Katie McManus (business strategist and leadership coach) shares a humorous first-person anecdote about unknowingly signing Barry Bonds up for a membership at the Equinox gym in San Francisco (Union Street, Marina). She recounts meeting Bonds and his friend Dexter Fowler, taking them on a club tour, signing them up after other locations’ staff "fangirled," and later becoming casual gym friends who chatted while Bonds worked out. The story is lighthearted, emphasizes her unfamiliarity with sports figures, and ends with a casual sign-off.
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Hello, friends. Katie McManus here, business strategist, leadership coach. Today I'm not going to talk anything business or coaching or whatever. I actually just want to tell you a funny story about Barry Bonds. And if you don't know who Barry Bonds is, welcome to the club. I had no idea who this person was. If you had mentioned his name, I just would have thought it was, like, someone you knew. Anyway, I used to work for Equinox Fitness. Okay? So I worked in San Francisco at the Union street location in the Marina. And one day I'm sitting in my office just answering emails, and the front desk calls me, and they say, hey, Barry Bonds is here. He wants to talk about membership. And my job was to sell membership. And so. And it was very customary for the front desk to call and use the person's name. So I knew who I'd be talking to when I came out. And so I will hook out of my office. Oh, well, I finished up my email first because, you know, like, whatever, you know, I needed to complete this task before I walked away from it. So I walk out, and there's this giant man. I mean, this guy is so tall, and he's just, like, built like a brick shithouse. Like, he's just, like a powerful human person, you know, right in front of me. And he has a friend with him. And so I hold up my hand to introduce myself, and he goes, hi, I'm Barry Bonds. And I was like, well, that's weird. Like, why are we using full names? And so I decided to play along. And I said, well, Hi, I'm Katherine McManus. And he kind of, like, smirked at that. And then he's like, this is my friend Dexter Fowler. And I was like, hi, Dexter. Nice to meet you. And I invited them back to my office, and as we're walking, I'm like, so let's go to my office and talk about what you're looking for. And then we'll do a tour of the club, and then we can talk about membership options. You know, as a good salesperson does you set the agenda? Maybe this will be a little bit about business. So, anyway, so we get to my office, and I see. I sit them down and get behind my desk, and I start asking them all of the typical questions that you ask a prospect who walks into a gym. These questions include, you know, what are your fitness goals? What have you done for workouts in the past? Do you have any injuries? You know, so on and so forth. And I, Naomi Thurman, you lived in sf how did you not know who Barry Bonds was? Naomi, we've talked about this. I don't know sports at all. I don't track anything. I don't. I don't know. And Barry Bonds, I think he had his heyday before I was, you know, really a human. So I don't know. Sorry, Barry, if you're watching this, I don't mean to age you that much. But anyway, so it was so funny because I'm asking them these questions, and they're just sitting there, like, eyeing each other, like, is this girl for real? Like, what? And so Barry, when I asked the question about, you know, what have you done for workouts in the past? Barry said, you know, I used to play baseball. And to which I responded, oh, cool, like a recreational team. And he's like, no, I played professional baseball. And I was like, oh, cool, for what team? And just like, he. I don't think he'd ever run into someone who generally genuinely did not know who he was or what he was about or any of his history. And so he told me he played for the Giants. And. To which I said, oh, it's amazing that you're still hitting the city that, you know, your team was in. You know, people must recognize you. And then I turned to Dexter, and I'm like, dexter, do you play sports as well? And Dexter said, yeah. And I'm like, oh, like, you know, do you play baseball? And he said, yes. And he was playing for the Houston Astros at that point. I haven't tracked his career. Sorry, I'm still not a sports person. So at that point, you know, really, I started off really well with them. So then we go on a tour of the club. I showed Barry the stretching areas because he just had knee surgery and needed that. I showed them the chilled eucalyptus towels that Equinox is so well known for. And we got back to my office, and lo and behold, they signed up with me. Now, what I didn't know is that they had actually gone to multiple different equinoxes to shop around. And I guess the people that they had spoken with had fangirled so hard with them that they didn't feel comfortable signing there. So I signed them up. And the funniest part was that they were working out together. So Barry was kind of training Dexter, which technically he wasn't supposed to do at our gym. But, you know, it's. Management was like, it's Barry Bonds. It's fine. He's working out here. We're happy. But what was funny is that Dexter was always late for their workout sessions. And so Barry would come into the club and he'd actually come and sit in my office with me for, I don't know, half hours of time multiple times a week. And we would just shoot the shit. We would just sit down and talk. And I didn't know what to talk to him about. So I would show him my knitting projects because at the time I was also teaching knitting at a local yarn store and was actively working on a bunch of projects. And he would tell me about riding bikes and occasionally if I was working out when he was working out, we'd, you know, foam roll together. But yeah, it was just. And I was reminded of this, of this story today because I posted a story about when I was a teenager and my parents signed me up for refleague softball and the coach wasn't great and it got me on a whole little sports kick. And this is literally my only sports story. So don't ask me for any more sports stories. I don't have any. Literally, I just became friends, gym friends with Barry Bonds because I didn't know who he was. But it's Friday, we're all, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty tapped up this week because of the puppy who's sleeping under my chair right now. And it's just been an amazing week at work and I'm ready for the weekend. I'm ready to recharge and thought I would just share this funny story with you all. No higher point to make. I'm sure you can make one up if you wanted and if you want to make them up in the comments, I'd be very, very thrilled to see that and it would be funny, I think. But anyway, I hope you have a great weekend. That's all I have for today. I wanted to do a really quick live and give you a laugh or at least show you how sports ignorant I am. Either way, hope you have a great week. Thank you for tuning in this week and I can't wait to see you all next week. Bye.
