamp because you are Disney.” To which the CEO replied, “No sir, we are Disney because we bump the lamp.”
It takes extra effort to “bump the lamp” in your business, but attention to detail can be what sets you apart from your competition. My response to the CEO of the health club chain — “We don’t have over 500 employees dedicated to taking care of people because we have 27,000 members, we have 27,000 members because we have over 500 employees dedicated to taking care of people.”
Special Note: I want to congratulate the owner of Gainesville Health and Fitness, Joe Cirulli, on receiving Club Industry’s “Lifetime Achievement Award.” Joe will be accepting the award on Thursday, October 11, 2012 at the Club Industry show in Las Vegas. It has been an honor and a privilege to work for Joe for the last 18 plus years. The essence of his business for over 38 years has been based on the Zig Ziglar Quote, “If you help enough people get what they want out of life, you will always get everything you want out of life.” Thank you, Joe for all you have done for me, the Gainesville community, and the entire Health and Fitness Industry.
Shawn Stewart is the Operations Manager at Gainesville Health and Fitness Center. Contact him at shawns@ghfc.com
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
