And the winner is...

not us.

Nine of the senior and most tenured of staff at Product Partners joined me for the Los Angeles Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 Awards, for which Jon Congdon and I had been nominated in the Retail/Distribution category. (Jon was at the Electronic Retailing Association conference in Europe, and thus unable to attend.)

This was a black tie dinner in the same room where they shoot the Golden Globes. I had to go backstage early to rehearse the intricate staging for our on-stage introductions. (I kid you... we had to walk on stage when our name was called, then line up, single file.) It was fascinating and impressive to stand backstage and hear firsthand the success stories of the other entrepreneur finalists. I also got the impression that we were a long shot to win the award. Many of the finalists were there for their second or third nomination. But the process was interesting nonetheless. It was equally fascinating to see 16 executives (and our egos) try and figure out how to maintain the order of our procession to the stage. "Am I after you?" "No - you're after Fred" "Where's Fred?" "Wait - I think you're after Fred." "Who's Fred?" "There is no Fred."


The MC of the event was Christine Devine, a primetime news anchor from Fox-11 in LA. She was impressively personable for a prominent journalist in the #2 media market in the country. And her comic interludes about finding husband material among the finalists was genuinely funny. I especially appreciated how she acknowledged some of the civic contributions of winner Steven W. Streit. She brought a celebration of business innovation and success back around to the human story, and it was a refreshing contribution.


[My interview on screen with Amber Otto from customer service (left) and Heather Hanson from operations in the foreground]

As they set-up each category, they played a video interview and overview of each of the finalists. Surprisingly, Jon and I were the only entrepreneurs with our own bare chested before and after photos featured across the twenty foot TV's. And there was an unmistakable murmur in the room when Beachbody customer before and afters were shown: "There's no way those are all real". It never fails. But when it came time to announce the winner in the Retail/Distribution category, a twenty-six year old shrink wrap/logistics company got the prize.

My flash of disappointment quickly gave way to relief. It was indeed a great honor to be nominated by an acquaintance of Jon's who took notice of what we were doing, and I am very proud to have become a finalist. But as I watched the various winners go on stage to take the spotlight and give their acceptance speeches, I realized I don't like when the spotlight gets focused on me or Jon rather than on the customers or the staff at large. I much preferred sitting around that table with my team, brainstorming how we are going to approach a logistical challenge and a new production opportunity. Solving "the riddle of the day", that's what I enjoy, and this kind of stuff feels like a distraction to me. While I must admit it can have a very positive impact on creating new opportunities, it's just never been my thing to glorify ourselves. I much prefer doing the work than I do reflecting on how we did it. My "award" comes when customers tell us how well the product works and in seeing the dramatic growth and profitability of the business. And when a new concept like the "100lb Club" gets launched and in a matter of days gets over 14,000 hits, I get my real sense of accomplishment and pride in what we have built.

I suppose I might be singing a different tune if we had won. But for now, our focus is tuned on the real prize, and our resolve sharpened. It's back to the ongoing challenge of the job itself!

CEO Snapshot - a day of the fun stuff

Some days there's a clear advantage to being CEO of a company operating under the name of "Beachbody" where the job includes brainstorming ways we can inspire and engage people in fitness and weight loss. The prospect of spending time on creative production, promotion, and invention are what get me out of bed earlier.

Yes, I focus a lot of my attention on balance sheets, cash forecasts and income statements. And clearly we are dealing with a mountain of logistical and processing issues as we grow and the business model evolves. Those issues get attention every day.

But Thursday of this week in particular seemed to include an uncommon variety of creative projects.

My first meeting of the day was to discuss the status of Kathy Smith's Project: YOU! between Kathy Smith's team and our development and marketing VP's. After over a year of development, production, testing, tweaking and re-testing, we got to announce that the marketplace has spoken, and Kathy Smith's Project: YOU! will be rolled out across the country as aggressively as possible over the next year or so. And with that commitment we got to brainstorm other distribution concepts like making the product available through corporate benefit plans, doctor's and chiropractors' offices, etc. We also discussed additional web support concepts as Kathy's customers are very active in the MyBeachbody diet and support club.

One of those concepts includes web streaming of tips and actual live workouts, another innovation we're announcing soon. On Saturday July 23rd, at 10AM ET/7AM PT we're going to stream our first live workout over the internet exclusively for members of MyBeachbody. Tony Horton, the trainer behind Power 90, the extreme P90X, and my daughter's favorite, Tony & The Kids, will lead a couple of customers through a live Power 90 Sculpt routine for around 45 minutes. (We had considered the brand "Down & Dirty" for these online workouts, but once we starting to think through the implications of future workouts like "Yoga Booty Ballet, Down & Dirty", we thought better of that name. So for this first one it will be titled simply "Power 90 Live!". Because of the rapport Tony and I can have, I will be behind the camera, so I can be "the viewer" during the routines, and ask questions about form and objective of some of the moves. This webcast is a real innovation, a live workout for hundreds of MyBeachbody members to join in and participate. That's exciting stuff.

Then I spent a half hour with the web design team to discuss the look and feel of the TurboJam website. The design is very bright and colorful, but doesn't exactly jive with the feel of the workouts which, in addition to a lot of color, music and high energy, have an "underground night club" kind of vibe. We replaced some white space with deep gray, and the page settled down. I love it when a simple change works and saves hours of redesign.

Midday Thursday I stopped into the editing room to find our production team and Chalene Johnson set-up with her "TurboJam" baseball cap and a couple of cameras in her face. They were shooting the last pieces to go on her DVD's as a special feature. Throughout the production of TurboJam, we've been pulling practical jokes on cast and crew. What Ashton Kutcher would call getting "Punk'd" Chalene calls "getting jam'd", and it is absolutely hysterical.
Those pranks will be a special feature on each of the DVD's. And while it sounds a bit like a gimmick, the point is to give the customer a stronger relationship with Chalene and everyone involved in the workouts, beyond the workout itself. When you go to the gym to take a kick boxing class you get to know the trainer and others in the class. This is an attempt to make you feel more connected to the TurboJam cast, and to further position TurboJam as, "the fun one".

The last meeting of the day was to finalize plans for the annual Hawaii trip which we've been doing to celebrate Power 90 success since 2001.
The team is in the groove on this one now, as this will be our fifth trip to Hawaii, to be hosted on the garden isle of Kauai by Pure Kauai. Looks like the cast of Power 90 and P90X customer success stories will be chosen in September for a mid-October week, with an extra emphasis this year on asking customers to submit video along with the letters and photos they normally send in. The timeline doesn't leave a lot of room to promote customer submissions, set up locations for our shoots, and to lock-down all the events that happen on the trip during that popular month in Hawaii. But the team is so on it, they even stayed behind after hours to nail down as much as possible.

Not a bad day. Of course, I haven't listed the three hours I spent reviewing our latest financial projections and CIM (I swear it Jim, I really spent three hours on it!), plus time signing bank documents, approving invoices, revising the Slim in 6 booklet, and working with our media department to expand our Lifetime Network media package.

But all in all, that's a day of the good stuff.

McDonald's Wants A New Image?

This is unbelievable to me. McDonald's has announced a licensing and media venture for branded products like bikes and skateboards, reportedly to improve its image as promoting a healthy lifestyle for kids.

In similar news, Beachbody has announced that it will be licensing its logo to a new line of comfortably padded office cubicles, to improve the image of its customer service department.

Here's my point; If a business has an image issue, it is likely created by a product or service problem. Don't fix the image - fix the problem. Morgan Spurlock's brilliant film Supersize Me, showed how McDonald's may be guilty of promoting a menu that is not all that healthy for you if it is the majority of your diet. And while the demonstration in that film is extreme, it shows how society's expectation of a company changes as it goes from being an interesting success story to a behemoth with massive distribution. It is so massive now, that McDonald's has inherited an additional social responsibility. And that's the way it goes. So be socially responsible! Point the business, and the society you serve, in a positive direction!

The opportunity to contribute to the world and make a profit with that fantastic McDonald's distribution system is amazing. Now is not the time to make a simple symbolic gesture about living a healthy lifestyle. Making us dig into the McDonald's website for nutrition information is not a solution, and hiring an author to help educate people about nutrition is not dealing with the issue head-on. McDonald's needs to apply courageous, visible creativity to the store and menu option, or in other words -- actually show that McDonald's cares about the health of its customers by inverting the menu, and making it easier to find health than it is to find trans fat.

That's how you get back to being a welcome neighbor on so many thousands of street corners across the world.

Actively help the customer know which foods are healthiest. Train your staff (which will help them live a healthier lifestyle as well) and present those healthy options as colorfully and prominently as the fried stuff and burgers. Help us shift from thinking of McDonald's as the evil food empire to a valued food supplier that cares about us. If McDonald's would help me sell my daughter on ordering something called a "Kids Mighty Meal" filled with "Orange Princess" mini-carrots, "Cherry Bomb" tomatoes, and a soy-veggie patty called a "Beach Burger" packaged in colorful game-themed wrapping with contests, quizzes, and jokes that would be as fun as the junk, I would pull through as often as she wanted. Instead when I am driving near a McDonald's at lunch time I am hoping she'll look the other way. Why is that not obvious to this company and its franchisees?

How about an actual weight loss plan, available at McDonald's, where they support their community in banding together to lose weight and eat more healthy? Instead of making people figure out how to construct a 400 calorie meal from their menu, McDonald's could do it for you, right there, with healthy food options. Lay it out for us! Help your community solve the obesity problem.

I can't even imagine the power that brand would wield if they played for the long term benefit of its customers - and ultimately EVERYONE would win. And the other fast food companies would have to follow.

I am not saying take everything else off the menu - just advocate the healthy options as creatively as you push the other stuff. Frankly, Beachbody would find a way to help promote such a move by McDonald's in our weight loss product information and maybe even our $50 million a year in TV advertising. It would help everyone because it would be so convenient when it comes to healthy food planning that the results from our fitness programs would be that much more achievable. Instead, Beachbody has to give advice to its customers as to why people should avoid McDonald's. Too bad. No company's perfect, but the potential is so clear.

As for the business of Beachbody, we've got our own "image issues" too, and we try to address them directly. Logistics and customer service all need constant refinement and improvement to keep up with our fast growth. We don't fade from the hard work and look at a distant way to "appear like we care". We genuinely care. We accept the responsibility. And in order to find the long term solution, we are constantly testing and investing in solutions.

Maybe McDonald's management will approach their menu that way some day by dealing directly with the problem, not just the image. As a consumer, parent, and human being, I hope so.

The kid's got courage

My daughter Ava and I went to the Long Beach Aquarium Saturday to see the Sea life, and there was this fenced-in area where you could feed these birds called Lorikeets.

As you walk into the netted Lorikeet forest with this little cup of nectar in your hand, you are immediately swarmed by these parrot-looking birds who know the deal. I'm not talking Hitchcock here, but at one point I had one on my head, one on my shoulder and two on my arms. I tried to settle into it, but frankly, it freaked me out. And I'm sure you can imagine the delightful Lorikeet timebomb waiting inside each little creature as these birds digest this virtual "nectar parade".

Well, Ava was much more courageous and sturdy with the experience than I was. She was like St. Francis with the "keets". I'm glad she got her patience for animals from her mom.

Ed Knows

I was reviewing the guidebook and diet guideline for a new program we're launching and read with interest a tip to stay in control of your diet even if you are eating at a restaurant. As I read I was reminded of the time when I first witnessed someone take control of their order this way; I was at a dinner with Ed McMahon of "Tonight Show" and "Star Search" fame, and his wife Pam. He had just finished his own health-transformation at the Pritikin center in Santa Monica, learning how to improve his exercise and diet plans. And when the waiter of this gourmet restaurant came to take our orders, Ed proceeded to spell out exactly what he wanted on the menu - and exactly how it was to be prepared. Furthermore, Pam pulled a zip lock bag out of her purse with the only seasonings to be used, plus a guideline for the portion size and exactly how much salt was allowed to hit the plate. This was extreme.

I was blown away - here is a top personality in entertainment, and instead of living a life of decadence, he was proactively making sure that his exposure to heart disease and other diet related problems were much more under his control, simply by not letting the restaurant dictate what he would put into his body. Impressive stuff. This, of course was before I knew starting Beachbody was in my future, and thus before I got my own act together. That night I think I had the steak. The fries. Extra wine. Extra bread.

Not long after that time of my life, I learned my cholesterol was topping 300.

Things have changed in these fifteen years since that dinner! Food choices effect the quality of your life - no matter how successful you are. Ed knows. Now I know.

View from the top

This is the view from the top of Las Flores Canyon - an excruciating steep ride from the Pacific Coast Highway up to an unbelievable overlook. Not a bad Saturday workout though. And it's fun catching and passing cars on the way back down. Cheap thrills.

Try Something Else

The camera crew from Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year came by today to interview Jon and me about the company and our thoughts on what it takes to be an entrepreneur, for use at the 2005 finalist awards banquet.

Funny thing about it is, I don't think I ever set-out to "be" an entrepreneur, I was just driven to deploy my skills and ideas in a direction to improve things, and when I did, people saw what we created and told me; "You're an entrepreneur".

Once I got thinking about some of the interview questions the camera crew had in mind, I got to thinking what sets apart some entrepreneurs from others is how they respond to the challenges and stages of growth. Do you ever "stop being an entrepreneur" and simply become a business person? The short answer, if you want to continue to grow and/or survive inevitable competition, is never. You need to keep solving problems, stay entrepreneurial, be creative, and keep trying new things.

It's very possible to expect there to be some smooth sailing after the turbulent start-up phase of a company. It takes a ton of persistence just to survive for a few years, but if you're lucky enough to breakthrough and see dramatic growth, there comes a choice to keep up the momentum, driving innovation and continued growth, or accept the growth, call it a "success", and exit stage left.

We have chosen not to seek smooth sailing. There's still too much opportunity, too many people who are still searching for a fitness and weight loss solution who haven't even heard of Beachbody.com. Being considered entrepreneurs is not a phase to us, a start-up prospect - it is a mentality that we bring to work with us every day that drives the culture of the company to face challenges with creativity and persistence. What's incredibly important as we evolve though, is that we impart the entrepreneurial spirit to each new member of the team. What used to be a challenge against external forces now has evolved into a challenge to keep the internal forces productive and pointed in the same direction as the vision of the entrepreneurial management. There are always problems in running a company - new problems and new opportunities every day. As an entrepreneur, my job is to look honestly at them, see the opportunities and options, and work with the best quality team I can muster to take on whatever the marketplace brings us. Some days are more turbulent than others, but you never stop dealing. You never stop solving. That's what sets apart some entrepreneurs from others.

There's an anecdote a friend told me once which is a metaphor for how I like to operate when faced with the challenges of growth we face daily at the company. The anecdote describes a newspaper reporter trying to get inside the mind of a Navy test pilot. When asked by the reporter "Let's say your plane is going down, and you absolutely know it's not gonna make it... what's the last thing that would go through your mind?" the test pilot answered back "Try something else." The reporter presses: "Yeah, but there's nothing else to try. You KNOW for certain the plane is going down. What goes through your mind at that moment?" The test pilot looks a little bewildered because the answer is so obvious to him, "try something else". The reporter is also getting frustrated because the pilot is not taking him up on the point of his hypothetical question. So he asks again, "But there are NO other options - the plane is 100% going down... what goes through your mind?" and test pilot says one last time, "I try something else".

That's the way the best entrepreneurs think too. When the going gets tough, which it always does if you're trying to innovate and grow, you have to be prepared to "try something else". There's always hope until you ACCEPT that you have no options. That's why I think a real entrepreneur never stops being an entrepreneur. You're always solving the riddle. The riddle is always changing. And the cycle continues. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and even giant GE prove to me that as long as you stay focused on innovation within your vision, the surge of growth does not have to end.

When an entrepreneur is faced with a challenge in any situation, you just have to "try something else", and continue trying something else until you solve it. And when that solution turns into a success story, you look for the next opportunity. That's how this company, and I, will stay entrepreneurial.