It is a fitness center!  Just another gathering of treadmills, clanking weights, and hard charging ellipticals.  As I enter, there is the mandatory scan of my key chain fob and then it is off to some torture device that will elicit sweat.

There, in this particular location, is a beautiful Polynesian young lady with a ready smile.  As I scan my ID each day, there in front of her is a computer screen with my face and name.  The same tools as so many other fitness centers.  But in this one the front desk help actually read my name and REMEMBERED it.  As I walk a way she says, “have a good workout, Kordell”   Nice touch.  Sneaky.  Not surprising because she had her cheat device to get my name.

Forty minutes later as I breeze by her counter she says, “Have a great day, Kordell.”   This time there is no computer screen for her to look at.  SHE REMEMBERED my name.

And five days later as I open the door, she smiles and chirps, “Good morning Kordell.”  Get this, SHE IS A ROVER, a person who rotates through different locations to relieve the regular person for their day off.  No computer screen, no scan, no cheat helps.  She actually remembered me.  A balding, overweight, aging participant in my own physical torture.

Who does that?

Is she tested?  Is there some sort of hidden camera that records her interactions?

That kind of engagement, unless you are in a small town, or have an extremely limited clientele, is so out of the norm, that is screams a message.  I mean, who calls one of the hundreds and hundreds of daily customer BY THEIR NAME?

Fila does.  That is her name (last name withheld because then every competitor with half a brain will try to recruit her.  What, no one is chasing her skills?  I did say half a brain.  Fila is a blazing star in a world of gears that are part of a bigger machine.  She personalizes this monster institution into an extension of my family.

Charisma is found in this kind of attention.  When a complete stranger learns your name, when they do not need to; that smacks of engagement that only be called caring.  It is special, it is loving, it is charismatic.  Is Fila an extrovert?  An introvert.  Who cares.

All I know is that I “Fila” lot of charisma from my Planet Fitness.