Thu, 30 July 2020
Spending your time wisely right now is more important than ever. I’m a big believer that you have to guard your personal workout time. Also that if you’re still doing the fitness plan that you had in February of 2020, and you’re experiencing any additional stress from the pandemic that you’re doing yourself a disservice and depleting your immune system. Enough on that. Let’s talk about spending your time right now. Come back with me right now to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. You learned it in psychology 101, again in your health class potentially. At the bottom of the pyramid is Safety and Security. If you don’t get that right you can’t rise above. In January of 2020 you may have been focused on the top of the pyramid, in influence and legacy. Yet, potentially now you’ve dropped back as many of us have to needing to secure finances, and reduce expenses. What activities you spending your time on now? Be sure that the way you spend your time reflects where you are right now. You’ve got to drop activities like influencer posts in social media, and detailed SEO work, or trying to reach indirect lead generation sources. You do want to be spending time figuring out how to make a sale today. You’ve got to take direct responsibility for asking for business today.
At the end of the day, a friend’s husband said he knew how his business was doing based on this one simple thing, “If I have more money at the end of the day than I had at the beginning.” |
Wed, 29 July 2020
I was sitting at my dining room table it was dark and I was still in my pajamas. From the night before. I hadn’t washed my face although I had taken the dog out – in my pajamas. Get fitness customers by learning to tell stories. Everyone loves a story. Yet, few people use storytelling for a positive impact in their marketing. Instead we broadcast information as if we’re World Health Organization or National Institute of Health. Most fitness pros go on and on about the benefits of exercise and the features of our services, or worse, the certifications and qualifications of your staff. As if… no one else can say the same thing. But of course, they can. You don’t have the edge on Pilates, or strength training, or functional training, or whatever your favorite mode of exercise is. You didn’t invent it. But no one can tell your story. There’s one thing to remember about a good story though. Make it about them. When you start telling stories you can connect with people and get fitness customers. In a way you can’t unless you tell stories. Stories become the why you. But it’s not comfortable. It’s vulnerable, its transparent and you may resist it or have in the past. I spent a weekend with a business once, interviewing key managers. We told their stories about why they were doing what they were doing and not… teachers or plumbers. We told why it meant something to them personally. We told about how their personal life or family members become a part of every conversation with a customer. We put together these video clips to get fitness customers easier, more authentically, and to humanize a business. But the General Manager never implemented them. It wasn’t comfortable. It was new. Right now? It is exactly stories like that which will take you from being a business or personal trainer, to being the friend and the guide who will help too. So how do you tell stories that get fitness customers? Follow a few key tips below to start telling your own story. I’d suggest writing it out or speaking your story and transcribing it with Otter.ia (I’ve mentioned it in prior episodes). Once you have your story, you want to pick the point. What’s the point that story illustrates. Whether it’s funny, sad… matters. For instance, a sad story will get attention more than a happy one. Think about Sarah McLachlin’s sad dog commercials. They get donations. But, you can’t use them all the time. When you’ve got your full story down. Leave out the parts people already know- from Stephen Spielberg. Drop into the middle of a story. Grab them. I could barely see the interstate through my tears. The reason I was leaving was calling me on the phone telling me he wished I wasn’t leaving. Let me go. Let me go or hold on tighter. The front and back seats were full of computers, blenders, client files, and my bike was on my carrier. So, that’s what it had come down to when I needed to pack. I’d left a house full of non-essentials sitting in the middle of each room in my 4200 square foot house to live with these essentials for however long it took to sell my house. My TEDx talk for instance was a string of stories that let you (and me as I was telling it) be in the moment. You want your listener to see themselves in the story. So, imagine under the pressure of relaying a very important big idea in under 15 minutes, if you’re going to tell at least 5 stories? Whether you are doing a 3 minute video, you’re writing a 800 word blog, or you’re talking on the radio, you want to tell a story. You’ve got stories. No one else has them. It’s a simple and easy way to get fitness customers who you will love working with and will love you back. If you need help…. Today through Friday I’m offering the Fast Flip business coaching to help you nail your message. It’s 12 weeks of accountability calls. But Saturday it’s over. If you need to get into action, your message or the actions you are taking are not working, take advantage of this special offer. Link in the show notes will be removed when I’m full or it’s over. |
Tue, 28 July 2020
Can you create a quality relationship with your fitness customers? Or do you have to rely on selling to the already interested or people you know? How old are your kids? What are they doing this summer? How are things for you during this pandemic? What’s your work like? These might be logical questions and yet, if you are talking to a parent you’ve not created a bond with them. You’ve just distracted them. If someone’s thoughts go to their livelihood, and concerns about future earning, you may have talked them out of something before you even begin. Create a Relationship: Don’t Lose Them Some of the most common questions asked in sales are about family. Are you married? Do you have kids? How old are they? So, if someone has marital problems, or wonders where their kids are right now and what they’re doing right now – like most mother’s minds will go – you’ve essentially lost them. You think you’ve bonded, but you’ve given them a reason not to pay attention. Meet Them Where They are If a prospective client comes to you (by phone, Facetime, Skype) and is thinking about their job status, whether they’ll be working from home, in the office again soon, or they might have hours cut and she’s scared, she is going to have a hard time looking at training three times a week for a year to avoid osteoporosis. If you’re talking to someone who is soaking wet and you start talking about the benefits of exercise, they clearly aren’t going to listen in that distracted state. Right Place Right Time Having the right conversation at the wrong time is going to alienate you from that prospect. It’s nice, it may be true that they’ll reduce their chance of heart disease but it’s not what is going to make someone train with you. If you show them a bicep curl in the middle of a pandemic, is that going to help with their immune system, their stress level, their cravings for junk food feet away in the pantry? Give them a Quick Win To do that you have to really know what they want. What is urgent about it now? Why aren’t they already there? What do they believe about it? Give them one thing. When you meet you might go deep into core exercise, a stretch for the lower back issues, but one thing. Go deep and solve that and suggest the easy maintenance. Don’t solve all their problems, solve the one that’s bleeding. If you think if you give them that free session you’ll give them so much they won’t need you, it’s probably the way you’re setting up that session, creating expectations about that session, and conducting that session. Someone with lower back pain doesn’t need a week’s worth of workouts, and a dozen exercises. They need an understanding of 5 things contributing to their back pain (so you open up needs to get more support from you), they need to understand the difference between immediate relief and long-term solutions. Trainers are the Best Sales People You can dig deep into that one thing. And leave them needing and wanting all that you have. No one woke up in the morning wanting a better bicep curl. So be selective in the things you share in social media. Does your content peak curiosity in the clients you most want to work with? Maybe the answer to that is yes. Maybe you want and love working with women whose greatest urgency during this pandemic is their arms. Know Who Choose the person you want to work with, show something they care deeply about, so deeply that during a pandemic they are willing to spend time, money, and energy getting. A facility is not a sales strategy. Relationships are. Days are coming I believe when the membership sales team is a thing of the past. Whether someone wants to join or they really want and need to train and have a place to do it, a trainer can sell transformation far better than a sales person. You’re in a Moment of Opportunity if You Can Create a Relationship You can workout at home and get as good or better results as you do in a gym. It’s just a playground. The emergence of studios and boutiques in recent years has proven that less equipment and higher quality movement is the answer. You’re a trainer with the world open to you right now. There are home gym equipment dealers right now overwhelmed with the amount of business they’ve been flooded with. Those people buying equipment, however, don’t know what to do with it. There’s also a prediction for those people that can hang on through this that there will be a surge in fitness centers. There’s a chance that some are just waiting for the second stimulus check they think may be coming, and then they’ll cash in their chips. That will create opportunity for trainers who have a business mindset and understand profitability and scale. The question is, what are you doing right now to learn it if you don’t know it? Other Episodes You Might Enjoy: 7 Tips to Be the Trainer Everyone Wants to Work With Medical Fitness in the Middle of a Pandemic Resource: |
Tue, 28 July 2020
Your 90-Day fitness marketing plan is 30 minutes away. You’re going to have to do the work. But what it is will be clear. But knowing exactly what you need to do and who on your team or when you are going to do it is half the reason you’re not closer to your goals now. That and the pandemic. But look, we all know it changed things. But it changed things for all. So, it’s a level playing field. Do you think clients and customers who aren’t meeting you in person and utilizing you otherwise aren’t exercising? They are doing something, or will be. I could say, it may as well be you, but really I want to say heck, yeah it should be with you. It doesn’t make sense that it wouldn’t be you. Create Your 90 Day Fitness Marketing Plan But you’ve got to sit yourself down, take 30 minutes to map out your 90-day plan. Otherwise, my guess is all you’re going to do Monday is compare how bad this Monday is to how great one you had in January before this all started was. You cannot compare now to then. The next thing you’re going to do is keep yourself busy. But busy is not productive. If you don’t have a list of the things you need to be doing, you’re going to do something else. We can always find things ourselves or worse, someone else is going to hijack your time. So once you’re settled in I want you to do the following things. 30 Minutes to map out your 90-day plan Write down your big picture goals for 90 days. Ordinarily I’d ask you to include your year, but let’s face it, right now we’re trying to regroup, pivot, listen and respond and that annual goal may be something you have no idea about right now. But 90 days? We can see that far.
You should be making a profit. Run what you do (even if you work for someone else) through the revenue and expense filter. Side Note on "Business Expenses" Seriously, buying Lululemons if you don’t need them can’t be a justified expense. But right now my suggestion would be even if it’s a personal want… that you don’t blur the boundaries here. Let’s be serious and cut expenses so you can get to profit again faster. If your jog bras are shredded and you really need one.. you could get it at Target. Buying this end-of-season sale stuff at Athleta when you weren’t shopping is not a necessity, right? During good times you can do that. You can stock up. But now? It’s still money you have to spend you may not have or can’t predict you won’t truly need elsewhere. Don’t be that person with a Suburban, gel nails, bleached hair, and new Lulus at the bank needing to talk about your options for bankruptcy or loans. OK – end of rant. Now what are the revenue drivers that you have or need to put in place right now to earn that number every month? What kind of expense will you have in creating those products or services? Be smart here. You need next to nothing in terms of expense to package and bundle a service that someone can buy on Venmo or PayPal from you today. You can create documents online, you can use a free graphics editor like Canva. What is free but the most time consuming is getting copy writing down. You have to know how to create an offer. How to present an offer, and then get started. Who needs to do the work? Is that just creative time, research into big sellers for you in the past, looking at (purchasing or opting in for your competition’s services)? When is it due? Notice I didn’t ask how long it will take. Any task will expand to the time it is given. So decide. How much revenue will it bring in? For this you’re going to have to dig deep right? You’re projecting already how much you’re going to charge, how many you’re going to sell, and you’re going to have to have a game plan for selling that many. If for instance, for every 10 people you talk to you sell 5, then you’ve got a 50% conversion rate. That means if you need to sell 10 of them a week you need to talk to 20 people – who are of course your ideal customer that you wrote the copy and script to persuade. Your List That also means… you have to start a list, reach out for those people so you can book the consults. Whether you call and say, “hey, I’ve been thinking about you and I’ve got an idea that will help you stay on track, would you like to hear about it?” Or you email or text them something similar, you’ve got to have the plan for:
And you have to decide you’re going to hit that goal or higher by the deadine you set. If you don’t sell as well you have to talk to more people. Did you notice what I just did? The words I used were “that goal or higher” and that’s what you want to be focused on. Be open to more. There you have it. Let’s recap those steps and break them down into exactly what you can start working on today. Key Point Summary:
Working with women in menopause? The first and only training designed for trainers who work with women in menopause based on the Flipping 50 program that's helped 150,000+. The Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist.
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Sun, 26 July 2020
You can be a personal trainer every client wants to work with. Though I'd argue you only want to focus on being the one your ideal clients want to work with. Now is the time to learn the skills and spend the time taking the right steps. In this episode I share 7 tips you can use right now. If you really want to be a personal trainer every woman in menopause wants you want to look at the Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist.
That's all 7. There you have it. Seven tips to be a personal trainer every midlife woman wants. (and tells her friends about) If you want to be a personal trainer anyone wants you first want to let them see you in a way that they can see a glimpse of themselves in you. That doesn’t mean that as a female in her 30s or 40s you can’t work with men in their 60s or 70s. It doesn’t mean as a male you can’t work with young female athletes. It does mean you have to be willing to show something in you that will resonate with the clients you want. Is that thing vulnerability, drive, a chronic illness, is it a desire? Figuring out what that is, is your job. Other podcasts you might like:
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Sat, 25 July 2020
Want to change your fitness business? Would that change your life? I’ve got 14 questions you want to answer. As much as you’ll hear them and think this is silly, maybe even - this is something I’ve heard before, if you haven’t got answers to them that are clear for you, or it’s been a while since you’ve revisited… you need to answer them. Write your answers down!
Tuck your answers away and review them from time to time. Most importantly though, be sure you’ve answered them all, especially the last 6 questions. It’s those last six questions that will give you the clarity you need to start having a message your customer understands. Of Course Asking you right now if you want to change your fitness business is like asking if you want hot water for your shower. Of course you do, everyone’s business has changed. You may be thriving and yet you’d be an anomaly. Everyone is pivoting, figuring it out week by week and month by month. But suggesting that you and I look closer at what part we play in the success of our businesses is a must. If you’re used to doing an annual plan you probably need to change that right now to a monthly plan. We can see that far ahead. Uncertainty Even that may be tricky given universities don’t yet know for sure if there will be football games or who will attend live. Schools don’t know for sure if they’ll be in session or virtual. Once fall activity is set though it will give us a little projection for a few months though. We’re in a unique moment in time. One thing that does happen is that it’s different and hard for everyone. It levels the playing field. The skilled, talented, and consistent will survive. You can thrive. |
Fri, 24 July 2020
Say no right now should be on the top of your list if you want to not just survive but thrive in the coming months and years. Yesterday I went over what you need to say yes to. If you missed it I highly recommend you go return and you’ll have the complete loop. Another thing you should take a serious look at is the last 4 spots for the Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist open right now. Say no to these if you want to focus:
Say no Saying no to some of these things is hard. You will struggle with it. No one wants to lower their lifestyle. But as you earned more and times were good and you were enjoying the lazy attitude you’d always rely on someone to do things for you, you increased your lifestyle to a point where you have little wiggle room. Am I right? The house, the car, the things you had to have the kids in? The nails, the hair, the facials, the massages. Some of those things aren’t happening right now and can’t. That alone is saving you money. Find Money There is money in other places if you look. Make this a game. How much money can you find this month? The last thing you should be saying no to is thoughts that sabotage you. Don’t be a victim. Do be creative. You can’t be creative when you’re stressed. S take time, go hike, nap, sing, listen to music, podcasts, color, draw, journal. Do what you need to do so you can get creative and think what if… Resources: |
Thu, 23 July 2020
Say yes to :
Time for a makeover You absolutely should say yes to these things and more. You were bored and you’d gotten complacent. You were operating on a schedule, thinking about your 4 o’clock instead of your client by name. You’ve got a reason to get re-engaged again. Look through your files. You’ve got old ideas, old packages, bundles, and programs that you could revise, refresh and offer at a new price. Say Yes to Growing Your business Say yes to learning skills you need to know to grow a business. You can’t help more clients with the 5% of your deepest level skill without getting clients in the first place. Buff up your website. Commit to understanding what qualities make a website easy to navigate and keep a customer on longer. Learn what good copy that converts is and the difference between that and copy your literature instructor would be proud of. By changing your emails and learning how to tell a story that puts your customer in the scene, that makes them see themselves in the story or say, hey- that could be me, you can improve your connection and your sales. In order to say yes to these, any of these that you’re not doing you have to say no to other things. There’s no way around that fact. A Few More Questions What do you need to delegate? What do you need to dump? What might you be doing right now that seems important but isn’t? And what do you need to do that seems a waste of time and isn’t?
Category:marketing
-- posted at: 8:48pm MDT
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Thu, 23 July 2020
Say yes to :
Time for a makeover You absolutely should say yes to these things and more. You were bored and you’d gotten complacent. You were operating on a schedule, thinking about your 4 o’clock instead of your client by name. You’ve got a reason to get re-engaged again. Look through your files. You’ve got old ideas, old packages, bundles, and programs that you could revise, refresh and offer at a new price. Say Yes to Growing Your business Say yes to learning skills you need to know to grow a business. You can’t help more clients with the 5% of your deepest level skill without getting clients in the first place. Buff up your website. Commit to understanding what qualities make a website easy to navigate and keep a customer on longer. Learn what good copy that converts is and the difference between that and copy your literature instructor would be proud of. By changing your emails and learning how to tell a story that puts your customer in the scene, that makes them see themselves in the story or say, hey- that could be me, you can improve your connection and your sales. In order to say yes to these, any of these that you’re not doing you have to say no to other things. There’s no way around that fact. A Few More Questions What do you need to delegate? What do you need to dump? What might you be doing right now that seems important but isn’t? And what do you need to do that seems a waste of time and isn’t? |
Wed, 22 July 2020
Look, people who very recently were in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at legacy and influence suddenly find themselves seeking safety and security in the bottom of that pyramid. They can’t be both. Communicate to the person based on the situation they’re in. We are still in the middle of a pandemic. You still may be reaching out to people in your target market, who have medical issues they need and want to address. Those problems haven’t gone away. Yet, you can’t ignore the moment and the way it lands for individuals. You need to merge your message with the moment, the middle of a pandemic moment, that we're in cannot be ignored. If you either work with businesses, or you're working with other trainers, medical exercise specialists, or allied health care professionals as you reach out, potentially you have to be conscious. Duped “tone deaf,” failing to reach out and be of service before you reach out to make gains will accelerate your decline. If you, for example, reach out in need of an affiliate partnership relationship where you have a message about a program that is a benefit for a specific problem, you have to be inclusive of the times and the moment that we're in right now. New Normal: Not, But Different Everybody has problems today they did not have in January or February of 2020. If you ignore what's going on for the person on the other end of that receiving message you will alienate and lose potential relationships that could have been forged in this special time. You will have more opportunity and deeper relationships when you observe a few common communication guidelines. Do you have, serve, or are an agency, business, or association? How have you served before asking? How have you responded to their needs? How have you given, generously, asking what they need and how you can support? Expect that everything has changed, and nothing is the same. In some cases, you may be pleasantly surprised. There are opportunities. You should also assume that it’s false that “everyone is not spending money right now.” Because some are spending the same and others are spending more. Silver Lining Health has risen to the top. Some businesses and their owners have been operating on a more limited basis, freeing up time to focus on their health. They’ve also got the message that a strong immune system is crucial now and later in a way they’ve never had that message before. Be Helpful First All of us are dealing with something different. This will continue indefinitely, right now we don't know for how long. For a lot of people this is a time of survival mode. And if they believe it’s true, especially, then you're reaching out as standard operating procedure for your organization, your agency, or your business, you’ll sabotage relationships. Instead of first reaching out with what you need, ask, how can I help you? Anything less stands a good chance of resulting in a breakup. There are some businesses and associations going over and above. There are many whom you’ve not heard from. Imagine if you were dating, and there was conflict in your relationship. Whether you caused it or not, whether you intentionally did something or not, doesn’t matter. If it's there, you can't ignore it, or pretend that it doesn't exist if you want to continue that relationship. You've got to address it. Deepen Relationships By Offering Support So, for those trainers, medical exercise specialist fitness professionals, and health coaches that want to create a bigger business through the opportunity we have in this crisis and pandemic right now, you have to be thoughtful. You have to be of service. You have to change your usual standard operating procedures. Whatever they were in January or February of 2020, they are forever changed. If you’re still on the same timeline, you’re still promoting the same programs, you’re ignoring the real problem, you’ll lose. You will not only sabotage relationships you’ve had up to this point, and you'll lose the opportunity to create deeper relationships with brand new individuals. Everyone is figuring out how to pivot and how to change. So, if your business is operating on old standards in this new moment, you will lose. Operating with pre-pandemic strategies in the middle of a pandemic is like using a 1970 research study to design your 2020 exercise prescription. Win Win in the Middle of a Pandemic? How can you take what you need and turn it in to an asset and an advantage for someone else that you need something from? How can you turn it around? There are three steps for conflict resolution. Think about how they might be applicable now, even before there is a conflict. Apply a potential conflict or barrier reduction before there ever is a barrier. What kind of a relationship, could you create then? Step one is validate. Validate the person who's going to receive your message or the person who's sending you a message. Step two is make them happy. If you can't give them exactly what they need, you can still start with, here's the good news. This is what I/we can do. What is that minimum viable acceptable space you can give? Start asking what it is you want, and where they are and what they want at this moment. Step Three you go into action. You don't put it onto them. But you go into action, making it easier, better and simpler, so that they want to forge forward with you, feeling as if they've landed on a soft spot with you as an ally in this moment we're in. Anybody who's operating by the same standards that they were in January or February, ignoring the needs of the people that they serve and the people that they serve both internally and externally will fail. You will alienate people to the point that they're already under set stress. Look, internally, you know you’ve potentially cut hours, cut pay, laid off, or you’re trying to navigate PPP loans and what that will look like. Terms are anybody’s guess. You may be wearing not one but all hats in your business right now. There is nothing harder than losing internal customers who’ve come to be like family and close friends. Take care of them if you’ve still got them. Leaders lead. You don’t have to have the answers. Communication begins with asking then listening. Respect Their Space Everyone you come in contact with right now is potentially in survival mode and wants to be in thrive mode. But in order to do that, they've got to pivot, and they potentially have 90% more things on their plate than they had pre-pandemic. Start with presence. Show up. You don’t have to have answers. Find out what the questions are anyway. Ask if you don't know and provide solutions when you have them. Offer an ear when you don’t. Offer opportunities so it's easier for them to participate with you, easier than ever. Look, people who very recently were in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at legacy and influence suddenly find themselves seeking safety and security in the bottom of that pyramid. They can’t be both. Communicate to the person based on the situation they’re in.
And they’ll be grateful, and loyal forever. |
Tue, 21 July 2020
Feel like quitting? I got up this morning feeling overwhelmed. Within 10 minutes of opening the research to complete the things that had to get done today, I’m excited. I can’t wait to share this message.
When you feel like quitting you are not alone. Feel Like Quitting If you don’t feel like it today, realize you may very well feel like it tomorrow. I remember distinctly while working with a colleague of mine who also used to mentor an entrepreneurial community at Iowa State University, I asked him how he always seemed to stay so cool. He was calm, reserved, and yet he managed hundreds of employees, experienced turnover and customer complaints, traveled a lot and had a family. He answered that he knew it was going to happen. He expected a certain amount of things to happen. It Will Happen Just recently, I heard this again on a favorite podcast. It is chaos the guest on the show said. Talking about reaching one million or 10, that it doesn’t ever get more calm. You bring in more chaos with growth. When you feel like quitting remember that. If you can reframe and expect there will be people, and days, and situations that occur we can’t control. And then come back to why you do what you do, and can you not do it? I was just out of college in my first job and I hated the situation. Mostly because it was painfully clear to me that I couldn’t in the model I was in at the moment, do what I loved and earn the living I wanted. So, I went back to school and was going to finish my art degree. But I lasted a semester. Because I couldn’t not do fitness. It pulled me back in. An Instagram Post I’m not going to lie. There are some very challenging days – lets be honest, every day, and week and month since COVID has been challenging, behind the scenes of any business. And still, within 10 minutes of starting to work, I’m EXCITED. . . I can’t wait to share this message. . It will help women (who will help more people) do the things they need to do … that will give them such pleasure and higher quality of life. . This is the difference between taking a vitamin and taking a prescription. You get benefits not side effects. You get the delight factor back in your life – or get it for the very first time. . . Exercise is medicine. Take the right kind for you… you wouldn’t take your husband’s, your son’s, or your daughter’s prescription. End of post. It Will Happen You will feel like quitting and right now I think you’ll feel like you’re being forced to. You are not. You are forced by our circumstances to change the way you’ve been doing it but you only will choose to quit. The world still needs you more than ever. Here are 5 things to do when you feel like quitting.
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Mon, 20 July 2020
What’s the worst fitness marketing mistake you can make? Let me list a few… what stands out for you?
Well if you guessed any of those were worst - though they’re good contenders - you’re missing it. The Worst Copycat marketing is the worst fitness marketing mistake you can make. If you’ve heard and believe plagiarism is the greatest form of flattery, you maybe haven’t heard that plagiarism when it comes to marketing, in other words copycat marketing, will be a fast track to failure. What to do instead. First, you’ve got to ask if what you say is something anyone else could say. Or does it fall in the, “well I should hope so category” meaning that should be what some would call a “no brainer.” You shouldn’t have to say it. It should be an expectation your customers have and naturally wouldn’t even seek you out if they didn’t already believe it. If so, you haven’t been terribly distinct in your marketing. You should be able to answer these questions:
What is it about your system or method that no one else can say? You want to base what you say in your marketing on 5 things: your background, your interests, values, your methods, and on your customers. I’ve been talking about this all month long and for decades before that. I’ll be talking about it for decades more. You don’t want to be like others. You want to be distinct or you’ll be extinct. There are too many trainers. You might want to ask before ever having the consultations you have, something got you here, to me, what was that? From that you will potentially find out if there are any distinguishing features about you already out there. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist Other Episodes You May Like: |
Sun, 19 July 2020
There’s one piece of advice when you’re ready to create a fitness offer that you don’t want to ignore. If you haven’t done it, gotten results from it, yourself, you should not be teaching it. Similarly, if you want to make affiliate offers – either to sell other’s products, or to ask others to share your products and services, you want to have proof they work. What's an Affiliate? Let me back up and define affiliates if you’re new to them. An affiliate relationship means you’re set up in a way that you can invite others to share your products and services with a special code or URL that tracks sales they earn and pays them a percentage of the sale. If you are being an affiliate for someone else, likewise, you have the opportunity to earn a commission for sending traffic and creating sales for them. How Much Can You Make (or will you pay) Generally, commissions for online or digital products are 40-50%. If you are doing live coaching or purely coaching, or selling hard products, percentages are much lower. That makes them less attractive for affiliates. So, if you don’t have a digital product yet, that doesn’t mean you can’t create a fitness offer affiliate, it just means you can keep them small. You Can Keep It Small Go to your local business friends for instance, give them services or money back. When you know your customer lifetime value it’s easy to reward for referrals with a monetary gift. If you know that anyone who experiences your massage therapist will be a return customer, you might want to give a massage for a referral to a membership or certain size training package. Know your customers, and your business partners and you’ll create a fitness offer that will appeal to them. When You’re Ready to Go Big You’ll need to know your numbers. Affiliates who do this as their business model want to know what your conversion rate is and how much they can expect to make per lead. If you’re not yet tracking your numbers, you need to start. Other things too are things you’ll need to consider. You’ll want to know 6 months to a year in advance when you’re launching programs, when the promotional period is, and you want to provide materials for your affiliates to use. You can expect and ask for all of those things for anyone you want to support in their affiliate too. Do You Love It? I have a policy of only sharing things I know, love, and trust. That means I’ve literally used anything I promote or put in my resources list. (A resources list on your website is a very passive way to promote products). But if you’re still in the middle of fixing your own problem and you haven’t done something with good results – ideally haven’t gotten predictable results for at least a high percentage of clients you’ve used it for, you’re not really an expert anyone would want to follow. Wait on that fitness offer. Wanting to teach how to write a book for example isn’t something you should do if you haven’t written a book. But should you teach how to exercise for menopause if you haven’t been there yet? Or teach how to exercise for osteoporosis or Parkinson’s? Of course, that is different. But.. you do want to have something that establishes you as an expert. How to Establish Expertise Have you written articles published in scientific journals? Have you gotten results for a large number of clients? Have you served on an advisory board? Have you got anything that makes you the expert? If not, and this is something you really want to do, focus on getting some of those things under your belt. Try interviewing 100 experts in the area you want to be an expert in. Try offering a group training for the market you want so you can gather data on your system and document it. To be an expert, you have to be able to show a system or method that gets repeatable, reliable results. You’ve got to have more experience than only yourself – a study of 1. Having less than 5-years experience as a full time trainer (at least 32 hours a week) really isn’t enough. You’re on your way. The more you serve only a niche and not a wide variety of clients the faster you’ll get there. A Wise Fitness Offer I caution you not to become an expert in a mode of exercise. Be the expert in a problem a customer wants solved. Use the mode to serve them and justify why you think it’s best. There you have it, how to create a fitness offer or affiliate, and when you’re ready and when to wait. But it won’t be long until you have an offer that will convert. Resources: |
Sat, 18 July 2020
Today I'm gonna dive right in and share my best fitness marketing tools for sharing your message and saving time. When when that's what we're all. I'm going to literally give you a meta description of what I'm doing right now. I mean, literally right now. So as I record, many of you who've been listening to this streak to help you market your fitness business journey This extremely strange and different time that we're in in the middle of July actually we're in the second half already third quarter if you want to look at it this way. My Podcast Streak And I'm doing a streak of 30 days, it's not comfortable some days like the day I actually would like to be walking or working out right now because I'm in an all day virtual conference for two days and doing a lot of sitting but you I made a promise to and I made a promise to myself, so I'm not gonna lie to either one of us or let me off the hook. so busy is busy. But you know what we want our clients to exercise don't wait even when they're busy. We want them to make use of that 10 or that 20 minutes and show them they can do it they do have time and they do have energy and even that little can get them result. So it is with you. Best Fitness Marketing Tools in Action You take 10 minutes every single day to market get better at marketing. Learn. skills of marketing, you will become a better marketer. So if you avoid it, you hate sales or you say that number one thing you need to do, stop saying that, that'll save you a little time. Okay, here's what I'm doing. Literally as I do this, I am using a platform to record my podcast called Zen caster that's ZN ca St. r.com. You can record an audio, they suddenly recently have a beta video option rolling out. And I would suggest that if you're looking at starting a podcast, that you look at video, because video is something you can use everywhere. Audio or Text So not only can you pull out the audio, only somebody can take you for a walk and not have to be watching. Let's face it, it's head and shoulders. What are you going to do, right? But you can also place that interview on YouTube and You know, even though I have taken this podcast, and my other flipping 50 podcasts, also to YouTube automatically for years going on nine years for this podcast going on eight years for that one. It's a static image. It's the cover of my podcast because it's only audio. And once I got people over the hump on the flipping 50 channel, and they all wondered, why wasn't the video working and realized it was because there is no video, you have to understand my women are between 45 and 65. And so they're not at all attuned to the fact that most podcasts were audio only when I started eight years ago. But also I have to be in tune to the fact that when it's on YouTube, they expect it to be video. That is the reason I've actually removed in the last week in fact, I've removed my podcasts from automatically loading to YouTube. What is Zencastr? Sometimes I will have someone who simply doesn't understand or who can't get on to Chrome browser, get their micro microphone all hooked up and get on Zen caster and it's just a little overwhelming. So what we do often instead is abandon ship and we use a teleconference and the quality of that recording is poor. Conference Lines Act Fast to Implement the Best Fitness Marketing Tools I learned all these things the hard way and I fortunately for me, I am a quick start, which means I make a lot of mistakes because I jumped And I do it first. And I know I live by done is better than perfect. And a lot of times for entrepreneurs who are successful, that's absolutely the way they operate. So for me, it's it was more DNA and genetic it wasn't a conscious choice that I'm going to be this way because I want to be successful. It just is so lucky for me. But, you know, what I found is Zen caster does all of the post production and the advantage of Zen caster is I send a guest, a link, if I'm interviewing somebody, and I've done two people, I've interviewed two people at the same time. And so there's three of us on and that will work to or I record even solo here as opposed to just recording in GarageBand, which personally I don't like and or recording on quick time which isn't as high of quality but I Done that as well. But this is the best because what happens is it automatically records on my computer. Guests So unless you have some real issues with noise and you know somebody is finger Hitting the microphone or the microphone is hitting their zipper, that's not going to go away. But if it's quality and problem with internet, as long as you can hear and gather enough of the information, then in post production when you hit that it's all taking care of what happens for me. High or Low Service You can set this up to is simply you click post production, you take both of those recordings, and then you leave and they let you know when that is automatically dropped into your Dropbox. So from there, what I'll do is take it to either a tech team, and they will do the addition of adding music over my intro and my outro if I want to sometimes like right now, I'm doing this in real time practically so I'm recording it right now. I'm going to load it up right now. I don't have time to do the extras. So I'm just doing the bare minimum because done is better than Perfect, and I want to get the message out and whether it's all dialed up, dialed up and accessorized with music on the intro now Pro is less important to me than I give you steps and tools and actions you can take right now, that's not true all the time. But it is certainly today. And for me more often than not if I have an important message to share. Upgrade So, you can also take the next step and there will be say a $3 tard for every hour of time that you have. So if you have really short podcasts, the free version of Zen caster will serve you very well as you need to you can buy that time and you you don't pay for more than you will use and you can also opt for going pro and Zen caster where you can pre record your introduction with music and then just drop that in yourself and Take care of the editing. There is no more middleman, you just done it. Now you might have a team who wants to do that for you work in. In my case, right now we're in COVID. I'm cutting out all extra curricular costs and fees. So anything I don't need any subscriptions I've had, or you know, don't use on a regular basis. I mean, they're gone. Keep the Budget in Mind I'm not using them and being smart about what do I absolutely have to have to run my business? and What don't I and this is one of the things where I can still spend maybe 10 more minutes editing my own podcasts as opposed to sending it off and then waiting right for a day for them to get back to me as they can. So that's Zen caster.com. The other tool you're going to need if you decide you want to do a podcast is something where you can transcribe or think about it the way I do. You want When you post a podcast, you want the show notes, almost like a script. But really just a summary of here's the questions we answered in this podcast. Here's the main takeaways. My Process So, I will occasionally I will write out blogs, I'm a writer, so I prefer to do it this way. And I'll write blogs on topics that I know are important. They're in response to what my customers and clients are talking about at the moment. And I will decide, should this be simply a blog with illustrations and infographics Fix or photographs? Or is this one better for me to talk through in voice, but then I've already got the show notes. I actually can just condense them or load the whole thing up. And the combination, you always want show notes. So if you don't write the blog first and then decide and essentially read that, or use it as a script, when you're recording, you can do what else I'm doing now. Now, honestly, I don't do this very often. But I'm doing it today because I'm in a virtual conference all day today, in about three and a half hours or two and a half, actually, wow, I gotta get going. Work Made Easy So think about that in advance because that may change how you promote. Okay, a couple others that I want to mention that I've already used this morning, and it's only 8:30am on a Saturday morning canva.com. So I've talked about this one as well, but this I would get the free version and then think about how easy it is. And once you've used it for a very short time, I would consider getting the business version. I think gets about $115 annually. But if you do any posting on Instagram especially that is based on graphics on visuals and then being sharp and clean and crisp in it, and you're not great at it, then get Canva so you use it, you can use it for almost anything. I'm using it for just about everything. I've used it this month already twice for creating presentations. I mean literally, it's replaced my use of PowerPoint. I love the color. Why Canva Makes the Best Fitness Marketing Tools Transcribe Meeting Notes You can record the notes in in your otter. So if you ever we ever we will, I hope sit around the conference room table again. Rather than rely on somebody to take notes and record them in their own voice 21:17 Use Them Right Now So think about those tools Canva and otter you could use right now Zen caster and Lipson if you're thinking about a podcast, and I hope you are, there you have it. Those are the tools, I recommend that you Get started with today if you've got other tools that you love, I'd love for you to share them below the show notes. And you can find show notes today at Fitness Marketing Mastery. com forward slash best fitness marketing tools. There you have it. What are you waiting for? Get busy on those graphics. The world needs you more than ever. Resources: Transcribed by https://otter.ai |
Fri, 17 July 2020
Communicate During the Pandemic Been slow to communicate during the pandemic because you’re so worried about getting it right? What you already really know is that you have to get into action to get it right. Ongoing learning, listening, and growing/pivoting. How to be in charge of supporting the community. You can’t operate in a silo. Not one where your department does it’s own thing. Not one where your business does it without reaching out to support other businesses and the people in it that you serve. Be the change the world cries out. Step Up Don’t wish it was easier. Don’t worry and wait for it to go back, or just to ride the wave. You can be the change. You will get it wrong, then right, then wrong again. Ask anyone in business whose been there for decades. If you want to stay around you do need to be moving forward every day. You may have very little in the bank account. You may not know what the next week looks like. But you have today. You can take small actions every day. One thing about business that was true 6 months and a year, and 5 years ago IS still true today. How to Communicate During a Pandemic Call someone specific and offer a specific solution to their specific problem. Paint the picture of how that will help them. Worry less about what you’ll charge and how you’ll deliver it. If you tend to start thinking “but that won’t work because…” you’ve got to flush those thoughts out. If you’re surrounded by people who respond that way at a meeting, you’ve got to remove them from your presence or remove yourself. You don’t have time to have patience right now for people who can’t pivot, be flexible, and who don’t want to do things differently. They won’t make it. But you can. Just Start You don’t need overhead. You don’t need to buy equipment or tools. You do need a step-by-step action plan to leverage skills you already have with problems your market has and provide answers. Take Action The steps are simple. Make calls. Make one a day. Ask what the individual’s biggest struggles are right now. (energy, sleep, stress) Ask what they’re doing about it. Ask how it’s working. Offer one or two small tips to help them implement right now. Ask if they would like more help. Empathize with the fact that right now it’s hard to focus with so many variables and changes happening around us. Ask if they would like help from you. Answer that you want to find a solution that would be easy to say yes to. Brainstorm. Ask, I could do that, would it be helpful? If we can find the right time and best way to support you, would you want to proceed. Examples given during the podcast for taking it one step further. You can communicate during the pandemic in a way that will lead to breakthroughs in your relationships. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist |
Thu, 16 July 2020
What if I told you I don’t recommend you ever become a personal trainer or health coach? Would you say, are you nuts?How does that make sense coming from a 36-year fitness professional? And on a podcast dedicated to fitness marketing ease & elevating the professionalism of the fitness industry? Well, stay with me. The truth is no one should aim to be a personal trainer. It means too many things, and too few things, to too many people. If you define yourself as a personal trainer you will be falling into a stereotype where hundreds of thousands of other options exist. For a short time longer anyway, there are hundreds and thousands of them. Even when those who won’t do the consistent job of showing up doing the things the successful do… you will have competition. Your goal is to eliminate it by setting yourself clearly and distinctly apart. Don’t Be a Personal Trainer or Health Coach if…. If you can’t describe what you do and how you do it in a way that immediately tells your ideal customer why you, and you alone are the one they want to work with, you’re going to struggle. Right now, we all need to make the road as obstacle-free as possible. So, you’re not a Pilates instructor, or a yoga teacher or a bootcamp leader, or anything else that puts you into a group of nobodies. In this podcast I’m going to walk you through examples of a list of questions. I want you to go get something to write with and some paper to write on. And if you love your keyboard, I guarantee you that you really want to tap into your creativity by putting pen to paper when you’re brainstorming. Don’t be a Personal Trainer without Answering These:
I save busy women time and give them energy to do the things they’ve been missing out on I use the Flipping 50’s after 50 fitness formula for women to get repeatable, reliable results I design unique hormone balancing exercise & lifestyle programs for women in midlife, I’m a Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist My customers tell me they can sleep better – some up to two hours more a night in as little as four weeks working together. My customers can finally stop counting calories and obsessively tracking their food intake on an app and start living their lives again I help women ditch traditional methods of fat burning that backfire on them in midlife and get real and permanent results I don’t require calorie counting (in fact I’m completely against it) and workouts are super short not long I coach my clients more on mindset and changing for good than I do on the physical exercise. What do you do? Know how to answer these questions and know where to use these answers in emails, on your website, on consultations, and in conversations to get attention and get clients. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist |
Wed, 15 July 2020
If you’re training women in menopause, you have questions. It’s not all a to b to c to d… and success. The best way to learn is to be in a group where you can go over your cases and clients because there is no one absolute path. You can find those easy ones, and yet you’re going to think you’re doing everything right and realize no, the belly bloat, the lack of fat loss, the extreme fatigue are still obstacles. Questions about the Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist I answer today:
Training women in menopause ... easy mistakes to make Working with women in this phase of life is rewarding and frustrating. If you're still trying to focus on fat burning by eating less and exercising more you could make clients feel worse not better. During perimenopause when many women haven't even begun to realize they're not getting results because of hormone changes, you can find opportunities. Training women in menopause with a blueprint for assessing hormones makes it easy. When you can interpret both the signs from the body and from lab reports and suggest testing options you can create a unique and in-demand business. You're not limited to training women in a geographic location. Once you've got the skills menopause is something every woman in the world goes through. There area 46 million women in menopause now and 6 thousand women enter it every day. RESOURCES: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/programs
Direct download: 2020-07-15-t11-24-47am-final-mix.mp3
Category:coaching clients -- posted at: 9:27pm MDT |
Tue, 14 July 2020
Don't waste this crisis. What on earth could I be talking about. Yes, this Debra and you’re listening to the Voice for Fitness Professionals’ podcast and I have not lost my mind but we have lost the way we've done business. It's gone. And yet now, if you are still trying to figure out a way to take your personal training business digitally… meaning, you're still meeting with one client at a time you're still delivering one on one sessions. In fact, you're creating a session that they'll use over and over and over again. You really got to take a look at that. Keep Your Assets And you own that property, too. You should be using it and you should be losing their name, so that you edit those videos, so that is for anyone who has the same problem as they do the same problem that you're working on tackling with that particular client, could be then in your vault and used for somebody else or something else. 1:16 Immediately, you could use it as a teaser. You edit that video down on your phone. Simply, or even in iMovie, again, on your phone or on your other device that you now have marketing and or something a tool that you can use on marketing because let's face it marketing is the place that you publish. The message, your message is what's important. And that's what we're going to spend the rest of this podcast, talking about what's your message. Do you really know what it is? Because right now, it cannot be the same as it was in January or February of, 2020. You have to address now and you have to predict the future. You have to figure out a way to use a message that gets across. What we want to say and what is it that we all want to say right now, as trainers and health coaches: Exercise is required in order to be healthy and have a strong immune system. What they Need vs What they Want It requires exercise right now. This alone is not a good message. But this is the underlying underskirt of the message. So, now you've got to figure out what was your message before. Look at that. And then know that's just isn't going to work. You know, if you were using some esoteric tagline? Things are much more real than the last 2 pounds 3 ounces someone can’t lose. In January of 2020 even if you were using something like “you can't outrun a bad diet.” Right now, that is just so trite, it's not going to work. Right now, people may care about their belly fat. They may care about the extra weight in the middle but you can't make light of it. Weight Loss During a Crisis? You really need to get with a message that isolates the important the quarantine 15 is a health risk. More than anything, right? So it's certainly not doing wonders for your sleep, potentially or your sleep apnea, or your energy level, or your confidence, or on and on. Right. But what you're looking for is something that is short and sweet. And if you're not used to telling stories with your messages You've got to get good at that right now. Because the only way to really relate to someone, right now, is to talk in stories to tell stories that connect you to them. These stories are not about you. These stories are about them. Your customers. But these are not testimonials. You need an emotional grab. What do we all want right now? What do we need? Well, we miss our families. And I don't mean our immediate families, if you're at home and your mom or dad and your, your kids are at home and they're, they've been home from school, you know you're not missing them you kind of wish them maybe they could go to camp, but you may be missing an extended family. You may not have been able to see that new baby born during COVID. You may be missing someone who's ready to pass. You may be missing someone who you know you know isn't on their deathbed, but you have a limited number of years. And it could be today, it could be tomorrow. You may be missing your adult children and your grandchildren. Find Common Denominators the Crisis has Made True All of those things are true for all of us, and potentially, people are being reminded right now, of what is truly important. They're doing some rearranging in their mind about what they want and what will be true for them, potentially in the future. But none of their hopes, their dreams, or wishes, and none of the skills and talents and uniqueness that is them will get to reveal itself or play out without health and exercise is a key part of that a client of mine, and you're welcome to use this once said to me, truly out of the blue. And I couldn't have asked for a better testimonial. I don't know how I would ever have prompted her to say this with a good strategic question, but what she said. After her having had cancer. After having had blood sugar issues. After having had multiple injuries from falls. She said, no matter what the question is, the answer is exercise. That’s an example of a good story set in very few words that gets the message across. You might want to get a little bit more strategic with that. Starting to preface it with during COVID we all have lot of questions. Some of those questions go unanswered. For now, but we can find the answers to some questions that will help us have the resilience to search and find the answers to others. And then you drop it in. No matter what the question. The answer is exercise. That's your lead tagline. What tagline, were you using. It was esoteric, then it's more than esoteric now and you've got to get rid of it. Something relevant right now has got to be your new message. You need to talk about it. You need your customers to understand it to get it to talk about it, so that every time you meet with them. They can repeat and reveal that to you. You're more than welcome to use that. You can use it as long as you put your original self into it. You can't simply plagiarize somebody else's message and hope that you know if hundreds of other trainers, use that exact same message, who were listening today, you'll get more business. How on earth, can you expect that that would ever happen? And then you've got to take a good look at once you get that message across. Which marketing channels will you be using your email your social media platforms. And in the next podcast. I'm going to talk about funnels. If you haven't got one. I'm going to offer you a 90-minute session to look at your funnels so that you can make money right now. you can start making money. 9:19 This week, but you can't do that randomly saying hello to somebody on social media and saying, You need exercise. Here's what I have to sell you can buy. That just doesn't work. If it ever did, you were really really lucky and lazy. And it also doesn't work if you work for a fitness center that serves all kinds of audiences from young to adolescence to want to be athletes to college students to young moms and dads to midlife women to older adults. They don't all need the same message so if you're emailing all of them. And basically putting spam in their inbox, because of those market, potentially, there's five or six different people receiving that one event where there might be one small thing in it that pertains to them. Right now, you can't sell personal training. You can't sell packages. And you can't sell EFT and be talking about the options to pay as something sexy, or now you have to talk about the benefit. And you have to talk about something that's a lot lower ticket price. And you've been offering, in order for it to make sense to the customers that you're talking to. Now, people who are prospects right now may never even have been your customer before. There are a lot of people right there even in your geographic location, who stopped going to the gym. It may be helpful healthy. I'm 56 I've done eight Ironman I did one last November, I’m extremely healthy, and I quit. I just don't need to be there. I don't need to be there. I didn't want to be there not wearing a mask and I certainly don't want to be there wearing a mask, when and if they stop mandatory masks. And as I went in last time the first and only time, since it started and saw 99% of the members standing side by side, side by side on equipment nope no equipment marked off is kind of us. 11:44 No one had a mask on the staff, when I walked in had masks on and they were six feet apart. No one else did. You don't know what you're getting into. But many, many of the people that you're reaching or could reach, whether they have the lungs of somebody else or not, are free and loose. They are rolling around waiting. Like little marbles to drop into the right hole. And it could be you. So, personal trainer if you don't want to waste this crisis, please take advantage of the opportunity. There are potentially more people available, but not for you to sell the old thing that you can sell your business model, or while potential for a long while, won't be based on a beautiful facility and terms of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment, your business really always was about the people in your business on both sides. Your customers, and you are your employees. So, if you haven't trained them well, Now's the time to get started. Make sure they are able to be soldiers with a message. The message that you need to get out there right now. Transcribed by https://otter.ai |
Mon, 13 July 2020
If you want to build your business in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, learn to make the smallest actions consistently. The following was transcribed by Otter. 0:31 I'm not worried about that. I'm actually worried about you sitting back and waiting, without doing anything. 0:40 So let's talk about this because the truth is today. It's a Monday. 0:45 It's not even halfway through July, and I didn't want to post today. Just like potentially you may not want to take the actions that are more difficult for you. Surely I didn't want to post today because I didn't have a lot to say. I didn't have something specific that I'd written that I'd prepared, because there's a lot going on right here, I'm in the middle of a launch, I'm trying to do something and the other side of my business, and it's busy. There's a lot of emails, there's a lot of podcasts, there's a lot of videos that I'm creating there's a lot of pages and copying that I have to rank. And this kind of fell to the bottom of the list. But here's the truth. This between you and me, is exactly what you need to hear, because there are no easy days there are no shortcuts, and especially right now it all feels like potentially we're working twice as much for half as much. Right. 1:47 So what I want you to know is, if you really want to grow your fitness business, your health coaching business which it may evolve more into a health coaching business than a personal training business. 1:59 Pick up the phone. 2:02 That is probably the one and the best thing that you can do is everyday make yourself make at least one phone call, you're going to make those phone calls to a list of people. So right now, what I'd love for you to do is if you're walking and you're listening great brainstorm while you're walking or soon as this is over and I guarantee you it's gonna be short because I am totally winging it. What I want you to do is take your phone out and record into your phone record five people around you. Maybe they're in your family maybe their friends your neighbors your colleagues and list them in your phone, and then go to your next outside circle people they know people that you've barely met people that you've met though and you know exactly by talking to them that you could help them that they definitely have a problem, they even said, and suggested that they're looking for answers to a problem they have acknowledged that they have the problem record all the names of those people, and don't filter, just write them down, or record them in your audio, while you're walking or while you're at home sitting at your desk, it doesn't matter but get a list started. And if you never wrote this down before write it down so if you record this into your phone what you shouldn't be recording it into is truly otter because it'll record for you. The words that you're saying and take it down and dictation, and then you can download it send it to yourself, and you've got the list, you don't have to then come back and write it down and dictate for yourself. 3:37 But here's what you're going to do. You're going to call those people at least one of them every day. It doesn't matter if you call five tomorrow you still have to call one tomorrow, or you fall call five today you still have to call one tomorrow, one a day, every day just like a vitamin. So, if you decide to get ambitious doesn't get you off the hook, or tomorrow. So you're on vacation, really, are you on vacation during when you're traveling, whatever is happening to you make one phone call every day, you have to put something in action. Here's the way that phone calls gonna go. You're gonna tell someone you've been thinking about them you're asking about how they are how this whole thing is treating them and let them know that you've been thinking about them, and you have a couple ideas you'd like to run by them. You can't ask Can they meet face to face but you could say do you want to meet on zoom or right here Do you want to meet on FaceTime. What's better for you but I'd love to share them if you're interested in hearing it. 4:43 And most people are going to be flattered and say yes. And then from there, you're going to share, literally, you've got to have good idea so right so you can't make this up. But you have to share the game plan. 4:58 I mean, what have you thought about with this person so let me give you a for instance, this afternoon, I met with a woman named Marilyn. I'm meeting with her on a volunteer basis. Look, I'm extremely busy I'm in the middle of lunch for the other side of my business and there's a lot to do, but. 5:19 Earlier this year, her husband was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, that's all before COVID-19 hit. 5:27 And she's lost. And she was going to discontinue her membership. And I reached out to her about it and about why the reason why is she's feeling so disconnected and wants to pull away from people she's just not liking crowds. Even online crowds to participating in the members area and talking really isn't something she wants to do now, but you know I think she's at a point in her life when she needs to be taking care of herself, more than ever, because she's going to be doing a lot of caregiving in the next few months and potentially years. And it's not gonna be easy. So if she stops now she disconnects now what will happen. I don't think it's what we want. So I offered to have her stay in the membership, but also offered my services for the next 90 days so for 12 weeks in a row I'm her accountability coach. And what I'm doing for her is laying out the plan. I said I see myself is just your accountability check in. We'll talk about what's been the problem this past week, what's been your goal, what days you're planning to do the things you agree to do what might be obstacles and how you can overcome them. So that you've got a place to report, you've got an organized plan in front of you for these next seven days. How does that sound. 7:00 And of course she said Good. Now, you may come up with a plan for whoever it is you're talking to and they may not agree, but chances are if you are very thoughtful and you sit down with this in mind, with them in mind knowing their past history knowing what they've said is important to them. Chances are, with somebody, thinking about them. That kind of flattery is fairly rare that kind of being cared for, is fairly rare outside of your very small nucleus seven in an immediate family, people will listen. 7:39 And even if what it is you offer doesn't land on them exactly right. 7:46 They may suggest something else, and then you're having a conversation, not about if you'll work together but about how you'll work together. And at the end of that conversation you will finally get to, what are the details, how will this work how much will it be, because that shouldn't be the last thing that you talk about the detail is how you're going to help them, how you're going to help them stay accountable the transformation that it's going to bring to them and what it's going to mean to them right now. During this moment. 8:19 And that is it. But that simple action, you'll take every day calling one person. 8:27 Not only could change somebody's life, not only essentially change 365 lives. Now look at a lot of cases you're going to call somebody and leave a message. So on Sundays, you may have a return phone call, but you have to make that new outreach. 8:47 Even that could change a business in the best of times, let alone the worst of times, how it happened could be by phone by Facebook by Skype by zoom. 8:59 Make it work for the both of you, not for one. 9:04 And there you have it, how you can build your business from the ground up. It may look different than it did before, you may not need to be standing next to somebody or demonstrating with them. What they may need is for you to help hold them accountable to share with them videos that they can want on their own. 9:24 It could be much more simple than you might be trying to make it. Having a digital or a virtual business isn't really the point. The point is the value in the transformation that it creates. And you, my friend, have the skill and the talent to do that. 9:43 That's it. That's all I've got for today. But that one little gem. 9:50 Might just transform your business. 9:53 I'd love to hear from you. You can put your comments at the bottom of the show notes at Fitness marketing mastery.com, forward slash build your business. Transcribed by https://otter.ai Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/build-your-business |
Sun, 12 July 2020
Your emails don’t get sales because of your copy. It may be your subject line, or your content or both. Subject Lines are Only the Beginning First, they have to open it though so let’s start with the best subject lines. You can GOOGLE the “best subject lines of all time” and get a bullet point list of some. But that’s not the best way to get your customers to open. The best way is to know them. Then you learn to write copy… copy that converts. You can’t copy someone else’s copy… but you can learn from it. What’s the difference between copy writing and copy that sells? So that you can understand why your emails don’t get sales and flip the switch? Copy is sometimes clever, so carefully grammar and punctuation checked, that it misses connection. You’re neither writing for your college literature professor or for an article in Science Digest. You’re writing to get someone to take the next step. You’re having a conversation with the reader. If you’re not thinking about what they currently think and feel you’ll never connect with them. If you’re not thinking about what the logical next step is for them, you haven’t come up with a Call to Action (CTA) makes sense for what you want them to do next. How can you write good copy? The kind that gets you sales? Not the kind that makes you comfortable or is grammatically correct? Not the kind that tells your reader how smart you are or how much they don’t know and need you for… because even that dance is tricky. If you offend someone or convince them they are doing it so wrong right now without making an emotional connection, you won’t inspire them to keep reading. It may be true, but you’ve got to take their side. Nothing bonds like a common enemy. So … play it that they haven’t failed, the system failed them. Like COVID19 has bonded a lot of people in the world – we all want this over. No one likes wearing a mask. What can you have in common with your audience, not know better than them? Big Reasons Emails Don’t Get Sales (and what to do about it)
Take action: Take an hour every day this week and write. Write in a whole new way. And even if your open rate is far about industry average, and your click through rate is too, we always strive to improve it, right?
When you can take someone from pre-aware that there is a problem, to awareness there’s a problem, to awareness there’s a solution, and that you have a solution, and that your solution is the only solution… That’s the role of good copy. Know exactly who you’re writing for when you write copy. Are they aware they have a problem? Are they aware what they’re doing isn’t working? Or are they pre-aware there is even a problem with the way they’re exercising? If you haven’t really sat down and thought about first, what stage the customer you are writing a love letter too is in, how can you really write anything that will help them? This is a game changer. You’ll go from finding your emails don’t get sales to a significant change in your email conversions. And you’ll feel better about the messages you’re sending. Marketing after all is a conversation when it’s done best. Resources in this episode: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist Private Fit Pros Facebook group
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Sat, 11 July 2020
You may think a fitness passion is an indicator of your fitness business success. But how are you are earning money for that fitness passion? If you even slightly had a negative reaction to that question, stay with me. Unless you merge your fitness passion with a healthy money relationship you won’t reach the success level you want. Burning Fitness Passion? Have you said any of these things?
Sound familiar? Is your money relationship sabotaging your fitness passion? You have to raise your self-worth before you raise your net-worth. If you say things like, I don’t have to make money… really? Doesn’t money help you influence more people, share a bigger message, and change the world in the way you want to? Whether you spend that money to better support your kids, start a foundation, donate it to the poor, create scholarships, or create business opportunities and jobs for others who wouldn’t have one… money is the way to make a difference. I think it’s time to take a look at the message you’ve always been given about money. And there are a lot of them. They’re on both ends of the continuum. Was This Your Money Foundation?
Limiting Money Beliefs? If you have limiting beliefs about money and having it, making it feels dirty, wrong, or greedy. Or wanting things … certain cars, or homes, or clothing feels indulgent and luxurious or for other people but not you… You potentially have a fitness passion that could ruin your career. Right now more than in January of 2020 and before you can’t afford this one thing for sure. You can’t afford a fitness passion without a love relationship with money. What just happened? Did you take offense and have a hard time hearing me say a love relationship with money? Pay attention because that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Do a lot of questioning right now
I don’t have all the answers for you. You first have to be willing to dive into your relationship with money. You need to open your accounts daily or at least weekly. You need to look specifically at the revenue you generate and what you spend. Trainers and fitness instructors are notorious for spending money on clothes and shoes not really considered as “required uniforms” and because you wear them for things other than work exclusively it’s not legal to use them as a deduction. And the forgotten thing is often, it is still an expense. It isn’t “free” because it’s a write-off. It still costs you far more than you get for a deduction. Money Pros I suggest you connect with an accountant who is up to speed in all things fitness industry. Also find a resource that can help you manage your own money and learn how to save for your future. The younger you are when you start, the better. But if you love what you do, and you’re good at earning and saving more than you spend it’s never too late to build wealth. A fitness passion without a positive relationship with your money can be an expense rather than an asset. It’s not too late to get curious about your money, where it goes, and how it can grow. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist Krisstina Wise Wealthy Wellthy podcast & programs
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Fri, 10 July 2020
What’s the Know, Like, and Trust Myth? The fitness business lies you’ve been told weren’t always lies. They’re often carefully hidden in a partial truth. At one time they may have been true. Right now, during corona, and in the future after the pandemic is under control, there is one specific myth I want to tackle here. It’s this: Customers need to know, like, and trust you. If you’ve been in business and done a little marketing homework, that’s what you’ve been told.
The customers who will buy from you need to believe they are like you or you are like them. They have to see themselves in you. Even if they aren’t there now, if you ignite or reignite some desire they have, then you are closer to creating a fan, a follower, and a customer. Three Types of Customers
This last group needs a lot of nurturing. It’s your job to make sure you have content for each of those types of avatars. The first group is ready to join you and take action. They want to start you just need to give them a simple point of entry. How do you increase your “Like” Factor Faster? Share you. Business is getting personal. Think about it. You’re in people’s living rooms, kitchens, and ears. With the increased likelihood you’re doing business online if you’re going to stay in business, you need your content to feel like it’s on that intimate level too. A cold, quote unquote, professional presentation is not going to warm up a cold audience. A Story about Getting Personal I had a customer last year reach out to me. She wanted to join my membership site but she couldn’t afford the single payment. She wanted to know if I could split it so she could do the more economical annual payment but split in two. She explained her circumstance. She had a young adult daughter with Down’s Syndrome, she was working full time and trying to juggle selfcare with it all. I called her personally. Her daughter heard me leave the voicemail and ran upstairs to tell the mom that someone called, and she thought she recognized the voice as someone she knew. It turns out the daughter was also doing the workouts with her mom. You may or may not know Down’s Syndrome patients also have weight issues that predispose them to health risks. That’s the kind of personal reach you want to have. If you ever called and talked to customers live they feel like they know you personally, not just as some authority figure. Ways to do this:
Leave your professional, cold voice at home. No one wants it today. They need connection with people not a business. If you’ve done okay doing it your way with cold, professional, made-up, dressed-up content before this, try getting real. You’ll accelerate the connection and improve your know, like, and trust factor in a much more authentic way. Last Note You may have imposter syndrome and think you have to convince people of your qualifications and justify why you by being falsely “professional.” For others it’s potentially not the first thing of importance. They want connection. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist
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Thu, 9 July 2020
Tempted to buy marketing templates that take care of your newsletters and social media posts? Stop. Unless you want to donate money to the seller. Here’s why it will never get you results. Especially since the world changed in March 2020. The problem is not the quotes, or the posts, it’s the lack of YOU in them. Why You Really Can't Use Other People's Templates It’s the lack of you using analytics (that are FREE on every social media platform) that kills your social media marketing. No one is you. If you’re given a template you’ve taken personal training and already watered it down. Personal training that is about the uniqueness of an individual – their flexibility, mobility, strength, endurance, their alignment, their daily repetitive movements and postures… should also be about the optimal match between the client and the unique trainer. You're the Brand You’re unique in your “why” and your education, and credentials, in your life history and work history. You’re unique in your brand. Marketing templates that give you the same quote cards and memes, even images to use as any other trainer, make you lost in the sea of hundreds of thousands of trainers pouring content online. What’s happening now is that the few that are good, really good, really connecting are standing out. You can still find room to stand out too. What you do need is a system. You need a style guide, and a way to create blog posts that don’t take you 8 hours like many other well-researched articles can. You want to know how to generate SEO for gaining traffic organically before you ever spend money on advertisements. The short cuts right now? The work every day. Your GPS So, it’s true my friend. You will work harder. You will not have it handed to you. And it’s also true that you will sustain your career by rolling up your sleeves. I will add a link in this very short episode for both the Style Guide, and for the 5-Minute Blog posts. If you don’t have content on your website, start with the 5 Minute Blog Posts. Block off three hours. Create 6-8 blog posts of at a minimum 300 words. Give each a scientific reference and an internal link your website. Don’t ask a blog reader to buy something. Ask them to leave a comment or question. Ask them to follow you on social media. When you have the right actions in the right sequence you will create a business that will last. Resources: Leave a rating, comment, and subscribe in iTunes Ask a question there and I’ll answer it in a future podcast |
Wed, 8 July 2020
What are the Best Social Media Fitness Posts? Looking for the key to fitness posts and wondering why you can’t get any traction? Well, here’s what’s getting in the way for most fitness centers and trainers. Especially if you’re an introvert! Because as far as social media and fitness posts, it’s the personal ones that do best. That’s you … a person… talking, sharing, taking someone on a tour of your home, your kitchen, your pantry, your gym. It’s you… having your massage therapist, nutritionist, personal training director or most popular trainer do the same. It’s you as the general manager or owner getting on talking about what YOU do… and what you struggle with, what a typical day is for you. Your Best Social Media Fitness Posts for Personal Training & Fitness Programs Now Connection with people who feel isolated, lost, uncertain, and need a positive message that fitness can provide is a foot-in-the door for fitness professionals who will do the work. You have to do something that many trainers aren’t willing to do. You have to 1) open the kimono and 2) share the imperfect side of your life 3) tie it to your audience. If you can do that, and will do it consistently you can win hearts, alienate the people you are so wrong for anyway, and you will help people. This episode is all about what makes the best social media posts. Best Social Media Fitness Posts right now include:
In the episode I break down each of these and give you examples of how you can use them. Here’s how you take your unique qualities and create the best social media fitness posts to position you for your ideal customers. Tie Your Business to Your Social Posts Combine your unique interests and skills with your client’s desired transformation and the unique method you use to get it for them. Are you an artist? (that’s one of mine) and do you help athletes or midlife women like I do? And how do you do it? Even if you think you don’t have a unique method or system, I bet you do. You meet with a client first by? Phone call or consultation, currently by zoom. Nothing unique?
You may not be able to see this “thing” yourself. Someone else can though… consider asking someone else- a dozen someone else’s to tell you why working with you was so great and got them such good results when nothing else had. Then go back through the list… and you’ll have a better idea of how to tell stories and you can also plant the seed about your unique process/method/or system in all of your messages. As you keep mentioning over and over again, people will want to know more. End Notes In this episode we covered the prompts for the best social media fitness posts right now. They’re personal. You have to connect. And we covered the what is missing in many posts that could be “best” … but that won’t ever result in more business. When you use your special sauce and combine these, you will steadily see your influence and your leads begin to grow. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist
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Tue, 7 July 2020
Fitness testimonials are still one of the best ways to connect to your next customer. If you can get your customer to create a video answering these questions I’m going to share with you – whether they do it on their phone or you record it on yours or in the social distancing Zoom or Skype recordings of the moment, video is gold. If not video, then get them to write it and ask if you can use their picture with it. If not their picture, their full name. If not their full name first name and last initial. And age is also relevant when you’re gathering fitness testimonials. Another strategy is to ask a question in your Facebook group. Your paid program probably has a private Facebook group. Ask questions:
How to Edit You can ask permission of these people to use their posts OR you can screenshot them and block out their name and profile image. It still shows in real time and in a believable representation, someone else- not you – took time to add a comment and we’ve come to believe that if it’s from Facebook it’s legit. What doesn’t work? Fitness testimonials you’re talking about what someone else said. You can make that up and whether you would, you did, or you didn’t, if your customer really doesn’t believe enough in your services to do a video, write a letter, send some kind of tangible proof they are raving fans and recommend you, then it’s probably not a good fitness testimonial. The more like your ideal client the subjects you choose for your fitness testimonials are the better. If you’re choosing to ask clients that aren’t like your ideal clients you’re wasting your time. Outstanding Examples There’s definitely a reason you might want to choose someone people aspire to be, someone in the public eye that people know and respect. Maybe they show how someone as busy as the mayor or the president of the university can do it, so the watcher will think, I can too. But if they’re too different, too eccentric, they aren’t in the same income category or educational status as your ideal customers, then it won’t do you as much good. How to Get Started with Your Fitness Testimonials So, you want to first go to any of your prior clients, the ones who got great results – and remember great results aren’t always a before and after picture. Sometimes it’s reducing or stopping medications or gaining confidence and not something as visible as losing 25 lbs. Then you want to make sure you ask for what you really want – video first. If you don’t get it, at least, you’ll have a default if they won’t do video, you can ask for a written or social media fitness testimonial instead. Let them know you’ll send them the questions you’d like them to answer so you make it really easy for them. That way you do make it easy for them and you take control of the content you’re going to get. Tell your client that you’d really appreciate it if they use the question to start their statement. Personalize Focus on problems you help in your questions, too. If you work with people who have back pain, or fibromyalgia, or osteoporosis, get specific with your questions. How were you feeling in regard to your back pain before you started? How was your strength before you began personal training? Then once they answer, you may prompt them with… How is life different for you now? It’s really nice if you’re there with them and doing video but if you can’t be try to either write it or use a voice message. You can create a voice message on your phone and just have them pause and record their responses. They can send them all to you and you can edit them to create one video or keep the short clips to use in a variety of ways. Summary There you have it. It’s easy to do. If you have a little more time than you wanted right now, it’s a perfect time to get these. Update your old ones. Fitness testimonials are important to people finding you. Remember the greatest value though is in that next customer finding someone in your prior customer – as well as you – being like them. It’s not just that they need to know, like, and trust you. They need to feel that you are like them. More on that in an upcoming podcast. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist Try Speak Pipe for audio recordings |
Mon, 6 July 2020
You’re going to make a fitness marketing mistake during your career. Otherwise you’re not trying hard enough. Most success comes from trial and error. With marketing something works for a while until it doesn’t and that’s how you know to change. During this particular time however there are mistakes that are easy to avoid. And 5 of them are in this episode Key Points to Help You Avoid Your Next Fitness Marketing Mistake: 1) Selling the same thing you were selling January 2020 There are unique problems happening right now. Uncertainty, and less cash flow are true for some. If you know your clients you know if that’s them. So low-ticket offers can be a smart thing to do. Get them into a short-term program not an ongoing, open-ended program. Focus on the right now problems they have. 2) Targeting a market that has shrunk or disappeared. Target those with urgency, fear, and with money rather than those who were barely able to pay. There are a lot of people who don’t have time right now. Our time has turned into more work not less. Don’t assume that everyone is sitting around. 3) Thinking no one is spending money right now You won’t do anything if you believe this. It’s just not true. And remember you’re not selling services to just those in your backyard right now either. At least you don’t have to. 4) Waiting and worrying for things to get back to normal It’s not going back to the same business or the lazy way trainers were fed clients by clubs. The revenue inside gyms is going to be lower. The clients inside gyms are fewer. Clients of your local gym have access to trainers worldwide and know it now. Unless they have sessions paid in advance, you need to be not just a trainer. You need to be the trainer they need. Waiting for someone else to figure it out for you 5) Being tone deaf. Look everyone wants a little normalcy right now. We don’t want to keep talking about this virus and all that brings. But we also can’t ignore the fact it’s changed things. Especially in your fitness business. So, you should be talking about it. This is easily the biggest fitness marketing mistake of them all. You’ve forgotten how to have a conversation. They’re just people. Your people. Talk to them. Mentions in this Episode: |
Sun, 5 July 2020
Do you have a true fitness community? People are social beings. There’s so much documented about longevity and health connected to social connections. This COVID19 has gone on long enough that everyone to some degree is missing the connection with their groups, attending events of like-minded people, and the health benefits that come with it. If you are in a fitness center if you’re in one, the same people aren’t all choosing to be there in a group. Schedules have changed such that the same faces aren’t there for those members that do come in. You can be a solution to this problem and provide yourself with a unique way to learn what offers right now may be of interest to your prospective members. You can use this as both nurturing for current clients and attractive for prospective clients. Platforms
The idea is to create a community within a community. You may think you’ve done that with your membership. The reality is some of your members have nothing in common. You want to find ways to connect people to each other, not just to you. Then serve them in that group. Think clusters of smaller groups with special interests. Ideas for Developing small fitness community groups
How to Handle the Workload Got a team? Have one of them do one a week. Give each day of the week a theme. Focus on doing them Monday- Friday and use the weekend to send them out in emails. (to your segmented list that wants them). By the way this segmented list is the key to your success. If you’re still emailing everyone on your list every time you email, now more than ever you’re killing your success. If you send all your emails out to all your customers, you can’t nurture your people with what they really want. You ignore their behavior which is a clue that you’re not talking to them about anything that’s interesting to them. If customers aren’t opening your emails because the title or the contents were never for them if they did? It’s a pretty sure thing that you’re never going to sell them. Don’t Forget Fitness Community Segments You’ve Ignored How long have you been ignoring the people on your list that your personal trainers have the least in common with? The guys in the weight room more than you think they should be? They definitely have something they want. They’re there early every morning or every night after work. There is probably something they would respond to if you started talking about it. You can talk about protein needs, recovery, ability to gain lean muscle or avoiding injury from XXX by switching out to ABC. Wouldn’t there be value in finding out if you’re leaving money on the table? More Topics to Get You Started Have a nutritionist or health coach teach cooking or simple ways to eat well. Get specific. Teach to a special audience. Teach to older adults. Teach to moms with young kids. Teach to the cooking-for-one older or younger segments. Do a segment on salads in a jar, making dips and dressings, talking about the difference between keto and paleo. Have your massage therapist teach a myofascial release session. Although you think that will decrease the need for their work you couldn’t be further from the reality. Random bits of information in videos ultimately give you the opportunity to serve first, engage with them, gain trust, and see that they need and want more structure than just this. Do It Live If you’re a procrastinator worried about what people will think, getting flustered or getting it perfect? Focus on the real connection when you’re human. No one wants perfect. Be relatable, especially now. Everyone has roots grown out, unruly hair, has gained a couple pounds, is a bit forgetful… talk about that in fact. Do it live even if…. There doesn’t seem to be a large live audience. There’s something about live that is attractive and real and raw (Just like I would say if you’re not recording live classes you’re teaching (and you’re paying people who aren’t working?) you’re crazy! You should be recording your spinning instructors, your yoga classes, your Zumba classes, and sharing those with your customer base. Whether you gift them a new video weekly in a member’s area and organize by category or you use this area as a new product to sell right now, it’s gold and you’re wasting an opportunity. After You Have the Live Meeting Share the recordings in emails. Segment your list for those that want the food, the core, the stretching, the yoga for cyclists & runners…. Whatever your themes are. Don’t make the mistake of doing what you want to do. Base this on the most popular classes you have (the ones that were packed) and poll your customer (Survey Monkey or Typeform) base. Don’t Skip the Survey Let them tell you what they want. Segment your members into personal training clients, group fitness attendees, and the rest. You might also include massage therapy clients. How You Ask Is Everything Ask a few short questions. Include a list of some of the topics above. Have them check the ones they’re most interested in. Then ask them to list them in order of importance – say their top 3. Include one open-ended option for them to add a topic that would support them most. What’s your biggest challenge right now? What topic area interests you most? Have them include their gender, age, and email. With the email you have a way to segment them or follow up with them. A Real Fitness Community Everyone has a voice and a vote. I know you have to set the Standard Operating Procedures and contrary to popular belief the customer is not always right or going to choose what they need. But people buy what they want. So you will find out what they want and be able to serve them, engage them, support their messy lives right now, by asking them. If you’re not emailing your best customers, your next customers, and your prior customers regularly you’re missing an opportunity that they’re finding online in other groups. Why not yours? Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist 12+ Marketing Fitness Ideas Podcast Show notes fitnessmarketingmastery.com/community |
Sat, 4 July 2020
Need a New Fitness Marketing Idea for Right Now? Feel like possibilities and leads have dried up? Even your current clients aren’t interested right now? I get it, these are unique times. But when everyone is lamenting about how hard it is, there’s an opportunity for some. You just have to focus on the changes for customers as you take action. Fitness Marketing Idea #1 Email frequently If you’re scared people will unsubscribe if you email more than once a week… or if you have let your list go cold and don’t even mail once a week, I’ve got news. They are waiting to hear from you. They want health and fitness content right now. They’re too close to the refrigerator, they can’t sleep and they a need strong immune system. I say this with respect, if you are afraid of emailing you’re really afraid you have no idea what you’re doing and you don’t know where to get help. I’ll link to prior podcasts and blogs that help you with this. And in a podcast tomorrow I’ll help you generate ideas. You need to start warming them up again. You need to communicate regularly with something of value. They aren’t waiting to hear what you want to sell though. That’s not giving them value. So if that’s all you do, you’ll soon burn out your list. Fitness Marketing Idea #2 Know what your clients open
Fitness Marketing Idea #3 Segment your list If you still email in one batch to everyone on your list… even those who never answer or haven’t for more than 30 or 60 days you’re hurting delivery and having the wrong conversation with them. It’s time to clean up your list. Regularly. Keep them in a group – knowing 85% of your list doesn’t buy right away. They have to think about it for up to two years. I’ve literally had customers say to me they’ve been on my email list, listened to podcasts and read my blogs and books for a couple years before they ever buy. So keep the long game in mind even now. And know that some of those long game people may have urgency in COVID19 they didn’t have before. Fitness Marketing Idea #4 Better titles and email subject lines I’ve shared before my favorite tools – like Headline Analyzer and I’m linking to it here. Save your headline for last, just like you save a subject line of an email til last. Then create 15 to 20 of them and play with them until they get a good score on this Headline Analyzer tool and they’re rich for the key words you’re going for on your site. Fitness Marketing Idea #5 Get engagement If you’ve segmented your list, and you’re writing better subject lines – after you’ve written content that answers questions, you need to make it a conversation. Every email should have a call to action (CTA). Sometimes that is simply to click on the video you’ve embedded in the email. Others it’s to click to your website where you have the recipe for the image you put in your email. In another podcast I talked about polls and surveys. Everyone loves to be asked and to give their opinion. So poll regularly. Let them know you’ll share results. Right now polling about wearing masks, or exercising at home vs fitness centers, or cooking in or eating out would be topics people definitely have an opinion on. ASK! Then share the results next week. You’ve given two great reasons to engage with you. When you get that kind of action on emails, when you are asking them to learn more about a program they are more likely to click to that too. Fitness Marketing Idea #6 Use “you” YOU is simply the #1 most powerful marketing word in the world. However, “you guys” is one of the worst. Check in with your social media manager or copy editor for emails. You need them to be good at copy writing, not grammar, and not English literature until the time you stop needing to persuade someone. Fitness Marketing Idea #7 Use emojis The open rate for emails with subject lines is 56%. You could overuse that too. So try once a week. The copy you choose for the subject line still matters. The content inside better be targeted to the one individual opening that email. Don’t waste an email open on content that doesn’t serve your subscriber or you’ll lose them. Fitness Marketing Idea #8 Use infographics, lists, and photos of the transformation Pictures speak a thousand words. No secret. And images like infographics that teach or show are savable. You can also share those on social media. They’re hot right now when they’re done well. Fitness Marketing Idea #9 Get quality content on your site Make it SEO-rich with key words your ideal customer searches for. Do they search for Pilates? Or do they search for an answer to a problem? Fitness Marketing Idea #10 Be Customer-focused Ask them, answer them. Serve them. Meet them where they are. Polls and surveys are the easiest and fastest way to learn more about what they want and will buy. Fitness Marketing Idea #11 Use testimonials with names, and images, or videos No one believes it when you say “customer said” unless you use a name, age, something to make it real. First and last name is good. Image is better. Video is best. Fitness Marketing Idea #12 Create video stories Not stories on FB or IG, though you might do that too. Tell stories, show prospective customers how to do something or how not to. Show them what it’s like to work with you. If you’re worried about your hair and make-up, you’re on the wrong track. If you’re worried about getting it perfect or making mistake, you’re not thinking about customers. Once you’re out of your head you will deliver the take that is going to connect you with others. BONUS Fitness Marketing Idea Lead, Don’t Follow. Leaders make choices based on best for everyone. In your case, that may be you and your clients. That may be you, your employees and customers. Right now you probably need to make money or you need to constantly be changing the way you used to do business. You’re forced to think bigger and globally instead of 25-mile radius if you’ve been a face-to-face service provider. What you do doesn’t come with a GPS or a road map or a model that’s been used before. Don’t wait for it. Don’t keep ideas to yourself. Watch what’s working. Apply it to your own model. Know When To Ask Are you constantly giving free live sessions away and never making an offer? Lead. People need organized step-by-step progressive fitness. Random acts of dropping in or choosing Pilates, or yoga, or weight training for toned arms does not equal specific results. Specific protocols and plans for specific people gets specific results. So ignore what others are doing. Do what is best for best results. Change what you’re doing not just to abide by restrictions. Do it in all of your services. Get rid of negative talk about the situation. Yours and others. What are you waiting for? Make a difference like only you can today. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist
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Fri, 3 July 2020
Procrastination got you? Feeling helpless? I’m not saying you don’t have reasons. We all do. And yet, there’s never been a time when health, a strong immune system is more important to every single human than now. Everyone needs to exercise. From the physical immune-boosting benefits, to the avoidance of muscle and bone loss, to the mood boosting and support for anxiety and depression, or enhanced sleep benefits, we need it. Right now all of those are top priorities for many more people than realized it before. So, while the gym may be closed, or it may be limited in capacity, and it may not be the place people feel safe, your services are still much-needed. So how can you stop wishing, worrying, and waiting? I’m going to share 4 reasons procrastination shows up in the first place. You’re not alone and you’re justified, my friend. But there are things you can do to get out of this and to feel better. And those who are staying in action, are staying positive, and who are finding solutions for what’s happening now, not trying to sell the same thing they were selling in January 2020, are going to be okay. #1 FEAR Fear is the number one reason for procrastination. Actually, right now nearly everyone has some level of fear. Hopefully you have an equal “it will be alright” attitude of optimism. Even if you can’t see it, believing that will help. You may not know how to get from here to there but you’ll figure it out. Do one thing, one small thing that you’re scared of every day. Heading into the unknown is one of them. You may have had a system of doing things or followed someone else’s for years, even decades, but even if it’s only months, now you have no system. We haven’t had time yet to figure out a new system entirely. A system gets predictable, consistent results repeatedly. In the moment we’re in, some of the predictable has fallen out. But the building blocks of it are still there. You solve problems. Figure out how to do that now. With existing clients and with new clients. Some of your prospects may be people who had a routine before this all happened. Then their world has changed. They have more on their minds, and may be a new source of clients who need help with a routine and an anchor every day. You don’t have to do the proverbial get out of your comfort zone. Just think of it as stretching the comfort zone you have. Things in your life have happened and either we shrink or grow from them. If you’re still listening, you’re someone who grows. Step-by-step So create a step in the right direction, away from procrastination. Fear only gets to stick around if you imagine that you had one option and you were doing it. That is only the way you were perceiving it. Can you allow yourself to believe that there are a dozen ways to do what you really did anyway? You solved problems. You did it in a unique way that people wanted to work with you. Identify those people. What was it about them that is similar? What did they all like specifically about you? Why did they stay with you? If they were the people you loved working with… you can start getting over your fear by starting to connect with more of them again. Can you make just one video today talking to that ideal customer? Can you call every client you know and ask if they’d like to do a virtual small group accountability training? Can you contact someone who is successfully doing what you want to do and ask for help? Take one small action in the direction of your fear. #2 OVERWHELM If you’re trying to picture the future 5 and 10 years and all you have to do you invite overwhelm. Especially now. There’s a reason to dream and have a vision. Can you just focus on how many people you’re going to contact today? How many people do you need to follow up on? Just one thing all week. For me, it was reaching out to 10 people a day about my TEDx talk. I shared it with each. That led to them sharing, to new coaching clients, to speaking opportunities and it’s an easy anchor in overwhelm. Find a way to sort through all the possible things you could do today and do the biggest needle mover. If you have one step you're much less likely to succumb to procrastination. #3 UNCERTAINTY Right now this is a hot bed for not doing anything but hanging with the family or friends, or just the couch. While that has been part of the silver lining of COVID19, you’ve got to ask if you’re hiding behind it. Truth is no one can be certain of whether this is 6 months, 12, or what the forever changes will be. But you can still be certain people need health, immunity, positivity, protection against disease that appropriate exercise brings. You can be certain of one step. Plan a few small steps are that are reasonable. Baby steps. Procrastination comes easy when you're uncertain. Choose one much smaller step than normal. #4 PERFECTIONISM Take action, imperfect action. Elizabeth Lombardo, a friend and fellow mastermind member is a well-know frequent guest expert on the Today Show and GMA. She’s has her own reasons to be stuck. Her husband was diagnosed about 4 years ago with Lou Gherig’s disease after countless weeks and months of mysterious illnesses. Her mantra before and now? Done is better than perfect. Plan for it not to be perfect. You know these shoes. You put new clients in them all the time. They are CEOs and outstanding in their work and world. Then they come into the fitness center and they’re not good at it or that’s their perception. With pounds of weight, no energy, and habits that make them feel terrible exercising, they expect after years of no exercise to be good at it. You’re not going to be good at something you’ve never done before. Plan on it. Plan on doing it anyway. If you do it badly there’s a chance you can get better at it. Baby steps. Not good at sales? Or don’t like sales? Pick up the phone. You can’t be good at something you never do. There they are, four reasons procrastination may have had you for a moment. And how you can prevent it. Resources: |
Thu, 2 July 2020
Today’s episode is all about how to make better videos and stand out. Let’s face it there are a lot of people online right now. Both your customers and your competitors so you might think that’s good and bad. The truth is its good and good. Consistency Often Wins Few people are going to get in it and stick with it long enough to look at the stats and change what they’re doing to get better results. Consistency if that’s your greatest asset, will get you far. So while you can’t just create videos you think they need, you need to create fitness videos they want and meet them where they are, you can make a very good compromise. This episode is really about diving into what your stats and insights tell you about your videos so that you can make the right decisions. SO if you haven’t been using analytics to your advantage on your fitness videos, now is the time.
Are They Yours? What you want to know from there is are those people coming to your email list? To do that you have to have something they want and will exchange their email address for. So while I’m not going to go into that now, I’ve got blogs and podcasts on how to create something of value that customers can consume in a short amount of time and get a quick win. You’ve got to be looking at your Google analytics too. If you’re using YouTube or Facebook or Instagram, are you able to see that your social media channels, particularly the one you want to shine are actually a source of traffic on your site. What You'll Learn to Grow Your List From my own analytics for instance I know that I have both organic and paid traffic. When I separate and only look at everything but ads my biggest source of traffic is organic traffic – meaning I’m coming up in searches for my key words. That’s thanks to content. Then my next source of traffic is direct meaning people actually know my name or Flipping 50 and they add that to the browser and get to my site. Then? My next source is YouTube. Which is good. I can confirm that the time and effort I put in making videos is worth it and then I may want to use ads to grow further. Analytics Then you want to look at the videos that got the top number of views during a certain period. What do people like? And is it inspiring subscribers? Are they watching the content longer? What were the most popular topics? Is this seasonal? Is it consistent? What’s the truth about the popular top 10? Say you have 3 or 4 videos in your top 10 that have titles about arms Or you have several that are titles featuring abs or core You’re looking for the themes that attract the most people First Funnel What you have is the beginning of a funnel. So create a cheat sheet that goes deeper into the topic that the most people are clicking on. Place a call to action in your video to get your cheat sheet. You have to have an email service – something like Constant Contact or AWeber or Mailchimp are common ones to start out with. Free to Fee When you send them from the video to the website you’ll have your webform there. Front and center where they’ll opt in for your freebie. From there you nurture them with similar content, and offer them a service or product that makes sense. Keep in mind that right now people need a different type of product or service than they used to need and want. So think problem solve. I’ll link to yesterday’s podcast where I talked all about problem solving – the mindset of trainers who are thriving right now. There you have it, how to make videos that serve a purpose for both you and customers who are looking for answers to problems. Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist Think your fitness career is down the drain? I call BS Show notes: Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/grow-your-list |
Wed, 1 July 2020
Are you a trainer whose business is down the drain? You think that everything that you just spent your last 20 or 30 or 10 or 4.. recent college grad, I’m talking to you, is all down the drain? I call B.S. This episode is all heart… and more than a little frustration. If you think right now that your education, and all that time that you put into learning how to be a personal trainer or how to be a health coach is a waste of time or it's down the drain. You my friend, are pretending you're a victim. And you are not. If you choose not to be. That is, you've got to get creative. I know people who will survive, people who are truly personal trainers, understand that they weren't just somebody who had a job. If you think about what you do, and what I do and how I've done for 36 years…. Its problem solving. We solve problems. You can solve problems on the telephone, you can solve problems, via FaceTime, you can solve problems via Skype, using zoom. People have problems and you can solve them today just like you could in January and in July 2019. You can use any combination of those tools, but those are just the platforms. It doesn't change the way you relate to someone. If you can only deliver your services by demonstrating them? You may be in need of improving your communication skills. How well can you articulate, either through your voice by speaking it, and giving excellent cues, or by writing it, or transcribing what you speak? So you are an excellent instructor. You can cue. You can tell someone how to do something where to feel it, where not to feel it, and how to correct their movement. With the excellent articulation of your instructions. No one took that away from you. If you can do that speaking. You could simply transcribe it so it's written. And you have minimal editing to do to make that. I did exactly that with this episode. I created it while on a walk, talking to my phone. But every episode is also a blog post at the show notes on the site. So the transcription has time stamps. You can create a checklist, a description that accompanies a video of yourself. Now you have a product that you can sell. Not just to one client, one time, one hour at a time. No, you can sell one thing over and over and over. If you're open to possibilities. And you are really somebody who's passionate, not just about getting dressed, being in a position where you are in front of a mirror, or on a stage, you can do this. If you're really about problem solving, then you’re not seeing this as a huge obstacle after more than 3 months. It’s just a reason to get creative. There is always going to be a business model for trainers for health coaches for fitness instructors who are excellent at communication. As long as they don't get stuck, thinking there's only one model of delivery. Pick up your telephone call those people who you had been helping. They still have problems. They need them solved. But the problem somebody has, in June and July and August of 2020 and far beyond that, during COVID-19 are different than the problems that they had in January in February of 2019 or 2019 or 2018. So, if you've been a trainer for a while and you're stuck, thinking, the gym is closed (that you worked for), or it's open but clients aren't feeling safe coming back in. You really don't have a problem. You have opportunities. Because your gym isn't serving these people. So you have two options. If you were working for a gym, you either approach the owner or the manager and suggest that collectively as a team, you begin to deliver service in virtual or digital way, by phone, by Skype by FaceTime, by zoom a combination of those with products or single sessions. That you create that serve problems. And you've got to remember that this is opportunity. This may actually make you a better trainer. If what you've been doing in sessions, has been more about simply accountability. And I don't discount, accountability, because for some people that's 90% of it, but you can still do that in every virtual way that I've just described. You can also be a better problem solver. A blind person it's said has a heightened awareness and use of every other one of their other senses. They can smell, taste, and feel with their fingers, better than they could, better than sighted people, because they're forced to. And when you no longer are simply entertaining, you're no longer distracted by everything else going on in the gym, by everything else that a client might be talking to you about, or that you might be excited to talk to them about like what happened to you last night or last weekend. What you're looking forward to tomorrow or next weekend…they've done this weekend and they're doing next weekend. You know, it's part of conversation, as you're building rapport with your customers. Sometimes that becomes the conversation. Sometimes, to the extent that your training is actually overshadowed by the need for a social life for your client, and maybe for you. If you think about it, we all spend a lot of time at work, more time that we spent in our own homes. Sometimes with our families. And sometimes we can get confused and the boundaries get blurred. When you take yourself to digital delivery your other senses will improve. You'll become a better problem solver. So rather than thinking about a creative workout for your client, what you'll be doing more of is creating a workout that solves the problems of that unique client. And when there's one individual who has those problems there's another one. There may be 10. And there may be dozens, and there may be hundreds, or maybe thousands. And that's where you really give birth to a business model. If one client has lower back issues. If one client has a lack of mobility, solving those kinds of problems, then becomes something you can sell to the masses. Now you have a business model based on problem and solution, not based on personality, not based on how you look, or your popularity. Not based on a single client meeting you for a single hour. There's an opportunity right now that has never been better for trainers who can see it. And if you're willing to do the work you may have a learning curve. But it doesn't take much to learn how to turn on your FaceTime doesn't take not to learn how to record a training session on your phone. That you then have in a library, not just for one client. For many clients. To get started, as soon as you're willing to open up your mind to the fact that the strong will survive the creed, those willing to those who really do have a passion, and that platform inside a gym is only one way to look at things. Don't wait to become better. You can grow and be bigger, and really have a business that's sustainable, potentially than where you were before, where you have more revenue than you had expenses. So create products that people want because they solve problems. Additional Opportunities One of the other opportunities that you've got in front of you is thinking about what do you know, that other trainers and other health coaches need to know. Are there things that you can teach them that they otherwise wouldn't acquire on their own, or that would years for them to acquire, can you accelerate their progress. Can you accelerate or amplify the reach that they can have by teaching them new skills, making them more attractive to more people. Use your skills and apply them to their specific niche or market. For Example So, a trainer works with young student athletes. Maybe High School maybe college. Maybe those that want scholarships, pending we opened back up. At some point, we will. But those students right now may not be working with coaches and won't be necessarily doing team workouts. And those students who have motivation, and they have the programming that can get them ahead. Will Survive potentially and thrive and be the ones who stayed consistent and not waiting for things to blow over. So can you teach. Another trainer, how to use the skills you have, maybe its back pain prevention is your thing, your special power. You go deep in that. who doesn't need that, right? Specifically athletes need it. You know, and so how can you teach that and offer it to them? And you can also teach it to trainers who work with older adults, males or females. You could teach it to trainers who do specifically golf conditioning or back issues are common among golfers. So think about all the populations that you might choose to teach your special sauce to packaging, what do they need to know. So then you've got two different revenue streams coming in. That kind of product or service that you can offer to customers. Virtually on any virtual digital platform. And you've got the same type of delivery system, and platforms available to you to teach to trainers, and generally when you're teaching it to a trainer who will be teaching to multiple consumers, you can charge more. The value of that product is greater. Remember it is now and has always been about the transformation for the client. So that may be a revenue stream that you want to look into. If you are feeling like other things, other methods of increasing or earning revenue have closed their doors, other doors have opened. You’re just not looking for them. And you got to get to the handle of the door and try to turn again. Don't assume that a closed door is locked. Resources: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/programs Show notes: Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/bs |
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