​It seems like yesterday Lauren started kindergarten and tomorrow I'm going to be taking her to the airport so she can fly to Vancouver, British Columbia to start her Freshman year at the University of British Columbia

Where did the time go?

Yep, I'm the  dad who is a little sad to see their 18 yr old move across the country to go to college to follow her dreams.

When I was headed off to college I was just heading down the road to Mt. Pleasant to attend Central Michigan and now my oldest daughter is headed to one of the most beautiful cities in the world to live.

And I'm also the guy that vividly recalls the bus picking Lauren up for kindergarten at the top of our driveway on her first day of school.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.

So I guess I just need to enjoy the moment.

On Friday Lauren and I did a great hike up to Humpback Rock at Sunrise and it was spectacular....I need to do this more often!

Our loved ones value out time. They value us being present.  I know I'm not the best at that but I'm trying.

So Lauren heads off to college today...where did the time go???

Music I'm Listening To: Norah Jones-Carry On.  I started listening to Norah Jones with my kids when they were younger because it was easy to listen to and we would always play it on our way home from skiing.  This is her first song off of her new album.  This past week on Spotify I've been listening to her Radio Station and its good music to listen to and still get work done.

Article I"m Reading: College Athletes Dominating the Olympics --With the Olympics going on right now its great seeing College Athletes participate in all of the different events.  The school with the most athletes is Stanford with 30 athletes.  Here at UVa we have 8 students participating in the events.  Even Katie Ledecky the 19-year-old swimmer will have another title when she returns from the Olympic Games this fall – Stanford University freshman.  How would you like to sit next to her in your Bio 101 class!!
http://fortune.com/2016/08/09/stanford-olympics-athletes-college/?xid=timehp-popular

Social Media Post of the Week-  My favorite social media post of the week is definitely the Michael Phelps.  This USA Today article has the best ones! ​http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/08/micheal-phelps-hilarious-tweets-memes-rio-olympics-swimming

Quote I'm Thinking About This Week-Don't Cry Because It Is Over, Smile Because It Happened--> Dr. Seuss  This is one of my daughter Lauren's favorite quotes and since she is headed off to college this weekend I thought I would add this for her!

So this is my second day of my 7 days of posting on the blog.

You and I both know that the secret to running a successful tennis business is to get more people happily playing more and staying longer at the club.

The best way to do that is to increase participation and loyalty.

The fact remains that now is the perfect time to start increasing loyalty, and one of the best ways I know to do that is through monthly workshops.

Like most facilities you run your weekly clinics and programs and they run continuously throughout the year and are run on overdrive without any changes.

So to try and change it up and start adding workshops that will add a new program element to your already existing programs.

These workshops should be run by your teaching staff. it gives them a chance to be seen by more of your members, their friends, and others in the community.

The Workshop Topics should be educational in nature from the mental component of tennis to nutrition to fitness and will give your staff another opportunity to reach out to your existing members.

The purpose of the workshops is to increase participation and loyalty. Teach people how to play more effectively, eat more nutritiously,  and anything that you can think of for a "workshop".

Running the workshop is easy. Simply ask each of your tennis professionals to list out 5 topics they feel would make for a good workshop; topics they know a lot about, and love to talk about.

If you have 5 tennis professionals, guess what? You now have over two years worth of monthly workshop topics!

The workshop itself needs to be organized in a way that makes your staff and your club stand out from the other clubs in town .  Don't let your staff just wing it.  It needs to be done professionally so that the members walk out of the workshop already talking about next month's topic.

No power point presentations are necessary but they will add that professional touch, no one has to dress up or be uncomfortable. The workshop can literally be one of your staff talking to a group about something they love talking about anyway.

If you have an extra conference room, the local library, pub, restaurant or even your house. The setting doesn't matter. What matters is that the members learn something and have a little fun.  Depending on your facility you can even add food and beverages.

Here are a few workshop topics:
How to be a Great Doubles Partner
Tennis Fitness for the Club Player
How to take your singles game to the next level
Mental Toughness for the Club Player
How the Pros practice

These are just a few ideas that you can use for the workshops but it will depend on your staff and what they want to talk about.  Don't assign topics to staff let them come up with the ideas so they feel like they have an investment in the program.

As for cost of the workshop will depend on what your cost is to put on the workshop.  It could be free or you could charge a nominal amount.  The workshop could be an add on to one of your other programs that you run.

You can allow members to bring a friend, family member, or colleague. Visit local businesses and let them know about the upcoming workshop and allow multiple employees to attend together. Contact past members and invite them to participate. Have all of your tennis professionals invite their clients.

Whether it is current members and clients, or prospects you would like to become members or clients, everyone can participate in the workshops. Those who are already loyal and paying, will become more loyal and will continue paying. Those who are new to your services will have fun and see that you offer more than your competition to help them become healthy.

Have fun with it, come up with some great workshop topics, and start providing these once a month to increase loyalty among your members and awareness among potential members.

​It's been a while since I made a blog post so I'm planning on posting one blog post per day for the next 7 days before I go on vacation and then when I come back my goal is to post a new blog post 3 times per week.  It might be a little ambitious but my goal is to improve my writing so I'm going to try and write every day.

Right now I'm getting ready to go on vacation next week and my daughter is getting ready to head to college next week so I've been pretty busy getting things done in all of my businesses so when I'm gone everything will be done so right now I am a productivity machine.

I've gotten more done in the last two days then I got done in the last week.

So what’s my secret to getting everything done?

I have two things that help me.

#1 I create a deadline as to when it needs to be done.  This isn't rocket science but by creating a deadline it makes it more likely to get done.

#2 What is my MIT.  An MIT is pretty simple--> My Most Important Task (MIT) of the day.

So let’s start with Secret #1. When we are getting ready to go on a vacation, we have a date that we are leaving and we have a specific time that we are leaving.

That’s our deadline for when everything has to be done.

So for me right now my daughter Lauren  is leaving for college on Sunday with my wife and I'm leaving with my other daughter on Tuesday to meet them in Vancouver, British Columbia.

So right now I have two deadlines.  One for Saturday for everything that has to do with Lauren's move to college at the University of British Columbia and the other deadline is Tuesday when I fly out with Hannah

And for me, during vacations I have mini-deadlines are in effect. If I want to work, I know that I’m going to wrap up by 8:00 every morning. I know that if I work after 8:00 then Patti and the girls will not be happy with me!

And that leads us to #2. The Most Important Task of the Day also known as my MIT.

When I get into work every day I set up my schedule of everything that I have to get done and then I create my MIT for the day.

My MIT is what I am going to get done first and then I have my other tasks that I have to get done based on the deadline that I have created for that task.

By creating a deadline, our our most important priorities move to the front.

Here’s my suggestion for you to help you get your stuff done on time and on task..

First, identify your Most Important Task that is going to help you move forward with your business goals.  You should try to do this the night before.  Right now my most important task is our 2017 Academic programs for next year.

Second, you need to schedule a time to do it.  My schedule is kind of all over the place so I try to get my MIT done before 10:00. So I try to get my MIT for the day done by 10:00 everyday.

I know this sounds pretty simple but it works for me.

Like most people when it comes time for vacation you put everything into overload and you get stuff done because you know that you have to get it done before you leave.

So why not put those same ideas into your everyday work life or take more vacations!!