Let the Dreamers Wake the Nation

Let the Dreamers Wake the Nation 

Real innovators don’t pander to the masses or play to their whims. True innovators create from their passion. They lead and never underestimate the audience they provide content for. Instead, they inspire and raise the level of the audience by enhancing their experience. 

The fitness industry seems to be leaning toward programming that is standardized, homogenized and replicated. Studios copying the successes within the industry in the pursuit of profit. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all for for profit and standardized programming. It provides a nice baseline for consistency. However, when creativity is not rewarded or encouraged, programming becomes stale and uninspiring. We also need to nurture the dreamers and provide opportunities for exploration. Right now, I see ,the industry mostly competing for the business of the millennials.  Granted they are a nice fat target audience to go after. However, everyone is seeking the approval and thus the dollars of the millennials catering to what they all believe to be the wants and desires of that specific group. Well .. for lack of a better analogy, isn’t it time you take the prison back from the inmate? Pandering to any lowest common denominator is lazy , unfulfilling, not innovative, and does a disservice to all. 

I have spent quite a bit of time lately chatting with millennials and as a group, we are taking them for granted and pigeon holing them based on data and analytics; which may be part of the problem. Social media , data acquisition , polling, only shows the superficial picture of the person. It is a surface indicator without going deeper into the person’s mindset, character, aspirations, expectations, and goals. The much maligned group has been characterized as being lazy, disloyal, ego centric and entitled. I have found just the opposite. I have found they don’t just settle, don’t believe in killing themselves working long hours for others without residual benefit, desire experiences over materialism and want to do something meaningful with their lives. In fact, Millennials spend more and are more apt to engage in self improvement more than any other age group. I believe them to be misunderstood. I also believe it is time we take the focus off data, and put it where it belongs, in the creative pursuit of excellence and innovation. Passion, creativity and talent should dictate the offerings from today’s fitness industry leaders. Wellness is not just a “catch phrase” for more products we don’t really need or that don’t really work. Let the dreamers wake the nation, encourage authentic passion driven individuals that create meaningful and purposeful programming and content rather than spin off a trend. I see a lot of cookie cutter approaches with no depth in the name of pursuit of profit. When in reality it is exactly the authentic and innovative ideas that actually take off and create wealth and contribution. Let’s pause and think about all of that after all, Aren’t we better than that ?