Thu, 19 December 2019
Tools to Get Clients to Stick With Their Exercise Clients who stick with their exercise get better results. That’s a no-brainer. We’re clearly not doing well getting that to happen. This episode unpacks things you’ll want to consider to change what happens for your clients, especially those new ones. Dropout rates are consistent over the past 30 years. Adherence to physical activity in a way that it positively improves health and fitness has not improved. Let’s set you on a course that helps your clients stick with their exercise – and makes you a rockstar trainer. My Guest: Nathalie Lacombe is mover, shaker, and joie de vivre giver! She blends her 25 years of international fitness experience with her degrees in psychology and exercise science to passionately connect with fitness enthusiasts and professionals. After a decade as an executive at canfitpro, Canada’s leading fitness education body, she left it all to move closer to family and launch the second half of her career. As a fitness instructor, personal trainer, international speaker, and Yoga teacher her purpose is to enhance fitness adherence and increase the number of people who find joy in being active. Questions we answer in this episode:
Connect: www.nathalielacombe.com She’s on social: Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn: NathalieLacombe Facebook Pro Page: NathalieLacombeFitness Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes! 1 visit Voice for Fitness Professionals in iTunes 2 click listen in iTunes 3 leave a star rating and a comment 4 know how much I appreciate it! Learn how to attract the MOST lucrative market and KEEP THEM! Click here to learn more about attracting the #1 most lucrative market now and for decades. |
Thu, 12 December 2019
8 Tricks to Get Your Clients Through the Holidays Without Gaining Weight If they fall off your reputation may not. People expect it. But if they win - and even lose weight- your reputation soars. Here's how. 1) Increase their sessions per week As busy as they are if you can do 30-minute sessions with them, getting them in more frequently for short sessions may benefit them most. It’s the success-breeds-success formula. If they’ve got a session with you later in the day they’re going to do well earlier that day. If they have a session with you early they’re going to have better choices the rest of the day. 2) Add a coaching call component to in person sessions Whether it’s those same more frequent short sessions in person or it’s this added coaching call, skype, or Facetime with you, checking in regularly is what made Weight Watcher’s famous. Even when people didn’t lose the weight or gained it all back WW got them back because accountability is the #1 thing people say they need and value. So give them what they want. 3) Add an incentive Make it monetary, or status, or complimentary services. Let them choose. But if someone meets with you 4 more times during the holidays and you reward them with fifty dollars cash for not gaining weight… you still win and so do they. 4) Add a daily text Make it personal. Sure you can create a group and send a mass text message. If you’re seeing a large number of people get a professional service and set this up like a real business. Don’t copy everyone in a group so they can see they’re just one of many. If you have 10-20 clients take the time to do this for each. What does it take? Copy and paste your email from your note and address it uniquely to individuals. Drop in one relevant and easy tip to make it a “healthy day.”
5) Send a daily Personal Video You can do this easily and professionally and track the opens with a service like Bombbomb that I love. But you can skip the $500 annual fee and just record and send from your phone. Just a message with your smile and warm voice is enough. Or demonstrate a stress-busting stretch or core exercise. 6) Share a healthy recipe for the hors d’oeuvres they’ll have otherwise In your text message, email between sessions, or video share this and the place they can print or download. 7) Start a private Facebook group (pop up) Link it to an email list (you can capture their email with certain plugins on Facebook and you just ask for the email as a part of the questions to join the group). 8) Have a weigh in now and the first week of January Have everyone interested pay $10 to join the one-horse-open weigh and if they gain weight, they forfeit their $10. If they maintain they’re still in. If they lose, they get a “chance” for every pound the lost. Hold a drawing for the winners of the $ prize as well as some extra gifts so there are plenty of winners. Give away a group program, towel service for a month, a VIP locker for a month, or something else of value (that ideally isn’t a time investment for you). Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes! 1 visit Voice for Fitness Professionals in iTunes 2 click listen in iTunes 3 leave a star rating and a comment 4 know how much I appreciate it! |
Sun, 17 November 2019
Women’s Fitness, Health, & Hormones | Training Menopause Are you training women in perimenopause, menopause, or post menopause? Chances are good you are or will. There are 6000 women a day entering menopause. They’re looking for help and they’re educated, interested, and can afford it. To get them is easy. To keep them is the trick. They know if you do or don’t know your hormones and can help by discussing your role with their functional or western trained doctors. This episode explores the tremendous opportunity and the possible ways you’re missing it. In addition to coaching trainers and businesses on how to monetize their social media, I am founder of Flipping 50, where I’ve developed a community of over 150,000 in the past 6 years. Social media works, and women are seeking support online. I’m the creator of the Flipping 50 Specialist, where I share my system with you so you can create a business serving a market that will be a major source of health influencers for decades. Questions I answer in this episode:
Check out both my books for resources or reach out for a consultation to learn whether a certification is optimal for you. Connect: More information on other course & pre-con contents: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/pregnancy https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/young-women Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes! 1 visit Voice for Fitness Professionals in iTunes 2 click listen in iTunes 3 leave a star rating and a comment 4 know how much I appreciate it!
Direct download: FIT_PRO_womens_hormone_course_-_Edited.mp3
Category:coaching clients -- posted at: 3:00am MDT |
Thu, 14 November 2019
Got Client's Who Want Exercise in Pregnancy Experts? Be it! In this second (of three) podcast episodes dedicated to women’s health, fitness, and hormones I’m joined by exercise in pregnancy expert Danielle Spangler. This follows my interview with Dr Michelle Maddux on adolescent female fitness. Next up in this series I’ll round up with insight on training that booming market of women in perimenopause, menopause, and post menopause. Exercise in pregnancy and after delivery can be a significant part of working with women. As part of a new course being developed by the Medical Fitness Network, pregnancy and post partum are discussed in this episode. The course will launch in 2020. There will be a live pre-conference workshop at the Medfit Tour stop in Irvine in Feb 2020. Pregnancy and Exercise Expert Danielle Spangler, creator of CORE MOM (Corrective Obstetrical Related Exercise), is also a nationally known speaker, presenter, and contributing writer for the Medical Fitness Network and Medical Fitness Education Foundation. She’s been researching in the prenatal space since 1995. She owns her own boutique fitness studio and together with her husband is parenting three children. (She’s been there, done that!) In addition she’s authored prenatal programs for continuing education for the National Academy of Sports Medicine and Fitness Learning Systems.
Connect with Danielle: Danielle@coremomfitness.com www.coremomfitness.com More information: Women’s Health, Fitness, and Hormones pre-conference workshop at Med Fit Tour in SoCal Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes!
Women's Fitness & Hormone Expert?
Direct download: FIT_PRO_DANIELLE_Splangler_-_Edited_-_2.mp3
Category:career choices -- posted at: 4:00am MDT |
Sun, 10 November 2019
Are you working with adolescents? Find yourself coaching youth sports or being asked by parents to work with their kids? This episode will keep you up to date on what to consider and what's important working with this population. Dr. Michelle Maddux received her Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM) in Tempe, AZ and her Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Phoenix. She is the Director of Operations and Product for Toolbox Genomics and the founder of Soaring Phoenix, a consulting firm dedicated to educating clinicians on the fundamentals of integrative and functional medicine. She is passionate about changing the paradigm of medicine and stopping the epidemic of complex chronic disease. Dr. Maddux focuses on the areas of nutrition, integrative medicine, adolescent medicine and eating disorders. She is a part of a team collaborating on a Women’s Fitness and Hormones Course for MedfitNetwork. Questions we answered in this episode: While some trainers love this age group, many wellness professionals – or their bosses - are terrified of working with adolescents, what would you say to change their minds? Let’s compare for listeners, say what might be the major difference in what a 13-year-old female should be doing in a workout versus a 23-year old? What are the pros and cons of being a male trainer working with adolescents, specifically females? How do listeners effectively target these age groups in advertising? Or do they target the parents of adolescents? Click here to learn more about the upcoming course: https://www.medfitclassroom.org pre-conference workshop at med fit tour in SoCal:
Direct download: Fit_Pro_Michelle_-_Edited_-_2.mp3
Category:coaching clients -- posted at: 5:45pm MDT |
Thu, 7 November 2019
Accounting and Bookkeeping don’t come naturally to most fitness professionals. You’ve got so many other hats to wear that it is likely something you only think if you start up and need a loan or investors. If you’re a trainer or coach going solo or online, you may never have needed (or so you thought) additional revenue. Have computer, open for business may have been your motto. (I get that, it was mine too, until I realized all the courses I needed to invest in and the contractors who I needed to build out what I wanted). Taxes are No Joke If anything is a guarantee in fitness business and life, it’s taxes. Building a sustainable fitness business that’s truly a career not a hobby is not easy. It’s easy to spend hundreds or thousands on tights, music, and equipment and realize you still have no clients. With guaranteed taxes and expenses and no guaranteed revenue you can quickly have a problem. Want good news? There’s a solution to this. Get savvy on the taxes, accounting and bookkeeping structure that can help you now. You’ll sleep better. There’s a big difference between someone who offers accounting and bookkeeping services and someone who really cares about your business. A lot of people will just crunch the numbers and tell you how much your taxes are. Someone invested in your success will help you determine whether something is a good or bad decision right now. Accounting and Bookkeeping Roles Your bookkeeper is going to do monthly P&L balance sheets and any kind of special reporting you need. Your accountant is going to handle big-picture recommendations for your business that include legal changes, legal obligations, vision for the company, corporate tax return and possibly personal tax returns. In most instances accounting and bookkeeping services are provided by two different people. Your accountant and attorney might need to talk about what kind of entity you should be. Is LLC right for you or S-corp, or C-corp, for example? Sometimes your decisions are both legal and financial. Money Mindset If you’re still in the mind-set of “this is how much I make per hour, earned today, this week or month = this is how much I can spend,” you can get in financial trouble quickly. Likewise, credit cards make it easy to overextend yourself with items you really don’t have an ROI on. My guest in this episode answers a few questions - specifically about taxes - for you. Shannon Weinstein Shannon is a CPA and fitness professional based in Connecticut. After working in accounting for over ten years she discovered her passion for fitness, she decided to apply her background into her passion. Shannon provides one on one coaching for fitness professionals and business owners, as well as tax and accounting services. She operates most of her business virtually, serving clients all over the country.
Questions we cover in today’s podcast:
Connect with Shannon: http://bit.ly/fitnancial https://www.instagram.com/shannonkweinstein/ https://www.facebook.com/fitnancialsolutions/ With 6000 women a day entering menopause, not finding the trainers who understand hormone balancing exercise, this investment will pay of with a single client. The Flipping 50 Specialist Enroll now. You'll learn how to create programs for hormone balance, coach women based on signs of perimenopause, menopause, and post menopause for natural hormone balance with exercise, interpret labs for exercise changes, suggest questions for your clients' practitioner, and market to a distinctly hormone balancing fitness expert for a population that controls wealth.
Direct download: Fit_Pro_Shannon_Taxes___Accounting_-_Edited_-_2.mp3
Category:career choices -- posted at: 4:00am MDT |
Mon, 28 October 2019
How to Write Your Best Fitness Blogs Faster How would you like your best fitness blogs for the next 6 months done? Most fitness pros agree they don’t have time to create content. They also say, they can’t have just anyone create blogs for them, because no one knows your customers like they do. I would agree with that 110%. But let’s be serious. A great blog post – even if you like to write and enjoy it – could easily take 4 hours. Right? Between research, citations, outline, developing thoughts, editing, and adding images, there’s a lot. That’s before key word research, crafting a killer title, and creating a pretty link plus creating social media pieces to promote it. Okay, you get the idea. Getting to your best fitness blogs faster is almost an impossible promise. Or is it? I’m going to tackle that in the next few minutes. Get the Cheatsheet by visiting the show notes at fitnessmarketingmastery.com/best-blogs By the way, there are two essentially, cheat sheets that go with this episode. The 5 Minute Blog Formula and the one other… I’ll unveil in just a minute that you’re going to want to listen and fill out after you’ve listened. I know that everything is electronic today but if you’re really trying to connect with your customer, putting a pen on paper and writing is the best way to do it. So go old school and print those out. Okay, so there you have it, you’re going to want to go get the cheat sheet I’ve given you for this episode. Then you’ll want the 5-Minute Blog Formula is you don’t already have it. Before Your Best Fitness Blogs There’s even more to it though. You want your promotions calendar done so you know what you should be talking about. That will ensure you’re seeding the desire for your programs. I’m going to operate on the belief you have your monthly promotions done for this post’s sake. You know what programs are launching every month all year. I’m imagining that right now you know for the next six months what programs you’re going to be starting. The 4-8 weeks prior to a program start is your launch period. Psst! If you don’t know what you’re promoting each month, stop. Do it first. If you need help doing that, I can help. <And by the way, if your sales red flag is coming waving right now, stop for a second. When I use words like seeding the desire for your program, what’s that feel like for you? Check in with that. Because this is not a sleazy, salesy thing. This is you suggesting that you understand a client’s problem so well that you have the answer to solve it. If you’re thoughts go something like this… “Oh, I see what you’re doing, you’re going to be asking for a sale” and you think negatively about that, you’ve really got to do some personal work about what you do, how it helps, and the fact that if you don’t tell someone that you can help and you have a program designed for them you can’t change lives. If you want to make more money but you don’t like asking for money, you’ve got a problem my friend. Don’t you think? I won’t go down this track for now but this is really important.> Effective Launches Feature Your Best Fitness Blogs During that launch period you would be using blogs specifically tied to the problem your program solves. It’s how your best students and clients will find you. They’re already looking for answers. You want to have content they love/are grateful for just prior to opening your cart for registration. If your programs are always available to purchase, inevitably you still have times when you offer a special or you have a theme to the training. [Don’t get lost in language of “open cart.” If that’s a new term we can talk about it.] [FLIP: rethink having your services always available. There are a lot of good reasons why you want to limit availability. I won’t go into that now but if you want to talk about how to do this and explore coaching on restructuring your offers to make them more effective, set up a consult to decide the best way I can help.] Be Afraid of General Information Think about the way you search for information. You get very specific so you get the right answer from Google. Your customer does too. You may think that if you talk to one customer you’ll alienate the rest. More accurately, if you speak to “everyone” you will alienate everyone. If you go pick out a book at Amazon for instance, do you just type in “books”? Of course you don’t. You either have a specific title or author you’re looking for or a specific topic, right? No one searches for “fitness.” You would search for “exercise after 50” or “exercise for weight loss,” or “time-effective workouts.” Would those potentially apply to a lot of people? Yes. So you want to go deeper. What a 65-year old woman should do in a 15-20 minute workout is going to be different than what a 25-year old male should do. Whether a 65-year old woman’s goal is to move without arthritis pain or her goal is a better 10k time she’ll be drawn to a different post and program, right? So specific is VERY important for your success. The more information is easily available to consumers the more you should be the one they find when they are searching for how to lose weight after their third baby or how to boost testosterone for a better libido after 50. That’s what they’re looking for (and can find) online. Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes!
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Wed, 25 September 2019
10 Ways to Fill Your Fitness Programs Right Now Right now as you read this you’re either in the middle of launching a fitness program, or preparing to launch a next one. You either are super confident you’ll fill it and have a wait list or you wish you had that problem! It’s the cycle of fitness promotions. Here’s the truth about these 10 things that I’m sharing with you right now. Those who do them, most if not all, consistently repeatedly, fill more programs. But I don’t want you to be overwhelmed. So I don’t want you to do them all or even attempt to right now. First, I want you to pick two or three you’re already doing and do them better. More consistently and consciously. Then, pick another one and do that equally as well. If you hop down to #2 for instance, once you do that – as tedious as it may be if you haven’t done it yet – you will be better prepared next time to tell the people who absolutely want the solution you provide so they can register. If you do #9 it’s a one time change out when you’re starting a promotion. You do it, everyone on your team who emails does it, and you’re done. You may need to create a graphic and get a change date on the calendar so it’s up to date and you switch back when the promo is over, but it’s not an ongoing task. #1. Email More Than You’re Comfortable. There’s no sense in fearing people will unsubscribe if they weren’t going to be customers anyway. There’s a system you want to use during a promotion that means you’ll email at least 5 times in four days. If you’re not doing that during specials, you’re leaving money on the table. #2. Segment Your Lists. Send the right email to the right people. If you don’t know how to segment lists so you’re emailing the right stuff to the right people get help now. People will either leave those unopened (which will hurt your delivery results anyway) or they will report “spam” if it’s not relevant to the reason they subscribed to you. #3. Announce on Social Media After…. You give, give, give. If you only post announcements of sales and opportunities to buy you won’t have enough of a following to make it matter. So yes, do change your Facebook cover and do live videos. Just be sure you’re giving tips and take aways ALL year and not just selling all the time. Less than 20% of your time on social should be selling. #4. Add Banners on Your Website. Place them on your home page or at least on a special blog post. Don’t keep your promotion a secret. #5. Create at least one special content. Write a special blog post, create a special podcast, or video (live or recorded). Right now as I record it’s bonus time at Flipping 50 Specialist cert. When you enroll in the Advanced Specialist you get 4 bonuses to boost your hormone balancing fitness business. This ad for the promotion is going right here right now. When I do the audit that’s a part of the bonus for you, I’ll be looking at how you can best adapt these 10 promotional actions. Register for the Flipping 50 Advanced Specialist Right Now to be eligible for 4 Bonuses through Oct 15, 2019. (ends Oct 16, 2019/only Advanced Specialist)
#6. Gift Some Spots for PR. During a Social Media giveaway or a live streaming video give away a spot in the program you’re promoting. You then have a chance to describe the program and benefits fully. You can use the giveaway to grow your social media following too. After you give, announce the winners on all your platforms and via email so you have another reason to promote the program. #7. Include Nearby Businesses or Affiliates (digital) No one reaches big success alone. Start asking partners whose customers or audience would benefit from your program. #8. Create Swag. T-shirts, water bottles, journals. Everyone loves to get swag for “free” as a part of a program. Start wearing it yourself. Give one to every registrant and tell them if they’re caught wearing them (sending you a selfie) or seen in the club, they’ll be eligible for a prize.
#9. Add Your Program to Your Email Signature. In every communication be sure you’re using that real estate wisely. If you have a customer service or support ticket service you use like Fresh Desk, for instance, make sure you optimize it. Sample:
#10. Answer Questions. Create videos where you answer questions about the program. Discuss the benefits, the logistics, what to expect, what participants need to succeed. Include testimonials. Discuss the format. Close: ask for the sale. Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes! 1) visit Voice for Fitness Professionals in iTunes 2) click listen in iTunes 3) leave a star rating and a comment 4) know how much I appreciate it! |
Thu, 29 August 2019
23 Social Media Tips for Personal Trainers & Health Coaches Boost Your Fitness Brand Now These social media tips are going to come at you rapid fire. Be ready! Choose a few you need and aren't doing. You don't have to do them all! Do decide, do, then measure your progress. These are based on the past three weeks of sitting on two panels, actually emceeing one, and presenting 3 times on social media tips that are working right now. Before you get started Get the Cheat Sheat for this show!
Get the Cheat Sheat for social media tips
Key: unless you know someone is making money you don’t know that winning the popularity contest online is generating revenue. Is it a hobby, or is it a business and life you want to create? 500 engaged buyers who follow you may be more lucrative than 500 or 50,000 fans who “like” you.
Overwhelmed? Need Coaching? Social media tips without action? Just a time drain. Connect for a Special Coaching offer that will get you in the habit of creating content that you can monetize. You can do or delegate knowing it works. Stop the madness of posting without a next step or trying to post flyers and schedules, or posting sales that turn platforms against you and alienate fans. Get the Cheat Sheat for this show! Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes! 1 visit Voice for Fitness Professionals in iTunes 2 click listen in iTunes 3 leave a star rating and a comment 4 know how much I appreciate it! |
Thu, 8 August 2019
Speak to sell fitness by creating a presentation that inspires and educates. I’m not talking about your power point. The best presentations to those groups like Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, and corporations don’t use power point. They use heart. I speak to sell fitness opportunity must have the emotional factor. If you don’t touch emotion you won’t be remembered. 40-year Fitness business owner/operator Tom Durkin is here today- not to do a book review – we’ll be back with another book review soon and I’ll link to a few prior episodes here. Tom has been one of the biggest influences of fitness in the state of Iowa with multiple business locations in multiple cities. Uniquely he’s anything but a silent partner he’s operating general manager. That means during the course of a day he’ll lead management meetings, nursery meetings, hire and train personal trainers, work in the membership office, sign employees paychecks, approve ads, and make public appearances to any number of groups including the chamber of commerce, large corporations, small businesses to grow the membership and help people. He has over 300 employees and thousands of members. He speaks. He sells.
The thing that stops more trainers from speaking to sell fitness is confidence. You have a message, you would like to reach more people. I’ve watched one trainer who trained one-on-one clients at a whisper because she lacked confidence and didn’t want anyone else to hear what she was saying – go from that to loving to speak. It took a couple years… of her following up with calls to clients, doing consultations and asking for the sale. Here’s the difference: confidence. Confidence comes doing things out of your comfort zone. So say you’re a basketball player and you’ve traveled all over in college, you started, you were great at it, you always got pretty good grades, did well in most things you tried. You don’t gain confidence from that. Why? Because it came easy. In fact, if in your life most things were easy – at least doing them average was easy – you lack confidence when it comes to something new. If you’re not good at it right away chances are you push back. Case in point? What's Blocking Your Confidence? Look at your own high school or college athlete stars. Then look at the nerds who weren’t part of the popular group. Usually after high school those nerds blossom. The stars? Many of them played it safe and aren’t in very good shape any more. They go live at home where they can relive that old identity and are more likely to be overweight and out of shape. True story! Life will force you to grow and develop confidence or you’ll coast through without really gaining anything but luck. Most of the listeners who started their own fitness business from middle class America had middle class or better grades, and sports, and dated a few people then got engaged and married and it was all pretty easy. Those who didn’t have the ideal childhood, who had to get better, have more confidence and often come on stronger. Can you relate to that? So getting out of your comfort zone and doing things you don’t ordinarily do is key. Not once, but committing to them for 8 weeks or 3 months. Speak to Sell Fitness Opportunities: Speaking today includes podcasts, webinars, live video (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Instagram TV). I speak 3-4 times a week almost every week even if I don’t get on a stage or in front of a room of people. Create it. Film it. Critique it. Get better. Take some action. Speak to sell fitness by being interesting, animated, and interested in your audience's goals. Speaking Resources:
They can build confidence. And they can make you a more interesting speaker. Who gets “yes” and who gets asked back? Interesting, engaging speakers who are having a good time being authentic. You can, by the way, speak to sell fitness, without being salesy, or sleazy. Want help crafting a story that targets emotion and sells without selling? Book a session with me to talk about your speak to sell skills and how to get you booked to speak soon. Other Resources: Link to How to Make an Irresistible Fitness Offer How to Reach the Most Lucrative Market Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes! 1) visit Voice for Fitness Professionals in iTunes 2) click listen in iTunes 3) leave a star rating and a comment 4) know how much I appreciate it! |
Thu, 1 August 2019
If you’re making video for fitness marketing (and if you’re not you’re missing out on the fastest way to attract clients) this is your episode. I had a call with my videographer for my most recent project to get tips to save you money, get a great project, and start searching for people to hire. Videos for Fitness Marketing: Beyond Your Phone When you’re ready to move past your phone (and you should be using your phone to create video for fitness marketing) for something, this is what you want to know! Even if you’re not yet creating video for fitness marketing but you know you need to start, this will get your creative juices flowing about how to plan and what to do. (I’ll share in another podcast how to actually plan and create those videos). My guest is cinematographer and editor Erik Lasko based in Boulder, CO. No matter where you are his points apply to you. You can walk through the same steps I used to find help making video for fitness marketing or your product. Phone Home The majority of your videos for fitness marketing can (and should) come from your phone. One fitness icon I know has created a million+ dollar business shooting video (and editing) on her phone. For bigger projects she hires but much of her stuff is just done when she’s ready to turn the camera on. So there really isn’t much reason not to for you. You probably have the same phone in your hand. Questions we cover in this episode:
What are other creative ways a fitness pro can repurpose filmed projects? Another repurpose idea: When you’re doing a project don’t forget the value of “shooting the shoot.” Take pictures of you with the lights in front of the camera. You’ll need a second camera or phone to do it. Even that is a good tease – a reason to tell your audience what you’re working on for them. How to Hire I started shopping with a Google search and on Craigslist. You can look at local cinematography schools too. Students often have the equipment, or use of it, and will do a project for less than a pro. It might be good enough for your first project. For other projects I flew someone in from out of state, he stayed in my guest room and we shot for 2 ½ days straight from a list of video and scripts I had well planned out. He did great work and was by comparison more affordable (including flight, Uber, shooting and editing) than someone I had used for 2 other projects locally. Erik’s little details to remember:
Remember that noise you don’t even notice in your own environment any more can be a big bummer for viewers. On that note, our phone call recording for this episode was not ideal sound quality. Hearing it after, I remember why I no longer use it normally. I vowed to be done with phone interviews. It’s just not worth it the risk it will work. Make sure to test-drive your sound quality. If you listened all the way through, thank you! Connect with Erik Lasko: Cinematographer/Editor El222905@gmail.com Vimeo channel dynamicmediacolorado Working with (or want to) women who need a hormone balancing fitness specialist? As part of the Advanced Specialist you get a chance to work for 4 months on your marketing to leverage what you learn and get started.
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Thu, 25 July 2019
Is the Fitness Industry Cracking The Obesity Code? The Obesity Code book review is perhaps one of the most important episode we’ve done. At the least it’s a most important topic. We’ve not cracked this code or solved this problem yet. We’re all still unraveling factors that contribute. As fitness professionals we’re key in supporting individuals with obesity. The Book: The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung, a Canadian doctor expert on intermittent fasting and low carb for treating people with type 2 diabetes. Six parts of the Obesity Code: Part 1 of the Obesity Code, “The Epidemic,” explores the timeline of the obesity epidemic and the contribution of the patient’s family history, and shows how both shed light on the underlying causes. Part 2, “The Calorie Deception,” reviews the current caloric theory in depth, including exercise and overfeeding studies. The shortcomings of the current understanding of obesity are highlighted. Part 3, “A New Model of Obesity,” introduces the hormonal theory of obesity, a robust explanation of obesity as a medical problem. These chapters explain the central role of insulin in regulating body weight and describe the vitally important role of insulin resistance. The Second Half of the Book Part 4, “The Social Phenomenon of Obesity,” considers how hormonal obesity theory explains some of the associations of obesity. Why is obesity associated with poverty? What can we do about childhood obesity? Part 5, “What’s Wrong with Our Diet?,” explores the role of fat, protein and carbohydrates, the three macronutrients, in weight gain. In addition, we examine one of the main culprits in weight gain— fructose— and the effects of artificial sweeteners. Part 6, “The Solution,” provides guidelines for lasting treatment of obesity by addressing the hormonal imbalance of high blood insulin. Dietary guidelines for reducing insulin levels include reducing added sugar and refined grains, keeping protein consumption moderate, and adding healthy fat and fiber. Added points: Intermittent fasting is an effective way to treat insulin resistance without incurring the negative effects of calorie reduction diets. Stress management and sleep improvement can reduce cortisol levels and control insulin. Three main topics for discussion of this book:
Proteins- especially dairy can stimulate insulin significantly Whey protein can raise insulin even higher than whole wheat bread Increasing plant-based proteins can decrease the insulin response But not completely eliminating…because of the satiety solution to weight control Increased insulin promotes weight gain Increased satiety suppresses it (hormones secreted by protein consumption) It’s Not “All Animal Protein is Bad” When you talk only about increased meat consumption you talk about a large number of people reporting… often in a poor economic division of the population you find consumption of poor quality meat to be frequent. So depending on you and your awareness studies may not reflect your personal risk at all. Conflicting Information The insulin spiking effects aside, dairy and meat had differing effects on weight gain though in some studies: Dairy didn’t cause it..in part because it’s hard to over consume cheese or milk or yogurt (according to Fung) and easier to do so with meat. Noteworthy It’s “fattening carbohydrates” consumed with fat = sweet fat in the presence of cortisol that combines with insulin. Vinegar and fiber add protective features. Processed foods period should be avoided. It’s not the calories or even the amount as much as the processing of the foods we eat. What I liked about the book: Dr Jason Fung is stating the facts. He’s citing the research. He isn’t advocating for one perfect solution. He isn’t beginning with an argument or persuasive speech wanting the reader to buy into his plan. It’s validating some of the news you hear and debunking the simplicity of calories alone without consciously addressing the quality of food. It looks at the relationship between hormones influenced by food and the result of fat storage.
The simple message in the book:
Would I recommend it? Yes, not just for every fitness professional, for every student, and every client. This is a great book club read at your gym. If you want to create more community I highly suggest reading it and bringing people together. Do a panel with local university professors, nutritionists, and obesity experts. What’s up next in the book review?
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Fri, 12 July 2019
9 Lies About Work Fitness Owners Need to Know This book review may change your beliefs about work, specifically lies about work. If you've been under a spell about how your work life - and maybe even personal life should be, this will open your eyes. You may get insight about yourself or employees. The Reviewer: Tom Durkin, Owner operator Ames Fitness and Fitness World Ankeny in the Midwest. The CEO of Health & Fitness Management and 40 years experience in fitness industry sales and management. Not a silent partner but someone in buildings every day responding to phone calls, emails, of 315 employees and thousands of customers. He like so many others who have successful track records is a voracious reader and has a personal library of over 2000 books. The Book: 9 Lies About Work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall The 9 Lies:
We dive into three of these 9 lies about work more in depth to give you an inside look at the content. The three lies we selected: People care about which company they work for Reality is that people like you and I want to be valued. Work-life balance matters most. And don’t miss the biggest question, would you recommend it? Lies About Workis a look at the myths that can create unease or dissatisfaction in your life. When your view of life is all should, ought-tos, and comparison of your life with potentially no real life, it’s hard to be happy. Leave a rating in iTunes !
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Thu, 27 June 2019
Got a Growth Mindset? or Hurting Your Business Unknowingly? This month on the book review we’re … well, we’re playing a big game of catch up! We’re picking up right back where we left off after a review of Dark Horse and Good to Great. I’ll link to that podcast in case you missed it and you’re looking for intriguing summer reads (or audio books). How Do You "READ"? And I’m curious, I’d love to hear from you about how you consume books in 2019. Do you read or do you listen? Just respond either below the show notes at fitnessmarketingmastery.com/growth-mindset or in the social media post where you saw this. The Book: Mindset by Carol S. Dweck The Reviewer: Tom Durkin, Owner operator Ames Fitness and Fitness World Ankeny in the Midwest. The CEO of Health & Fitness Management and 40 years experience in fitness industry sales and management. Not a silent partner but someone in buildings every day responding to phone calls, emails, of 315 employees and thousands of customers. He like so many others who have successful track records is a voracious reader and has a personal library of over 2000 books. If you’re new to fitness, meaning just 10 or 15 years of experience, you may not understand how longevity is rare. There are not a lot of independent owners of fitness who have created profitable sustainable businesses that influenced thousands of lives for 40 years. That’s someone’s book recommendation you want to take seriously. The Fixed vs. Growth Mindset The entire book is based on the Fixed vs. Growth mindset. It’s intended for parents, coaches, and leaders of any kind. The purpose is to help those in charge cultivate a growth mindset. So whether you are in charge of others or have children, or you want to take charge of your own mindset, this is for you. In work, sports, relationships mindset matters. Sports is potentially most applicable to listeners though all are relevant. Sample Mindset Differences Fixed mindset says... I'm a natural… good or bad Growth mindset says... I don't really know how good I could be because I haven't put in a lot of effort at it Fixed mindset says... I'm not comfortable with that Growth mindset says... I've never done that, I can't wait to learn, this will be an interesting challenge Fixed mindset says.... I don't want to do that I'm not good at it Growth mindset says.... I am determined to get better at this, I love learning what the steps are, it stimulates me Fixed mindset says.... If I don't win I fail Growth mindset says.... this was a great learning experience! There are always going to be “no” responses in fitness sales. We discussed the growth mindset in praising and rewarding effort. Is this book a must-read? Yes! Other books coming up in our books fitness professionals should-read series:
Book mentioned: Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin Check out the other book review episodes: |
Fri, 21 June 2019
The Positive Power of Negative Customer Feedback In this post I’m sharing negative customer feedback. It’s all about how you can increase your business, and improve your customer satisfaction by attending to the customers who aren’t satisfied! People are not used to nice. Let’s just get that out there. They’re used to being taken advantage of and automated responses where you click 1 if, and 2 if… and you never get to a real person. The Advantage of Small If you’re a small or medium business (or a large one for that matter with a dedicated responder) you can win with this kind of customer service. Look, none of us is going to please all the people all the time. But you can learn from them and create an ally by handling sticky situations right. I’m going to start sharing 3 steps to dealing with negative customer feedback. Then I’ll give you 3 very practical ways to do it when you do so you are set up for success. 3 Response Requirements for Negative Customer Feedback
Instead of “no” here’s our refund policy When someone quits, asks for a refund, or cancels a subscription – always a phone call.
Explore the options Understand what you wanted when you purchased/registered Find an alternative that is a good fit
Look, I don’t want to refund you, it hurts! Is there another way I can serve you that is a better fit? Let’s look at that. And if not, I don’t want you in the wrong place for you. What I’d like to learn what attracted you, what disappointed you, and where potentially we can do a better job messaging the membership program in the future. I’d really value your feedback, if you have a few minutes. Sometimes the things you want to avoid become the things you learn the most from. 3 Tips for Making These Kinds of Calls 1) Make sure your customer service front line people know how to positively – and quickly - respond. Give them scripts, and text snippets to use. Don’t assume they know what you’re thinking. If you have complaints, keep those emails, and transcribe those phone calls to use to create responses. One of my customer service team members recently responded with a “here’s our refund policy” and it was a little cold. If I had been on the receiving end, I wouldn’t have liked it either. You know the way to deliver a sandwich of constructive criticism. This is similar. =>Express empathy: I’m sorry that happened. Let’s see if we can resolve this for you. =>Deliver the bad news/refund policy: Here’s a reminder of our refund policy. =>End with a positive: However, every situation is unique and we want to understand what’s happening for you and fix it. Debra would like to talk personally to you. What’s the best phone to reach you and what days and times are good for you? 2) Do it at a time you’re upbeat and ready. For me that’s morning after coffee and maybe a dog walk! It’s the first thing I do in the morning (or the second, right after something I know will be positive!) – if of course that fits with the individual’s time. Even if it’s not though, I will use something like Bombbomb to create a video response or a simple audio message to them via text or email … so if their schedule and mine aren’t aligned for a direct connection right away, I still am reaching out. They hear my voice and or see my face so they know I’m authentically trying to understand them before anything else. In that message I don’t allude to anything more than exploring options, desire to understand what’s happening and request more feedback about her experience. It’s less than a minute. But it gives hope for a neutral not negative conversation. 3) Set your mind: be willing to do the right thing. I will refund if someone is in the wrong seat on the bus. You don’t want an unhappy customer. That can spoil the goodness you have going. It’s draining for you. In the case of a program – say that’s $200, it’s just not worth it when there’s 10 people who ARE right for it. It’s a good opportunity to review:
My Recent Brush with Negative Customer Feedback The customer I just talked to yesterday happens to be a Physical Therapist. She bought the program for herself. By creating a positive problem-solving experience for her, I may have increased the likelihood that she refers the women in my demographic she’s working with in her practice to me. When you can exchange one for many? Yes. You can save a customer who gives negative feedback. You can often create a raving fan in them. Whether they buy or stay or not, they will be impressed if not shocked that you took time to listen. My book recommendations if you’re setting up a system for Negative Customer Feedback: Both above by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles Show notes at fitnessmarketingmastery.com/negative-feedback
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Sun, 2 June 2019
SEO for Fitness: Can Customers Find You? SEO is not a sexy topic compared to fat burning, health coaching, and suspension training. Without it though you will be missed by those customers who want your services. Why waste time thinking about your logo, colors, and the words on your pages if you don’t optimize your “findability” factor. This episode is all about how to make you the one they find when they’re looking for answers. And they are looking. There’s proof everywhere that SEO can be powerful if it’s done right. There’s good news in this episode. You’ll like the path to better SEO for fitness businesses. My guest is Alec Gorjestani, an engineer who has been writing all kinds of software for 16 years. From automated vehicles to mobile to web software, he likes to build things. His wife is a Zumba instructor so he’s got an inside glimpse at what fitness pros do like to focus on. Alec runs a business and understands the unfun tasks that are required to run a business and help people find wellness options they’re looking for. He’s committed to helping you do just that. We dive into what Fitness Pros Need to Know About SEO. Questions we cover in this episode: Is S.E.O. dead? What is it? How can you organically increase SEO? How are many websites overlooking simple things they can do to support SEO? What are the next level steps in SEO for fitness businesses? What questions should a business owner be asking developers or tech staff? (that they don't know to ask) – Alec gave three tips! Don’t miss those! Where should you be looking to know how well you're doing with SEO for fitness? Google Search Console How long does it take, given the SEO for fitness tips are implemented, to see a boost in SEO?
Connect with Alec: Offeringtree.com/debra |
Thu, 30 May 2019
My guest today is Karla from Arizona and a shout out to FitnessFest events where we ran into each other. Karla asked a couple great questions that I have a hunch may be of interest to you too. Whether you’re got a business you want to grow, you’re itching to leave working for a boss and interested in launching a fitness business or somewhere between this live coaching call can help you too. BACKGROUND: I teach yoga for community andemployeesin the school district in which I work. I use a school within the district to teach my classes. I run the classes via the “Academic Support Systems” department. So, it’s kind of my own thing, but yet runs through the school district. I don’t have much support getting the school district to “advertise” for me with social media, as I don’t think they like the word “yoga” and it’s connotations; all I get is a paper flyer that is sent out via e-mail to the school secretaries to post/display by teacher mailboxes. QUESTION: Is there a way to use social media on my own to promote my classes? Can I set up my own webpage or Facebook page for this? What other types of social media can I use? I am not very techie and have very little experience with social media…I’m 58 years old and just getting started understanding how it all works. ANSWER: YES! By all means! The School should love that you do it. Does the school have a page? If so tag them. Start posting regularly. Share an article that is supportive of the purpose of the classes you teach. Who pays you? What is the mission of the agency paying you or hosting you? What can you share in alignment with that mission? While they may not see value in promoting or hosting. They will see great value if they start getting positive PR from what you do. QUESTION: I am also working on my Health & Wellness Coach certification (will be done in Sept/Oct.). I already am certified with the following: ACE Group Fitness, RYT 500 Yoga, Cycling, NCSF Personal Training. I would like to start my own LLC, but not sure how to start out getting clients. What are the most powerful ways to start using social media to get going? ANSWER: First, you don’t need an LLC to start getting clients. Launching a fitness business involves testing the concept first. You need a website. Then if you’re using social media you’re using it to drive people to a website. You have zero control over social media. It’s here but you have nothing to show for anything you do there unless you have a way for them to come off social media onto your website and an EMAIL list. You must begin building an email list. Use Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or Aweber for free or $5 until you have more subscribers but get it. And a way for people to sign up on your website so you can then communicate with them. The best use of social media is video. Video.video. Live, recorded, shared. QUESTION: I also am trying to narrow down my focus (target audience) as you had mentioned in your presentation at FitnessFest.It’s hard because there are so many aspects of fitness that I love and want to share! Here are a few of my ideas:
ANSWER: I think you can easily combine these. When launching a fitness business you do want to focus but these overlap. Your market may not know they’re looking for yoga. They know they’re beginners. They also may not know they’re looking for health & wellness coaching (it’s intangible) but they know they should be exercising. You can start there. But that’s not still a niche. Is this a beginner who’s 20 or who’s 50? Or 70? Is it a male? Or a female? Is it a married or single person? Someone budget minded or with money to burn? Why aren’t they exercising now? What have they tried? What do they hate about exercise and personal trainers? When you're launching a fitness business the biggest mistake trainers or business owners make is thinking they know what the customer is really thinking. QUESTION: Bottom line… I am scared…I have worked FOR a school district (stable job/money, insurance, etc.) my whole life. I have had the “itch” to do something in the health/wellness area for 25+ years! I have always taught fitness classes as a “second career”, but I want to try something maybe part-time to transition. Not sure if I should just jump in and do it full-time or do it little by little. I know there’s no easy answer for that! Any thoughts or words of wisdomJ? ANSWER: START.. keep your job, but do a side hustle. Launching a fitness business has to have deadlines but you want a safety net. Get some steady income coming in. Start with who you know. Are there teachers not exercising that want to? You’ve got a pool of clients. Who possibly want the same time slot. So begin a group and optimize your time. Thanks for leave a rating in iTunes!Here’s How:
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Thu, 9 May 2019
Fitness marketing to midlife women, that works Five years ago she was ignored. Today she’s not ignored but she’s stereotyped. Midlife woman trying too hard to look younger, a face frozen and plumped with Botox, wearing clothes she can share (but look slightly “off”) with her daughter. A midlife woman who’s operating on the 1980s metabolism science she learned. Relies on calories, steps, heart rate, and data, that ignore the state of her hormones. A midlife woman who enjoys at least a glass and maybe three of wine most days, starts with coffee and flirts with fasting but has no idea what a “healthy diet” is for her today. A midlife woman who thinks exercise is about burning… calories, off fat… so she can “fix” what she doesn’t love about her body. She’s all these and more. If she gets a compliment it’s veiled in a disclaimer. You look great for your age. Body shape motives are not the only thing that gets her going. Promoting weight loss may be detrimental to her participation. Don’t forget the women who don’t need to lose weight but who have experienced a relocation of body weight, those with disease risk factors, who want more energy, want to be proactive in aging, or gain bone density. Women control an incredible amount of buying power. Even before women were in the workplace equally they influenced 80% of household decisions. They still do now that they are in the workplace. They are diverse. Even marketing to the niche of women post menopause is unique. ICAA categorizes them as “athletic” if they regularly exercise 3 or more times a week. For some this is running, biking, lifting and swimming, but for others it’s a walk or yoga. So, clearly you can’t treat them all the same. Naturally, though, it’s easy to think you know her. You may be her. Your mom, aunts, or prior clients are her. Therearecommon denominators. But the things that make them unique are what make their program and the way you attract them and serve them unique. If you miss them, you’ll lose her. Barriers to marketing to midlife women:
“For active, athletic, middle-aged women there is just nothing. A 22-year old doesn’t get it and I’m not in wheel chair, there isn’t much for us between.” Even if you offer something between the gap described above by a Flipping 50 program participant, you may not be getting the message across. You want to reach her: 1) Where she is 2) With a message created for her 2) In a way she hears it 3) Without offending her The Biggest Mistakes Fitness Marketers Make (and we’re all fitness marketers) Thinking they are all the same: How do you think of them? Do you imagine they’re frail, stiff, in pain, lack energy, did aerobics with Jane Fonda or Jackie Sorensen, are empty-nesters, have grandchildren, have belly fat, cellulite, want weight loss, want belly fat loss… Did you know? Some of them are doing their first triathlons, learning to swim so they don’t drown in open water, going to training camps to ride bikes in mountains, skiing downhill at 50 miles an hour, wearing bikinis, learning to weight lifts and have kindergarteners? And starting their entire lives over by themselves or with someone new, starting businesses… so they’re not afraid of a little grind. Thinking you know their goal: If the title of your program isn’t a coffee table book you’d happily display at your home, rethink it. No 50-something, 60-something, and there’s a strong chance 70-something wants to “own” needing a fall risk reduction class. She doesn’t want to buy the fear she wants to buy the transformation. It might be performance – golf, running, starting triathlon, (or anything else after retirement). It might be to avoid cognitive decline, depression, anxiety, or muscle or bone density losses. More positively though, it is hope. This year, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her controversial debut, Switzer ran the Boston Marathon again with the same bib number she wore in her first. "People still treat older people the way they treated us women 50 years ago, which is, 'Be careful! You might hurt yourself!' when in fact the opposite is the case," Switzer told Prevention. "The more you do, the more you can do! There are lots of women who have run marathons at 70, 80, even 90. I was only eighth in my age group at Boston [in 2017], for heaven's sake!" Prevention Magazine, Nov. 2017 Examples of Michele Obama, Ernestine Shepherd, Madonna Buder -The Iron Nun, and a growing number of aging iconic fitness professionals are showing the world a new way to age. But it’s not normal yet. Because even she will say, “I think I look pretty good for my age.”She’ll say, “I’m getting so old.” She’ll say that even while she doesn’t want to be treated as “old” or invisible. She feels invisible. Environment is everything. Have you noticed how people are flocking to sites where exercise over 50 or aging is included in the title? If positive things happen there, people will gather. Be one of them. Be positive. Be correct, but be positive. Growing Bolder is one of the most well-know sites for older adults. Why? It positively portrays aging. It defies traditional treatment of aging. It makes fun on occasion of older adults. But it does so in a playful, not condescending way. The Aging Triathlete and Thriving Not Surviving are two Facebook pages by midlife and older women describing their own journeys from inactive, or in need of a health intervention, to triathlon training. Did you know? Age-related decline in triathlon (swim, run, and bike) starts earlier in swimming than in cycling or running. Isn’t that bizarre since you and I would both probably recommend swimming more and more as someone got more limited with joint issues. Not Acknowledging Their Barriers Not knowing how far and wide fitness benefits take them Not having had good examples Having old habits and thoughts about exercise Time (perceived need) Fear of getting hurt Lack of trust for fitness “professionals” Relate to Her and Overcome Objections You might be thinking…is a golden phrase to use when you’re working on this type of copy. Create a Better Offer: Solve a real problem They know they have They are actively seeking a solution for They have some urgency for So you can… Relate to Her. You must: Tell a Rags-to-Riches story Reveal your real life vs. Cinderella life Tell your story… Start with, when I was… Know What She Wants, What She REALLY Wants
What is your WHY?
Get testimonials for marketing to midlife women from midlife women. How do you get a perfect testimonial? This question: What almost stopped you from registering/getting started? Audit your images: Are you showing HER? Are you showing the dream? She doubts: Your program will work For her She doubts her. Universal Truths of Marketing to Midlife Women She thinks she’s unique. She thinks she’s flawed. She thinks she’s uniquely flawed. It’s not a good time. Just because you’ve always done something or thought a certain way doesn’t mean you can’t change it. She has free will. She’s failed before. This is not her first rodeo. Success dulls the knife. Failure sharpens it. Failure is data. She doesn’t know that yet or think it yet. She blames failure on a lack of willpower, discipline, or motivation. She’s a prove-it-to-me girl. Make sure you know what you’re talking about.
Write copy like you ARE your ideal customer. Get a copywriter that is your ideal customer. If you have a 20-something writing copy or on social media make sure they give you examples of their work. Get a focus group together and get their thoughts. Listen to them. Don’t object or defend. Let your current customer tell you what they would have wanted to hear. Interview. Have a Third Party interview your ideal customer. Create 5-6 questions. Use these as examples:
She likes to give and she’ll support businesses that do more than profit or provide a service.
Change your approach What if you mocked your own product and service? Explain how it works instead of catchy titles. All the things that midlife women hate and turn them off…
Pink Dumbbells are Your Enemy! Women respond to colors of the sunset. She IS working. She may have the corner office. She IS overwhelmed. She DOES think a lot about her family and juggle responsibilities. She is willing to spend. She’s not finding good choices. She wants someone who understands her kinesiology, physiology, endocrine system, and her socialization. She’s got some unlearning to do. She may decide to do a marathon or a triathlon in a decade or so. She’s not done. But she does need to get started. These and more are the way to fix mistakes you’re making in marketing to midlife women, make yourself the best choice, and once you get her, help her and keep her loving life… and the role you play in it. Isn’t that what it’s all about? If you’d like some help. But you’re not sure where to start. Yet the idea of being a coach with a business you love helping women love their lives sounds like exactly what you want to do… and you want to stop having a hobby and start having a business – with a life – then set up a time to talk about how to make that happen. I’ll give you my input on what you need to have a business model that works. You may choose not to pursue it but you’ll know.
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Fri, 3 May 2019
4 Easy Marketing Steps That Will Grow Your Fitness Business If your first thought is "easy marketing" is a myth, you're not alone. Truth is that marketing isn't hard, but getting distracted by shiny objects is easy. When you want to buckle down, focus on how to get leads, clients, and recurring revenue though you have to ignore shiny objects and do the one thing hardest of all. You have to trust someone else. Unless you're a marketer, a website developer, an SEO expert, a Facebook ads manager or know how to write copy (ALL of which you should know SOMETHING ABOUT, by the way) you have to eventually turn it over. Someone else will get far better results in far less time and your time is better spent. So my guest in this show is my trusted resource. Jonathan Kraft is a digital strategist who has contributed well over 1,000 how-to videos to YouTube since 2006. His videos have had more than 10 million views. He and his wife spent 2 years traveling the world from 2009-2011 on income earned solely from affiliate marketing. He's traveled to more than 40 countries and speaks German and Spanish in addition to English. He is best known for helping small businesses who have something going online already to become medium sized businesses. He does this by helping them improve their branding, marketing, site structure, search presence, and business strategy. He has worked with online businesses across industries, from professional speakers to investment firms, and from health clinics to online retailers, including a few mentioned below:
That's an impressive list. Questions about easy marketing steps we cover in this episode: Overall when you jump into a business as the man behind the curtains… where is it that people need the most help when they hire you? And what is it you see that might be a different need? What are the biggest errors you see regarding websites? How important is S.E.O.? What would fix S.E.O. fast? What are the biggest errors you see in funnels and marketing? Questions I'm going to ask Jonathan in a future episode: Which system have you had the most experience with for and prefer:
Of all the businesses you’ve worked with, grown, among those who’ve been most successful in monetizing their website, marketing, social reach what has been the biggest ONE THING or common denominator? assuming there’s demand for the product and there’s a big enough target market for the product)
The 4 Easy Marketing Steps we discussed:
….and bonus (not included in the episode) is how you KNOW these easy marketing steps work: Use your Google analytics! Find out how much traffic, which pages, what blog content people enter on, and if they come from social or direct traffic. Do you get organic traffic? Known now and then track as you implement the easy marketing steps from todays post. Pssst. From SCWfit.com to ICAA to Athletic Business to Fitness Fest, I can share that less than 50% of business owners or social media managers use Google Analytics. WHAT? It's the only way to find out if your marketing is making headway. You'll learn what pages people come to and how they get there. You'll learn if they're coming from social media, direct to your URL, or from referral. You've got to know your numbers. It makes easy marketing more realistic. You've got to have a goal! You've got to have a benchmark to measure against. Yes, ultimately revenue. But if you don't know where and why it's coming to you? It's random and a roller coaster. Thanks for listening. Questions about behind the scenes strategies on your website that could help create positive, easy marketing changes for you? Add them to the comments! |
Thu, 25 April 2019
Free Advertising | How to Get Booked for Interviews Who doesn’t want free advertising? Interviews and media appearances are an amazing way to create credibility. It’s free advertising opportunity you can create over and over again. If you know what you need to get booked and deliver an interview that get you clients and asked back: gold. In the last episode I shared how to interview like a pro (and get clients). If you missed it I highly recommend you go back and listen to that one. You have a little homework to do before you grab the free advertising from get booked or create ways to be interviewed on your own- which is what this episode is all about. I’ll link to it that episode here. Get free advertising from media interviews How do you pitch the media? First, you have to know this: they do not care about YOU. They care about their listener, audience, viewer. And ratings, if this is a TV station or a radio station. They need listenership and viewer numbers. So if you don’t pitch something relevant to their listeners you won’t get booked. Do your research. If you want to be on a certain show know who watches it. Target that audience and make it clear to the producer or host that you get them and what they are trying to do. Make sure they have a health, fitness segment open to guests. Most likely they do! There’s a lot of airtime to fill! A pitch is one sheet of an idea for a segment with:
It’s not a Press Release. It’s attention-getting and juicy not dry. Free advertising from podcasts, online summits, panelists Find opportunities in podcasts. If you’re a fitness professional you’re likely in groups and forums. You know the importance of networking. You have something unique. Ask if anyone in your professional network has a podcast or reach out to those you listen to and offer yourself as a guest. If you’ve got a Go Red for Women’s event near you, at the fundraising luncheons there is often a panel of experts. Offer to attend and be a guest. Make it clear why you. Seek out other events happening at your local hospital or national level if that’s where you are, and create them yourself! Free advertising by hosting free public events Use any of these ideas to create an event yourself. Think about “national days” of the year or weeks or months. Do something for breast cancer awareness or stress awareness. Think seasonal topics. Offer a workshop on spring training without injuries or winter ski conditioning, or avoiding falls on ice by improving balance. Send a pitch to local media about this event. If they need someone or something to fill a slot that day and the target is their audience you’ll have a great chance of getting booked and they may even cover the event live. Partner with local businesses who target the same group. A grocery store might sponsor by providing snacks. A massage therapist might offer a discount to attendees. A sporting goods store might offer a special rate on a related product. Then they too get exposure as the sponsor and will share the event to increase free advertising for you. It works for you both. Please leave a rating in iTunes! Here's How:
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Sun, 21 April 2019
How to Interview Like A Pro (and Get Clients) Have you wondered how to interview so you can maximize the opportunity? If you haven’t been asked or asked for an interview, I’ll say this: you will and you should! Let me define “interview” before we go to far. Anytime someone else is asking questions can be an interview opportunity. And that is, a chance to share expertise, answer questions based on your knowledge or experience – after all, there is a reason you’re being asked to do the presentation or interview – or people showed up to ask you questions. So whether you:
Any of those, and many more qualify and you want to know how to interview so you get results and you get asked back! Do you know there are people – lots of people – who appeared on Oprah, the holy grail of interviews and free publicity. Yet they weren’t ready to monetize the traffic that came afterward and no one has ever heard about them again. When you know how to interview so you stay on track with your key points and make your host look good (so you have fun and get asked back) you’ll win the audience over and make the station love you. How to prepare for your interview
Example: Recently I did a segment about an upcoming event – a workshop for older adult fitness. I pulled the three key reasons I was doing the workshop and one demonstration for each. I demonstrated how to do an important strength training exercise – that could be done at home – and how to make it effective if an adult wanted to use lighter weight. I cued it in detail pointing out where to feel it, put weight on feet, head position, etc. Then I did two more parts of the workshop. I covered the three big areas I was going to discuss at the workshop – strength, balance, and interval training. I pulled one juicy tip from each to get the point across how important it was. I didn’t gloss over it I backed it up with research, how it would prevent falls (fear) and enhance aging (desire). I focused on mistakes most adults make (no one wants to be wasting time). That kind of thinking should go into any presentation and you can make it fit yours no matter what it is. How to plan for different length interviews
Example:In the example I gave you earlier, I’ve delivered that content in a 90-minute workshop, on a 30-minute podcast, a 9-minute news segment, and the hardest by far a 2-minute segment. So be ready. Rehearse for shortest segments the most. You have to make every word and second count. When you have a workshop (or a book for that matter) there’s a reason you created it. Those reasons are likely your bullet points. Hopefully, you created it based on demand not because you wanted to but because your customers tell you that’s why they come to you and that’s what they want most. The other things they’d tried and hate are a part of your talking about it. The outcomes they want are a part of talking about it. If you know how to interview, you also know how to create marketing copy, and vice versa. As painful as it might be, record your rehearsal. Whether its’ audio or it’s video, record and play it back. Do you have energy? Are you fun? The interviewer is going to be lively, strong and fun. Can you match that energy? If you’ve got passion about what you’re doing you can but in front of a microphone or camera if feels different so you’ve got to practice! How to interview when you’re asked a question you aren’t prepared for Always come right back to your notes, why this is so important, why you’re doing what you’re doing (event, service, product, workshop) How to interview so you make your host look good When you get booked sometimes you’re going to be working with a producer or an assistant. Sometimes that’s one and the same. You want to make THEM look good too. Their job is to make the host or anchor or reporter look good so that is also what you want to do. I’ve been asked back to do segments on the same show several times. That only happens if you are easy to work with and everyone loves you. Give her/him all the details in advance – are you going to do exercise demos? Will she be in a dress and heels? Bring models if necessary. Give her/him all the questions. You can list questions on your pitch or list the answers on the pitch. Often you’ll be asked to provide 3-5 questions you’d like to be asked. Make these good. Specifically, they should set you up to respond with your key talking points. Just Because You Get the Interview Doesn’t Mean You’re Good I’ve interviewed hundreds of people in the last 6 years for two podcasts. Some have been amazing and some have not in fact they’ve been uncomfortable. The guest didn’t have key points and didn’t have a strong opinion. They rambled with answers. Don’t let that be you. You won’t get asked back. Unless it’s a live segment, you may not get published even after the recording. No one is going to release what they feel is a weak interview. The Getting the Biggest Benefit A big part of doing a killer interview – even if it’s two minutes long – is knowing what you want to happen afterwards. That involves two parts: First, what you do with the opportunity matters. Use that video clip from the news. Share the segment from a podcast interview while you tag your host. Take a selfie of yourself in the front of the room with the audience behind you to share on social and email. But above all have a call to action while you’re in the interview. Because you will always, always be asked where someone can learn more about you. Second, knowing what action you want the viewer or listener or reader to take is key if you want to get clients or customers. And you do… even if you don’t yet know what you’re going to sell them yet to support them. You want to start a conversation with them so when you do have a product or service you’ve got an audience just waiting for it. You need to have a very clear next step for them to take when they go to your website. Are you giving away a free book or a cheat sheet with the exercises you’ve just demonstrated? Is there an invitation to your free event? Are you really ready? Do an audit of your website before you ever have an appearance. If you’re in front of a group of older women does your website look like some advertising for Monster energy drinks? If it’s black and neon with white font on a dark background… or has images of a sixpack of abs … that’s not going to build your business. Decide who you serve and dedicate time and energy to making sure your image clearly relays that. Know that someone who gets to your website is interested enough to spend maybe a little more than 7 seconds that’s the typical attention span. But not much. Tell her exactly what to do when she gets there. Is there an immediate ask for her email address in exchange for a juicy freebie that she can’t say no to? Be ready to capture emails and deliver that gift. Make it simple and clear. Don’t send them to a page on a website with 5 choices and 20 pages of rabbit holes they can fall down. Send them to a very specific page where there’s one action to take. That’s called a landing page to do the ONE relevant thing that is a logical next step for them. P.S. If you don’t have or know what a landing page is, get your marketing team up to speed on why this is crucial, get a new marketing coach who can help you. Building a landing page takes less than five minutes if you do it right and you’re in charge of your own website. It’s not time consuming and it’s not expensive. But it will cost you if you don’t have it. This is such a big part of learning how to interview so that you get clients and customers (or maybe interns and employees) from your public appearances – all of them! All these steps are steps I’ve talked about many times in podcasts and blogs here at fitnessmarketingmastery.com. But if you want help with specific steps you need to take and the accountability to get them done you’ve got two options: 1.) Request a consultation about private business coaching 2.) If you serve women in midlife and becoming a Flipping 50 specialist is also a good fit for you, you can get that AND 4 months of a mastermind group for LESS than the cost of private coaching. You’ll save over $500 on the combination.
Don’t Miss the Next Episode Next episode as I teased earlier I’m going to talk about how to get booked for interviews. I did this how to interview episode first because you’ve got to be ready. You actually don’t want to get stuck in an interview and give a weak interview – you’ve got a message and you want to deliver it strong! (You also don’t want to wait until it’s perfect or you’d never do anything!) But once you really do the homework and know how to interview you want to start getting those opportunities for free advertising. Will you leave a rating in iTunes?
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Tue, 9 April 2019
Ever question your client relationships? Or see an employee or colleague that makes you wonder about how best to handle client relationships and boundaries? If you want to support your client’s strong foundation to make self care changes but stay within scope of practice, tune in. Eighteen year-old Stanley Padgett married his seventeen-year-old high school sweetheart in what easily could have been another divorce statistic. Another couple who naively wed too young and couldn't make it work. While they enjoyed each other, they were tested early and often. They raised their first child while working their way through college. Their second wasn't any easier as Stan was attending Duke Law School at the time. He graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1982 and has been a business trial lawyer in Tampa since then. His book, “UnVeiled: Secrets of a Marriage that Lasts Forever” and his course “The Diamond Relationship Formula” are the result of a lifetime of work and research. Unlike most "relationship experts," what Stan teaches does not come from a book or from a classroom. It comes from a life well lived and a marriage that endured and improved through good times and bad, in sickness and in health. Their marriage has been cut and polished into a Diamond Marriage. How important is a stable relationship in anchoring a foundation for self care in health and fitness? How can a trainer support positive client relationships for his/her clients in order to gain greater compliance and improve client outcomes? Boundaries and scope of practice are a challenge due to the nature of personal training. Do you have suggestions for curbing conversations that could come back to bite a trainer? It can be heady, or flattering, to be treated as a confidante – how to be aware of that? Starting early, going late, potentially struggling with finances – can weight heavy on relationships, how can you as a trainer take care of your own relationship foundation? Learn More: www.relationshipmagicacademy.com Connect with Stan: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/relationshipmagicacademy/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RelationshipMagicAcademy/?ref=bookmarks Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/relationshipmagicacademy/ RMA Website - http://www.relationshipmagicacademy.com/ Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE70toYDYQ0 |
Sun, 7 April 2019
Social Media for Fitness Professionals: More Results Less Time Social media for fitness professionals is unique. For any service oriented professional who IS the business, or thinking they are the business, as well as the marketing director, the salesperson, the customer service rep, and the programming director, there’s too much to do and limited time to do it in. That’s not news. What is good news is this: if you’re big or small it doesn’t matter. In fact, if you’re a fitness pro who can pivot quickly and change your message, post what you approve of, as a small business owner you have an advantage over big corporations that need approval or have to limit posts to small sets of parameters. Before I dive into social media for fitness professionals in this episode I have a secret! I recorded this from my sauna. Using one? Whether for relaxation, or for detoxing naturally, here’s mine. It fits in small spaces – you can pick it up and move it easily. SCW and Club Industry I mentioned SCW events on this episode. They are a great source of content for business, for practical workout ideas to expand your programming. Partnering with Club Industry Sara Kooperman has been able to offer a special track for business development – and the networking- that happens during those events that reduces the isolation you may feel when you’re in the trenches. If you’re marketing to women in midlife you’re going to want a social media marketing system that reaches them specifically with a relationship that doesn’t take you all day. If you need social media for fitness professionals that gets results without taking all day … especially if you serve women in midlife, you’ll love this.
Take $100 off the Advanced Specialist certification today with code: cert10 Then get 4 months of mastermind inside a private Facebook group. How do you do social media without it taking your life? Let’s get real first. Every business at this point needs a marketing person. Someone dedicated to marketing across all platforms, planning the strategy to keep the leads coming in so you can follow up, nurture and sell those customers so you can help them! If that marketing person is YOU, then you do have to make time. You can’t bury your head in the sand. Without constant marketing a business dies. Get leads. Get clients. Keep clients. Get referrals. Repeat on constant once you create a system that works. You’ll need to continually update your system. The consumer gets smarter. She can and will Google anything. Right or not she can find it. Your marketing message to start your funnel has to be answering those questions she’s asking better than anyone else. They have to be easy to find with key words, with video. Then you have to have a clear next step. Given 9/10 fitness businesses do in fact die still today – 30 years after the fitness “boom” began, you have to be proactive. Regularly getting clients in and taking great care of them will lead to “full” consistently and referrals from happy customers. Create systems that work. Just like you have with your fitness clients. You test them, assess them, educate them, and you progressively advance their programs. You will do that too with a formula for social media for fitness professionals. For more on this topic, join me at FitnessFest in Mesa Arizona later this month! Or for a book you can hold in your hands, check out the Social Media Book for Health Coaches and Personal Trainers (Healthy Learning).
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Tue, 2 April 2019
Are you great or desire to be? Do you have a conventional education or not? Questions we answer with our book review today. My cohost Tom Durkin Owner operator Ames Fitness and Fitness World Ankeny in Midwest, CEO of Health & Fitness Management, 40 years in fitness industry sales and management. He has over 2000 books in his personal library. He manages over 315 employees daily at multiple facilities. Questions we answer in todays episode:
Great by Choice– Jim Collins Dark Horse-Todd Rose
Are you living up to your potential? Who are you competing against? Are you great compared to them? Are you fulfilled and full according to your goal? Am I taking the steps to do it?
“People who are great by choice have clear performance markers.” - Tom Durkin, 40-year fitness industry owner & manager
Everybody has talent. There are many pathways to success and fulfillment. A non-traditional approach doesn’t necessarily put you at a disadvantage.
Another book this is reminiscent of - Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell. (not on our review list right now) If you had to recommend a top 10 books to read on habits of successful people... would either or both make the cut? No to Great By Choice No to Dark Horse Up next in our book club review: Mindset– by Carol Dweck Have you read Great by Choice or Dark Horse?
Direct download: Tom_Book_Club__2_-_Edited.mp3
Category:Personal development -- posted at: 3:00am MDT |
Tue, 26 March 2019
Taking Your Fitness Passion to a Living You Love You’re passionate about fitness. You love it. You love what it’s done for you. You like helping people. You like teaching. Do you have a limiting belief about how much you can earn or how much you have to work to do it? Do you believe if you’re going to make a living as a fitness professional that it would all be able selling? Do you change your voice and turn into someone else when you have to ask for money? Today’s guest is going to help unpack some of that baggage. PHIL KAPLAN Phil Kaplan is a 30-year veteran of the fitness field and a pioneer in the realm of Personal Training. The first Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient from Personal Fitness Professional, he’s appeared on over 1000 TV and radio shows sharing “the Fitness Truth.” Through seminars, articles, appearances, and programs, Phil paved the way for personal trainers setting a model for Professional Excellence and establishing oft-imitated paradigms for “selling fitness” in health club, corporate, and studio settings. With extensive experience as a health club owner, media personality, author, and international speaker, he’s gained rare insights into the elements of mind, body, and spirit that integrate to manifest positive physical change and has created programs with unprecedented levels of outcome and compliance including TRANSFORM (over 75,000 copies sold) and The ANSWER.
Resources: The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge “Creative Tension” the gap between you now and where you want to be Phil is instrumental part of promotion of MedFitNetwork, a place for medical fitness professionals to gather, for consumers to find them, and to improve lives with quality education and service based on the belief exercise and nutrition can both be medicine used correctly. Find Phil Kaplan: |
Tue, 19 March 2019
Fix Your Copy to Attract More Clients You want fitness sales without being salesy. Yet if you try so hard to be nonchalant you can actually send business away! You share video after video of exercises. Blog after blog with no call to action. You write for the local paper but don’t put a link in your bio with a call to action. These are all ways you lose amazing opportunities to use your awesome content to do the talking for you. There is always going to be a sentence or two that makes the difference between “that’s nice, thanks” and “where do I sign up?” 1) Meet your reader/your viewer where she is. Not where you want her to be! Mistake: Our brand new program starts next week! Here’s the link for details. Fix Your Copy: 2) Make your reader feel understood. Mistake: Here’s who we are and how we can help Fix Your Copy: You’re probably thinking…. Fix Your Copy: Does this sound familiar? 3) Make a clear and logical next step your call to action. Mistake: All of our personal trainers are ready to support your next step. Fix Your Copy: Share your biggest question about choosing your fitness routine here. Fix Your Copy: Join our free master class to get all of your fitness questions answered. Tell the one person you really want to help exactly what to do next. Mistake: Check out all of our group programs starting soon! Fix Your Copy: Click here now to save your spot Or Click here now to download 5 recipes to get started now. 4) Be direct. Mistake: I hope you liked this! Will you share it? Fix Your Copy: Tag three friends who would love this for a free xyz! Mistake: You’ll find other podcasts and blogs at www.Imawesome.com Fix Your Copy: Link here to the resource mentioned in today’s podcast. If you really believe you have something that can solve a problem tell her! Tell her exactly what to do next and why what she’s doing now won’t help. Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fix-your-copy
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Tue, 12 March 2019
How Fitness Videos Can Grow Your Business You know fitness videos get more views, traction, and cost less than other forms of marketing. You may not know how to stay consistent and make time to do it. Here’s how to create fitness videos that make a difference in your business. Batch your fitness videos Batch every step along the way. Research before you record. Choose a single topic and stick with it to create 5-6 videos that fall into that topic. Think about the why behind you’re creating video. Are you creating fitness videos that attract more customers and clients? What specific client do you want to attract? Do you have a program launch coming up? What content would surprise, shock, and make a viewer want to know more? What content would give a viewer hope and a quick win? Create a list of the videos you want to create. Create a list of the titles for those videos. Do a search of other popular content on that topic. Search key words you want in the title. Create the videos knowing what action you want the viewer to take so you can ask for it. You’ll be able to include a teaser for the previous video and the next video, getting a viewer to stay on your channel consuming more videos. Be concise. Get right to the point. Break large concepts into short segments of 1-3 minutes. The shorter a video – as long as it’s engaging – the more likely a viewer will watch 100% of your video and that ‘s a big plus for your organic recommendations and growth. Be concise with your start too. Get right to what you promise in your title. Then quickly introduce yourself and get right back to it. Know what you want them to do next. Choose one thing, not 2 or 5, that you want a viewer to do after they watch your video. Tell them to subscribe, or go to the link below (or on your screen). Suggest they go back to the previous video in the playlist. Release Fitness Videos Natively. Upload your video to Facebook, to LinkedIn, and to YouTube each directly from your phone. Don’t depend on uploads to YouTube and then share to the other platforms. Natively uploaded video is edging out shared from YouTube across platforms. Stagger your release. It’s tempting to share it all right away. However, this is one instance where batching won’t help as much as staggering your video share. Wait a bit to share the same video to Facebook and LinkedIn as you just posted to YouTube. Keep the traffic coming to your website by spreading it out. Plan your fitness video production. From conceptualizing to recording if you don’t have the time set in your calendar it’s not going to happen. Start. Even if you feel like you’re terrible at it in the beginning, it’s not about you. It’s about how much you’re helping the viewer. If you believe you’ve got a message they need, then you need to be there! See the show notes here: Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/videos Need support growing your fans and followers so you can increase subscribers and sell more services? Book a chat here: http://www.scheduleyou.in/ZzFwszm
Direct download: How_Fitness_Videos_Can_Grow_Your_Business.m4a
Category:marketing -- posted at: 3:30am MDT |
Tue, 12 February 2019
Got Your Continuing Education Credits Planned for 2019? No matter when you’re listening to this episode, continuing education and rejuvenation is always timely. As we record at the beginning of February though it’s a time when fitness pros are looking at annual con-ed budgets and live conferences, continuing education, combining get-aways with business building and that brings me to my guest today.
Janice Jaicks is the founder and creator of FitnessFest Conference and Expo, AquaCon, Spring Cleaning for the Soul Retreat, and Desert Swim School. Janice has been teaching swim lessons and water fitness since 1985. She has trained hundreds of instructors in the field of water exercise all over the country. FitnessFest is a continuing education conference for fitness professionals and has been serving fitness and health pros with events in the Southwest since 1998. In 2018, FitnessFest added four new cities to its schedule (in conjunction with TheFitExpo). FitnessFest has worked with several Native American communities and their diabetes prevention and treatment projects for the past six years. Mover and Shaker in Fitness Continuing Education This woman is on the move as a leader in the fitness industry. Like a handful of other amazing female fitness leaders identifying a need and then taking it on as a personal responsibility… I brought her in because I’m involved as a presenter at FitnessFest in April. This event is truly a jewel. It’s big, the offerings and sessions (we dive into here) and the customer service is big… but the feel is small… they know me, and I think you too will love it and so without further delay… Janice Jaicks! Questions I asked Janice:
Learn more or request a brochure: Rates increase Feb 28 Host Hotel: Sheraton Mesa – Save your room now! Get your continuing education live and get rejuvenated too!
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Tue, 5 February 2019
Must Read Books for Fitness Trainers & Fitness Entrepreneurs Tuesday morning this week I was staying in a hotel in Dallas. I went down to the “fitness room” where there was a treadmill, a bike, and an elliptical along with some dumbbells. It was small, dark, low ceilings. I thought… I’ll go outside and run. I stepped out unprepared for the temps and decided this would be a short one. I rounded the block and saw LA Fitness. I promptly went in and used… a treadmill, bike, and elliptical. Seriously? I laughed at myself as I walked out realizing what I’d done. I tell you this because it relates to our episode today. The environment made it easier to get a harder, slightly longer workout. Environment matters. Welcome to the Book reviews episode. This is the place to be if you’re looking for must read books - to read or listen to - that will build you up, grow your influence, expand your understanding… whether you want our cliff notes or you want to pick up the book yourself… we’ve got you covered. My co-reviewer on this podcast and for future book reviews: Tom Durkin Owner operator Ames Fitness and Fitness World Ankeny both in Iowa and the CEO of Health & Fitness Management. He has 40 years in fitness industry sales, management, and ownership. Considering this is in a conservative Midwestern market, take away is if he can so can you. He's got 2000 books in his personal library(and growing), 200 and 300 to begin with and last year 900K visits, 58,000 personal training sessions, 315 employees at present. Questions we cover in this episode:
Willpower Doesn’t Work–Benjamin Hardy The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business- Charles Duhigg
Our next must read books: Dark Horse – the guy that doesn’t do the standard education or path Great By Choice– by Jim Collins Got another book YOU would recommend? Love to hear it and we'll consider reading (if we haven't) for a future must read books review or invite you on to talk about it! |
Mon, 21 January 2019
Boost Productivity and Creativity and Earn More Motivate adults to take more activity breaks for reasons other than fat loss, looking good, sleeping better. You may be able to leverage your business clients – and swing some corporate coaching gigs because activity supports creativity and productivity. No one is encouraged to take vacations, personal days, rest, or get a massage. At least not without a little teasing or guilt. Accomplishments and work is rewarded far more today than vacation, rest, rejuvenation. But there’s a wealth of information available proving that the breaks you take from the grind are where your breakthroughs will happen. Albert Einstein’s breakthrough insights on relativity came not while at his desk but while riding his bicycle outside. A creativity moment is not uncommon among exercisers. It’s no surprise that many writers tend to also be runners – or is it runners tend to be writers ? Following exercise brain waves enter an alpha state associated with a reflective, clearheaded state of mind that is ripe for new ideas. Could that be sabotaged by constant listening to podcasts or conducting phone calls while you’re working out? My guess is that the typical millennial (and my apologies to Millenials who don’t) who is scrolling through emails, Instagram, and Twitter between sets is not getting any creative breakthroughs. Exercise is a Game Changer Exercise could be a game changer – not just for longevity, and disease prevention, or fat reduction, getting into those back-of-the-closet clothes, but for reaching career goals. For men and women in midlife stressed, pushed, crunched for time, the break could mean avoiding breakdown and having breakthrough energy. It’s longstanding knowledge that exercise decreases stress. This is so very related. Exercise is often the very thing we humans may not do while we’re in the middle of a final or important project because of the need to finish it. There we are never realizing, or acknowledging that the longer we stare at a computer screen, sit in the stacks of library studying, pull together lesson plans for the semester, we could be avoiding the very thing that will help increase the quality and decrease the time it takes to finish the task. Similar to the rest between fitness sessions being where the body actually gains the fitness… it’s not the actual doing of the research, the pulling together of the presentation or the notes for the report, but in the breaks for physical activity (and of course proper sleep and food) that the ideas happen. The right passage for this chapter or activity to bring learning to life, or the slogan for an ad campaign come to life not because of pushing hard but because of allowing that work foundation to then flourish when you’re away from it. Most important to remember is fitness won’t happen in the presence of overtraining. So too could productivity and creativity suffer in the presence of overwork. Major projects aren’t born out of pushing through as much as planning, working, rejuvenating, and reworking with better ideas. Intuitively we know this. You write an email or an article. You don’t send it. You come back later proof read, edit and then send. The time away is what lets you get it right. Google is known for establishing campuses for employees that supposedly encourage them to stay longer. Yet, Google creates playful environments, and bike shops within it’s buildings where employees can tinker on bikes, they feel encouraged and supported to be active not in small ways but big ones. Dedicated space and tools are provided for bikers in the active bike community of Boulder. Showers are on site so employees can ride to work or take midday rides to free creativity. Why does Google do it? They know it will boost creativity and productivity. A 2014 study by scientists at Stanford University showed that walking significantly improves certain types of cognitive efforts involved in creativity, specifically convergent thinking, such as the ability to come up with solutions to a problem, and divergent thinking, which involves conceiving open-ended, original ideas. Chronic stress in the presence of overwhelming schedules, projects, responsibilities, real or assumed, results in HPA axis activation constantly. HPA being the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal axis I discuss related to adrenal fatigue and true not just feelings of burnout but physical burnout. Before that physical tipping point however is where a lot of clients – particularly midlife clients – exist. It actually reduces cognitive performance, reduces thyroid function, creates blood sugar imbalance, disrupts sleep, and lowers immune function (along with many more physical changes). I’m highlighting the cognitive and mental changes that really occur in spite of the tendency to state there’s not time for exercising because there’s too much to do. As if spending more time on projects will actually get more done. It seems that the opposite is true. Taking time away from constant focus for short mental and physical breaks- or mental while physical breaks – is proven to be more effective. Chronic Stress and Fight or Flight With stress and unwillingness or inability to apply better health habits, you can easily create your own threats in your mind where none actually exist. By telling ourselves we can’t exercise because of a big project or crisis at home… or maybe this is you working on a new program, writing your 26 New Year’s clients workouts for the week. We actually create the health issues that create the inability to focus, concentrate and do our best (and fastest) work. That spirals into thoughts of losing clients, losing jobs/getting fired, or failing school. Recently, a client had committed to strength training twice for about 30 minutes each and going to bed at a specific time as her homework. When she checked in at her session she’d done no strength training and she’d blown anywhere past bedtime by 90 minutes to 4 hours. She got adamant about making herself miserable for the next 4 months of her teaching were going to be hell. No suggestions were helpful. There was a reason each of them wouldn’t work for her and her situation was different. The Opportunity I encourage you to offer a challenge or invite clients to a study. Find a company you can work with on creativity and productivity related to exercise adherence. Create a simple assessment tool – a quiz from managers or from employees or both. Find out starting ratings on the quality and quantity of work and stress levels, perceived creativity and productivity. Then have them exercise regularly regardless of schedules and see what the change is after a period of time. Additional Resources include: https://news.stanford.edu/2014/04/24/walking-vs-sitting-042414/ “When I’m still the mind can race. When you race – or run or swim – the mind can watch and be still.” It's during that stillness the seeds you've planted through research and study that the breakthroughs happen.
Direct download: Creativity_and_Productivity_Secrets_-_Edited.mp3
Category:marketing -- posted at: 8:44am MDT |
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