We all come up against this at some point. Then, later, we’ll come up against it again as long as we keep growing. This came up as a question on a female fitness business entrepreneurs panel I was part of at a recent conference. A young woman asked a question but let’s be clear, you could ask the same question in your 50s if you were new to fitness. Let’s say you’re a fitness pro and pitching a group of doctors or businessmen, do you think the same hasn’t happened before to women of any age? 

 

So no matter if you are young or older, or in fact, if this is helpful to a young woman in any industry, feel free to share it. We need to have each other’s backs and the way to do it is by sharing things you’ve already been through.

 

This too is the value of a coach or a mastermind so you can surround yourself in a safe place with people you can confide in and know they’ve been there or will have something to offer. 

In this episode on Being Taken Seriously at Work:

 

• The real truth that may be the reason this bothers you
• What this is and other ways it shows up
• How to handle a gap between you and your customer (age, gender, experience level, economic or social circles) 
• What to do to create authority with rapport 

Last Tip on Being Taken Seriously in Your Health & Fitness Coaching Job

I’ll leave you with this last thought regarding the feeling that you can’t get someone to take you seriously. Think about the people who don’t are the 20% who really matter that you can gain 80% of your business from or they are the 80% of people who are hard to deal with, hard to serve, the most needy and demanding, but least profitable and not committed to getting your help as much as you are to helping. 

 

Something I wish I knew sooner was that dropping so many of the things that kept me “busy” would have freed me up to work on the things that truly resulted in higher revenue with more ease. I spent a lot of years running from this to that. For too long fitness professionals were led to believe that’s how fitness worked. You should be doing 5 jobs. It was in fact what limited us all. Do we need part-time trainers in the industry? Yes, absolutely. But if a career is your objective, one that creates a sustainable life you love and a revenue that is consistent and either predictable or only limited by your ability to create it, you can’t play the game. A job done in tights, sneakers, or barefoot that changes lives is no less important than one done in a business suit. 

It’s just that too many fitness professionals believe that it is and tell you so, even making it sound glamorous because they get a little “hit” of dopamine every time they are wanted and featured as an instructor. Being asked to speak at conferences for free in exchange for the “prestige” and exposure? Really? Women in the fitness industry asking for this of other women (and men) are unrealistic and keeps this industry in the dark ages. 

 

The reality is trainers and instructors can spend as much time traveling between jobs as at jobs, turning the rate of pay into not that much more than minimum wage. The pandemic was a grateful game-changer for many, yet it was right there all along. 

 

As soon as you stop playing someone else’s game, you can start winning at your own. If there’s a problem enough customers have and you solve it, you have a business. 

 

Challenge yourself to look at problems from different angles, to ask and talk it out with someone who has been there. You will grow so much faster and feel so much lighter instead of carrying it around wishing, hoping, and then watching… as someone else does it first. 

 

We don’t see ourselves like others do and an outside voice will accelerate your growth. 

 

How to Take Your Business Seriously to the Next Level 

 

Take this Action: If an intimate group business-building coaching with like-minded women for an influx of paying customers sounds amazing consider this. Whether your dream is to sell high-ticket, high-touch or to sell a low-ticket app to many - if this sounds like a perfect fit for you, just let us know you’re interested. We’re putting together a small group and an intimate opportunity for female fitness & health coaches. Building your business from the first idea to the detailed leadership, products, marketing, sales, and financial blueprint so you AND your business can thrive is not an easy task. 

 

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. - African Proverb

I’m kicking off a 6-month training with a weekend adventure near the Grand Canyon. You’ll be a part of a challenging day of hiking, trusting, and getting to know each other in the midst of a weekend of training, business evaluation, and planning. No matter where you are - a dream and idea, or a plateaued business, to a new revenue stream or a complete business remodel you want - let us know. I’ll connect to learn more and find out if this group is right for you and let you know the details. Email support@flippingfifty.com and I’ll reach out to you personally. 

Our first cohort will occur fall of 2023. The second in spring 2024 with leadership opportunities for those in the first group. 

 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

 Five Fitness Speaking Steps That Makes Free Pay Off:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/five-fitness-speaking-steps-that-makes-free-pay-off/

Talk to Customers You Want Most | 5-Minute Marketing Tips:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/talk-to-customers/

 

Resources: 

Sunlighten Saunas: https://www.flippingfifty.com/sauna

Health & Fitness Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard

 

Business partnerships and collaborations are great opportunities. 

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb

 

Got a business partner or thinking about it? There’s less risk, there’s more minds, more eyes… and there are more opinions about everything, so getting an agreement in place regarding the business venture you’re starting before you do it, or now if you’ve not done it, is a good idea.

Invest a little time and money into making it legal, making sure everyone signs and understands.

 

Whether you partner to host a podcast, or you partner in a full-fledged business, with your sister, your spouse, or friend, you want it in writing. Whether there’s two of you or 10 of you, how will you determine the role of the individuals involved? 

 

These are things you don’t want to leave to chance.

 

In this episode I’ll open with ideas about how you may already be partnering and not even realize it, options you may consider having a business partner for first in your business and give you a few things to consider before you get legal advice and invest in making it official. 

 

Think of this as your introduction into partnerships if you’re not doing them (but like I said, you may be and not realize it), or a great reminder to review what you have in place to keep partnerships running smoothly.

 

Considering a Business Partnership? 

One thing I would suggest is clear. It rang true for all the people I talked with whether they were in a business that was currently making money or that on the flip side, was hurting and not making money. Whenever there is money involved there is emotion. Someone can too easily feel taken advantage of. So, while you’re thinking about it, or in early stages and just beginning to look at how you monetize your podcast business partnership for example, it’s a very good time for all parties to consider “what if.” 

 

Honestly, this could have been the name or this episode. What if… This is a very good place to start. 

 

Business Partnerships and Collaborations | Amazing Health & Fitness Growth

I’m going to throw out a couple scenarios for you to consider here: 

If you have investors, someone who helped you with a startup, do they have any decision-making power? 

If so, what? How much? Who has the bottom-line veto power? 

 

Say someone approaches one of you and wants to do business with you but not your partner. They want you to do something on the side. Is there any agreement about partners ability to have a “side hustle” that is related to the same business? 

What if one of you feels strongly about hiring or firing someone? About the training methods and who is responsible for it? 

 

How do you split revenue? Is it down the middle after expenses? Or is it split differently based on tasks and responsibilities? 

 

Are you taking commission and paying yourselves a base salary commensurate with what you’d pay someone else doing the same tasks if you were to hire them? Or are you only taking distributions after expenses? 

 

That already is a lot. But let’s look at a situation where you and a partner might start a business that includes fitness programs, nutrition programs and social media posting and podcasting. The day-to-day decisions alone are numerous! Who posts? How often and when? How do you determine the posts? That’s a time-consuming task  right there, but if you not only do it, but you have to run it by a second party, there’s a lot of time involved times two. Or is one of you in charge? Or one of you in charge of overseeing your VA who is doing it for you and tracking and reporting the stats for partner decisions to be made at regular meetings. 

 

Other Fitness & Health Business Partnership Decisions

Then there are pricing decisions, branding decisions, cost of goods sold, services you hire for branding, photos, videography or editing. Or if one of you does this, is that paid hourly or on salary to do it, then again business profits are handled through distributions paid out to each of you in an even split? The platforms you use have a certain cost and as you grow there will be more of them. Who decides or does the research? Who monitors expenses like this? 

 

Someone has to be responsible for accounting, bookkeeping, monitoring P & L statements to know if this is really working and what parts of the business are working and which are not. 

 

Let’s look at one of the early business collabs you might do which is co-hosting a podcast. How fun, right? To host a podcast with a friend, what could be better? You get to have chats regularly and have twice the reach with your personal accounts plus your business account, and twice the people you meet and want to engage with. 

 

And then say, you start having people want to sponsor your show or have you promote them and all of a sudden you’re monetizing that podcast. Or you might start promoting affiliate products or services you love to your audience and that starts generating revenue. Is there a business account where that’s going? Is that revenue equally split? Is there any reason one of you will feel like you deserve more because you enlisted them, suggested it and created more of the promotions? 

 

What if one of you has a business that she monetizes – a weight loss coaching business. The other one doesn’t really have a coaching or fitness service but is the more journalistic and media personality behind you starting and getting in front of people. 

 

What if one of you is a doctor and the other a fitness professional? One of you sees patients and builds a business based on medical services. The other a fitness professional may refer to the doc and doc may refer to the fitness programs, but it isn’t clear exactly the benefit to each of you. What if the relationship dissolves? Who “owns the podcast” and the listenership and ability to market via social to the established list? 

 

Business Partnerships Next Steps: 

List all the partnerships you have now 

Consider ones you are thinking about 

Make a list of possible situations (responsibilities, exit strategy, decision-making, distributions) 

Ask your partner(s) to make a list too

Have a meeting (or a series of them) 

Have an agreement made up about the partnership and legal rights of each and how decisions, or board meetings, and reporting are handled. 

  

Other Episodes You May Like: 

Grow Your Fitness Business in 2023 | Personal Trainers and Health Coaches: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fitness-business-in-2023/

A New Fitness Business Model for Your Virtual Fitness Business: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/virtual-fitness-business/

Resources:

Health & Fitness Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard

Menopause Fitness Specialist Program:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/menopause-fitness-specialist/

 

Your clients may choose to use HRT or avoid HRT... But I propose they could also abuse HRT. 

 

What to do in both cases… 

 

I’m going to cut right to the heart of the message. 
I want to get your attention. 

 

If I have it, keep reading and I’ll explain (and so will a podcast).

 

Muscle is an endocrine organ – Muscle is HRT for Women 40+

It is HRT. 

 

Still, reading? Good… let’s do this. 

 

Hormones and  Training 101 

 

Once a woman doesn’t have the same level of estrogen and progesterone she did, building muscle makes a big difference in the way she ages. 

 

Cortisol has an uptick when estrogen falls. That means, women no longer have the muscle-stimulating effects of estrogen AND they have the deleterious effects of cortisol breaking down their muscles further.

 

Loss of muscle means a gain of fat. By default, even if fat isn’t gained, the percentage of body fat goes up. But in minutes- or so it seems for many women – your metabolism slows (not because it must… but because she may have this first wake-up call that she hasn’t been eating enough protein, sleeping enough, or doing enough or the right kind of strength training. She will gain fat.

Even if her false golden idol scale says she hasn’t gained weight, she has changed her body composition such that she doesn’t have metabolically active tissue anymore. She will gain weight, and it will be 100% fat. 

Flipping50 Menopause Specialist: https://www.flippingfifty.com/specialist

 

She hasn’t thought about it like this.

Have you? 

 

Look… if you’re going to the trouble to understand what happened for you, what’s happening for her… by knowing signs and symptoms and offering all the tools that support her (Check out the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist), then you must know how to talk to her about it. 

 

In a way she’ll listen. 

 

We hit on estrogen and progesterone levels. They play a big part in glucose regulation. A high percent of women become less insulin sensitive, or said otherwise- insulin resistant because they’re eating the same as they’ve always done, exercising the same as they’ve always exercised and it’s not going to work the same. More muscle acts like a bigger sponge for blood sugar. Then each time you move that muscle – in daily activities of life, in walking, and in intentional exercise, the muscle is acting like HRT for Women 40+. It’s not giving extra estrogen and progesterone, but it’s helping take up where estrogen left off and where insulin would have to take over, with its negative effects. (Progesterone, BTW, responds well to certain foods and making sure you’re not going too low on carbs too often is a big part of balancing this hormone). 

 

How Can Exercise Negatively Affect Hormones?

Women who revert to cardio, cardio, and cardio are also potentially elevating cortisol with endurance activity. More pronounced even if they’re already stressed, sleep deprived, or eating too little protein and carbs to fuel. This is at that moderate level they’ve been led to believe (even we as fitness professionals have been led to believe, is best). 

 

With less cardio and more strength training + low-level exercise, + anaerobic work (getting breathless) -when appropriate, a woman stands a chance at improving her life. 

Strength training and HIIT also have a positive (and not negative) effect on testosterone and growth hormone as well as cortisol. 

 

A woman not lifting is live choosing to avoid HRT. Overexercise is abusing it. 

 

Resistant Exercise as HRT for Women 40+ and Mood 

Then there’s mood. A recent study in the Journal of Physiology (Jan 2023) found that high intensity has a far greater effect on the BDNF factor in the brain. Studies in the recent past years (excluding the pandemic) showed high-intensity high-impact studies done on postmenopausal women to be not only effective in bone density benefits but also researchers discovered something. They said in the discussion that the participants liked the HIIT. Compliance and adherence rates were high, and the exercise had notable favorable effects on mood and sense of accomplishment. 

 

These are all related to serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine and of course endorphins. More muscle enables more motivation to do other activities that bring each of these as well. 

 

Weight training done correctly has a positive hormonal effect on HRT. No weight training, it’s another way your clients may abuse or avoid HRT. Whether you’re a coach or a trainer, or a combination, there is no other exercise that substitutes for the positive impact on hormones like a proper resistance training program. 

 

Overexercise has a negative impact. 

Chronic cardio has a negative impact. 

Your clients, you know those that overdo it, do it too frequently, don’t rest… are essentially taking double doses of their hormone shots, creams, or pills. No one would do that… but she doesn’t see that she is.

 

Without you. Are you ready to dig into the science and the way to deliver it with confidence you know how to help your menopause clients now and tomorrow when her status changes? Can you pivot? The Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist course is open and comes with 2 huge bonuses and a special rate for podcast listeners. DM me on IG or send a message to support@flippingfifty.com to get this $500 off and 10K in bonuses now! 

 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

Muscle is an endocrine organ – Muscle is HRT for Women 40+: https://www.flippingfifty.com/hrt-for-women/

3 Ways to Coach Menopause Clients Out of Mistakes:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/coach-menopause-clients/

Every communication you use in marketing has two goals (and you know me, I can’t help but add an extra so at the end I tell you the one more that would make the trilogy test of “is this a successful post, email or video?” 

 

They are: 

• Establish Clear Authority 
• Create Rapport 

 

In this episode I will provide you with examples of good and bad, hits and misses of these in action. 

 

It’s so easy if you’re consciously doing this. Little phrases you say, words you do or don’t will alienate you or make you go to the top of your prospect’s inbox. 

 

Establish Clear Authority in Every Communication

• State your credentials without stating your credentials
• Tell them what you do and how you deliver service without listing it 

Imagine saying something like, “One of my private clients, Jennifer lost 100 lbs in her mid 60s. When I worked with Jennifer…”  

 

Or 

 

“In our bestselling group strength program, the data over 7 years has shown…”

 

You’re telling a story and at the same time telling someone that you coach private clients. You begin to share a statistic and have shared that you do group strength training. 

 

“When I was teaching at the University…”  Or “When I was preparing my TEDx talk….” 

 

Find ways to weave your credentials and ways you work with clients into your talks. 

 

Create Rapport in Every Communication

• Teach without preaching 
• Raise and praise for effort
• Let them know it’s not their fault

These may seem obvious. But I’m usually surprised by a lack of awareness shows up in social posts and podcasts. Here’s how to make sure you don’t alienate, and instead befriend your ideal customer: Before you speak… to a group or in a podcast, consider that you are speaking one-on-one to the person who may be making a mistake you’re talking about. 

 

How do you want them to feel about you?

What delivery will help nurture that? 

 

If you’re talking away to your show host or your show guest, for instance, you can get caught up in comparing notes about all the crazy thoughts of your customers and forget… the actual purpose of hosting or being the guest on the show is to make the listeners feel heard and seen. 

Claiming, “They don’t drink enough water!” or “You’re just aging faster without strength training,” though true, may leave your listener feeling judged and just labeled or lumped into a group … and not supported. 

 

“It’s not your fault.” 

“Here’s why it’s so easy to fall into that trap.”

 

Remember in a previous post I shared how to deliver a message so that you can relate to your audience better. Tell a story about you! Start with “I” .. then move to “we” then finish with you. 

 

Anything else can feel like you’re just being a teacher telling someone they’ve done it wrong but not giving a reason why, of course, that mistake is so easy to make. 

If There Was One More… This is It

If I could give you a third it would be, be distinct. Don’t be a parrot or minah bird: 

 

Don’t just repeat what someone said. 

Know why you’re saying it and where it came from. 

Know why you’d die on a hill for it. 

Put it in words that are yours not some that belong to someone else. 

 

Connect: 

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com

 

On Social: 

https://www.facebook.com/fitnessmarketingbiz

 

Resources: 

Health & Fitness Business Scorecard:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard 

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/copywriting-course

Other episodes you might like: 

Better Email Marketing: Love Letters To Your Customers:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/better-email-marketing/

3 Ways to Increase Your Email Opens (social posts & website traffic) NOW!: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/ways-to-increase/

 

 

 

You’re human so how you handle mistakes is a need-to-know part of business. In a word, fast, is the Cliff notes here but stick around for this episode. I wish this is something I’d had to listen to and lean into when I was just starting. 

 

Before I knew that hassles and mistakes and random website updates would happen… you know, all the stressful moments when you’re in a launch and the website goes down or it’s Black Friday week and the cart has a plugin update. 

 

All just stuff. 

• But what about the times when you send an email with an incorrect link? 
• What about the typos you neglected to catch in a proofread? 
• And then the time when you used inappropriate language in a meeting with a contractor and he quits within hours? 

 

I’ll share those and a few more mistakes with you in this episode. And most importantly, what we’ve implemented as the SOP to fix things. 

 

Handle Mistakes with Grace (or at least tenacity)

 

If you’re just starting it may be hard to imagine you’ll make these mistakes. But if you grow, you inevitably will. Or someone working for you will. It’s just the fate of being human. Being human and juggling a lot of things in this life. 

 

If you’re growing you’re probably experiencing these growing pains!

1 Customer service language really matters and it’s not going to happen by accident. 

 

Give them some permission and authority to smooth things over on your behalf.

 

Can they offer… 

A free access to a gift you don’t even have for sale? 

A course they don’t already own? 

 

Make it congruent with why they reached you in the first place!

 

Make it complementary to what they wanted.

Problem with a “free” thing, give a low cost or “free” thing. 

 

Problem with a paid thing, give them something hidden, invisible, or that you created for just exactly this purpose. Because we all know human error and technology are going to create instances where it just doesn’t work. 

 

2 If it was a tech glitch or a campaign oversight it’s best to have a team member send. 

You as the owner, unless you’re still wearing all the hats, should have your team member who missed something send the email. 

 

The subject line includes an emoji and says Oops, We Goofed! Here’s this… 

 

Inside, my team member will say, Hey this is “Sam”, you don’t usually hear from me, I’m behind the scenes of all the tech and programs here and you recently received an email with the subject line “xxxxx” and I made a mistake! 

 

He’ll go on to say what the mistake was.. Something that shouldn’t have been sent.. Or was sent at the wrong time… or an incorrect link… but that then for me.. Makes me the good guy still. 

 

He apologizes… and again restates what’s true and that’s it. Super short.. But from him.. Not me.. And explaining how embarrassed he is that what happened… 

 

And it works so well. Often they’ll all comment, even have empathy for him for being so honest and quick to fix it. 

 

If you want to do this, I suggest taking a screenshot, crafting a couple of examples. I had a developer who was great at this and just naturally did it. For my next hire we needed to go over why this was so important that it come from him when there was a mistake behind the scenes. Not everyone you hire will know to do this, so you’re going to help make it a safe place for mistakes to happen, and then train them how to handle mistakes when they do by having this as a part of onboarding training. 

 

 3 What if it’s not your fault?

 

It wasn’t your fault… it wasn’t your team’s fault and it wasn’t your tech. 

 

It was a user-error. 

 

First, accept that your ideal customers having a user-error can provide insight on how to prevent it, make it easier or show you how to be different. 

 

 We have people type in wrong addresses, zip codes or .con instead of .com frequently!! Then they wonder why they can’t check out, or why they didn’t get their product or their emails. 

They even go as far as doing a chargeback which takes you as an owner down a rabbit hole because instead of reaching out to you… they went over the top for a refund. Buyer’s remorse set in, maybe with the knowingness that they did make a mistake but frustration in life led them to just wanting to forget it all happened. 

How we handle this: 

I call them. Or video call them. I text them. 

 

Personally. 

4. What If We Dropped the Ball? This Mistake Hurts

How we handle this: 

I call them. Or video call them. I text them. 

 

Personally. 

 

It’s Me. I. I’m the Problem its Me. 

 

At this point, someone else might say, how can you still be doing that? But I think, how could I not? It's my business. Every team member is my responsibility that they know how to do their job, know their role, and has what they need to succeed. So, I could have someone else do this, but I don’t think that’s right. There’s value for me in valuing relationships. 

 

Maybe a part of me likes it when someone squeals with surprise that it’s really me. Not every phone call goes like that though. Sometimes people are genuinely mad. No amount of apology or offer to make it right help. 

 

But mostly, I make these calls after. After we’ve refunded, honored a chargeback without a dispute and just call to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry it ended that way and that - if we did - that we dropped the ball and I’m sorry it had to be them that made us aware of the need to make some upgrades behind the scenes. 

5 I Handled a Meeting with a Team Member Poorly Resulting in Quitting

 

The outcome of the meeting was not a mistake. How it happened and why was. 

 

I had let a situation escalate giving too many second chances, and the benefit of the doubt, when a team member was non-responsive to requests to connect. You don’t need to know the details to know this. As I sat at an airport waiting to board a flight on a Sunday afternoon, I had reached the end of a fairly patient streak. I’d been taken advantage of, paid in good faith and the numbers didn’t add up. Essentially, my temper led to words inappropriate and offensive. 

 

Bottomline is no matter what needed to happen and did, no matter what someone else’s behavior was, you and I are responsible for our actions. 

 

I kept hoping he would apologize, make me aware of a reason for the odd behavior, point out the error in charging me twice what he worked, and it just didn’t happen. I used a poor choice of words. 

He quit within hours, leaving my team member, holding the bag, to cover for him. 

 

How did I fix that? Well, I was already out more than $1000 of time that hadn’t been worked and lower quality work than matched our expectations. Nothing I could do about those. But I also owed the biggest apology to our team member who ended up covering that base until we hired again. 

 

You get better at hiring slow and firing fast when this happens. I also think there’s some growth for everyone when you mess up as the team leader and own it and make it okay to mess up since we’re all going to. 

 

Handle Mistakes in Your Health & Fitness Business Fast 

 

Here’s the bottom line on mistakes:

• Handle them quickly.
• Apologize… not necessarily for making mistakes if you didn’t, but for the experience that someone had, or for not creating an environment where someone felt able to reach you or your team for support. 
• Ask for help coming up with solutions. 

 

The painful ones are the biggest growth opportunities. 

 

Resources: 

The fitness health coaches scorecard:https://www.flippingfifty.com/the-fitness-health-coaches-scorecard/

Menopause Fitness Specialist Program

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/menopause-fitness-specialist/

Other Episodes You Might Like:

How to Hire the Right Person for Your Team: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/hiring/

Female Fitness Leadership: It Starts with You: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/female-fitness-leadership/ 

 

This Game-show-like episode I hope will be a fun way to test titles and give you insight that will strengthen your ability to create clear titles (and not confusing) for ANYTHING! 

 

Plus, in case you didn’t know, you can go back and change your YouTube titles to get them to perform better if you created something that didn’t perform the way you thought it should. Even better than modifying the old though is creating everything from here on out with greater awareness and nailing it! When the exact person you created it for feels just as if you are speaking to her… #nailed it! 

 

Here’s the game we’re going to play. [Credit where credit is due… on a 12-hour road trip I listened to more country music than is probably legal, but also heard the Sandy Show.. I couldn’t tell you Sandy, who… but he and his wife Trish played a similar game. Stealing this!] 

 

So what I’m going to do instead of just talking is share a few examples of clear titles and confusing titles and ask you to vote… and then of course, I’m going to give you may answer. So, if you’re still thinking and like to contemplate, be ready to push pause! 

 

What I want you to do - and what I’ll do for you - is as if it passes the test or not between clear or confusing. We’ll vote either confusing/clear OR Preach & Teach vs Raise & Praise. 

 

Create Clear Titles Game

 

Podcast Episode Titles: 

The audience is females 35-50 in perimenopause. You’ll talk about everything related to fitness but not only fitness. 

 

• Fitness Mindset 
• Lifting Heavy Things 
•  The Fitness for Women Perspective 
•  She Lifts Heavy
•  Your Menopause Made Easy 
  
  

Blog Titles: 

• Blog audience is women 30-50 
• Eating More to Lose Weight 
• Friday Favs 
• Currently… this 
• Things I’m Loving Now 
• Lifting to Define and Lift Your Chest 

YouTube video titles 

• Target a wide range of women primarily in 40-70 range
• Well+Good website creators on the health and wellness craze (CBS - 9 years ago .. only 931 views) 
• Top 5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Body
• 3 Worst Exercises for Women Over 40 
• Methods on How to Get Tone 
• The Most Dangerous Woman on YouTube

 Create Clear Titles for Social Media Posts: 

• Targeting a midlife women demographic 
• Healthy Habit Tips
•  The Truth About Drinking Water 

 New Podcast Episode!

 

Do you get the idea? 

 

Resources:

Marketing opportunities for your business and personal brand aren’t all the same. At first, you may be tempted to say yes to everything. It’s experience. It’s getting better at being interviewed or speaking. But I want to share how this quick lesson in clarity applies to how you run your business and choose to invest your time. 

 

What’d I suggest you do is declare who you are, what you do, and what you want to do more of. When I review some of my prospective client’s websites and social accounts, it’s easy to see the reason there may be a mismatch between effort and results. That’s your brand, your mission. When you have a mission, your entire team has a mission to guide them.

Marketing Opportunities are More than Just “Getting Out There”  

Clients come to me because they want to make more money. That’s not really about landing a picture on the cover of a magazine. It’s not about having a huge “influencer” following from beautiful images on Instagram.  (After all, that doesn’t build a program or service or proven method or close the deal. It doesn’t create a repeatable, predictable process to get traffic, get leads, nurture leads, and sell to create new customers).  There have been plenty of people who got their 5 minutes of fame on Oprah who weren’t set up to sell anything after or nurture leads. 

 

 

When you have a mission, it’s easy to say yes or no to marketing opportunities, projects and offers. The bigger and more well-known you are, the more of these offers come in. There will be offers to partner and promote skincare, and yoga mats, and foam rollers, and acupuncture tools. These are just three sitting in my inbox right now. 

 

Then there will be the stationary bike desk and the electric bike and the bed.  And they take time! I once said yes, and got into an entire year-long relationship with a company that took hours of filming, writing, and often editing, then posting and sharing, which took a significant amount of time from my real business mission. In the end, was the new bed worth it? Not sure today I’d say yes again to that. At the time I couldn’t see it, but it didn’t accelerate my business, it slowed it down. 

 

In this episode, I cover from start to end: 

• How to decide if you’re in a phase of just saying yes to everything 
• When you will want to start being more selective about marketing opportunities 
•  The importance of using your brand’s mission to decide (already touched on)
• Using this example to get a clear message, to a clear individual, that resonates
• When you say yes to marketing opportunities, how to be ready and make it easy to take a next step

 

Who Does Your Brand Say “Yes” or “No” to? 

 

Recently I was asked to speak on a podcast that was new to me, a fairly new podcast, and in reviewing previous episodes I was a little confused. 

 

The aim of the podcast was clear at first glance, and then looking at the content it wasn’t at all.

 

The podcast was targeting allied health professionals. The guests were varied health coaches and trainers who serve direct-to-consumer programs and services. 

 

Do you see the issue already? 

 

The purpose of the podcast according to the host was a podcast for health or fitness pros. The topic was overcoming obstacles to getting started (for consumers). The next step however in supporting your target audience would be … not hearing how to get motivated yourself to overcome but how the coach or trainers coach to overcome. Someone who wants to say, how do I do this too, wants a training program themselves. 

 

So, I thought, maybe I’m missing it. Maybe in fact this is a behind-the-curtain look at how other coaches and trainers are coaching clients out of this obstacle. 

 

It was helpful to listen and to read the bait-and-switch of the podcast. It has begun as one thing and evolved into another. Fair enough. We’ve all done that business and personal lives! 

 

Is this Brand Exposure Opportunity a YES? 

 

Back to you, the potential guest, (and BTW, if you’re a host, be very clear who your listener is and what their problem is that you solve too!) what you have to ask is whether this serves you. When you are asked to be a guest do you ask:

Who is your target audience? What demographic? 

What’s your reach? (in the case of a podcast – ask downloads per episode and per month). 

How many will you be sharing this with on your social media channels and your email list? 

 

These are fair questions to ask if you’re asked to give time and expertise for the benefit of growing someone else. Because they will expect that you share via email and social media. and They will potentially ask and get your agreement to do this as a part of agreement in being a guest. There is one individual I’ve interviewed in the last decade of podcasting, over two shows and at this point 4 episodes a week, who does not share. It’s a part of all communications. If you’re the author of the most sold books in the topic and subject area like Dr. John Gray, you too can choose to do this. But until then, you will want to share and be shared both. 

 

Making the Most of Fitness Marketing Opportunities

 

Then, if asked and it’s a perfect match: Be ready! Don’t send a new acquaintance, barely more than a stranger to a program. Even if it’s low priced, a 12-week program or a 4-week program is a commitment with someone they don’t know. 

 

What’s your freebie? A quick win they can do without you. 

For decades fitness centers assumed a free week trial, or free personal training consultations were the best way to get someone in and hooked. 

 

For 80% of the population not moving, intimidated, it’s too big. It’s too much. 

 

Start small. Start with ONE step and one more step after that’s mastered. Try it, you will not be disappointed. Should you also make it possible to buy? Yes. But it should be there for that 15% of customers who make up their mind and are ready now. The focus of your growth in a blue ocean of potential that no one is successfully tapping into, is ideally on the 85% of people who need one small and easy win that comes without the intimidation factor. 

 

Someone who’s not exercising, who has a perceived obstacle of time, doesn’t think of themselves as an exerciser. THAT is where you can make the most difference. Without that difference, the actions won’t come or won’t stick. Change that and you change everything. 

 

 Other Episodes: 

Fitness Trainer Opportunities Right Now | Start Over Start Strong: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/opportunities/

Fitness Marketing Hacks: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fitness-marketing-hacks/

 

Resources: 

Health & Fitness Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard

Marketing to Women Copywriting Course: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/copywriting-course 

 

 

 

 

Your clients need it. Can you define Metabolic Flexibility? 

Metabolic flexibility refers to the ability of the body to efficiently switch between different fuel sources and adapt to changes in nutrient availability. That is, when your client eats a lot, or your client skips a meal, metabolism isn’t damaged and fat is not stored. 

It is a key aspect of metabolic health and plays a role in maintaining energy balance and weight regulation.

When we consume food, our body breaks down macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) into smaller molecules that can be used as fuel. Metabolic flexibility allows the body to utilize these different fuel sources based on the body's energy needs and nutrient availability.

 

In a metabolically flexible state, the body can easily switch between using carbohydrates and fats for energy. For example, after a meal, when glucose (derived from carbohydrates) is readily available, the body primarily uses glucose for energy. However, during fasting or periods of low carbohydrate intake, the body shifts to using stored fats as the primary fuel source.

 

Having good metabolic flexibility is beneficial for overall health and can contribute to weight management. It allows the body to effectively use stored body fat for energy,

which can help in reducing excess body weight and maintaining a healthy body composition. Moreover, metabolic flexibility is also associated with improved

insulin sensitivity, better blood sugar control, and reduced risk of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes.

 

Certain factors can influence metabolic flexibility. Regular physical activity and exercise can enhance metabolic flexibility by increasing the body's capacity to burn fat and improving insulin sensitivity. A balanced diet that includes a variety of macronutrients and minimizes excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates and added sugars can also support metabolic flexibility.

On the other hand, factors like a sedentary lifestyle, a diet high in processed foods and added sugars, chronic stress, and poor sleep habits can impair metabolic flexibility.

 

What Impairs Client’s Metabolic Flexibility? 

Cutting calories too low for too long impairs metabolic flexibility. 

Fasting while also decreasing caloric intake for a short period of time may be a positive stressor, but for too long or without the post-feeding, can backfire. 

Over exercise and undereating combined - that is too low a caloric deficit. 

Not sleeping is a risk for metabolism slowing. 

 

Sugar Burning vs Fat Burning: The Metabolic Flexibility Difference

These factors can lead to a preference for glucose as the primary fuel source and hinder the body's ability to efficiently utilize stored fats.

Improving metabolic flexibility can be achieved through lifestyle modifications, including regular exercise, a balanced diet, stress management techniques, adequate sleep, and

maintaining a healthy body weight. By enhancing metabolic flexibility,

individuals can support their overall metabolic health and improve their body's ability to adapt to different nutrient conditions.

 

And… it’s the RIGHT type of: 

Exercise - balanced exercise for a midlife woman is not “according to guidelines” 

Diet - balanced diet is not equal amounts of protein, fat, and carbs

Body weight - may be less important than body composition 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

What Personal Training Clients Wish They Could Tell You:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/personal-training-clients/

Training Women in Menopause | Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/training-women-in-menopause/

Resources: 

Menopause Fitness Specialist: https://www.flippingfifty.com/specialist 

The Health & Business Pros Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard