I have been tweeting a lot about Crossfit recently, and I thought I would post a link to an interview with the founder in order to answer a lot of the curious readers of this blog. I am enamored with the Crossfit workout routine, the philosophy, and the community. I have been doing the workouts for 2 months, and I have no plans of stopping.

Why post about Crossfit, an exercise regimen?

Good question.

Crossfit has been around for over 15 years, but in the last 7 its popularity has grown tremendously. Look at their site, every day a new workout is posted, and look how many comments are on each workout of the day… hundreds! And the workout is free! And there is no one to make sure that you do it. And if there is an exercise posted that you have never done or don’t even know what it is, just click on the exercises link and there are hundreds of videos explaining each exercise in massive detail. For free.

Yet, Crossfit does hold certification seminars, which it charges for… and you can become an affiliate, which costs money.

But overall, Crossfit is one of the best examples of a business using the Internet to combine the benefits of “free” with a way to monetize those free provisions. It is incredible! Plus, they are building a community of people who are absolutely sold out to their program. (Yes, I am one of them.)

Here’s another link to the interview with Coach Glassman.

That’s all I’m saying for now because I want you to read the article. But don’t worry, I have many more thoughts about Crossfit…

Here’s a link to the Crossfit Games.

The Crossfit games crown their winners, “the fittest person on earth”… there’s a marketing genius somewhere around here – how would you like to be called the fittest person on earth?

87 books.
37 dollars.

102 books.
45 dollars.

Those are actual numbers, by the way.

Book binges have become a lot less frequent, but I still love to buy books at Amazon.com. My wish list is ridiculously long. But in the last few years, I noticed that I can buy almost anything at Amazon. They have taken retailing online better than anyone.

I just bought a G Tech Hard Drive – from Amazon.

And it was cheaper than on G Tech’s site.

All I can say is wow.

I don’t think I’ll be going to a Barnes and Noble anytime soon and see a heavy duty hard drive sitting next to the newest Brad Thor novel.

Anyone else just love Amazon?

In addition, fxphd is starting to take steps that provide vocational/resume assistance. For instance, you are given a link to a page with all of the courses you’ve taken. Here’s mine: Follow this link, and enter this code – 5UDRBT52A3E3E25. Also, they are starting to offer exams for specific courses. They are moving in the right direction.

From listening to their podcasts, I’ve come to appreciate how much work it takes to run an educational website like fxphd, especially since most of the contributors are working artists.

Make sure you check out their site–they are future of education.

fxphd.com April09 Term Overview from fxphd.com on Vimeo.

We have just made a number of final changes to our program. It has become clear that our competition is finally paying attention to what we are doing so this time we will NOT announce what the changes are.

I will say the following:

1. No negative price/performance changes.
2. Only positive feature and system changes.
3. No additional slip to the target schedule.

If our competition is shooting at us, they will be shooting at where we were and not where we are going to be.

Speculation is dangerous because people post what they think or hope and others read it as fact. Just know that every time we change something, it gets better.

See you in Las Vegas.

Jim

I love how Jim knows the competition is out there, and he knows that unless they are thinking “revolution”, they are aiming at the past.

Here’s a link to the forum if you want the full scoop.

I hope we never lose sight of one thing. It all began with a mouse.

I just keep thinking of how big DISNEY (the company) is right now. Theme parks, movies, TV, investments, travel, hotels, and everything else. And it all began with a mouse.

How many dreams do you have that are so big you can’t even see how they’re going to be accomplished?

Maybe they need to start with something smaller, like a mouse…

But there’s a part of the story that’s missing.

Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney, once said:

Walt Disney used to walk around and always say, “I hope we never lose sight of one thing. It all began with a mouse.” Well, here at Disney, we know the truth. It started with a mouse, and a man.

Are we looking for the mouse, or the man? Any thoughts?