Another Friends moment that I sometimes referenced in the monthly find out more meetings that we used to run was from Season 4 – Episode 4 – The One with the Ballroom Dancing.
Ross accompanies Chandler to the gym to help him cancel his membership.
After he’s tried before and “they make you go all the way down there! Then they use all of these phrases and peppiness to try and confuse you! Then they bring out Maria.
By Chandler’s description, a “lycra spandex covered gym…treat” that “you can’t say no to”.
Not only does Chandler not end up cancelling but Ross is joined up by Maria.
Making memberships hard to cancel is a common gym tactic.
A club I worked in twenty years ago would only do cancellations in person with the Member Services Manager.
And you couldn’t just turn up and request him / her – you had to book a meeting.
Super hard to cancel.
But, like many gyms, often hard to use.
Easy on the face of it sure.
But not an environment that many feel comfortable in.
Minimal support to set people up for success.
The overwhelming majority joining with high hopes then not using it enough to get the results that they desire.
I try and make what we do kinda the opposite.
Easy to cancel – just fill in a form online after any mutually agreed minimum term.
Easy to use.
Experience has taught me that, by the time someone is wanting to cancel, it’s pretty much too late.
It’s stopping them getting ‘there’ that’s key.
Keeping motivation and enthusiasm up as much as possible.
‘Catching’ people when they start to ‘slip’ rather than just leaving them to ‘stumble’ and ‘fall’.
Helping them question and challenge the things that have previously held them back.
Getting them to become ok with ‘knowingly sub-optimal and done’ over ‘theoretically better and deferred’.
Slowing down and speeding up as circumstance dicates.
Rather than stop-start.
Helping people want to keep going rather than making it hard for them to ‘stop’.
Much love,
Jon ‘She moves like she don’t care, smooth as silk, cool as air’ Hall
P.S. You might be pleased to hear that that’s it for the Friends parallels. I’ve got various extra notes on funny moments, etc but nothing is coming to me as to how to use them.
P.P.S. You also might want to change your life —> www.myrise.co.uk/apply
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