If you have ever seen me present over the last 15 years at a Perform Better event, you know I love to bring high energy. After over a year and a half of no travel or presenting, you can imagine how much I miss the staff at Perform Better and the amazing events. But due to the ongoing challenges and obstacles facing my fitness business, you should also understand why I’m excited for things to return back to a sense of “normalcy.”

As masks are being lifted and shots are being administered, I’m not sure where you stand on the COVID-19 vaccine. The purpose of this email is not to challenge your opinion there, but to examine another vaccine on which everyone in health and fitness, performance and sport can agree. This vaccine is less painful than a syringe in the shoulder, but you will feel the kick in the pants you need to strengthen your family, business and team.

I know because this vaccine did that for me.

I wish I could tell you differently, but when the pandemic began, I wasn’t just scared, I was terrified. As I mentioned, my Perform Better speaking and travel ended, and fitness businesses were shut down all over the world. If you know anything about me or my career, that meant my ability to generate income for my family was extremely challenged - and totally out of my control. My career and business were taken away and I constantly stressed whether everything I had built over the last 20 years would disappear into thin air.

I spent nights so worried I had difficulty sleeping.

I was anxious and fearful about how I would take care of my family.

I spent months focused on all the negative outcomes that could happen.

But then something amazing happened instead.

They didn’t!

Now don’t get me wrong, some of the things I was worried about happened, but definitely not as bad as I feared. And now as I look back on that horrible time when some things got weaker, I also saw others got stronger.

My TFW organization became more efficient and unified.

My relationships with my family improved.

My writing and presenting skills increased and I developed new opportunities to help people.

Now as we emerge from the mandates and lockdowns, I know why those positive things happened. Unfortunately it took a pandemic for me to learn what protected TFW and my family against huge challenges:

My company and my family had been vaccinated before the troubles began.

You have probably learned a thing or two about vaccines in the last 18 months. Regardless of whether you understand the exact science how vaccines work, you should now understand why a vaccine is such a powerful medicine. Most medicines can only be used to treat or cure a disease, but what makes some vaccines more powerful medicine is that it can prevent a disease from happening.

To help explain where I’m going with this analogy, I want you to imagine that like your body - your business, family and team are also organisms that require constant nurturing and maintenance. Understanding this, you should recognize these teams can also develop “health” problems if they are not properly vaccinated against potential threats.

So what is the powerful vaccine that can prevent challenges that can threaten the health of your business, family and team?

That vaccine is Culture.

Culture was the vaccine that kept my TFW affiliates going while the rest of the world was shutting down. This was the vaccine that protected my family from destructing from within. Culture was the medicine that you have probably felt if you have ever experienced the great team members of Perform Better too.

During the pandemic, one of the things that seemed to scare people about the COVID-19 vaccines being developed was a lack of understanding behind the science that created them. This lack of clarity caused confusion and that confusion caused division. Well, if you thought it was tough to understand mRNA, I’m telling you it is difficult to understand the culture of your business, team or family too.

To help you with that confusion is why I wrote my new book, High Ten. High Ten uses an easy-to-read and storybook-style to guide you how to improve the culture of your business, family and team. I will be bold enough to say that this roadmap for culture will “vaccinate” you and your teams against the future challenges you will face.

And believe me, this isn’t the last of your challenges.

I won’t deny it - the pandemic was a huge challenge. Probably the biggest many people have ever faced thus far in their lifetimes; but this will not be the last one. Unfortunately, that’s how life works. There will be future “variants” of challenges for your family and business. I’m not going to tell you that you’ll never face another challenge, but I am saying with the right culture in place, you and your business can be better protected against them.

And how you take this vaccine? Instead of a shot, all you have to do is read the book.

Although that might sound painful if you are not an avid reader, I promise the stories within the story will keep you engaged and entertained. High Ten will offer the culture “check-up” you need by assessing your “vitals” of culture and act as a “booster” for when your next challenge arises.

So how does having the right culture in place work as a vaccine for your business or team?

In the book, I detail many of the potential health threats your business, family or team may experience. Here is a checklist of 10 cultural health risks to see if you currently have any in place:

Negativity
Poor Morale
Neglect
Decreased Revenue
Gossip
Selfishness
Cliques
Turnover
Unfriendly Competition
Low Accountability

If you are experiencing these “health risks,” it’s time to do something about it. If you don’t address the health of your culture, things will only get worse. You need to vaccinate to have the healthy culture you want. Here is a checklist of 10 signs to see if you are experiencing a healthy culture:

Trust
Communication
Collaboration
Ownership
Consistency
Appreciation
Respect
Feedback
Support
Growth

Simply put, having the right culture in place strengthens the immune system of your business and team. Being vaccinated with the culture you want keeps the wrong people away that you don’t. And the final outcome is improved health and morale.

Just like our current demand for COVID-19 vaccines globally, I wasn’t aware of how bad the world needed information on culture until the pandemic happened. But unlike the current vaccines in use to battle the COVID-19 virus, my vaccine delivered in High Ten took a lot longer to develop. Instead of less than a year, I spent two decades building successful businesses and team cultures before I was able to crystalize the ideas into the format you will find in the book.

I can’t wait until we are all together again at a Perform Better Summit in 2022. I can promise you I am going to be bringing the energy!