Here we are…
As most of you know by now, I am no longer MFF’s owner.
In case you missed it as of Jan 1st, 2025, co-founder Michael Keeler and I have passed on the unicorn reins.
MFF will continue on under the stewardship of the highly capable and much beloved former MFF trainer, Steve “Coach Fury” Holiner.
So before we dig in…
Let me say how personally excited I am about MFF’s future.
We couldn’t have a better new owner.
After working with Fury for ten years,
Four as an employee and the rest as a gym owner coaching client,
I can confirm, this guy’s got the chops.
It’s also been VERY gratifying to see how excited the team is to have the focus of a full time owner. While we don’t plan on making many changes to membership in the short term,
(Besides more flexible and accessible memberships, more soon, shhhhhhhh…)
The team is pumped. They’ll keep giving you the experience and care we’ve become legendary for, while Fury leads MFF into its next era.
But to make way for said new era,
It’s time for your ol’ pal Mark to ride off into the sunset.
SNIFF, SNIFF
(Btw, if you’ll miss my musings, or you just want to keep up with Business for Unicorns, you’re welcome to sign up for our emails HERE. Just know it’s all about the business of gyms, which may or may not be your favorite MF flavor. :-))
And so…
After 15 years,
My final Mark Fisher Fitness email.
Where do I even begin?
Sometimes it seems just like yesterday that the “Mark Fisher Fitness Training & Consultations Newsletter” was birthed, bringing nascent quirky vibes and a clunky-ass name.
One could argue all of MFF was born out of my desire to write engaging emails for my pals.
I figured if I wrote emails that had good info AND made people chuckle,
1) I’d feel useful
2) Some percentage would hire me
Happily for your author, both proved true!
Before we trot further down memory lane, thank you for releasing me – and by extent, releasing you – from a proper retread of the past decade and a half.
I can’t do it.
It’d be too long.
And there’s just too much.
Nonetheless, I wanted to mark this transition with a few words in the last-ever MF of MFF missive.
1) The MFF Team. Holy Shite. How Lucky Can a Guy Get?
Over the past 15 years, we’ve had over 100 people claim the mantle of an MFFer.
And what a glorious and magnificent menagerie of f*ckfreaks we’ve had in our midst.
Externally, our schtick has been “Ridiculous Humans, Serious Fitness.”
Internally, we’ve often used the phrase:
“Ridiculous Humans, Serious Fitness, Infinite Heart.”
At our best, we touched all three.
But let’s be real. We haven’t always stuck the landing on the “Ridiculous Humans” part. Some of our most beloved MFFers have been delightfully normie. Further, for every Ninja clamoring for more Dada madness, we’ve had just as many tolerate the capes and costumes with a barely veiled eye roll.
That said, we can all agree:
When we HAVE let the unicorn muses speaketh,
We’ve created some of the most absurd and bizarre moments in the history of gymdom.
As to “Serious Fitness,” we’ve certainly done our best here. With our guiding ethos of 1% better, we’ve always felt the call of further improvements. We’ve had knock ’em down, drag ’em out debates among the team as we clamored for the best possible fitness solutions. And we’ve built a culture of Ninjas who do not suffer (fitness) fools lightly.
However,
The silent third peg of the stool,
“Infinite Heart“
Has always been our most consistent flavor.
We’ve always prioritized relentless aggressive kindness, even when it was hard. ESPECIALLY when it was hard.
(I say with love and to literally no one’s surprise: not all Ninjas who’ve walked through the Clubhouse doors have been roses in every single encounter.)
We’ve sought to make all travelers feel welcomed and included. And while I know we’ve missed the mark at times, this is a hill I will comfortably die on.
There will be evolutions to the soon-to-be-the-artist-formerly-known-as-MFF,
But I know Fury and the team will carry infinite heart into the new epoch.
So if you’re reading this and you’ve ever been a trainer or biz team member or Rainbow Wrangler…
THANK YOU.
Thank you for believing that no kids should eat their middle school lunch alone in a bathroom stall.
Thank you for inviting everyone to sit at the cool kids’ table.
And while I’m thanking…
I want to acknowledge my “non-sexual life partner” Michael Keeler.
While Keeler’s been a bit more in the background over the past few years,
One way to frame MFF is as the lovechild of our friendship, forged in the fires of a high school community theater group.
To my freakish good fortune, our partnership has continued to grow and evolve in ways that feel good. No small feat!
I can’t say we had a lot of strategy when we decided to do this thing together. But in retrospect, it turns out that we had three things:
1) Deep respect for each other’s brains, integrity and values
2) Complete candor and a willingness to always disagree and challenge each other
3) Differing and complementary skillsets and styles
This is quite the soup for a successful partnership.
Can’t imagine my life without you, Keeler. Can’t believe we did this. Can’t believe we’re STILL doing this. Holy shit. Go us. Let’s keep gooooooooiiiiiing!
2) Ninjas. You Magical, Fan-Flaming, Open-Hearted Weirdos Who Have Somehow Found This All Acceptable
If you’re reading this and have come in for a class or a session (or 1000!) over the last 15 years, then…
Really, this is all YOUR fault. 😉
To the best of our knowledge (with thanks to Craig Middleton for halp), the past 15 years have seen…
- 3000+ Ninjas do at least one round of Snatched
- 7500+ total Snatched journeys
- 68 rounds of Snatched in Six Weeks
- Nearly 4000 Ninjas who’ve been an MFF member at some point
- 9000+ souls who’ve come in for at least a class, session, or workshop
The numbers, of course, do not do justice to the stories, the feels, and the lives who’ve been impacted.
And I don’t (just) mean the lives of Ninjas.
I mean the way Ninja belief in MFF has changed the lives of those who have called ourselves MFFers.
Not the least of which,
Is a formerly skinny musical theater lover,
Who had a dream of a Clubhouse where his friends would feel happy and get great fitness help,
While getting to be his unadulterated, not-for-everybody, fully self-expressed self.
I know I am far from the only team member whose self-identity has been transformed and expanded by your love and care and belief.
“Thank you” is so inadequate.
Nonetheless…
THANK YOU.
3) A Note on Why Fitness Matters. And It’s Not Abs.
The mission of Mark Fisher Fitness is:
“To unlock and amplify each human’s inherent power to live their best life.”
As is our wont, that’s perhaps a touch wordy.
But the words are intentionally chosen.
You see, we LOVE fitness.
We’ve always felt it has a kind of magic,
To open a doorway to experience your own volition.
To know, in your bones, that you are NOT a helpless dandelion seed, batted about by a random and uncaring universe.
That you have agency.
That you can, through your actions, create change.
That possibility is an accessible kind of magic.
That’s why we don’t reference “fitness” in our mission.
It’s also why we’ve always steadfastly refused to be guru types. At our best, we walk the craggy mountainside path at your side, helping you navigate based on your goals.
The feather was never necessary, Dumbo.
Your power was always there.
Waiting to be unlocked and amplified,
To be excavated under the layers of sediment,
Of careless comments from a parent,
Or unkind words of childhood playmates,
Or any number of dark and binding spells we accidentally cast upon ourselves when we felt, on some level, that we were “not enough.”
You are enough.
You have always been enough.
And to the extent that we’ve helped you access more of that primordial energy source,
We count ourselves fortunate to have played any role in the unveiling of your biggest and brightest self.
4) My Wish For You Going Forward
Lest this all sound a bit too final…
Remember, we ain’t closing motherlovers!!!
🙂
Fury and the team will carry on,
Bringing with them what’s most essential,
And 1% better-ing all over the place, large and small.
Glory, as ever, awaits!
Our entire team is excited about keeping the very best of MFF while coming out of our cocoon into our newest 2025 butterfly variation.
But now,
Your faithful MF signs off for the last time.
So whether you’re an OG Ninja gone for a decade or more,
A current Ninja, cautiously optimistic and hopeful about this next evolution,
Or merely a reader of MF’s many missives, lingering over one final breath-takingly over-wrought farewell love letter…
I hope you keep fitness-ing.
I hope you keep balancing Long Term You and Short Term you.
I hope you stay curious and humble,
But not lacking in conviction.
I hope you continue the process of naming what you value
And what’s most true for you.
And that you see how fitness is actually the perfect dojo for you to practice being your very best self.
Where you can create Kalos Sthenos – “beautiful strength” – in spite of life’s inevitable adversity.
BECAUSE of life’s inevitable, expansion-forcing, gold-flecked, and god-infused adversity.
And so, dearest reader,
I will never,
Not in a MILLION years,
Be able to thank MFF
Or our dark and lustful unicorn overlords
Or YOU
For what this chapter of my life has given me.
Including but not limited to my wife, my daughter, belief in my abilities, the opportunity to serve, a career as a speaker and writer, a true calling to get me out of bed, belly laughs, the healing of middle school wounds, a tribe with lifelong connections, books worth of can’t-be-believed stories, and so. much. more.
I shall close with the poem we’ve sometimes called our “spirit poem.”
It perfectly encapsulates how I want to move in the world,
And what I hope I’ve done in my time at MFF,
And how I plan to spend the rest of my days, be they long or short:
The small man
Builds cages for everyone
He
Knows.
While the Sage,
Who has to duck his head
When the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners
-Hafiz
The great honor of my life has been leading this jailbreak.
The best in me sees the best in you,
Mark
PS: Gentle reminder, the “reply to” on this email will send your response directly to our team.
To save them a forward, I can be reached directly at mark@markfisherfitness.com.