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Thank you to the 1,400 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 questions!
I hope reading
7 Questions with Chris Daskam
helps you in your leadership.
Cheers,
Jonno White
7 Questions with Chris Daskam
Name: Chris Daskam
Current title: CEO
Current organisation: AirGym
AirGym is a peer to peer platform for home gym owners to rent out their workout space to people looking to workout closer to home, vacation or anywhere.

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1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?
Being a CEO of a startup like AirGym has been challenging because we're breaking the traditional mold of how people workout.
Traditionally, people "go to" the gym. These globo-gyms spend a lot of money to ensure their fitness trainers and staff bring in new customers. It's all a numbers game to ensure they can make a profit. All is fair in love and business.
Where AirGym sees opportunity is in the home gym communities. There's never been a home app that allows you to monetize your home gym space. Now there is.
The challenge is, showing people that home gyms are superior in cost, travel time, workout results and thus I'm spending a lot of my time educating our current user base.
2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?
I decided to take the leap of faith in founding AirGym after many many months of market research, conversations with mentors of mine and deciding I would build something that my kids would be proud of.
3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?
My work week revolves around building healthy and long lasting relationships with home gym fitness suppliers.
I'm completely reliant on my calendar and spend a lot of time planning a week or two ahead of the current date.
The mornings are spent going through emails and getting out social media content. The afternoons are about meetings and planning for future meetings.
4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?
Building a business requires a team of passionate people all rowing in the same direction. My role as the CEO is to ensure my communication and direction is clear at all times.
5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?
Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway.
It's easy to forget why home gyms and our platform should refrain from becoming like the traditional commercial gyms.
Reading this book gave me strength and definition to pursue this new home gym category in the fitness world. Joe talks about emotional connection and how to use it to connect to customers but it also applies to our internal team.
6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?
This is yet to be determined as we're a small group however, building capacity means hiring people who have experience and then giving them the autonomy to make powerful decisions, run with the ball and make mistakes along the way.
I believe firmly in allowing my team the capacity to bring new ideas and direction without ANY judgement.
7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?
I started AirGym by myself. I wouldn't do it this way again.
There's power, when you first start your company, in sharing the passion of why you're starting a company. This passion is the purest form of a networking tool and it's easy to convey why I started AirGym. You can share this with your personal and business connections to look for the right team to bring on from the start.
Having a team that believes in what you're doing allows you to focus on what you're best at and what your team is best at.