PushPress Operating Tenant #6: Urgency & Impact-Driven
Running faster in the wrong direction is not winning. It's losing faster.
Estimated Read Time: 3 minutes
TLDR: At PushPress, we don't just work fast - we work fast on things that actually matter. Our "Urgency & Impact-Driven" operating tenet helps us avoid the trap of being busy without results. Like a workout done without regard to the stimulus, business activity without purpose wastes energy.
It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants.
The question is: What are we busy about?
- Henry David Thoreau
Recap: We Dropped Core Values for Operating Tenets
At PushPress, we recently ditched Core Values because we needed principles that would guide real actions, not just feel-good statements. As we've grown from scrappy startup to serving hundreds of gyms, we needed a framework that would help us execute better.
Today's Tenet: Urgency & Impact-Driven
Speed Is Non-Negotiable in Business
Make no mistake: speed absolutely matters in business.
Look at any legendary company and you'll see speed as a cornerstone of their success.
Amazon built their entire empire on the foundation of moving faster than competitors. As Jeff Bezos famously said: "If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering."
Speed lets you:
Beat competitors to market
Capitalize on opportunities before they vanish
Respond to changing customer needs before they churn
Test and learn faster than slower companies
In markets where multiple players offer similar solutions, the faster company almost always wins. Period.
Speed Alone Misses Half the Equation
Here's where most businesses get it wrong: they chase speed without direction.
To be perfectly honest, in our blind pursuit of speed years ago, we got really good at pushing bugs and broken code out at lightning pace. That experience taught me one key lesson: Speed without impact is worse than being slow.
Speed without impact is just wasted energy. Just like an athlete who finishes a workout first but misses the intended stimulus, businesses that move quickly on the wrong things end up exhausted with no results.
What truly matters is the combination: speed AND impact.
Impact is the value you deliver. It's how you radically change the lives of your customers. Without it, you're just spinning your wheels, no matter how fast you go.
The PushPress Approach
In the early days of most companies, every decision and direction is dictated from the top down. What we've learned is that does not scale, and it creates bottlenecks that slow down speed to impact.
True speed-to-impact requires a bottom-up model. Here's how we operate:
Leaders set vision, teams own execution. We don't micromanage the "how." Our team members have agency to solve problems their way.
Distributed decision-making creates velocity. When decisions happen closer to the customer, we move faster with better results.
Multiple minds = multiple solutions. Some of our best features came from team members seeing opportunities we missed.
Admittedly - we are not perfect at this yet. However, we're moving in this direction. When you grant agency to a highly talented, customer obsessed, mission driven team, great things happen.
As our tenants unfold you will see how they all tend to align to support each other to supercharge this approach:
Customer Obsession helps us identify true high-impact opportunities that align with our customers' true needs.
Take Ownership & Dig Deep creates clear swim lanes and eliminates production bottlenecks.
Big Picture Thinking helps us spot the 20% of work that delivers 80% of results.
In the real world, we're seeing this play out right now. We went from concept to having 746 clients reaping the benefits of our Committed Club feature in one quarter and in January 2025 we had 20,208 members of gyms achieve the club at their gym!
Across the board, we're seeing the gyms that have installed and launched a Committed Club have stronger metrics already - Check-Ins, Member Engagement, ARPU, LTV, and Retention Rates.
What This Means For Gym Owners
Your gym is a battle for attention and results. But most gym owners waste energy on low-impact busy work.
Here's how to apply urgency and impact to your business:
1. Leverage your member obsession You already care deeply about your members. Now use that insight strategically. Which members need your attention most? The ones at risk of leaving or the ones who haven't shown up in weeks. That's high-impact work.
2. Dig deep on your metrics Don't just track numbers – understand them. Which membership plan has the highest retention? Which coach has the lowest churn? Follow the data to find your highest impact areas.
3. Hone your gut instinct As Jeff Bezos once said, "When the data and your gut are in conflict, the data is usually wrong." Absorb information from everywhere – podcasts, books, conversations, mentors. This builds the pattern recognition that leads to good instincts. Good instincts turn into lightning fast decisions and conviction.
4. Challenge your sacred cows Are your nutrition challenges actually driving results? Do you really need that one dead class? Is that expensive, large footprint equipment truly improving member outcomes? Ruthlessly evaluate everything against the impact it creates.
5. Create "not-to-do" lists Most entreprenuers die of indigestion, not starvation. Most gym owners need to stop doing things more than they need to start doing things. What low-impact tasks can you eliminate?
6. Develop decision timeframes
Small decisions: 5 minutes
Medium decisions: 24 hours
Major decisions: 1 week max
The best gym owners I know have mastered the art of fast, decisive action on high-impact priorities. They don't get stuck in analysis paralysis on trivial matters.
The Bottom Line
At PushPress, we don't just ship software updates fast. We focus on the things that drive the most customer value and deliver them as fast as we can.
Then we step back and figure out how to adjust our processes to do it again, but faster.
Your members don't care how busy you look. They care about results.
Speed without purpose is just exhaustion.
Speed with impact is how you win.