5 CX Lessons I Learned from Doing 75 Hard Twice (And Why Your Fans Deserve Better)

First things first, I’m skipping the humble and going straight to the brag: last week, I finished my second round of 75 Hard. Cue the applause, the support, and the eye rolls (I’m good with all three, I promise!).

For those who aren’t familiar, 75 Hard is a program designed to challenge mental and physical fitness for 2 ½ months straight. There are six rules that must be adhered to for all 75 days: two 45-minute workouts (one must be outside), follow a diet of your choosing, no alcohol, drink a gallon of water, read 10 pages of a non-fiction book, and take a progress photo. In the event that you miss any one of those six things, you have the esteemed pleasure of starting over from Day 1.

Is this challenge hard? Hell yes it is. Was I thriving in spite of the difficulty? You bet I was.

And you wanna know why? Because I was having a phenomenal experience.

1. First-Timers Come With Standards, Not Expectations

My first time through 75 Hard, I knew the rules but not what to expect.

I did my research, read articles, read blogs, bought a journal…all the things. This prepared me for how to follow the rules but gave me no way to predict whether or not I would come to love and enjoy my decision to participate or if I would be cursing my choices for a full 75 days.

Your first-time ticket buyers are in the exact same spot. They've likely done their homework. They know the basics. They’ll probably have a general plan of how they’ll navigate the logistics (timing, transportation, food & beverage, etc.). They’ll also know how they feel while they’re planning but won’t have yet considered how they’re going to feel inside your venue.

These as yet unfelt emotions are your moment. Plan your customer journeys around how you want your fans to feel and you will nearly always succeed in wowing fans regardless of what the scoreboard says at the end of the game.

2. It’s the Feeling Not the Final Score

Oddly enough, for the second round of 75 Hard, my desire to complete it wasn’t attached to tangible outcomes (pounds/inches lost, body composition changes, strength gains, etc.). I knew they would be there, but I paid no mind to chasing numbers. Instead, I was chasing the thing that I had held onto from round one: the emotional charge and sense of accomplishment with each passing day and the "I'm more capable than I thought" energy that lasted for weeks.

The emotions are what pulled me back. They’re also what will pull your fans back.

If your fans are treated to an electric crowd, staff interactions that make them feel seen and heard, shared moments that become powerful stories told later, they won’t have space to recall the final score or how much they spent with you. They’ll also intuitively understand that the only place to possibly recapture these feelings is with you.

Be warned: the opposite is just as true. So be sure you’re designing your customer experiences for emotions first. Everything else follows.

3. Round Two Is About the Job You Can Do

I came back to 75 Hard for a completely different reason than why I started. Round one was about proving I could do it and about measurable outcomes. Round two? I had two “jobs to be done”:

·      Structure in my personal life while my professional life was transforming

·      A guaranteed sense of accomplishment at the end of every day

What job are YOU doing for the fans who return to your venue? Are you helping them celebrate a special occasion? Escape from work stress? Build memories with their family? Feel part of something bigger?

It’s imperative that you figure out what jobs your repeat buyers need done. Then become absolutely brilliant at doing them.

4. Use What You Learn to Make It Even Better

The first round of 75 Hard taught me what I loved and what I could live without. It also gave me the power to customize my experience for round two, which meant I could make version 2.0 way better because I paid attention to version 1.0.

You have the same capability through your data. Any customer feedback mechanism you have in place will offer insight into exactly how to make your 1.0 fans happier: which sections offer what benefits and why that’s meaningful, what their buying habits are, what time people are arriving, what is most appreciated, what gets them most excited and what really doesn’t matter.

Take that gift and run with it. Surprise the hot dog fan with a free combo meal on their birthday, acknowledge the family that's building a Saturday tradition, add some swag for a suite owner who’s hosting a huge client.

Mine your data and I promise you’ll find gold.

Not sure where to start panning for gold? Start small: pick your top 100 fans and personalize something for them this month. Prove the concept works, note your returns, note your investments. THEN, scale it.

5. The Magic Happens When You Become Part of Their Identity

At its core, 75 Hard is a specific program that takes an incredible amount of discipline and stamina and whose rules are unbendable, which when presented that way sounds AWFUL.

It’s also transformed how I think about and live each day.

Being a superfan is exactly the same.

Gamedays are a lot like a day on 75 Hard. A significant amount of time, energy, and money must be spent to attend and, at best, you have a 50/50 shot that you’ll feel like it was worth it. When presented that way, attending sporting events can sound awful as well.

But when it’s worth it, when you change how those who believe in you the most live, they design a huge portion of their lives around the experience they feel you’ve designed for them.

That is the power of sport and the magic of emotional experience.

So here's your Monday morning move: Pick one dataset of 2.0 buyers. Figure out one of the jobs your franchise is being hired to do on that second visit. Then ask yourself honestly: are we nailing it or are we just really glad they showed up again?

1.0 experiences will sell seats. Getting 2.0 right will create lifelong fans.