There are better fitness marketing tools than a newsletter. There are better fitness marketing tools than Tic Tok if you don’t have a back end that makes sense and attracts new subscribers. 

It is well into 2022 if you’re listening in real-time. If you’re not do not go away it’s still relevant. 

Are you inviting people to your email newsletter? 

That one died in the early 2000s. I know some people are still using that invite. They’re not doing really well and my first guess is that their entire marketing funnel isn’t really connected or intended to nurture non-buyers. 

Clubs and fitness centers go right to having conversations with members. That’s like completely ignoring someone you invited to a party who knows no one else and doesn’t have any common memories with others at the party. They probably aren’t going to stay long. 

In this “say this, not that” episode, I’m reviewing a common problem that trainers and health coaches both do. 

 Instead of Inviting People to Your Email Newsletter: 

• Offer a juicy freebie that they’ll love (in exchange for their email address) 
•  Provide a learning experience (like a webinar) 
•  Invite them to take a quiz (and then send them the results via email) 
•  Ask them to answer a survey so you can provide the best information 
• These now become ways you are adding value, not just increasing the influx of emails that bombard us all and make us feel like we’re drowning. You’re inviting them to get something they WANT for free or to give an opinion and contribute (usually something we’re compelled to do). It’s well, much more inviting. 

Do You Do This Too? 

I for one, on the daily, click something I requested, I don’t have time to really dig in at the moment, then I’ll delete it later because I figure if I didn’t look at it for weeks, I managed to live without it, it can’t be that life-changing. Even if your “get my newsletter” works you have an issue. So, they’re in, they’re out if you have this “newsy” email in most cases. 

There you have it, this episode of the Say this not that series this week. Is there one of these better fitness marketing tools that resonate with you? Leave me a comment or a rating in iTunes for the Fitness Marketing Mastery show. If you’re not already a Fitnessmarketingmastery.com subscriber, you’ll find a message from me on the home page about how I can help you make your business go or grow in the next year. 

Take action.. whatever you do. If you’re out walking, running or you’re lifting, pull that phone out and create a note if you got inspired. I know I do.. most often on a trail while listening to a podcast and if I don’t capture it… I lose that great idea. Better fitness marketing tools can’t be implemented if you don’t remember the inspiring thought you had! 

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

How to Create an Irresistible Fitness Freebie (for your ideal clients)

Other episodes you might like: 

Are Your Fitness Newsletters a Bad Reminder?

What to Say to Close the Fitness Sale (and what NOT to)

What to Say When They Say They Can’t Afford You | Personal Training 

Fat burning & weight loss are hot topics uniquely, and together, during menopause. Since for decades, the dogma has been that metabolism slows with age (proven not until about 60 very recently) and that menopause hormone changes make weight gain more likely, it’s easy to believe there may not be much you can do for your clients. 

 

Not so fast. Look, the research I’ve shared for nearly a decade, and studies both older and newer show lifestyle habits – epigenetics have much greater influence on fat burning & weight loss than do anything else. 

 

The trick? Identifying not what you thought once supports fat burning & weight loss, but what really does for clients (or you) now in menopause. So, let’s break this down.

 

Blood Sugar and Fat Burning 

 Insulin causes the liver, or muscles, to remove sugar out of the bloodstream and store it in the form of glycogen. It releases a small amount regularly for all the organs that function continuously (heart, brain, nerves). 

 

Hormones like stress hormones (cortisol and epinephrine/adrenalin), sex hormones, growth hormones, and glucagon – can cause the liver to secrete glycogen back into the bloodstream.

 

Epinephrine and cortisol are released when your body needs a sudden influx of sugar for energy. (For example, exercise or need to sprint to avoid harm or spare someone else from harm). 

 

As blood sugar goes up, unless clients are insulin resistant, (which often can happen to women in midlife) the increases are mild and short because insulin is released to bring it down. If however, clients are more insulin resistant (it takes more and more insulin to bring blood sugar down), your body is more frequently in a fat-storage state than a fat-burning state. 

 

Blood Sugar and Fat Storage 

Let’s talk about these 4 (not new to you) things that impact blood sugar for your clients. It’s not just dessert and popcorn. Your client’s fat burning & weight loss obstacles may be something you and they are overlooking. 

 

Stress

Any form of stress, including thinking about a stressful situation, physical stress, will increase glycogen, and therefore insulin. Learning to deal with the emotional stressors so they’re less negatively affected, can decrease fat storage. Clients don’t necessarily think stress interferes with fat burning & weight loss. They’re more likely to think weight causes stress. 

 

Sleep

Sleep deprivation and or poor-quality sleep, even being off their optimal schedule (going to bed later than usual) can increase physical stress and the stress hormones. The day after having to rise at 3am for an airport run for a houseguest, my blood sugar levels were all higher throughout the day. 

 

I attempted to keep the rest of my day low stress by observing the best hydration, regularly timed meals high in protein and fiber, and connecting by phone with family to keep stress lower. You increase your value with clients when you coach them to respond this way themselves.

 

Exercise 

When you’re going to do a workout with clients, as long as clients are not overtrained and they’re allowing for adequate recovery, muscles will release glycogen for energy. This is when they’re able to burn fat rather than store it. The glycogen and cortisol (responding to physical stress) both increase available energy to do the physical workout.

 

** It’s important to consume adequate high-quality protein during training, to be sure that carbohydrates then fuel the muscle with exercise and aren’t stored as fat. 

 

Food 

Different foods and at different times of the day or in different sequences will have various effects uniquely on your client. While it makes sense that a piece of chocolate cake in the middle of the afternoon is going to spike blood sugar more than if enjoyed after a meal with protein, fat, and fiber, clients may be surprised something beef stew for dinner could spike blood sugar (happened to me). 

In those situations, you’ll want to help clients identify whether it is an ingredient in the food, or if it’s one of the other influences from above. 

 

For example, the same morning coffee drink in the morning when someone gets up at 3am to take someone to the airport, could spike your blood sugar dramatically different than having it at the usual wake up of 5am (also happened to me)!

 

The Fat Burning & Weight Loss Bottomline on Blood Sugar

 

Blood sugar is no B.S. (I couldn’t resist). Now that Continuous Glucose Monitors are easily accessible, and you can see immediate results of your clients’ lifestyle habits and nutrition, you may be able to experience much greater ease losing weight.

 

A great way to begin is to try it for yourself. Use your own experience as teachable moments for your clients. Share your results, and what you’re learning. Your clients’ successful fat burning & weight loss efforts are right around the corner with your help. 

 

Want to try the one I’m using? You’ll save $25 on your first month with my link. CLICK HERE

 

 

Resources:

Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist   

NutriSense Glucose Monitor 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

5 Ways to Use Shock to Attract More Fitness Clients

7 Tips to be a Personal Trainer Every Midlife Woman Wants to Work With 

 

If a trainer tells me they hit a plateau and can’t get more clients, I ask them about their email list. 

If you aren’t working on growing that email list, chances are that’s a large part of why. 

Before you get more sales skills, you want to attract more people, more on that in a minute. 

 

The Problem with a Small List is…. 

If you’re in a “launch” with few people, and then you “launch” again with the same people there may be a small number who say yes. It wasn’t the best time for them before and it is now. They were people who needed a little more time to know and trust you before deciding. 

But you’ll also be losing a small percent of them which you should expect. 

If you don’t lose subscribers every time you email, you’re probably not emailing enough. 

 

Those people are not seeing all your posts every day, you know. 

They’re busy. They want the news delivered with white gloves and that is why they subscribed to email. They may not like social media. So, while you think they see and hear that and your daily message is enough, it’s not true. 

 

… You can’t get more clients online. 

 

3 Reasons You Can’t Get More Clients Online, boil down to this: 

The email list you have now is small or abandon

You’re attracting anyone too broad a group on social

Inconsistent habits (you’re busy but not productive)

 

 

Here’s what to focus on: 

 

1)    You need to grow your email list

Have a freebie that peeks interest and desire (my freebie builder cheat sheet)

 

Make sure you’re sharing relevant social content and suggesting it as a CTA for those who want more

Have a profile page with links directly to it (no ugly URLs someone will never remember that only your mother would go to the trouble of tediously entering – if she would!)

2)    You need to attract the right kind of people to your social (first step before email)

Have you reviewed who you attract? 

Do you clearly tell who this is for and who it’s not?

3)    You aren’t focusing on the right things consistently. If you focus on your social media more than you focus on your customers and business, something is definitely WRONG! 

 

Are You Addicted?

To be honest, does it give you a little adrenaline hit when your video got XXX views on Tik Tok? Or frustrated you when you spend half an hour creating a reel and it doesn’t get much of anything? Your time and your energy can get sucked into social media and it’s not going to move the needle for you. Let’s keep in mind that while it’s necessary, it’s something that takes a dedicated 15 minutes twice a day and between you really need to be building the business behind it. 

 

There’s a difference between not being consistent and being strategic. You’ll see sometimes if you followed me on Instagram, I don’t share every day. I usually do, but when I either have something that didn’t get much traffic I thought would, is getting a lot of traffic, or it’s a date that warrants a little longer time, I purposefully won’t post for a day or two leaving room for prior posts to gain traction. But I will add them to the story again to increase engagement. 

 

I have an action challenge for you. What do you need to focus on? 

Do you have a funnel that converts? I’d focus on that before I built a course. 

Do you have a system you’ve proven with yourself, and then tested on a pool of others for testimonials and proof that it works? 

Do you have copy that defines your unique difference? There are a million options for how to exercise, why you? 

DECIDE. That’s the action. Decide where you really will get the biggest wins from focusing on and then do… Monitor your time on social media and if your brain is constantly flirting with it, you’re probably not getting anything else done. 

 

I’m going to link to the resources mentioned in this episode. Before you visit it, my hope is that you’re walking or working out, because for me at least, that’s when I listen and get tons of clarity … not when I’m sitting at my desk. And not when I’m moving through a Bootcamp-like set of crazy moves. 

Quick Tip

I know you’ve turned up the speed on those social videos to show a lot of moves, energy, and not give a whole workout… but have you stopped to think that they relay a “frenzied” kind of feeling that makes people think you’re a crazy intensity frenzied-pace kind of trainer? 

What do you make viewers FEEL? 

That’s the question of the day! 

And… how does social media make YOU FEEL? Spend less time on it and more on your business so it converts when you reach them. If you can’t get more fitness clients online right now I hope this episode has been helpful. 

 

Resources Mentioned in this episode:

How to Build a Better Freebie (freebie, how meta is that!?)

 

Marketing to Women Copywriting course  

 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

Exclusive Look Inside Build Your Business Accelerator Mastermind

5 Ways to Use Shock to Attract More Fitness Clients 

How would you like to ask social media advice of someone with over 65 years of fitness marketing experience? Collectively in this episode that’s what we’re giving you. It is with great pleasure I get to share with you this interview with Petra Kolber. I took a few minutes to ask her some questions about marketing and social media. 

Before we begin… know that Petra has rebranded herself in her career more than once. And she’s doing it again now… closer to 60 than 50. So if you wonder how to stand out, don’t think because she – or I – have more than 30 years of experience each that we haven’t had to start from scratch more than once. 

What if all you needed to know is you're enough? 

My Guest:

Petra is an Author, Speaker, DJ, Performance Coach, Podcast Host, and more recently a Digital Nomad. 

In August 2019, Petra released her first book, The Perfection Detox which was recently translated into French and Spanish, and Arabic. She has over thirty years of experience in the fitness industry, with bestselling workout videos, a television show, and has been honored to receive some of the most prestigious accolades in that arena, 

Petra is a two-time cancer survivor and is passionate about waking people up to the precious gift of time. Her current work is helping women in transition look at their future through the lens of possibility, so they create the life of their dreams versus leaving their life with regret. 

She will be traveling for the next two years as she writes her second book and thinks that maybe in her sixties she will settle down and become a grown-up. 

Questions we answer in this episode:

• What social media advice would you give fitness & health coaches starting out? 
• How do you feel about the social media messages from the fitness industry(collectively)?
• Where do you feel there is the opportunity for new fitness & health coaches?
• What need isn’t being met? 
• How can fitness pros stand out? 

There you have it, social media advice that is as basic and simple as it could be. Follow… your customers. Listen… to your customers. And copy… no one. 

Connect and Follow:

Website
Instagram
Facebook 
Podcast
YouTube: Launching February 2022 https:/petrakolber.com/watch 

 

Additional Marketing Resources:

Marketing to Women Copywriting Course

 

To hear more from Petra, listen to the Flipping50 podcast featuring her when it’s released in March 2022 at flippingfifty.com/perfection-detox

What is personal branding and how do you build your personal brand? It’s connecting to your customer with a personal story. 

You can talk about a mix of personal and professional 

• Hormones
• Fasting
• Kettlebells 

 Building relationships in your own environment, showing your personality 

• Your home
• Your family
• Your favorite pastime (not working) 

 You share in-the-moment, in-real-life, behind-the-scenes of you that lets people know you and love you in a way they want to do business… with YOU. Instead of Peloton or Planet Fitness. 

Some ideas to help you build your personal brand: 

Share behind the scenes with you on the weekend

If your family is open to it, share pictures or videos of them. If not, try a from the back photo, in silhouette. 

Try a day in the life hour by hour on your stories. 

Give someone a tour of your home, home office, home gym or kitchen. 

 Keep the personal touches in. 

Don’t let perfection trickle into everything unless that’s you sun-up to sun-down always behind make-up and home perfect. 

 Why People Buy From One Brand vs Another

The real reason to build your personal brand and not just a work brand is this: 

People buy from people. They have a clerk they look for at the grocery store. They return to the small hardware store for that personal touch even when there’s a huge store where they might get it for less. Likewise with any product. Yes, they’ve got access to the world, but if you’re local, they’ll like that fact and connect with you because of it. 

The real reason not to have you and your brand be the same is so that you can hire, and sell it someday easier than if it’s you and your name always and only in images. 

Thoughts on this one? Are you already building your personal brand? Do you have a separate business and personal brand? 

 Tell me below the show notes at fitnessmarketingmastery/build your personal brand

Resources for Health & Fitness Coaches: 

How to Build a Better Freebie (freebie, how meta is that!?)

 

Marketing to Women Copywriting course  

 

 

Other episodes you may like:

Pandemic Fitness Business Success Story: Family Busines

18 Revenue Generating Strategies | Health & Fitness Professionals