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Episode 98: Julie the Rhino

December 4, 2017 Gym Operations Podcast
 
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Who Are You Accidentally Excluding?

November 29, 2017 Member Retention
Our Varsity program at Catalyst used to have 11 teen girls and only one boy.   One time, I pulled him aside and said, “Hey man, it’s totally fine to invite some of your male friends to this group if you want.”   He replied: “Why in hell would I want to do that?”   I laughed. He was trying to exclude competition, and I didn’t realize it.   Most gym owners are excluding clients and don’t realize it.   Even worse, they’re probably blocking out the BEST POSSIBLE CLIENTS they could have.   I’m going to tell you exactly what the problem is. But first, here’s the path a client takes to find their way to you. Please note that at ANY point, they could take any action, or even NO action. “I’m too fat.” “I am going to lose weight.” “Should I go on a diet, or start exercising?” “If I exercise, should I just start jogging, or join a gym?” “Should I just join the cheapest gym in case I don’t like it?” “Should I get a personal trainer? Or a class?” “Will I lose weight faster with Pilates, Barre, CrossFit, or a bootcamp?” “Which one is the easiest?” “If I pick CrossFit, which gym should I attend?” —-and I’ll interrupt there. Because THIS is where a lot of gym owners blow it.   I’ve written extensively on your intake process, the first impression on your website has to make, and avoiding the appearance of selling a commodity. I won’t cover those again.   Instead, I’m going to mention the signals you’re sending to your target audience.   When I opened, I thought I was my target audience: the 25-year-old “grinder” who wanted intensity in their life, who didn’t care about clean bathrooms or diet, who wanted to wear old t-shirts with obscure slogans and black skulls. I was flying a black flag. I was counterculture on ...
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Episode 97: Retail Ready!

November 27, 2017 Gym Marketing Podcast
 
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How Sharing Joy Makes You Happy

November 24, 2017 Personal Development
Your mom told you, “‘Tis better to give than to receive.” I’m going to give you something better than anything you can buy. On the day North America goes nuts buying things, I’m giving you a promise: Things don’t make you happy (you knew that part already.) Actions DO. Service will make you happy. But happiness is gold, buried in the mine of your other emotions. You have to go looking for it and hold it up to the light. While we, in North America, wait in lines to consume things, I’m going to give you something that will definitely make you happy: a weekly practice of mining happiness in your brain. It’s not Black Friday. It’s Bright Spots Friday. Every week in the private Two-Brain Facebook group (you can’t join until you’ve finished RampUp), we practice happiness. Hundreds of gym owners will share their “bright spots” for the week: wins in their gym and their personal lives. The purpose is twofold: 1. We all get to read hundreds (literally hundreds) of great ideas from other gym owners every week. 2. In the act of thinking about “What worked well this week?” we take five minutes to reflect on the things that made us happy. And guess what? The act of looking for happiness makes us find it! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this: “I didn’t think I had any Bright Spots this week until I went looking for them.” We also practice Bright Spots in the private Catalyst Facebook Group, and it’s equally powerful. You can’t keep people in your gym until you let them into your heart. I’m very careful about protecting the borders of both groups, because that’s what you do when you love people: you keep their space safe. So I won’t share any of their Bright Spots with you. Instead, I’ll share mine: “BSF: This is coach Miranda. She injured her ankle on a run last week. Rather than ...
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Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play

November 22, 2017 Selling Gym Memberships
I remember when I was young enough to know everything.   I was 100% sure that my way was the ONLY way. I thought that MY experience should be the same as everyone else. I knew that what I liked was what others would like, too.   I opened my gym thinking dozens of local powerlifters would want coaching. They did not. My first website was dark and scary. I thought all the hardcore athletes in town would want to do CrossFit. They did not. I tried to attract local firefighters by criticizing P90X–which they were all doing at the firehouse. I thought they’d see the light because of my infallible logic and science. They did not.   Eventually, I got tired of making bad guesses about what other people wanted, and started asking them. I’ve refined the technique now, and we teach it in the Incubator: which questions to ask your coaches, clients and spouse to find out what they REALLY want from you.   Most of us opened a gym because we wanted to coach. A year later, we might have wanted something else. But we made guesses about our clients based mostly on what WE wanted, or what worked for US.   I like training in a group. Many of my clients don’t. That’s fine.   Some people prefer a private introduction to CrossFit. Some people do not. That’s fine.   The answer depends on the client. And that’s why so many real experts in ANY field, when asked a question, will answer with, “That depends…”   The only ones who are ever absolutely sure that their opinion is correct to the exclusion of everything else are the newcomers. The evangelists for one training style, or one business “best practice” are usually the newcomers. They’re also usually the loudest, because they’re so assured of their conviction that they’re comfortable shouting it from the rooftops. Data? Not necessary. ...
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How To Deal With Your Competition

November 21, 2017 Gym Marketing
The nearest box is 800m away. They charge less. They copy EVERYTHING you do–right down to your color scheme. What do you DO about it? Don’t turn to arson yet…there are several reasons to be EXCITED about competition, including this one: they’re not hard to beat.   First, the problems, and the opportunities that come with them: People quit your gym to go to their gym because it’s a lower price. The reason is that the average consumer can’t tell the difference between what YOU sell and what THEY sell, so they choose based on price. This is the definition of “commodity”. If I’m selling vanilla ice cream, and you’re selling vanilla ice cream, I’m going to choose the cheapest. Being slightly better isn’t enough. Even if you have some sprinkles on your ice cream, I might not choose it; I’ll have to decide if it’s worth an extra .25 to have vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. The opportunity: be REALLY different. Don’t do free trials; do consultations. Build in a unique measurement system (we use an InBody, which no one else can afford.) Start with nutrition instead of thrusters. There are a hundred ways to slice this, but start here: you sell fitness. CrossFit is your biggest tool. Group classes might be part of your delivery of fitness (or not.) They’re too close. The reason the other gym built close to you isn’t because they wanted to be up in your grill–it’s because you have the best spot, and they want to be in the best spot too. In this case, the opportunity is to be the best gym. They’re doing you a favor by teaching people in your area to LOVE CrossFit, and then asking them to run by the door of a better CrossFit gym every day on their warmup. They’re basically running an OnRamp for you, and if done right, they’ll keep all the troublesome clients ...
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