Let’s be super clear. Better productivity is about getting more done in less time. THAT last little detail is very important!  

Ever finish a busy day feeling like you’ve not really gotten anything knocked off your list that was important? You’re 3 questions away from better productivity! There are plenty of reasons why this happens. 

I could lose 2 hours easily on Canva creating a single elaborate post for Instagram. I love to play with graphics and words and I’m good at it. That doesn’t mean I should be doing it before other things. 

There are certain things we love to do and we’re drawn to them for one reason or another so we could be distracted by something unimportant all day and not really ever get to the things that matter. 

In this time we’re in we all have so many things we want to do and that can fill our time. You have to remember that while you’ll have times when you do need to roll your sleeves up and do the work, you have to find the white space too. That is the time when you’ll be most creative and inspired and without that, girl, your light will go out. Don’t let that happen. 

3 Questions to Better Productivity:

·      Does it generate revenue immediately? 

·      Does it generate leads immediately?

·      Does it just matter today or will it matter next year?

There’s more though. 

What’s the MVP of anything you’re doing. That is, the Minimum Viable Product. And is that enough? If this is an evergreen product you’re going to use for years and you are sharing with your partners, then your MVP is going to be far higher and require more time and energy. 

But if this is a quick lift to something that is a one-off… then a lower MVP, say for a handout or a cheat sheet at a masterclass or a surprise asset in a zoom for coaching clients, might be enough. 

Here’s an example of my Wednesday in real time. 

Tasks I had to do: 

·      Post on Instagram 

·      Complete promotional content for 3 products for our affiliates  

·      Review our Team SOPs for the month 

·      Review our new podcast manager’s posts 

·      Work on next month’s Gift Guide 

·      Create the Recipes & Challenge for our Membership

·      Reorganize some content within our membership

The real question may not be where on a to-do list these things go but whether you should be doing them. If you or someone on your team are doing a lot of tasks that don’t lead directly to revenue or lead generation (aka, growing your email list), then how are you measuring successful completion of job responsibilities? Every position should have a list of success or KPIs, that the hired agrees they will be able to complete and they will report weekly to you.

This makes it easy to have them begin determining their own questions for better productivity. If it’s not going to help them achieve the measures of success for their role, then they should think twice about doing it. If it doesn’t generate revenue or leads but increases expenses, they should think about that. The numbers don’t lie. So, in your weekly goal of spending more productive but potentially less overall time, you have to be deferring to numbers. Know the revenue from a promotion, leads generated per lead magnet or freebie, and your email list growth. 

So, let’s come back to this list of questions you can use to determine whether something that needs to be done should be done by you. 

3 More Questions to Ask that Will Lead to Better Productivity:

·      What is your time worth?

·      How much would you have to pay someone else to do this job?

·      Could someone else do this better than you for less than you? 

*I have to admit this so in case you too do this, while I was making the notes here, and including the list of things to do, I wanted to continue to add to it. Stop yourself from doing that. You know just because there are 24 lines on a yellow legal pad, you don’t have to fill that entire page that says Monday. And there’s an infinite number of slots on a spreadsheet if that’s what you’re using. Don’t do that. Consider that you are an employee. What would they say if you gave them all that for a day? Goodbye comes to mind! 

Questions about pricing, offers, how long a funnel to promote a program? These are all answered in real time in hotseat format with the WELLPROS mastermind & mentorship. Last week after the first session, a member reported she had two new sales and 6 consult appointments booked within 2 days of the meeting. 

Right now, you can still join for the Founder’s Rate of $49/month (regularly $79) – extended one last week. It’s month-to-month, no obligation. If you’re getting the answers, putting them into action and getting results you’ll want to stay and rinse and repeat. 

Resources: 

WELLPROS mentorship group: https://www.flippingfifty.com/store/uncategorized/fit-pros-health-coaches-monthly-membership-founder/

Your Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/business-scorecard/

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

Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist™ Course: 

https://www.flippingfifty.com/menopause-fitness-specialist-program-2022/

Your Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/business-scorecard/

Other Episodes You Might Like:

How to Stop Being So Busy So You Can Be Productive

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/busy-be-productive/

The Productive Fitness Professional: How I Get More Done in Less Time

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/productive-fitness-professional/

Get More Things Done – Right – with a Quality Hire https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/get-more-things-done/

Midlife fitness pro (or health coach)? If you’re just getting started, just shifting gears, or you’ve been in it for years but feeling like you haven’t optimized your skills, talent and personal brand, then this is for you.

I’m joined in this episode with IDEA World 2023 Fitness Professional of the Year, Christine Conti. Learn how she decided she was going for this prestigious award and made it happen. Hear how she’d take action if she was starting all over again.  

My Guest: 

Christine Conti believes in the “YES. YOU CAN” mindset. Christine is an international fitness educator chronic disease wellness specialist, and the recipient of the IDEA World 2023 Fitness Professional of the Year. She is the CEO of CONTI: a woman-owned enterprise that offers keynote speaking, chronic disease wellness, mindset coaching and continuing education for fitness professionals, schools and private companies. Christine is also a best-selling author, podcast host, co-founder of REINVENTING THE WOMAN INTERNATIONAL, a 3x IRONMAN and a guide for Special Olympic athletes. After receiving a life-changing diagnosis at age thirty, this former investment banker and English teacher is determined to show the world that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

Questions We Answer in This Episode: 

• What was your journey to becoming IDEA World 2023 Fitness Professional of the Year? 

• At what point did you decide, I want it, I’m going for it, and I’ll have it? 

• How will you use it as a platform for what’s most important to you? 

• Advice to fitness pros who feel like they’re just one of hundreds of thousands and finding it hard to be seen and heard? What would you do if you were starting over right now? 

Connect with Christine:

Website: https://www.contifit.com/

Book: https://www.contifit.com/shop

Podcast: https://www.twofitcrazies.com/

Reinventing the Woman International Group: https://www.RTWtribe.com

On Social:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ContiFit/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-conti-b0668710b/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christine_m_conti/

Resources:

Other Episodes You Might Like:

Branding for Fitness Professionals | Personal Trainers & Health Coaches: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/branding-you/

Fitness Coaches: Identify and Stop Overworking and Under Earning: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/overworking-and-under-earning/

This episode is about how to write a better job description for your personal assistant. Need help with business? Check. With personal? Check. Today’s guest is the perfect person to answer this. We dished on what drew her to the job description when she was a personal assistant. 

She’s an author and business owner. She also recorded with me on Flipping 50 and if you need to organize or declutter, listen to this and then that. You’ll understand exactly why I asked her to come over here - spontaneously - she didn’t know it! 

My Guest: 

Tracy McCubbin is a decluttering expert and the author of Making Space, Clutter Free and her latest book Make Space for Happiness. Tracy looks at the root of our clutter to find the real cause and ways to get real solutions. As the CEO of dClutterfly, she has helped thousands of clients clear the clutter in their lives to create space for positive life changes.

What I Asked Tracy in this Episode:

What’s the secret to a job description that gets quality applicants? 

What attracted you to the jobs you first had and what did you use to hire your own personal assistant? 

5 Tips: 

• Be clear about the help you need  E.g. business and personal 
• Find someone interested in the field you’re in
• Interested in the same thing -media, marketing, business, and fitness 
• Find out if they want a path to growth - duties expand 
• Like to solve problems 

Fast Action: 

List 10 things that you can’t get done that you need done 

Connect with Tracy:

https://www.dclutterfly.com/

On Social:

https://www.instagram.com/tracy_mccubbin/

https://www.tiktok.com/@tracymccubbin

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

 4 Keys to Selling More Now:  https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/get-more-sales/

Sell More Corporate Packages: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/sell-more-corporate-wellness/

Selling for Coaches: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/present-your-fee/

Resources: 

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

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

You’re here for a reason. You want to make a difference. To have an influence, you need to be a profitable health expert. So, if you have a relationship with money that needs fixing, fix it. If you want to give it away, you can do that, but never will you have as much voice as when you have money to vote with. 

This title may be a turn off to some of you. You’re not doing it for profit. You just want to do what you’re passionate about? I say that if you start taking it seriously and making a profitable business you will find your purpose and passion explode in a way you’ve never dreamed about. 

Your expertise is perceived by the organization of your thoughts.

-Denise Young of Apple 

It’s not a 20 question quiz… it’s a 7 question quiz 

It’s not a 11 step program… it’s a 3 step program 

When you jump on a live video with a friend or are a guest on a podcast, if you can’t succinctly and concisely answer the question that solves the problem the audience members have or in the way the interviewee can run with, you may have a wonderful program, be the perfect person to be teaching it… but no one will follow or get results even if they get inside. 

You confuse, you lose. 

I don’t know who said that but I do know it’s true for all of us. 

There are different strokes for different folks. (As long as we’re throwing out quotes, why not a little cliche!) What is perfectly clear to one individual may be perfectly confusing to another. 

Case in point:

Occasionally, we’ll have someone cancel a membership. Recently the email request to cancel before renewal date said this, It was just too hard to get started, and I don’t have time to measure, I just want to work out. 

During the same week, a prospective client who is an event planner said, “Then I found you, and it was so well laid out and clear…” 

Same membership, just two different people.  

How Profitable Health Experts Talk

So your job is to identify with absolute clarity who is and who isn’t your ideal customer. Most of us would agree the ideal customer is one who does the work, follows through on agreed upon steps, and asks for help if they need it. 

For me, the “this is not for” information on a sales page or promotion includes: 

• Blames the process 

• Won’t ask for help

• Has excuses 

• Isn’t committed 

That’s getting organized. So organizing your message in print, audio or video is a hallmark of a profitable health expert. 

The biggest part of getting clients, keeping clients, and getting them results, is organizing your thoughts. In other words, communication is crucial. 

When you: 

• Go live on social
• Post static or pre-recorded videos on social
• Give an interview 
• Pitch a tv or radio news station 

How to Communicate Like a Profitable Health Expert

Organizing your message is the way you’ll get someone curious enough to want more of you. If they aren’t buying you and what you say and how you say it, they aren’t buying from you. 

Here’s a little assignment so you get into action. 

1. Write down your response to, what do you do?

2. Now read through it and answer these: 

How clear is that to someone who doesn’t know about your industry or profession? 

Does it assume they already know something? And what is that? 

Last, will it make them curious to learn more or did you tell them everything they needed to know? 

This filter will help you decide if your title (for a pitch, an article/blog, or a video) is a conversation starter or a conversation killer. 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

7 Things Profitable Health Professionals Do: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/profitable-trainers/

6 Most Profitable Health Programs: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/profitable-fitness-programs/

Resources: 

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard 

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

 

To be a real voice for fitness, an advocate for health and behavior change, your voice quality will matter. As AI-driven voice-overs may be able to make you sound better than you actually sound, this may be a podcast who’s time is past, yet I think if you can make your voice become something that conveys confidence, authority, and simultaneously inspires hope and action steps in your audience, I bet you’d say, yes please. 

And the truth is there are voice qualities that make it difficult for people to want to listen to you. If you want your voice to be music to someone’s ears, there are things you can do. 

One obstacle you’ll have to overcome is awareness of it. 

It’s nearly impossible to hear our own voices as someone else does.  

Definitely when we’re speaking we have a very different experience than anyone else might hearing us. The input is coming through a combination of the skull bones internally and through the air externally. 

A 2005 study showed our own reality of our voice tends to be much different than what other listeners hear. We are more harsh judges and tend not to like our voices. So do cut yourself a break. Do listen to your own video, audio but also realize we have a unique experience listening to ourselves compared to someone else’s experience.  

Be a Voice for Fitness : How to Fix Your Flaws   

Get feedback. 

If you’ve ever had someone say, it’s hard to hear you, speak up, or a mean-girl (it’s almost always a woman unfortunately, not everyone has gotten the message that we’re being nice to each other now) say something like, “I can’t stand to listen to a voice like that - like fingernails on a chalkboard” then listen.. A little. You don’t have to be the voice for everyone just for those who are going to love working with you. And sometimes sound quality can be fixed! With a combination of free, low cost or higher investments, even voice exercises.  

So, if you discover or know that your voice isn’t as smooth or as strong as you’d like it to be, what can you do? There are some ways to improve what you’re doing. 

A Better Mic

Back in 2012 when I first started podcasting, someone said the best mic was the Blue Yeti. I got one. I hadn’t a clue about what I was doing or how I was doing it, but I knew if it was going to be listened to, it had to sound good. And that thing is way more reasonable today, and actually I retired mine, because even after careful packing it was not producing the kind of sound I needed. So, during the pandemic the entire podcast set up at Voice for Fitness changed. You may want and need a mixer, headphones and a high quality mic. But at the very least you want a high quality microphone and a room set up for acoustics - with carpet or rugs, things on the walls and ceilings, or I’ve known podcasters who record in a closet.  

If you want the list of items I use as a part of my setup from platform to tech, stay tuned til the end and I’ll share those. 

Improve Your Voice Quality  

Some of the same things that make the difference behind a richer more powerful voice are also going to support your pelvic floor muscles. Any hints? Breathing. Deeper breathing that comes from your diaphragm supports your voice too.  

You may be doing planks all day every day but if you’re not doing diaphragmatic breathing your core is missing the foundation it needs! And so is your voice. Singers sing and cheerleaders project from their diaphragm and you should too even when your mic is 2 inches from your mouth and you could whisper. 

Cheat

Use the audio adjustments available to you in your movie editor and garage band (anyone using that anymore?). This isn't ideal because sooner or later you’re going to be asked to speak… or do a media appearance or keynote or lead a breakout session. 

Voice Tips for Health & Fitness Pros Before You Record: 

• Hydrate 
• Posture - try standing! Or move for a few minutes before ! (working out is easy, sitting is not)
• Smile! 
• Warm ups: lala, tikita takata or Peter Piper picked.. , papapa, dadada, bababa, ar-tic-u-late
• Diaphragmatic breathing 
• Know your script OR … bullet points so you’re NOT reading 

Some good rules:

• Sound when sound, quiet when quiet.
• Try video even when audio podcast 
• Leave it out. Instead of “um…” or? Do you ? 
• My Sound TechDeck for Health & Fitness Content Creators: Room: carpeted, surrounded by bookshelves on three walls
• iMac Desktop 24”
• Mic: Heil Pro40
• Mixer: Focusrite Scarlett 
• Headphones: Sennheiser HD 280 Pro
• Podcast recording platform: Zencastr.com
• Podcast Platform: Libsyn
• Post production team of contractors 
• Mic For Video with Sony Alpha 7: RODE wireless 
• Mic For Video with iPhone: RODE wireless and SmartMike+ 
• You might also like: Descript.com

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

4 Steps to Creating Video for Marketing: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fitness-marketing-videos/

4 Ways to Grow Your Email List with Fitness Videos: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/grow-your-email-list/

Resources:

Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard 

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

 

If you’ve attended a fitness conference recently, this may or may not resonate. Online fitness conferences in the past few years have been different. Back in real person, we’re all a bit hungry for the community and excitement that bringing people together offers. But have you experienced this? A drained feeling, a definite adrenal rush potentially, but also a superficial show of persona as opposed to real connections? This may resonate with you if so. 

 

Sometimes you just know that you’ve landed. Whether it’s because you find your people, or you have also found yourself and you’re comfortable in your own skin. 

 

The soul-sucking information pathway that social media has become for me was taking a toll. I was definitely not looking forward to this trip. I could think of a million reasons not to go! We’re launching a new cohort of the Flipping50 Menopause Fitness Specialists and it was the last 4 days we’re open. I had just opened our recent launch of our 12-week consumer course-plus-coaching offer. I had a mastermind meeting to prepare for. And every once in a while, I can take for granted where I’m at and what I’m doing and wonder if I’m offering any new insight in my talk. 

 

Definitely my thoughts before the fitness conference. Of course, in the process of presenting, and answering questions, and having people thank me and ask follow-up questions, I realize that I... I am the biggest benefactor of presenting because in doing so I remind myself that from 0 to 6-figure months is nothing to take for granted. I realize that sharing that story was crucial for me to have the reminder of what I am capable of doing… again.  

 

Time to Attend a Real Fitness Conference

I was long overdue to attend a fitness conference that wasn’t full of superficial “awesome” high-fives and selfies and find some source of peace and collective goal-seekers.

 

Mission accomplished. 

 

I’ve known the hosts of this conference for a decade I guess. I don’t know at all. Cody Sipe was first on my radar I believe as a presenter and award-winning fitness pro with ACE (American Council on Exercise). 

 

He and partner Dan Ritchie formed Functional Aging Institute. They hosted a first event in 2015 and I was invited. It’s a small world, where I’ve met other guests that will be familiar to you if you’ve attended the What, When & Why to Women’s Exercise Summit: https://www.flippingfifty.com/womensexercise

Dr. Emily Splichal – who is your go-to for all things feet issues that may limit your clients and for improving balance, stability and continued activity for life.

 

Bedros Keuilian – who is a renowned fitness marketing mastery expert and who has evolved as so many fitness and health pros do, to mindset and personal growth. Fitness Marketing Secrets.

 

Sister team Kymberly Williams-Evans and Alexandra Williams of funandfit.org co-wrote a guest-contribution to You Still Got It, Girl! (published by Healthy Learning in 2015). 

 

Dan and Cody also contributed to the same book’s chapter on strength training. And Dan was a guest speaker on The What, When & Why to Women’s Exercise Summit.

 

And here’s why. 

 

The Health & Fitness Professional Experience

 

When you meet good people, hold onto good people. I’ve had many “lunches” with fitness pros over the past few decades. But many of them were networking from the beginning, felt like networking, and I couldn’t wait to recover after. 

 

Others, like lunch I had with Dan a couple years ago, and the lunch I enjoyed with Lindsay Vastola (you may recognize as prior editor of PFP magazine for 10 years) and a few others, this weekend were rich in real connections and laughter. 

 

It’s not fair I suppose to compare pre-pandemic to post but I do believe there’s more to it. It’s also not fair to compare an early career or tendency to wear imposture syndrome, with seasoned career and an attitude of I just don’t care what people think, I’m doing the right thing.

 

I’ve seen too much about the inside of fitness conferences and about who and how they are chosen to speak, and what they’re reality is behind the scenes. I don’t suggest that we don’t all have things we may regret, but if you knew about industry award-winners, who and how promotions occur, and the very flimsy “influencer” market you are playing in if you decide to post based on what you see others with large audiences post, you’re headed for a reality check faster than you might know. 

 

What glitters, and is botoxed, does not shine so much in real life. 

 

The Reality of Fitness Conferences

 

I usually go home from fitness conferences exhausted. Not because of living a 1980s or even early 90s fitness conference reality where it was workout session after workout session. But because of the vibe. The junior-high-like cliques, ego-driven exchanges, the near-elevation of presenters to celebrity status that makes it less a learning environment than a day at a fitness bootcamp to see who holds up the longest, has the newest apparel and still parties through the evening. 

 

But this conference was different. Connections were real. Instead of ducking out to my room to recharge I stayed the day watching it all before and between my sessions. Speakers were around and making connections with each other as well as attendees. 

 

A panel of three female fitness leaders I was on had such great synergy not only with each other but with the audience. It was as rich an experience for each of us participating I think as it was for those in the room attending beginning to grow their own businesses. Lindsay, I and Alexis Perkins whom I’d never met had a great time co-hosting the panel. 

 

If you want to see and know what’s possible, consider that Alexis Perkins has founded Chair One Fitness [Link to learn more https://chaironefitness.com/]. She’s 30. She’s got contagious enthusiasm. She’s figured out it’s figuroutable. Don’t look at her and say, I wish I’d started then, look at her and say that it’s possible for any one of us. She’s a young woman of color, serving an older market both in the older adult caregiving arena and in the fitness professionals she trains. What do you need to overcome? Why not you? She’s doing it and she’s a breath of fresh air.  

 

Conference Locations, Sessions & Keynotes

The keynotes were not “look at me” but a real connection with audience through personal story and industry facts and overcoming challenges. 

 

Seek out conferences where you not only get knowledge poured into you, but you get filled up like this. 

 

Recently in our customer support I was asked about fitness conferences in Salt Lake City. This comes the same weekend I’m IN SLC for this conference. Does that feel a little too like AI or Alexa listening in? I can’t answer questions like that unfortunately, Google is your best GPS for that. 

 

But if you do have questions about what and where to gain education virtually or in person in a way you not only get knowledge, but gain community, reach out to us. We’ll help and we’ll host. We have educational events for health & fitness coaches in conjunction with our Flipping 50 retreats. So if you’re up for a weekend of hiking to put your fitness to work and your mind at ease and then also fill up your cup with business support, let us know you’re interested. 

 

We’re putting together some challenging destination hiking opportunities as well as other slightly milder but high-volume outdoor adventures combined with Menopause Fitness & Coaching Strategies for you.

 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

Fitness Marketing Secrets to Recession-Proof with Bedros Keuilian: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fitness-marketing-secrets/

Business Partnerships and Collaborations | Amazing Health & Fitness Growth: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/business-partnerships/

Resources: 

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

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

 

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/ 

 

The thing I didn’t say in this TEDx talk pertains to you, coach. And it’s this: 

It took making the mistakes first. 

 

I discovered the science about the serious gap in exercise and sports medicine research featuring women in 2013. 

 

At that point I’d coached hundreds of women privately, thousands in groups, and supervised hundreds of thousands of personal training sessions in homes, parks, private gyms, universities, and just about anywhere fitness can take place I’ve been there. 

 

So, there were clients that I had to learn with… I had to look at the physiology of menopause and the physiology of exercise and interpret the signs and symptoms by gathering it all together. Because no studies existed about women in post-menopause having an impossible time removing weight. Following all the rules and getting no results… was common. 

 

Yes, of course, there were those clients who wanted to continue enjoying their cocktails and “moderately” healthy diets but weren’t actually willing to make changes. 

But there was a large percentage of women who were willing to go 100% in and get changes… who I still struggled to support. 

Some were athletes, fit and exercising regularly, even competing in events. 

Others were just exercising alone, preferring it to be a private “me time” activity for them.

But both types of women following guidelines and position statements, counting steps and calories, were failing to get results. 

 

It was those that found the following recommendations not only didn’t work but backfired, that made me dive into a rabbit hole of research every day for hours. But in 2013, when I accidentally discovered that changing my own exercise routine resulted in better fitness than I’d ever experienced – even as an Ironman triathlete – that’s when it all came together.

 

You see, that part that WAS in my TEDx talk.. was the reason I finally got it. After exercising for hours daily.. for decades, I was not for the first time since I was 18. I was behind a desk and computer and trying to figure out just how to turn in my recently (self-directed) no income into something better than the mid-6 figures I’d been left behind and make a bigger impact on more people as well as the fitness industry. 

 

 

Exercising either briefly at high intensity or at low levels was all I did. I walked a big old, and only moderately motivated dog, did yoga or I chose to lift weights or do HIIT for 20 minutes. That was my exercise for about 11 months. Suddenly? I was in the best shape of my life… and naturally, easily thinner. 

 

WTH? 

Resources: 

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

Menopause Fitness Specialist Program

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

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

Youtube:

 https://www.youtube.com/@Flipping50TV/

Cardio vs Weights After 50 (Wish I Knew this Sooner)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCsa0CRCzbM

BIG Fitness Mistake Women Over 50 Make (It's Crucial for Lean Muscle)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uchTI_anm60

 

This episode is such an accidental marketing for health & fitness pros post! Seriously, maybe the universe is sending me a message but I keep getting sent to dating sites. And then an article popped up with dating advice. For kicks, I read it. And I felt as if I could practically have changed the title and made it a post for marketing for health coaches. 

 

Alas, I did not! Look AI may be what you’re using to create a draft, but I hope plagiarism nor AI is running your business. The playing field is way too level if you do that. There’s no YOU in it. 

 

So here’s to your first date and everyone therefore after, with your new ideal customers. 

 

Use Your Personality: Or Your Brand Personality 

Why would you ever want to attract someone by acting in a way you aren’t? Say you’re introverted and you like movie nights, dinner for two and you go online to a dating site and make it sound as if you’re the life of the party and enjoy dancing in clubs to dancing in the living room. 

 

Likewise, don’t get yourself all excited and enthusiastic if you are calm, quiet, and subdued in working with clients. 

 

If you use words like “girlfriend” and people don’t like it, do you change or do you use what attracts people who DO like it? If you would stop using some term that actually fits your ideal customer, because a stranger disliked it, you’re like Julia Roberts’ character in Runaway Bride who doesn’t know what kind of eggs she likes and changes based on who she’s with. 

 

Start with Flirting 

 

Never forget that if you’re in-the-face, and skipping the education or you’re in a frenzy when talking… you alienate anyone already intimidated by overwhelming information, or in a frenzy with life themselves! 

 

Just flirt. Share some science. Explain the science. Listen, scientific studies are misinterpreted ALL-THE-TIME… so go back to your grad school 101 courses on interpreting types of science studies and know that this information is so very basic and much needed. Many women don’t realize the difference between a small study and a large one, an 8-week, and a 10-year, a split routine, and total body, the sequence of exercises, or the amount of rest and impact on them. 

 

Just little things. One thing at a time. A flirty look takes seconds and has you looking again in a few minutes right? Exactly. 

 

Ask for Advice

 

Marketing for health & fitness pros has never been so easy! This one is foolproof if you share something that matters to your audience. 

 

What should you wear for a photo shoot? What should you call your next program? How would you describe our business? Which colors do you like best? What logo design is your favorite? 

 

Women love to give their opinions! And they will. What they say may or may not be as important to you as the engagement. DO be prepared for responses and then comment!! On every single one! 

 

I’ve gotten great responses to ingredients in a new product, to which dress to wear to an event, and which tights to wear at a photoshoot. 

Ask Some Questions that They’ll Ask (subconsciously) After 

• Did I feel heard? 
• Is there something that makes me curious to know more? 
• Did I feel more energized?
• Did I laugh or smile? 
• Do I feel a little more inspired or excited? 

 

Marketing for health & fitness pros from dating advice - who knew!? But you truly are starting a new relationship. Let them see the real you, or the you that is your brand. 

Resources: 

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

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

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

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

Successfully Marketing to Active Older Adults | Fitness & Health Coaches:  https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/older-adults/

Kilimanjaro with 3 artificial joints; got your attention? Feeling a little tired… after your early morning swim or your HIIT session today? This will give you a new perspective. 

Even better, with adult kids. If you’re a parent you know what that would mean. If you have parents, especially if they’re gone, you may know what it would be like to have a memory like that with them. 

What kind of life lessons are tucked into experiences like this. Maybe you pursue marathons or triathlons, maybe you like bodybuilding. 

Is it for you, or ego, or is it also something to create a life for later you love? 

Is it to put something in your life that is more meaningful, or to escape reality of today? 

There are so many reasons to add a "reach" experience to your life, and none of them wrong. Perhaps the only wrong is in not knowing why you want it or do it. 

Enjoy this short Q and A. 

My Guest: 

Dr. Irv Rubenstein, exercise physiologist and personal trainer (NSCA-CSCS, CPT, Certified with Distinction; ACSM-EP; FAI-Functional Aging Specialist), is president of STEPS Fitness, Nashville’s first personal training center. He has been an educator for fitness professionals with Exercise ETC; a contributor to online articles on fitness myths, functional training, and proper exercise technique; and has also contributed to books and articles for and about personal training. He was a founding member of the Eating Disorders Coalition of Tennessee (now Renewed Support) and served on its Executive and Education Committees. Dr. Irv has presented nationally and regionally on exercise and anorexia, arthritis and exercise, exercise and weight management, and several other exercise-related topics. He currently is an advisory board member for the MFN, has provided webinars for the MFEF, and is co-author of its Orthopedic Fitness Specialist course.

Questions we answer in this episode:

How did it impact your leadership or did you use it as an example in that way?

What does a person do after reaching a personal goal like that? 

Was there any fear of separation or isolation from clients? 

How did this help you relate to your clients, or did it? 

The full episode: (included video footage)

https://www.flippingfifty.com/kilimanjaro 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

Adventure, leadership 

How do you evaluate business expenses to take thoughtful calculated risks? Everything that’s unpredictable is a risk, afterall. And spending money before you make money is a risk. If there are things you’ve never done before, it can be hard to decide when to say yes, when to say no, and when it’s just no, not right now. 

While we’re on this topic of investing, realize we’re not just talking about money. Time and energy are the other two things that you want to consider. How you spend your energy is due to where you place your attention. 

Business Expenses Related to Health & Fitness Coaching Are Inevitable

They aren’t all as easy to spot as a credit card bill or check, unfortunately. 

If you’re putting attention on things that don’t really serve you, like: 

Conversations with people you can’t control 

Weight that you don’t want 

Regret or anger you aren’t letting go of

Or, more related to business, a project that you create but haven’t tested whether anyone wants to buy it… 

That gets very expensive even if you haven’t spent money on it. 

For instance, you’ve got a phone so you shoot videos that you use to create a program using unlisted YouTube videos. It doesn’t cost you anything because the phone, the YouTube platform and the ability to send an email are all free.

Have you considered how much time it takes to create video, edit video, polish and brand it, and upload it? 

If you know how much your time is worth (Between $100 and $500 an hour) then those things become something you don’t want to do unless you’ve tested and evaluated. 

Let’s start with a series of 5 questions you can use to evaluate your business expenses. [Step 1]

Then I’ll take you through how to set up tasks within projects. (Those sometimes reveal expenses you hadn’t already planned on). [Step 2]

5 Questions that Evaluate Business Expenses: 

Will it make you money? 

Will it cost you money?

How soon will it make you money?

How soon will it cost you money?

Is there anything you need to stop or start doing to see it through? 

Now that you’ve answered those questions, you may have already decided to keep going or to scrap the project. 

Next… 

What Tasks Will Help You Evaluate Good Business Investments?

These will not only help you evaluate good vs poor business decisions, but they’ll get this project planned out! 

What are some of the tasks you need to do?

How much will each cost? 

How long will each take? 

Who will be responsible for it? 

What are deadlines related to this project? 

If you can complete this evaluation, you’ll save yourself a lot of time… and a lot of money… and keep yourself organized.

[Step 3] A project that you evaluate as “not right now” can still be one you return to and do later. But now you’ve got it, documented in draft form, ready to modify or run with. 

Resources: 

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

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

Other Episodes You May Like: 

Your Fitness Business Annual Plan Step-by-Step: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/annual-plan/

Business Planning for Health & Fitness Coaches: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/business-planning/

What I wish I knew sooner that 39 years has taught me.

1) It's about them not about you. 

Marketing, emails, speaking would have gone so much better so much sooner had I realized this. Heck, teaching at the university would have gone better because that too is selling from the minute they step foot in that classroom to the minute they turn in the final exam. 

2) As soon as you start listening to your heart, things will fall into place much faster and doors will open for you that wouldn't open for anyone else.

Connecting your mind and heart, or your “gut” are big keys to success in business. You know the right thing to do.. Just remind yourself of that. 

3) When you are triggered by people or circumstances, or you're uncomfortable... what it means is you recognize parts of yourself that you don’t like. There’s a measure of truth to it for you that hits too close to home. 

4) When you have things you just "have" to do... "have to eat" "have to exercise" .... they are running the show and not you. 

5) There will always be hard things, if you build it that way. 

If you don't start with the idea that there are things only you can do and identify them, you're identifying the things you can first hand off to someone else. For the freedom you want this is a must.

6) Consistently -doing the right thing - pays off. 

Do any of these things I wish I knew sooner resonate with you? I have one last one to share. 

7) You truly have to be willing to invest in yourself for anyone to invest in you. 

Resources: 

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard 

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

Write me! What are your personal “things I wish I knew sooner”? 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

Recession-Proof Your Business: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fitness-marketing-secrets/

Stop Overworking and Under Earning: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/overworking-and-under-earning/

What if every workout you created for yourself or clients got even better results? 

Should Trainers Suggest Supplements? 

What’s your stance on that? I believe that in 2023, it’s still and has always will be food first. Yet, I find it almost impossible for even me who I’d say is incredibly conscious of what I will and refuse to put in my mouth to eat enough and enough diversity on a consistent basis, or to eat all that I would need to in order to make the nutritional needs I have. 

It’s going to take more to compensate for depleted and overworked soil, sabotaged by pesticides and fertilizer. 

And as new discoveries are made, about molecules we didn’t know could support human health, do you ignore them or are you curious about how they can help you and your clients? 

Brought to you by the Flipping50® Menopause FItness Specialist 

My Guest: 

Jennifer Scheinman, MS, RDN, LDN, completed her dietetic internship at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and went on to complete her master's degree in Integrative and Functional Nutrition at Saybrook University. Over the past 20 years she has worked at some of the country’s leading institutions for health and wellness, including Hospital for Special Surgery and Optum, where she led the creation of nutrition and health education programs that positively impacted thousands of people's lives. Jen is currently the Senior Manager of Nutrition Affairs at Timeline Nutrition, educating healthcare practitioners and consumers on the latest scientific breakthroughs in healthy aging.

Questions We Answer in this Short Episode:

1. Why would trainers want to bring up supplements to support mitochondria production? Including Urolithin A/Mitopure

2. Support with Exercise Intolerance and menopausal symptoms 

3. Has there been testing on athletes? And on bedridden subjects alike? (asked on Flippingfifty.com/healthy-aging) 

Try It For Yourself:

https://www.flippingfifty.com/mitopure 

Code: Flipping50

on Social:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/timelinenutrition

Other Episodes You May Like: 

With Jenn Scheinman on Mitopure: https://www.flippingfifty.com/healthy-aging

Resources: 

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard 

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

 

Success leaves clues and successful health & fitness entrepreneurs are no different. Some of these will surprise you though. 

1. Get a morning routine

Complete this sentence: __________ first. 

You know what it is. There is something that has to happen for you to be productive. Is it meditation, exercise, or is it that you have to “eat the frog first” - in other words do the things you don’t like? 

2. Get an evening routine

How you end the day determines how you start. Stephen Covey’s principles are still in circulation today because they work. The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People is a book … or audible book - worth listening to and yet it won’t be news. 

With a recent contractor I asked that each day we touch base with priorities for her to work on and at the end of the day with where those tasks were. Knowing a contractor has more clients than just you, yet to you, your business can’t wait it’s easy to know exactly what the next task is, keep on schedule with mini deadlines and avoid stress of last minute items. 

3. Surround yourself with successful people

Often, but not always, this involves paying to be around people smarter, with more experience and expertise than you. From someone who has done it… not too long ago, and or is doing it successfully right now, you can learn how to avoid mistakes and how to benefit from their mistakes. 

It’s easy to be shortsighted here. If you feel like you don’t quite belong in the room, you’re probably in the right place. If you’re around people exactly like you, you’ll find it hard to learn from each other without a mentor of some kind helping you to see where you’re spending time on things that will keep you stuck. 

4. Build a life you love while you’re building a business

There are a lot of successful people who are lonely. They’ve built a business. And had the discipline to do it but at the expense of family and friends. 

Decide what kind of life, and health, and friends and family you want. Be careful about spending too much time alone, especially if you work online a significant amount of time. 

5. Be Unapologetically You

The reason you will be successful is because of your uniqueness not your sameness. What makes you different? What do you love to do? What are you good at? Blend those two and add your personal stories. Nothing else will cut it today. People love transparency, honesty, and an approachable personality.

6. Be Unapologetic About Committing to Growth 

While having a personal life you love is important, you will make sacrifices. You’ll miss parties, vacations, events. You’ll skip meeting friends or girl’s weekends. 

When I was working a ton and my son was golfing in highschool, I had three things in my life. I worked. I watched golf. And I trained for triathlons. If one suffered, it was triathlon training. At least I have an excuse for being so slow. 

I missed a lot of meetings and dinners and hanging out with friends. I went to bed early, got up early and wouldn’t have changed that. 

But not everyone is willing to do it. Growth will take this. It’s a part of the reason 9/10 businesses fail in the first 10 years. 

You’re halfway through the 12 habits of successful health & fitness entrepreneurs list. I want you to come back to me if you’re multitasking. And ask this… if you had breast cancer … this year and recovered would this list have more meaning? Listen to these last 6 habits as if that were true.

If fitness and health are absolutely your passion, it will be clear this is true if you want to come back after something like this. Or an emotional divorce or family tragedy. 

Ask yourself if you’re taking for granted your potential or if you’re really using it. 

7. Grow Personally 

This one… is a given. If you buy in to everything I’ve said so far and do it, growing a business is the fastest route to personal growth. Life happens when you’re growing a business. How you handle that is a big part of your growth. 

During mine… I got divorced without it being public. At the brink of starting Flipping 50, my life literally fell apart or so I thought. Then we experienced a truly terrible family tragedy. 

I’ve hired people wrong for the job- lovely people - but wrong for the job and tried to make it right only to be sorry later. I’ve waited too long for people to do the right thing and then behaved with a level of integrity I’m embarrassed about. 

Now, it’s easier to watch in amazement at the struggle of finding support. 

8. Stop Pretending Busy is Productive

This one is hard. But it's easy to spin.

9. Believe It's Doable.

10. 1. Try meditation, manifesting and whatever you need to do to put yourself in the future vision you see for yourself. 

10. Confirm the Actions Then do Them

We often lie to ourselves. 

11. Stop Exchanging Dollars for Hours 

Initially, you must do this. You have to have a proof of concept. Posting on Instagram and TikTok is not proof of concept. Concept comes from a unique set of steps laid out to get predictable results. That can’t be “meet with me 3 times a week.” You have to have something unique and methodical so you could teach 10 other coaches to do it and it would work with their clients. 

12. Exchange Overwork for Important work. 

The last of 12 habits of successful health & fitness pros is this. It echoes the busy and productive distinction. However, this means you do stop working. You have discipline… and discipline not to drive yourself into the ground. If you tend to judge your worth by achievement, accomplishments, you may struggle to pull away. 

Resources: 

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

Other Episodes You Might Like: 
Identify and Stop Overworking: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/overworking-and-under-earning/

3 Reasons Your Fitness Clients Aren't Getting Results: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/female-fitness-client/

 

This episode of things profitable trainers need to know may not be what you expect. There are other practical components of building funnels, writing emails, and creating copy that makes customers buy I could talk about. But not here. 

There are hundreds and thousands of trainers. Not all of them, not even many of them, are truly profitable. While you might think I’m going to talk about the need for a course, and a course before your course... and we definitely could. That is funnel talk. But there’s more. There’s this sixth sense kind of list that has to be there first.  

Do let me know if this is helpful. I’ll share a way to give yourself a grade on your business too. (check resources below)

This episode of 7 things profitable trainers need to know is based on the foundation for tracking, communicating, and decision-making. 

Look objectively at the right numbers 

-the “books” P & L statement 

-subscribers in and out 

-source of traffic 

-ROAS for ads or marketing effort 

-where do I spend, where do I spend less or stop spending 

Train Holistically – it’s more than movement

-foam rolling isn’t necessarily the best way to support fascia 

-assess and respond to hormone status of individuals 

Create Simple Messages from a Complex Set of Information

-stop the teach & preach and move into raise & praise 

-lower the barrier to entry 

-be inclusive vs exclusive 

-make it step-by-step

Breakdown the What, Why, and How of Information for Prospects

-Share WHY far more than HOW

-you can’t be a step ahead or new prospects won’t join you

-demonstrate you doing… and explain WHY 

Be Willing to be Seen and Heard Imperfectly 

-all marketing is visual today 

-a brick-and-mortar business still needs individual trainers teaching digitally  

Spot Trends and Solve Problems 

-Trends and fads exist for a reason 

-How do you answer uniquely? 

Choose a NICHE, Stay In It 

-collaborate with others who know more about something than you

-it takes a village, make sure you’re building one with collaborative partners 

-if you’re reluctant to interview someone because you think you know more, think about it

-if you “do that too” it doesn’t mean they can’t be a partner 

-if you go deep in health coaching, and clients still need the very specific exercise 

-If you go deep in exercise, and clients still need the nutrition

There you have it! 7 Things profitable trainers need to know! And there’s more of course! The tactile and practical creation of courses is a must for passive revenue.  

Resources Mentioned in this Episode: 

Your Business Scorecard podcast: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/business-scorecard/

Right to the Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard

Training women in midlife? The Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist directory is growing with trainers and health coaches who train in person and virtually all over the world. The Advanced Specialist is the only one that is included, and allows lifetime access to the Facebook group as long as you’re an active contributor, and license to use dozens of worksheets customizable with your contact information for two years. After that you can renew with proof of your continuing education and CEU-courses offered via Flipping 50. 

https://www.flippingfifty.com/specialist

Which of the 7 things profitable trainers need to know was the most valuable? 

 

Growing your fitness & health coaching business right now may feel overwhelming. Until that is, you realize what steps you need to start, which to stop, and which you’re already doing you need to accelerate. So let’s just dive into this interactive episode. 

Free Download:

First though.. go grab the download I have for you here. https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard

When you’re busy it can feel overwhelming. It can feel stressful. But it can also be comforting. You get to ignore the little voice that is nervous about revenue and wants to be making more. That’s the benefit. When you stay in motion you don’t allow yourself to analyze what you’re doing that may not really be working. That’s the detriment for some of us that are as or more addicted to hard work as we are to results. 

I hate to admit it, but I’ve fallen into that trap. When I started over at 49 with a huge sense of urgency, I knew marketing, I’d been doing it for decades for fitness businesses, not just my own. But what I blindly failed to assess is the fact that I needed to sell, not just to market, more often. And that branding, is not marketing. It all has a place and time – branding, marketing, selling – but staying stuck in any one of them is not going to grow your business. 

True Confessions

I personally am a recovering content queen. I spent an abundance of time creating programs to sell, and then over-invested my time in content creation, before I really was selling. 

Don’t get me wrong, content creation is absolutely important. But it won’t make sales. You have to ask. 

In this business scorecard I’m sharing with you we discuss these steps:

• Find prospects 
• Get Clients 
• Serve clients 
• Retain clients 
• Get referrals from clients/testimonials 

The reality is you can find prospects and get clients before you have your product or service ready. You want to start growing your email list so you have a waiting, willing audience when it’s time to promote. 

To do that you need a freebie gift for them so juicy that they’d have paid for it. That doesn’t mean big or something that takes a long time to consume (or create). It’s usually something that could be done in a day, or a day plus the time it takes you to enlist a graphic designer or Fiverr.com gig. 

I’ll cover these 5 key areas for building a fitness & health coaching business : 

1. Niche 
2. New Clients & Customer Acquisition
3. Follow Through 
4. Nurture 
5. Process & Customer Outcomes

Think of this business scorecard as a wellness checkup. Find out if your business is healthy with activities that grow your fitness & health coaching business.

Where are you in regard to a developing a niche? 

Listen to these and identify which one of them best describes where you are now. When you’re looking at the score card, you’ll realize you have 3 different numbers within the category to choose. Consider that 1 is low and 12 is high. You may decide that you’re in the lowest category right now, but you could be a 1, 2, or 3 in it. So, as you make progress, even small progress, you can improve your score. 

How well are you at attracting new clients or customers? 

Are your daily activities working for you to grow your fitness & coaching business? 

Be honest as you fill this out. You may have heard something before, know you need to do it, and still not actually be doing it.  

Does your level of follow through slow or grow your fitness & health coaching business?

People aren’t always ready to buy when you want them to buy. So how do you handle that? This section will tell you if you’re on the right track or if you have some small things that could make major improvements in what you do.

Do you dedicate time regularly or have an automated way to nurture your business? 

How do you create relationships that are beyond superficial with your customers? Do you have a predictable way to be top-of-mind for your audience? 

How well are you able to document your process? 

Do you create predictable outcomes with your avatar? What is your process or method? Listen to these statements and choose the one that best describes where you’re at right now. 

Download the cheat sheet. Do this quarterly, or if you’re building your business, do it monthly. You’ll want to declare for yourself the area you plan to focus on improving and the steps you’ll take so that you can see progress from one assessment to the next. 

Create to https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard

 Be sure you stop by https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard to get the scorecard and become a part of our community so you receive the invite to masterclass. 

Are you Planning and Promoting Like a Boss? Learn how I plan content and how it pays to plan. 

A one-hour masterclass AND sharing the exact planning tool I use to plan my promotions and publishing calendar. You’ll see how I plan content and I’ve duplicated it for you to use as a template this year, next year… and beyond. 

Marketing health is no small task. It’s the biggest part of running a business. Often, a year (or less) into deciding they want to be a health or fitness pro, some of the best pros realize that the training, coaching, and movement they love doesn’t matter or take up the majority of their time. It’s the marketing that does.

Marketing Health Better with Better Priorities

Everyday business priorities are probably the hardest part of running your own business. With a multitude of to-dos, between the marketing, advertising, creating programs and products, determining price point, writing emails, there’s the incoming emails from customers, people marketing to you, from prospects. Then there’s the sense of urgency you have about posting on social media and keeping up with that, at the same time wondering if keeping up with that is worth it or what that secret is that you don’t know everyone else seems to know!

There is a lot. So, this episode is dedicated to helping you sort out the skeleton of what you need to do, and first though, to removing the things that are getting in your way.

What’s Blocking Your Business Priorities?

In a very sneaky way, what I’m about to say is procrastination. If you’re doing any of these it’s easy to fool ourselves and pretend some of these are part of business, and necessary.

I would argue that if you don’t have a master plan, they can sidetrack you and hijack the time you have … some of the best time for focusing. 

You’ve got a business priorities challenge if any of these describe you:

• The first thing you do is pick up your phone… find a way not to.
• You create posts to social media before you do anything… you’re like a boat just drifting without an anchor.
• You look at your social media numbers and they make you giddy … or deflated and baffled… before you look at your CRM and subscriber numbers… you’re counting your deposit slips instead of counting cash. 

What is important?

In the sea of things to do and possibilities that YOU alone decide, it’s important to know how you determine the most important thing.

One highly successful business owner said it during dinner with he and his wife.

At the end of the day, did I make more money than I spent?

Simple, right? And to build a business with cash flow – unless you have investors who fund your business and you’re okay losing money to start up in order to make predictable gains later – you to sell before you spend.

With an in person one-woman shop or an online fitness business, that’s very easily done. We operate as far from build it and they will come as possible. Instead, we attract them, sell them things they want and the create them.

But that’s not always going to happen every day. Some days especially at the early stages of your business, (and that can last for a long period of time if you’re not 100% focused on it daily), you’re going to need to create the content and marketing that will create an audience to sell to first.

Unless you have a big budget, and a proven advertising strategy, and funnel that converts, investing in paid advertising too early is risky.

When You Need Traction

Two questions to ask so you can determine your business priorities:

Is there a promise that the way you invest your time will provide ROI?

What are good non-revenue ways to spend your time? Here are two.

Create a product:

What it looks like: a course or framework for it and the marketing copy for opt in pages, the emails the sales page, planning the assets you need to create or outsource

Business Plan:

Plan your next 6 months of 1) promotions, 2) launches, and 3) marketing.

What it looks like: First, what it’s not- creating all the pieces. Instead, it means to plan what you do need so that you can plan what then goes on your calendar. Marketing health will take a significant amount of your time until… until you’re confident you know your audience better than anyone else, until you’re able to hire someone who can do it better than you, and you know exactly what numbers to ask for and measure.

Promotions

You start with what you’re promoting. What program or what package are you featuring?

Plot that on a calendar and think about your time investment to run the program you sell. How often will you offer the program? Is there another program after that for people? Write out the plan based on the things you want to sell, your customer journey, and when programs will start and end.

Launches

This is something so many skip it’s ridiculous and that’s perfect for you since you won’t miss it! A launch includes pre-launch – the time leading up to the cart open

Cart open – when you are on the daily talking about testimonials, overcoming objections, providing information about why this, why now, and why you

Program start – when you’ll pour into your new clients

[Content] Marketing

You may decide you’re posting a blog or creating a new full-length video 2 or 4 times a month during your pre-launch. Once you determine the frequency you can commit to, you decide what each of those posts need to do. Are they top of funnel kinds of marketing?

Are they middle of funnel kinds of marketing?

Are they bottom of funnel marketing?

Do you already have content you can use? They may need a review and additions or updates to serve your next launch. Note that you need to review them, but don’t DO it now.

Do you need to create new posts? Will you or someone else do the research, outline, and writing? Make a few notes about what topics or slants but not if it gets you stuck.

Will you do the actual post creation and grab images, handle the SEO? Write down the flow of tasks for the launch, step-by-step. Or if you’re at the point you’re going to hire this done, assign yourself the task of creating that SOP (standard operating procedure)... but don’t DO it now.

Those are the things you might do in say a 3-hour block on a Thursday. You’re making decisions more than writing the posts. It’s the meta view, or overview, but not getting in the weeds. Not today.

Warning here: this is like cleaning the house. In my experience it is so easy to go down a rabbit hole while you’re doing this. So, you want something to keep you on track. Have a system of organizing ready when you find articles or videos that you can use and will be tempted to jump in and edit them or watch every detail. Put them somewhere and grab that link or folder location and put that in the plan you’re creating, or you’ll find that your 3 hours is up, and all you did was edit a couple posts and you don’t have a plan for how to use them or boost your sales and help more people – so you’ve still wasted your time!

Social media and marketing health

When does that happen? AFTER you know WHY you’re using it! When you know what you’re promoting. And you know what someone needs to know or think or feel before they buy. You have nailed the content piece you have that gets them there. Then you can post on social media with confidence your gift is good.

So, yes. After all the framework is done, you can pick up the phone and post.

Helpful?

I would so appreciate you sharing this podcast with a fellow fitness professional. Share the post on your social media story and let other pros know this is what you listen to. Even though you post for the benefit of your customers, other fitness pros are watching too! You and I both want to help our educated, heart-centered colleagues do well in this post-pandemic era.

Marketing Health is Big Business Now

… but little business owners pivot faster!

Leave a comment below if this episode was helpful.

AND… if a live workshop would be beneficial. In it, we would not only

• lead you with materials to plan your promotions calendar, and
• discuss pre-launch strategies and
• social media techniques that work,
• we’ll provide you with “white space”
• followed by Q and A for each section so that…
• you can absolutely complete a framework for your business and add realistic to-dos to your calendar to keep you moving forward.

Just respond to us… you’re not obligated just indicating interest in learning more. If you struggle with procrastination about this piece. If you’ve never actually created a business plan for the next year the fall before it starts, or if that plan has not helped you one iota to feel calmer, confident and solid you know what’s next… this is probably for you!

Could you fill more programs and help more people by moving from antiaging to anti ageism in fitness promotions? 

What if the answer to more inclusivity and diversity isn’t focused on turning back the clock but it’s embracing the now. While it sounds good and I think most of us would agree we do that, is there anyone among us that hasn’t used words that hint at aging in reverse, or slow the aging process. 

While some of this isn’t even our fault, we’ve got it from unlikely sources: researchers. It hasn’t even been marketers who stand to make money. Though there’s always some money involved. Grant money, potential products, tenure, I suppose all count. 

I remember reading the first research findings about the ability the potential of exercise on mitochondria production. I distinctly remember the conclusion was, “exercise is indeed the fountain of youth.” 

Ageism 

As innocent as that, there it is: ageism. Youth is desirable, the pot of gold, and anything associated with aging to be fixed. 

This episode touches on ageism in fitness. As I talked with Ashton Applewhite I had to be quiet and listen. It took a minute for what she said to soak in. That for those who aren’t active #activeaging for instance may be ageism. I am going to wrestle with acceptance of that. 

I think science has given us evidence that we can age more healthfully than ever before. I also believe no one wants to be in pain, uncomfortable, or lose independence if they can choose another option. So being active in a way to sustain muscle, bone, (and brain) health is something I’ll have to stand for in order to support our ability not to stop aging, but to change the way we age. (and a respectful nod to ICAA, whose tagline is just that.)

Should it Be Accepted? 

I personally have a hard time just accepting that aches and pains come with age. Instead, I have found that the way you eat, work, sleep, and exercise changes much about the way two people age. It’s epigenetics, the lifestyle habits that control the expression of your genetics. 

I bristle a little with statements like, “as you get older, those aches and pains sneak up on you.” It’s not due to age. Traditionally accepted signs of aging are do to the lifestyle you had, and that which you have now. 

From you now to you 20 years ago, there’s been change, no doubt. But for those who are more conscious and aware of better ways to exercise, eat for their own biology, and are resting and meeting their needs better than they did, they often feel better, fitter, and more alive than ever. 

So yes, aging should be accepted. Aches and pains and weight gain shouldn’t. We may have to deal with them but if we simply believe we can’t do anything about them, if indeed we choose to have a different outcome, I think that isn’t quite anti ageism. 

An Open Invitation

I’m opening up a conversation with you. I hope you’ll comment, and be open to a quote or interview. Let me know in the comments if this topic resonates with you and if you’d like to respond to a couple questions to be included in a round up episode. 

My Guest: 

An internationally recognized expert on ageism, Ashton Applewhite is the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. A co-founder of the Old School Anti-Ageism Clearinghouse, she speaks widely at venues that have included the TED mainstage and the United Nations, and is at the forefront of the emerging movement to raise awareness of ageism and to dismantle it.

Questions we answer in this rapid fire: 

What suggestions do you have for fitness professionals making choices about their ad, website, social media images? 

How can we do better? 

Are there good examples that come to mind? Businesses doing it well? 

What do you say to this very common conversation: 

“I’m getting old.” 

“It’s better than the alternative.”

Let’s talk about contemporary hashtags 

#antiaging 

#nevertooold 

#foreveryoung 

#agingbackwards 

#aginginreverse 

#flipping50 

#activeaging 

#seniorfitness 

Reference in this episode:

Alex Rotas British photographer: https://alexrotasphotography.co.uk/

Flip: I went to Alex’ site to pull this resource for you and came across an article on her including some images. And… I am as guilty as anyone. But at least I’m aware. I said, “She looks great,” as it stated her age(72). My first thought was, this is what following a passion and purpose does. 

It’s going to take time for this not to be a comparison of one (insert age) to another (insert age). At a class reunion coming up, won’t we all be doing that to some extent, I wonder. Thinking he or she aged well, or not? Is that ageism?  There’s much to explore here. The first step… awareness. 

Connect with Ashton: 

https://thischairrocks.com/

https://yoisthisageist.com/

https://oldschool.info/ (for images and photography)

Positive Marketing resource from the oldschool site above: https://d3kqgz5iyf5gxy.cloudfront.net/CRTV+2022/Create+Fund/Age+Ebook_accessible.pdf

She’s on Social:

Twitter: @thischairrocks

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThisChairRocks

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thischairrocks

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AshtonApplewhiteVideos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashton-applewhite-64658/

The book: https://celadonbooks.com/book/this-chair-rocks-a-manifesto-against-ageism/

If this episode from antiaging to anti ageism was valuable, please share a comment, and share the podcast with a fitness pro or health coach friend. Thank you! 

Dreaming of 6-figure months? Willing to settle for a 6-figure year? Well, listen, I was too. I went from a very comfortable, no debt, space to move and loved it. But wanted more…. You know more, right? 

Show Note: Almost 11 months ago I shared details about what it took to do this the first time. What I've learned in the process of rinse-and-repeat is here in this podcast. The first episode is linked below. 

Then I went from not even making 6-figure years to 6-figure months within 3 years. The difference? Well, the Menopause Fitness Specialist for one. Flipping 50’s Menopause Fitness Specialist course and Marketing to Women course have been super supporters of trainers and health coaches during the pandemic. 

But... There's More

But it really wasn’t that. It was 6 different mindset shifts that I either made or helped other trainers make that helped me reach 6-figure months. I had these shifts or needed to revisit them. 

And I’m just going to share them with you. Because no matter where you are, you can potentially relate to this itch, desire, knowing you were meant to do more than you are now, but not knowing how or who gets it and you. 

I do, listener. So here it is. 

Stop thinking busy is productive

            You know what I mean. Not having a plan for today, yesterday or last week. Do things that have a direct link to either growing revenue or growing your audience: the two things that will grow your business. 

Do fewer but proven strategies.

            You don’t have to, and really you can’t, do it all. But you have to go all in on the few things that matter. At a point in your business life, that’s creating. Then it’s marketing what you created and servicing your customers. You show up, not only when you’re marketing, but when you’re servicing.

            Success leaves clues. Don’t copy but look at models right in front of you. 

Do the math and know what you need to do.

            Successful trainers have goals for each program. The revenue goals for a year convert to months. Revenue for a month converts to the revenue for a program, or the number of private clients. If you have a revenue goal, you then know how many of your services you’re going to sell. 

(See what I did there? I didn’t say need to sell. A truly committed entrepreneur commits to what they are going to do, talks about what they’re going to do, and does it. If you’re going to see how it goes, your mindset is not on your side.) 

It takes a village: support those that support you

            Surround yourself with others who are doing what you’re doing or want to do. It takes asking for help. Successful people never don’t have a coach or a mastermind. They try to be not the smartest, but the most eager to learn and openminded, coachable in the room. It’s a trait that can’t be ignored among every successful entrepreneur. Look at them and you’ll see at least one group and at least one coach. Many of us have more than one coach… a mastermind, a business coach, a marketing coach, a speaking coach, there will be a time when you want each of them. 

            Left to your own thoughts – or a half dozen podcasts, webinars, and workshops - you’ll slow your progress. You don’t want it too fast or too slow. 

Build an email list above all else.

            Not just build it, nurture it. Send them something they value at least once a week. More frequently is probably better if you’re going to keep them engaged. The 6-figure months were in large part due to my email list growth (and regular hygiene)!  

Do the right things consistently.  

            This means literally creating programs, tweaking programs, creating funnels, emails to your audience, looking at your conversion rates, and making calls. If you don’t have unlimited amounts of dollars to spend on advertising, then calling people is the fastest way to inject your business with revenue. Everyday call one person and ask them to become a client. 

If you speak, then you’re calling to get booked speaking. If you’re a coach, you’re calling every day to ask a client to be a coaching client. If you’re a personal trainer, you call one person every day to ask them to start, come back, or to refer a customer. Guess what? I have clients work with me for 12 weeks who are thrilled when clients ask to work with them one on one, but who won’t call people they know they could help. 

They say they don’t want to do that. They want to do programs. Programs unless they cost $5000 or $10,000 are a long game. You’re going to have to play the long game and build your brand by putting yourself out there to speak and talk and interact with big audiences for a small program revenue to work. 

Can you survive while you’re doing that? It’s very hard. 

Don’t complain about money you don’t have from work or commitments you’re not doing. 

That goes for relationships and work both. If you don’t show up consistently for someone, if something else is always more important or interrupts the things that make a difference… you’re not that committed. 

The 6-figure months are within anyone’s reach. You just have to know it’s what you want and set out a plan to reach it. 

Resources: 

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

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist: https://www.flippingfifty.com/specialist

Ultimate Freebie creation: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/bestfreebies 

Sleep Tips for Your Customers: 

Previous Episodes You Might Like: 

6 Most Profitable Programs for Personal Trainers: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/profitable-fitness-programs/

Reset Your Money Mindset: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/reset-your-money-mindset-raise-your-earning-potential/

5 Lessons... From $135k in 30 days: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/lessons-for-fitness-health-coaches/

 

Messages from 2019 won’t work as well as a 2022-driven message for your fitness brand right now. You don’t want to miss this episode with Fitness Celebrity Natalie Jill, who’s built a following of over 3 million on social media in the last 15 years. 

00:00

You’ll hear how she’s not just chosen, but been forced to pivot, and her fitness brand right now is continuing to grow because of it. In this episode, I asked her what she would do if she was in your shoes, and what her biggest mistakes along the way were so that you can learn and grow from the insight. 

 

If you’re scared, frustrated, or feeling unrewarded for the hard work you’re doing, listen in. No one has a smooth ride all the way through and Natalie Jill is no different. As you hear her resilience, you may recognize some of the fight in you too. 

 

There’s a place and a need for your fitness brand right now. Here’s how to pivot what you may be doing and turn it into better results. 

 

My Guest: 

Natalie Jill is a Fat Loss Expert And Creative Sales Strategist who helps women ReIgnite, ReDefine and ReBrand what aging has to mean! 50 years old herself, she is changing conversations around age, potential, and possibility!  She helps entrepreneurs craft their unique compelling STORY, expand their brand and excel on social media. She used the exact methods she teaches to grow her globally recognized fat loss and fitness brand with well over 3 million social media followers worldwide, two best-selling books, a top-ranked podcast, and recognition from Forbes and Greatist several years running as one of the top health and wellness influencers in the world. 

 

Questions we answer on this podcast:

• 04:05 If you were starting over what would you do right now to market yourself? 
• 06:30 What were your biggest marketing mistakes along your way? 
• 09:10 Was there any one thing you did that gave you a marketing/exposure lift? 
• 13:32 How much or little have you delegated your marketing materials (emails, content, posts)Then.. and Now? 
• 15:25 What part of the job do you love? 
• 16:20 What part of the job do you hate/prefer not to do? 
• How is it working with your spouse in business? 
• 17:57 What advice would you give to that woman listening who has heard “you need a niche?”

 

LISTEN TO THE FULL FLIPPING 50 EPISODE with Natalie Jill too: https://www.flippingfifty.com/redefine-aging/ 

 

Connect with NatalieJill: 

Website:

https://www.Brandstoryexpansion.com/goal

Listen Up! Podcast: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/leveling-up-creating-everything-from-nothing-natalie

She’s Social: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nataliejillfit/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nataliejillfit

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nataliejillfitness

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nataliejillfit/

 

 Resources: 

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

Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist  flippingfifty.com/specialist

 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

4 Steps to Create Fitness Marketing Videos | Easy Fitness Marketing: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fitness-marketing-videos/

Are the Words You Use Costing You Customers? | Fitness Pros:https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/costing-you-customers/

Taking Care of You | Personal Trainer & Coach Business Plan:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/business-plan/

I think training women in menopause comes with a responsibility. If it’s our mission to serve them, then we’re tasked with the need to call out them… and us… when we’re misfiring ageist messages. 

 00:00

I think we can agree with this: 

Age doesn’t matter. It’s ability. 

 But age will matter as long as clients say, and you give validation to: 

 I’m _____ (age) what exercise should I be doing?

You look great for your age! 

I just can’t do that any longer at my age. 

After menopause, you need to take it easier.

 

None of the answers to those questions is founded in science or legitimized by anything but years of conditioning and habit. How you answer unless you’re schooled in the science of muscle, bone, fat, and metabolism for women over 40 wouldn’t be anything more than your conditioning and opinion, or maybe a desire to sell something. 

 

We’re not immune to ageism though, especially if you hear a question or statement like one of these are immediately are forming an answer…

INSTEAD of stopping the conversation right there and talking about the impression they have falsely acquired. 

 03:16

The Real Conversation 

 If you’re training women in menopause, you unintentionally could be falling into this trap. And it’s not your fault… until well, now. 

 

Because once you know, if you think like me, if you have the ability, you have the responsibility to change it. 

 

You are either the change or a part of the problem.  

 

If training women in menopause comes with a responsibility to know beyond the basics of exercise prescription (and of course it does), then we have to think more closely about our own use of messages in conversation with clients, including reaching them on social media.

 

Let me give you some more examples of potential ageism. 

 

Book titles and hashtags and program names all fall into this gray area that takes some dissection. 

 

Younger Next Year 

#foreveryoung 

#agingbackwards

#aginginreverse

#reverseaging 

#turnbacktime

#turnbacktheclock 

#antiaging

 

I’ve recently shared (something you want to know more about if you share resources with your audience) C60 Purple Power with my audience. I’m using it (I don’t share anything I don’t use and then share the actual experiment with my audience). 

 

It’s a carbon molecule that has been found to be able to influence many things associated with aging. Among those are not only restoring libido, and mitochondria production, but wrinkles, fine lines, and graying. 

 

So, I wonder, even in that, if I’m ageist if we seek to turn back the clock to a time when we didn’t have gray hair (for me, unfortunately, that would be 26!), or wrinkles… then aren’t we trying to defy aging instead of embracing it? 

 07:23

Is that ageism? 

 There are other virtues of the C60 product that support energy, vitality, and physical performance improvement rather than accepting a decline that “naturally” occurs with aging. 

Isn’t that, of course, beneficial to sustain or increase mitochondrial production if it can be done without medication, and simply by exercise, even an intermittent fasting, window, and the support of C60?

 

Is wanting to age better, ageism? 

 

I don’t think so. I want to hear from you though. 

 

I know there may be listeners who would say that you don’t have a hormone problem if your hormones are flatlining after menopause. You might say, that’s normal. 

 

But… is normal and common acceptable? What about optimal? When did we start saying average is okay? 

 

If it’s possible with bioidentical hormones, use of C60, or other products that are not medication with negative side effects, to have profound effects on your health, is that ageism? 

 

Let’s look at some other words associated with age.

 10:23

Neutral or Positive Age-Related statements: 

Every age

Any age

Change the way we age

Change the way we think about aging, which is the entire philosophy behind Flipping50. 

 

Change the way we age, by the way, is the tag line for the International Council on Active Aging. So, do give credit where it’s due in using it. 

 11:11

Consider These Positive or At Least Not Negative Phrases:

Active aging

Older wiser

Age is irrelevant (a podcast title by Helen Fritch, by the way, please also give credit) 

Older fitter stronger – a book by Margaret _______________ 

Faster After 50 – a book by Joe Friel

Proaging 

 

Even hashtags and statements like #nevertooold … when you think about it. The statement makes old, and bad. It’s bizarre if you think too deeply about it. But there is a mild connotation with old being negative. 

 

Of course, the recovery you’ll say is, no, it’s saying you’re never going to be that. But again, that suggests that old is something you never want. And I don’t know about you, but I think we’re not going to win that game. I like to ask questions when I’m with clients that I know the answer to… or at least know the answer to the answer they tell me. 

 13:33

Actions for You: 

Review your last 2 weeks of emails, posts, or videos 

Look for hashtags or statements you made

Do you like your message? Anything you want to change? 

 

I’d love to hear from you. And this is a great conversation starter with your clients! None of us realizes we do this intentionally. 

 

The way a woman wants to age is her business. And our goal shouldn’t be to change her. Just to allow the way we each choose to age, and how we choose to get there to be just fine. If we ask, did she have work done? What’s she using?

 

Or say, I would never do that, or I think she looks so fake… we really should on everyone. I was at a restaurant with two friends recently and when the waitress walked away, one said, “Was that a bad botox job or what?” I didn’t notice it. So therein lies the differences we all have to what is acceptable… but yet, an opportunity to say, if she likes it, then go her! 

Why not celebrate the woman in a green dress even if you hate green, or the one wearing the mini that you would feel slutty in? If she likes it, she feels confident in it, do we really want to judge? 

 

Whether age or otherwise, training women in menopause will bring you an opportunity not just to change the sequence of exercises and diets for the better, but to change acceptance and peace within ourselves that makes this a better world. 

 

BTW, when you see me do something with an ageist slant, it’s all fair, ask me about that. We won’t make this flip overnight, any of us. 

 

Resources: 

Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist  https://www.flippingfifty.com/specialist

More Midlife Clients in 5 Days https://www.flippingfifty.com/midlife-clients

 

 

Other Episodes You Might Like: 

Women’s Fitness, Health, & Hormones | Training Menopause:

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

20 Tips to More Midlife Fitness Clients Post Pandemic | #319:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/more-midlife-clients/

I’ve got some testimonial sources you may want to tap into in this episode! 

Already asking for testimonials regularly? You might be tempted to skip this one. But don’t!

00:00

Videos of your successful clients are always going to work, right? But there’s something that you’re not using that may be the difference between someone pulling the trigger and deciding to start training with you. 

02:40

In order of testimonial strength, I’d say we have this right now: 

You adding a text quote from your testimonial sources and adding their first name and maybe age.

Including a quote that adds a full name and age. 

A screenshot of a social media post with name blacked out

A screenshot of a social media post including profile name 

A video of a client with a first name (and potentially age) 

A video of a client with a full name 

 

And the power of a testimonial increases if you ask the right questions. (Check notes for previous content on testimonials)

05:42

Who else’s life was changed because of the change in your client? 

One of the key questions I ask customers when they’re thinking about getting started is who else is affected by them not being where they want to be.

Say someone tells me that they have been thinking about it for a long time and they think about it frequently, I’ll ask who else is impacted. 

How many times have you asked a customer to share a testimonial? Or you’ve taken a screenshot of their comment on social media? 

And if you’re not doing this, start! It should be a regular part of your process for every program, every final client session, and every event. Just automatically have it go out. Have another follow-up if they pay no attention the first time. 

And then … 

08:40

There is strength in numbers.

So, don’t miss these sources of testimonials:

•     Friends
•     Children
•     Partner/Spouse
•     Coworkers/bosses/employees

12:48

Can you see the power of hearing a child talk about the change in their parent? Not only could that put a tear in the eye of a viewer, it may make them take the leap because often things get expressed like fears that couldn’t be spoken out loud when the fear was still felt. 

The power of a young child or grandchild is going to be different than that of an adult child but don’t rule any of them out.

So, what testimonial sources are you forgetting, friend? Who else should you ask that can share what you do? In better words that you can say yourself? 

Resources: 

5 Days to More Midlife Clients: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/5daysmoreclients

 

Other Episodes You May Like: 

How to Gather the Best Fitness Testimonials and Use Them: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fitness-testimonials/

Blueprint for Your Fitness & Health Coaching Business Plan: 

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/health-coaching-business-plan/

If you’re working with midlife women and love solving the problems of insomnia, weight gain, and belly fat with exercise modifications made for menopause, and want more midlife fitness clients… or health coaching clients… this is for you. 

 00:00

You already realize that the time of day a woman exercises may determine how her hormones respond. She can improve or devastate her hormone status by the time of day she exercises. 

 

You’re probably already advising women about the difference between lifting weights and lifting them according to bone building and metabolism-boosting methods for women.

 

But… you aren’t as certain about how to help more women. You wonder how to market more effectively so that you can make a bigger difference. Buckle that seat belt, lace up your shoes, and let’s go. 

 

1)  04:02  Become the expert – education above and beyond 

Nothing comes before this. You’ve got to have the goods as much for yourself as anyone. When you know you know and you have something to say, your voice is strong. If your voice is soft, you lack confidence because of what someone will think, double down on education.

But not to a fault. Here’s where trainers get stuck in overcompensating for some feeling they aren’t enough by taking more and more courses and certifications. That isn’t going to fill up a confidence hole. If you need a coach, get a coach. Work on you and your personal sense of self. Know which kind of education and training you need before you go investing in something that will never help you over the real problem.

2)    06:10 Create relationships with experts 

The doctors, dentists in your community, and coaches and authors online that serve your audience are golden resources for you (and you are for them). Connect with them, serve them. Like and comment and share their posts if you agree with them. That puts you on their radar. Ask to do a “live” with them on social and answer audience questions. (There’s a way to do this that sets you up for success). 

Once you connect by serving and giving, you can explore opportunities for referrals or affiliate promotions. 

3)   07:16  Leverage social media (don’t waste it)

When you have a message they need and are looking for, use it! Avoid common mistakes like incorrect use of hashtags, failure to warm up your feed before posting, and more. Are you aware of platform secrets for engagement? 

 

4)   07:51  Avoid pitching on social media

The fastest way to kill your social media success is share programs, use it like an “ad” for your webinar when it’s not an ad. (Paid ads are fine). Your organic reach is going to be stifled by that. 

5)   08:54 Build your email list

If you aren’t working on this daily with a juicy freebie you should be. Here’s how. 

 

There’s both the science of knowing how to help when you get them. There’s the art of knowing who you work best with and who you repel. I gladly give client leads to our Flipping50 Fitness Specialists when I know they aren’t the right match for me. There is an abundance of midlife fitness clients who need help. Be open to the idea you’re not for everyone and that acknowledging that will bring you more business in the end. 

 

6)    11:18 Send consistently valuable emails

Once a week is minimum. If you just called your best friend once a week, would that be a little weird? Consider bumping it up to two and see what happens. Valuable means, though, not a sales pitch every time. If that’s all it is, most of us will say no thanks and hit delete or at least never read really fast. 

7)    12:44 Get media exposure 

Every local news station needs news to fill their programming every day. If you have news, and it’s not your book or program or business, but real news you can talk about, and it’s timely and relevant, they’re interested. 

What recent research study is relevant to your work and their audience. By the way, women in midlife are often still watching the news on TV, so go for it. It’s not actually the appearance on the news, it’s what you do with it after that matters. 

8)    Write or present for the industry

There are a dozen industry conferences that you can apply to speak at and share your expertise. If you have something special you’ve done and can teach other trainers and health coaches to do: a special workout, grown your social media, made X $ with a specific marketing strategy… it’s worthy of an application. If you’ve formed great relationships with physical therapists and have a unique referral process, that’s something other professionals can benefit from. I started teaching trainers the difference between coaching boundaries vs personal training back in 2000 and I’ve been presenting at major associations like IDEA, CanfitPro, NSCA, MedFit, FILEX, SCW and Club Industry, and Fitness Fest, ever since. It just takes one good idea and one conference to get started.

9)    Make one call every day

This is the easiest way on earth to gain clients. Few trainers or health coaches will do it. Recently a coach said to me, “How will I get to  [$$$$  amount she wanted]?” and I said, “Are you still making the daily calls?” No. It had been less than 2 weeks. When you ask for help, you’re given help, you have a choice. Fewer than 2% follow through. Nine out of 10 fitness businesses still go out of business or it’s still a hobby taking a loss at tax time 5 years later. 

10) Be your brand 

Work on your personal presentation in public. Look, I lived in a relatively small town before college, then moved to a college town that after 30 years had become pretty small. Everyone knew me everywhere I went. Then I moved to Boulder and then Scottsdale. 

I loved the anonymity… until… I’m in line at Walgreens (and again at the airport to board) and a woman says, “Do you have a website?” or “You look just like someone I follow online.” I can’t make this up. In both cases, also can’t make this up… it had been a busy day in business and I slapped on a visor and had not yet showered. No make-up, just getting done what I had to do.

My point? I was not “representing” either of those times. In fact, was hoping to fly under the radar and not be recognized. But you don’t get to choose. So, make sure you are comfortable if it happens. (I’ve decided I am. I go on camera that way too. The message for me is more important than me getting made up and pretending I’m perfect. But you may not be. So, if you are the spokesperson for your business, decide). 

 

 

One of the best organic sources of traffic for me was YouTube videos for 8 years. Until, that is the pandemic and everyone is on YouTube because there wasn’t another best choice. However, the foundation you lay there will support your efforts. While consistency isn’t a fast game it is always the best game. Call someone daily… no one does. Do videos 2 or 3 times a week… and keep doing it. No one does. You will win. 

 

 

11) Talk About the Pandemic

Listen, this is stupid. Few trainers and health coaches are using this in marketing strategies and it’s ridiculous. Get on it. The problems today are not the same as problems pre-pandemic. Acknowledge it and offer a solution. 

12) Offer free presentations to women’s groups

Every women’s group has a presentation almost as often as they have a meeting. Generally, it’s a monthly occurrence and often it’s during nine months of the year excluding summer. There may be holiday months off, but that’s 8 opportunities for you to let it be known that you can talk about exercise motivation, benefits of [your type of training], or bone density, for example. 

13) Team up with organizations (for charity)

Charity events are held annually in every town and city and online. Find ones that resonate with your midlife fitness clients. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, American Heart or Cancer related events are a good start. Your local hospital and auxiliary are others. Be present to demonstrate how exercise or wellness reduces risk or improves outcomes. You can get in front of an audience who care about health and about community. 

14) Get on video 

On social media, on your website pages and anywhere you can do it, video is the easiest way to do what you do best. You teach, explain, and design exercise programs that are effective. Or as a coach you provide clarity and support to clients making changes. Capture it on video and then share it (market it).

15) Write a book 

Anyone can write a book today. The barrier to self-publishing is low. Once you write it, it’s about marketing it shamelessly to get it in as many hands as possible. A book (well done) immediately builds credibility. That includes references, expert interviews, story, and reviewers. The complete process is not a quick fix but you can flesh out your outline for a home run book quickly if you really know your customer. 

Link to 5 Day Flip: https://www.flippingfifty.com/midlife-clients

More midlife fitness clients (or health coaching clients) come from the trail that leads them to you. When they get there, it’s about your voice. Are you speaking the same rate as they are, making them feel more relaxed and confident they’ve found the answer? Test your voice, your literal voice. If it sounds childlike or is hard to listen to, you can change it with practice.

 

16) Trademark your system

You should have a unique method, system or protocol that is proven to work. You want to have clients who can give testimonials that it’s worked for them. You want to create video about why you created it. You want to talk about a single step in a presentation and mention this is just one of 5 (or 3 or 4) that you have. 

17) Define your niche and stick to it

The mistake most trainers make is thinking they can serve anybody and that getting specific will narrow their reach. The opposite is true. You won’t attract anybody with “everybody” messages. If a reader, viewer, or listener doesn’t see themselves in you and your message, they aren’t going to take the next step. 

18) Make it easy to start

Reduce the barrier. That might be free something or a money-back guarantee.

19) Go beyond “free trial” or “free consultation.”

Do a free class for a charity.

Meet clients where they are with a less intimidating first contact. The ones that really need you are not ask likely to register for a free consultation as you might think. That’s a big step for them. But a small challenge or a video or ebook that solves a problem for them is an easier, more convenient way to learn whether they trust you. 

20) Always market. 

Whether it’s paid ads you keep rolling on Facebook or it’s a partnership with someone in town, you’ll always want and need new leads. The most successful keep the lead sources always nurtured and never stop. If you had too many clients and couldn’t service them, wouldn’t that be a fun problem? Then you’ll need, 10 Ways to Serve More Clients in Less Time, right? You just tell me when you’re ready. And I’ll tell you, if you can serve 10 you can serve 100, and 1000, and if you dream and you have the vision you can serve 10,000 or 100,000. You first have to see it. 

 

The best way to attract midlife fitness clients that you know you can help is to grow your support of them first. Gain confidence and strength in your voice. Gain the knowledge you need to do that without getting stuck thinking what you need is one more certification or degree. 

Resources Mentioned in this Episode: 

5 Day Flip: https://www.flippingfifty.com/midlife-clients

Best Freebies for Best Customer Attraction: https://www.flippingfifty.com/5-day-fmm-specialist-challenge-opt/

Flipping 50’s Menopause Fitness Specialist: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/menopause-fitness-specialist

Additional Podcasts You Might Like:

Training Women in Menopause | Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/training-women-in-menopause/

Women’s Fitness, Health, & Hormones | Training Menopause:

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

There are key times and reasons when you want (and NEED) to raise your rates. In this two-part episode series, I’m going to talk first in this episode about WHEN to raise your rates. I’ll give you three reasons and discuss each, with examples of what happens when I or other trainers I coach do it. 

In the follow-up episode, I’ll talk about how including

• HOW MUCH!
• how often
• how to tell them

And now… here’s when you need to Raise Your Rates!

1. You’re attracting so many clients you can’t service them all and you have a waitlist.
2. You’re not attracting any clients.
3. You’re attracting clients who don’t do the work, are full of excuses, cancel frequently or ask to reschedule too often.

Hey! First, Please Vote for Podcast Titles!!  fitnessmarketingmastery.com/vote 

A word on residual effects of the pandemic

A lot of good and smart trainers left the building during and in aftermath of the pandemic. I mean that in two ways. Many who were fed clients by a gym found they didn’t get fed anymore because members weren’t coming in. Those may have quit or been forced to find other work.

Others left their common senses behind. They thought their knowledge, service, and transformation they offered wasn’t as valuable online through Zoom as if clients came in to see them physically. Really? If you help someone get in shape, lose weight, sleep better… does it matter how or where you are? I’ve talked to clients by phone or Skype from Italy or Trinidad, and Okinawa for a decade. I didn’t charge any less for it. 

Then there are the trainers who felt suddenly they had to be DOING the exercise with their clients for it to matter. If you worked with a client one-on-one or in a group training, you wouldn’t do the workout with them (that’s group fitness, right? And that’s free!) so come back to your senses and be a teacher, a leader, and a coach.

Scared to Raise Your Rates?

The thought you raise your rates when the economy may be down, and clients aren’t coming to you the way they used to can be scary.

If it doesn’t scare you a little, it’s probably not something you want to bother doing. More on that in the next episode when we talk about how much to raise your rates.

Got a story about raising your rates to share? Drop it below the show notes (/raise-your-rates).

Resources:

Marketing to Women Copywriting Course 

 

 

Other episodes you might like:

Be sure to tune in for the next episode too (HOW to raise your rates)

4 More Better Fitness Marketing Tools| Say This Not That #306

How to Build Your Personal Brand in 2022 | Fitness & Health Coaches #302

00:00

Fitness marketing basics aren’t the sexy, social media influencer, ego-centric increase in fans and followers, and more likes on your recent post. 

Fitness marketing basics are simultaneously the easiest and easiest to resist steps to successful revenue building. 

This episode reviews the fastest way to grow your business. 

Then what I’m going to dive deeper into is why you might be resisting the things that are right here that have proven to work over and over. 

If you’re not growing, or not growing fast enough, and you’re doing all the things (but the fitness marketing basics) and still resist doing what works… stay tuned.

 04:28

Fitness Marketing Basics for Fast Business-growth 

If every human on the planet needs to exercise…

If most struggle with exercise…

Why is it still so hard to attract clients? 

The simplest things, the smallest steps, work for health and fitness. 

The simplest things work for growing your health and fitness business.

Pick up the phone.

Write an email.

Go back to fitness marketing basics.

(and even saying that I realize, you don’t know good fitness marketing basics potentially unless you’ve followed an online guru because it isn’t taught thoroughly enough to help you when you’re beginning). 

Talk to people. 

One of the obstacles for trainers and health coaches who want to build an online business is what to say:

•     What to say in emails
•     Or What to say in videos
•     What to say on a phone call

 Call one person and you’ll know what to say.

Try writing an email to one person. When it’s just one you know what to say. 

Keep in mind, email is not as good as a phone call alone. It is a good partner. If you have a cell phone number, a text is better than an email. 

The most successful people in the world make phone calls every day.

 They make the easy ones and the hard ones. 

•   When someone’s credit card doesn’t go through after three email attempts and messages to them don’t result in any response, someone calls. 
•   If customer service drops the ball and things go wrong for a customer, someone calls.  
•  When a customer complaint isn’t valid or attacks the company or any staff, someone calls.  

Usually, that’s the person still in business when 9/10 have failed. 

 

 

 10:48

Even if you want to build a business online…

Even if, ideally, you don’t want to work one on one with clients in the business you’re building…

While you’re building it, the fastest way to grow your business revenue is to pick up the phone. You invite one person at a time to start working with you. 

When you call at least one person every day, you build confidence, you build rapport, you build habits, and you relax. 

When you’re stuck in those feelings of fear and your expenses outweigh your revenue, it is extremely hard to create a business with abundance and flow. And if you don’t go woo-woo… hang with me for a minute. 

If you begin building your business based on fear and not enough and always working constantly, without a reasonable plan for, when I’m at XX, I will hire help for the things I don’t need to do… you will in 5 years still have that kind of business. It’s based on fear and not growth. It’s based on you working constantly and not on you recharging your batteries. 

 12:32

Side Note: 

What’s Your Burn Rate?

That said, sit down and determine your “burn rate” that includes your own personal expenses. That is, the amount of money you have to make monthly to cover your business and other expenses if this were your sole income including paying yourself a reasonable rate commensurate with what you’d pay anyone else to do the job. 

 13:50

Calm the F*** Down! 

When you have revenue coming in, you can play the long game. Online marketing is a long game. Social media is a long game unless you’re doing paid advertising. 

I’ve got 130,000 followers in a YouTube channel, many of whom are on my email list. That was built over 6 years, (I’m not including pandemic because everything changed and I’ve had little growth) not overnight. I still nurture it every week with videos and posts. 

You can’t build your business this year doing things that are long game-oriented. Growing an email list by 10,000 a weekend is possible, but only if you already have 100,000 and you’re invited to stages and speaking in front of hundreds of thousands regularly. Starting out my list grew only by 1000 a month.. so it took me years to reach 10,000. 

But then there were months where that doubled… and the rest is history when you’re playing both long and short. 

 16:42

My Fitness Marketing Basics action advice: 

Start with Phone calls, one a day. I go into detail on another podcast about what to say and in what order. 

Then work on your email game. The juiciest words you may ever use in an email someone are “Are you still interested?

Inside you’ll ask them to respond to a very special “retreat, package, workshop” you’re putting together if they want details about it.

17:43

My advice if you’re resistant to marketing is take time and do a few of these:

Imagine your business in 3 years. What is your typical day like? What are you doing? How does it feel? What kind of success is your business experiencing?

What is your role in the daily activities of the business?

Go deeply into the emotions that you feel about the success you’re having. 

 18:22

Now think about these questions:

How much money do you have in the bank? Or in investments? What’s your net worth? 

Where do you live? What is your environment like? What have you created for yourself around your daily habits that is possible because of your business? 

Do you travel or donate to charities? Are you “recognized” when you go out or travel? 

You really can’t hide behind the computer if you’re building a business. You have gifts to share and people who do care and want what you have to offer, you’ve got to connect with them in the fastest way possible. 

 19:13

Establish follow-through goals. 

When someone is non-responsive on my list, I don’t slow down on outreach, I double down. I want a yes or a no and take no answer as not an option. If an email doesn’t reap a response, a second one goes out, then a third in close proximity. 

If that doesn’t do it, I reach out via text (and voice text when that’s possible).

We resist marketing ourselves because it’s so much easier to promote a business. You may find yourself suddenly promoting you since the pandemic. 

But the truth is, this works so much better. People want to do business with people, not with a business. 

We are very comfortable thinking about ourselves in the way we’ve always thought of ourselves. So, change, including being someone who markets, sells, and promotes may never have been a way you’ve thought of yourself. You’re resisting it. 

You may resist having money because you heard things like, “money doesn’t grow on trees” or “we can’t afford that” or felt that the good life was for other people and you’ve always saved for a rainy day but never spent for today…

You want to establish the source of your reluctance for reaching out to people, too.

Do you have a negative connotation with sales people from the used car salesman or the vacuum cleaner salesman, or maybe a realtor? Did a parent or spouse tell you not to share your real feelings if you loved something? 

This is the real homework in this episode.

Getting fitness marketing basics to work is easy, once you’ll apply them. If you’re resistance is due to these feelings or some false belief that anyone who is successful didn’t do these things? You really want to take a look at that. 

Break down your barriers and you’ll soar. 

 21:52

Other Episodes You May Love: 

4 Big Mistakes in your Email Marketing for Fitness

3 Ways to Avoid Burnout for Fitness Professionals Post Pandemic

Resources: 

Copywriting to Women Course  

Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist  

We all have to deal with strong emotions and yet if you’re an entrepreneur you also have to figure out doing business anyway.

If you’re running a business, no wait really, if you are the business, then inevitably you’re going to run into moments when life happens. You will have to both run your business and deal with the unpleasant reality that our loved ones are born, get married, break bones, have accidents, die, and you have emotions around all of it.

You’ll move, have arguments, and break up. You’ll miss planes and get stranded. You’ll encounter technology not working. You’ll lose people and you’ll need to train others. You’ll get sick or have car trouble. You will have an old dog that needs care.

All of those things will show you the leaks in your business. At least they did for me.

Doing Business Anyway

You’ll have to make hard choices and sometimes through all of that, you can’t control your emotions.

Recently, I went through a tough time. I’m talking about it here because of the opportunity it’s provided me to see what needs to happen next for me.

I also realized that much of what I default to doing to myself is not moving my business forward as much as it is a distraction and a comfort to leftover feelings of fear that may not be justified in the moment.

Strong Emotions and Doing Business Anyway

One of the last trips to see my mom, and it wasn’t pleasant. She’d struggled after her fall and surgery. She felt less stable. She was resisting moving to assisted living.

This is all the emotions and decisions that any adult child goes through really. It’s not a surprise. But you definitely get it when it’s you. I was locked and loaded with a hot spot so I could work while I sat with her. And then that never happened. There’s just way too much to do. And she and I spent time quality time going through memories and journals. And that time was absolutely precious.

But other moments of that trip were horrendous. There was a quarantine from covid the first day I was there. I got food poisoning and so for the last two days I was there I couldn’t see her. I then had a flight cancelled and was stranded for two days in Des Moines, Iowa, still recovering from the food poisoning.

That was just the beginning of a downward spiral of my mom’s health.

Fear

I had fears at the beginning. I definitely did, and for good reason, really. I got down to very little in my bank account. My house was for sale but there were no buyers and it was -20 too near Christmas for anyone to really want to buy. It was then that I learned the habits I’ve kept for longer than they serve me.

I roll up my sleeves. I go to work. I make things, I’ll say that too.

Like you maybe, which is why I say this, I tend to create things. The reality is that I’ve become the most successful by slowing down creating and amplifying the marketing. I have award-winning content and programs that get rave reviews. So, what I really need is not another program, but more people in my programs.

But we default to the old patterns… at least until we break them.

Greif

Most recently this has been what I’m dealing with. My mother passed and for the last couple months it’s been down hill and we knew it was on an accelerated path. I found myself not wanting to take care of other people, just wanting to be taken care of.

When you feel like this you only have so much bandwidth to function. You’re not likely to be able to take care of everyone else in the way that you usually do. Juggling things that normally are nothing are much harder.

So, if you keep having the same expectations of yourself, but aren’t able to have the same work habits as you usually do, it creates some friction.

All of that leads to fatigue and it can get hard to take care of yourself. This one must be the hardest of all to handle. It’s unpredictable. It’s not a fever, a cold, or the stomach flu. It’s not a fight that you’ll be mad about and then make up from.

Holidays

You also have to think about the holidays. I say that now because it’s fresh on my mind that these will be the first holidays without my mom and it’s a fresh wound anyway. It’s not the first holiday I haven’t been able to be with her. We all experienced that during COVID. And I’d had others where that was true too. But I’ll be alone this Christmas and at Thanksgiving without that phone call to make where we pass it around the room.

What do you do during the holidays? How do you automate during the holidays? How do you promote? It’s time to think about not just making things happen or attaching your “success” to how much money you’re bringing in, but to how you’re doing it. Are you bringing it in in a way that is sustainable, and you love? Or are you building a business you don’t love and want to keep doing?

It’s so important to consider your answer to that. Sooner rather than later.

Had I not had time to pause I may not have realized how much I’ve carried over habits I began when business was very different to now when I can build a sustainable business and do it with more thought.

What’s the Bottomline?

The biggest take-aways from this episode are that business will have ups and downs. Those are more predictable usually, though I think we can agree the pandemic threw everyone for a loop.

But more importantly, life will have ups and downs. The way I describe ideal workout planning for women in midlife is that it’s a sweet spot of stress. Just enough, not too much not too little. So, if life is full of emotional stressors or financial ones, then the workouts should back off.

It's the Same in Business

The same is true of business. When you’re struggling with a lot of emotional stressors, or you’re trying to hit a big physical activity challenge yourself, it may not be the best time to push any business goals. Your business might plateau or even dip. Sometimes that’s ok.

At least you want it to be ok. You want to know where your space is for your breakeven. Your burn rate. Like every month I know how much my team expenses are going to be. And I know how much equipment and platform expenses will be. I want a profit margin above that.

If I’ve had a healthy couple months with a large profit margin I might expect things to be a little quiet and be fine with that, knowing my average is still up.

Resources:

Masterclass for Fitness & Health Business

Black Friday Specialist Event [add to cart for details]

 

Avoid burnout post pandemic no matter what the reason you have it.

Stop scrambling to compete with someone else.

The best way to beat comparison mode is two things:

• Know your customer better than everyone else

            What are the problems they have and want solved right now?

            What do they know now and what do you want them to know?    

            What do they feel now and what do you want them to feel? (all things you can learn in my Copywriting Course)

            Are you focused on a budget-minded shopper or someone who will spend whatever?

            Does your appearance, brand, and stance attract her or repel?

• Rise above the noise

            Instead of competing and worrying about what someone does, do your thing. No one can compete with you being better and ahead.

Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing and what parts you like and do more of that.

If what you love is teaching fitness, say you love it as much as I love researching science and breaking it down into applicable actions, then figure out a way to do more of it.

You’ve got to do the basics of choosing the right audience, knowing how to reach them, understanding how to create a funnel. But then you can and should do the things that light you up and less of those things that make the light go out.

Keep it simple instead of buying all the things you very likely don’t need.

You don’t need a YouTube channel and a podcast, and a blog all at once. Two things inform how you create valuable content. (By the way content that you share via email – if you’re still focused on social media first, you’ve got it backwards. Content starts at your website. Then you share it with your social media posts. You always, always, want to bring people to your website.)

Resources Mentioned:

Copywriting course

Burnout among personal trainers is up. Are you at risk? This post shares a new study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research – ahead of print version.

I’ve written for the fitness industry for over 20 years, published in places like Fitness Management, IDEA Health & Fitness Professionals, and NSCA’s Strength & Conditioning Journal.

While I was still lecturing in Kinesiology at Iowa State University, I often found statistics from the Labor Force demonstrating very high job satisfaction among fitness professionals. I have to include that this was at a time that more fitness jobs were still part time. Fewer individuals were actually training at even the 32 hours lumped into full time work. Many included were fitness instructors teaching a few hours a week, and personal trainers included in those statistics were self-declared fitness professionals.

Full Time?

Today, or pre-pandemic, more trainers are employed full time. Many trainers are at risk for job-related addiction which often goes undetected and because of that is promoted. Consider it yourself, what’s the stereotypical trainer like? Chicken and broccoli? Protein shakes, Lululemons, always exercising and eating perfectly? Never misses a workout, often puts clients ahead of family or friends. Allows clients to dictate work schedule. Sound familiar?

Reasons for Burnout Among Personal Trainers

Work-related stressors for trainers during the pandemic included:

• Less access to clients if they were in an in person only service delivery
• Working 100% on commission for training sessions and or experienced layoffs
• Need to adopt new training services and delivery options for multiple revenue streams without the education, experience, or skills to execute quickly
• Inability or unwillingness to pivot quickly to adapt to the new and unique problems people faced during the pandemic and new need for marketing strategies that reached them

Those stressors likely spilled over burnout among personal trainers personal lives. Financial burden and new home life changes affected all of us as home became work, gym, leisure time, and school for all of us and limited our additional sources of social support.

I’m including results from abstract in the show notes as well as the link to it. My goal is to provide you with options and suggestions for you and for your team that have been proven to support burnout.

Starting Your Own Business? Surround Yourself with Support

In times when you may or may not be able or choose to gather in person, I hope that these will help you. One thing that definitely can, in a time for many they’ve taken a risk and begun their own business is knowing that while many suffered losses during the pandemic, for others in fitness 2020 has seen a huge growth. It’s for those willing to remember that where there is a problem and a solution, there is always a business model.

If instead your burnout comes from work addiction… where you’re a trainer who finds herself (or himself) constantly reading, watching, taking courses, in addition to doing your own fitness workouts, seeking the best nutritional advice, and never breaking for your personal interests beyond your career vocation. What hobbies outside of fitness did you love, what people have you stopped spending time with, what activities do you love and lose track of time doing?

Pre vs Post Covid Results

Seventy-one subjects completed the survey before March 2020; after which, a worldwide pandemic (i.e., COVID-19) occurred possibly affecting employment workloads and work-related stress.

Thus, post hoc analyses were conducted to assess differences in burnout scores pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19.

Within PTs, 33.0% reported personal burnout, 29.6% reported work-related burnout, and 17.4% reported client-related burnout.

Higher levels of burnout, across all scales, were observed in those who were PTs, women, unmarried, living alone, would not choose to be a fitness professional again, and took the survey post-COVID as compared to their respective counterparts.

Findings suggest that fitness professionals are not exempt from the stressors associated with personal and occupational burnout. Strength and conditioning coaches and PTs may reduce the risk of burnout by increasing social support, continuing education, and allowing for personal-care time with the intention of buffering these factors.

Social Support

• Friends outside the fitness community
• Fellow trainers and colleagues within the fitness community
• Mastermind groups – to avoid burnout within personal trainers get support growing your business from people who have done what you want to do or are still doing it is required – no one does it alone

Continuing Education

• Do it to completion – for many fitness pros the shiny object syndrome means purchasing courses they never finish which can actually increase feelings of burnout and overwhelm
• Determine the value of con ed based on: 1) what it will do for your revenue and 2) what you’re most interested in and 3) how will it improve the quality of training you provide to your clients
• Plan your con ed so you’re not forced to take multiple courses at one time, at the end of your recert period when there is pressure

Personal care/Self care

• Do seek leisure time content beyond your work. Look, most trainers have science books on their nightstand. Find books, movies, and rekindle hobbies you’d forgotten. During the pandemic I personally took up reading “fluffy” novels again instead of heavier science-based content. I read Nicholas Sparks and similar books before bed, a complete diversion from the heavy work and political climate we’re in. Right now I’ll take a predictable happy ending any day.
• Schedule your breaks so work tasks aren’t an option. I know a fitness owner who goes to mass at noon most days. Find a way to recharge your batteries before they’re dead. Make (even online) dates with friends to complete tasks. You don’t even have to be working on the same thing but knowing that a friend is also focused on a project and you’re touching base again in an hour, keeps you on track.
• Rethink your workouts. During the pandemic when other areas are cranked up the tough workout you think you need may need to take a backseat to less. Before you hit the wall, consider getting exercise instead of driving yourself to illness. I know a trainer who thinks he’s fit because he runs 10 miles most days. Honestly, he’s sick more than most people I know. That’s not fitness, especially not in this climate.

Modify for the Times

I’m an 8-time Ironman. I’ve been swimming for 30-40 minutes a few times a week and doing a 30-minute weight training session a couple of times a week along with a lot of walking. Train for the energy you need instead of training as if you’re not in a pandemic, don’t have stress. For women especially, less is more if you want to avoid hormonal disruption that actually leads to sleep issues, and weight gain.

Burnout Among Personal Trainers

Burnout among personal trainers is up and job satisfaction is down the greater number of hours you work or perceive you work even if you’re not earning money. This is a pivotal time in history and in fitness. You have a unique and never to be experienced again opportunity because the pandemic has created additional problems that require solutions for those who are willing to go beyond just providing online classes and training via Skype and Zoom. Are you ready to create multiple sources of revenue? Be somewhere else and still be providing value and earning revenue. Click here for details.

Resource:

Snarr, Ronald L.1; Beasley, Vista L.2 Personal, Work-, and Client-Related Burnout Within Strength and Conditioning Coaches and Personal Trainers, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: January 22, 2021 - Volume Publish Ahead of Print - Issue -

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=burnout%20among%20personal%20trainers

Do you pay yourself first? Meaning both do you pay yourself a wage and do you give yourself time off to recover and time you plan to workout exactly the way you’d tell your clients to?

This post is just for you. Because most trainers who have started their business in 2020 don’t yet have the business side of things down. How to pay themselves, how much, when, whether that’s moving money from one account to the other or it’s a business check… first steps first. Let’s talk about how much the job you’re doing is worth and how can show up to do it best.

Pay Yourself First

As a fitness entrepreneur I would bet you fall into one of two categories.

1 – You don’t pay yourself enough. You take a payment from your business only if you make money and you move it to your personal account when you need it.

You pay yourself less than you would pay anyone else for the same job you do. You will workout before anything else, there’s no way you skip that but you’re not as disciplined when it comes to running your business

2 – You don’t give yourself the same disciplined exercise and nutrition support as you do your clients to get. You get caught at your computer, returning emails and phone calls and writing your programs … and don’t eat, don’t get up often enough, don’t workout the way you should, drink too much coffee…. And you promise yourself that tomorrow will be better, that when you catch up, or when you make enough money it will be different.

If they’re not perfect descriptions for you, they’re very close.

How do I know? 37 years of doing it myself. One or the other or both. And even if I have made huge leaps and bounds… 2020 put me right back a few steps.

In fact, today… this year I’m committing to two things myself, I pay myself first… 1)with workouts. No more .. work straight through from 5am to 11am or noon and miss the workout I wanted to do.

… and 2) with support staff. I paid myself crap for much of 2020. As we all did, I cut expenses everywhere I could to balance the months where panic was evident and spending from customers was down. But… as business took off (and it definitely did) I continued to do jobs that could have been done by someone for $10-15 an hour instead of the value that I have in the company.

You Can Afford It: You Can't Afford Not To

You may have always wanted to hear this from someone… the sun rises and sets with you. But in your business, it’s true. Yet, it’s not the podcast production, or the blog posts or the scheduling of clients or social media posting… it’s in the vision and the programs and products only you can make and the team of support that only you can lead.

No one else on your team should see themselves as a visionary of your business. You’ve got a problem if that’s true. You hire a team to implement the things that you can’t. Within their scope of practice – say technology – they can tell you what’s possible when you’ve described to them what you want, but YOU and only you, call the shots.

So.. if you aren’t sure how to not do it all… and you aren’t sure

• if how you spend time is the BEST use of your time
• how to create systems and schedules that fit with the growth you want
• how to be more than a fitness instructor or health coach with a “certification” or collection of them

Then let’s change that.

Now Is the Time

If you have the skills, the heart, and the desire to help without the marketing and sales skills your business will be just a dream. Or a nightmare… lots of time money and energy but not much to show for it.

It’s something you like to call a business but truly couldn’t survive if that’s all you had to depend on to survive.

I know how that feels. And I know the mistakes… I’ve made them. You don’t need another certification. Even after you get it, or another degree, you need to market, to sell, to have visibility and a voice.

You're Invited

Meet me Thursday evening January 7th. Whether you want to work with women in midlife where I’ve made my niche, or you have a niche you love, the ability to

• create an offer,
• increase the number of customers you sell it to or
• increase the amount of that sale, and
• save on expenses that are unnecessarily killing your profit

...are skills every fitness entrepreneur needs.

I’m going to host a 5-day challenge so you can grow your social media reach – organically – you won’t spend a dime on it unless you choose to. Stay posted on that… it happens in the next two weeks.

Paying Yourself First: Where do you start?

For paying yourself you’ve got to look at what you’d get paid if you were working at another comparable employer. If you buy your own insurance or would if you didn’t have a spouse you were covered under, you want to factor that in, too.

Look around a little as if you were seeking a job. What are the offers you’d consider? Is it hourly? Salary? Commission? What is the compensation package and then determine if you’re paying yourself that kind of wage for the time that you’re putting in. If not, something has to change, my friend.

You need to raise your rates.

You need to sell to more people (that is if you have the time)

You need to create an online program that stands alone or that is a compliment to your one-on-one training

Or you want to do a combination of all of the above

You Won't Lose Clients

Now don’t panic. If the best answer for you is raise your rates because you’re out of time, and the reason is you’re in demand, there’s a good chance that when you raise your rates you not only get better clients, but you also get a bigger waiting list.

It’s just how it works. Everyone wants the best. If your marketing messages your quality and that matches the rate you position yourself with, it can work beautifully.

You’ll find potentially you’re no longer attracting those most likely to drop out. You’re attracting business owners, lawyers and realtors who are busy. They do the work, and they show up for appointments.

Making Time for Your Self Care

This one is going to require delegating. Either someone who does it faster than you, or can do for less per hour than you’re worth what you can do.

For you to remember what it’s like not to be tied to your phone or have a laptop constantly with you, you’ve got to give up some control. That’s it right? That’s the reason you won’t delegate.

Because if you go back to the hourly rate you’re worth – whether it’s $30 on average or it’s $50 or $95 that you could be earning in a session and instead you’re creating graphics for social media posts? That’s crazy when you could hire someone to do that for $8 – 15.

But you’re saying they won’t do it the way you want them to. They could. If you create ONE important piece of content called a Style Guide.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

Fitnessmarketingmastery.com Scroll down to the style guide template to download

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

Whether it's a Yelp review or it's your own observation, every business can experience that moment when customer support sucks. Here's 3 reasons it does and what to do about it. 

#1 Cause of Customer Support Sucks

There’s no “delight” factor.

• Do you ever surprise them? In fact, do you surprise them as soon as they buy?
• Do you surprise them for no special reason?

Sending little gifts – even as small as a pdf, or a video – that is unexpected can change the relationship you have with your customers.

Is there something fun that happens on the phone, when they log in, when they get an email, or stop in your front door?

If you’ve got a receptionist or a front desk staffer who seems to suck the life out of you, it’s probably happening for members too. Often someone who needs attention themselves may want to have a front desk position. Be sure you recognize someone who wants to be the center of attention from someone who wants to make a customer feel like the center of attention.

Authentically Own Your Mistakes

Every business has technical issues or a customer who isn’t as comfortable navigating online whether it’s Facebook groups and pages or a webinar or your member’s area. So do I. When I have someone who is upset, whether they want to cancel or whatever, and I can I personally either

• Call them
• Send a video text

And they’re so surprised. No one does that anymore. If they see you on social media or YouTube videos, you are a sort of celebrity to them. Just taking the time to let them know you’re sorry they had a poor experience, admitting it was a problem you too were frustrated with if that’s appropriate, and letting them know what you can do, is often enough to turn someone who wanted to cancel into someone who is grateful for your support.

It’s not easy. You and I can take it so very personally. But if your customer support sucks, even for a minute and it wasn’t your fault, own it.

#2 Cause of Customer Support Sucks

My Pleasure vs No Worries

Did you know when you say “no problem” or “no worries” you actually tell a customer they were a pain in the ass? The brain doesn’t process “no” or “don’t” – those negatives.

Instead, relay that:

• It was an absolute pleasure to serve you.
• Of course, I am here to serve you.
• I was happy to do that.
• I am glad to make it easy and smooth for you!
• Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.

It matters! To the customer and to your customer service staff. If they can’t say it, or feel uncomfortable saying it, they likely aren’t your source of customer delight.

I’ve said it and you’ve said it, though, right? No worries! Hanging out with your friends and family maybe it’s okay. But this small thing is a big think in terms of the psychological impact of words on your customers. Remember your role. You are only there to serve them. Let that shine through that this is what brings you joy… making their day.

You can go from customer service sucks reviews to raving fans. 

#3 Cause of Customer Support Sucks

Instead of Over and Over, Fix It Once

They’re fixing things with a one-off that should be fixed at the root of the problem

I had a customer support staff member quit abruptly. After an f-bomb and then followed by a “have fun in the support box” wish. During the middle of COVID19.

Best thing that has happened to my business for 14 months (since he started). Only, I didn’t know it at the time. I thought he was doing okay. Customers did like his ability to help quickly. However, unbeknownst to me – and that is 110% my fault – he was creating more problems than he was solving.

What Problem Solving Ability Does Your Support Have?

Because he was just fixing same problems over and over and assuming that was his job, he never pointed out that he was repeatedly having to do the same – literally – task for specific programs.

Like training clients, you don’t want to give them a stretch to relieve low back pain. You want to find out why they’re experiencing low back pain. I needed to know this kept coming up over and over so we could have identified months ago that more people than were every asking customer support for help were coming to the site and going away unhappy. 

Keep Training Even After You Hire

He could only do what he was capable of doing. He could follow instructions, but he couldn’t see the bigger picture. The system of having him track frequently asked questions wasn’t detailed enough to give me insight on the isolated problems we could easily have fixed.

Then I, in effort to pick up the slack was in my own support box for about 2 weeks. It was eye-opening and again, worst and best thing that could have happened. We’ve fixed and automated so much in the last two months we’re increasing traffic, increasing leads, and increasing revenue at a dramatically greater pace.

How do you set this up?

First in hiring staff members you’ve got to take them through some problem-solving questions. Literally, give them some scenarios that happen in your business. How would they proceed to solve those, what would they look for, how would they document, and how would they language the customer?

If your customer support sucks, whether you ARE your customer support or there’s someone else handling it, like me, you’re responsible.

• Test it. Optin to your own funnels.
• Send secret spies into your business and have them call your business during regular and off hours.
• Get reports about the experience.
• Take a look at the consistency of different staff members and different time of day.

Imagine how inconvenient it is for someone to stop in during evening or weekend hours when they want to use your services and find no one can help them with gaining access. Does that happen in your business on or offline?

How can you prevent it from happening?

Always Open

There’s a rock and hard place with online business. You promise 24/7 solutions and access. But if your customer is in her tights and wants to workout and can’t access her account at 7am Saturday morning you better have some automation or someone to help. Customer support sucks if a customer can’t get help to use your product or service when they want to.

Going from “customer support sucks” to raving fans isn’t easy. Best and worst thing about our jobs is working with people – and technology – and people who are very opinionated about technology.

You can do this if you remember why they’re upset and take control of the things you can.

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

Note: this episode was recorded a few weeks before things began opening up. No matter when you listen you'll hear a leader making pivots, share how to stay calm and make rational decisions.

How do you stay calm during these times? Anxiety does not discriminate right now. How are you doing? I’ve brought on a friend and colleague to chat about COVID19 as a business owner and talk about opening up, right now opportunities, and what she’s been thinking and doing.

My guest:

Robin Robertson has owned and operated the Bellingham Training & Tennis Club for 20 years and ushered in a 600% growth in membership while she took the club from a mom & pop 4 court tennis club to its current world-class facility with 5 indoor tennis courts, two strength studios, an indoor cycling studio, locker rooms stocked with amenities and a cozy member lounge with fireplace and free coffee. She is also the founder of Healthy Knees Coach and author of “Healthy Knees Cycling” with a new book due in May called “Healthy Knees Strength.”

Questions we covered in this episode:

• What are you doing to stay calm in COVID19? 
• What concerns you most right now?
• How are you pivoting or what did you already have in place to help business?
• What do you think is going to change about brick-and-mortar vs. virtual gymberships? 
• Suggestions for listeners who want it to "be over" and "go back to the way it was"?
• How can your business prepare to reopen?
• Other ways Robin mentioned they're making good use of this time:

We are rewriting our standard operating procedures for cleanliness, creating options for members to purchase branded equipment packs so they have their own of the harder to clean like bands, talking about putting fears to ease with how to space in group training, what to do about indoor cycling spacing and ventilation)

Connect with Robin:

www.betrainingtennis.com    

www.healthykneescoach.com

robin@healthykneescoach.com  or robin@betrainingtennis.com 

Resources we mentioned:

Book:

• Profit First – Mike Mikalowitz

Program:

• Wealthywellthy.com - Krisstina Wise

Show notes: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/COVID19-update

Fitness Leaders are Needed More Than Ever

This is Debra Atkinson and you’re listening to the VrF professional’s podcast, brought to you by the Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist. For trainers who want to make working with women in midlife their niche and want to own it with a hormone balancing exercise method that has worked for thousands of women since 2013.

Right now is the time to learn, create content and programs that grow your business. The world is at home. And online. And looking for you.

I’ll share the link to get more details on the trainers and health coaches we’re looking for to join our team.

How else are you spending your time now? Fitness leaders … and I mean that in every sense of the word: those of you who stand in the front of the room and lead classes, who do it one-to-one, and who deliver it face to face or online or by phone, and to those of you who lead those staff meetings and pump up everyone else’s tires even now when you don’t have answers because you’ve never had this problem before.

Who are you being right now?

Scared or Scrappy

Are you focused on the problems and how bad it is? Is it a mess? or an opportunity?

What do you talk about every day? Is it a bigger deal that you can’t get your hair and nails done or that you can’t help your clients in their time of need the way you’ve done business up until now?

Fitness leaders get scrappy. They learn to do what me and everyone else is doing right now and that is pivot. You do that by figuring it out as you go. The answers are there. You just can’t look to anyone else to find them.

You can’t expect to do business now the same way you did Before Corona (BC). You can’t even expect to do business after it’s over the same way you did so it’s time to get scrappy about that fact right now. Those over-packed group classes may not be packed again. Those shared yoga mats and TRX and battle ropes, and spinning bike handles may not appeal to your clients any more.

Sanitizing them – even if you can - is not helpful. Not in the world we’re in now that is governed by a respiratory illness.

What you did two months ago and the way you did business isn’t relevant right now. If you weren’t online, you potentially are right now, and yet are you doing this as a bridge? Or just doing what you can to get by? This is an opportunity fitness leaders are grabbing to create a hybrid business.

Needy or Creative

Are you spending time asking someone else for answers? Someone who also has never lived through a global pandemic?Why would you suspect anyone else would have the answers? They are in the exact moment you are in.

You may be reaching out to them because they deal with stress better. They’re more resilient. See that for what it is and value it. Try to understand why and understand that they don’t spend the majority of their time wasting energy on negative content or online “news.”

Then begin to get creative. What if you did know the answer already? What if you got creative with your time right now?

Companies that are used to making triathlon kits for elite athletes are sewing masks. Surely you can make some creative changes in the way you’re doing what you do that contributes as opposed to ignores what’s happening now.

Create a New Answer

What if you didn’t try to just compete with the noise online providing another one of thousands of workouts available right now?

What if you stood out? Why would you? What aren’t your customers and clients finding? What aren’t those millions of people who weren’t exercising before COVID19 and already fit finding?

Right now, they too are online more. Right now, they still are not potentially finding answers that serve them – who might be overweight, deconditioned, feeling awkward, depressed and alone.

How can you creatively serve them?

Seeing Problems or Problem Solving

If you’re focused on the gym being closed, the fact clients don’t want you to come over or to come to you you’re missing out. If you focus on people not spending money right now, you are seeing problems. You’re potentially seeing problems that don’t exist right now. Not everyone is not spending money. Talk to anyone.

People are Buying Both Wants and Needs

They’ve likely bought something in the last week that they wanted. It wasn’t a necessity. They placed an order on Amazon or somewhere else. There are people who are actually working more and making more – not because they’re content collecting unemployment or stimulus checks – but because they have a service or product that is needed right now.

Fitness leaders are problem solving right now. If you see a problem your customers have and you can create a solution appropriate for this time, you have a business. Your customer’s problems now are not the same as they were 2 months ago. Don’t repackage it and think that if it’s digital on Zoom or Skype you’re set.

Right Now or Forever?

That is a right now answer that won’t help you in the future. So I understand if you have to get something going on right now so that you have revenue coming in you may start with virtual classes and sessions you can charge for. Go deeper. How can you really create a more scalable service and business?

If you see the same kind of client problems regularly, and you can help someone with a low-ticket offer they can use right now, you’re much more valuable than that trainer who targets a broad audience.

If you’ve been told by anyone that you need to have a “broader appeal” you’ve been given bad advice. You want to have a niche and you want to be the best at it. If you run a gym or facility of any kind and want to serve a broader audience you hire more experts.

If you are in a geographically challenged area with a small population base, then you need first to be come the expert in one thing. You can add another area of expertise after that, and after that. But you can’t ever again be a trainer for “everyone.”

Every Client Has Unique Needs

A working mother of 3 who’s a cancer survivor wants a trainer who understands lymphedema first and weight loss second. You can’t train her like you train other weight loss clients.

A woman in menopause who wants weight loss can’t be trained like you train a 20 year old who wants weight loss.

Critical or Courageous?

If you’re being critical of someone who has more money right now, stop. You’d love to be in their place. Feeling secure and safe. And yet you if you get honest haven’t been willing to do the same degree of work to get there, take the same amount of risks, or lived within your means not beyond them.

There is nothing congruent about the fact you won’t do or didn’t do what it took to get to the same point – whether that was ask for help, learn a skill or learn how to save and keep your money once you made it.

If you say to someone “you don’t understand” isn’t it true that you delivered the message? You didn’t communicate it well.

If you’ve said, “I’m just a personal trainer” or “personal trainers don’t make that much money” then you’ve got the limiting belief that stopped you. No one else said that. I earned 6 figures as a trainer and director. You can earn 5 figures working 3 days a week (I’ll link to a recent show with Stu Schaefer in the show notes).

Everything you have and everything you don’t right now is the result of a choice.

What Did You Choose

Did you choose to live paycheck-to-paycheck? Did you ignore your profit-and-loss statement? Did you spend for support that you didn’t keep an eye on closely enough to know it was hurting you?

You made the choices based on the facts you had. If you can honestly look back and say you didn’t make the best decisions, don’t wallow in that. You can choose again right now to do it differently.

COVID19 is no one’s fault. None of us saw it coming. Never in history has this happened. Fitness leaders aren’t busy pointing fingers and feeling sorry for themselves. They’re productively exploring the problems people have right now and the skills, talents, and knowledge they have that could provide answers.

Fitness Leaders Show Up in Tough Times

Who you are as a fitness leader is what will determine your After COVID (AC). If you’re showing up, asking, and listening to your customers you can identify ways to be successful during and after COVID19.

Fitness leaders aren’t only calling someone else asking for help. Though they’re not afraid to ask for something specific. They’re calling offering help and ideas, sharing solutions that could grow into products and services.

And this will feel so much better.

You’re a leader. Lead.

What are experienced fitness professionals doing to help clients and customers and their own coping with COVID19?

Alex has been in the human performance industry for over two and a half decades. She is the founder of Vitalé Studio, a holistic lifestyle coaching model where she guides clients  how to amplify their healthy, become fully engaged with life and define their  practices of happiness. Alex passion is to help people at the work force to sustain high performance while maintaining vibrant health, energy and happiness. 

Alex has been coaching high performance for almost 25 years. Her clients include entrepreneurs and team/business leaders who want to increase mental, emotional and physical fitness in order to cope with the great challenges that leading a work force can bring. 

Alex’s philosophy is that by creating habits to restore and recover the body/mind, anyone can perform at their highest levels with a healthy lifestyle. She shares sound and simple psychological and physiological tools that take people from surviving in stress to thriving in stress. 

How can you connect and get in front of customers and clients?

What are hearing is hardest for people right now and what they need. What's working for you to connect with people and support them?

Can you connect via Skype, Facetime and or zoom calls (Zoom is waiving fees I believe for new users right now during this to make it easier on businesses that otherwise see clients/patients live). 

Could you be doing news broadcasts and being helpful solutions for media that share real, and valuable vs inflammatory negative information?

Could you be creating YouTube or membership site videos giving access to the public not just members for now?

Are you going live on Facebook regularly? Are you choosing times when people might be most likely to be on - and feeling isolated or alone?

What other ideas do you have?

What are you doing right now to take care of yourself to show up for your clients and customers?

How can listeners connect with you and follow you further even watch over your shoulder on Facebook?

https://www.Vitalestudio.com

https://www.facebook.com/alexgil

https://facebook.com/masteryourenergy

 

 

 

3 Steps to Productivity for Personal Trainers in Times of Uncertainty

I’m tackling the topic of productivity for personal trainers in this episode. The uncertainty can be stifling. You can easily lose a day by not giving yourself every opportunity to take control. One look at the news or social media can rob you of a productive day you feel good about.

You may be wondering, productivity for personal trainers? Are you kidding?? I have no clients, no gym to train in, and no income.

I get it. We’re all nervous. We’re not all ready for weeks or months without what was our income. What do we do?

I’ve got three steps that are a must.

1. Create a Routine
   1. Write it out – an hourly schedule will not just give you more productivity it will improve your health
   2. Include everything – when you wake, eat, exercise, shower, work, take care of your kids/pets, look at the news, connect with your colleagues/friends/family/clients, food prep, get fresh air, sleep
   3. Stick to it – like you’re still working and getting paid for it

2. Choose 3 Tasks to focus on
   1. The same project finished is much more valuable than three projects half done. You can create something that you can monetize in three days or you can work on three things in three days that you still can’t do anything with.
   2. You can get a better idea of something you can work on now that will help you in the near future by completing step #3 – so come back to this when you have done ALL the homework there

3. Identify the Answer You Are
   1. Who do you want to serve
   2. What is the #1 problem they need help with now
   3. What is your skill set
   4. What skills do you still need (do this last: focus on the what, without worrying about the how)

The biggest action you can take is work on your mindset. Do that throughout. Start first thing in the morning and finish last thing before your close your eyes.

Mindset Shift

If you’ve got limiting beliefs you’ve got to remember that you may be going down road that isn’t there. You’ve just imagined it. If you’re not careful with mindset, none of this productivity for personal trainers tip sheet is going to help you. You will create your reality based on the thoughts that you have. You’ve got to lose these:

• Not everyone is not spending money.
• Not everyone is stopping services and subscriptions.

That may be your limited thinking.

In fact, the value of health, wellness, and fitness are higher at this moment.

The value of community and connection are higher.

Many people are more acutely aware of their health than ever. This will forever change the way people think about fitness and health. It will forever change the way they value their gyms or that they realize online fitness is convenient and just as valuable.

Some people are investing in home exercise equipment. They’ve got a home gym and they need help optimizing it.

They know what they’ve always done but they don’t know how to optimize it for immunity.

Digitally Thoughtful

You’re watching fitness professionals try to take their business online quickly. Maybe that’s you. You’re seeing to many randomly throw workouts up online (literally vomit, in my opinion).  There’s no custom-designed, personal, training. It’s a trainer personality-based random exercise. Facebook right now has become a YouTube. There’s no progression, there’s no assessing where a client is, or focus on one “avatar.” (define your customer: it’s not everybody, or all women, or people with special conditions: get specific)

There is evidence trainers are panicking and reverting to what they know best. They’ve gone into exercise mode. Let me do a workout with them. Let me show them how good they can look.

Yet, trainers are not really there. Those who show up, who are with their clients and customers and help by listening by creating a sense of community will win. The regular and consistent, and right now frequent sense of stability that you bring to people is important right now. Be with them. You’ve been a staple in their lives through divorce, through children’s milestones, through family tragedy and celebrations. Be with them now. Yes, stay in your lane AND add value. Provide resources.

If you understand parasympathetic stimulation, talk about it. If you understand gut health and the relationship to immunity, talk about it. If you don’t, talk about the resources you’re using to learn more and that you’ll be sharing and ask them to share.

There is always something to say. It is not about what core exercise to do or how to throw a kettle bell around. Not right now.

This is the time to tap into your own life. What have you loved and hated about it? What have you wished was different? How did you want it different? You have the opportunity right now to create it. Rather than wish it all back where it was a couple weeks ago, will a new opportunity into reality.

You’ll be doing something right now. You’ll be thinking something right now. You’ll experience time passing right now. Will you be smarter, more prepared, have a changed business that you’re excited about when this is passed?

Trainers who pivot, collaborate, connect, and communicate well during this will be the trainers who thrive, potentially during this and, after this.

You can start that right now. Now is not time to pull back. Now is time to lead. Leaders lead.

My guest is Erin Carson, co-owner and Operating Manager at RallySport Boulder, and trainer to some of the world’s greatest endurance athletes if not America’s athlete sweethearts. She is also a world class age-group athlete herself. She's a leader in so many ways and I tapped into her knowledge and gut feelings about the future of fitness and the fitness industry in this special episode. 

1) What’s the Corona fitness climate in Boulder right now?

What are you doing online now to connect with your customers now? How are you serving them differently?

2) You and Melissa your co-owner and partner sent out a special email yesterday about how you’re supporting your salaried staff and your customers right now – share a bit of that

You wanted to add to the conversation about taking care of your people?

3) I’ve seen you – very early on – be one of the first and potentially only individual/business owner/fitness professional offer to help get groceries, run errands and just basically serve… those with compromised immune systems. How can others focus on who they are that will impact the future of fitness?

4) You also made a statement and PSA about being careful right now with workouts…

With so many choices given all fitness pros are jumping online and offering workouts and plans ….It was a word of caution – let’s talk about that because it was great advice.

5) What about the integrity issue you’re seeing either emerge?

6) How are you personally buffing up your immune system?

7) I’m going to ask you to speculate on the future of fitness which is dangerous and yet I think by doing it we may help any trainers listening… What do you think this period in history will do for the fitness industry? We’ll all be changed from this – how do you think the fitness industry – and let’s bring it down to individual personal trainers… how will trainers be impacted by this? And in the end… how will this effect consumers?

Clearly this is the first week of real impact of the Corona virus. Stay tuned for more as we explore how each of our businesses is changing. 

Connect:

Instagram @Ecfitboulder

for a discount code for an Oura ring

Connect with Erin:

ecfitboulder.com https://ecfitstrength.com/

Find the show notes at:

https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/future-of-fitness

 

 

 

 

 

How to Stop Being So Busy So You Can Be Productive

Are you so busy that you can’t take a day off? Yet you’re number one wish is to make more money from personal training? You’re not alone. If you’re a director, manager, or personal trainer, most likely you are doing a lot of things. You wear a lot of hats and you are so busy you may feel like you’re not even loving this career choice any more

Training a Niche?

This episode is brought to you by the Flipping 50 Specialist. It is the first and only hormone balancing fitness training for personal trainers and health coaches specifically focused on working with women in perimenopause, menopause and perimenopause.

As an advanced specialist you get a listing in the trainer directory. The number one question I’m asked after a media appearance or speaking to a women’s group is how do I find trainers who know this.

And the back end of your course is all about how to be productive, position, and package services your customers want so you’re less busy and more productive in that marketing time.

I’ve got you covered. It’s flippingfifty.com/specialist

First 50 for 50% off in 2020. Use certificate50

Getting things done that make you more money from personal training is very different than just being busy. For instance as a personal training director, I was busy doing personal training AND running the program. Until I let go of all but about 10 hours of training a week I wasn't really productive doing the things that grow 2 dozen people's business.

Questions I answer (and ask you) in this episode:

• Are you busy and is it paying off? Or Are you just overwhelmed?

            Busyness is a comfort zone.

• Are you putting in time you have to for it to pay off later?

            When you first begin podcasting, doing Facebook lives, offering free seminars, or free consultations… you do have to pay your dues for a while. You have to build up an audience.

• Are you avoiding the fear and anxiety that sets in when you’re not busy?

            For a lot of us, and I was one, being busy prevents us from feeling that the fear that this isn’t working, that we’re not making enough money, and becomes an obstacle for learning what will work.

But the danger is that you can convince yourself “I’m working so hard. I’ve tried everything.” But truthfully you’ve tried what’s comfortable and doing more of what’s comfortable – it’s a lot like clients who got to you doing a lot of what isn’t working and ended up injured, exhausted, or at least frustrated.

It’s doing the right thing that’s going to get results… not just more of the wrong thing. So you have to really be honest with yourself and look at some concrete evidence that what you’re doing is getting traction. Measure the fans and followers. Measure the email list subscribers. Measure the engagement you’re getting when you discuss certain topics or on specific social media platforms.

• Are you measuring and testing your actions so you can become more productive?

            That is the key. So if you’re busy writing blogs and your audience isn’t even reading blogs, they prefer to listen to podcasts, you may need to switch gears. Maybe that doesn’t mean you go all in and do a podcast but you do a regular Facebook live show or live stream YouTube (or both simultaneously) if they want to listen (and or watch). And then you have to remember that you do not own those platforms! So download those videos and put them on your website.

Connect:

Flippingfifty.com/specialist

Use certificate50 for 50% off if you're one of the first 50 in 2020!

Thanks for leaving a rating in iTunes!

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For support both creating a lucrative niche who is seeking answers and leveraging marketing that works, the Flipping50 Specialist is a perfect match. You'll find it both on Flippingfifty.com and fitnessmarketingmastery.com because some of the absolute best trainers and health coaches are this population of midlife women themselves. Is that you? 

 

 

 

 

Got a Growth Mindset? or Hurting Your Business Unknowingly?

This month on the book review we’re … well, we’re playing a big game of catch up!

We’re picking up right back where we left off after a review of Dark Horse and Good to Great. I’ll link to that podcast in case you missed it and you’re looking for intriguing summer reads (or audio books).

 How Do You "READ"?

And I’m curious, I’d love to hear from you about how you consume books in 2019. Do you read or do you listen? Just respond either below the show notes at fitnessmarketingmastery.com/growth-mindset or in the social media post where you saw this.

The Book:

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

The Reviewer:

Tom Durkin, Owner operator Ames Fitness and Fitness World Ankeny in the Midwest.  The CEO of Health & Fitness Management and 40 years experience in fitness industry sales and management. Not a silent partner but someone in buildings every day responding to phone calls, emails, of 315 employees and thousands of customers. He like so many others who have successful track records is a voracious reader and has a personal library of over 2000 books.

If you’re new to fitness, meaning just 10 or 15 years of experience, you may not understand how longevity is rare. There are not a lot of independent owners of fitness who have created profitable sustainable businesses that influenced thousands of lives for 40 years. That’s someone’s book recommendation you want to take seriously. 

The Fixed vs. Growth Mindset 

The entire book is based on the Fixed vs. Growth mindset. It’s intended for parents, coaches, and leaders of any kind. The purpose is to help those in charge cultivate a growth mindset. So whether you are in charge of others or have children, or you want to take charge of your own mindset, this is for you.

In work, sports, relationships mindset matters. Sports is potentially most applicable to listeners though all are relevant.

Sample Mindset Differences

Fixed mindset says... I'm a natural… good or bad 

Growth mindset says... I don't really know how good I could be because I haven't put in a lot of effort at it 

Fixed mindset says... I'm not comfortable with that

Growth mindset says... I've never done that, I can't wait to learn, this will be an interesting challenge

Fixed mindset says.... I don't want to do that I'm not good at it

Growth mindset says.... I am determined to get better at this, I love learning what the steps are, it stimulates me 

Fixed mindset says.... If I don't win I fail

Growth mindset says.... this was a great learning experience! 

There are always going to be “no” responses in fitness sales. We discussed the growth mindset in praising and rewarding effort. 

Is this book a must-read? Yes!

Other books coming up in our books fitness professionals should-read series:

• The Obesity Code
• 9 of the Worst Mistakes You Can Ever Make At Work
• Trillion Dollar Coach
• Peak by Mark Bubbs

Book mentioned:

Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

Check out the other book review episodes: 

Dark Horse and Good to Great

2 Must-Reads for Fitness Professionals

My guest today is Karla from Arizona and a shout out to FitnessFest events where we ran into each other.

Karla asked a couple great questions that I have a hunch may be of interest to you too.

Whether you’re got a business you want to grow, you’re itching to leave working for a boss and interested in launching a fitness business  or somewhere between this live coaching call can help you too. 

BACKGROUND:

I teach yoga for community andemployeesin the school district in which I work. I use a school within the district to teach my classes.  I run the classes via the “Academic Support Systems” department. So, it’s kind of my own thing, but yet runs through the school district.  I don’t have much support getting the school district to “advertise” for me with social media, as I don’t think they like the word “yoga” and it’s connotations; all I get is a paper flyer that is sent out via e-mail to the school secretaries to post/display by teacher mailboxes.  

QUESTION:

Is there a way to use social media on my own to promote my classes? Can I set up my own webpage or Facebook page for this?  What other types of social media can I use?  I am not very techie and have very little experience with social media…I’m 58 years old and just getting started understanding how it all works.

ANSWER:

YES! By all means! The School should love that you do it. Does the school have a page? If so tag them. Start posting regularly.

Share an article that is supportive of the purpose of the classes you teach. Who pays you? What is the mission of the agency paying you or hosting you? What can you share in alignment with that mission?

While they may not see value in promoting or hosting. They will see great value if they start getting positive PR from what you do.

QUESTION:

I am also working on my Health & Wellness Coach certification (will be done in Sept/Oct.). I already am certified with the following:  ACE Group Fitness, RYT 500 Yoga, Cycling, NCSF Personal Training.  I would like to start my own LLC, but not sure how to start out getting clients.  What are the most powerful ways to start using social media to get going?

ANSWER:

First, you don’t need an LLC to start getting clients. Launching a fitness business involves testing the concept first. You need a website.

Then if you’re using social media you’re using it to drive people to a website. You have zero control over social media. It’s here but you have nothing to show for anything you do there unless you have a way for them to come off social media onto your website and an EMAIL list. You must begin building an email list. Use Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or Aweber for free or $5 until you have more subscribers but get it. And a way for people to sign up on your website so you can then communicate with them.

The best use of social media is video. Video.video. Live, recorded, shared.

QUESTION:

I also am trying to narrow down my focus (target audience) as you had mentioned in your presentation at FitnessFest.It’s hard because there are so many aspects of fitness that I love and want to share!  Here are a few of my ideas:

• Beginners to exercise…people who are hesitant to get started…easy, practical, fun and “do-able” ways to get moving and be healthy
• Yoga for beginners
• Health/Wellness Coaching (in person and on-line)

ANSWER:

I think you can easily combine these. When launching a fitness business you do want to focus but these overlap. Your market may not know they’re looking for yoga. They know they’re beginners. They also may not know they’re looking for health & wellness coaching (it’s intangible) but they know they should be exercising. You can start there. But that’s not still a niche. Is this a beginner who’s 20 or who’s 50? Or 70?

Is it a male? Or a female?

Is it a married or single person?

Someone budget minded or with money to burn?

Why aren’t they exercising now? What have they tried? What do they hate about exercise and personal trainers?

When you're launching a fitness business the biggest mistake trainers or business owners make is thinking they know what the customer is really thinking.

QUESTION:

Bottom line… I am scared…I have worked FOR a school district (stable job/money, insurance, etc.) my whole life. I have had the “itch” to do something in the health/wellness area for 25+ years!  I have always taught fitness classes as a “second career”, but I want to try something maybe part-time to transition.  Not sure if I should just jump in and do it full-time or do it little by little.  I know there’s no easy answer for that!  Any thoughts or words of wisdomJ?

 ANSWER:

START.. keep your job, but do a side hustle. Launching a fitness business has to have deadlines but you want a safety net. Get some steady income coming in. Start with who you know. Are there teachers not exercising that want to? You’ve got a pool of clients. Who possibly want the same time slot. So begin a group and optimize your time.

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Are you great or desire to be? Do you have a conventional education or not? Questions we answer with our book review today.

My cohost Tom Durkin

Owner operator Ames Fitness and Fitness World Ankeny in Midwest, CEO of Health & Fitness Management, 40 years in fitness industry sales and management. He has over 2000 books in his personal library. He manages over 315 employees daily at multiple facilities. 

Questions we answer in todays episode: 

• What book (or books) are we talking about today and who are the authors?

Great by Choice– Jim Collins

Dark Horse-Todd Rose

• How influenced are you - or should others be - on "best seller lists" ? If they're simply popularity contests based on the best marketing and promotion campaigns, there are likely some bombs on those lists and some "sleepers" out there that no one else knows about until a review like this.
• What's been the best and most reliable source of what-to-read-next for you? 
• How much does the author's background, credentials, and experience matter to you in your selection of what to read next? 
• What made these books review-worthy?
• What are the biggest take-aways from Great by Choice?

Are you living up to your potential?

Who are you competing against? Are you great compared to them?

Are you fulfilled and full according to your goal?

Am I taking the steps to do it? 

• What steps can you take to be great by choice?

1. Talk to people to create rapport, offer a session, use a script, ask for a sale
2. Have a list of leads
3. Book speeches, presentations, creating podcasts articles
4. Be prepared, planned for the customers you have
5. Measure how many times you’ve done each of these steps regularly (daily, weekly)

“People who are great by choice have clear performance markers.”

- Tom Durkin, 40-year fitness industry owner & manager 

• What are three take-aways from Dark Horse? 

Everybody has talent. There are many pathways to success and fulfillment. A non-traditional approach doesn’t necessarily put you at a disadvantage. 

• Could a non-traditional approach be an asset? In fitness, not having a degree or starting late in life, for example might be an asset.
• What do you think of the statement “Being Different, is Better than Being Better”?

Another book this is reminiscent of - Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell. (not on our review list right now)

If you had to recommend a top 10 books to read on habits of successful people... would either or both make the cut? 

No to Great By Choice

No to Dark Horse

Up next in our book club review:

Mindset– by Carol Dweck

Have you read Great by Choice or Dark Horse?

Got Your Continuing Education Credits Planned for 2019?

No matter when you’re listening to this episode, continuing education and rejuvenation is always timely. As we record at the beginning of February though it’s a time when fitness pros are looking at annual con-ed budgets and live conferences, continuing education, combining get-aways with business building and that brings me to my guest today.

Before we dive in.. today’s episode is brought to you by the Flipping 50 Specialist program, training fitness pros and health coaches to be experts at hormone balancing exercise prescription especially for women in peri-menopause, menopause, and long after menopause.

Janice Jaicks is the founder and creator of FitnessFest Conference and Expo, AquaCon, Spring Cleaning for the Soul Retreat, and Desert Swim School. Janice has been teaching swim lessons and water fitness since 1985. She has trained hundreds of instructors in the field of water exercise all over the country. 

FitnessFest is a continuing education conference for fitness professionals and has been serving fitness and health pros with events in the Southwest since 1998. In 2018, FitnessFest added four new cities to its schedule (in conjunction with TheFitExpo). FitnessFest has worked with several Native American communities and their diabetes prevention and treatment projects for the past six years. 

 Mover and Shaker in Fitness Continuing Education

This woman is on the move as a leader in the fitness industry. Like a handful of other amazing female fitness leaders identifying a need and then taking it on as a personal responsibility… I brought her in because I’m involved as a presenter at FitnessFest in April.

This event is truly a jewel. It’s big, the offerings and sessions (we dive into here) and the customer service is big… but the feel is small… they know me, and I think you too will love it and so without further delay… Janice Jaicks!

Questions I asked Janice:

• Why do you do this? You’ve added 4 new cities… when many others might be looking to retire, you’re recharging! (which is the FLIPPING 50 Philosophy) …what’s lighting your fire?
• How old are you?
• What sets FitnessFest apart from other conferences?
• What are the dates and location and what do you have lined up for this April's event?
• What are the most popular continuing education workshops at your event? 
• Are there also pre-cons?
• Are there tracks to deep dive as well as the option to get a broader experience?

Learn more or request a brochure:

www.fitnessfest.org/arizona

Rates increase Feb 28

Host Hotel: Sheraton Mesa – Save your room now!

Get your continuing education live and get rejuvenated too! 

 

Must Read Books for Fitness Trainers & Fitness Entrepreneurs 

Tuesday morning this week I was staying in a hotel in Dallas. I went down to the “fitness room” where there was a treadmill, a bike, and an elliptical along with some dumbbells.

It was small, dark, low ceilings. I thought… I’ll go outside and run. I stepped out unprepared for the temps and decided this would be a short one. I rounded the block and saw LA Fitness. I promptly went in and used… a treadmill, bike, and elliptical.

Seriously? I laughed at myself as I walked out realizing what I’d done. I tell you this because it relates to our episode today. The environment made it easier to get a harder, slightly longer workout.

Environment matters.

Welcome to the Book reviews episode. This is the place to be if you’re looking for must read books - to read or listen to - that will build you up, grow your influence, expand your understanding… whether you want our cliff notes or you want to pick up the book yourself… we’ve got you covered.

My co-reviewer on this podcast and for future book reviews: Tom Durkin

Owner operator Ames Fitness and Fitness World Ankeny both in Iowa and the CEO of Health & Fitness Management. He has 40 years in fitness industry sales, management, and ownership. Considering this is in a conservative Midwestern market, take away is if he can so can you. He's got 2000 books in his personal library(and growing), 200 and 300 to begin with and last year 900K visits, 58,000 personal training sessions, 315 employees at present.

Questions we cover in this episode:

• What must read books are we talking about today and who are the authors? 

Willpower Doesn’t Work–Benjamin Hardy

The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business- Charles Duhigg

• How influenced are you - or should others be - on "best seller lists"?
  
  
• How much does the author's background, credentials, and experience matter to you in your selection of what to read next? 
  
• What made these titles must read books?
• 
  What are three take-aways from each book? 
• What stands out from Willpower?
• What struck you about Habits?
• What if anything missed the mark on this/these books? 
• If you had to recommend a top 10 must read books to on habits of successful people... would either or both make the cut? 

The people you surround yourself with influence your habits, your ability to examine your habits, and ability to change your habits. 

Our next must read books:

Dark Horse – the guy that doesn’t do the standard education or path

Great By Choice– by Jim Collins 

Got another book YOU would recommend? Love to hear it and we'll consider reading (if we haven't) for a future must read books review or invite you on to talk about it! 

Personal training clients don’t tell you everything. But if they could, this podcast might describe it best.

Allan Misner was your client. At one time he topped the scales at 250. He’d tried and failed many times. Today, he is a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Certified Personal Trainer and a Functional Aging Institute (FAI) Certified Functional Aging Specialist. He is the creator of the thriving 40+ Fitness Community, providing one-on-one and group fitness coaching, nutritional guidance, and personal training for clients over the age of 40.

I asked Allan for insight only someone who has been that client and now creates solutions for them could know.

Insights from this episode:

1. Know that: Anyone asking for help is being incredibly vulnerable and you want to respect that. You haven’t heard it before from that client even if you’ve heard it before.
2. Learn their language and use it.

If they use slang, you use slang. If they’re more proper, you be more proper. Your personal training clients are each different. You may have a method but it only works if you can relate to them.

3. Be able to justify every exercise that you recommend.

You should have  a reason why they do every move that is tied to their ultimate goal. Why are you having them sit or stand? Why are you having them do it on a machine or using free weights? Why standing on an unstable surface?

4. Get them in an area where they are comfortable.

When they’re feeling vulnerable they aren’t feeling safe with you. Who wants to return to a place they don’t feel safe over and over again? Your personal training clients give you their trust, for a short time, and you can earn it for longer. 

5. Explain why they’re doing the things they’re doing.

They (as well as you) need to know. When they can connect the dots between where they are and where they want to go and the steps you’re giving them being the solution to closing the gap your personal training clients will keep coming back and stay motivated. 

6. Be interested AND interesting.

Show interest in them. You are a part of their lives. For you it may seem like one of dozens of clients. But for them you are their only personal trainer. They want a connection with you that feels like a friend or family. It’s possible to do that without breaching professional boundaries.

“Conversational is the new professional.”

7. Be one of the five people they most want in their lives.

Be one of them that lifts them up. In your personal training clients lives you are in a unique place of influence. Where else can you leave every single customer feeling better when they walk out the door than when they walk in.

8. Have fun.

When you’re having fun your personal training clients have fun. That’s something we all want to rinse and repeat.

Allan’s new book: The Wellness Roadmap

Available at Amazon in hardbound, paperback, ebook, or audiobook. 

40plusfitnesspodcast.com/flipping

Social Media: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/40plusfitnesspodcast/

Twitter: @40plusFitnessPodcast

A lucrative fitness career is not based on a degree (or another one) or a certification (or six more). It's not about luck. 

It’s about risk. 

About 35 years ago I told my parents I was changing my major from graphic design (they understood) to physical education (no one really understood yet).

About 30 years ago my step dad asked me, “just what is it you’re majoring in?” while I was in grad school, studying exercise and sport psychology. Again, he hadn’t a clue about what I was doing in school or about how it was going to help me once out of school (and off the payroll)!

I talked recently with Sara Kooperman of Sara’s City Workout. She mentioned what it was like - around the same time - telling her parents she was going to open a gym and teach aerobics … with a law degree. 

That’s a risk.

It was then for sure! There weren’t fitness businesses on every block or hundreds of thousands online yet. It wasn’t common knowledge that we all need to exercise. Today if you’re a high school student who wants to be a personal trainer no one looks at you like you just said you want to work long hours and be broke. If you’re 50 or 60 and decide you want to switch careers and be a health coach or trainer people will think it’s cool not that you’ve lost it!

Still it might feel risky. A lucrative fitness career doesn’t just come automatically with a degree or a certification or because you personally look fit.

Creating every new project elevates the game so the nervous feelings or insecurities you feel are a part of your success not signs of failure. 

Random Conversations

Someone just two days ago said hello to me in the women’s locker room at Rally sport where I personal train and train personally. She recognized me and asked me to remind her my name. We were literally 10 feet from the steam room where we met the very first Saturday I was at Rally. Exactly 16 hours after I drove into Boulder.

She said, “you made it.”

I said excuse me?

She said, I wouldn’t want to be moving into Boulder in these times. It’s a tough town. It’s expensive.

I was quiet. I didn’t know what to say.

But I was thinking.

There wasn’t a choice. I didn’t have a choice. I never thought it wasn’t going to work out. It hadn’t crossed my mind there was another option but to do it. 

Don’t think I didn’t consider other things, but for other reasons. There were other opportunities, not alternatives because of a dead end.

Had I not HAD to take risks and make things happen I don’t know what would have happened. 

I think… less. Just less.

I would have been comfortable. I would have been FINE. And by that I do mean the acronym. Fucked Up Insecure Neurotic and Emotionally disturbed. 

I would have gotten resentful and small instead of growing so much more. I would have missed moments that changed my life and others around me forever.

There were hard things. Incredibly hard things. But nothing about my life will be the same because of them no small things will matter the way they once did. I see people better. 

Weasel words that get in the way of a lucrative fitness career

If you’re giving yourself an out, a possibility that it won’t work here’s how that shows up: 

You say,“try it.”

You’re going to try it.

As opposed to you’re going to do it.

You won’t come up with the best answer right away. You may have to try different things… different headlines, different images in your marketing, different sales scripts even different exercises in a session, but that should feel like a strategic testing process. 

That’s just part of the steps anyone goes through to define the right answer to a new problem.

You don’t have to.

You have a spouse who’s really the breadwinner. You are just doing this because you love it. You’d do it even if no one paid you.

You may think these are good things, even be proud of them. Yet, they hold you back.

Invest in something (yourself for one). Take a risk. You’re not really reaching potential until you create something. Be an answer to a problem.

I didn’t have a choice. I sure didn’t imagine putting my house on the market, moving two states away, living in a relative’s lower level bedroom, and folding towels at the front desk as life goals for my 50th year on the planet.

Do You Give Yourself an Out?
But the alternative was non-existent. I didn’t want to have a “job” or stay in the same small (-minded or otherwise) business or town. Taking a risk was far better than the safe alternatives that were making me nauseas. 

You need to get there. 

If you’re not uncomfortable you’re not growing, not much.

If you’re lying to anyone else you’re really lying to yourself. 

You can have a lucrative fitness career that isn’t just a “job” or a hobby you do when you’re not doing what’s really important, or safe, for you.

You do have to take a risk to get there.

I encourage you to ask some tough questions of yourself. How safe is your current fitness career status right now? How much risk are you taking?

Ask the Hard Questions
Do you love where you are or do you wish you had a more lucrative fitness career that was also more fulfilling?

What are you going to do about it?

If you’re just starting out, how willing are you to take a risk? Are you looking for that safe position working for someone else with insurance so you’re fed clients? But might be also tempted to complain that they’re taking all the profits? How ironic that the business willing to take the risks should also take the biggest profits? 

It’s not an accident. No one is really out to take advantage of you. Even you don’t believe that. Businesses that stay in business take care of everyone. There is opportunity for you to do well and have a lucrative fitness career. There’s never been a better time to be in fitness. But the competition is growing. You want to be better and heard above the noise. 

You don’t want to be another choice. You want to be the choice. 

Want to talk?

P.S. If you're thinking, I don't want a lucrative fitness career, I just want to help people. That's noble. But nothing will enable you to help more people than having a lucrative fitness career. They're not mutually exclusive. They actually have to co-exist. 

Links to resources: 

Fitness Careers You Haven't Considered

Note: this how to hire the right person podcast was originally posted October 5. Technology somehow through a wrench in the audio. This is a must-listen - thanks for your patience as we resurrected the audio file.

How can you hire the right person every time?

If you’ve ever hired the wrong person, or struggled to even find a few solid candidates to interview, then this is your episode. If you’re going it solo, a part of a team, you’re on Main street, deliver services, or you’re online definitely take a listen to this podcast.

I recently had this conversation with my best friend who has more than 35 years of experience hiring and between the two of us we’ve been hiring, training, firing or being quit for a hundred years! Yikes!

We both agreed this is still one of the hardest things to get right.

So if you want to earn from our mistakes and from my guest today… pop your ear buds in or turn it up because you are going to need a team if you’re going to grow and make a difference. No one does it alone.

My guest today is Claire Garrigan.

She was among the top 3% nationwide for membership and personal training sales year after year, Claire now helps small-to-medium sized fitness facilities increase their revenue by teaching owners and staff how to sell consistently and effectively. Her sales training program, The Selling Fitness Blueprint, has been used in membership-based gyms and by personal trainers throughout North America and Europe to help fitness professionals not only increase revenue but to get them confident and comfortable with selling-without feeling like a used car salesman!

Download the cheat sheet for this podcast right now to help you get the most out of this podcast. You’ll hire the right person with a plan and you can create it right now.

1) For a fitness facility hiring membership sales staff OR a digital trainer hiring his or her first team members what are some of the key traits they should be looking for in a potential hire?

2) What are some of the mistakes facilities make when hiring their staff, sales staff or otherwise?

3.) Before you even get to an interview what are some ways you can screen to filter out the best clients and repel those candidates who would hate the job and make you both frustrated?

4.) What steps do you like to have candidates do to weed themselves out?

5.) What’s are some questions we should be asking during an interview to find out if our potential hire would be a good fit for our facility and truly are the right person?

6) Once you hire the right person, how do you set them up for success?

Connect with Claire:

http://www.whyilovemondays.com

https://www.instagram.com/whyilovemondays/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-garrigan-a5153b90/

Additional Podcasts You Might Like:

Career Truths podcast with Erin Carson

Personal Training Job Skills with Tom Durkin

 

Deciding what your next fitness conference is going to be can be one of two things: incredibly overwhelming or random. There are so many educational opportunities available both online and offline that it’s mindboggling. Though you may decide online is it so you can skip logistics, travel and the additional time onsite education takes, there’s a missing component for personal trainers gathering information that way.

The interaction and networking of an onsite even provides a motivation and energy that no online program can regardless of how good.

If you agree with that, there’s still much to consider about the reason you’re going and the kind of conference you’re going to attend. Do you need marketing and sales training? Do you need a depth of information in a specific programming area to set you apart as a credible expert?

This episode is all about a conference that is the latter. If medical fitness is your area your next fitness conference should be for and about medical fitness. We know the world is aging and the number of 50 and over clients is increasing. They’re educated, experienced, and they’re looking for trainers who are the same. In this episode I share highlights of the recent medical fitness tour – a special in depth fitness conference for those fitness professionals who want to serve those between medicine and standard fitness prescriptions that no longer fit.

My guest

Tony Berlant is a consultant, a published researcher, an author coach, and a veteran of the health and fitness industry with more than 20 years of leadership experience. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Psychology, and his Master of Science degree in Exercise and Movement Science (focusing on Exercise and Sport Psychology) from University of Oregon. He has served as a certified personal trainer (NASM-CPT), a multi-club regional fitness manager, and a corporate-level Director for some of the most well-known companies in the industry.

He is currently acting as the Director of Education and Programs for the Medical Fitness Education Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and delivering education and practical application for fitness professionals and other allied healthcare practitioners in the areas of chronic disease and other medical conditions. He consults for the organization, assists in the production conferences called the Medical Fitness Tour, and is involved in all areas of operations.

Questions we discussed in this episode:

How did your career with the Medical Fitness Education Foundation begin?

What is Medfit's mission?

How is Medfit's mission important to you?

New projects include Medfit TV, webinars, and the Tour- when was the tour "born?"

What makes the MedFit Tour a different kind of fitness conferece?

What cities are on the Tour?

• Phoenix
• New Jersey
• San Francisco
• Chicago (in conjunction with Club Industry) 

What’s the presenter and topic selection process for Medfit events? 

Our virtual fitness conference recap

Tony and I did a recount of the recent Medfit Tour in San Francisco and talk about highlights of topics and speakers offering medical fitness education during the 3-day event including:

Phil Kaplan

We have a broken, “I am…”

~Phil Kaplan

Andrea Leonard

Dr. Joel Fuhrman

“Exercise is the only way to speed metabolism without accelerating aging.”

~Dr. Joel Fuhrman 

Dr. Tonya Butler, (Functional Biomechanics in Special Populations) TriggerPoint Performance Therapy

Dr. Evan Osar, Co-founder, The Institute for Integrative Health and Fitness Education

“Every single medication has side effects.”

~Dr. Evan Osar 

Dr. Kevin Steele, President PTonthenet, and PTAglobal

Dr. Jessica Knurick, Toolbox Genomics (DNA Testing)

Danielle Spangler, Founder of Coremoms

Dr. Christian Thompson, Dept. of Kinesiology, U of SF

Is this your next fitness conference?

Learn more about the Medical Fitness Education Foundation and ways to access medical fitness education online or live:

Your FIRST next step:

MedFit Network  | medfitnetwork.org

MedFit Education Foundation | medfited.org

ATTEND:

Medical Fitness Tour | medfittour.org

Colin Milner is CEO of the International Council on Active Aging and founder of the active-aging industry in North America. Milner is also a leading authority on the health and well-being of the older adult, and has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of "the most innovative and influential minds" in the world on aging-related topics. 

In 2010, CanFitPro Association awarded Milner with its Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the Canadian fitness industry. His efforts have many seeking his insights. Among these are: CNN, BBC, ABC, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, NY Times.

Colin started at $4 an hour as a fitness instructor.

• Before ICAA what were you doing?  What was the trigger for you? The, I’m both feet in, I’m jumping, someone’s got to do it and it has to be me… moment?
• How has your work changed? How has it evolved?
• Is this what you imagined when you started it? 
• What do you expect to change - decline and/or grow in the future?
• What kind of sessions will trainers and health coaches find the upcoming ICAA events to help them expand their skills?

We tease some of the content and speakers at the upcoming ICAA conference.

 

Key Points:

• Definition is changing and it’s less about absence of disease and more about improvement of function
• The most necessary shift: Your own thinking
• The need for personalization is a key priority.
• Genetic testing, wearables and monitoring devices, artificial intelligence.
• Keeping them healthy so they don’t have to see the doctor for illness.
• What skills do you need as a trainer
• Understand the tools you’re using
• Integrate with other experts better for epigenetics, genetic testing
• How to get better results and prove the results.
• Former surgeon general Ken Smith talking about wearables 3.0 looking at what’s happening inside of your body  
• The active aging market isn't a special population but they are special: 

  ½ people in US are over 50

  50% of consumer spending

  spend $400 billion more than any other age cohort

  increased disposable income from 50 to 70%

  They are one of THE populations

Active Aging Week theme: “Inspiring Wellness”

1. increasing awareness
2. bringing in more people
3. connecting

Activeagingweek.com

Register as a host site

It’s all Free!! 

Get creative with activities that you can host, support, whether in wellness, fitness, or nutrition.

Upcoming Annual International Council on Active Aging Conference:

Long Beach CA

18-20thof October

17thpreconference: Falls/Fall reduction, Nutrition/protein and healthy aging/ID nutritional risk/malnutrition

Link to the conference details:

http://www.icaa.cc/conferenceandevents/overview.htm

Get Registered!

http://www.icaa.cc/conferenceandevents/rates.htm

This special episode brings two fitness professionals who’ve essentially made their careers helping other fitness professionals. They both work for the American Council on Exercise. 

Rachel Eidel is the Certification Program Manager for ACE’s Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor programs. She was born and raised in Colorado and now lives in San Diego with her husband and 2 young daughters. She’s been with ACE on/off since 2010.

Alex Link is the Certification Program Manager for ACE’s Health Coach and Medical Exercise Specialist Programs. She’s been with ACE for 7 years. In her free time she loves to volunteer and travel.

What I asked Rachel and Alex during our interview:

What is your role at the American Council on Exercise and what you do

What educational background did you have before working for ACE? 

Any other jobs you held prior to what you're doing now (elsewhere or at ACE)

Was this a position you'd aspired to or was it something that evolved? 

What was your career goal - heading off to school or changing majors.. what did you see for yourself?

What's it like to work at the American Council on Exercise? 

What has changed in the time you've worked there - biggest changes in the industry or how your job has change based on demand or growth in certain areas?

What do you love about your position?

What's exciting about the future of health and fitness? 

What would you tell emerging trainers who are seeking jobs or internships? How can they prepare themselves best for a career today?

Is there anything you'd have done differently?

Behind the Certification Scene with American Council on Exercise with Rachel and Alex: 

All American Council on Exercise certifications require:

1. 18 years or older
2. HS or GED equivalent
3. CPR-AED

The two advanced certifications for ACE, Health Coach and Medical Exercise Specialist, both have additional pre-requisites.

Health Coach is Required to have 1 of 4 pre-requisites:

1. NCCA PT certification
2. 2 year degree in Exercise Science or related
3. ICHWC transition program
4. Work experience

The Medical Exercise Specialist must have:

1. 4-year degree in exercise science or related field
2. 500 or more hours of training documented

*To learn more on American Council on Exercise requirements visit www.acefitness.org 

If you have questions for Alex and Rachel, connect with them:

credentialing@acefitness.org

If you’re working in medical fitness or want to this episode and the information about the Medfit Network is a must listen. If you’re wondering how to leverage your knowledge, how to connect with physicians and get referrals, and be found more easily, listen here. 

Lisa graduated from the University of California, Irvine’s Fitness Instructor Program, and went on to get her Certified Personal Trainer through the American Council on Exercise. She has many specialty certifications to work with those with medical conditions, post-surgical/rehab as well as pre-& postpartum fitness.  

Lisa founded the MedFit Network, an online national registry of fitness & allied healthcare professionals who have education and provide services for those with chronic disease, medical conditions, disabilities, and women’s health issues. 

She established the MedFit Education Foundation in 2017 to facilitate education for professionals to keep up-to-date with the latest information on prevention, treatment and preserving the quality of life for those with medical conditions, chronic disease, etc via, webinars and a national traveling conference.

Lisa launched MedFit TV this year, a collection of educational videos, webinars, and interviews with leading experts in their related fields.  It is free to the public and MedFit Network professional members and subscriber-based for all other professionals.

Lisa has been recognized as a fitness leader several times including Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and the Huffington Post. She was also acknowledged by the White House as a Champion of Change finalist in 2016.

Lisa and I discussed these things during the podcast:

How she you started personal training

The fact that “special pops” is now most of everyone we train

When Lisa began there was no education or easy access to continuing education. What was that like?

Lisa’s real purpose now is going to make a remarkable impact on the personal training industry and she shares how she’s doing it on this episode. 

Questions we answer on this episode:

• How can you be a part of Medfit Network?
• What are the requirements or screening? 
• How do trainers become a part? 
• What's the mission for MFN?
• How is MFN getting the word out there?
• How can trainers benefit from MFN?

Lisa’s tips for leveraging your medical fitness expertise:

1. Strong website – keyword-rich articles
2. Create a Network
3. Use, refer, and get referrals
4. Write for others and establish credibility from a third party

Resources Lisa mentioned:

The E-myth Michael Gerber

Connect to learn more:

If you are a a fitness or allied health professional and would like to join MedFit Network:  www.MedFitNetwork.Org

If you’d like to learn more attending, speaking at or being a sponsor at the MedFit Tour: www.MedFitTour.Org 

If you’d like check out webinars, videos and interviews visit:  www.MedFitTV.Org

Listen to the other episodes in this series:

7 Successful Fitness Biz Pros Share Tips

Email Marketing for Fitness Professionals

How to Get More Personal Training Clients

How to Find the Right Business Coach

Get Hired and Stay Full

Simple Secret to Longevity as a Personal Trainer

Careers in Fitness you haven't considered

Download the worksheet to get all the notes from our guests.

Simple skills build personal training careers. In an iconic fitness and health environment my guest has built her own career and launched the career of many others. She has seen and shares the simple habits that build sustainable personal training careers.

Erin Carson is co-owner and operator of RallySport in Boulder, Colorado since 1991 – present.  In addition to the leadership duties associated with running a successful training facility and health club, Erin runs ECFit Boulder, a strength program designed for those seeking to perform at their very best.  Her clients include world champions and olympians as well as everyday athletes seeking excellence.

Erin is the strength coach for many current and former world championship athletes including Mirinda Carfrae – 3x Ironman World Champion, Flora Duffy – 2x ITU World Champion, and Timothy O’Donnell – Long Course Triathlon World Champion – just to drop a few names.

Erin’s commitment to continuing education plus her proven track record of success with professional athletes has made her one of the most knowledgeable and accessible strength coaches in the world. 

Questions I ask Erin in this episode:

1. What are the most important qualities Erin is looking for when interviewing Personal Training Candidates?
2. What are the key behaviors that dictate early success for a trainer?
3. What are the biggest mistakes you see for trainers who truly struggle to make this profession work for them?

Three Key Take-Aways for the audience 

1. This truly is PRODUCT YOU!
2. Who you are is just as important (if not MORE IMPORTANT) than what you know
3. Pay attention and learn from the feedback coming your way.  Recognize that not all feedback is verbal.

The most successful personal training careers are not about accumulating degrees, and certifications. They're not even about selling yourself. Erin reveals the importance of what has to both come before the education, and before sales, and is the sustaining part of the most prosperous and rewarding personal training careers. 

Connect with Erin:

Ecfitboulder.com

Listen to the other episodes in this series:

7 Successful Fitness Biz Pros Share Tips

Email Marketing for Fitness Professionals

How to Get More Personal Training Clients

How to Find the Right Business Coach

Get Hired and Stay Full

Download the worksheet to get all the notes from our guests.

How can you find the Right Fitness Business Coach to accelerate your business success? What are you looking for and how do you know you're a good fit? 

If you've ever had a tutor, a trainer, or a sports coach of any kind, you know the value of getting it right by getting feedback and staying on track. If your fitness business could use a boost or you could use a mentor this is your episode. 

Canadian fit pro Shawna Kaminski has been a fitness professional in the industry for over 30 years. She has a Bachelor of Kinesiology and Bachelor of Education and too many certifications to count. She is a teacher at heart, having taught school for 20 years.

Shawna is the #1 best selling author of ‘Lose Your Menopause Belly’ available on Amazon.During her career she’s owned a small group training studio and multiple fitness boot camps and helps thousands of online fitness clients worldwide with her fitness and coaching programs.

 She’s appeared on national TV as a fitness expert, authored articles in numerous publications and created curriculum for international fitness businesses.

Shawna’s response to what she would differently if she were starting all over again was all about getting a mentor, and recruiting some one – a coach -  to accelerate her progress, spare her of mistakes, and eliminate the need to re-invent the wheel. I loved that answer – so I’ve got a question when she got started 30 years ago  how she did it. The fitness industry looked entirely different. Shawna talked about her start and a pivotal decision she made about attending a conference.

“I know how to help people, I need to know how to make a business out of helping people.”

Sound familiar? If you’ve ever said or thought that, listen to the fitnessmarketingmastery.com podcast interview with Shawna Kaminski today and then listen to the rest of the series (three episodes before this one and three following). 

Shawna points out you want to vet coaches, and especially choose those who have done it, are doing it, and walking the talk.

Questions we covered in this episode:

• Who was your first coach?
• How did you come to the conclusion a business coach is what you needed?
• How did Shawna find the right fitness business coach?
• Tips for finding a perfect coaching relationship
• Do you coach other personal trainers and owners?

We can buy speed:

Shoes.

Bikes.

Business Coaches.

4 Steps to find the right fitness business coach:

1. Consume free content online.
2. Confirm their level of success. Look for social proof. Check those people out.
3. Make sure they resonate with you.
4. Reach out to them. Is it a fit?

Connect with Shawna:

Website: Shawnak.com

Facebook: Shawna.kaminski

Instagram: @shawnakaminski

 

Personal training success is dependent on a mixture of fitness education, communication skills, and business intelligence. This episode is a round up of six influential fitness professionals. 

I’m introducing the career planning optimization series and I’m hosting influential fitness professionals about the business. Each is either a master trainer, or fitness owner, or industry leader in some way who has enjoyed longevity of successful and profitable business. They share their response to "What do you wish you'd known before you got into personal training?"

This episode previews the series of full episodes with each and every one of them where they share their tips for your personal training success. 

Earn from their mistakes by applying their tips to invest in your education, coaching, mentoring or hire better for staff members who can cover the bases you can't or don't want to do!

Inside this episode you'll hear from:

Dan Ritchie of Functional Aging Institute, FAI, about the importance of email marketing in personal training success. 

Dave Smith, founder of an online fitness professional's organization about the importance of influencing fewer people in a bigger way for personal training success. 

Shawna Kaminski, influential Canadian business owner - midlife women's fitness specialist, and coach for fitness professionals, shares her 4-step process of vetting a coach and the the value of coaches and mentors.

Forty-year business owner Tom Durkin shares the disappointing reality he faced after adding personal training to his programs and services. It provides insight for personal training success skills you want in order to stand out. 

Lisa Dougherty, Medfit Network founder, talks about what she wished she'd known about the population's changing needs.

Barry Ennis, who has an international presence and career that will inspire you, discusses his biggest tip for personal training success and a career bigger than you might imagine right now. 

Erin Carson, owner and manager of Rallysport in Boulder and ECfitBoulder online training for triathletes and anyone who wants balanced fitness shares her golden secret for personal training success. It's not another degree, another certification, and it's available to potentially any trainer.

Leave your comments below the show at http://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com 

Leave a rating in iTunes (and subscribe to get the shows right to your phone). 

Do you have a money mindset holding you back? Could you be earning more if you had a better relationship with money? 

Deborah J. Fryer, PhD is a catalyst for change and a transformational coach and speaker. She works with creative, spiritual, high-achieving entrepreneurs to help them tap into greater confidence, creativity, productivity, prosperity and inner peace. 

She Tells Her Money Mindset Story:

Yes. Headlines are I quit my life as a filmmaker in my 40s to go to medical school. When I was 49 I lost everything. Lost 1/3 of our house to the flood, my dad dropped dead 2 weeks later, and the next day I was working in the Anatomy Lab and it was my job to take a human heart out of the body. That changed everything for me. I realized I already had everything I needed within me and I started teaching what I already knew. Holding a heart in hands was one of the most powerful experiences of my life an it informs everything I do, teach and live - expand/contract, receive/let go, inhale/exhale, work hard/rest hard, etc.  

Deborah’s Money Mindset concepts:

You have hidden in your body a specific blueprint that dictates exactly how much money you feel comfortable earning, spending, saving and contributing. This secret subconscious programming runs like an inner financial thermostat that keeps you comfortable within a VERY narrow range. When you decide you want to grow – you want to work less and make more money, be your own boss and have more free time, have more authority and contribute more generously – your nervous system goes haywire.  

You have a money storyand Deborah has news for you. 
Your money story is not YOURS.
It’s not YOUR money.  

And it’s just a STORY that you can rewrite it when you decide you want to.

Questions Deborah answers in this podcast:

1. What is the role of the subconscious mind anyway? 
2. How does your subconscious programming affect your life? 
3. How do limiting beliefs affect our ability to achieve goals we have never done before? 
4. How does a listener change her money mindset or money story?
5. What does anatomy have to do with our money story? 

Quotes from this episode:

• Money shame
• Running your business backwards
• The way you do anything is the way you do everything
• Shift one thing you shift everything.

Amazing guests will join Deborah on the Money Mindset summit. One of my all-time favorite speakers, Dr. Sue Morter and 26 other doctors, thought leaders.

Energy, consciousness, neuroscience, your inner pharmacy,

Register Here for Master Your Money Mindset:

https://aq360.isrefer.com/go/MYMM2.0/a82

Connect with Deborah:

https://www.facebook.com/deborahfryer
https://twitter.com/djfryer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahfryer/

You went into business for more freedom, flexibility, and to be in control. You're serving others and running yourself into the ground. If you've built your business and customers up and feel like you're tearing yourself down and working more, this is for you. Dr Tony Rump shares his story and the reasons his summit evolved. Struggling to find time to work out yourself? This is your next stop. 

Keep up to date on the summit beginning in May here: 

www.docrump.com

and comment if you agree this is a needed topic. 

Moving from a brick-and-mortar business serving clients face-to-face daily to a digital business has growing pains. Today's guest Meredith Shirk shares her experience rapidly growing in the fitness industry from in person to online. 

Learn more about her business at: 

Sveltetraining.com

 

Find there's so much competition that you wonder why or whether you can really be successful in the fitness business? That kind of resistance hits everyone. There's a few things to keep in mind to stay on the right track heading toward your goals. There's never been a better time to be in fitness if you keep them in mind. 

www.voiceforfitness.com/fitprosolutions

If you're settling for a paycheck without growth, or finding you're slipping backwards instead of moving forward these 5 reasons will get you off the plateau. 

Subscribe to the YT channel for new videos

Https://www.youtube.com/voiceforfitness

For more fitness professionals marketing and selling without selling tips:

https://www.voiceforfitness.com/fitprosolutions

 

We’re social

www.fb.com/voiceforfitnessbiz

www.twitter.com/fitnessvoice

If you're putting off implementing because it isn't quite perfect or isn't the right time, this is for you. The value of most things comes from getting 80% of the work done. If you have something out there, a product or a service you're offering it is at least going to make money (if in fact it is a good idea). If it's not out there at all it will make nothing except weight on your mind that prevents creativity. Get ___ done. 

Connect:

www.voiceforfitness.com/fitprosolutions

www.voiceforfitness.com/mastermind

 

 

Dietitian Cassie has not celebrated her 30th birthday yet. She has, however, both had more experience in her business and experienced more success in her business than some experience in twice as long in business. Listen to how her approach to functional nutrition and health is shaking things up, filling an in-demand need and providing Cassie with not only a career and revenue but freedom that many fitness pros crave. Hear how you can do it if you've got a dream. 

Connect with Cassie: 

Website:  http://healthysimplelife.com and www.dietitiancassie.com

Twitter: @dietitiancassie and @healthysimplife

Facebook: facebook.com/dietitiancassie and facebook.com/HealthySimpLife

And reach Debra with comments or to share your story:

www.voiceforfitness.com

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube 

 

You need confidence underlying it all. No question. But what's next? You can say you're committed but if you're not doing the things that count you could be running fast in the wrong direction. What are the "Cs" of success? 

Connect!

www.voiceforfitness.com/fitprosolutions

Tom Durkin, 36-year fitness industry owner, manager and operating partner has been in and out of multiple fitness businesses daily longer than personal training has been a "thing." He shares successful hires, hires that were mistakes, and what he looks for in a prospective new employee. What to say, avoid, and how to present at an interview no matter which side of the desk you're sitting on. 

Connect with him at www.amesracfit.com

As always you can reach Debra for questions, comments and suggestions:

www.voiceforfitness.com

www.fb.com/voiceforfitnessbiz

www.twitter.com/fitnessvoice

www.youtube.com/voiceforfitness

Nicole DeBoom wanted pretty and running to be synonymous. And so she made it so. She wanted women of all sizes to feel sexy and strong as they were active. Hers was the first running skirt. Her inspirational message to women that a strong body means a strong mind is the foundation of the business. She’s still as excited about the company as she was in 2004.

 

Reach Nicole at Skirtsports.com

Join the #REALwomenmove movement beginning late April 2015 and use your hashtags and share your stories. Inspire    

 

As always you can connect with Debra at:

www.voiceforfitness.com

www.fb.com/voiceforfitnessbiz

www.twitter.com/fitnessvoice

www.Youtube.com/voiceforfitness

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. All to overused and yet all to infrequently applied. You have the best of intentions. Yet, intentions aren't actions. As a fitness professional in almost any environment, whether you are a solo entrepenuer or you are a manager/director of a fleet of trainers, life gets in the way unless you plan. 

The creative professional, that trainer who likes working for him or herself is the enemy as well as the asset. As a "creative" you have more ideas than time to implement. You're amazing ideas often don't ever get implemented. Here's how to harness the idea factory you are while handling day-to-day fires and time commitments. At the end of the year you'll have been much more productive with a publishing plan that includes marketing and life activites that make the work worth it.

 

 

 

For more information:

https://www.voiceforfitness.com/bestyear

Subscribe to the channel for new videos

Https://www.youtube.com/voiceforfitness

For more fitness professionals marketing and selling without selling tips:

https://www.voiceforfitness.com/fitprosolutions

 

We’re social

www.fb.com/voiceforfitnessbiz

www.twitter.com/fitnessvoice

 

You think you're busy? How do you go from personal trainer to entrepenuer with muilitple venues including books, workbooks, blogs, videos, podcast, vodcasts (do I even know what that is?) to seminars and then the ...what's next? Not only does Jonathan Bailor do all of those but he executes the marketing of them with extrodinary detail. Hundreds of endorsements from top doctors, researchers, and professionals were included on the cover of his book months before it went to print. Listen to hear his next project with Weight Watchers. See more at SANEsolutions.com 

High Productivity Habits For The Fitness Professional include 6 tips for your last quarter of 2014. From getting up earlier to not being politically correct they'll save you time that you can do more with. If you're looking for time and space to write that book, create that new website, develop a new program or marketing campaign, you'll find it by moving things around or out. Share with me what works for you. Early riser? Virtual assistant that's paid off in multiples? We want to hear it and have others inspired by it. www.voiceforfitness.com/fitproblog 

Professional and personal growth requires forward momentum but its best combined with inner reflection. Using the power of your personality to enhance relationships and awareness of how you impact other people. At any age and phase of career you use personality and others use theirs to influence. When you know what and why and how to use it to your best advantage you become extrodinariy powerful. For more about personality Sally Hogshead's newest book How The World Sees You is a must read. For more information about personality, leadership and influence www.voiceforfitness.com/fitproblogs

With the same amount of hours in the day as anyone else how can you get more done? Productivity science sheds some light on how to optimize your schedule that goes beyond delegating and doing groups instead of privates training. Using every minute to your advantage requires knowing a few things in three key areas that can help you make time count.