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If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, or you receive my love letters, you might think we don’t teach social media marketing at all. That’s understandable.   We have a HUGE Facebook Marketing course in the Growth Stage of our mentoring program. It’s the most comprehensive online course in the world that’s specific to the fitness industry. But I don’t talk about it much outside our group. Below, I’ll explain WHY.   I spent the last 15 months traveling with a group of very high-level SaaS founders (if you don’t know what SaaS means, it’s “Software as a Service.”) These guys are all extremely successful. They KNOW Facebook and social media marketing.   I also enrolled in every FB marketing course I could find, and spent THOUSANDS on ads to test the systems. I went to lunch with experts; I invited some onto my podcast; and took 1:1 lessons from others.   I compiled all of these lessons into the Facebook Marketing Course. We listed the course for $599…and then, after one day of open enrollment, I decided to stop selling it.   Why? Because it’s NOT what gym owners NEED. At least, not until they can handle the growth. And I’m willing to bet $2500 on it for EVERY gym we work with.   Many gym owners (and some “consultants”) think funnel marketing and Facebook ads are the answer. And a tiny percentage of the time, they’re right. But jumping straight to social media advertising is like starting a CrossFitter on bar muscle-ups before they’ve learned the air squat: it’s frustrating, and it won’t take them from their current state to fitness in the fastest way possible. It might even break them.   Here’s one lesson from the Facebook Marketing Course we include in our Growth Stage:   There’s a lot of discussion in the module, but I’ll sum up this way: “Hot leads” are close to purchasing ...

When you’re in the “funnel mindset”, you count leads instead of people.   A funnel mindset means blasting your message to everyone you can–even if they didn’t ask to hear it–and then filtering, filtering, filtering.   Sometimes, the odd little fish swims all the way through. In a funnel mindset, these are “qualified leads”, and it’s worth going through 300 real people to find one of them.   But what happens to the other 299?   It all depends on permission.   If 300 people sign up for your email list, they’ve given you permission to continue the conversation. They might not like–or even read–every message you send them; they might eventually even opt out of your list. But they won’t hit ‘spam’. And they won’t get angry.   If, though, you DON’T have their permission, they’ll recognize spam for what it is. They’ll opt out. And worse, the tactic will backfire. They’ll actually be LESS likely to use your service in the future. Think about that weird guy at the bar: he approaches 300 women. One of them goes home with him. The other 299 are repulsed. Did he win?   (Here’s a hint: ask him in the morning.)   Dan Pink wrote about “the backfire effect” in “To Sell is Human“, and it’s been the subject of study for years now. It’s been studied by behaviorists like Kaplan and Gimbel, and email marketers have been avoiding it since–well, since their second email backfired.   Here’s what Seth Godin wrote about it in 2008:   “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.”   You should read the rest of his post here.   I teach permission marketing to the TwoBrain family of entrepreneurs. And if you’re reading this, it’s because you’ve given me permission to continue our conversation. Thank you.   A conversation ...

You’ve seen Improvisational Comedy, I know it.   In Improv, a couple of comedians stand on stage and make up a funny story on the fly. One person starts with a simple sentence, like: “Oh! Look at my watch!” and then another follows with something else: “Why is there water running out of it?”   The goal is to make the story funny, and it often works. But despite what the audience thinks, Improv doesn’t start from a blank canvas. There are RULES. And we can learn from them.   Just as in business, scripts can often sound fake. If you read a phone script to a client who’s inquiring about your rates, they’ll trust you less. That’s why we don’t use call centers.   But you also don’t want to have a 90-minute conversation with every client, either. You don’t want to vomit every single detail of your philosophy, practice and science; you want them to take action, because knowledge alone doesn’t make anyone fit.   Here’s how the lessons of Improv comedy can help you:   First rule of Improv: Don’t disagree.   When two performers are building a funny story, they agree to agree. Neither will ever say, “No.” or “You’re wrong,” because that ends a conversation before it goes anywhere. Instead, performers will say “Yes, and…” because they know it’s more important to keep the conversation alive than it is to “win”.   When I started as a Personal Trainer, I’d often argue with people who wanted to pay me money. I’d say, “You don’t need to run 10 miles every day to run a marathon! You need to do HIIT. And you don’t need all those carbs either!” I won lots of conversations and lost a lot of money.   Instead, I should have approached the conversation the way a train approaches a turn: slowly and incrementally. I should have said, “Yes, you can run ...