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Go With Them

February 19, 2017 Member Retention
What To Do When They Say, “I’m Opening My Own Gym.” In 2005, I had my last confrontation with a boss. Pinned down in the back hallway of his “personal training studio,” he asked point-blank if I was leaving to start my own gym. He was uncharacteristically aggressive, and my back literally brushed up against the wall. I stuttered. “Uh…” Until that point, opening my own gym had been a murky “maybe.” True, I had spent that afternoon viewing a possible gym location, but it was far too expensive; it was on the second floor; and it was almost directly across the street from my current employer. I had a full appointment book. I was earning around $23,000 per year, and my wife wanted to leave her career to stay with our nine-month-old daughter. The only way for me to make more money was to work longer than my 14-hour days. I had a client–and future partner–pushing me to go out on my own. But I hadn’t decided to leave. Until that second. “Yes,” I said. “I’m leaving.” I handled it badly. So did he. Neither of us had ever been on either side of this before. For the previous year, most clients coming in the door were asking for me; my articles were being published all over town; and it was me at local track meets and hockey arenas, not him. I was driving the business, and a lot of business was sure to leave with me. Back then, these things simply didn’t happen. Now they do. Very often. And as a community, we’re STILL handling it badly. Here’s WHY coaches leave, and what to do. Part I – Why Coaches Leave Like me, you probably opened a gym because you wanted a career in fitness, and couldn’t see any way to make a living WITHOUT being an owner. I first wrote about a “lack of horizons” in June 2012. ...
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Sales vs Marketing

February 14, 2017 Gym Marketing
In January 2017, I traveled to San Diego with an elite mastermind group. The clever folks in this group are all owners of businesses worth $2-5 million, and we’re all in the service sector (though some sell software as a service, or SaaS.) We visited several companies who had scaled past the $5 million mark, including Classy.org, whose founders provided an insightful perspective on Sales vs. Marketing. Classy provides a payment platform for charities. They bill clients (the charities) based on a recurring monthly fee, a percentage of revenues collected, or both. Their service allows charities to scale without hiring software developers or negotiating payment rates with different processors. It’s a great model, and they have some huge clients. When Classy started, most of their sales were inbound. Charities heard about the platform, called for information, and signed up (or not) based on the pitch Classy gave them. This is SALES, and as Classy refined its process, more people signed up. Our sales process is called a “No-Sweat Intro.” It’s the product of years of trial, tweaking and data tracking. We teach it verbatim in the Incubator. The goal of your sales process is a high integration (i.e. signup) rate. There are two stages of client interaction before the Integration stage. These are Awareness and Interest, and they’re MARKETING. As Classy grew, they realized they could help more people by adding a Marketing team. The Sales team polished its Integration process while the Marketing team started their Awareness and Interest campaigns. In the gym world, CrossFit affiliates benefit from massive awareness campaigns from HQ (Reebok, ESPN, the Games, the Open…) and our marketing should be primarily focused on Interest. That means our emails, newsletters, website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, events, seminars, cobranding, and coffee talks should all have one goal: tell the future client how our service can help THEM. If you want to improve your revenues, focus your attention here: ...
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Episode 62: The Power of Stories

February 13, 2017 Gym Marketing Podcast
 
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Staying Focused

February 10, 2017 Personal Development
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”11582″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text delay=”0″]There’s treasure everywhere! As you make more connections, more opportunities present themselves. With the “Help First” mindset, you’ll constantly find new ideas…but you can’t do all of them. Most gym owners who book free consultations with us have PLENTY of ideas. The problem is a lack of time…and they’re trying to do five things at once, which means nothing is getting done. Here’s how to stay focused on ONE goal at a time. 1. Get a mentor. I brought this question to one of my own last night. Most of this advice is his. If you want to hear more from Dan Martell, click here. All of my success has come while under the tutelage and focused guidance of a mentor. Seriously. It’s important. That’s why I do it for gym owners. 2. Set annual goals. Break those goals into monthly targets. Break the monthly targets down by revenue stream. Now you have Point B. Everything that doesn’t move you closer to Point B in a measurable way should be discarded from your daily business. 3. Calculate the value of your time. If you want to make $1,000,000 next year, you need to spend 2000 hours doing $500-per-hour work. You do NOT have extra hours. You can NOT be doing $15-per-hour work. If you want to make $100,000 next year, every hour of work must be worth at least $50. No one is paying you $50 to scroll through your Facebook feed. Or to work out, for that matter. Are you doing 40 hours of $50-per-hour work – NET – every week? What about that “class” of two people you’re running at 10am? 4. Know that “adding another thing from your cognitive overhead takes you away from your real goal.” That’s straight from Martell. Coach Ty talks about cognitive load in our UpCoach program (there’s a reason your clients are distracted in class!) but here’s the gist: You ...
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Episode 61: Physique First, With Bill Shiffler

January 30, 2017 Personal Development Podcast
 
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The 5 Mantras That Saved My Soul (And My Business)

January 26, 2017 Vision
The road from a broke owner to successful entrepreneur has been a long, tough climb. I learned things the hard way. I thought, “I’ll just figure it out” and that cost me YEARS of my life, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and more sleep than I’ll ever make up in my lifetime. Worst of all, I was starting to lose my passion for it when I finally got a business mentor. That’s one of the reasons we mentor gyms now: to vault them over ALL of that. But hard lessons are valuable, too. Here are some I’ve learned: 1. “Heartily know, when demigods go, the gods arrive.” – Emerson. People leave your gym (or life) for a reason. Usually it’s to make way for better people. 2. “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”– Eleanor Roosevelt. Seriously, you’re the only one worrying about your programming and most of the “box drama”. Your clients have lives outside the box. 3. “They’re not your friends.” – Big Nick Your clients are your clients. They pay you money in exchange for service. Your friends do not. It’s black and white, not gray. You don’t do discounts for friends, or “cut them a deal.” If they ask, they’re not your friends. 4. “How will this affect your best clients?” – Mike Michalowicz It’s very tempting, sometimes, to make an exception to get the sale. When a big company asks for a corporate discount, ask yourself if it’s fair for your new clients to pay less than your amazing existing clients. 5. “You can always afford to be generous.” – OK, that was me. You don’t need money to help people. And you don’t need to give them money – or discounts – to help them, either. This week, I showed my financial planner how to set up a free seminar. I showed my ...
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