Pat Rigsby's Blog

New Blog

2009-01-16T13:28:00.001-08:00

Check out my new blog

http://patnickandjim.com

Lee Taft's Athletic Speed Formula

2008-04-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

Check out what the World's Greatest Speed Coach has to say about the Athletic Speed Formula:

If you coach athletes there is one must attend event this year, learn more it at:

The Athletic Speed Formula

Dax's Challenge to both of us...and what's in it for you.

2007-05-31T08:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the conclusion to Dax and my conversation. He's issued a challenge and I accepted...
...will you?

*****************************************

"Why not?" I asked, worry evident in my voice as he continued. "Well, because I'm going to ask you to do the very same thing that you want the rest of the industry to do... take action!" "Not a problem my friend" I replied "I've gotten to the point where I regularly take action on my ideas."

"Yes, but most of those ideas and actions are now well within your comfort zone, correct?"

"Well... I guess. They certainly don't scare me the way they used to." "And that's the problem mate." Said Dax "You see, compared to the industry we're trying to influence, you, I and the other six-figure earners are now seen as 'comfortable'. You know, the people who read our stuff or who listen to our audios and attend our seminars think that we're rolling in money and that everything we touch turns to gold." "But that's not true!" I replied "Yes, I do very well for myself by comparison to the rest of the industry, but I've worked hard to get here and every new project is a flight into the unknown. It's the same for all the guys I know.

None of them has their success handed to them and all of them take a lot of risks and soak up a lot of failures too." "I know that and you know that, but the truth of the matter is, compared to most of this industry, we're seen as super-successful, privileged and 'different'. To most, whilst our pay-packets are much bigger,they see the risks we take as somehow smaller than theirs" He went on, "So, if we're going to ask the industry to take action on things that are outside of their normal comfort zones, I think we're going to have to do the same." I now knew why he said I wasn't going to like it. Dax was planning something that, in all likelihood, was going to stretch me more than I'd become accustomed to recently. But what was it? "What is it you want me to do, Dax?" I asked.

"Not so fast Pat. A little background is needed first if you will..." was his reply. He then proceeded to ask me about my various products, how much they cost, how many had sold, what my profit was and in no time at all had almost as good a profit and loss statement of my business as I had. "These aren't B.S figures?" He asked. "What do you mean?" I replied. "You know, those magic marketing dollars that appear on websites and such 'I earned $50,000,000 in 3 hours selling a little known secret left to me from a favorite aunt' type of thing" he said "I mean are these honest-and-for-true dollars that you ACTUALLY made?" I 'got' him now "Yes, they're real. They're not hype-marketing dollars" I replied.

"Good! We can't afford for hype and B.S to come into the test. If it's going to be a fair one, we need to accurately measure responses based purely upon the facts. No hype, no marketing crap, just a plain and simple assessment of whether or not the industry will take action or if they're too lazy to do so."

By this point I was getting a little frustrated and said "But I'm still not clear on what you want me to do!" I'm not ashamed to say that what came next, shocked,stunned and, well, terrified me. "Ok Pat, here's what I want you to do my friend... give it away." was the simple statement that got me.

I thought I'd misheard. "You want me to do WHATT??!!" "Give it away mate." he repeated. Now, for those of you that know me personally, you'll know that I'm a pretty calm, even, centered person, not given over to outbursts but I guess the shock, no,the utter stupidity of the idea just got to me. "Are you nuts??!! Why would I want to give away the very stuff that has already made me over $125,000 and is likely to make me even more in the next year or so.

You call this marketing?" "No Pat, I don't" he replied "I don't call this marketing at all. I call this walking your talk." "What do you mean?" I asked. "Pat, I've only known you for just over six months and in that time I like to think we've become pretty good friends. You've told me time and again what's wrong with the industry and you've told me time and again that 'something has to change' in order for it to grow right?" "Yes, but how it THIS change?" "I learned a long time ago that whenever someone says 'they ought to do something about that', that they use 'they' to mean someone other than themselves. In essence, they absolve themselves of the responsibility for change by creating a 'they' who, in some fictional world is responsible for the problem. We all do it from time to time, but some more than others." "Go on..." "Well, the 'they' in the eyes of the industry are us.

The very people who're writing the books, giving the talks and making the money. It stands to reason then that if the industry is going to change that it needs to start at the top and filter down" "But how does giving all my stuff away create the kind of change you're talking about?"

I asked "It doesn't sound like the kind of thing that's going to lead to action." "You're right, but remember our first aim here was to see if PT's were too lazy to take the action required to be successful. If you lower the hurdles to the floor and they still don't take action then you know that it's laziness and nothing else that's holding them up. At the very least, you can use what you learn to create a 'Too damned lazy to get off your ass' PT marketing guide" he joked. "But giving it all away, that's a big step Dax. I'm not sure what it'll actually achieve. Couldn't I just write a report and give that away?"

I asked. "C'mon Pat, that's not the way to grow... besides, I've got a plan!" He said cheerily. "You're not actually going to give it away for nothing."

"Oh, I got it, a sale!" I said, cheering up slightly myself.

"Oh no mate, not a sale. That'll serve no-one. That's just marketing. A money-making process. No, you're going to let them name their own price." I still can't believe it but I was stunned for the second time in 5 minutes. "Name their own price?? But some of these products are selling for hundreds of dollars! I can't just let people name their own price!"

"Can't, or won't?" he asked and brought me crashingdown to earth. "The truth of the matter is that you CAN let people name their own price my friend, it's just a case of WILL you? In essence, it's the same question we're asking the industry isn't it? WILL you take action on your success?

There's no 'can' or can't' about it is there? Every single trainer out there CAN, but will they?" So here I am at this point in the proceedings trying to actually 'walk my talk' and taking part in Dax's little experiment.

I've got to say that I'm more than a little uncomfortable with the idea and worried about what the outcome may be, yet at the same time I'm intrigued to find out whether Dax's assertion that most failure is merely a result of 'lazy thinking' is correct or not. But I guess there's only one way to find out and that's to take the leap right?

So here's what I'm going to do. For the next 48 hours I'm going to let my all of my subscribers email me directly at pat@fitnessconsultinggroup.com and name their own price for the entire bundle of products including:

Fitness Riches - the best selling book on the business of fitness of all time ($49).

The PT Business Action Plan - the same tools that we use with all of our coaching clients and in our own business ($49).

The Referral Manual - 23 referral systems that you can plug into your business today ($27).

There'll be no haggling, no bartering, no back and forth emailing, I'll (I still can't believe this) accept your 'bid' for the lot and send you the link for the downloads. Those who take action will be getting a bundle of tried and tested personal trainer success systems that are worth over $125 for whatever they feel is a fair price.

There's another cost too. I want you to include in your email EXACTLY how much you intend to make in the next 12 months as a result of USING (not just reading) what I send you.

Remember, this 'experiment' is about action, so it's important to me to know that those who get their hands on the materials will actually do something with what they read rather than sticking it on their shelf and forgetting about it. So that's it!

That's all there is to do. It's the lowest possible hurdle you could imagine really. Name your own price for an entire library of materials that have already helped over a thousand trainers around the world to generate new business and greater profits, send me an email with your bid and method of payment at pat@fitnessconsultinggroup.com before midnight on Saturday and I'll send you the whole lot for that exact sum, no haggling. Well, that's it.

That's all you have to do. But will you? We'll soon see! : )

Pat

P.S - Dax reckons that I won't get more than a handful of emails as everyone will be waiting for some kind of 'catch' or upsell or, well, something. There's none of that 'waiting in the wings'. Just send me the email, name your price and it's all yours.

P.P.S - I'll be reporting back on Monday to tell you whether Dax's 'Lazy Ass' theory was right or not...

Can You Handle The Truth?

2007-05-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

Apparently Dax's rant ruffled a few feathers as I had a handful of people unsubscribe yesterday and even a couple of nasty notes.

Obviously we've struck a nerve...so if you can handle it, read on...

********************

"Well, the way I see it, most PT's are in the same boat as most of the clients they're trying to attract. They 'kinda, sorta, maybe' know what they should be doing. They know what they should be doing. They know that to do these things makes sense and yet, well, they just don't do it.

And, in many respects, this wouldn't be the worst thing in the world except that they then turn hypocrite and charge the public for advice about taking positive action, making changes to their lives and adopting new, positive and empowering habits.

It's like taking money under false pretences."

"Wow, that's a pretty strong statement Dax. I'm not sure that the bulk of the PT industry would agree with you there" I said "In fact, I think that a good deal of them would be pretty upset and even offended by that."

"Yes, but that's just my point Pat" he replied "It's the BULK of the industry that get upset and offended all the time whenever anything remotely sounding like truth rears its 'ugly' head.

Yet you never hear the top guys in disagreement do you?

Why is that?" Dax asked.

"Well, I guess it's because statements like that don't apply to them" I answered "They're already achieving the things that most of the industry only dream of."

"Yes, but that's only part of the answer" Dax replied "the other half is that they're successful BECAUSE they're already doing the things they should be doing. They're successful because they're walking their talk and actually DOING the things that they write and talk about. There's no gap between word and deed.

I also think that those who're offended in any way by these kind of statements need to ask themselves 'why?' After all, if the comment doesn't apply to you because you know that you walk your talk, what's there to cause offence?'"

I couldn't help but agree with Dax's assessment of the situation. Certainly all of the really successful people I've been fortunate enough to know personally were all examples of Dax's 'walk the talk' idea. They all did the very things that they expected of their clients, their staff and their readers and, without fail, they were all VERY successful, and not just in PT but in every area of their lives.

"OK Dax, I agree with what you're saying but what can we actually DO about it? After all, you've already said that there are infinite books on the subject of success and on marketing, but if they've not worked to change people's attitudes to success then what do we need to do differently?" I asked.

"Well, the answer is both simple and complex at the same time" he answered.
"The simple part is that they need to take action. LOTS of action!

They need to take action to get into great shape themselves by following the nutrition and exercise plans they give their clients.

They need to take action to define their own excellence and stick to it, even when the going gets tough.

They need to take action to determine the purpose of not just their businesses but their lives too and then establish the habits that allow them to live their lives 'on purpose.'

They need to develop a fashion for passion and dedicate their lives to working in a field that they love rather than the one they think will bring about the most financial improvement.

They need to take action on learning new knowledge, skills and abilities and then testing what they've learned against the real world (NOT writing a book about it before they know what it'll do!)

But like I said, this is simple, but simple isn't always the same as easy. In fact, it rarely is.

And that's why most of the industry are stuck in limbo when it comes to their financial success, they are out of the habit of taking their own advice."

"So that brings us full circle again" I said "You were telling me that you had an idea about a 'lazy test' to find out if the industry were simply too lazy to bring about their success or whether there were other factors that were making their success harder to come by.

Want to spill the beans?" I asked, eager to find out what the answer would be.

"Well, it's a simple answer Pat, we need to give the industry something that we know 100% will work and then challenge them to bring it to life" said Dax.

I've got to admit, I was a little disappointed. Dax had built me up to this point and I was expecting nothing short of pure genius... and this wasn't it.

"Dax, I don't mean to be rude but I've been doing that for years. I've got ebooks galore, audio downloads etc that I've created for the industry and sold very effectively and to great profit. But you know as well as I do that the number of people who actually DO the things that I (and others) teach in our success books is only a very small percentage.

I don't see how selling more will change anything as far as PT's taking action is concerned" I added.

"You're right Pat, but I'm not talking about selling books and audios for profit, I'm talking about creating a 'ripple of intent' throughout the entire industry by getting them to take action and keep taking action until they're actually getting their own successes rather than reading about the successes of others."

"Sounds great!" I answered "But how?"

Dax actually started to laugh as he answered "You're not going to like it mate!"
*************************************************
I'll lat you in on what exactly Dax has in mind tomorrow...stay tuned.

Is it true? Are you too damned lazy for success?

2007-05-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

I've just been talking with my good friend Dax Moy over in the UK about what it is that makes some people a success in life while others seem condemned to make the same mistakes over and over again and rarely, if ever, get more than a rung or two up the ladder before dropping off of it and landing hard on their butts. Now, as a writer of one of the most successful goal achievement programs of 2007, I expected Dax to say something about having a lack of definite focus, a lack of vision, a lack of purpose or something equally goal oriented in nature but after only the briefest of pauses, he returned an answer that honestly shocked me.

"Pat," he said "the truth is that most people are simply too damned lazy to take action on the things that they know they must do in order to be successful. Instead of taking action, they wait, wait some more, let the opportunity pass them by and then bitch, whine and moan about the 'bad hand' that they've been dealt."

Now understand, Dax wasn't angry or bitter when he said this, the statement left his lips as matter-of-factly as if he'd said 'lovely weather today' and yet something about the statement really bothered me.

"Dax, I didn't take you for a cynic" I said "I thought you were about bringing out the best in people, helping them to set and achieve their goals and leading them to success!" "I am Pat, but that doesn't mean that a little straight-talking isn't called for. In fact, the more success a person desires, the more honesty they MUST expose themselves to... even if it hurts!

There's no B.S in success my friend."

Even as he said it, I knew what he was saying was true but I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to believe that laziness and laziness alone could stand at the heart of the problem that most of our industry was facing. "Maybe they just lack the knowledge" I said. "Rubbish mate" said Dax is his London accent "There's more readily useable information available on Amazon right now than has ever been available at any other time in history. You can learn all there is to know about assessments, programming, nutrition, injuries and yes, marketing too."

"Maybe they lack the skill" I said. "That's rubbish too Pat and you know it. Skill is merely a function of practice. If they actually practiced what they learn every once in a while they'd be rolling in money." "Maybe it's a lack of ability. Maybe some things are just too hard" I said, as my last feeble attempt to somehow fight the corner of those who were absent. "C'mon Pat, how hard is it really to be good at something you supposedly love?

How hard is it to generate passionate clients when you're passionate yourself?

How hard is it to put up a website, write a few articles, create the occasional press release? It's not!

In fact, these things are done numerous time a day by the guys in this industry who're considered successful. But they're not successful BECAUSE they do these things. They do these things BECAUSE they're successful!"

Of course, by this point I knew he was right and was content to quit arguing on behalf of the industry. It wasn't going to change the truth that Dax had just blasted me with, but it kind of left me a bit flat, which was not typical of the uplifting and positive conversations that he and I usually share.....

...Then Dax said something that put a little sparkle back into the conversation and really got me fired up again. He said "You know me Pat, I can be pretty blunt sometimes and pretty forward about speaking my mind, but I also believe that any good theory (even when they're mine) should stand up to a real-life 'acid test'before you buy into it. After all, we both know that the most damaging thing to success is falling in love with your own theories and making assumptions based upon your own beliefs right?" "Right..." I agreed "so what's on your mind?"

"Why don't we test this 'lazy failure' theory of mine and see if it holds up?" "OK" I answered "how?"

FREE Stuff

2007-04-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

That's the key to your marketing success.

It's that simple...give away free stuff and you'll make more money.

One of my friends spends a great deal of money on Pay Per Click ads but doesn't work hard to capture the traffic that the ads drive to him. Sure, he turns some of the visitors into paying clients - but how many of those prospects leave without him ever knowing they were there?

How many will click on his ads again and again, eating up his ad budget when he could have been building rapport with them for free by getting them to subscribe to his newsletter?

He needs to give away something of significant value to the prospect for free to capture them as a lead.

OK - simple enough you say. Everyone does that.

Apparently not.

Let's take it another step further.

My favorite way to sell personal training...free sessions.

I can already hear the 'doctors don't give away their services for free' comments coming my way.

Save your breath...it's a bad argument.

The highest paid doctors in the U.S. are cosmetic surgeons in Beverly Hills and guess what...they give free consultations:)

But let's be honest...I would assume that pretty much everyone has been to a doctor...you know what to expect.

What % of people have worked with a personal trainer?

Let's see...about 14% of the people in the U.S. belong to a fitness facility and only about 3% of the members of fitness facilities utilize a personal trainer.

I'm not very good at math, but I'm pretty sure that's less than .5%.

So we expect people to pay in advance and assume all the risk for something that they likely have zero experience with...and are unwilling to let them test drive it.

No wonder most trainers are poor.

We let every prospect have a free 'test drive'...not just prospective training clients, but also prospective gym members. I wouldn't expect anyone to agree to a 12 month commitment without trying it out first. (Yes, most all of our clients make 12 month commitments.)

If you want to dramatically improve the response rates of your ads, marketing pieces, seminars and anything else you do to generate business - offer a free trial. I suspect you'll be rewarded with response rates that double or triple what you're used to. And if you can deliver on what you promise in the ads - you should have no problem turning these 'test drives' into paying clients.

Using PR To Generate Business

2007-03-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Public Relations as a marketing strategy can take the form of writing articles or columns for local newspapers, magazines, websites, offering an advice column, being a content expert for the media; television, radio or newspaper interviews, writing a press release, or having stories published about your clients and how you helped them.

Public Relations can be great for building credibility and prospect awareness, but generally does not result in an immediate surge of sales. The major benefit of PR is that it positions you a recognized expert and creates awareness of you and your services.

Getting press coverage for your business just for the sake of seeing your name in print is a complete waste of time. Public relations should be an integrated part of your overall marketing strategy.

As a fitness professional, the easiest way to get media coverage is to start locally with your neighborhood or regional newspaper. It’s easier to get your message heard by them then the national press also they are always looking for good stories about local business owners. Getting local coverage can lead to larger coverage. Also, don’t forget local newsletters and similar publications. They are generally much easier to get into and can help set you apart as a recognized expert.

When you pitch a story have an angle. Ask yourself, why is my story newsworthy? What's different about my service or my business that goes against the norm? Don’t try to use the reporter as your sales person. They hate a slick sales pitch. If you simply want to sell your services - buy an ad.

A great way to go about this is to piggyback current events or to make your pitch about one of your clients and how you have helped them. Make your client the subject of the story. This approach has the added benefit of giving you a client for life. Like I said - whenever possible, try to tie it into a national event or trend.

When you get press coverage be sure to leverage it.

Here are 6 ways you can leverage the press you get for maximum effect:

1. Send out a press release when your article or interview comes out.
2. Create a press kit that includes your bio, company overview, services offered, and all the interviews or articles you have done.
3. Put your press kit on your website by making it electronic.
4. Get reprints of your article and send it to your prospects as part of their direct mail package.
5. Send your press coverage to your local chamber of commerce if you belong. They are always looking for good stories about their members to print up in their newsletters.
6. Use your coverage to land speaking engagements. Send a reprint of your article to pertinent meeting planners and associations you want to speak at then follow up with a phone call to pitch your presentation.

If you want even more advice on how to grow your business through publicity, check out Jim Lbadie's Ultimate Publicity Kit at http://www.howtogetmorepublicity.com/ as I've just scratched the surface here.

Later.

The 6 Stage Sales Cycle For Fitness Professionals

2007-03-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

Stage 1- Identifying your ideal target market. Decide exactly who you are trying to reach with your marketing message. Most fitness professionals are to broad when they are trying to identify their market and in turn their message is not specific enough to have great impact.

Stage 2 - Lead generation—finding prospects in your target market.
There are several kinds of marketing activities you can do to assist in this process including:

Direct mailings
Presenting to area associations in your target market
Public relations
PPC Ads
Joint Ventures

Stage 3 - Prospect qualification—examining each of the potential prospects and qualifying them according to set criteria. One of the marketing efforts you can use at this stage is to make them fill something out—whether that’s an information request form, intake form, or requesting a free report.

Stage 4 - Individual consultation or assessment - where they have proven at some level they are a qualified prospect and they get to meet with you and have an individual consult or assessment—which is usually a soft sales presentation to determine if there is a good fit. Finding the prospect’s pain through questioning, identifying needs through an assessment, building value through a trial session and providing credibility with marketing materials like articles about you in the press or testimonials can develop value in your services and increase the level of confidence your prospect has in doing business with you.

Stage 5 - Sales Close – Offering your services to the client and asking them to take action. Steering clients to one or two options, assuming the sale and employing a ‘takeaway approach’ by telling the prospect that your service is not for everyone and might not be right for them unless they are genuinely serious are all effective ways to close more prospective clients.

Stage 6 - Providing the service. Once you land a client that’s just the beginning of the relationship, not the end. You always want to have an upsell, a next step. Use your ongoing marketing efforts to tell them about how you have helped other clients with different kinds of offerings. Keep them informed about your successes and media attention. Ask them for referrals on a regular basis. Don’t ever stop marketing to them.

The most expensive thing you can have is a short term client because it takes 6 times as much to find a new client than to service an existing one.

Would you like to be wealthy?

2007-03-12T08:52:00.001-07:00

A few things to think about if you want to become wealthy:

Working 50 hours a week, if you want to make $100,000 a year, your ‘work hours’ need to be worth $40.

To earn $150,000, they need to be worth $60.

To earn $200,000, they need to be worth $80.

That’s not your per session rate – that’s what every working hour must yield. So, perhaps now is the time to start delegating some of that $7.00 / hr. work, huh?

On a related note, here are the top 20 millionaire’s success factors according to the book The Millionaire Mind, by Thomas Stanley, Ph.D.

Millionaire’s Success Factors

Being honest with all people
Being well disciplined
Getting along with people
Having a supportive spouse
Working harder than most people
Loving your career / business
Having strong leadership qualities
Having a very competitive personality
Being very well organized
Having an ability to sell
Making wise investments
Seeing opportunities others do not see
Being your own boss
Willing to take financial risks given the right return
Having good mentors
Having the urge to be well respected
Investing in your own business
Finding a profitable niche
Having extraordinary energy
Being physically fit

Look that list over and see what areas you consider yourself strong in and what areas need the most improvement. I certainly am.

Articles for you to check out...

2007-03-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Just had an article run in Fitness Business Pro you might want to check out. You can see it at:

http://fitnessbusinesspro.com/stepbystep/personaltraining/supersize-fitness-business-rigsby/

Check out the Step-By-Step: Personal Training archives, lots of good stuff from Jim Labadie and myself.

Later.

"I just don't think..."

2007-03-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had someone tell you that you can't do something? That you should just 'settle' for something less than your goal? That what you want is beyond reach or unrealistic?

Happens all the time. People try to steal your dreams away.

This weekend I got a quick reminder of how much someone can accomplish if they ignore the naysayers.

I and my wife Holly went to the Arnold Classic with Nick Berry and his fiance' (yep - he's getting married. Bet there are hearts breaking worldwide over that.) The event was cool, but a couple of people stood out to me.

Arnold Schwarzenegger - amazing. Here's a guy who came from tiny Austria, a country with a population of a little more than 8 million (which makes it about 2/3 the size of Ohio) in central Europe. He left bodybuilding at age 28 (though he did have a comeback 5 years later) as the greatest bodybuilder the sport had ever seen. Most people would consider that a lifetime worth of achievement. But that was just the beginning...

When he decided to embark on an acting career, he was repeatedly told he didn't stand a chance because of his thick accent, unpronouncable last name and overly large muscles.

Seemed to work out ok.

He then jumped into the political arena, and despite having no political background and being a Republican in a predominantly Democratic state - won the governor's office by a decided margin.

He's estimated to have a net worth of over 800 million dollars and made his first million before the age of 30...long before the acting riches started rolling in.

He also married a Kennedy.

Not too bad for a guy that could barely speak english when he came to the U.S.

And the other inspirational figure on the trip:

Randy Couture - 43 years old. Damn. He pretty much manhandled a guy 13 years younger, 40 lbs heavier, 6 inches taller with a much better record to regain the UFC's Heavyweight Title.

While the whole arena and probably 90% of those watching on Pay Per View were rooting for Courture to beat Tim Silvia - most all of them were hoping rather than expecting a Courture victory. What ensued was a Rocky-like performance that evoked cheers in the BW 3's we watched from that are typically reserved for Superbowls or Ohio State - Michigan games.

Regardless of your opinion of Arnold, Bodybuilding, Politics, Randy Courture or the UFC - these two guys both ignored the naysayers and overcame long odds to climb to the tops of their respective fields. They both reminded me that achieving your goals - regardless of how lofty - is simply a matter of staing the course and ignoring the naysayers.

What's standing in your way?

On a side note - We watched A.J. Roberts barely miss a 1003 lb squat Sunday morning. He's only 21...can you imagine what A.J.'s going to accomplish by the time he's 30? He has a new product coming out tomorrow - Ultimate Program Design - where he shares expert interviews with about a dozen of the industry's elite strength coaches as well as his own expertise. It's going to be a must addition to your library.

Time is Your Most Valuable Asset

2007-02-26T06:24:00.000-08:00

If you spend every cent you have you can go train someone and earn more money. In this sense the amount of money we can have access-to is infinite. Unfortunately, we all have a finite amount of time on this earth. If we waste a minute, we have lost it forever.

While this may seem intuitively obvious, amongst the fitness professionals I meet, this one simple principle is the most important yet underappreciated principle of business. Let me describe one conversation that I had with someone inquiring about business coaching that is representative of conversations I have had time and time again with different fitness professionals. We will call the fitness pro Jeff.

Pat: Tell me how your business is performing relative to your goals.

Jeff: Well we are doing OK but I know we can do better.

Pat: If you know what to do, what is keeping you from doing it?

Jeff: I always get interrupted and I can never find the time to work on new projects or grow my business.

Pat: Is your business profitable?

Jeff: Yes it is. But I know I could easily do better.

Pat: How much would you like to make in the next twelve months?

Jeff: After all expenses $150,000.

Pat: Do you believe that this is a realistic objective?

Jeff: Absolutely.

Pat: How many hours a week would you like to work?

Jeff: 50 hours per week and I would like to take 5 weeks vacation (including holidays).

Pat: So Jeff, that means you would like your business to earn about $64 for every hour that you work. ($150,000/(50 hours x 47 weeks)).

After an examination of Jeff’s workweek, it was obvious that he was involved in a number of activities that were not worth $64 per hour. If Jeff spends 35% of his time working on tasks that could be handled by a $15/hour employee he is either going to have to work a lot more hours than he wants to, or he is going to have to get his business earning more like $90 per hour for the balance of the time he works.

Now, I am quick to advise fitness pros to be careful with how they spend money. But Jeff’s penny pinching was not in his best interest. Jeff was trying to save paying an assistant (about $12,000 per year). But, by trying to save money it was costing him considerably more. He was not having fun and he could have been implementing changes that would yield him more like $50,000 in additional profit (4 times what he thought he was saving).

As a fitness professional, the most important decision you make is what you spend your time doing. Fitness pros that I meet who work too many hours and do not make as much as they want, often treat their time very causally. Typically, they do not plan their day and tend to be reactive. Often they do not even keep a schedule outside of their sessions.

Rarely can they tell you how they actually spent their non-training time.

Conversely, successful fitness pros plan and track their days and their week as carefully as they spend their money.

I recommend that you emulate the successful fitness pros. Think about what will give you the best long term ROI [Return On Investment] for your time. Do not be distracted by saving a few short-term dollars if you have an opportunity to create something that will generate returns for you year after year.

If you want to really maximize the value of your time, check out:

http://www.fitnessbusinessrevolution.com

The Foundation For Success

2007-02-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

A while back I began talking to one of the sharpest guys in the industry, Jeremy Boone, about
how our thinking patters ultimately dictate our success (or failure.) I'm going to share
an interview I did with Jeremy as well as an opportunity to take the same test that I, Alwyn
Cosgrove, Craig Ballantyne, Kelli Calabreese and countless others took to help set the stage
for us to be successful.

You can check the interview out at:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/boone.html

And if you're really interested in seeing 'why you do what you do' and how you can use that information to become more successful, more fulfilled and have a more lucrative business - you owe it to yourself to take the Mindscan at:

http://www.everydaychampion.com/mindscanrigsby.htm

Talk to you later.

P.S. - Did you know that you'll be able to see Alwyn Cosgrove, Bill Hartman, Charles Staley, Chad Waterbury and a host of other extraordinarily smart fitness pros at J.P.'s Summit in April? If so, why didn't you tell me? If not, I'll have more information soon - as this seems like it will be one of the few 'must attend' events for successful fitness pros.

Marketing ROI Formula

2007-02-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a simple form you can use (actually you can cut and paste into a form) to see what your return on investment is for any marketing piece or tool you use.

Date:

Marketing or Advertisement:

Offer:

Media:

Insertion date:

Cost to produce ad or piece:

Cost to run ad (if additional):

Total ad cost:

Profit expected for each sale:

No of sales to breakeven:

No of enquiries from ad or piece:

No of sales from ad:

Return on investment – (No of sales from ad x profit from each sale – total ad cost):

Return on investment divided by total ad cost x 100: (% ROI)

This can work for ads, mailings, referral cards - anything you product and can track. You'll quickly get a picture of what works and what doesn't.

Direct Response Marketing Concepts for Fitness Pros

2007-02-15T06:13:00.000-08:00

There are several key concepts that fitness professional must focus on to become an effective direct response marketer:

1. Targeting your audience
2. Responsiveness of the audience
3. Cost per response
4. Cost per new client acquisition

Let's start with targeting:

Geographic

For most studios we are typically focused on a three to five mile radius from your facility. The reality is that many factors influence how far someone is willing to drive on a regular basis to your studio.

Some of these factors include:

1. Whether you are in a rural or suburban or urban environment.
Generally the denser the population, the busier the traffic, and the more choices available the less distance someone is likely to drive. This computation is further complicated by factors such as whether someone is traveling into or away from the city center to get to your location. Whether you are dealing with youth in sports training or adults as clients, and the general characteristics of your area.

2. Psychological barriers such as rivers or interstate freeways. People tend not to cross major barriers such as these.

3. Ease of access and familiarity of location. If you are in a familiar retail area with recognizable land marks clients will likely drive further than in an unfamiliar or hidden area.

Example:

For our private club we get a heavy pull from quite a ways east - which is actually heading into another small town. Much less distance pull from the south and east towards the city center (people are less likely to drive away from the central urban area for services).

We have natural barriers to the north of us – the Ohio River. In our marketing efforts – my results improve substantially if I can focus on the more responsive areas.
Once you have figured out the likely willingness to drive to your area - almost all of your marketing efforts should be focused on targeted prospects within those geographic areas.

Age

Really think about who your business draws currently. You usually are better off to target what you've got - obviously that category of people like what you have to offer - than target what you want.

If you have a heavy sports training clientele it may be smarter to try to find more of the same than to attempt for example to attract adult executives. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't from time to time broaden or expand your market – but these changes really start from within first.
Again, It is often most profitable to expand within a successful niche than to attempt to be all things to all people.

Income

What is the average median income of the clients who you appeal to?
Really look at your existing clientele and figure out who you appeal to and expand upon that.

Psychographics

Can you narrow down some common characteristics of your clients.
What other activities do they participate in. What community organizations do they belong to? What are their occupations?
What is their common educational background? Any demographic or psychographic predisposition that you can narrow in on will help you attract that type of client with your other marketing efforts.

Starting from Scratch

You may be tempted to go the other way and say to yourself - who would I ideally like to attract? There is nothing wrong with that approach except the following reality:

Whatever you are attracting now - indicates who you appeal to most easily. Do you have a generally median income clientele that train at your off the beaten path studio? If that's
so - before making a major push for higher income clients you'd better look at your facility, your location, your service, and your business structure. No matter how much you want to appeal to a given clientele - it will do you no good unless you really have every aspect congruent with your desires.

Bigger Isn't Always Better

2007-02-13T05:24:00.000-08:00

Most fitness professionals believe that the bigger the business, the more money they’ll make. More clients equals more profits and a bigger staff results in a bigger paycheck.
The reality is more staff, more clients and bigger business might result in more gross revenue – but it doesn’t necessarily equate to more profits.

You might find out that you can gross $30,000 in a month – and still not make any money after all the staff, landlords, advertisers, and insurance bills are paid. If you have a business running nicely with two full-time trainers and you add another full time -
with no other changes - everyone just has 1/3 fewer clients!

If you have a high profit studio running in 1000 square feet - and you add 2000 square feet to ‘grow’ - with no other changes - you know what happens? You have the same number of clients with three times the rent.

Make no mistake - everything else being the same - a higher gross revenue is better than a lower gross revenue - it's just that revenue doesn't equal profits and, size does not equal success.

Anytime you make a decision to increase your square footage, add a trainer, or upgrade your facilities - make sure you have all the steps in place to make sure that these changes effect not only the revenue but also effect the net. In fact, if you figure that bigger facility, more trainers, or new equipment will just add enough to your gross to pay for the extra expenses – don’t do it. Bigger is almost by definition - more complicated, risky, and difficult to manage.

Instead, focus on maximizing every asset you currently have. Try to earn more profit per square foot, per trainer and per client. Look for way to enhance the lifetime value of your clients and leverage you existing resources. Only after you’ve done everything you can with what you currently have should you consider expanding.

How Long Is Your Shadow?

2007-02-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

I must admit -the title and part of the basis for this post came from Roy Williams, a.k.a. The Wizard of Ads. Mr. Williams is arguably the most prolific advertising expert in the world today. He also has a keen understanding of human nature (helpful in advertising) and something he once wrote prompted me to talk to you about 'your shadow.'

If you're lime many fitness professional's , your business thrives and grows until it reaches the length of your shadow. Then the problems arise. Longer hours, no vacations, less time with family, constant e-mails and phone calls just to keep up with the monster that your business has become.

So you consider hiring trainers to help alleviate the workload but you're convinced that no one can do the job as well as you can. Finally you give in and hire someone and pass them a couple of clients. They 'drop the ball' on collecting a payment or updating a program and you lose the client. You try to train train the new trainer as to how things should be done - but it's always just come naturally to you. Finally you just throw in the towel and decide it's just easier to do everything yourself.

You don't own your business. Your business owns you.

My dad has a business like this. Even though he has a couple of employees, if he wants to take a vacation - he closes the doors and accepts that he'll make no money while he's gone. He's good at what he does...so much so that the business relies on him constantly delivering the service.

It doesn't have to be that way.

If you start systematizing your business today by document each and every step you take to do what it is that you do - before long you'll have a detailed map someone else can follow to deliver the same results that you do.

Then you can take a vacation.

If you want to learn how to completely systematize your business, you need to check out Alwyn Cosgrove and my new product at http://www.fitnessbusinessrevolution.com. You'll soon have your business automated to the point that you'll barely remember the days of training clients at 5:30 in the morning and 7:30 at night.

Think BIG, Start Small

2007-01-29T15:21:00.000-08:00

"Anything worth doing is worth doing well."

That's how the phrase goes, right?

My take on it is a little different, here goes:

"Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly."

Huh?

Rarely is someone great at something the first time they try it. But, the ones who become great are willing to start where they are and invest the sweat equity necessary to do it well.

So if you're going to dream big dreams, be willing to put your ego aside and start small.

If you want to be a great public speaker, go speak to a small social group for free.

If you want to write articles for magazines or have a book in Barnes & Noble, start writing and submit articles to e-zines or print off a few copies of your book at http://www.lulu.com and pass them out to anyone who will read them.

If you want to start training athletes - train some for free until you've proven that you can get results.

Do the things that are within your power to do - and do them NOW.

Don't sit around and wait for your big break - it's not going to find you.

You have to find it.

Side note: The reason I wrote about this was that someone I was talking to today suggested to me that they were just waiting for their "big break" like the one that I got. We were talking about goals - what their's were and what mine was. Strangely enough, our goals were similar and we set them at similar times. But I got the "big break" of moving to a town of 23,000 that I had never been to before in arguably the most fitness-unfriendly state in the country to start a business with only about $1500. Add to this that I never had owned a business and most of my professional expertise was in training athletes or coaching baseball. Needless to say that this wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I was envisioning my 'big break' on the path to my goal of being a millionaire doing what I enjoyed. (Yep - that was my goal when I decided to leave coaching). Not there just yet - but my 'big break in disguise' led to countless other opportunities and a thriving business that has laid the foundation for me to achieve my initial goal. (There are different goals now - but I won't bore you with those.)

Thoughts About Cutting Costs and Increasing Margins

2007-01-26T05:54:00.000-08:00

This morning my partner Nick sent me over an e-mail letting me know we were going to be able to save $638 dollars on our yearly insurance premium for the coverage. I don't talk much about the cutting costs side of business because typically Nick handles that side of the business.

Pat = Incomings
Nick = Outgoings

But this is one of the real neglected areas in our industry. We all like to talk about making $75 or $100 dollars an hour - but what do we actually net? That's a crucial question because net is a helluva lot more important than gross. So here are a few points to think about when your trying to cut costs and increase margings:

1. Get your bills checked. Take nothing for granted. We just received a refund from a company that had been overcharging us $25 per month.

2. Test everything. If you are sending a mail piece, test it in small #'s first.

3. Before every business purchase say to yourself: 'Do I really need this?' 'Do I need it now?'

4. Negotiate everything. I ordered a direct mail piece recently and the starting price was $0.41 per piece - we ended out paying $0.32.

5. Lower dollars tied up in inventory if you carry retail.

6. Know what you're willing to spend before any transaction. Walk away if you can't get your terms.

7. Think of every cost as a percentage of sales. Know what it costs to run your business each week / month. Know how many sales it will take to cover expenses.

8. If you have employees - commission compensation is best.

9. Get a better accountant.

10. Stop doing low return activities. Here are 2 steps:

Step 1 - Track EVERY hour you spend working on your business for a week. Not just time spent with clients. Time spent marketing, paying bills, writing programs, etc. Now divide your week's income by that number of hours. This is your true hourly rate.

Humbling huh?

Step 2 - Put a sign on your wall with your desired hourly rate. Every time you start a task, are talking on the phone or surfing the net - look at the sign. Is what you're doing paying you that rate? If not, outsource it or eliminate it.

11. Raise your prices - the easiest way to increase margins.

12. Set monthly expenditure budgets. Now try to get more each month for that amount.

Just something for you to consider. We go into more detail on that and every other part of running a successful fitness business on the new product. You can check it out at:

http://www.fitnessbusinessrevolution.com

Later.

More Randoms Thoughts...

2007-01-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

Since I've been going between working on putting the finishing touches on the training curriculum for Prograde Nutrition, developing a new marketing campaign for our health club, brainsotrming a new coaching program with Dax Moy and working with several business coaching clients this week - I'm really working through all aspects of enhancing a business' profitability. Yesterday I shared some stray thoughts about getiing prospects and turning them into clients.

Today I'm going to continue down the same path and share some ideas for making more from each client.

35. Give better service
36. Underpromise and Overdeliver
37. Stay in regular contact outside of normal sessions
38. Add complimentary services - nutrition, massage, etc.
39. Add complimentary product - supplements, foam rollers, etc
40. Use loger term contracts - we use 3, 6 and 12 month...but over 80% are 12 month
41. Keep alot of client data - b-day, anniversary, kids names, hobbies, etc.
42. Schedule the next appt. today
43. Send a weekly e-mail newsletter
44. Send a monthly or quarterly snail mail newsletter
45. Thank you cards - we'll soon be up to sending over 800 cards monthly...AUTOMATED
46. Postpurchase reasurrance - see #45 and also make phone calls
47. Direct mail for special offers or new services
48. Run a "Body for Life-like' contest and offer a special upgraded package for the duration
49. Sell consumables - supplements need to be re-purchased again - DVD's and foam rollers don't
50. Raise your prices
51. Have a scripted up-sell at the initial point of sale
52. Have scripted up-sells at specific point during the clients program
53. Use automated billing
54. Suggest the most expensive program first

There are some more starting points for you to brainstorm and develop ways to improve your business. Back to work:)

34 Random Thoughts About Marketing and Sales

2007-01-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

I've been moving between 3 seperate projects today and my mind is bouncing from one thought to the next, so I thought I'd share.

Generating Leads

Newspaper Ads

1. Get on the right hand page
2. Don't use your business name in the headline
3. A good headline makes (or breaks) your ad
4. Negotiate on ad price - they WILL negotiate
5. Have a call to action

Direct Mail

6. A good headline makes (or breaks) your mailing - sound familiar
7. The first paragraph has to be great to get the prospect to continue reading
8. The P.S. is the next most important component of a successful letter
9. Test, test, test
10. A mailing to your house list is best, and endorsed mailing second best and a targeted list form InfoUSA or a similar list broker third.
11. Have a call to action - sound familiar again

Strategic Allainces

12. Don't be afraid to ask
13. Create a win/win situation
14. Only work with people that have the right customer base, run a business that you feel comfortable associating yourself with and aren't assholes.

Referrals

15. Earn the referral
16. Ask for the referral
17. Reward the referring action
18. Reward the referral again when the referred prospect buys
19. Remember how much it would cost to acquire a new client through advertising when rewarding a referrer

Conversion Rates - Turning Prospects Into Clients

20. Offer a guarantee
21. Have a USP
22. Have more than one type of offering - Semi-private, bootcamps and group weight management all can help you convert more prospects
23. Make it easy to buy - use EFT billing so payments can be spread out
24. Have plenty of testimonials handy - social proof is crucial
25. Try before you buy - as opposed to what some people think, free sessions are a great idea. If your average package is $1000, wouldn't you expect someone to want to know what they're spending a thousand bucks on?
26. Use a sales script
27. Test different sales presentations - we changed 1 step and increased our average transaction buy $400.
28. Spend more time listening than talking
29. As Jim Labadie says...find their pain
30. Educate on value, not price
31. Don't be afraid to ask for the sale
32. Don't be afraid to ask for a BIG sale
33. Target better prospects
34. Track everything - close rates, avg. deal size, etc.

I'll post some other ideas tomorrow.

Random Stuff...

2007-01-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

Lots of things going on right now - some of which I'm a part of and some of which I'm just excited to see launch. Here's a rundown:

The Ultimate Fitness Professional's Business Success System - Alwyn Cosgrove and I teamed up to develop the most comprehensive guide to developing a success business as a fitness professional that the industry has ever seen. In the past, plenty of folks have done marketing products, sales products and products on virtually any other specific aspect of the business of fitness - but no one ever put together a complete systematic approach to developing and running a successful and lucrative business as a fitness pro. During the Ryan Lee Bootcamp Alwyn and I discussed this at length and worked through what the 'ultimate resource' might contain. Then we had my partner Nick Berry interview us about everything we came up with.

I buy EVERYTHING about the business of training - and I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure this is the best resource you can get when it comes to developing a successful training business. Check out more about it at: http://www.fitnessbusinessrevolution.com.

Workout Pass - Leave it to Ryan Lee to come up with a fitness resource that will have a global impact. As I understand it, Ryan has developed a network of 43 different workout sites (that will eventually grow to a network of hundreds) where you can access workouts designed by some of the industry's best fitness pros. So far I know that Craig Ballantyne, Alwyn Cosgrove and Mike Boyle all will have sites where you can access their training programs.

The potential ramifications are huge for trainers and consumers both. Trainer will be able to see the actual workouts that some of the industry's best design - what an educational tool (I actually had some guy e-mail me and imply he wouldn't benefit from a resource like this...he didn't need to see someone else's workouts. Hope he moves to my town so I can put him out of business :)). Consumers will have a one-stop-shop for cutting edge training programs and access to the world's best trainers no matter where they are or what their budget is. If you want to see what I'm talking about, Ryan has put together a demo at:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/workout-pass-demo.html

Prograde Nutrition - Ryan Lee and Jim Labadie are launching a supplement company specifically with fitness professionals in mind. I, along with Nick Berry will be working with them and weight management expert Jayson Hunter on this massive project. You've probably heard me preach about autoship supplements as the perfect 'back-end' product for personal training and weight management / nutritional coaching as the best complimentary service to training services. Prograde Nutrition is built around those two premises and promises to be something ALL fitness professionals should consider integrating into their business. Nick and I will be handling the development and implementation of the fitness professional education & training. Jayson Hunter has put together a great special report on Weight Management you can pick up at: http://weightmanagementexperts.com/ that will help drive the points home that I've made about the value of Weight Management Programs.

Turbulence Training Membership Site - I attribute a lot of the success that our training business (we have about 500 clients in 2 locations) has delivering consistent results to clients to the information put out there by Craig Ballantyne and Alwyn Cosgrove. Most of our clients are 'fat loss clients' whose primary objective is to improve body composition and I consider these 2 guys to be the preeminent experts on training for fat loss. You might have read that Alwyn's Program Design Bible is not only what we based or company's training manual on, but also required reading for our staff. Well, Craig's Turbulence Training programs have a huge impact on what we do as well. His programs are extraordinarily well written, efficient and deliver great results consistently. When Craig puts out his monthly TT program - it's required reading for our entire staff as well. So when I saw that Craig was putting together a comprehensive membership site - I just started counting the days. Rest assured - my entire staff will be there bugging him on the forum with questions. I don't know any more about it than what I read on his blog, butu you can check out the site pre-launch at: http://ttmembers.com.

I just find it tremendously exciting watching (and sometimes being part of) fellow fitness professionals take action and make things happen. Hopefully you use this as fuel to help drive you to achieveing your goals.

There is plenty more going on, but I have to go for now. I'll be back tomorrow with some marketing stuff you can use. Later.

A Great Point

2007-01-17T06:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my friend Eric Ruth sent out an e-mail that really illustrated (he’s an extraordinary writer) the point that Nick and I have been preaching on for soooooooooo long:

Success lies in your systems.

Read just a bit of what he wrote:

Want to know what that BIG secret is?

It's not copywriting.
It's not direct mail.
It's not lead generation.
It's not the internet.
It's not email.
It's not public speaking.
It's not strategic alliances.
It's not advertising.
It's not publicity.
It's not selling.
It's not information products.
It's not developing your back-end.
It's not referrals.
It's not continuity programs.
It's not tracking and measuring.

It's not even building a big LIST.

None of those, individually or collectively, is the BIG secret.

I'll tell you what it is on one condition...

You need to listen to it now...and HEAR it now...

This will be the most eye-opening thing you'll hear all year, so pay careful attention. Write this down and meditate on it a while if necessary.
Seriously, let this sink in...HEAR IT...

It's not about tactical marketing, it IS about "the systemization & management of marketing."

Listen to me carefully: tactical marketing is easy. Anyone can do it.

The problem is learning how to implement all of the components of marketing into one day-by-day WORKABLE PLAN.

I don’t know if I could say it so eloquently – but I am in TOTAL AGREEMENT!

But I think you have to take it even a step further.

You have to implement a day-to-day workable plan for EVERY aspect of your business…not just marketing.

You need a system for lead generation.
You need a system for converting prospects into clients.
You need a system for maximizing the lifetime value of those clients.
You need a system for program design.
You need a system for the consistent delivery of great results for your clients.
You need a system to manage you ‘business numbers.’
You need systems for EVERYTHING that you do in your business.

Tomorrow at noon (EST) Alwyn Cosgrove and I will unveil the first resource EVER MADE AVAILABLE that teaches you to develop and implement all the necessary systems in your fitness business. For 48 hours you will be able to get this life-changing program for $197 – then the price goes up…a lot.

For those of you who are really ready to turn the corner and quit struggling, we are even going to do a live teleseminar to answer ALL your questions about how to develop and run a lucrative business as a fitness professional. We have reserved 100 lines for the first 100 fitness pros who TAKE ACTION. I strongly suspect that the lines will all be gone not long after noon, because the motivated folks who signed up for our early bird notification list will get a one hour head start.

If you want to be one of the lucky 100, today’s the last day to register for the early bird list at:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/business-roadblocks.html

Our industry has never seen a resource like this before…don’t miss out!

Behavioral Congruency

2007-01-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I was writing a special report for the upcoming launch of The Ultimate Fitness Professional’s Business Success System while periodically checking my e-mail. Somewhere toward the middle of the day Dax Moy sent over some sales copy he wanted me to review. Somewhere during our correspondence, I asked Dax what he thought most fitness pros we’re doing while we were working on a Sunday afternoon. I think he said watching TV.

That would be my guess too.

The same thought popped into my head yesterday (Sunday) while I was working on some new program design software we’re creating for our training company. “I wonder what everyone else is doing?”

Please understand – I think you should have some down time. Holly and I went to the movies yesterday and I watched part of both football games. But I have deadlines to complete projects and goals that I want to achieve. They aren’t going to happen on their own.

I have to make them happen.

Everyone thinks about being rich or achieving whatever they have defined as their “ultimate goal.” But thinking doesn’t get it done.

‘Doing’ is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful.

So here are two things I picked up from Dan Kennedy:

Make your behavior congruent with the behavior of people who are already achieving the goals that you want to achieve. Identify who they are, see how they spend their time and model them. If you want to achieve the success that Alwyn Cosgrove has achieved, don’t think that you can skip straight to writing books and articles without putting in the ‘in the trenches’ work training thousands of hours. You need to spend your time like he has in order to get where he is.

Make your behavior congruent with your goals. Don’t bullshit yourself and say “I’ll do it tomorrow.” If you want success, do ‘it’ today. Simply journal how you are spending your time and your money. Are they congruent with what you say your goals are?

If you want to make more money as a fitness professional are you:

Studying business every day?
Buying and listening to, watching or reading products?
Getting coaching and taking action on it?
Modeling those who have achieved what you want?

If you want to write a book or e-book are you:

Writing every morning?
Studying what Craig Ballantyne and Tom Venuto do?
Deciding where your starving market is?

Those are just a couple of examples but I hope you get the picture. If you only do things that move you closer to your goals when you feel like writing, have spare time or ‘it’s convenient’ – you’ll never get there. Get up earlier. Block off an hour during the day, spend a couple of hours in the early morning on weekends. Before long you’ll be reaping the rewards of your efforts.

P.S. – One other exercise I started doing years ago that helped keep me on track was at the end of each day I marked off the day on a calendar and said “another day I’ll never get back – how did I spend it?” Maybe it’s corny, but it kept me from procrastinating.

Kekich's Credo Part IV

2007-01-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

The last installment:

76. "I will do this" is the only attitude that works. "I'll try" or "I think" doesn't work.

77. Always work on increasing the size of the pie, rather than just your portion.

78. Rewards are rare without risks, but take only carefully calculated risks. Make sure the odds are on your side.

79. The "how" you get it (with integrity) is more important than the "what".

80. Be explicit and semantically precise in all communications, agreements and dealings. Summarize and write down important discussions... and make sure all sides agree. Putting agreements in writing avoids misunderstandings. Memories are fallible, and death is inevitable (so far).

81. The best way to get started is to get started. Life rewards action... not reaction. Wait for nothing. Attack life. Don't plan to death or ask for permission... but act now... and apologize later.

82. Question everything. Don't believe it's true or right just because it's conventional. Strip all limits from your imagination on every deal and look for an unconventional creative opportunity in every mistake, crisis or problem. Be flexible, and be willing to turn on a dime when advantageous.

83. Have fun. The single key to a successful happy life is finding a vocation you enjoy - one that excites you the most.

84. Nobody gets old by surprise.

85. When it's a matter of producing or starving, people don't starve.

86. You get what you expect, not what you want. Fill your life with positive expectations. Demand the best. Attitude and desire contribute to 90% of your achievement. Anyone can learn the physical mechanics.

87. The surest way to accomplish your business goals is making service to others your primary goal. The key to success is adding value to others' lives.

88. The source of lasting happiness can never come from outside yourself through consuming values - but only from within yourself by creating values. Producing more than you consume is the only justification for existence.

89. Unattended problems will not go away, but will usually get worse. Anticipate and avoid problems - or meet them head on at the outset. Overcome fear by attacking it.

90. Find an excuse to laugh every chance you get, especially when you least feel like it.

91. When someone makes a big issue about his honesty or achievements, he is probably dishonest or a failure.

92. Put the magic power of compound interest to work with every available dollar.

93. The best investment you will ever make is your steady increase of knowledge. Invest in yourself. Thirty minutes of study per day eventually makes you an expert in any subject - but only if you apply that knowledge. Study alone is no substitute for experience. Education is always painfully slow.

94. For each important action you take, ask yourself if you would be embarrassed if it were published. It takes a lifetime of effort to build a good reputation but only a moment of stupidity to destroy it.

95. You are exactly what you believe and think about all day long. Constantly monitor your thoughts.

96. Skepticism is a key to rational thinking. Be especially skeptical of your own cherished beliefs. You might be wrong... and things change.

97. Anxiety is usually caused by lack of control, organization, preparation and action.

98. The first rule of sharpening your mind is to be an alert and sensitive observer. Assume nothing. If it can't be observed, it's not true. Never act on blind faith. Whenever something sounds too good to be true, it almost always is. Refuse to be swayed by emotion when it conflicts with reason. Observation is the genesis of all knowledge and progress... and is the first and last step of every thinking man's tool - The Scientific Method. All science and most progress is built on the Scientific Method (most non-scientists use it by accident). The steps are 1) OBSERVATION. Gathering and rationally organizing facts. This is where most people fail. 2) INDUCTIVE REASONING. Forming a hypothesis - or a generalization of facts held to be true. 3) EXTRAPOLATION. Making a projection or prediction based on the hypothesis in areas you didn't yet observe. 4) OBSERVATION. A test for the hypothesis to see if it works.

99. Experience is not what happens to you. It's what you do with what happens to you. It takes a wise man to learn from his own mistakes... and a genius to learn and profit from the mistakes and experiences of others.

100. The purpose of life is to delay, avoid and eventually reverse death.

Talk to you.

Kekich's CredoPart III

2007-01-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

Here are success secrets # 51-75:

51. Long term success is built on credibility and on establishing enduring loving relationships with quality people based on mutually earned trust. Cut all ties with dishonest, negative or lazy people, and associate with people who share your values. You become whom you associate with.

52. Don't be preoccupied with things over which you have no control, and don't take things personally.

53. Spend more time working "on" your business than "in" your business.

54. Don't enter into a business relationship with anyone unknown to you without being furnished with references dating back at least 10 years. If he doesn't have good enduring relationships, stay away. Check all representations on which you will rely made by everyone.

55. Enjoy life. Treat it as an adventure. Care passionately about the outcome, but keep it in perspective. Things are seldom as bleak as they seem when they are going wrong - or as good as they seem when they are going well. Lighten up. You'll live longer.

56. Identify exactly what it is you want. This takes a lot of thought. Then don't let anything stand in your way of getting it.

57. You can get any job done through the sheer force of will when combined with uncompromising integrity and competence. Strong leadership is the key.

58. You are responsible for exactly who, what and where you are in life. That will be just as true this time next year. Situations aren't important. How you react to them is. You have to play it where it lies.

59. The foundation of achievement is intense desire. The world's highest achievers have the highest levels of dissatisfaction. Those with the lowest levels are the failures. The best way to build desire is to make resolute choices for the future.

60. Integrate every aspect of your life (body, mind, spirit, relationships, business) and each within itself. Integrating means understanding and digesting a process... and seeing relationships among seemingly unrelated phenomena. It's a sign of innovative genius.

61. Never be deceptive when trying to achieve a personal gain. Shortchanging others results in loss of self-esteem.

62. If your purpose of life is security, you will be a failure. Security is the lowest form of happiness.

63. Never enter into a contract unless all parties benefit. But no partnership is ever 50/50. There will always be inequities.

64. Review the basics of your profession at least once per year.

65. Bitterness, jealousy and anger empower your enemies and enslave you. Negative thinking results in the destruction of property. It is anti-property, therefore anti-capitalistic and anti-life. It also erodes your health. Forgive, learn your lessons, and get on with your life.

66. Most people spend 90% of their time on what they're not best at and what they don't like doing - and only 10% of their time on their best and most enjoyable ability. Geniuses delegate the 90%... and spend all their time on their "unique ability".

67. High self-esteem can only come from moral productivity and achievement.

68. There are an infinite number of new opportunities. Actively seek them out, and position yourself to recognize and take advantage of them.

69. There is no such thing as a good idea unless it is developed and utilized.

70. For maximum profits, identify and market universal needs, wants and trends. Creating desire, satisfying needs and wants and replacing problems with creative innovations are the essence of profit generation.

71. To maximize opportunities, seek and master the complicated. The major solutions you find will be surprisingly simple, and the competition is minimal.

72. Always have options. Options are a primary source of power. Power also comes from stripping away appearances and seeing things as they really are.

73. Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.

74. Patience is profitable. Achievement comes from the sum of consistent small efforts, repeated daily.

75. Persistence is a sure path to success with quality activities. Never, ever, ever give up.

I'll be back with the final 25 tomorrow.

P.S. - Our buddy Allen Hill is offering web hosting to a select number of fitness professionals. Needless to say, we immediately switched all of our sites to using Allen's service...partially because he's giving everyone the first 3 months free :) I'm a sucker for a good deal.

If you're interested in cost-effective, high quality web hosting (and 3 months free) - check out his service at:

http://www.fitnesswebsitedesign.com/christmas-hosting.html

Later.

Kekich's Credo Part II

2007-01-07T07:51:00.000-08:00

Here are your next 25 success secrets:

26. Religiously nourish your body with proper nutrition, exercise, recreation, sleep and relaxation techniques.

27. The choice to exert integrated effort or to default to camouflaged laziness is the key choice that determines your character, competence and future. That critical choice must be made continually - throughout life. The most meaningful thing to live for is reaching your full potential.

28. Keep an active mind, and continue to grow intellectually. You either grow or regress. Nothing stands still.

29. Most accomplishment (and problem avoidance) is built on clear persuasive communication. That includes knowing each other's definitions, careful listening, thinking before talking, focused questioning and observing your feedback. Become a communications expert.

30. Power comes from stripping away appearances and seeing things as they really are. Socialismappeals to psychological and intellectual weaklings. Identify and replace all external authorities with internal strength and competence. Take full control of, and responsibility for, your conscious mind and every aspect of your life. Being incompetent or dependent in any part of your life or business opens you up to sloppiness, manipulation and irrationality.

31. If there is not a conscious struggle to be honest in difficult situations, you are probably being dishonest. Characters aren't really tested until things aren't going well or until the stakes are high.

32. Do not compromise if you are right. Hold your ground, show no fear, ask for what you want, and the opposition will usually agree.

33. If the situation is not right in the long term, walk away from it. Maintain a long term outlook in all endeavors. Live like you don't have much time left... but plan as if you'll live for centuries.

34. Invest only after strict and complete due diligence. Don't allow yourself to be rushed. Make important decisions carefully, consider your gut feelings... then pull the trigger.

35. Stress kills. No matter how painful in the short-term, remove all chronically stressful situations, environments and people from your life.

36. Keep your overhead to a minimum. Rely more on brains, wit and talent... and less on money.

37. Business is the highest evolution of consciousness and morality. The essences of business are: honesty, effort, responsibility, integration, creativity, objectivity, long-range planning, intensity, effectiveness, discipline, thought and control. Business is life on all levels at all times.

38. That which is most satisfying is that which is earned. Anything received free of charge is seldom valued. You can't get something for (from) nothing. The price is too high.

39. By adhering to a strong honest philosophy, you will remain guiltless, blameless, independent and maintain control over your life. Without a sound philosophy, your life will eventually crumble.

40. No dream is too big. It takes almost the same amount of time and energy to manage tiny projects or businesses as it does to manage massive ones... and the massive ones carry with them - proportional rewards.

41. There is no such thing as "just a little theft" or "just a little dishonesty".

42. Lead by example.

43. Take full responsibility for your actions or lack of action. He who errs must pay. This is
an easy concept to grasp from the recipient's end.

44. An hour of effective, precise, hard, disciplined - and integrated thinking can be worth a month of hard work. Thinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in business and in life. Empire builders spend hour-after-hour on mental work... while others party. If you're not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to exert self-guided integrated thinking... if you don't act beyond your feelings and instead take the path of least resistance, then you give in to laziness, make bad decisions and no longer control your life.

45. Out-think, out-innovate and out-hustle the competition, and vividly visualize yourself as winning before entering into every deal or competitive situation. Maintain a blood-smelling, fighter pilot life-or-death attitude when any deal gets near to a close.

46. First impressions are lasting impressions. Put your best foot forward. People treat you like you teach them to treat you. A success key is positioning yourself at the top of their agenda.

47. The right thing is usually not the easy thing to do. You may sacrifice popularity for rightness, but you'll lose self-esteem for wrongness. Don't be afraid to say "no".

48. If someone lies to you once, he'll lie to you a thousand times. Lying is for thieves and cowards.

49. Have strict and total respect for other people's property.

50. Producing results is more important than proving you're right. To get things done, try to understand others' frames of references, points of view, needs and wants. Then determine what is honest, fair, effective and rational... and act accordingly.

Back tomorrow with more.

P.S. - Go Buckeyes!!!!!!!

Kekich's Credo

2007-01-07T07:37:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite copywriters is a gentleman named Joe Polish. If you paid attention to the supplement industry in the early 90's you probably got some of Bill Phillips direct mail pieces, first for Met-RX and later for EAS. Well, Joe was the writer behind those pieces that pulled tens of millions. (You didn't think Bill wrote those all by himself, did you?)

A while back Joe shared a list of 100 success secrets that a friend of his by the name of David Kekich created. I keep a copy of this list and re-read it from time to time - so I thought I'd share it with you. Due to it's length, I'm going to break it up into four posts of 25 'success secrets' - with one post per day. So here is your first installment. Enjoy!

KEKICH'S CREDO

1. People will do almost anything to stay in their comfort zones. If you want to accomplish anything, get out of your comfort zone. Strive to increase order and discipline in your life. Discipline usually means doing the opposite of what you feel like doing. The easy roads to discipline are 1) setting deadlines, 2) discovering and doing what you do best and what's important and enjoyable to you and 3) focusing on habits by replacing your bad habits and thought patterns, one-by-one, over time, with good habits and thought patterns.

2. Cherish time, your most valuable resource. You can never make up the time you lose. It's the most important value for any productive happy individual and is the only limitation to all accomplishment. To waste time is to waste your life. The most important choices you'll ever make are how you use your time.

3. Think carefully before making any offers, commitments or promises, no matter how seemingly trivial. These are all contracts and must be honored. These also include self-resolutions.

4. Real regrets only come from not doing your best. All else is out of your control. You're measured by results only. Trade excuses and "trying" for results, and expect half-hearted results from half-hearted efforts. Do more than is expected of you. Life's easy when you live it the hard way... and hard if you try to live it the easy way.

5. Always show gratitude when earned, monetarily when possible.

6. Produce for wealth creation and accumulation. Invest profits for wealth preservation and growth. Produce more than you consume and save a minimum of 20% of all earnings. Pay yourself first.

7. You're successful when you like who and what you are. Success includes achievement… while choosing and directing your own activities. It means enjoying intimate relationships and loving what you do in life.

8. Learn from the giants.

9. A little caution avoids great regrets. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Keep fully insured physically and materially and keep hedged emotionally. Insurance is not for sale when you need it.

10. Learn the other side's needs, offer as little information as possible, never underestimate your opposition, and never show weakness when negotiating.

11. Never enter into nor invest in a business without a solid, well-researched and well thought-out written plan. Execute the plan with passion and precision. Plan and manage your life the same way.

12. Success comes quickly to those whom develop great powers of intense sustained concentration. The first rule is to get involved by asking focused questions.

13. Protect your downside. The upside will take care of itself. Cut your losses short - and let your profits run. This takes tremendous discipline.

14. The primary purpose of business is to create and keep customers. Marketing and innovation produce results. All other business functions are costs. Prospecting and increasing the average value and frequency of sales are the bedrock of marketing and business.

15. If it's not proprietary, it won't work. Pay only on performance. Proprietary interest is one of the most powerful forces ever known. Whatever you reinforce or reward, you get more of.

16. Competence starts with guaranteeing your work.

17. Life operates in reverse action to entropy. Therefore the universe is hostile to life. Progress is a continued effort to swim against the stream.

18. Find out what works, and then do more of it. Focus first on doing the right things, and then on doing things right by mastering details. A few basic moves produce most results and income.

19. Use leverage with ideas (the ability to generalize is the key to intellectual leverage), work, money, time and people. To maximize profits, replicate yourself. Earning potentials become geometric rather than linear.

20. Rationalizations are generally convenient evasions of reality and are used as excuses for dishonest behavior, mistakes and/or laziness.

21. Always have lofty explicit goals and visualize them intensely. Assume the attitude that if you don't reach your goals, you will literally die! This type of gun-to-your-head forced focus... survival pressure mindset, no matter how briefly used, stimulates your mind, forces you to use your time effectively... and illuminates new ways of getting things done.

22. The value of any service you have to offer diminishes rapidly once it's provided. Protect your compensation before performing.

23. Incalculable effort and hardship over countless generations evolved into the life, values and happiness we take for granted today. Every day should be a celebration of existence. You are a masterpiece of life and should feel and appreciate this all the way down to your bones. Aspire to create, achieve and build onto the great value momentum taking place all around you.

24. Enthusiasm covers many deficiencies - and will make others want to associate with you.

25. Working for someone else gives you little chance to make a fortune. By owning your own business, you only have to be good to become wealthy.

More tomorrow!

Are You Ready For 2007?

2006-12-31T16:53:00.000-08:00

Are you ready to make 2007 your best year ever?

Are you ready to help more people change their lives than in any year past?

Are you ready to grow your business to new heights?

Are you ready to share new experiences with your family?

Are you ready to step out of your comfort zone and make a reality of the things that you only dreamed about in the past?

Are you ready to 'walk the walk' instead of 'talk the talk'?

Yep - it's that time. Whether you believe in New Year's Resolutions or not - we're at the point in the year when people 'promise' themselves - and often others - that they are going to make changes in their patterns of action.

I'm all for it.

Maybe 3% of people actually do anything. Oh well. That's 3% that reached their 'tipping point' and took action to achieve their goals. Better 3% than 0%.

See - my perspective is that most motivation is temporary anyhow. As a fitness professional, hopefully I can help someone achieve some positive results and capitalize on the New Year's momentum to turn that into long term behavioral change. As a business coach it's the same. Getting a fitness professional to step out of their comfort zone is tough. Maybe that New Year's resolution will be enough to get them to step out and try a new approach. If I can show them some results, they're open to continuing to grow.

So I hope you do set some goals for the New Year. But more importantly - I hope you take action and perservere until you achieve them. My good friend Dax Moy wrote a great report to help you along, you can get a copy here:

http://www.themagichundred.com/liesreport.pdf

If you want an extraordinary example of people committed to making 2007 their best year ever, Jason Brown and Pam MacElree of Crossfit Philly (http://www.crossfitphilly.com) talked to Nick and I during the first week of December about their desire to grow their business. Instead of doing what most people do - talk about it, dream about it and do nothing about it - they asked us how quickly we could fit them in for a visit to Kentucky for a 'Complete Business Makeover.' We gave them a set of dates and they they bought their tickets immediately. While everyone else relaxed during the week between Christmas and New Years - Pam and Jason hopped a plane and came to FCG headquarters for 2 1/2 days of intensive work on their business. While everyone else was getting ready for their New Year's Eve celebration - Pam and Jason were flying home this afternoon ready to double their income in 2007.

What's truly great about this is that Pam and Jason are already in the top 1% of fitness professionals. This isn't just my biased opinion - I saw exactly what they earn and know their business. But as successful as they are - they want more.

And they'll get it.

Will you?

I hope so - and I hope I can help.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Liars

2006-12-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

My buddy Dax Moy sent me over a wonderful article about the New Year's resolution phenomenon and I was about to put it up on the blog and saw Alwyn already did.

It's a must read so check it out here:

http://www.alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/

I'll be back tomorrow with a final post for 2006.

Talk to you then!

Achieving Your Goals

2006-12-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a question for you:

Where do you want to be at the end of next year, and how will you get there? If you don't hesitate with your answer, I'll bet you'll reach it. If you can’t directly answer the questions – next year likely won’t be any different than this year. So let's break down the components in setting crystal-clear goals.

Big-picture objective. What is the ultimate goal?

Smaller objectives. What "checkpoints" do you have along the way to measure yourself? Where do you want to be at the end of next month, or next quarter?

Specific tactics you must implement. What will you do to reach the main and smaller objectives? What must you change personally in order to have a chance? How will you reward yourself when you reach it?

Can you answer these questions?

If you're serious about having your best year ever, I suggest you take some time to sit down with the following questions. Think about your answers. Challenge yourself. Write them down.

Then go to work!

What are you going to do to improve your fitness and business knowledge this year?

How many inactive clients will you revive? What do you need to do to make that happen?

What will you do to ensure you're protecting your best clients and adding more value to those
relationships? Can you attract even more of their business? How will you do that?

How many new clients will you bring on this year? How do you plan to do that, specifically?

What will you do to improve your physical health this year?

How much more money will you make this year? How will that happen? What will you need to do, today, to take the first steps in that direction?

What will you need to do to increase that number by an additional 10%?

What are you going to do every day to keep your attitude at a high level?

How much time are you going to spend, daily, to improve your own training and business skills?
What will you do?

How many referrals will you get this year? How will you get them? From whom? What will you do to turn them into new clients?

In which areas will you improve your personal, family, and spiritual life?

How are you going to maximize the use of your time? Where will you cut out the time-wasters in each day?

What have you been putting off that you will take care of within the next two weeks?

Who can you help to feel important every day?

What challenge, wish, or desire—that you've never attempted before—will you finally achieve this year? How will you do that? Why?

Where are you going to write all of this down so you can review and revise your plans regularly?
What will it look like when you accomplish everything you've just been thinking about? How good will it feel?

Why couldn't you do all of this?

Any answer to that last one is not a reason, but rather a self-imposed limitation, excuse, or lack of desire or effort. The biggest deterrent to success looks us in the mirror every day. Winning at anything, especially building a business, involves executing the fundamentals over and over.

If you want access to the best goal achievement system I've ever come across, go here:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/magichundred.html

6 Proven Tactics for Generating High-Quality Referrals

2006-12-19T08:45:00.000-08:00

The more comfortable clients are talking about you, what you do, and how you do it, the more persuasive they will be when recommending your services to friends and family. Use this game plan to make referrals a powerful part of your business-building strategy.

Referrals are the lifeblood of any successful training business. A steady stream of high-quality referrals is the best indicator of great service and ongoing client satisfaction. By contrast, sporadic, unqualified, or lukewarm referrals are an indicator of mediocrity. It may be mediocrity in your service, or it may be mediocrity in your referral strategy—that's for you to figure out.

The best way to secure a steady stream of high-quality referrals is simply to encourage your clients and your sphere of influence to become comfortable talking about you. Word-of-mouth endorsements are powerful. Listed below are 6 tactics for getting clients and friends to sing your praises to their friends, family, and business acquaintances. All of them will help you get to the point where your clients feel naturally inclined to bring up working with you when casual conversations turn to the topic of weight loss, fitness or health.

1. First things first. Before you even think about generating referrals, you must make sure you are referable. The best way to do that is simply to deliver on your promises. Once people remember that your word actually means something—that you do what you say and you say what you mean—they will tell others about it. This sets the foundation for future referrals.

2. Just ask. Sometimes even when a trainer is providing great service, they face another stumbling block to getting referrals: They don't ask for them. Asking is the simplest and the easiest way to get referrals, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. If you feel you simply need to get more systematic about how and when you ask, keep the following points in mind:

- One of the best times to ask for a referral is the moment a prospect becomes a client. This is a moment of maximum confidence in your abilities and your character.

- Ask for referrals throughout the relationship. Clients can sometimes forget about the importance of referrals—you can remind clients how they came aboard as the result of a referral.

- Remind clients how receiving high-quality referrals means you can spend more of your time serving their needs rather than marketing your services.

- Referrals require an enriched relationship. People need to feel a strong personal connection before they're comfortable giving referrals. So be a people person. Learn about the friends and family of your clients. For all of your contacts, get to know their interests, hobbies, and where and with whom they spend their leisure or business time.

3. Ask for testimonials. One subtle referral tactic is to ask for a testimonial instead of a referral. Once clients have written a testimonial for you, they should feel more comfortable talking about you with close friends and family. In fact, since you have a copy of what they're saying about you, it becomes easy to simply ask them to repeat those words to other like-minded people they come across.

4. Create a "network hub." One excellent way to generate more referrals is to target prospects who have the power to refer others. By targeting these "hubs" of larger professional networks, you leverage your referral efforts. Niche-market business owners, directors and board members of professional associations, corporate executives, fund raisers, local celebrities—all are natural communicators and are typically plugged in to their respective communities. Build a strong relationship with them and you have a natural introduction to all the people in their respective networks.

5. Articulate your uniqueness. It's one thing for clients to tell others that you're unique. It's quite another for them to be able to explain it quickly and persuasively. You can give your clients the tools they need by articulating your USP and educating your clients about it.

6. Build top-of-mind awareness. Referrals are a by-product of communication. Frequent, high-quality contact with your clients ensures their satisfaction and keeps you at the top of their minds. This in turn makes it that much easier for clients to refer you to friends and family. How often should you communicate with your clients outside of sessions? There is no hard and fast rule, but fitness pros that make calls to clients at least once a month and send ‘thank you’ cards will see instant referral improvement. You will also notice a jump in referral activity if you implement an additional monthly communication mailer such as an e-mail newsletter, snail mail newsletter, or event invitation.

If you want to turn your business into a referral generating machine, I can help. I wasn’t going to make The Referral Manual available until February because of a couple of other projects that we have in the works – but as part of the ’12 Days of Fitness’ promotion, I’ve agreed to make it available until the promotion is over. I haven’t put any snazzy graphics in it yet – just the profit producing information. So, until the ’12 Days’ ends, it will be available for only $17 instead of the future price of $29. You can get it at:

http://www.referralmanual.com/

But remember, when the promo ends, so does the offer and you’ll have to wait until February.

Happy Holidays!

Entrepreneurial ADD

2006-12-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

Most fitness professionals we encounter that consistently fall short of achieving their goals suffer from a debilitating disease…Entrepreneurial ADD. Since Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have failed to create a type of Ritalin specifically for fitness entrepreneurs, I’m going to help you understand this disease and how you can overcome it.

Understanding EADD

When I was younger there were guys that would come to the gym each week with a new ‘Best Mass Building Program Ever Created.’ Week One might be Lee Haney had all the answers, Week Two, Mike Mentzer’s High Intensity Training might be the solution. Week Three ‘Old School’ might be the way to go and Vince Gironda held the keys to success.

These guys would read every magazine they could get their hands on, always in search of the ‘quick fix’ to getting big and strong. So, in their never ending quest for the ‘perfect program’ they never saw any program through long enough to reap real benefit - and remained in the purgatory of 13 inch arms and 150 lb. squats until they finally just gave up. In the mean time all of us that weren’t ‘in the know’ and stuck with the basics – squats, deadlifts, rows and presses – and worried about getting stronger, never had any problem adding size or strength.

As I moved into the fitness industry I quickly saw that the same mindset was prevalent among trainers. They’d start project after project and never see any them through. The e-book would never get done. That great idea for a web site never became more than an idea.

‘Moving from one-on-one to semi-private seemed like a brilliant idea but then I decided to focus on my membership site and I put it on the back burner’ was something I heard from a fitness pro last week. So I asked how the membership site was doing. “I never finished it’ he said sheepishly.

Most fitness pros are afflicted by EADD. It’s only a select few that consistently finish what they start. No wonder there are so few truly successful fitness professionals.

A Case Study In EADD

I have an acquaintance – and he’s not a fitness professional, but he was a co-owner of a health club. Over the past two years I’ve seen this guy start 5 different businesses, all in separate industries.

Each time he’d run the idea for his business by me and show me all the research he’d done on his concept. Each time, I’d play ‘devil’s advocate’ and he’d refine his plan until it appeared sound. In every case I though he had ideas that not only would work, but in couple of instances I was downright jealous that I hadn’t thought of the concept myself. Any one of these businesses could have easy made this guy $100,000 a year, perhaps significantly more.

Each time he’d work his ass off to get the business started. He’d spend 16 hours a day and dump plenty of money into each venture. About the time the business became ready to market and really take off – 3 months or so, he’d lose interest and move on to the next ‘great idea.’ Sure, he could take action to get it started – but he was completely devoid of the persistence necessary to be a success. So, instead of making $100,000, $200,000 or even $300,000 a year by following through with any one of these businesses – he continues to ‘just get by’ working for someone else waiting for the next ‘get rich idea.’

Sound familiar?

Overcoming Your EADD

Until the drug companies come out with their version of Entrepreneurial Ritalin, here are my suggestions for holding your EADD in check:

Focus On Your Core Business – Not everyone has to have a dozen e-books or a membership site. Get your offline training business running at an optimal level before you bother trying to get ‘internet rich.’ If online stuff is your core business, get great at one or two things instead of being ordinary at six or seven.

Think One Project At A Time – Set a goal of not just finishing what you start, but tie goals to the project and don’t move to another project until you’ve reached the goals for the first one. If you are working on an e-book, finishing it isn’t enough. Don’t move to the next project until you have 30 affiliates, $10,000 in sales, etc.

Vertical, Not Lateral – Have you maxed out what you can do with your offline training business? Add things like weight management, autoship supplements, group programs and other things that fall under that ‘personal training’ umbrella and are marketable to the same people rather than branching off to another are unlikely to provide a quick return – therefore unlikely to hold your interest.

How Do You Eat An Elephant? – One bite at a time! Commit to spending an hour a day working on your project until it’s done. I’ve gathered that Alwyn Cosgrove writes for the first hour of the morning each day – seems like a pretty good plan to get a lot of writing done doesn’t it?

Stick To What You Know – If you’re passionate about something you’ll be more likely to want to work on it and less likely to lose interest. Most of the fitness pros that I know that have enjoyed great success with businesses or products were passionate about the topic – not just putting something together that they thought might sell.

Hopefully this helps you understand what EADD is and how you can cure yours. Most people struggle with trying to juggle several projects at once – it’s a select few that can work on five or six things at once and not only complete them, but do a great job with them. If you’ve been trying to do that with little if any results – try a different approach. You’ll be more successful and that success will keep you motivated to complete the next project and the next…

Talk to you later.

10 Deadly Sins Fitness Professionals Make

2006-12-13T05:27:00.000-08:00

1. Not Stressing Uniqueness. The most successful trainers are built around a USP, or “Unique Selling Proposition.” Think about what it is that sets you apart from your competitors, and then make that “USP” the engine that drives all of your marketing and advertising efforts.

2. Failing to Test. If you don’t test systems, sales presentations, prices and advertising copy you won’t know what the market wants, or what it will pay. You’re just guessing – which can be disastrous. You might find a new approach that out performs an old one by 25% - 50% without changing much at all.

3. Not Having Back-End Sales. The back end is vital to any successful training business. If you can induce new clients to buy a complimentary product or service from you within the first 6 weeks, you double the value of the client.

4. Failing to Address Clients Needs. By communicating with your clients, find out what it is that they need/want most – and then make sure you satisfy that need. If you don’t genuinely fill the needs you purport to fill, your clients will soon abandon you.

5. Failing to Educate. Your clients and prospects won’t understand or appreciate how unique what you do is or what benefit you provide unless you point it out to them.

6. Making Clients Work Too Hard. How easy is it to do business with you? How helpful is your staff when a client or prospect calls.

7. Failing to Explain Why. Whenever you make an offer, ask for a sale, run a marketing campaign or offer your service at a specific price, always explain why. The more believable and plausible your reasons, the more compelled prospects will be to do business with you.

8. Failing To Market At All. We’ve found that most fitness professionals don’t market at all or only market when their business is slow. You should be marketing 52 weeks a year.

9. Forgetting Who Your Client Is. Always market to the people who are your primary prospects. If you want to reach women 35-60, for example, your ads and materials should specifically address them.

10. Having a Niche - You can't be everything to everyone, so pick a target market and be THE RESOURCE for them.

Understanding The 3 Ways To Grow Your Business

2006-12-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned - I've been pretty tied up with the 12 Days of Fitness project. In fact, the link you can direct your clients / list to goes live today. With all that will be given away it will be a great way for you to build rapport with your clients / list. Check it out at:

http://www.12daysoffitnessgifts.com

Should be live at 3p.m. EST or so.

On to the 3 Ways To Grow Your Business...

Basically there are 3 ways that you can grow your business:

Increase the Number of Clients
Increase their number of Purchases per Year
Increase the Average Size of Purchase

Most trainers focus only on the first area, increasing their client base. What they fail to understand is that by making even small increases in all three will increase the results in multiples. Here are some ideas for you to work with:

1. GROW your client base by:

Increasing your lead or inquiry generation by:

Referral systems

Acquiring clients at break-even up front and make a profit on the back end

Guaranteeing purchases to reverse the risk for the buyer

Host-beneficiary relationships

Running special events or information nights

Acquiring qualified lists

Developing a unique selling proposition

Increasing the perceived value of your services through better client 'education'

Using public relations

Increase your client retention by:

Delivering higher than expected levels of service

Communicating frequently with your clients to 'nurture' them

Requiring longer term commitments

Increasing your conversion from inquiry to sale by:

Increasing sales skill levels

Qualifying prospects up front

Making irresistible offers

Reversing the risk

2. INCREASE TRANSACTION FREQUENCY by:

Developing a 'back end' of services and products that you can go back to your clients with at predetermined times

Communicating personally with them by telephone, mail and e-mail to maintain a positive relationship

Endorsing other people's services to your client list

Running special events

Using EFT Billing and longer duration agreements

3. INCREASE THE AVERAGE TRANSACTION VALUE you can:

Improving your selling techniques to up sell and cross sell

Using point of sale promotions

Packaging complementary services and product together

Increasing your pricing

Working with profitable niche markets

Realizing Your Business’s Full Potential

The average fitness pro concentrates purely on lead generating … to get new clients.
What most trainers fail to do is maximize the use of those prospects and then fully utilize their existing and newly acquired client base.

The acquisition cost of a new client can be prohibitively high and if you concentrate only on generating new leads, you are marketing inefficiently and will most likely fail.

The greatest “leverage” for a fitness pro can be in other areas such as the conversion or retention of clients, or increasing the transaction frequency or average transaction size.

Following Up...

2006-12-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay on telling you what Nick, Allen and I will be giving away. Here is an ever growing list:

A Free Audio Interview - Bedros Keuilian interviewing Allen Hill on how to have an effective fitness website.
A Free Audio Interview - Jim Labadie interviewing Allen Hill building traffic.
A how to get your e-mail delivered kit.
E-Book cover creator software.
A fully cusotmizable Welcome Packet to give your new clients.
A RSS Feed Mini E-Book.
Free Set up and 3 months free service of Fitness Website RSS Feeds.
Free Webhosting for 1st quarter of '07.
Free Customizable Reports on Back Pain and Diabetes.
Magnetic Marketing For Fitness Bootcamps - Special Report.
99 Tips for Effective Fitness Copywriting - Special Report.
Time Management For Fitness Pros - Special Report.
The Five Biggest Marketing Mistakes Fitness Professionals Make - Special Report.
The Perfect Back-End Revenue Builder - Special Report.
EFT Billing For The Fitness Professional - Special Report.
Rapid Fat Loss - Dispelling The Myths - Special Report.

And this doesn't include the stuff we're offering at BIG discounts and the dozens of other contributions from fellow fitness pros. As you can imagine - I'm pretty busy typing and wrapping this project up, so I probably won't be making alot of posts this week...but trust me - you'll be thrilled with the result!

You can register to gain access to the 12 Days Of Fitness program at:

http://www.12daysoffitness.com

The gifts start coming on Monday!

The 12 Days of Fitness

2006-12-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be pretty busy with what looks to be a pretty exciting event for fitness professionals.

A couple of weeks ago Nick, Allen Hill and I were looking for a way to share the Christmas spirit with fellow fitness pros and give back as a means of expressing or gratitude for helping us to our best year to date. Dax Moy suggested that we do a promotion tied to the 12 Days of Christmas that he ran a version of last year.

So here's what Nick, Allen and I have come up with:

The 12 Days of Fitness

Each day, for 12 straight days (kinda like the song) we, along with a number of fellow fitness professionals, will be giving avay free reports, downloads and e-books. We, as well as several contributors, also have decided to offer several of our best selling products at a BIG discount.

I think between just Nick, Allen and I we have over a dozen free gifts.

Here's just some of the other people that will be contributing:

Craig Ballantyne
Jim Labadie
Bill Hartman
Chris Mohr
Dax Moy
Jayson Hunter
Lee Taft
Jeremy Boone

I'll keep you posted as to when you can register...I think the home page will actually go up today at:

http://www.12daysoffitness.com

I'll post later on with a list of some of the things that Nick, Allen and I will be giving away as or gifts to you.

Later!

An Interview With Jayson Hunter

2006-12-01T08:55:00.000-08:00

Today I'll share an interview I did with Weight Management expert Jayson Hunter.

Enjoy!

1. Why should a Fitness Professional integrate Weight Management into their program offerings?

Well it’s simple. To most effectively lose weight a person needs to integrate exercise and proper nutrition into their program. We have all had those miracle clients that when they pick up a weight or do some type of cardio program that the fat melts off of them. We have also had the client that changes one thing in their diet and they shed the pounds. The reality is that 99% of most training clients need to do both or they never lose a pound.

Also, from a reputation standpoint if you could double the number of successful clients who have lost weight using your services then the faster and more powerful the message is spread that you are the expert when it comes to getting someone into shape.

2. What is the format for an effective Weight Management program?

An effective Weight Management program needs to have a structure that consists of covering the needed objectives. It is best to teach someone over many sessions because good nutrition habits are definitely not learned overnight. They take time to develop and if you pile all these suggested changes on at once then it is just too overwhelming and they will quit before they even get started. I usually break out a weight management program like this.

Program Overview

Session One

Topic: Establishing a Starting Point –

• Teach Goal Setting (SMART)
• Measurements & Before Picture
• Determine Calorie needs
• Profile Packet

Session Two

Topic: Record Keeping and portion size

· Teach menu plan
· Receive Individualized Menu
· Discuss Record Keeping and Portion Sizes
· Enroll in auto ship program
· Set Weekly Behavioral Modification Goals

Session Three

Topic: Adding Variety

• Exchanging Foods
• Create Sample Menus
• Master Food Planner
• Set Weekly Behavioral Modification Goals

Session Four

Topic: Sensible Supplementation

· Review journal/education
· Make necessary adjustments
· Teach why certain supplements are needed
• Set Weekly Behavioral Modification Goals

Session Five

Topic: Reassessment

• Have client rate themselves on compliance
• List long term goals
• Discuss obstacles that are standing in the way. Solutions?
• Circumference measurements
• Set Weekly Behavioral Modification Goals

Session Six

Topic: Timing, balancing and planning meals

· Review journal/education topic
· Work on new menu together (optional)
· Make necessary adjustments
· Have client rate themselves on compliance
• Set Weekly Behavioral Modification Goals

Session Seven

Topic: Food labels 101

· Review journal/education
· Make necessary adjustments
· Food Labels Exercise
· Grocery Store Tour (optional)
• Set Weekly Behavioral Modification Goals

Session Eight

Topic: Healthy fast foods?

· Review journal/education
· Weight and body fat%
· Make necessary adjustments
· Have client rate themselves on compliance
• Set Weekly Behavioral Modification Goals

Session Nine

Topic: Are You Able to Conquer a Plateau Alone?

· Review journal/education
· Discuss obstacles and solutions.
· Menu(optional)
· Make necessary adjustments
· Have client rate themselves on compliance
• Set Weekly Behavioral Modification Goals

Session Ten

Topic: Follow up – Long Term Strategies/ Reassessment and Re-evaluation

· Review journal/education
· Take all ending measurements
· Make necessary adjustments
· Have client rate themselves on compliance
· Enroll member into:
Personal training
Continuous goal setting

Using a format like this allows them to learn in sections and gives them the opportunity to practice and master the objectives as the weeks go along.

3. There are a lot of misconceptions about what Fitness Professionals can and cannot do regarding nutritional guidance. How can a Fitness Professional sort through that and deliver an effective program without doing anything that would be considered “professionally questionable?”

What I always suggest is to obtain a weight management certification from one of the reputable certification companies that are around. Even if you think you know nutrition there are always things to learn and with weight management programs it is not always what you know, but how you deliver it because nutrition and eating are tied very closely to emotion. It is not uncommon to have an emotional link which is why someone is eating the way they are. Then it becomes not so much telling them what to eat or what not to eat, but rather how to break away from that emotion.

Like you and Alwyn Cosgrove always say “you need to always invest in your business”. This is a perfect example of investing in your business. These certifications now cover much more than just nutrition information and they will help you be better prepared for all the twists and turns you will encounter when trying to change someone’s eating habits.

To avoid violating or crossing the “professionally questionable” line I usually tell trainers to be very observant and if you think someone needs personalized one on one attention or maybe they have a health history that warrants a medical professional or Dietitian then don’t be afraid to refer out. It only helps your credibility and respect amongst the other health professionals. An example would be a diabetic client where you would have to “prescribe” specific instructions or guidelines. You see the word “prescribe”. That is the word that is the no-no and can get you in trouble. You don’t want to “prescribe” someone a specific task to do unless you are professionally qualified to do so. I always think of the trainer in California that not only told their client to take a fat burning supplement, but also went with them to the store to pick the right one out. The client died a few days later because they had hypertension and the trainer either didn’t know that or failed to justify the importance of it. Just recognize your professional limitations and have a referral network that you can use to refer to the appropriate professional. Be certified in a weight management program will help you recognize your professional limitations.

4. What would be the appropriate starting point for a Fitness Professional that is interested in integrating a Weight Management program into their business?

I would first start with obtaining a weight management certification and then start building your objectives of what you want to teach your clients. Then lay it out in a multiple class format. I have designed a free report that gives you all the necessary tips and guidelines to starting your own Weight Management program at www.weightmanagementexperts.com . This will give you the necessary tools needed to not only start your Weight Management Program, but also to ensure success. If you have any questions about information that is on the report feel free to e-mail me at jayson@weightmanagementexperts.com.

Making Money With Weight Management

2006-11-30T08:20:00.000-08:00

Hopefully I peaked your interest the other day with my brief post about weight management. Personally, I think that for virtually all fitness pros - excluding the sports performance folks - it's a 'no brainer' to add weight management programming to your business model. By adding this component you can potentially double your income and your client base.

Starting to sound interesting?

So just to start you thinking, here are the 3 ways we use our weight management program in our business:

Entryway Program - We use it as a"feeder program" because it funnels more people into our personal training services with an open-to-buy mindset. People who otherwise probably would not have been interested in personal training. Better yet, these people ALMOST ALWAYS (200% more often than our traditional clients) are willing to invest in dietary supplements like meal replacements and multivitamins.

Deluxe Program - We also use our weight management program as an Up Sell at the point of innitial sale with personal training. We offer a discount from our normal WM price if the client would like to upgrade to our 'deluxe program' that incorporates both training and WM. Not only do you increase the transaction value, but you also increase the likelihood of the client's success by giving them more nutritional guidance.

Back End Program - We also offer our WM program to our exisiting clients as a 'back-end service.' If a client is not progressing at the rate they would like it is often due to the dietary choices that they're making, so this is a logical addition to their program.

So we have 3 different ways that we position our WM Program...and the best part: No matter how we get the client involved they invest more in our other back-end offerings like dietary supplements, are more likely to be successful, refer more frequently and stay with us longer.

Getting more interesting by the minute, huh?

4000 Diet Books Can't Be Wrong!

2006-11-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

My friend Alwyn Cosgrove and I just wrapped the development of a product that is going to make a lot of fitness professionals A LOT OF MONEY :) During our conversations we discussed the importance of Weight Management programming as a component of a fitness pros' business.

Did you know:

There are over 4000 diet books currently in print? The reason: supply & demand. There is a huge demand for them so authors - both credible and questionable - keep churning them out.
Weight Watchers has been in business for over 40 years and has served MILLIONS of clients.
Curves - like them or not, they're the most successful fitness franchise in the world - has launched a weight management program. Why? $$$$$$$.

So, why is this important?

Simple. People don't hire a trainer to workout. They hire a trainer to achieve a desired result. And the general consensus among consumers is that their preferred choice to obtain the "typical desired result" - fat loss - is to diet, not to exercise. This means you are leaving a windfall of profits on the table if you ignore what the consumers are telling us when you choose your offerings.

I'm a little pressed for time today...Lots of cool stuff going on at FCG Hedquarters. So, over the next few posts I'll elaborate on the concept of Weight Management Programming for Fitness Professionals. I'll also share an interview with Weight Management Expert Jayson Hunter in an upcoming post.

Stay tuned!

The Most Important 10 Minutes Of The Day

2006-11-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

I was just about to sit down and go through what I consider to be the most important 10 minutes of my day - and then thought I ought to share what I do with you.

Who knows, it might even help you like it does me.

Basically, at the end of my work day...after all the phone calls, e-mails, writing, meetings and whatever else the day might hold...I sit down and do three things:

1. I review my daily action plan in my Franklin Covey Planner (yep...I still use a paper planner. I started using the same model I currently use in 1994). I assess what I accomplished today that moved me closer to my business and personal goals, what I failed to get done that I set out to do and the progress that was made on the tasks that I delegated.

2. I review my 6 month and 18 month goals. I read these goals aloud simply to affirm them - and because I like to hear them :) Not only does this strengthen my resolve to accomplish the goals that I've set, but it serves as a great motivator to see myself accomplish things at an even faster rate than I initially anticipated. This time also serves as a period to reflect on the good fortune that has already come my way. I've been extremely fortunate and I never want to take that for granted - so I make a point to appreciate all that has come my way each evening.

3. I create my action plan for the upcoming day. I list and prioritize the actions that I will perform during the upcoming day...primarily focusing on things that will move me closer to achieving my goals. Every task gets scrutinized because I have no interest in falling into the trap of creating a "to do list" that keeps me busy but does little to help me achieve my personal and professional goals. Doing this activity in the evening also offers the added benefit of allowing me to clear my head. Several years ago, when I was still creating my action plan in the morning - I was rarely able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour due to the abundance of ideas and thoughts racing through my head. The beer probably had something to do with it too.

You probably read this and thought "what's so f$%#ing special about that"? Honestly, not much. But I will leave you with 3 questions:

1. How much time do you spend planning your day?

2. What is the ratio of time that you spend moving you closer to your goals vs time you spend that doesn't move you toward them or moves you away from them?

3. What are you doing to improve that ratio?

I am frustrated if I go a couple of hours without taking actions (even small ones) that move me closer to my goals, but I know dozens of people who go weeks - sometimes months - without taking even a step toward where they want to be.

How are you spending your time?

An Interview With Dax Moy

2006-11-22T16:02:00.000-08:00

Here is an interview that I did with Dax Moy that ran in the most recent edition of our newsletter. For those of you who don't know Dax or don't know much about Dax - he is one of the most accomplished and successful fitness professionals in the world today. He'll talk a little bit about what he's achieved during the interview - but he's very modest so I'll tell you this: If there was someone in this industry that I'd want to follow in the footsteps of - it would be Dax.

What I didn'tknow until recently was that Dax followed a specific goalachievement program to achieve his vast array of successes - The Magic 100. He has let his clients in on this extraordinary program with great results - and recently made it available to the public. I wanted Dax to be able to tell you more about this life-changing program - so here's what we discussed:

1. Dax, can you briefly tell me what The Magic Hundred is?

The MAGIC Hundred is quite simply a system of action steps that allow a person to go through the entire process of goal creation in a logical, systematic and results-oriented fashion which, if followed, will create success 'hits' day in, day out for 100 days. It is quite unlike anything else on the personal success 'circuit' at the moment in that rather than focusing only on positive thoughts, it asks you to commit to positive actions daily until they become habituated. It is this combination of thought, word AND action that allows those utilising the MAGIC Hundred program to achieve amazing, almost impossible things in so short a space of time. Through the book, the 2 audios and the 100 daily emails, the program keeps you focused on your goals (thoughts become things), helps you to maintain a positive attitude toward their achievement (Your attitude determines your altitude) and holds you accountable to yourself through a series of questions that need to be answered every day. The result is, I believe, one of the first systems that guide you, motivate you and support you for the entire journey that you've embarked upon. In this case, 100 days.

2. How has implelmenting the Magic Hundred in your life paid off?

The MAGIC Hundred has changed my life completely! When I first created the system and told my colleagues about it they told me I was nuts. They said that I had set myself goals that were unrealistic, out of my reach and sure to end in failure. One hundred days later I owned my first studio, the car of my (then) dreams, had nearly tripled my income, was published in national press, presented my first seminar and so many other things that I can't even remember now. In short, 100 days after writing my 'impossible' list, I had achieved 86 of those things and in doing so had changed my life forever. The MAGIC Hundred has since helped me appear on every TV channel in the UK, hundreds of publications worldwide, open 3 studios, travel the world and stay in luxurious and exotic locations, live in the outback in Australia with my family for 1 month, freefall onto the Great Barrier Reef with my 15 year old daughter, fly aeroplanes, helicopters and, I know this will sound corny but it's true, live the life of my dreams. And I don't mean that in some vague way. I mean, I literally dreamed of these things happening, I wrote about them, I visualised them, I spoke about them to anyone who would listen and... well... I now live them!

3. I understand that you use this program with your studios' clients. Can you briefly explain the premise behind that?

The 'danger' time for failing at ones goals is within the first 6 weeks or so of commencing a new behaviour. For example, when clients start with a trainer they're being asked to change how they eat, how they drink, how they move, how they sleep etc. The trouble is, all of these things are habituated behaviours. They are governed by the subconscious mind and as such, are passed into the autonomic (automatic) centers of the central nervous system where the programs related to these events and activities are run automatically. Great for freeing up mental energy but awful if those behaviours are opposed to the desired outcome. The MAGIC Hundred short circuits this programming by asking for conscious thought about many areas of life related to your goals and enables a new program to be written. One that is more conducive to the stated goals. This isn't just idle speculation. I have seen this truth hundreds, if not thousands of times with people who had tried and failed to stick to their nutrition or exercise plans or other lifestyle changes who after 100 days are not only committed to their results but self-programmed into them too.

4. What can a fitness professional expect by utilizing the Magic Hundred program?

Well, the results will be two-fold. First, any fitness professional utilising the program will see an increase in productivity, income and purpose as they find a way to re-kindle their passions for life again. If this sounds a little over the top, it's not. Abraham Lincoln once said "You can't help the poor by becoming one yourself" and not only do I agree with him, but I expand this poverty and wealth consciousness to all areas of life. Many trainers are lacking any real motivation in their own lives due to long hours, low pay and goals that they really don't believe will come true for them. How then can they with an honest heart, charge money from others for providing 'motivation' and setting goals with their clients. I know that with The MAGIC Hundred, FITPRO's will rekindle that passion again. Next, they will find that their clients will achieve more. Not just more, but faster too. They will be more driven, more focused and more intent on success than probably any other time in their lives because they will have a time scale that adds urgency to their goals and keeps them on track. Sure, people will be a little dubious at first, maybe downright sceptical but within DAYS of starting the program they will see evidence that will convince them to stick with their nutrition and exercise plans and strive for greater results in all areas of their lives. This will make the work of all fitpro's so much easier because rather than fighting a battle of wits and guile with their clients as they try to bring about adherence, they'll be co-conspirators in their success strategy.

Pat here again...pretty amazing, huh?

Well, let me tell you that I've recently started on my own Magic 100 journey and it's already been incredible. I have no doubt that Dax's program is going to play a big role in 2007 being my best year ever. If you want to learn moreabout how the Magic 100 can improve your business and your life, go to:

http://www.themagichundred.com/

As you can see - this is not an affiliate link. Dax's program is already having a profound impact on my life and I have no doubt that it will do the same for you and your clients. I have nothing to gain financially from this - honestly, I just want you to be able to enjoy the same results from this that Dax already has (and continues to) and that I'm beginning to enjoy. So, as Imentioned before, you can learn more at:

http://www.themagichundred.com/

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Separating The Winners From The Losers

2006-11-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

Last week Alwyn Cosgrove, Nick Berry and I were discussing Fitness Riches and all agreed that at $37 it was perhaps the most underpriced business-building resource available today. Where else can you get valuable insight from almost 20 highly successful fitness pros about the most crucial areas of their business?

We all agreed that the price should be raised but we wanted to give everyone one last chance to order at the original price...so they had several days to order before the price went to $49 - still a huge bargain.

So after ordering the book for $37 a trainer e-mails me to tell me that he doesn't think the book is underpriced at all. He thought that he should get more than "vague generalities"...which, I assume, meant that he should have a personalized business plan created and implemented for him.

Let's take a moment to look at this - there were 17 fitness professionals that contributed to this book. Conservatively, lets say that each of them would charge $100 / hr. for their time (very conservatively - good luck getting Alwyn, me, Eric Ruth, Nick or most of the others on the phone for $100 / hr.) So if each of the contributors spent one hour putting together their contribution - it's $1700 (minimum) worth of their time.

Now if these fitness pros would've delivered this same material in a 1 hour presentation at a seminar, what would that seminar be worth? Bedros Keuilian is charging $200 for 10 speakers at 1 hour per talk in his upcoming Fitness Business Summit.

So maybe it's the delivery format? Who knows.

But let's say that you take one idea from Fitness Riches...maybe you implement Alwyn's approach to semi-private training which is discussed at length in the first chapter. Let's say you currently charge $60 / session for 1 on 1 training, but now - by implementing this one strategy you can train 2 people at $40 / session (or three - but let's be conservative.)

Say you trained 15 sessions per week:

15 X $60 = $900
$900 X 50 weeks (2 weeks vacation) = $45,000 yr.

Now you train those same 15 sessions per week - but using the "Cosgrove Approach":

15 X $80 = $1200
$1200 X 50 weeks (2 weeks vacation) = $60,000 yr.

Hmmm...maybe I'm not much of a mathematician - but I think that's a $15,000 return on a $37 investment.

Yep - not underpriced at all.

See - I feel very strongly that if you by a book, a CD series or attend a seminar and you can't improve 1% or learn 1 thing - that is ENTIRELY your fault - not the materials fault. You just have to put your ego to the side and be willing to learn. Look around at your fellow fitness professionals - who are the most successful - the people who think they know everything or those who continually strive to improve?

My prediction - if you're bitching about making an investment in a $37 e-book - you probably have hit your ceiling as far as improvement goes - and that ceiling isn't very high.

If you want to grow, improve and "climb the ladder" in this or any other industry - you must continue to invest in your education. Ask Alwyn, Ryan Lee, Craig Ballantyne or Jim Labadie what they spend on education. I know my tab is upwards of $20,000 / yr.

Ever heard of Tom Venuto of "Burn The Fat" fame? He only has the most successful fitness e-book in history (among several hugely successful products.) On the surface it would seem he doesn't need to learn anything else - he already knows what it takes to be TREMENDOUSLY SUCCESSFUL - but guess what - Tom's purchased a couple of my products and I have no doubt those are just a couple on many that he invests in to keep himself ahead of the pack.

So if you're serious about being successful - understand that continual growth and education separates the winners from the losers.

The Business of Fitness

2006-11-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

As you may have already heard, the price of Fitness Riches is going up to $49 Sunday at 8 p.m. (EST). If you haven't already picked up a copy, you can at http://www.fitness-riches.com.

Here is one of the chapters that I contributed to the book:

Early on in my fitness career I was yearning to own my own business, but I didn’t have any idea where to start. I was browsing around the local bookstore looking for something that might provide me a little direction when the by-line of a book caught my eye: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work And What To Do About It. Little did I know that I had stumbled across what would become the most influential business book I had ever read, The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber.

If you’ve not had the good fortune to read this book, I urge you to go pick it up immediately, but in the mean time let me share with you excerpts from that very important book, and I quote:

“The technical work of a business and the business that does the technical work are two totally different things. But the Technician who starts a business fails to see this and that is the root cause of most business failures.

The carpenter becomes a contractor. The barber opens a barbershop. The technical writer opens a technical writing business. The hairdresser starts a beauty salon. The engineer goes into the semiconductor business. The musician opens a music store. All of them believing that because they understand the technical side of the business they are qualified to run a business that does that kind of work.

Not true!

Forty percent of start-up businesses fail within the first year. Within five years 80 percent will have failed and of those that survive those first five years 80 percent will fail within ten years.

Most businesses are operated according to what the owner wants rather what the business needs. And so you work. Ten, twelve, fourteen hours day. Seven days a week. You’re consumed by it; totally invested in doing whatever is needed to keep it alive. But you’re not only doing the work you know how to do but also the work you don’t know how to do. You are not only making it; you’re also buying, selling, shipping it. You are a master juggler keeping all the balls in the air.

It’s easy to spot the Technician’s business. If you removed the owner from the business there would be no business left. The owner and the business are one and the same thing

You don’t own a business. You own a job.

IBM, McDonalds and Procter & Gamble did not end up as mature businesses. They started out that way. Tom Watson, the founder of IBM said, “I had a very clear picture in mind of what the business would look like when it was finally done. You might say I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream - my vision – was in place.”

Wow, did this hit me right between the eyes. I thought about every trainer that I knew that “owned their own business.” They all worked from five in the morning ‘till eight in the evening. No sick days. No paid vacations. They simply traded their time for their clients’ money. They had simple bought themselves jobs.

I thought back to my father. He owns a very profitable automotive repair business. Same story. Sure, he has employees, but the business completely revolves around him. If he’s sick…the business is sick. If he’s on vacation, so is the business. He bought himself a job.

The trainers, my father, they were technicians that owned businesses. I wanted to be a Fitness Entrepreneur. I wanted to own a business, not be owned by one. So I had to begin by starting from a different perspective. The mindset of a technician and an entrepreneur are almost polar opposites of one another.

The Entrepreneurial perspective asks the question. How must the business work? The Technicians perspective asks, What work has to be done? The Technicians perspective starts with the present and looks forward to an uncertain future. The Entrepreneur envisions the future and builds the present to achieve that vision.

The Technician sees no connection between where his business is now and where it is going. Lacking the grander scale and visionary guidance manifest in the Entrepreneurial model the Technician constructs a model each step of the way based on past experience - the model of work – exactly the opposite of what is needed if the business is to free him from work.

The Entrepreneurial model has less to do with what’s done in the business and more to do with how it’s done. It looks at a business as if it were a product sitting on a shelf competing for the consumer’s attention against a whole shelf of competing businesses.

The Entrepreneurial model does not start with a picture of a business to be created but of the customer for who the business is to be created. Without a clear picture of the customer no business can succeed.

The Technical business however, is designed to satisfy the Technician not the customer. To the Entrepreneur the business is the product.

Think of your business as anything but a job! Go to work on your business rather than in it and ask yourself the following questions:
· How can I get my business to work without me?
· How can I get my people to work without my constant interference?
· How can I systemize my business in such a way that it could be replicated 500 times so that 500th runs as smoothly as the first?
· How can I own the business but still be free of it?
· How can I spend my time doing the work I love to do rather than the work I have to do?

The problem isn’t your business. The problem is you and will always be until you change your perspective about a business and how it works.

In order to have a business that works without you, a business that can be duplicated, pretend there are standards you have to abide by. There are rules of the game. The rules are:

1. The model will be operated by people with the lowest possible level of skill.
2. The model will stand out as a place of impeccable order.
3. All work on the model will be documented in operations manuals.
4. The model will provide a uniformly predictable service to the client.

It is not the product that requires innovation but the process. Where the business is the product, how the business interacts with the consumer is more important than what it sells or provides.

Innovation is the heart of every successful business. It asks the question. “What is standing in the way of my clients getting what they want from my business?” It always takes the clients’ point of view.

Your business is not your life. Your business is something apart from you, with its own needs, its own rules and its own purpose. An organism you might say that will live or die according to how well it performs its sole function – to find and keep clients. ”

I know…I’ve thrown a lot at you in just a few paragraphs. For many fitness professionals this is a complete shift in mindset. Most fitness professionals can’t imagine even delegating clients to other trainers assuming that “no one can do the job as well as I can.” So what I’m asking you to do is really consider the long range goals you have for your business. Start with the following questions:

If you’re 30 years old now, do you plan on training clients at age 60?

If not, what is your exit strategy? Do you have one?

What is your business worth without you?

Could you sell it if you wanted to?

Take some time and come up with your honest answers. Then, if you’re not satisfied with what you discovered, utilize some of the concepts and principles I’ve provided and look for ways to engineer your business around them. You’ll soon find yourself in a situation where your schedule is more flexible, you don’t feel guilty for catching the flu or going on vacation and you have peace of mind that your employees are providing consistent, quality service.

If you don’t have any employees, approach it in the same exact fashion so that when the day comes that you want to add one (or more), the transition is seamless. Document and organize your systems and your methods and before you know it you’ll have a business that you own instead of one that owns you.

Pick up your copy of Fitness Riches before 8 p.m. Sunday at http://www.fitness-riches.com.

Success-Building Habits

2006-11-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

It’s actually very simple to be successful. Just decide to do it, and then take success-building actions today and every day from now on.

We all have habits – some bad and some good. It sounds simple, but to start on the path to success you need to start replacing the success-killing habits with success-building habits. This can be difficult and uncomfortable for a while – oh well – suck it up.

Initially, it may seem harder to success-building habits than it is to keep the success-killing. And it is. But the difference making this trade will make is enormous.

It gets easier as you move along. The more success-building actions you make, the more success- building habits you create – the easier it is to continue down that path. It’s like someone embarking on a workout program. The first few weeks are tough but after a while they can’t miss a day without feeling guilty. The more you do it, the more it becomes a part of you.

So today I’m going to help you create a success-building habit.

I want you to read both Jim Labadie’s blog post at:

http://trainandgrowrich.blogspot.com/2006/11/my-ego-was-in-way-yours-is-too.html

and Alwyn’s Cosgrove’s at:

http://alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/2006/11/determining-value_15.html

After digesting what they both talked about, here’s the habit I want you to create:

Every time you read something, listen to something or watch something – instead of turning a deaf ear to it or saying “I already know that” – instead I want you to say “how can I improve from what I just experienced.” If you make small, incremental improvements over and over – you have no choice but to be successful. Everything you see and everywhere you go provide learning opportunities – make sure you don’t waste them.

Lifetime Value of a Client and Your Taxes

2006-11-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

You can use the Lifetime Value of a Client concept to cut taxes legally. Once you determine a potential client’s long term worth you can pay for certain expenses during the last few months of your fiscal year, such as advertising, promotion or mailing pieces that you’ve tested. When you mail 500 pieces, you get 50 responses – 20 of which you convert to new clients. Those clients are worth a predictable amount of money to you in the following tax year. Once you know with fair certainly what a promotion will be worth, put whatever you can afford into marketing at the end of your fiscal year. The campaign will generate no revenue for two or three months but, having tested it, you know with some certainty that the money (written off this year as a marketing expense) will come back next year as new business. If you conduct seminars, pay in advance for the space that you’re holding them and other seminar related expenses this year and have it roll back next year when your clients attend and pay you for it.

Test and learn the Lifetime Value of Your Clients. Once you know with fair certainty how many inquiries, prospects and ultimately, clients a marketing campaign produces and how long it takes to convert them, spend your money on marketing towards the end of your fiscal year. The campaign will bring in prospects relatively quickly but they won’t convert until at least January in the following fiscal year. Once you know the potential value of new clients, spend on marketing whatever you need to spend in order to reduce your taxes. Your investment will accrue future earnings.

You Can’t Create Successful People

2006-11-10T06:14:00.000-08:00

The most amazing paradox I have experienced is this: Those who need help the most wont pay the price!

I read Alwyn’s recent post titled “Sandwiches or System Design?” – he made reference to some jackasses who actually had the audacity to complain that Ryan Lee had added an extra FREE session at this year’s Bootcamp. I’ve had similar experiences when I’ve given out FREE things – people actually complained about the FREE stuff.

When I started doing our newsletter and created a couple of inexpensive products like Fitness Riches, I thought that we would primarily be helping those fitness professionals who were struggling. I thought that by delivering free or inexpensive tools and advice we could help those that we thought needed it most.

As the orders rolled in, I was astounded. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I had predicted that the strugglers would subscribe or buy. It was amazing to see that exactly the opposite had occurred. More often than not -it was those who were in fact doing well who had subscribed or purchased.

What does this say about those who were doing well? There is probably a reason behind their success-the same reason that is behind the failure of the others, people who ultimately succeed in life are those who recognize early on that success is a state of mind and has nothing to do with their current level of financial assets. Success comes in direct proportion to a person’s ability to recognize this, and his or her willingness to pay the price.

I learned then that you cannot create successful people, you can only take successful and help them become more successful.

Everything you have read on this blog, in our newsletter or in our products will not work for you unless you already have what it takes. You may not have external signs of success or wealth yet, but these resources and others will help you get there a lot more quickly. Anyone who takes the time to read this and invest in our products in the first place most likely has this spark, so hopefully that says a lot about you.

Big Jim's Blog

2006-11-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

My good friend Jim Labadie is now actively posting on his blog. If you're smart - it will become daily reading for you. He already has a couple of kick ass posts up today - go look for yourself:

http://www.trainandgrowrich.blogspot.com

I can't wait to see what he posts next :)

Thinning The Herd

2006-11-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

I periodically direct you to my friend Alwyn Cosgrove's blog. He always has valuable things to say - but recently he made a post titled "Crab Theory" that really hit home. You can read it here:

http://alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/2006/11/crab-theory.html

Virtually all of my adult life I've been in a position that would make me subject to the attacks that Alwyn alludes to. Being a college baseball coach led to a lot of "armchair quarterbacking." Everyone from parents to journalists came after me at one point or another.

After I moved into the mainstream fitness industry full-time (following years of working with athletes only) - this phenomenon continued. However, the biggest surge has been since I started giving my knowledge away for free in newsletters and on my blog. Strangely enough, the people who pay the least complain the most.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, I occasionally talk about firing clients. There's no since in going through life dealing with people that try to bring you down. Here's how I'd approach it:

Rate your clients on a 1-3 scale. 1's are those clients you can't wait to show up. 3's are those clients you can't wait to leave. Now - simply start gradually ridding yourself of the 3's.

No, you don't have to tell them all to get out in a weeks time. Just don't renew them.

Quick Story - One season when I coached our reigning conference player of the year was injured to start the season. We won 19 of our first 21 games. He came back and was disruptive...we lost 7 of the next 8. I did the unthinkable - I "booted" him - our supposed best player - we won 28 of our next 35 and finished 5th in the country.

Moral of the story...life's too short to deal with negative shit. Even if we'd have continued to lose, dropping the player would have been worth the trouble because 80% of my headaches came from him. Even if you couldn't replace your 3's - it would be worth it because the headaches would be gone. (But you will replace them - every time.)

So go rate your clients and start replacing 3's with 1's. I'll be busy unsubscribing the people that complain :)

3 Marketing Tips

2006-11-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

1. Ask Yourself The Right Questions

Every ‘successful’ marketing plan should start off with the following questions:

What Am I Selling?

Remember, you are always selling results. You are selling how your client is going to feel after doing business with you.

Who Am I Selling To?

Who is your target market? This is very important because each type of prospect can desire different benefits and results.

The more specific and clear you can be on who your market is; the more precise you can be when explaining the benefits they will experience.

If you are unsure who your target market is – ask your clients. Run a survey, and offer them a gift in return as an incentive. Here are some points your questions should touch on:

Age
Sex
Occupation
Income Range
Nationality
Interests
Address
Marital Status
Magazine, newspapers, television shows and other publications they read

The survey arms you with a stack of useful information to answer the next question.

How Will I Communicate My Message?

If you are not clear on who your clients are, you will not be able to find them effectively. After all, how will you know how to get into contact with them if you don’t know who they are?
After you discover who your target market is – you can then decide what medium they respond to.

What Price Am I Selling At?

Is your price too high? Is your price too low? I’ve seen trainers that are more expensive out pull similar trainers that were considerable cheaper on a per session basis. This is because there is a perceived value of quality. Have you ever heard or seen the price of something, and because it was expensive immediately assumed it was good quality? Of course.

To run a profitable business you need to sell your product or service at a price that appeals to your target market.

2. Reverse The Risk

This is one concept that most trainers feel very uncomfortable about at first – but it is a principle that could double your business almost immediately.

Reversing the risk is offering your clients a satisfaction guarantee – if they are not completely satisfied they receive their money back.

An incredible amount of trainers are not willing to offer guarantees and stand by their service.
If you are unwilling to stand by what you provide, why are you in business?

By offering a guarantee, your proposition becomes so much more powerful and appealing to your clients. The outcome will be clients will feel more comfortable to do business with you – and, as a result, your profits will increase.

A few clients will take advantage of you and your guarantee. Don’t worry about it though. A lot more clients are going to purchase in the first instance because of the guarantee. More important is your net result - an increase in your profits.

3. Incorporate a USP In Your Business

A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the one element that sets you apart from your competitors. It’s why your clients do business with you… over your competition.

A USP can be on price, convenience, style, guarantee, quality of service, exclusivity or results. There’s an infinite choice of USP’s that you can use. Don’t be limited to the examples above. The one way to determine the USP for your business is to speak to your clients and ask what’s most important to them when working with you.

A good USP will separate you from the rest and help you secure market share with your target market.

Your Ideology

2006-11-05T06:08:00.000-08:00

The last area of Upside Leverage I’m going to discuss is your Ideology – or your belief system. Your belief system will dictate what changes you’re willing to make in your business – if you’re willing to make any at all.

Do you believe that trainers can’t make money? They you’ll never make any real money.

Are you personally opposed to selling? Then you’ll never be good at sales.

Do you think that one-on-one training is the “only way?” Then you’ll be restricted to trading your time for one client’s money forever.

Do you believe that you’re always right? Then you’ll never be able to take advantage of a mastermind group.

You get the picture. If you are sincerely interested in growing and improving, then study other’s ideology and compare it to yours. What elements could you borrow and integrate into your own.

Said another way, this all boils down to your personal comfort zone. You will do what is consistent with your current belief system – or your comfort zone. If you want to see profound changes in any area of your business or your life, you’ll need to leave your current comfort zone.

It all begins with shifting your beliefs.

I hope you discovered some untapped opportunities as I went through the nine areas of upside leverage. If not, start from the most recent one and look at your current beliefs...are they what are holding you back?

Your Systems or Processes

2006-11-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

Most trainers don't really have defined systems or processes. If there is one thing that Nick and I accomplish in this industry - it will be to change that.

So, let's digress...Every mechanism in your business can be broken down into a series of processes. Once you've figured out what these processes are you can measure them. Once you have quantifiable ways of measuring them - you can improve them.

Everything you do involves a process. Running a direct mail campaign, having a sales consultation or performing a training session. Everything. Identify the process in each of these activities and measure them. Once you find out how your current processes perform - then you look for was to improve them.

Look at what other fitness professionals do.

Look outside the industry all together.

Seek out ways to do things better, faster, easier, more productively, more profitably - more effectively.

Don't settle for the status quo.

Once you discover processes that you've developed that yield better results than those that anyone else uses - you can leverage that. If you can quantify dramatic results from a particular process, you can package it and sell it, license it or franchise it and make it available to others.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself - but understand that by improving a process you can improve results, perhaps only 1 or 2% - maybe 100 or 200%. So here it is again:

1. Identify what you do.

2. Document the process for each activity.

3. Measure the results of the process.

4. Discover ways to change the process to yield better results.

Simple and effective.

If you want to use the same tools we use for this process, go to:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/businessactionplan.html

Your Services or Products

2006-11-01T09:20:00.000-08:00

Two great ways to create additional wealth in your business (i.e. - discover the upside leverage) are to create new offerings or to tap into different markets with your existing offerings.

I'm going to give you some ways to brainstorm this...

Could you simply re-package your existing offerings and target different niche markets? If you offer weight loss / body composition improvement - could you package that and sell it to women post-pregnancy? How about brides to be?

Could you work through someone else and let them "private label" your services? How about partnering with a chiropractor to allow him / her to offer their own nutritional coaching program?

Could you create a deluxe version of your servcies where you package multiple things together? Maybe training, nutritional coaching and dietary supplementation?

Could you offer a "streamlined" version of what you currently provide? How about a weekly or bi-weekly small group program that allows people to begin working with you at a lower price point but actually pays you more per hour?

Could you market wellness services to small businesses instead of approaching general consumers?

Could you package your approach into a product?

The key is just looking for opportunities to take what you currently offer and re-package it, combine it with something else, create a variation of it or find someone else to deliver it to.

Don't fall into the trap of doing the same thing because it's habit.

Same actions - same results.

Your Distribution Channels

2006-10-31T08:42:00.000-08:00

Most trainers don’t think of themselves as having “distribution channels.” They think that “distribution channels” are Wal-Mart or Kroger or Amazon. They think of them as solely for retail offerings.

Well – let me tell you this is not the case.

Your distribution channel could be your monthly newsletter, your joint venture with the local chiropractor, the seminar you give and any number of other things that get you, your service or your product in front of the prospect.

You can tap into the upside leverage of these distribution channels by capitalizing on the relationships that you’ve already created.

The obvious example is the e-mail list. That is the internet marketer’s distribution channel. Many internet marketers might only sell an e-book to their list. But how could they capitalize on those relationships they’ve built with their subscribers outside of that basic sale of the e-book? Here are just a few ideas:

Offer an affiliate’s product.
Offer a follow up e-book.
Offer information through a different medium (DVD, CD).
Offer a deluxe package with a combination.
Develop a membership site.
Offer a group mentorship program.
Offer one-on-one phone coaching.

I could continue on and on, but you get the picture. So if you already have the distribution channel in place, you need to look for ways to maximize it. Perhaps you could create other peripheral services to offer prospects. Maybe you could create products based on your expertise. They key is to do what I discussed in yesterday’s post – leverage each relationship. You have more channels of distribution than you’ve probably ever given thought to – it’s time to discover their hidden opportunities.

You Have To Read This!

2006-10-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

I'm going to briefly deviate from my discussion of the Business Drivers and tell you to go to Alwyn Cosgrove's blog and read it NOW! If it doesn't make you recognize the value of investing in your knowledge and education - nothing will.

Don't wait another minute to read his post...

http://www.alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/

P.S. - Make sure you're one of the 5%.

Your Relationships

2006-10-30T05:20:00.000-08:00

Your relationships are usually an untapped area of upside leverage. Think about the various personal and professional relationships that you have. How are you currently leveraging them?

Could you bring together fellow fitness professionals and start your own mastermind group?

Could you assemble a group of trainers to put together a product - like I did with Fitness Riches?

Could you find a mentor through a current relationship?

Could you form a strategic alliance or joint venture with a local business person that markets to the same type of person that you do?

Could you get affiliates for your online sales?

Could you start your own "(Your Town)'s Best Businesses Group that not only referred to one another but also acted as something of a mastermind group?

Could you ask your clients or friends or family members (or anyone that you have a relationship with) for referrals?

Could you educate those same people for what you'd look for in an employee and have them refer prospective employees as well?

Could you gain knowledge or wisdom from anyone you have a relationship with? Could you present your current challenges to them and ask them how they succeeded under similar circumstances? Could you ask your clients - active and inactive - what you could do better? Could you borrow successful processes from anyone you know?

The potential upside of your current relationships is virtually endless. Don't miss out on the opportunities all around you.

Your Business Model

2006-10-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

Now don’t let me confuse you. Your business model is different from your strategy. It’s essentially the means in which you use to achieve your strategy. Let’s say your strategy is to make $100,000 per year by converting complimentary sessions into paying semi-private clients.

Now let’s say your current business model is:

1. Charging $25 per client / per session and you work with three clients at once.

2. You use the Phil Kaplan “Pay As You Go” approach.

3. You rely on sessions to provide all of your income.

This results in the average “training lifetime” of your clients being 6 months and they typically train with you two sessions per week.

So this means that:

1. Each client has a lifetime value of $1200.

2. You have to do 1334 sessions to gross $100,000.

3. You’ll have to have approximately 84 clients over the course of the year.

Now, let’s say that you change your business model to the following:

1. Charging, on average, $30 per client / per session and continuing to work with three clients at once.

2. Using the EFT approach for billing and offering 4 and 12 month options.

3. You offer a 10 Week - Group Weight Management Program that 40% of your clients participate in at $349.

4. You offer an autoship supplement program that 50% of your clients participate in. Their average purchase is $80 per month and you get 25% of that ($20).

These changes in your model result in the following:

1. The average “training lifetime” becomes 9 months because of the change to EFT and the more comprehensive approach (including nutrition.)

2. So now, before any of the “back-end” revenue, you have already increased the lifetime value of each client to $2160.

3. If you choose to continue to work with 83 clients over the course of the year, you’ll make an additional $11,586 from your Group Weight Management offerings.

4. If you choose to continue to work with 83 clients over the course of the year, you’ll make an additional $9,960 from your autoship program.

5. If you do the same 1334 sessions, you make $120,060 from those sessions.

This doesn’t even begin to account for the money saved in marketing costs since the clients will be with you longer.

So, if you want to work about the same amount of time, you’ll make over $41,000 more by changing your model. If you’re happy with $100,000 and would rather work less, you’ll be able to reduce your workload by about one-third.

So if you’ve never given much thought to your current business model, start evaluating now. Look at ways you can improve client acquisition, lifetime value, etc. Add in other steps or dimensions to your business and watch your profits go through the roof.

Your Capital

2006-10-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

The next “Business Driver” I’m going to discuss is Capital. This can be broken down into human capital (your staff), intellectual capital (your knowledge) and financial capital ($$$$).

Are you leveraging each to the maximum? Probably not.

Do you train your staff on sales, retention, generating referrals, delivering great service and overdelivering on what you promise to your clients? Do you train in semi-private settings or small groups to leverage your staff’s time?

If you can get each of your staff members to improve 10-20% in each area you’ll double your business.

Are you leveraging your knowledge by packaging it and selling it as a product, writing articles for publicity or giving talks to groups to pre-sell prospects? Are you training your trainers with what you know? Are you creating systems to teach your staff what you know?

Do you get the maximum return for the money you spend? How about your marketing dollars – do you track the ROI? How about the wages you pay your staff? Do you track performance relative to compensation? How much money do you waste on unnecessary stuff?

By studying these things you can become your own “Profit Expert” and reduce unnecessary costs or expenses and uncover untapped opportunities or underperforming areas.

It’s you’re responsibility as a business over to become an RO (Return On) Expert – you need to understand the return on your investments in all areas – money, energy, people, activities and opportunities. Think of it like investing money – why settle for a 1 or 2% return if you can get 10 or 20%?

Your business is your main investment – treat it accordingly.

Your Business Strategy

2006-10-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Your strategy is the real purpose behind your business. Described another way – your strategy explains your entire approach to doing business and how each facet of your business moves you toward your desired outcome.

Most fitness businesses have strategies that are reactive. They essentially fly by the seat of their pants hoping to generate enough revenue to pay their bills and get to the next week.

The first thing that you need to do if that describes you is to adopt a more proactive strategy that has a long term objective. So set out what you want for you and your business.

Do you want lots of employees? Do you want your own facility? Do you have a revenue or volume goal?

Decide the specifics of what you want – that’s where you begin.

Now look at other successful businesses in and out of the fitness industry and try to identify what their strategy is. Then work backwards and see what they’re doing to achieve their desired objectives.

Then it’s easy. Take your specifically define objectives and develop an operating approach that will give you the results you’re looking for in the shortest amount of time. Be clear on what specific actions, approaches and systems will bring you your desired outcome. Use the successful businesses that you’ve studied as your model.

Changing your strategy can yield huge results. I’ve seen some businesses double or triple their results in a matter of months by changing strategies and implementing the steps that lead to the desired result. In our health club – we re-defined our strategy and were able to see dramatic results in a month.

So here’s the Cliff Notes Version:

1. Define desired outcome.
2. Study other successful businesses.
3. Work backwards from desired outcome to current position.
4. Take action.

If you want to see how we approach this, click here:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/businessactionplan.html

The Upside Leverage of Marketing

2006-10-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

Marketing may have the greatest upside leverage of any of the nine Drivers.

How, you ask?

Simple. A bad ad, sales letter or brochure costs the same as a good one. A bad sales presentation takes the same amount of time and energy but results in fewer (and smaller) sales.

So – where do you begin?

Know your numbers.

You can’t improve on an ad if you don’t know what the control (the marketing term for your base ad or letter) pulls. Figure out what each marketing attempt converts. Figure out what your closing percentage on sales presentations is. Figure out what your average package / program value is. Once you know these baseline numbers, then you can work on improving on them.

Here are three ways to get started:

1. Look at what your best salesperson or trainer does and have everyone else emulate him / her. If you have someone that stands out – maybe it’s you – then have other staff members model their behaviors and techniques. This doesn’t exclusively mean closing initial sales…this can mean who gets the most referrals, resigns, upgrades, supplement sales, etc. Model success.

2. Look at what other successful trainers do. Look at how they advertise and market. Look at their web sites. Ask them. Buy their products – both the ones that are geared for trainers and the ones geared for the general public. Don’t bother reinventing the wheel. Too frustrating and it takes too long. Take what others do and make it your own. (Do I really have to remind you not to steal people’s stuff word for word? Model successful trainers – don’t plagiarize them.)

3. Look outside the fitness industry. Look at other businesses that have discovered or refined approaches that produce great results. Modify them and make them your own. That’s exactly why I’m reading the book about Starbucks I mentioned in the last post. I’ve never even had one cup of coffee – but Starbucks has successfully captured the market that fitness professionals typically seek and have a tremendously loyal following among both consumers and employees (or partners - as they call them.) Good enough for me to want to learn more.

Then plug the things that you learn into your systems (you use the FCG Marketing Template don’t you?) and watch your business grow exponentially.

Upside Leverage

2006-10-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

As you may already know, I’m a huge Jay Abraham fan. So over the next week or so I’m going to talk about what Jay refers to as the Drivers of Upside Leverage. Through my reading of his material I’ve come across nine of these Drivers, which are:

1. Your Marketing
2. Your Strategy
3. Your Capital
4. Your Business Model
5. Your Relationships
6. Your Distribution Channels
7. Your Services and / or Products
8. Your Systems or Processes
9. Your Ideology

So over the next several posts I’ll discuss each of these Drivers and how you can use them to yield more business and more profit.

On A different note – a while back I shared what I was reading. Here’s the latest update (I’m reading 4 books simultaneously…maybe that is an indicator of ADD – I don’t know.)

Why You’re Dumb, Sick and Broke by Randy Gage

The Metabolism Advantage by John Berardi

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen (at Alwyn Cosgrove’s suggestion)

The Starbucks Experience 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary, Joseph Michelli

I’ll let you know if I think any are must reads - though from what I've read so far, all are very good.

Are You Ready For Change - Part II

2006-10-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

Many of you may be wondering - "What the hell is Rigsby talking about - being ready for change? How's that apply to what I do?"

Let me elaborate.

I was talking to Alwyn Cosgrove yesterday and a couple of things we discussed led me to talk about change.

Alwyn and I are both fans of Thomas Plummer, the Health Club Expert. Thomas was talking about advertising and told Alwyn to invest in Yellow Pages advertising. Alwyn's response was something to the effect of "Which one? There are eight in my city."

Several years ago, placing an ad in your local Yellow Pages was simple and probably crucial - there was one per city (in most cities) and that's where people looked for businesses.

Today, not so simple - and I would suspect not so important. If there are multiple Yellow Pages in my town, I couldn't tell you - I don't own one. If I need to look for a phone number of a business, I go to the Yellow Pages online. Admittedly, I may be the exception - but if I am - I probably won't be for long.

Not so long ago, having a website was for "techies" and probably wouldn't help you with generating local business. Today it's dramatically different. My friend Brian Calkins generates virtually all of his non-referral business online. The health club that Nick and I own generates a significant number of leads online - and we're in small-town Kentucky.

Ryan Lee has made millions anticipating change and staying one (or two) steps ahead of the curve.

So are you anticipating change? Are you staying current with the trends and making the appropriate changes in your business? What worked yesterday won't necessarily work today. So keep up. And better yet - if you are a step ahead of a coming change - you can really prosper.

Are You Ready For Change?

2006-10-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

Change is the only thing in life that you can count on other than death and taxes.

If you fight it, change will be your greatest enemy. If you embrace it and anticipate it, change will be your biggest ally. Nothing is more apparent than the effect of change on businesses - look around - you'll quickly see what happens to businesses that fail to keep up with change.

Businesses go out of business every day because they fail to keep up with change. If you simply view things as they appear - instead of staying aware of trends and anticipating what's on the horizon - you soon be left in the wake of the businesses that knew change was imminent and acted on it.

I graduated high school in 1990 - not such a long time ago (some of you won't agree...But I'm sticking to it) For those of you who weren't toddlers - how many people did you know in 1990 who used cell phones? How many regularly used e-mail? How about a CD player? Today in 2006 - have you tried to buy a audio tape (not to even mention a vinyl record) lately? Half of you probably don't even have home phones. Do you go into the bank to get cash - or do you go to the ATM?

It is said that the amount of information being published and becoming available is doubling every five years is more information today in one issue of a newspaper that the average person in the nineteenth century would have been exposed to in a lifetime.

Your prospects today are more educated and have more choices than ever before. They are more demanding, more knowledgeable, more price-conscious, and far less loyal. Because change affects a prospect just like it affects you, they're more uncertain, skeptical, and aware that they're at risk if they make mistakes.

Things change much faster than we imagine. And with that change comes threats, as well as opportunities to build your business. If you aren't keeping up with change, and your business isn't built to adapt to it, change will destroy it.

Are you ready?

The Weekend Mastermind

2006-10-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend was fun around Fitness Consulting Group headquarters. Allen Hill of Fitness Website Design came to visit for a mastermind session with Nick and I.

If you aren't too familiar with Allen, he's easily the brightest mind in the fitness industry when it comes to creating and monetizing web sites.

So we brainstormed, presented issues to one another and worked on business building strategies. I thought you might be interested in a few of the points we addressed...Specifically when we worked on Allen's business. He's just a sample of strategies we presented to Allen to work on his business (see how they might apply to your business):

Develop completion plans for every task that is related to your business. Everything you do should be documented in such a thorough fashion that any competent web designer will be able to step in and produce the same quality of work.

Hire a full-time assistant web designer. Allen is swamped. Even as he's raised his fees, the demand for his services has continued to increase. People will pay for quality.

Develop a "labor guide." Growing up working in a garage help me with this idea. For every task a mechanic performs, he can look in a labor guide and have an estimate of how much time it will take to perform. Allen needs to do the same so he can give estimates to prospective clients and have a reasonable idea how long it will take his assistant designer (and future employees) to produce sites that match up to the quality he demands.

Hire a bookkeeper. Allen is a master of Quickbooks (and anything else performed on a computer) - but his time is too valuable to be spent crunching numbers.

Begin searching for a second niche market. The type of service Allen provides has been sorely needed in our industry, but I have no doubt that other industries have a void in this area as well. As soon as Allen has his systems and staff in place - there is no reason he couldn't go after a different target market as well.

Use you knowledge and skills to generate passive income from the "end user" market. As Ryan Lee frequently says - and we agree with - the big money is made selling to the general public. Allen needs to leverage his skills by using his ability to create high traffic sites that appeal to the end user and have strategies in place to reap passive income from it. We actually have a JV in the works that fits with this point - but he needed to refine his thoughts on it.

Allen is easily one of the brightest guys Nick and I have ever met. However, he still runs into the same problem that most trainers run into - he spend tons of time working in his business and not enough time working on it. It's easy an easy trap to fall in to. He makes a significant fee for the services that he provides - a substantial increase over what he made as a full-time trainer. It's easy to keep adding jobs because of the short-term gratification on the payday - but it is very shortsighted. Pretty soon, working 40 hours turns into 60 hours and in Allen's case - now 90-110 hours per week. Unfortunately, this approach usually leads to burnout, a shitty quality of life and a real distaste for your profession.

Follow along with me and I'll keep you posted on how Allen's business evolves. I have a feeling that the changes will astound you.

Time Leverage

2006-10-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

You can make a nice income, but you're never going to get rich simply selling your own time.

Let me give you an example:

If you train clients (sell your time) at $50 per hour and you train 6 clients per day, the maximum that you can earn is $300 per day.

Not bad. But when you consider paying the club or studio if you're training there - or travel expenses and time if you go to clients' homes - not extraordinary.

Now, what if you hired a couple of trainers and were able to pay them $25 instead of $50?

You could provide them with your proven systems that consistently deliver results and any procedures that you follow.

Now you could spend more of your time selling their time. If you sold four of those trainer's time at $50 per session and still paid them each $25 per session, each of those trainer's providing six sessions a day would pay you $600 for doing no more work. Probably less.

This is a basic point, but one that is crucial if you want to make a lot of money. Selling your own time not only provides poor leverage, but also can wear you out - quick.

Does that mean you shouldn't continue to train. No. What it does mean is you should be constantly looking for ways to better leverage your time.

Creating Profitable E-Books With Craig Ballantyne

2006-10-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

Recently I was fortunate enough to be able to interview my friend Craig Ballantyne about how he develops and markets his tremendously successful Turbulence Training e-book. If you've ever considered producing your own e-book, you have to read what Craig had to say.

1. How did you get started writing e-books?

Pat, essentially what I was doing was writing the same program over and over for my friends. Each of them was asking the same question - as it was about the end of University when my friends were starting jobs and wanted to get fit and lose some of the fat they had gained in University. So after a while I got smart and starting compiling all of the information into a manual - keeping what worked and dropping what didn't work. Eventually I had my first complete manual, which I called Get Lean. From there, I modified the workouts and re-branded the system as Turbulence Training.The take-home point from my experiences is that you must leverage everything you do. From writing programs to answering emails, I try to use the information as much as possible. So a good program will become one of my monthly workouts that I offer on http://www.workoutmanuals.com, and a client email q'n'a will become something I use in my newsletters.By leveraging your work, you decrease the amount of work you need to do for future projects, plus it makes writing an e-book much less intimidating if you have all that info stockpiled.

2. Who is your target market?

My specific target market is the 35 year old man with kids that has a long commute to work and a long work day. He's tired, he's busy, and he's stressed, but he needs to lose body fat and he want to gain muscle. He also needs exercise to give him more energy. However, he's not afraid of hard work, and wants a short, but intense workout. But he has to be able to do it at home, either in the morning before the kids get up or at night after the kids go to sleep. My target market is the typical Men's Health reader. From that description, you should be able to think of one, if not several people that you know. And for everyone out there reading this, I think you need to get that detailed with your target market. You should be able to describe him to this level, and beyond. If you are able to do that, not only will you prepare a great e-book for the client, but just as importantly, you'll be able to write good sales copy that appeals to the problems and emotions that your target market has. My business coach Tom Venuto helped me through this process. And as a result, we came up with a good site and great ad copy. We even designed the look and logo of http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com to look relatively similar to Men's Health magazine. Clean background, shot of a model's abs, and similar colors. That said, it's not only my target market that buys the book, nor is it only my target market that will benefit from the book. But when putting together your product and site, it is important to be specific.I've had men and women from age 18 to age 80 use this program. Single, married, or divorced, kids or nokids, the majority of men and women need to lose fat fast. So while my program is designed for a bit of a niche market, it's a niche market that is big and has mass market appeal.

3. What type of impact on your business has writing e-books had? (Freedom, Passive Income, Reduced Client Load, etc.)

It's had a significant impact on all of the above. But writing e-books is not something I stumbled into. I've been writing for years for the magazines, and I was working on my manual before I even knew that the opportunity to make a living by selling e-books existed.I put in my time in terms of both researching the book (university) and perfecting the application (training people for over 10 years), so now I've cut back and while I still work 60 hours a week, the composition of those hours has changed. At present, I only train people that allow me to learn and perfect the programs, and develop new manuals for my websites.

4. Where would someone begin if they wanted to develop their own e-book?

See my points above on leveraging your current writing. From there, go with what you know. For example, if you've been training 50-year old male executives for 10 years, don't write a book about helping women lose fat after their first kid. You won't have the experience or testimonials to back up and prove your sales copy. Once you have your topic and your niche market picked out, simply start with an outline. I recommend a book called "Info Millions" written by Bob Serling. Bob goes over step by step guide to writing a product. One thing to note is that my e-book doesn't contain a lot of chapters filled with written theory. I just sell a workout plan. My audience doesn't have time to read why this, that, and the other thing happen in your body. They just want to be told what to do so that they can get results fast.Another way to put together a book fast is to joint venture with other trainers or experts...exactly like you did Pat, with Fitness Riches.

5. How would they identify a target market?

Again, go with what you know. If you've been servicing stay-at-home moms, don't choose the niche of young athletes.Once you have your niche and you want to break it down even more, you might consider using this keyword selector tool:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Enter your keyword or keyword phrase, and this tool will tell you how many times the keywords have been searched on Overture in the last month.Fred Gleek, an information marketer who I have studied, suggests picking only niches having over 5000 searches per month. Otherwise, Fred believes the niche is not economically viable.Too many people tell me about their e-book idea that would only be of interest to about 1000 people in the entire world. You can't pigeonhole yourself. But at the same time, going too mass market and writing a book for everyone is not the best move either. Become an expert in an area, develop a hook, and go with that. NOTE: This will work for anything. So even if you (or someone you know) want to write a book on a topic outside of fitness, that's fine. Just follow the system. It's worked for thousands of people in dozens of industries.
6. How could they market their e-book?

You'll need to use a multiple-pronged approach, but think of yourself as just like any author promoting a book. The only difference is that most promotion should be Internet based. The reason I say that is because people are much more likely to go to your site if they get a link handed to them. The percentage (from our tests) of having people go from print media to a website is less than 4%.So you'll want to do Internet Radio shows, teleseminars, and conference calls. Do anything that gets your link in front of people while they listen to you.You'll also want to get an army of salespeople (affiliates) working for you. So send your e-book to people with big lists and see if you can write for their site/newsletter or do an interview. I find that when people interview me about my e-book, it makes for a great sales conversion rate - so if you want to interview me for your newsletter, just let me know.In addition, you can submit your articles through various article directories so that other websites can pick up your content and provide a backlink to your site.The lists are the key. So you simply want to get your website link, your name, and your product in as many targeted lists as possible. With all of the promo methods mentioned above, you should get some traffic and you can start building your own list - where you can continue to market your e-book.

7. What is your biggest "success secret" for developing and selling successful e-books?

Aside from the obvious, having a great product, the most important factor is getting your name in front of a lot of people.It's simply a numbers game.So you want to write lots of articles, get lots of content on your site, and get lots of other people posting your stuff and promoting your product. All of this will drive traffic to your sales page. On your sales page, you'll need a great headline (the headline is sometimes said to be responsible for 90% of your sales), good copy, and a great offer. If you have everything in place, then it's simply a matter of getting more people to your site.After that, great customer service and a back-end offer (like I have with my TT Membership) will ensure you have a long-term customer that you can sell to again and again.

If you're serious about launching your own highly profitable e-book, I'd suggest you study Craig's sales copy and pick upyour own copy of Turbulence Training at:http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/turbulence.html

Alwyn Cosgrove

2006-10-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

I just got finished reading a new article on Alwyn's blog called:

Project Management - the future of personal training?

Very insightful stuff. I've talked to Alwyn about what he discussed in the article before and I think he's right on track. You can check out this article (guaranteed to make you think) at:

http://www.alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com

While I'm mentioning Alwyn, I've got to tell you - yesterday was like Christmas morning for me.

My new copy of his Program Design Manual arrived.

If you've read some of my previous posts you might know that we had a flood here in senic Elizabethtown a couple of weeks ago. I happened to be in Florida at the time so I couldn't rescue anything that might have gotten damaged. I mentioned that my now deceased lawn tractor washed away. Most of the stuff in the yard suffered the same fate. We also experienced some flooding in the basement - where I had temporarily set up my home office while we were doing some renovations upstairs.

Not good.

Being the information junkie I am, I had volumes of books, manuals, etc. downstairs. Any of it that was within a foot of the ground...Ruined.

Shit.

I was upset about the tractor. I was upset about some of the books and things in the yard.

I was traumatized about the Program Design Manual.

If you have a copy, you understand.

Having a systematic approach to running every aspect of our businesses is something I'm pretty anal about. We systematize everything including taking the trash out.

Did I mention I'm anal.

When it comes to delivering consistent results to our clients, the Program Design Manual is the equivalent of our Bible. We based our own program templates on what Alwyn put together. It's kind of like my "training security blanket." If I want a new staff member to understand the right way to deliver results - I hand them the Manual.

So needless to say, I immediately contacted Alwyn to get a new copy ASAP. It arrived yesterday.

Like I said...a kid on Christmas morning :)

If you don't have a copy yet, you need to get one YESTERDAY! You can find it here:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/cosgrove.html

It's quite possibly the most valuable resource a fitness professional can own.

And you can experience Christmas in October :)

Don't Focus on Money

2006-10-10T09:24:00.000-07:00

If you are in the pursuit of money for money's sake - and that is your main focus - no matter how hard you work it will elude you. Money is simple a currency for trading value or benefits. The sooner you take your focus off money and place it on delivering a better service, a more valuable product, a desired result or a tremendous benefit to the market - the sooner you'll start making real money.

The amount of money you'll make will vary according to the uniqueness of your product, the greatness of your service and the size or demand of your market...but the concept remains the same. Delivering greater value = reaping greater profits.

You can't focus on your clients or customers if you're focusing on the money.

Money is the by-product of delivering value to them.

If you deliver extraordinary value - people will pay significant amounts for the privilege of using your service or product.

Help others get what they want. In turn, you'll get what you want.

He's At It Again!

2006-10-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

Just in case you've missed it, my friend Alwyn Cosgrove is posting regularly on his blog again. It will be daily reading for me.

It should be for you to.

Check it out at:

http://www.alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com

Let The Buyer Beware

2006-10-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

I've been talking to several business coaches / consultants lately - both inside and outside the fitness industry. Something that really astounded me was how few of them were willing to put their money where their mouth was.

No guarantees...but even worse...

...No equity option as a means of compensation.

See, a money back guarantee is great in most transactions - but in consulting it's still not the safest way to go for the business owner. Let's look at this for a minute:

If you offer a money back guarantee to your clients and they don't get the results you promised - they are typically not much worse off then they were when you first began working with them. In fact, depending on the guarantee (eg. - 20 lbs. of fat loss in 10 weeks) - they may be better off and still get a refund (10 lbs. of fat loss.)

If you're a studio owner that's business is in trouble and pay a business coach $500-$2000 (that you can barely scrape together) for advice on how to "right the ship" - if you don't get the results you were promised - you may not have a business anymore.

By my way of thinking, a better "guarantee" would be equity as compensation. If your business normally nets $2000 per month and the business coach's impact helps you increase that to $5000, then he / she should get a piece of the $3000 increase.

Is this option for everyone? Definitely not.

If you're business is already enjoying success, the fee may not be a problem.

If the advice results in a significant increase in profit, the coaching may cost more.

But, realistically, the people who probably need the coaching / consulting the most are the ones who would have the greatest difficulty affording it. And if the business coach has more at stake (like their compensation) - don't you think they are more likely to work hard to get you results?

Please don't take this the wrong way. You don't need to use this approach to hire a coach or consultant. But if you're strapped for cash, this might be the option to get the help you need. Either way, I'd be far more inclined to hire one who at least offered this option.

They're willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Are You Suffering From Burnout?

2006-10-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend at the Ryan Lee Bootcamp I talked to at least a dozen fitness pros who are suffering from "trainer burnout" and had no real strategy to escape from it. I suspect what they shared with me was common in our industry. Here are some of the "symptoms" that were common among these trainers:

1. Feeling like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Every day is the same...get up, train 7-8 clients, squeeze in a workout, go home. Repeat.

2. Training clients 6 days per week.

3. Feeling like they were on call...being willing to train clients anytime from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.

4. Feeling like they were losing money if they took a vacation, day off or got sick.
5. Making at leasy 80% of their income from personally training clients.

6. Having no "exit strategy." Unless they changed professions, they'd still be training clients when they're 65.

7. Thinking like - or being - an employee. (I have nothing against employees...I rely on them. I just want my employees to think like business owners.)

If you find that you are experiencing some or all of these "symptoms", you may way to start putting a plan into action to avoid experiencing "Trainer Burnout." Here are some simple steps to start with:

1. Start creating systems. Just document everything that you do that relates to your business. Even if you don't have employees (yet) - still do it. Be as detailed as possible so that any random trainer could come step in for you while you were vacationing and your business wouldn't miss a beat.

2. Understand leverage. You can leverage your time by switching to semi-private training or providing group offerings. You can leverage your knowledge by creating information products. You can leverage the success that you've enjoyed by systemizing it and hiring an employee to replicate it.

3. Develop, Write Down and Begin Executing Your Plan. I've mentioned it before - but you have to set specific goals and document them. Start with a 3-5 year goal, then a 1 year goal and finally a 6 month goal. Obviously, the shorter term ones build upon one another to eventually lead to the long term ones. Review your goals daily and take at least one step toward your 6 month goal each and every day. Before you know it your 6 month goals will be realities and you'll be well on your way to achieving the longer term goals.

The next 5 years is going to pass by (quicker than you think) - what you do with it is up to you.

Decide Where Your Going

2006-10-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

Direction is central to becoming successful. When you have your dream, you can then decided in what direction you’re headed.

Translate your dream into some easily definable short-term goal in a series of easy-to-accomplish steps that you can visualized. Put these goals in writing. Put them in a place where you can refer to them every day. Do not be afraid to share these with people you trust to be supportive, to help guide you. Start talking to people about how to ready your goals. All these things make your dream and your goals more real. They make you commitment real, rather than just being something buried in your head that you can easily forget.

This is where more people go wrong. They don’t know what they want. Without making that choice, people end up with whatever life gives them. And that gift is rarely real success.

Set clear, realistic goals. Goal provide focus and directions, and with them many things that seem difficult become easy. With clear goals, the steps to your dream often seem to just fall into place. Without goals, it can be impossible to decide what you need to do.

I know people that spend more time thinking about their fantasy football teams than they do about their business and life goals. It’s true and it’s very sad.

Write down what you want to achieve. Work backwards in incremental steps from that destination to where you are today.

Now start stepping.

How To Stay Poor

2006-10-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

The two biggest enemies of learning are comfort and arrogance - either will cripple your desire to learn and grow. And when you don’t learn and grow, success will not only be hard to come by, it will positively avoid you.

The fact that you are reading this blog means you understand at least part of this message. But in business today, I can assure you that this problem is chronic. That’s true not only for people who need to educate themselves, but also for those responsible for educating their staff.

I have worked with studio and club owners who’ve complained that their staff weren’t doing their jobs, but who didn’t give them any training or support to develop their skills. The owners didn’t even bother to ensure that their own sales and marketing skills were solid.

They felt they knew enough.

Through their arrogance they closed off their own development and that of their staff. The only way for their business to go was down.

Comfort - The Enemy Of The Successful

There are those in the industry world who feel that even if they don’t know it all, they’re doing all right. They don’t, or won’t, make the effort to learn because they’re too comfortable. Without the pressure of losses, or obvious failures, they won’t do anything different. This is a certain path to lifelong mediocrity.

In my time in the industry (14 years), many trainers have come across the idea of continuous improvement. The basic idea is to always work to do things better. Unfortuantely - 10 times as many are satisfied.

Do you want to succeed? If so - you have to work outside your comfort zone to keep getting better.

Put time aside to learn something new and put it into action regularly. Not only will you become a more fulfilled person, but you’ll be miles in front of your competitors who just stay comfortable and do the same thing all the time.

Read books, read magazines, listen to audios, attend seminars, go out and see what your competitors are doing. See what people outside the industry are doing. Get involved. Get educated –everyday.

Later.

The Ryan Lee Bootcamp

2006-10-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend at the Ryan Lee Bootcamp and let me tell you - if you didn't attend, you really missed out. I can't tell you how many great fitness professionals I met or finally saw face-to-face after numerous e-mails and phone calls. The presenters were awesome, and I'm certain that anyone who attended left feeling Ryan overdelivered. So here are some random thoughts from the weekend:

Nick beat me to the punch (check it out at http://www.nickberryonline.blogspot.com) - in saying that if last year "Velvet Rope" was the underlying theme, them this year that theme was "Systems." I can't tell you how many people I talked to that wanted to learn more about how to systematize their business. Rest assured...I will be talking more and more about this during the upcoming weeks.

The difference between the really successful and ordinary is action. At last year's bootcamp Alwyn Cosgrove called out the audience about taking action and I took it to heart. While our businesses we already successful - it became obvious to me that I was thinking too small. There was no way I was going back this year not feeling like I'd really made some real progress in that 12 month span. I often hear people tell me about what they'd like to do, could do or should have done. Shut up and do it.

Inspiration. I don't know about you, but when I get to listen to people like Brian Grasso, Alwyn Cosgrove, Mike Boyle and Ryan Lee - and also have conversations with guys like Dax Moy, Craig Ballantyne and Zach Evan-Esh - it inspires me to be better at what I do. These guys (and many others) are unbelievably good at what they do, they've put in the sweat equity and have tremendous passion. I don't want to sound corny, but frankly I consider it being in the presence of greatness and it does nothing but help me improve. Hopefully you feel the same.

Industry Incest. This will be the basis of an upcoming post but, in a nutshell, fitness professionals do nothing but mimic other fitness pros. However, the truly successful ones are looking everywhere else to learn so they can stay ahead of the crowd. If you're serious about creating a tidal wave of new business instead of a trickle then start reading more than just Fitness Mags.

The successful trainers consistently invest in their education. Our group was having dinner with Ryan, Jim Labadie, Jason Hunter, Joe Stankowski and Todd Scott. The topic of information products came up and the fact that I had everything Ryan and Jim had done was mentioned. Jim even reminded me of an e-mail I sent him just making sure I had everything he offered...he found something he had taken off the market and I bought that in about 45 seconds. Ryan talked about how much he invests in his education and mentioned that all the most successful trainers are the first to buy products when he rolls them out. Heck, even though my tractor floated away in our recent flood - the thing that upset me most was the fact my copy of Alwyn's Program Design Manual got ruined. Most all of the top guys have coaches, belong to mastermind groups and take advantage of every resource they can. Do you?

Ryan Lee. Some people in the industry take cheap shots at Ryan, but as far as I'm concerned - they can go to hell. Ryan's Sports Training Profits program was the product that really got me fired up and moving. In a phone coaching session Ryan helped me sort through a few ideas and helped me really focus on developing the Personal Training Money Machine idea. He also has been the guy to keep me focused on innovating because he's always a step or two ahead of everyone else. He's a genius...but he's a genius that is committed helping improve the industry. If you're smart you'll be paying attention to the directions that Ryan moves in...what he does typically turns to gold.

I'll be posting pretty frequently over the next several weeks as my travel has slowed down. I gather Nick will be doing the same. We'll both be adding to the FCG site as well. After hearing what so many of you guys had to say, we're more motivated than ever to deliver as much information as we can to help you build your businesses.

Talk to you soon!

Creative Emulation

2006-09-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting weekend. Holly and I went to Florida and started our trip by having dinner with Damon Moschetto and his lovely wife Laurel. For those of you who don't know Damon, he's a real industry expert and a co-author of Fitness Riches. Holly and I made it back to the resort and were checking out the weather channel to see the forecast for the next day when the breaking story came across - flash flood in Elizabethtown, KY (our hometown) - not good. So we got to come home to a wet basement and our lawn tractor being found 3 houses down after the water carried it away. Interesting weekend.

So on to the post of the day...

Before we go any further - please understand that creative emulation should not be confused with outright plagiarism. Creative emulation is art of studying and observing all sorts of effective (and successful) marketing techniques and concepts that companies totally outside of your own industry are using and creatively adapting variations of these concepts to your own business.

Let me give you an example of what I mean to better understand the potential.

It is common for health clubs to use EFT to bill their members each month. This technology has reduced deliquency, made clubs tons of money and simplified the lives of members. We took this same approach and applied it to selling personal training. The clients were already experiencing EFT billing with the health club so applying this approach for their in-club services wasn't a stretch.

Did it work for us?

Did it ever!

We have absolutely no resistance to this approach, over 80% of our clients sign 12 month training contracts and we consistently have penetration rates over 350% better than the industry average when it comes to % of club members using trainers.

I could point out other examples but I think you get the point.

But in case you don't see Creative Emulation for the opportunity it is - here's a couple of thoughts on the concept:

1) It's not only acceptable - it's a great idea to emulate someone else's concept particularly when you see evidence that it is successful.

2) Some of the most successful and profitable breakthroughs I've ever seen were common approaches in one industry that were successfully applied in another.

How can you start using Creative Emulation?

Be nosy. Look for ways you can use things you see at the theater, the coffee shop or the video store and apply them to your business.
Read, read, read. Read magazines that chronicle success stories and business stories. Read books about business. You'll be amazed by what you pick up.
Take action. Test ideas that you come up with based on what you discover. Some will flop, but often you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results. Besides, the odds of success are greater since it's already worked in another industry.

I don't know if I'll be making another post this week. Trying to get caught up after the weekend in Florida, the flood and prepping to be out of town for the Ryan Lee Bootcamp might prevent me from posting. We'll see.

If you are going to the Bootcamp, I will be there along with Nick Berry, Holly and Randy Campbell, our VP of Training Services. Nick and I will be spending alot of time in the lobby catching up with our clients, customers and subscribers - so make sure to come and say hello.

Later.

Secrets of Highly Successful Trainers

2006-09-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

I'll be hit-and-miss over the next couple of weeks as I'm going to Florida to hang out with my wife for 3 days and then next week I'm off to the Ryan Lee Bootcamp (hopefully you are too.) So today I'm going to give you some "secrets" that seem to separate the best in the industry from the average.

Here goes...

Secret #1 Highly Successful Trainers Don't Sell Training.

No, I haven't been drinking. A big secret of successful trainers is that they don't sell training. Instead, they focus on selling the benefits they offer, the value they provide, and the results their clients achieve.

People don't want to see pictures of you on your site's homepage oiled up and posing. Some of them don't even care if you're certified. They'd happily sit on the couch if it would produce the results they want.

When it comes to doing business with a you or any other company, people only care about what's in it for them.

They have a problem and they are asking you, "Do you have a solution?" Your services are simply the process you use to solve problems and achieve the results.

Don't sell the process - sell the results and focus on the benefits.

Secret #2 Highly Successful Trainers Spend More on Marketing.

I personally believe this is a distinguishing factor between financially successful trainers and unsuccessful ones because of 3 reasons:

1. Spending money on your business demonstrates a level of commitment. It says, "I'm here and I'm serious about growing my business."

2. Consistently investing in marketing displays that you have a financial plan - a budget for growing your business.

3. Investing in marketing is a premeditated action designed to provide a return on investment. As I've mentioned before - success starts with action.

Fitness Together studios typically outperform independents...often by a large margin. I believe that this is based on soley on a commitment to marketing.

Secret #3 Top Trainers Use Business Coaching.

Jim Labadie and Ryan Lee both used Debbie Cohen to improve their businesses. I gather that Craig Ballantyne had / has a business coach as well.

Will it guarantee your success?

NO.

Can you be financially successful without hiring a coach?

YES.

People can lose fat without a trainer. Would they do even better with one.

Probably.

Having a plan, accountability, motivation and an objective perspective can go a long way. If you can't use a coach right now - at least invest in information products and seminars. You'll more than recover your investment.

Secret #4 Highly Successful Coaches Leverage Their Knowledge.

Being seen as a fitness resource or “fitness-guru” is increasingly valuable in our society and one of the best ways to do this is to leverage your knowledge — actively find ways to package and sell your expertise through printed books, how-to manuals, CDs, membership sites, CD-ROMs, e-books and videos.

Virtually every top trainer has created multiple products because they recognize creating products leads to several major benefits including:

Enhances their credibility

Creates opportunities for multiple streams of revenue

Opens up doors for speaking engagements and seminars

It can be sold on-line 24/7 and can be sold anywhere in the world at any time

The amount of money you collect is not directly tied to your time

People thirst for information and they are going to get it somewhere. Hell, there are over 4000 diet books currently in print alone. Why not take advantage of this huge opportunity.

Disclaimer – If you have not established yourself as a trainer that can consistently deliver results – don’t start writing e-books and making videos. Master your craft and then start creating products. The world needs another shitty fitness product about as much as it needs another reality show.

Secret #5 Highly Successful Trainers Do More Than Just 1-on-1 Training.

They spend some of their time conducting training or holding seminars.

They offer multiple products and services to clients.

They work with small groups.

They see 1-on-1 training as one of the services they offer to people, not the only service. They also use each of their services to cross-sell and up sell their other services.

Rarely are great professionals a “one-trick pony.” They almost always have more than one revenue stream and more than one way to deliver their expertise.

Have a great weekend!

Fitness Business Finances

2006-09-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

Since I've recently been sharing how you can apply E-Myth strategies to improve and grow your business, I thought I'd give you some questions that you can use to evaluate to financial side of your business based on questions put forth in the E-Myth. Enjoy.

1. Is your business operating at a net profit or at a net loss?

2. Have your gross annual revenues been increasing, decreasing, erratic, flat?

Why do you think that is?

3. How is your cash flow? Excellent, good, fair, poor or inconsistent?

4. How often do you pay your bills on time? Always, most of the time, not very often or almost never?

5. Are you able to make payroll? How do you pay yourself?

6. Are you comfortable with the amount of debt you have? Is it short-term or long-term debt? Are you on a structured payback schedule?

7. How is your revenue base distributed among your clients?

8. What payment terms do you require of your clients? EFT model, Due on receipt, 15 days, 30 days?

9. How old are your Accounts Receivable collections? Under 20 days, between 30 and 40 days, between 60 and 90 days, over 90 days, don't know?

10. What kinds of financial reports do you generate on a regular basis? Profit and loss, balance sheet, statement of cash flow, budget, projections, none?

11. How often do you generate these financial reports? Weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually?

12. For the reports you produce, how much of the information do you understand and use? All of it, at least 75%, between 50% and 75%, between 25% and 50% or less than 25%?

13. How do you manage and control on-site expenses? Do you have a system to collect, track and reconcile on-site or employee-incurred expenses?

14. If applicable, can your on-site supervisors sign for orders? Do they have a signing limit?

15. Have you allocated funds for care and upkeep of equipment, etc.?

16. Who writes checks, makes deposits and reconciles bank statements? Is it all the same person? Do you trust them? Do you review your bank statements?

Some probably won't apply to you unless you own several locations. Many will. Answer them and learn from them.

Increasing Your Business Profitability

2006-09-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an article I'll be sending out in tomorrow's edition of the Fitness Riches Newsletter. It's long - but it's worth the time.

Check it out at:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/fitness-business-profitability.html

Talk to you later.

The Business Of Personal Training – Prioritization

2006-09-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

In the last several posts and articles I’ve written, I have explored the question of structuring a business for success, but where does one start? Let us assume that you have started working on the business and that you have analyzed the business using the concepts I’ve previously talked about. If so you’re probably thinking “where do I begin?”

Quite frequently confusion arises between opportunities and weaknesses. For instance, you may have incorrectly assumed that preparing systems to operate your business, so as to have a better handle on the business would be an opportunity for improving the business. No! The absence of well-constructed systems actually indicates a weakness in the business. In other words developing systems should be a routine part of every business. Of course systems are likely to improve the chances of success, but their absence only indicates weakness in your current approach.

Not surprisingly, we generally find that there are some under-exploited opportunities in most businesses. It often takes an outsider to see those opportunities because the owners are so caught up in the detail that they see the individual trees and are blind to the forest.

Having mentioned these different items, the next step is to build on your strengths, eliminate weaknesses and exploit opportunities. Believe me, you will have a fair list of things to do, so back to the question of where to start.

Quite obviously some issues will be very important while others, though not as important, will be urgent. Thus we can categorize each item according to its importance and its urgency. Human nature being what it is we tend to handle the urgent, pressing problems first while ignoring those aspects that may have a far greater impact on the success of the business. For that reason the cardinal rule is to always prioritize first according to importance. Building on that idea - I have developed a simple numerical system for determining importance.

An item rated ‘1’ will have virtually no impact on the success of the business. A ‘3’ indicates it would be nice if this could be done but is of little consequence in determining success. Five means this is item is very important to the success of the business while a ‘10’ means this issue will either make or break the business depending upon whether it is positive or negative. There are unlikely to be many ‘10’s in your list but if there are they will most likely fall in the category of opportunity or threat. You better pay attention to them even if they are not at all urgent. Therefore, the next step is to establish how urgent each issue is. It may be that an item which is a ‘5’ in terms of importance is very much more urgent than something rated a ‘10’ and therefore should take precedence.

We use 1 to 10 to rate urgency, where a ‘1’ means not at all urgent but a ‘10’ means it should have been done yesterday. In summary you should now have a list of things that need to be done. Rather than a mere jumbled list each item will be rated first according to its importance and secondly according to its urgency. Instead of simply jumping from crisis to crisis it provides a base for achieving a successful business.

The E-Myth Approach For Fitness Pros

2006-09-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Michael Gerber's classic book, The E-Myth, sets out a series of steps that every personal trainer needs to take to grow a business. Gerber's fundamental belief is that most businesses fail because most business owners are not really entrepreneurs. Instead, they are what he calls "technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure." In other words, they don't own a business; they own a job.

For that reason, these so-called entrepreneurs start businesses that enslave them, causing them to do every job without a break, 24/7. They move from one project to the next, and make no time to step back and think.

Sound familiar?

The way out of this hole is to figure out how to get your business to run without you. That way, you don't have to worry about being in two different places at once!

Gerber breaks down the following steps for shifting from a technician to a true entrepreneur:

Step 1: Think differently about money.

Money has four aspects in his model:

1. Income
2. Profit
3. Flow
4. Equity

Most trainers (technicians) think predominantly about income -- the money you get paid for going to work every day. Income is what you get when you operate as a contractor-as-employee. When you want to shift to a contractor-as-owner, income becomes perhaps the least important of the four aspects.

Meanwhile, profit is investment capital that feeds and supports your growth, rewards people, shores up capital shortfalls, and rewards the owner for taking risks. Thinking about profit instead of income is an essential shift you have to make if you are to move from being an independent contractor to a business owner.

Flow is the way money moves through your business; when you manage the flow of money appropriately, you have the power to grow your business more effectively and efficiently. Every entrepreneur needs to control the way money flows in and out of his or her business.

Finally, equity is the value a buyer would place on your business. Entrepreneurs need to think about creating equity in their business by making it a sustainable, valuable operation -- with or without the current owner. This means having systems, products, processes, and solid marketing methods.

Step 2: Develop processes so that you replace yourself with others.
You have to stop working in the business and start working on it. The best way to do that is to become aware of when you're filling an owner's shoes vs. an employee's shoes.

For jobs that could be delegated to an employee or another trainer, your role is to find the best way to do that job, and then document it. Next, replace yourself with someone who (after being trained on the system you've just created) can do the job and teach it to others. Finally, manage the system by quantifying its success, and improving upon it. Repeat this process every time you find yourself being an employee rather than an owner.

Step 3: Develop a plan.

Gerber introduces what he calls the Planning Triangle, or three types of plans every entrepreneur needs to have. The first is a business plan, which determines what the business is, including its purpose and vision. The second is a "job plan" that documents everything your employees need to know, have, and do in order to get a job done on time, every time, as promised. This is a detailed set of job/process descriptions that rivals a franchise system like McDonald's (a company that Gerber refers to often). Finally, you need a "completion plan," which is a set of benchmarks or standards that tells you that you have completed the job with the budget, quality, and time frame promised.

So you need not one, but three plans. The first tells you who you are. The second tells you what you do. The third tells you how you do it.

Step 4: Understand what it means to manage.

Gerber wisely notes that you don't manage people, but processes. As a business owner, you should develop step-by-step ways of doing things in order to create a consistent system that gets results. As a trainer, you should have metrics for success and processes for the following tasks, among many others:

• Sales presentations
• Assessments
• Communicating with clients
• Program design
• Delivering or supervising the workouts
• Asking for re-signs and referrals
• Upselling the client
• Tracking progress
• Transitioning clients from one trainer to another

A good process allows you to measure whether you're getting the same results every time and, if not, how to change to process to improve it.

Step 5: Change the way you work with people.

Gerber asserts that, without people, you don't have a company. You have a job. To effectively work with others, especially employees and sub-contractors, it is essential to add them in a systematic way.

You need a system that explicitly communicates the talent and skills you seek, a system to teach new trainers so that they know what to do, a set of standards so that you can set expectations, and a process to help them improve over time. Without these systems in place, your people will do more harm than good.

Step 6: Develop a system to understand, communicate with, and delight clients.

Without a marketing system, you won't be able to grow your business effectively.

Step 7: Keep growing.

According to Gerber, a business that stops growing will die. One of your primary roles as business owner is to infuse your business with purpose, passion, will, belief, personality and method (systems again!).

The E-Myth model is simple but surprisingly underutilized in our industry...but it's comprehensive and it works. I'll be discussing it more over the next couple of days.

The First Of My Promised "E-Myth Articles"

2006-09-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Many fitness pros dream of building a training business that is bigger than a one-person enterprise.

They recognize the obvious benefits of creating a business that is more than a "one man band":

- The financial benefits of increased revenues and, eventually, profits
- Building a business with equity value, that can be sold for substantial rewards
- The status and esteem that comes from owning a "real" business
- Leveraging your time, because other people are doing lots of the work (while you retain the profits)
- The satisfaction of employing and developing other people
- The enjoyment that sometimes comes from spending more time on "big-picture" issues, and less time on mundane details and daily "fires"

Unfortunately, many fitness professionals are unsure how to take the necessary steps to build a sustainable business. Just to give you an example, here's what one trainer recently told me:

"My clients rave about me, and I can get anyone great results. I'm overwhelmed with all the clients I can handle, but realize that just training client after client is not the way to go over the long term. I want to build a company, but I don't know the first thing about managing a business. For instance, how can I even find time to grow a business if I am overwhelmed as it is? And every time I look for good people to hire, they want "big money" and then they often turn out to be undependable. What do I do?"

Does this sound familiar?

The issues that this trainer raises are quite common.

So here are some questions that the prospective business owner should consider before they embark on building a business.

Caveat Emptor: Are You Sure You Want To Do This?

First, a few important warnings. Many people would rather dream about building a business than go through the process to actually do it. Put another way, lots of trainers want to own their own studio, but don't want to endure the pain, frustration, and perseverance that's often required to build one.

"Studio owner? It sounds so good! No more fitness director! No more paying half my fees to the gym...and you're in charge!

It all sounds good but before you make the choice to build a business, be sure that you understand the following caveats:

1. It will be much harder work than you ever imagined, and -- at least initially -- will increase, rather than decrease, the time you spend working. A business takes on a life of its own, and can often consume you. Be ready to endure sleepless nights and worried weekends as you obsess about how to pay your bills, grow revenues, handle tough employee issues, and deal with immediate crises. Are you sure you want this kind of pressure?

2. A common rule of thumb is that it takes twice as long and twice as much money to get a business off the ground as you originally thought it would. There are smart ways to grow that can mitigate this rule of thumb, but it is best to be conservative. If you don't have a solid cushion of reserves to keep your business and personal needs satisfied (say, for 1-2 years), you should wait until you have a more stable financial base.

3. You will have to shift away from work you may love (e.g. training clients) and into work that you may find brutally tedious (e.g. bookkeeping, recruiting and managing people, payroll, marketing, human resource issues, legal issues, and putting systems in place) -- but this shift is essential if you're to build a company. Do you really want to spend your time doing this kind of work?

4. While many people go into business to satisfy their egos, they often find that the best way to build a business is to get out of the way and put your ego aside. Otherwise, you'll never "replace yourself." Many would-be entrepreneurs aren't willing to give up this level of control or credit. Are you building a business that's about you, or one that's about a sustainable organization?

5. You'll need to have incredible patience with other people. It takes time and effort to build and manage a team. Many independent contractors became independent contractors in the first place because they don't like dealing with other people (except when they are paying clients). If you don't love working with, negotiating with, resolving conflicts with, and collaborating with others, don't take this path.

6. Those who have families to support may be disappointed to learn that some spouses and parents are not as supportive as you want or need them to be. That's because many family members don't know what it takes to run a business, are satisfied with how things are going now, and are afraid to take on new risks. Be ready for some family strife as you get your business going, and don't rely on family members for support when you hit road bumps -- get that support from other business owners.

7. There are no guarantees. Most businesses don't make it past their first year, usually because of inadequate capital and poor planning. Launching a business is very different from creating a successful company that survives and thrives, and there is a chance that you will fail. Of course, the best entrepreneurs handle this issue by jumping into a new venture only when they have eliminated as many risks as possible (e.g. they have a financial cushion, a stable base of clients already in place, etc.). Do you have the stomach to make a leap with no guarantee of success?

8. Closely related to #7, there will never be perfect information or certainty when you launch your business. Many independent professionals are analytical by nature -- they want to know that a market exists for their services, and intend to plan out exactly what kinds of numbers they can achieve. Planning is good, but you have to be willing to endure ambiguity and incomplete information. That means making decisions and taking action with 60-75% of the information you need, and leaving the rest to your instincts. Lots of people can't handle this kind of uncertainty. Can you?

9. Finally, to build a business, you need to make marketing a priority. Many independent contractors get by on word of mouth, but that's not enough to grow a substantial enterprise. Are you willing to make marketing a priority?

We all know people who talk constantly about how "someday" they will start their own business. Many of these people never seem to take action. Why? The answer is that they get stuck at one of the above considerations. They like to talk about what's possible, because that's a lot easier than taking action and risking failure. While it can be annoying to listen to someone ramble on and on about their dreams, at least they're making the right decision to think hard about these very important issues.

Okay, are you sure you want to do this? If so, read tomorrow's post…

Resources To Help You Grow Your Business

2006-09-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

A while back I posted some of the books I'd read recently and got a lot of feedback...I guess it is always nice to be able to have someone else do some of the sifting for you to get to the "good stuff." I'll offer some other books and the audios that are great resources soon, but I figured I'd share some of the sites that I think are great resources for fitness entrepreneurs...Basically the places I check out regularly. So in no particular order, here they are:

http://turbulencetraining.blogspot.com/ - Craig Ballantyne is not only provides great fitness / fat loss info, but also provides a great "case study" in how to build your own "fitness empire" rather than just training clients all day long.

http://www.alwyncosgrove.com - I personally think Alwyn is the most well-rounded fitness entrepreneur in the industry. Owns a successful facility, great trainer, popular speaker, leverages his knowledge with infoproducts and articles. Another role model for trainers wanting to be successful.

http://www.fitnesswebsitedesign.com - Allen Hill is truly unique in that he not only understands the technical stuff that can get you results online (and has the ability to "dumb it down for guys like me), but he's also a fitness professional so he understands our needs. he's definitely filled a void in the industry.

http://www.billhartman.blogspot.com - Bill doesn't post too often, but everything he says is valuable. He's tremendously intelligent and has done something that most every trainer should consider - he's found a niche (golf) and become the go-to-guy for golfers all over the country (maybe world...I'd have to ask). He's the best "fitness niche role model" there is and he's a great writer to boot.

http://www.personaltraineru.com - Ryan Lee has the best fitness business forum online as well as a great selection of articles and interviews. If you haven't noticed, Ryan also always seems to be a half-step ahead of everyone else when trends start to happen or new technology emerges. If he's doing something, it's always worth a second look.

http://www.trainandgrowrich.com - I really enjoy Jim Labadie's stuff. I look forward to his newsletters and articles and have bought ALL of his products. If you want to learn how to sell your services, get more publicity or achieve a mindset programmed for success - Jim's your guy.

http://www.nickberry.blogspot.com - Nick's my business partner on 3 separate businesses but I still check out his blog regularly (I had to twist his arm to launch it). He is the sharpest guy I know when it comes to retail and financing and brings a different angle on some of the same things I talk about like systems and building a business so it has maximum resale value.

http://www.earlytorise.com - Craig Ballantyne turned me on to this and it's a great newsletter to get. They offer advice ranging from wealth and business building to health and exercise. They also promote some pretty infoproducts.

http://www.t-nation.com - One of the best resources online for training and nutrition advice that cuts through the bullshit.

http://www.elitefts.com - Same as T-Nation...Great training info...Zero bullshit.

http://www.marketingbestpractices.com - David Frey site. He's a great marketer in the Jay Abraham & Dan Kennedy mold that has a forum he regularly posts on as well as a good blog.

http://www.johnberardi.com - John and Chris Mohr are the people I look to for information on nutrition. Great site, lots of content and his products are must-have and reasonably priced.

http://forums.jpfitness.com/ - J.P. has built the best forum on the net for training and nutrition guidance. Many of the people I've mentioned are regulars there.

http://www.ebay.com - When you're an info junkie like I am, Ebay is a great place to find deals on those pricey CD Series. Not bad for tickets for Buckeyes games either :)

http://www.amazon.com - I'm a book junkie...sue me. They also have this cool deal called Amazon Prime where you pay $80 and get unlimited 2 day shipping on all orders.

http://www.bmyers.com/ - This guy is a genius. He knows everything about product development, membership sites...you name it. Sharp guy.

There are more, but that will get you started. I should tell you though...when I look for things on guys like Craig's and Alwyn's sites - I'm not only looking for their expertise on exercise but maybe more importantly, I'm looking for the way they approach their businesses. Their copy, their types of products, who they market to, etc. I've heard it said hundreds of times but it's worth repeating: "Success leaves clues."

Have a great weekend!

P.S. - Go Buckeyes!

The Two Most Important Attributes

2006-09-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

I thought that today I'd shift gears a little and talk about what I think it takes to be a successful fitness entrepreneur (or a successful anything, for that matter). While I believe that there are many attributes that go into being successful, in my mind there are two that stand out above the rest:

The Willingness To Take Action

The Ability To Persevere

Sure, having intelligence is important, but I know plenty of broke, smart people. Often, they are "too smart for their own good" and think they can always beat the system and never have to put in the sweat equity necessary to succeed.

Having knowledge is great too, but I've run into plenty of trainers and coaches that have every letter of the alphabet after their name and will swear up and down that they know as much as "that Cosgrove guy" but strangely enough, they don't own a tremendously successful facility, have a dozen products out and aren't in great demand to write and speak.

Having talent / potential is nice too. Some things come easy for people...good for them. But I recall back in my coaching days - I'd go recruiting and all the other coaches would be raving about this guys potential or drooling about the players time on the stopwatch. I never was too interested in all that...I wanted people who would perform. Ironically enough, my "performers" would almost always kick the shit out of their "potential." Holds true outside of sports just the same.

See, most people are unwilling to take real action. They're "security people." Unfortunately, opportunity and security are inversely proportionate. You know the deal...no risk, no reward.

It's no different than people saying that "they'll start eating right next week" - only next week turns into next month, then next year. Every successful achievement begins with a decision to take action. I can't tell you how many people I know that throw out good (or great) ideas for books, businesses or products - that stay just that - an idea. I know plenty of successful / wealthy people that I consider to be of average intelligence...but they took action and continue to take action.

I'll be the first to admit, there have been times that I've considered doing something, only to get distracted, get lazy or simply take the path of least resistance - do nothing. But every success that I've enjoyed has been a direct result of me making a decision and taking action.

The second part of this equation is having the ability to persevere. I promise you that if you launch your own business, take on a new project, embrace a new challenge...there will be stumbling blocks along the way. Construction will be delayed, visitors won't come flocking to your site like expected, a marketing campaign will bomb, a key employee will quit. You name it - it will happen. Oh well. That's part of the deal.

I know a guy that has come up with (at least) three separate business ideas, acted on them and laid the groundwork to get them started and invested a significant amount of time, energy and money to bring them to launch. Each time he has moved on to his next "great idea" without even recovering his initial investment in the previous venture. The thing is, any of these businesses could have been lucrative. They were all good ideas in niches that there was little or no competition. Each time I said to myself: "why didn't I think of that." But he (and my others) couldn't handle adversity. When the customers didn't trip over one another coming to his sites or businesses, he folded.

Let me tell you...I don't care how many great ideas he has - he'll NEVER have success with them until he's willing to "weather the storm."

So that's it - my two "secrets to success" that anyone can utilize to achieve their goals. Nothing profound, but most of the best "stuff" is simply common sense.

Two Ways To Skin A Cat

2006-09-06T06:34:00.001-07:00

There are a couple different approaches to pricing services and products - high mark-up and low mark-up. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about...

The average retail store marks up their inventory 100% and turns their inventory over 1 time per year.

Sam's Club marks up their inventory about 15% and turns over their inventory 15 times per year.

So not only does Sam's make almost double the profit over the course of the year, but they also have better cashflow and are able to negotiate better terms with vendors because of the turnover frequency.

Why do I tell you this?

Am I suggesting that you lower your prices?

Not really. But what I am suggesting is that you create some offerings at lower price points than standard one-on-one training. Offer once-per-month program design and assessment, small group training or something like Brian Calkins 16 week Complete Fitness Transformation program. He gets six people in a group and they meet every other week for 16 weeks.

The semi-private and group offerings are a great way to utilize this strategy. Smaller margins per person - but significantly more people.

You can utilize this approach in selling information products as well - but with a slightly different angle. You could pay more commission to affiliates than others to entice them to promote your products more heavily. You could price your "entryway" products very affordably and get more customers into your "funnel" - then sell then bigger margin items down the road.

I just wanted to present another perspective - different from the typical "raise your prices" approach that we often see. I'm a BIG fan of getting top dollar for your time and effort, but sometimes making a lot on the first sale prevents the second sale from ever happening. If you can truly overdeliver early, you'll be more likely to have a customer / client for life.

Talk to you later.

The Tipping Point

2006-09-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't about the popular book (certainly worth reading.)

It's my belief that everyone has tipping points. Until you reach your tipping point, you typically don't take action. Once you've reached it - you have to act.

Think about it. How many people drive by the gym saying "I'll start next week" or conclude every week saying they'll start eating right on Monday? I don't know, but it's safe to say that number is much larger than the number of people who actually take action.

Well, for the purposes of selling personal training, my concept of the tipping point is valuable for three reasons. Here they are:

1. If you work in a health club setting, often people join the club because they've reached their tipping point. They saw an unflattering photo of themselves, their favorite jeans no longer fit or their significant other just told them to hit the bricks. This is obviously a great time to help them achieve their goals by taking them on as a client. When people join the gym they're essentially saying that making a change is important enough for them to part with their money and their time. That's the big step for most. Now simply get them to take one more step - investing in personal training.

2. By asking the right questions in your consultation / orientation / introductory session (a.k.a. - sales opportunity) - you can help nudge those people who are on the fence of reaching their tipping point into action. Ask open ended questions and dig deep enough to discover their true pain or motivation. The right questioning will often eliminate the tire kickers and cause people to take action.

3. Follow up. Many people that were "thinking about it" haven't actually reached their tipping point. They are considering making some changes in their lifestyle and habits because they've recognized some things they're uncomfortable with, but they haven't reached that point of no return where they MUST make a change. By following up, keeping a tickler file or sending monthly newsletters, you maintain top of mind awareness for that time when they do reach their tipping point. Trust me. They will reach it. We all do.

Just something to think about.

Can The 'Net Make You Money?

2006-09-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Trainers ask me all the time if I think they can use the internet to make more money. I think they've seen the success of guys like Ryan Lee and Jim Labadie marketing to trainers and others like Alwyn Cosgrove and Craig Ballantyne marketing to the fitness consumer and get dollar signs in their eyes. Well, I have no doubt that any smart trainer can generate a steady stream of revenue through the internet, so I thought I'd list several ways you can improve your bottom line through using the internet...and a couple of the ways that I don't think will work.

1. A Lead Generator For Your Offline Services - This is the obvious and underutilized route for making more money online. By marketing your services online, you know have a 24 hour salesperson working for you. My good friend Brian Calkins has made over $12,000 in a month strictly from online lead generation. Now don't go thinking that just slapping up a site with your bio and credentials will make you money...Because it won't. You need strong, benefit rich copy, a way to drive people to your site and a call to action if you want to have anything more than an online shrine to your business. However, if you do it right, a lead generation site can become one of your biggest marketing tools.

2. A Means Of Increasing Your Lifetime Client Value - If you don't have an online newsletter, you're definintely leaving money on the table. You can keep in touch with your clients each week or two with newsletter that provides valuable information (so they actually read it.) If you provide good enough content that compels your clients to look forward to getting your newsletter, you've already kept them engaged as a customer. They already are more likely to use your services frequently and for a longer period. But you can also upsell them to bigger purchases, perriphial purchases and cause them generate referrals when you present well constructed offers. Another benefit of newsletters is that they allow you to stay in contact with inactive clients and prospects - continually building value in your services.

3. Sell Your Knowledge - If you can deliver results, the internet provides you a worldwide platform to market to. You can package your techniques, systems and strategies into e-books, videos or membership sites (or any combination of those or other delivery methods) and sell them to a much bigger pool of prospects than you could ever hope to reach through other means. The weight loss / fitness market is among the biggest pool of hungry consumers available (just watch infomercials, they keep you up to date about what's "hot.")

4. Create A Niche - Guys like Bill Hartman have found niches of really hungry prospective customers (in in his case, golfers) and developed offerings around that. Niching is a great approach for any business to more effectively target prospects and cater to their needs and online the results can be magnified. If you can position yourself as the (or one of the) experts in a particular niche, you can parlay that into sales and profits pretty easily.

5. Forums - If you can put together a successful forum, you now are the gathering area for a particular group of people. You can monetize forums by selling ads, making the forum membership based or selling relevant products. This is a little less popular approach, but it can be one of the best because it keeps people engaged and returning.

And what I think won't work:

Selling shitty stuff. It's no different than offline businesses...the best marketing in the world will just put you out of business quicker - people will soon figure out that it's all sizzle and no steak.
Try to jump on the bandwagon when you have no new or relevant information to share. Whether your marketing to trainers, golfers or martial artists, there are already established, reputable "experts" in those and most all other niches. This doesn't mean you can't have success selling to these markets - or any market - it just means you better have something new, different and valuable if you're going to break into the market.
Gimmicks. All the stuff like link farms and work clouds are shit. You may make a quick buck but you'll soon establish yourself as someone with no integrity or credibility.

If you want to start integrating online streams of profits into your business or want to improve the internet presence that you already have - in my mind there is one expert and one alone - Allen Hill. He's the guru of fitness websites. Allen just launched a new product, The Ultimate Fitness Website Profit System (I was fortunate enough to be asked to interview him for this kick-ass product) - a comprehensive approach to building your own online fitness empire. Everyone from Eric Ruth and Alwyn Cosgrove to Jim Labadie and Craig Ballantyne have sought out Allen for his expertise. You now have the chance to use his strategies and techniques to help you enjoy the same success these guys do. Check it out at:

http://www.fitnesswebsiteprofits.com

You'll be happy you did.

Later.

The Best Way To Attract New Clients

2006-08-31T09:08:00.000-07:00

Referrals should be the life-blood of your business.

But I’ll bet that’s not the case.

In fact, I’m betting that you get a couple here and there, are thrilled when you get them, but have no clue how to ensure you keep getting them…consistently and automatically.

Well, we’re going to change that.

But before we do I want to make certain that you understand why referrals are so much better than other prospects.

A referred client does not need to be sold. Unlike other prospects, a referral comes to you 95% pre-qualified and predisposed to doing business with you.

A referred client will refer to you. When a client comes to you by way of a referral, she is much more likely to refer to you as well. It’s a behavioral thing. The best referrers have generally been referred.

A referred client is easier to work with.

In most cases, a referred client is more motivated, more trusting and more loyal. This is a function of the referral process. The referrer most likely said some very positive things about you. The referrer trusts you enough to refer to you. The referral trusts the referrer, that’s why she’s come to you. And now that trust has been logically extended to you.

A referred client can be more profitable. The marketing investment to obtain referrals can be comparatively inexpensive, sometimes even free. Plus they are more likely to refer to you, are generally easier to work with and tend to stay with you longer.

So now that you understand why referrals are the best prospects, let’s work on creating an approach that generates a steady stream of them.

It’s a very simple system:

Earn
Ask
Reward

Earn – Seems simple enough. Do a great job. Overdeliver. Never be late. Send hand-written notes and birthday cards. Know all the details that matter like the name of your clients’ kids, what they do for a living, when their anniversary. Send gifts and show real appreciation for your clients doing business with you.

The more you give, the more you’ll get.

Ask – Let everyone know from day one that they’re required to be a “walking billboard” for you. Educate your clients about what type of person you want as a client (it helps if they fit the mold) and ask them to refer anyone who might be your “ideal client.” Send a newsletter each month, in which you recognize the clients who have referred to you. You might even start a “referral rewards” club. This will help strengthen the referral culture. Ask your clients for names and contact info of people who might be interested in receiving your newsletter – this is kind of a “soft referral.” You can send the newsletter and a free report compliments of the referrer. One other simple way to generate prospective referrals is to gather names and addresses of 3-5 close friends, family members and co-workers on the day someone becomes your client. Let your client know you want this for 2 reasons…you want to send the free newsletter & report as a gift from them and to take steps to educate those around them to facilitate a environment that leads to success.

Reward – You need to reward clients (everyone really) for the action of referring, not just when you close the sale. It can be as simple as a phone call or a card. It also could be a personal gift like a book by a favorite author or a gift card to their favorite store. No matter – the key is reinforcing the action of referring. You might even offer cash (everyone’s favorite gift.) Your clients will soon be referring prospects left and right.

Referrals are like any other facet of business – you can’t be shortsighted. You need to be consistent and ask every client, send newsletters each month and reward every referral. Eventually, you’ll hit “critical mass” and referrals will be flowing t you like water. Your list will grow and you may be forced to accept clients only by referral. Just be patient and do the work. It will pay off.

Retention - Are You Just Hoping They Stay?

2006-08-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

Everyone talks about retention, but how many people actually have systems in place to ensure they reap maximum reward from what should be the lifeblood of their businesses?

10%?

Probably 10% at best.

Most trainers approach to retention is this: "If I'm getting my clients great results they won't leave." I don't think I'd define that as a systematic approach.

We all know (at least I think we do) that it's much more expensive to acquire a client than it is to keep one. So why so little attention to keeping them and so much to new business?

Well, it wouldn't be fair for me to point out the wrong way without providing an alternative, now would it? So here are some tips for improving your retention:

Retention

1. Learn everything you can about your clients. Brian Calkins (one of the smartest trainers anywhere) created a form modeled after Harvey Mackay's "Mackay's 66"- a questionnaire in his book Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. Brian and his staff know everything from their clients' anniversaries to their favorite music. (I'm trying to get Brian to do a product detailing all the things that he does to separate himself from the pack. Cross your fingers.)

2. Use what you learn. Send cards and notes during special occasions. Play client's favorite music when they're training (when you can), mention family members by name. People love special attention. Give it to them.

3. Constant Contact. Dan Kennedy suggests contacting your clients at least 26 times per year outside of the times they are actually doing business. Send weekly email newsletters (Cliff Latham's is awesome...Check it out at www.clifflatham.com), send monthly or at least quarterly "snail mail newsletters, send the cards and notes in just mentioned. Have special client appreciation events. Make them really appreciate doing business with you.

4. Use the "Velvet Rope." Ryan Lee and Jim Labadie really pushed this concepts last year and it's brilliant (wait to see the "buzzword this year...It's going to be worth big $$$$.) Make clients feel fortunate to be able to do business with you. If they don't take you for granted they're less likely to leave.

5. Clients must make commitments. If you're clients are on contracts they are automatically retained. It goes back to the velvet rope thing...Only accept people will to make a commitment. Over 80% of our clients are on 12 month contracts. I believe that Alwyn Cosgrove only offers 3 month and 12 month programs. There is some piece of mind with this approach. If you're not constantly having to re-sell them, you can focus on getting to know the clients and develop a long-term strategy for getting results.

6. Have flexible plans. Develop programs that have the clients with a trainer 3 sessions per week for 2 months, 2 sessions per week for 4 months and 1 session per week for 6 months. You now have a client retained for 12 months. Offer "continuous success" programs where you'll meet with people and provide program design and assessment on a monthly basis. By being flexible you can keep people on board that would typically drop off.

This is probably just scratching the surface, but I think it's a good start. I'll talk about referrals in a couple of days.

PS - Jim Labadie asked me to write an article about systems for his newsletter that went out today. Needless to say, I was very flattered as I am not aware of Jim asking anyone to do that before. I'm certain he doesn't make a habit of it. If you don't subscribe to his newsletter, you're really missing out...It's one of the few that I really look forward to. You can subscribe at:

www.trainandgrowrich.com.

Talk to you later.

How's Your Back-End?

2006-08-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

Back-end offers, regardless of what type of training business you run, are what makes the difference between marginal profits and truly staggering profits. Working your back-end is a snap. You simply make regularly scheduled offers to your client base.

Look, if you've come anywhere close to delivering what you promised to your clients, you've established a tremendous amount of trust and goodwill among them. All it takes to harvest the rewards of this goodwill is an offer from you.

Let me give you a quick example:

Say you sign up a client to train with you or your staff twice a week. Let's assume that you do assessments every eight weeks or so.

Well, when their assessment comes up, you have an offer ready regardless of the progress that they've made. If I were trying to sell our Weight Management program on the back end I might approach it like this:

"Ms. Jones, you've done a great job! You're bodyfat has dropped by 3%, you've lost X number of inches in your waist, Y number of inches in your hips, etc. Now if you really want to keep the results coming at this rapid pace we probably need to really focus on tightening up your nutrition. I would strongly suggest that we enroll you in our 16 week nutritional coaching program to continue to maximize your progress. Would you rather join the morning or the evening class?"

Simple enough. But what if Ms. Jones' results were less than desirable. We might use this approach:

"Ms. Jones, I can see that you're disappointed in your progress. I understand. Well I can attest to the fact that you're doing a great job each time you come to the gym. Your workouts are great, you train hard and I see you performing your cardiovascular work and flexibility work religiously. That really only leaves one variable...your nutrition. I know you said that you try to eat right but what I suggest that we do is to enroll you in our 16 week nutritional coaching program to ensure that you'll start getting the results that you're working so hard for. Would you rather join the morning or the evening class?"

I'm sure that you can say it more eloquently than that, but you get the picture.

One other way (there are many) that you can ensure back-end profits is to lock clients into annual contracts or at least 6 month contracts - then you've built in back-end sales from day one. FYI - over 80% of our clients are on 12 month contracts...So it can be done. I'll elaborate on this underutilized strategy in another post soon.

Remember - acquiring the client is the tough part. Columbia House has made tons of money with their "get ten CD's for a penny" offer because of the back-end. Virtually every informercial you see is based on that same premise. You just have to consistently create enticing back-end offers for your happy clients. You'll quickly see their lifetime value jump. Probably even double or more.

So when you're looking for ways to make more money - start with your existing clients. I might even suggest allocating up to 50% of your marketing budget on internal marketing. I promise, you'll be happy you did.

Before I sign off for today - I want to tell you about my business partner Nick Berry's new blog. I would never say to it his face (I'll delete from this blog ASAP so there is no public record too) - but Nick is probably the sharpest guy I've run across in the fitness industry when it comes to retail and financing. He's been able to stay behind the scenes for the most part, (except when I badgered him into writing a chapter for Fitness Riches) content to allow our company to be the sole beneficiary of his "smarts" - but no more. After some pretty consistent pestering from me he finally launched his blog this week. You can (and need to) check it out at:

http://nickberryonline.blogspot.com/

Talk to you later.

Would You Like Fries With That?

2006-08-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

Quite possibly the most popular up-sell in the world. Pretty effective too. Movie theaters do it (would you like the giant popcorn for just $0.50 more?), electronics stores do it (would you like the extended warranty?), even my neighborhood instant oil change does it...in fact they may be the best of all. They show me this detailed print out of my car's recommended services procedures at certain mileage marks, my dirty oil filter and the benefits of upgrading to synthetic oil. I asked the owner what the "average ticket" is for someone who comes in for an oil change that is priced at $29.99. He said it is approximately $58. (That's about double for those of you who are mathematically challenged.)

Nice.

So why do so few fitness professionals utilize up-sells? I would assume that they've never given it a second's thought.

I bet that would change if they thought it would double their income.

Let me give you an example of how I used an up-sell just yesterday (yep...I actually do stuff other than type and talk on the phone sometimes).

I had someone sit down and go though a goal assessment. We did all the normal stuff and she decided that she would be interested in participating in our 16 week group weight management program. Great!

So, instead of just enrolling her and giving her a welcome packet, I offered her a small discount on the program if she combined it with personal training. And just that quickly a $348 deal turned into a $4200 deal.

Guess what happened next.

I told her that new clients received 20% off their first supplement purchase.

She spent $257.

So that deal grew from $348 to $4457 by offering immediate up-sells.

Why?

Because people are far more likely to make a second purchase when they're already making one. They've already committed to spending money. They're already in the mindset that they want the result that their initial purchase will provide.

All you have to do is come up with a second (or third) offer that compliments the first.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

You could offer some sort of nutritional coaching program that would compliment your personal training offerings. If you don't or won't, partner with a dietician and receive a commission for referrals.

You could offer a nutritional supplement "starter pack" that includes a multi-vitamin, meal replacement, etc.

You could offer e-mail coaching or online training to compliment your in-person offerings.

The real key is that you have an immediate offer available. Try to choose something that has bigger margins for you if you can...that will allow you to offer a small discount as a "call to action."

If you apply this one concept in your business you'll see increased revenue - I promise. Depending on what you offer, maybe as much as 50% more revenue. More than 50% of the prospects we sell training to upgrade to our "deluxe" program which includes group weight management. And the people who buy weight management spend over 100% more on supplements than "regular" clients do. But that is jumping the gun. That's back-end sale stuff, so I'll talk more about that later.

One more thing though...I made a post earlier in the week about sales and also discussed sales in my newsletter. This focus led me to revisit some of Jim Labadie's stuff in the Ultimate Sales Kit (http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/Labadie.html). So in our staff meeting yesterday morning we did a brief sales training. The result: $13,150 of training and weight management sales in one day. By four different trainers.

The moral of the story...keep learning and practicing your approach to sales (and everything else) and training your staff. It will pay off.

Closing The Sale

2006-08-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

So what is the difference between the "sales process" and the "closing process?"

Ideally...Nothing. Ideally, there should be a seamless progression in which you create an offer, build value, invoke emotion and position yourself as the "assistant buyer." Really, the only reason that I separate the two is that all too often, fitness professionals get "weak in the knees" when it comes time to ask for the sale - so I feel as if it must be addressed separately.

So here are my thoughts (at least some of them) on closing more sales in no particular order:

You must understand the concept of building value. As I mentioned in a recent post, my belief is that "Value" is difference between anticipated price and actual price. So if your prospective client believes that your services are worth $20 per session and you charge $75...You won't be getting that prospect to become a client. And, no, that doesn't mean lower your price...It means build more value. Why do you think great sales letters are so long, have tons of bullet points (or some other ways of extolling benefits) and loads of testimonials? To build value. Otherwise, there would just be a picture of what's being sold and a price. Consider your sales process the equivalent of a great sales letter.
You must utilize "emotional logic." People buy for emotional reasons and then justify them with logic. You must be able to uncover the emotional reason someone has raised their hand as a prospective client and illustrate that you can provide them a solution. My friend Jim Labadie calls it "finding their pain." If you haven't checked out Jim's Ultimate Sales Kit, change that now as it is a required tool for all successful personal trainers (club owners would be wise to buy copies for their sales people as well.) You can learn more about Jim's Ultimate Sales Kit at http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/Labadie.html.
Handling objections is not the answer to becoming a better salesperson. If you're having to address a bunch of objections when you ask for the sale - you didn't build enough value beforehand. Revisit your sales process and see where you can build more value. Also, don't be afraid to ask trial close questions during the sales process to move closer to the actual close and uncover concerns you may not have already addressed.
Use the A-B close. Never ask "would you like to become a client, rather ask "would you prefer to meet with me two times a week or three?" Simply offer yes - yes options and you'll see yourself closing more prospects very quickly.
Practice Takeaway Selling. Jim Labadie and Ryan Lee call it "putting up the Velvet Rope." Basically, all you do is position yourself in a fashion that makes the prospect feel fortunate if you'll take them on as a client instead of the other way around. One of our trainers, Randy, has tons of credentials, a resume of experience that would stand up next to most any trainer and has even owned his own rehab facility. However, when we hired Randy, he just could never get comfortable selling. He always felt like he was at the mercy of the prospect and hoped they would become a client. Not until I trained him in the art of "takeaway selling" did he get comfortable selling. Now he simply tells prospects that his schedule is essentially full and he might be able to fit them in if there serious and willing to be a model client. Just to put this in concrete numbers for you to really understand the difference this makes - in Randy's first 3 months with us, he closed 27% of the prospects he sat down with. Over the last 3 months he's closed 78%.
That's a great segue to telling you to track your closing percentage. You should track everything you can. That's really the only way you're going to be able to make tangible improvements. I would at least track my % of set sales appointments that actually "show", the % of those that you close and the average value of each of those sales. You also would be well advised to track the Lifetime Client Value of each of the clients you acquire. You then can test different approaches in each area to generate improvements.
Become and "assistant buyer." align yourself as a partner in finding the solution to your prospects "pain" or problem. After you've acquired the knowledge you need, then help the prospect choose the appropriate program or package for them.
Have some genuine concern for the prospect. Sell them what is best for them - not what's best for you. If they need 2 sessions per week - don't sell them 4. You'll be taking the first step to avoiding buyer's remorse and you'll most likely be laying the groundwork for a relationship that produces a greater Lifetime Client Value as they will now trust you.

You'll probably notice (especially after I post about Up-Sells and Cross-Sells) how all these steps are really intertwined. I just like to separate them when I'm evaluating businesses and seeking areas to improve.

Gotta go watch the Red Sox - Yankees game. Go Sox!

Reader Questions...

2006-08-19T05:02:00.000-07:00

Well, due to an onslaught of question about my last post - I'll postpone the scheduled post on "Closing the Sale" until tomorrow. I'll respond to a couple of the questions that I received that seem to be representative of the entire group. Here we go...

Question: It sounded like you have something against Phil Kaplan. He's strived to raise our profession, helped thousands of trainers and you are discounting what he suggests about valuing your time as a professional. What's the deal?

Answer: I like Phil. I'm actually a member of Phil's PEAK Roundtable, a group that meets 3 times per year. I simply disagree with a couple of his positions. I think Phil has done plenty to help trainers and the fitness industry as a whole. That doesn't mean that what he says is the gospel. I agree wholeheartedly about valuing your time as a professional. I mentioned in the previous post that if you can get paid for everything, you'd be foolish not to. But let's put two examples on the table:

1. Phil charges $20 for his group orientation. He then sells clients a series, which means they essentially pay 1 session in advance for his trainers services. No real risk for the client, at most they're out the cost of one session. No real need to "try before you buy" if you have no real commitment at stake.

2. My trainers offer a free introductory session. We then sell personal training programs with terms of 4-12 months with over 80% being 12 months. 12 months of personal training is a significant commitment in time and money for most people. Wouldn't you agree that it might merit a more informed buying decision? Hence the "try before you buy" approach.

Now which of these approaches give your business more long term stability and a higher re-sale value? Obviously the one with a receivables base with contractual agreements. But to get that we offer what essentially amounts to the equivalent of a "loss leader." We're willing, based on the lifetime value of our clients and our closing percentage, to invest the cost of a session. This is very common in direct sales. Do you think that the "real estate gurus" on the late night infomercial make back the cost of the air time and production cost of the show by selling a $19.95 home study kit? Nope. The know their LCV and what they're willing to spend to get a client.

One last note about Phil's position...if you read his Profit Vault product (It's really good) he mentions partnering with a home exercise equipment dealer and offering a $10 session at customers homes to help them understand how to get the most from their newly purchased piece of equipment. Doesn't offering a session for $10 undermine your ability to ask for a normal rate?

Question: Doctors don't offer their services for free. I'm a professional, I should be treated the same?

Answer: O.K. - Let's see how many people I piss off here. To become a M.D. you're looking at eight years of school and probably between $150,000 and $500,000 in monetary investment. To get the most well known certification in our industry (ACE), you might have a cost of $289 (exam and study kit) and a time investment of eight weeks. So do me a favor and leave the comparison with the average Personal Trainer and M.D. for someone who's dumb enough to buy it. Frankly, our society probably equates trainers and doctors about as much as mechanics and rocket scientists. Go to your average health club. A bunch of kids in t-shirts that say trainer and typically stay for about 6 months at a time.

Now let me give you an analogy I might buy, even though the barrier to entry for each is drastically different still...Trainers and chiropractors. See, neither of these fields has been totally understood and embraced like that of the M.D. yet. There are plenty of people that have never been to a chiropractor, question their value and don't equate them with a "real doctor."

So, in turn, many chiropractors - when developing their businesses - offer free consultations, free x-rays etc. Then, they use the report of findings as their sales presentation. Once they've positioned themselves, they can shift to doing nothing for free as well.

I'll say it again...if you have positioned or can position yourself to do nothing for free - GREAT! I'm going to guess the Craig Ballantyne, Alwyn Cosgrove, Stephen Holt and Bill Hartman don't do anything for free - just like Brian Calkins. They've all created a position that allows for that. Do the same and you'll be able to name your price.

On a side note...I'll bet you if you go to their sites (and you should...you'll learn alot) - they will build value by offering you a free newsletter or free report. Then after they've established how much the have to offer, they will offer you an opportunity to make a purchase. Hmmmm....some similarities there, don't you think?

P.S. - Please don't take this as shot at trainers...I'm a trainer. What I'm getting at is merely this:

Doctor's have an inherent credibility (whether or not it's deserved is beyond the scope of this post) that comes with the barrier to entry associated with their profession. We must earn our credibility as our profession's barrier to entry is much lower.

Talk to you tomorrow - gotta go golf.

Moving Prospects to Clients

2006-08-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since my last post...I spent yesterday in Cincinnati visiting one of the best trainers in the business, Brian Calkins. If you're not familiar with Brain from Fitness Riches or his Ad Words program with Eric Ruth - you need to get familiar with him. We (Brian, Nick Berry and I) bounced ideas off one another, brainstormed and worked on strategies to grow our businesses. I feel like everybody needs to do that from time to time just so they get an objective perspective. I know I took alot away from the meeting.

I mention that because it is relevant to the "sales process" post I promised you. See, I and Nick (arguably the sharpest guy in the industry when it comes to financing and retail profit centers) are co-owners of several businesses...two of which are a health club and a personal training company with two locations. All of our PT sales are in a club setting. All of Brian's PT sales are in a private studio setting and he previously trained out of his home - both very different from providing services in a club setting.

There are a number of different approaches to selling personal training and related services and Brian employs a different approach than we do. He doesn't ever speak to a prospect in person. His entire sales process happens over the phone or via email. And he more than stays busy. Our staff, on the other hand, is contractually obligated to provide 2 complimentary sessions to new club members. (The stuff we do at our own club is kind of unique...I'll save it for another post.) So we obviously are at the polar opposite end of the spectrum.

Phil Kaplan will tell you to NEVER offer any of your services for free. Eric Ruth suggests that you give away a session or two keeping in mind the lifetime value of the client. My take - they're both right. Do whatever works. Brian closes over 75% of the people who go through his sales process. This month (August:)) we've closed over 75% of new club members who've gone through their introductory sessions. Both closing rates are pretty good. (FYI - the avg. health club converts 2-3% of their members into PT clients...not good.)

So lets look for what is similar rather than think of how they're different.

1. Both capture the leads contact information to keep marketing to them if they choose not to buy now. That's a must.

2. Both build value in their in their services. My definition of value is this: the difference between perceived price and actual price. Most every prospect perceives there to be some value in your services, otherwise they wouldn't raise their hand as a prospect. What's a personal training session worth to them? A dollar? Fifteen? Thirty? Your job is to make your prospect's perceived value of your services exceed the actual price. Brain has done that with positioning, "putting up the velvet rope," outstanding sales copy and great sales skills. Our staff does that with questioning, "finding pain," assessments, example personal training sessions and "takeaway selling." It depends on your positioning, your sales skills and your market when deciding how to approach what direction to go. We don't have a choice due to contractual obligations - but even if we did, in Elizabethtown, KY (a rural community of 23,000) most people have never belonged to a health club - let alone used a trainer. Their friends haven't used a trainer and a surprising number don't even have any idea what a trainer does. By offering a "try before you buy" we can build value.

Not to go off on a tangent but the theory that a free session devalues what you do is bullshit. Test driving a car doesn't cut the value in half. Touring a house doesn't make it cheaper. We offer a free fourteen day trial membership in our club too. It could be argued that a free trial session, membership or anything else simply displays confidence in what you offer and an unwillingness to provide that displays the lack there of. Honestly, I don't believe that...but you can argue that position as much as the alternative. Phil's contention that "doctors don't offer free consultations so why should we" is weak. Doctors have been a well established and recognized profession for centuries. The strength in the argument for doing nothing for free is this: If you've positioned yourself in a fashion to get paid for everything you do, you'd be a fool to do anything for free. If you haven't or can't...use the free session as a tool. DO WHAT WORKS!

3. You have to have a call to action. You have to be willing to tell the prospect what to do next. Brian sends the prospect payment options after telling them how to get involved with his services. My staff has a presentation and offers program options and asks the prospect to choose the right one for them. Too often trainers are good at giving solid workouts and bad at asking for money. This is all to common among young trainers. Asking a prospect for more than the value of their clunker in the parking lot can be a bit overwhelming. I would start with a "canned" sales presentation and go from there. To think a young trainer or someone not proficient in sales can wing it is stoooopid. Actors study their scripts. Create a presentation and study it. You can improvise after you get good. Really good.

I'll talk more about actually closing the sale next time.

The Truth About Lead Generation

2006-08-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

O.K. - Back after a great weekend...So let's talk about lead generation. Basically, this is how you go about getting prospective clients to consider you for their fitness needs. Frankly, most fitness professionals don't really understand how this process works at all. Do you?

Over the weekend I went into a couple of health clubs and saw what I always see, a flyer or brochure with prices and a few pictures on the wall with each trainer and their credentials.

Crap. It's all crap. It's a giant case of me-tooism where everyone does what they see everyone else do. If you take brochures and other materials from 50 different trainers and cut out the names and faces, they're interchangeable. This approach doesn't work and the people who make a decent living using it do so in spite of it...Not because of it.

You need to have a system to get prospects to approach you...Not you chasing after them. And you need to spend the bulk of your time with people who can reasonably be expected to give you their money. So here are ten tips for devising your system:

1. Be clear on what this is. Training is a business so money MUST be the predominate measure of success. So you must consider your time valuable, price your services to reflect what you want to earn, and have a back-end system to maximize referrals and lifetime client value. Even though this isn't marketing, you must keep this in mind because it's WHY you market to begin with.

2. Create Credibility. Client testimonials are PURE GOLD. Use them in every mailing, brochure and ad. Have a testimonial book and Wall of Fame.

3. Get publicity and leverage it. Write for the newspaper or submit queries to magazines. Send press releases to all you local media outlets and don't hesitate to approach the national ones as well. Not only will this get you leads hungry for your expertise - but you can also leverage it by copying these materials and making them available to your prospects.

4. Specialize. Find a niche (or several) and become the premier trainer in your town, state or country in that specialty. People will almost always choose the person who specializes in what their concerned with over the general practicioner. If you are having chest pains would you rather see the cardiologist or your family doctor. You can have more than one specialty...Just don't promote them together.

5. Flow. It's simple...Supply and demand. Keep marketing once you get clients, limited supply makes your time so much more valuable to the prospect and gives you power or control. Block off your schedule and tell prospects what time is available. You're no longer on call.

6. Make your marketing like a personals ad. Tell the reader EXACTLY who you're looking for as a client. They'll stand up and take action and the tire-kickers will pass on by.

7. Give a reason for response. Offer a free report or something similar to pre-sell and pre-screen the prospect even further.

8. Put up the velvet rope. Make it clear that you are accepting a select number of prospects. Everybody wants what they can't have...And will often pay a premium price for it.

9. Referrals. These are the most pre-qualified prospects of all. They know what you do, how much you charge and have acted on a testimonial from a friend, family member or co-worker. Create a referral system and make it the core of your marketing efforts.

10. Strategic Alliances. Find businesses with the same type of client that you work with. Create a relationship and have them market you to their list.

Obviously, this list isn't comprehensive. If you want more details about Lead Generation, Eric Ruth wrote a great chapter on it in Fitness Riches (www.fitness-riches.com) and Stephen Holt also contributed a chapter on positioning that will soon have you facing the pleasant problem of having more prospects than you know what to do with.

I'll be discussing the Sales Process in the next day or two...

Where Are You Leaving Money On The Table?

2006-08-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

Every business that I've encountered over my time in the fitness industry has left money on the table. Sure, some leave less than others but every business leaves some. So what I'm going to do today is give you a way to view your business that will allow you to instantly see where you can improve what you do and create that additional stream of profit.

If you've followed my newsletter or been a coaching client then this will look familiar to you. That's O.K. - It merits repeating (over and over.) I and my business partner, Nick Berry, evaluate our businesses each month with this same template to see where we can improve. Here it is:

The FCG Flowchart

Basically, the way that we view any business is by plugging it into this simple flowchart. There are six steps that we believe any successful fitness business should have, and they are what comprise the flowchart. Each step is listed below with a brief explanation.

Step 1 - Lead Generation.

Simply how you generate your prospects. Advertising, marketing, referrals, publicity and anything else you can think of that helps you generate leads.

Step 2 - Sales Process.

How do you go about converting the prospect into a client or member? Is it a tour of your facility? How about a fitness assessment? List the details of whatever you do here.

Step 3 - Closing Process.

The actual conversion of a prospect to a member or client. List the details of your closing process here.

Step 4 - Upsells and Cross-sells.

Do you have an instant upsell when you close a deal? People are far more likely to purchase additional products or services at this point than at any other. Look at any successful retail business in the U.S. All of them try to get you to make an additional purchase at the point of sale. Do you?

Step 5 - Back end Opportunities

Once someone has become a member or client, do you have follow up offers in place? If you've provided great service on their initial purchase, you current clients or members will happily make additional purchases from you. What are your back end opportunities?

Step 6 - Referrals and Regeneration

Happy members and clients are your best source of new prospects. Do you have a system in place to take maximum advantage of this or do you just hope for good 'word of mouth?' Do you have a retention strategy or do you just hope you keep people staying and paying?

That's it. Plug your business into this model and evaluate where you do well and where you need to improve. Next week I'll discuss each step in greater detail.

P.S. - I and my lovely wife Holly (see photo) will be out of town for our anniversary this weekend so don't expect any posts until Monday.

P.P.S. - As far as the photo goes...Thanks to following Craig Ballantyne's TT Program I've dropped over 16 lbs. Of bodyfat since then. I test pretty much every trainer's program I can get my hands on before I allow my staff to add it to our arsenal...As far as efficient fat loss, Craig's TT program is the best I've come across. If you want to learn more about the best fat loss program on the market, click here:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/turbulence.html

The Wizard Of Oz and Elvis

2006-08-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Wizard Of Oz is one of the most popular movies in the history of cinema. What's not to love in the 1939 classic, interesting characters, timeless music and even a moral (happiness comes from within.) But as a business person the thing that sticks out at me is the Wizard.

Think about it...This may be the greatest self-promotion job in history. Professor Marvel arrives in Oz accidental by way of a hot air balloon and through self-promotion he becomes The Great and Powerful Oz. At a point late in the movie he tells Dorothy and the other to "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." But in reality that's where the magic is.

The Wizard is simply the result of the activities behind the curtain...Otherwise there's nothing but a chubby guy who got lost in a balloon. But this isn't all that uncommon if you think about it.

Did you know that Elvis and his promoter colonial Parker never had more than a handshake agreement yet Elvis paid the colonial 50% of his earnings for virtually his entire career. See, Elvis recognized something that most people either don't understand or are unwilling to acknowledge...There are plenty of people with talent. The magic is in getting the public to pay you for your talent. P.T. Barnum made a fortune promoting others talents. And every time those performers would think they didn't need the great promoter and go off on their own they would quickly discover that same thing Elvis inherently knew - without effective promotion and publicity they were just like everyone else with talent alone - broke.

How's this relate to you? Simple. Are you a talented fitness professional? Have you studied anything you could get your hands on that might help improve your clients' results? Can you help someone improve their body composition or hit a 90 MPH fastball better than most anyone else in the world? Well if the answer is yes, what is preventing you from earning $100,000, $250,000 or even $500,000 a year in the fitness industry?

My guess is that if you're truly a great trainer and aren't making a sizable income - it's because you don't have "the man behind the curtain" or are unwilling to be the man behind the curtain. Don't expect the world to beat a path to your door. If you're great let everyone know about it.

Here's my disclaimer: If you're a shitty trainer - go study the great ones and improve your technical skills and knowledge - then come back and re-read this post. The internet has become polluted with a bunch of "pseudo-experts" in every field that can tell you how to do anything and everything but have never done it themselves. Keep your integrity and do what it takes to become great...Then let everyone know.

What Do The Wealthy Have In Common?

2006-08-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Besides having a lot of money :)

What do rich people have in common? No, it's not intelligence or education. Look around. The world is full of geniuses unable to pay next month's rent. I live in Kentucky and can't begin to tell you how many stores have a clerk with a master's degree. No, it's not courage, luck or wealthy families either. And no, it's not even passion, instinct, timing or greed.

The single characteristic that the wealthy tend to have in common is an unusually strong ability to think ahead. As a matter of fact, research indicates that the length of your time horizon (your ability to think ahead) is the one characteristic that most accurately predicts where you will land in the socioeconomic strata.

I was talking with a gentleman that my company is considering partnering with on a large project who happens to be an extraordinarily wealthy and successful business owner. He's owned chains of businesses in several fields so I asked him how he chooses business to investment in. He told me the following: "The first question that I ask myself when looking at a potential business opportunity, even if I only plan on owning it briefly and then selling it, is...'Is this a business that I would want to own 20 years from today?' If the answer is 'no,' then I don't invest in it."

But to counter to what you may be thinking, wealthy people don't share this characteristic "because they're rich and can afford to think ahead." They become wealthy because they have this characteristic. It's an established fact that a person who can't set aside a few dollars each month from a salary of twenty thousand a year will find it equally impossible to set aside a few dollars from a salary of two hundred thousand a year. The average person thinks ahead exactly one paycheck. We know what must be paid with the one that's coming and we have a plan for what to pay with the next. Needless to say, this is not a plan for building wealth. This is a plan for being average.

Far below average, in the very lowest economic strata, are the addicts and alcoholics who don't think ahead even to where they will sleep tonight; their entire existence has been reduced to the next fix, the next drink, the next score - a time horizon of only an hour or two.

How far have you been thinking ahead?

How I Learned To Ignore The Naysayers

2006-08-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

When I was 23 and had just wrapped up my bachelor's degree and one and only summer of pro baseball I had the opportunity to interview for the Head Baseball Coaching position at my alma mater. This position was far from a prize but my dream had always been to be a coach.

Now let me give you a little history - the baseball program at this University had never had a winning season, never been to the post-season...Really hadn't been very good at all. The program was generally regarded as one of the worst in the NAIA (the collegiate division they were a member of.) The baseball program had only had two head coaches in their history, one had been an All-Star in the Major Leagues and was regarded as one of the "biggest baseball names" in that part of the country. The next coach had been a 3-time state coach of the year at a local high school. In spite of having generous amounts of scholarship money and great credentials, neither of these coaches could make the program a winner. Because of the lack of success the University decided to "de-emphasize" baseball and eliminate the scholarships.

Did I forget to mention they also decided to pay the coach $5000 a year?

Due to the schools change in direction - the coach resigned, the pool of candidates for the vacant position was thin and I "won" the job. The pay was poor so I continued to train athletes and accepted a part time job as the schools Strength & Conditioning Coach to subsidize my income.

As you can imagine, most everyone (actually EVERYONE except me) expected me to fall flat on my face. "If the two biggest names in baseball from that area couldn't even muster a winning season with scholarships, a 23 year old guy with no experience and no scholarships would be lucky to even win a game" most people thought. But I never really even contemplated failure. I wrote the following goals for the program on an index card and kept them in my wallet:

1. To win 2/3 (.667) of our games. (The school had a winning percentage of .381 to that point.)
2. To win 30 games in a season. (The school record was 19)
3. To make it to the NAIA Regional Tournament. (The team had never even made the conference tournament)
4. To receive recognition in the national coaches poll. (approximately the top 15% of all teams nationally)

So I read everything I could get my hands on, visited the most successful programs in the country like LSU, Miami and Georgia Tech and decided to do things differently than everyone else was was competing with. I read marketing books to learn how to recruit. I had our team lift weights aggressively and do SAQ work when everyone else was still leery of heavy lifting and doing distance running. I approached the tactical side of the game differently. I didn't even have a sign for the Hit & Run.

I my first year, we won more than we lost. By my third year we won 35 games, made the Regional Tournament and were ranked in the National Poll. In my 5th year we finished 5th at the NAIA World Series and won 48 games.

I decided to leave coaching because I wanted to own my own business after 6 years. But during that span our team won 194 games and lost only 86 (.693), was nationally ranked the final four years and led all of college baseball (over 2000 teams) in hitting over the six season span. All of this while having one of the smallest budgets in the country.

I know this was a long post...But every time someone tells me something can't be done or I can't accomplish what I want to, I think back to this. Then I say: "Stick around, you'll see."

Where Will You Be?

2006-08-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

Last week during two separate phone coaching sessions personal trainers indicated that they had no specific goals for their business 2, 3 or even 5 years down the road. Oh sure, they said they wanted to make more money or have more clients. For me, those are a little too general.

You've heard the old Zig Ziglar seminar stunt where he'd pull someone out of the audience and he'd ask them what they wanted and they'd reply "more money." He'd proceed to hand them a $1 bill and congratulate them on achieving their goal.

You've gotta be specific.

I hear excuses all the time though. "You need money to make money." "I don't have the credit to borrow what I'd need to open a studio or club." "I wouldn't know where to begin." "My town is too small for a studio." You get the picture. Let me tell you about some simple approaches people took to overcome obstacles like these.

Did you know Alwyn Cosgrove was once an independent trainer in a club? After a while he figured out that what he was paying the club could just as easily be spent on leasing space and opening his own facility. He found a space of about 1000 square feet in a rural shopping center and spent about $3000 for equipment. Each month he reinvested in his facility and now he's got 5000 sq. ft. and I'd make an educated guess that his ROI beats most every big box club out there.

Brian Calkins started training clients in his own home with a simple equipment set up. After just a couple of years he'd saved enough to equip a state of the art studio and now he's laying the groundwork to add multiple locations in the Cincinnati market.

I started my initial personal training company with $500 by contracting to lease the training rights in a health club in a town of 10,000. I soon sold that business back to the club for a nice little profit and launched the same model in a bigger club in a town of 23,000. This time I spent a whopping $1,526 (I still have receipts) because I bought a new computer.

None of those examples required a bank loan, big investment or wonderful circumstances. I could probably find you hundreds more just like them too.

Look, I'm not telling you that you need to open your own studio or club. For that matter, I'm not even suggesting that you have to work for yourself. What I am saying is that you need to have a specific goals of where you want your business and your life to be in a couple of years, otherwise it will probably not significantly improve. Don't dwell on the obstacles that you think will prevent you from achieving what you want...Instead focus on finding solutions.

Next post I'll tell you a little story about how I learned that obstacles are nothing more than things that make your success seem even more impressive when you get there.