Have you ever seen (or been) an athlete who gets motivated, trains hard for a while, doesn’t see results immediately then settles back to status quo? As coaches we teach our athletes to have a long-term plan with short term goals that help keep us motivated along the way. Progress happens by taking small steps every day. I wonder why so many of us coaches don’t take our own advice and apply it to program development. Too often I see coaches work hard to promote an event, see little or no results then go back to status quo. Marketing is a long-term strategy of which promotion is a subset. Coaches often confuse marketing with promoting. Promotion is often done for an event. We call the newspaper, put out flyers, and make a big deal about an event we have. We see some results and that’s the end of it. Developing your program is not an event. It’s something that is part of your everyday efforts. Decide what you want to do (set goals), decide how you’re going to do them (create an action plan) and then do it (or delegate it.