But we’re pretty sneaky about it.
Flying the bird is one coach telling another, “What’s up? I see you. Good Job. I got your back.”
Most clients never see it because we do it fast and with piercing eye contact. In a place where staff spend much of their time “on-stage” for clients, the bird is a sacred gesture that we do in a sacred place where work is nothing like “work.”
We hand-write cards to members and enclose a sticker that makes us think of them. Maybe it’s your birthday. Maybe it’s NOT your birthday, and I want to write “Happy Birthday” anyway. Maybe I thought you could use a laugh, and a duck riding a skateboard with a boombox will do just the trick.
Once in a while, I gift a fancy enamel pin of a duck holding a switchblade to members who fiercely protect the values that we have in common with them.
We have a door to Narnia, and I’m not kidding. Ask a coach.
And pretty soon, at our end-of-year party, I’ll get to celebrate all the wonderful people who make creating a place with so many fun quirks and stories worthwhile.
Every CrossFit Gym is different. Regardless of the walls we occupy or the street our address is on, WLR is a people and a story I wouldn’t trade for a damn thing. Not for fame. Not for less wrinkles. Not even a three-bed, two-bath home in a nice part of town…so, basically, a million dollars.
When I get asked, “What do you do for a living?” I know I could just say, “I own a gym.” But I feel like I’d be lying, you know?
