If you’ve been in the cheer industry for more than five minutes, you already know: we are obsessed with feedback. We film routines from 47 angles like it’s a Netflix documentary on penguins, send stunts in for legality reviews, and ask for help before it costs us the wins.
But the second we switch gears into “business mode”? Suddenly we forget how valuable all that feedback was for our teams on the mat. “No thanks, I got it,” we mumble, as we DIY everything from staff handbooks to event planning to reviewing P&Ls that we honestly don’t even really understand.
And sure, sometimes we pull it off. But let’s be honest—most of the time, we don’t even see the blind spots we’re creating until something blows up.
You get a tax bill for $10,000 from the IRS saying you made a mistake (that’s happened to me). You get randomly selected for a payroll audit and cross your fingers that you’ve been doing it all right (that’s happened to me). Or how about $11,000 of brand new LED lights get taken out by a squirrel on a power line causing a surge to the system (that has happened to me too).
When we don’t see the blind spots, we’re putting our business in the middle of a busy highway and hoping for the best.
Why Do We Stop Asking for Help in Business?
Let’s break this down.
When you’re coaching, you don’t wait until the legality deduction hits to go, “Huh, maybe I should’ve checked that pyramid.” You send it in first, because the stakes are too high.
But in business? We wait.
We wait until the budget is a dumpster fire and we’re $10k short with a side of panic.
We wait until tryouts tank and our all star teams are trying to make a pyramid with five kids.
We wait until we’re exhausted, over it, and halfway through Googling “how to sell a cheer gym without living in a van down by the river.”
Why? Because when things look successful on the outside, we assume everything’s fine.
Spoiler: success doesn’t mean your systems work. Sometimes it just means you’re working around broken ones really, really well.
If we’re talking about things that have happened to me…just add that one to the list.
Blind Spots = Expensive
Let me tell on myself (again, I guess). I once thought my hiring process was solid—like, airtight. Wrote it myself. Felt proud. Then someone looked at it and casually said, “No wonder you’re constantly retraining. This is… confusing.”
Ouch. Ego bruised. But also—thank God.
Because those little blind spots? They don’t stay little. A broken system can mean missed deadlines, messed up payroll, or an injury you didn’t see coming because your staff manual was unclear.
Your Business Needs a Coaching Staff Too
If you’re a director, you don’t hand your Level 4 pyramid to your uncle who once coached wrestling and ask, “What do you think?” You go to someone who knows cheer. Who lives it.
Your business? Deserves the same treatment.
Build a business “coaching team” around you. Find people who’ve been where you’re going—people who know what to look for in your budget, your policies, your marketing, and your oh-so-homegrown systems.
Let them say, “Hey, this works. But also… this part’s one tiny mistake away from a total faceplant.”
Right Now is the Best Time to Fix It
You’re early enough in the season to catch mistakes before they become expensive disasters. Don’t wait until you’re buried to ask for help.
That’s like waiting until after deductions to send in your legality video. You’d never do that to your athletes—why are you doing it to your business?
Let’s get one thing straight:
The IRS doesn’t care how clean your full-up is.
But they will come for your bank account and garnish your spouse’s wages.
So treat your business like the high-stakes routine it actually is. Review it. Fix it. Ask for feedback. The blind spots are real—and they cost more than a tenth of a point.
Watch or Listen Now:
📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/0Zs8KK94gLM
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ZYKkYjGH2jPErb8PzoZF8?si=sSLvo54FTOq_-0AE4y0mdg
🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fullout-cheer-podcast/id1763244914?i=1000713535887
