by cabelmcelderry | Aug 8, 2015 | Business Management, Personal Training Business Tips, Success Mindset
Trying to figure out what i need to do each day to be able to reach my goal is harder than I thought…could I be overthinking it?
One of my readers wrote, “This is one that I just can’t grasp –how do I decide how much money I want to earn? It just feels like a guessing game – like I should pluck a number out of the air and stick with it? Writing down what I want is easy but putting that altogether to make a number just seems like a complete and utter guess! Especially when I wiggle that down to what I want to be earning THIS month.”
You have to reverse engineer it, so yes at first you pick the number out of thin air, what is the amount of monthly income you would be satisfied with earning?
$5000/mth? 10? 20? 100? It can be any; the next step is to determine the time frame in which to reach this that you will also be satisfied with. It goes without saying that the larger the number and the shorter the time frame combined the more daunting the daily tasks will be, and that’s ok; because once you understand what’s required daily it’s as simple as a yes or no answer to, “am I willing to or can I do what it takes to complete this daily?”
If the answer is no you must revisit the goal as it’s not realistic, so would you (at least for now) be comfortable with less money or it taking a longer period of time? This is exactly the same process you should be using with your fitness clients in regard to keeping them committed to their goals. If someone wants to lose 100lbs in 3 months, we can agree that’s not going to happen in a healthy manner to which they will be able to sustain it, but is there a chance that if the lose 30lbs ever 3 months for a year they may be willing to accept that? Can you?
We now work backwards to determine what are the 1-2 things you would need to do today and every day to reach this goal, but a little more info is needed along the way.
If I want to make an additional $10,000 per month I must…
1) Know the approximate margin of my services, meaning what’s left over after I pay trainers, cover rent etc. If I sell a $500/month program the margin might only be $250. If I want to make an additional $10,000 I will need an extra 40 clients than I have today by this standard.
2) Know my “close ratio” how many prospects I must see in order to generate clients, a common average would be a 60% close ratio or 6 out of every 10 people you meet with become clients. In this case to get 40 new clients you will need to meet with 70 new prospects.
3) Know my “set ratio” unfortunately you and I both know not all prospects are created equal, so how many new leads will you need to set 70 appointments? Well commonly I see a set ratio at about 50%, so to get those 40 additional clients, or to meet with 70 qualified prospects you will need 140 new leads.
Ok we’re ready, so if I wanted to achieve my goal of an additional $10,000/month in 2 months I need to create 140 more leads than I have now, which if we break that down to about 40 business days in 2 months I need about 3-4 new leads a day, leading to 1-2 sales appointments and to close one new client a day.
So now we can begin to evaluate our lead generation and marketing tactics, how many hours a day do you need to contribute to these efforts? Can you hire someone to help you, and so on.
Do you see how all of this works?
I know what you might be thinking, “seems complicated, I still don’t totally get it.”
At least that’s how I was for a long time, and well truth is that is where coaching comes in. It’s the same as it is with your fitness clients, it’s often as difficult for us as trainers to grasp these business concepts as it is for our clients to grasp the things we teach them about fitness and nutrition, but at the core of it it’s just understanding what your daily activities need to be and staying consistent with them and that’s what coaches help with.
Please check out www.7figuremastermind.com if you’d like to know more about what we do and how we help fitness pros like you.
I hope this has been helpful.
Cabel
by cabelmcelderry | Aug 4, 2015 | Business Management, Success Mindset
What is the value of your time?
What is your time worth? This is a very serious question and one you need to answer for yourself. What’s more I’d suggest you re-evaluate it about every six months; that is if you want to grow your fitness business as fast as possible. Let me explain.
No matter whether you’re just starting out or have been operating for years chances are your business began as one man (or woman) show. In the early days, and maybe still, you were doing everything. You were the head trainer, chief salesman, sanitation engineer, accounts receivable clerk, lead marketing consultant, web developer, and well you get the picture.
Do you ever notice how difficult it is to switch between two very different tasks? You wouldn’t be weird if you have. Not only that you likely notice there are tasks that are on your “to-do” list that somehow never seem to gravitate to the top of the list, in fact it’s like gravity keep sucking them down to the bottom. We all have tasks that we detest so much that we just consciously or subconsciously avoid them.
You probably have other fears like I had. Thoughts like, “why pay someone to paint the studio when I can do it this weekend?” It seems logical, and seems to make good financial sense, but does it really?
Let me ask you if you decided to play handyman in your business this coming weekend and spent 8-10 hours on both Saturday and Sunday at your business do you think you might be less enthusiastic for your first clients come early Monday morning? What if instead you had a fun weekend with your family, would that leave you more refreshed and excited to see your clients come Monday morning?
Sometimes by doing a variety of tasks saves us money in the short-term. But long-term these tasks can catch up to us in a variety of ways:
- Straying from our primary tasks serves as a distraction making it hard to stay focused and become increasingly proficient at our main task. (ie: client results through continual research or business growth with a full-time focus to marketing and growth.)
- It takes time to mentally and emotionally “shift gears” to different tasks, this leads to longer days, procrastination and burnout.
- Cutting corners on “me time” or family time leads to resentment toward “work” which will quickly stunt your business growth.
- Narrowing your task list allows you to become a “pro” quickly and accelerate your business growth. It only stands to reason if you spend 8 hours a day on 1-2 tasks as opposed to 5-10 you’re going to quickly get better at doing those 1-2 things.
Draw your line in the sand!
Draw your line in the sand, what is your time worth? Now in this context this is a practical question, it might help to also think of it as “what can I afford to have others do?”
For instance if you have tasks like cleaning, filing, calling to confirm appointments, posting updates on your facebook fanpage, tweeting, or creating a new blog post on your website, these are all things you can hire someone else to do for likely minimum wage. Here in Alberta that’s about $10/hour, so I might start by saying my “line in the sand is $10/hour” any task I can hire someone else to do for $10/hour I should and will in an effort to keep me more focused on a narrower set of tasks.
You have to trust me on this, relief from these tasks will instantly pay for itself and as a result your more narrowly focused efforts will actually yield instant growth causing you to ask yourself again, “what is my line in the sand now?”
by cabelmcelderry | Apr 16, 2015 | Success Mindset
When I was walking into security at the airport the other day the security person seen my shirt (HARD WORK BEATS TALENT) and asked, “do you really believe that?”
I said, “100%”, she said, “how do you know?”
I said, “I’m living proof!”
My morning routine is I listen to motivational speeches/programs and there’s one thing that stands out, successful people are ones that keep working at it, and when that’s not enough they make a new plan and try harder.
I know this is hard to believe, as I didn’t for a long time.
There’s only one thing that ever holds you back from greater success.
Your FEAR.
You get in your own way.
Even today I responded to multiple emails from clients that stated: the economy is affecting my business, the videos and images I was using are attracting the wrong clients, the word boot camp gives people an impression to expect it cheaper.
We’re logical people, trust me, I’m the worst in this fashion.
And all of those things are logical “validations” for the simple truth, your fear is holding you back.
You’re afraid that you may not be that good at sales and need to reinvent yourself.
You’re afraid to ask for more because you’re not sure you’re worth it.
You’re afraid that they may be disappointed.
You’re afraid that the fancy new place down the street might actually be better than you.
Be honest with yourself, you’re afraid of many things, so am I.
It’s a battle every single day, and how you fare will be the real indication of what you achieve.
- Start each day off in the right mindset, do what makes you feel good. For me it’s motivational speakers, sometimes while I’m working out, other days it’s loud music, my favourite song or spending my first 15-30 min reading a book I love.
- Surround yourself with role models. It’s true about hanging around with people more successful than you, consciously or subconsciously you will begin to emulate them. (Heck I hung around with my mentor for years until he finally hired an immigration lawyer to import me to give me the reigns of a company to build an international brand.)
- Not your muscles, your vision, read big thinker books. I love reading about Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, and books like The Big Leap and Psycho Cybernetics.
- Set big goals then work backwards down to the simple daily step.
- Embrace simple math, with this and step 3 I’m convinced you can create plan for success no matter what.
- Review your goals and metrics regularly.
- End each day with the three most important things you will work on tomorrow.
- Realize that anyone you look up to really is no smarter than you, then you’ll realize just how awesome you are.
- Most importantly make someone else’s life better today, you can’t help but feel better about yourself.
You do these nine things and I promise you, you can’t fail!
by cabelmcelderry | Jan 22, 2015 | Success Mindset
I don’t know about you but I feel continually blessed that I get to spend my career working to inspire people and change their lives. What we do as fitness professionals is world changing, every day you are a hero.
During my short tenure as COO at Fit Body Boot Camp franchise HQ I’ve got to roll up my sleeves and drive change, it’s taken the pursuit of knowledge of learning to build a business and now a brand to a whole new level.
Recently released is our first brand building short film “Karri’s Story”
If you’re afraid of inspiration you won’t want to watch this.
Enjoy.[youtube]http://youtu.be/doJGdWxnwZE[/youtube]
Want to find a Fit Body Boot Camp near you or learn about franchise opportunities? www.fitbodybootcamp.com
by cabelmcelderry | Dec 11, 2014 | Success Mindset
I remember having this obsession with bouncy balls as a kid. I thought the coolest thing about them was that if you dropped one it would come back to you. Then I discovered the harder you “dropped” it the more it bounced. This is where the “fun” (at least that’s what I thought it was) started. I would take that tiny ball and throw it down on the ground as hard as I could and it would shoot off the floor and bounce from one object to the next. The more force I could put behind that ball the more things I could get it to bounce off. This was a ton of fun, well until I broke something and my mom found out. Then it was all bad lol.
My point is that I want to be more like that bouncy ball. I want to be Resilient. The dictionary defines resilient as: adj. (of a substance or object) able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed.
synonyms: flexible, pliable, supple; More
durable, hardwearing, stout, strong, sturdy, tough
“resilient materials”
(of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
I have had a lot go on in the last 30 days and at times I wanted to have a pity party and sit and say woe is me. I wanted to ask myself the million dollar (?), why is this happening to me. Well after that short mental deliberation I realized I’m not that special, it happens because it’s supposed to happen. It’s actually a sign that I’m going in the right direction. In entrepreneurship we must accept the good with the bad. We must be be mentally prepared to bounce back no matter what the odds are. The more pressure that is put on us the more “bounce” we should have.
So my challenge to you today is to be like that little bouncy ball and be virtually indestructible. Don’t let the little things distract you or discourage you. Use those little things to bounce back faster, harder, and better. I encourage you to welcome trials and adversity when they show up in your life because I realized some time ago that they make me BETTER. So don’t be BITTER be BETTER and have a “bounce back” attitude.
I gotta “bounce” bad pun I know but I’’’ talk at you later.
Be Great!
James Simpson
by cabelmcelderry | Oct 15, 2014 | Success Mindset
Well it’s been a while since I’ve been doing much writing, but it’s time, and what better time but Thanksgiving weekend.
A lot has transpired these last few month, new opportunities seen me take on the COO role of the Fit Body Franchise, a new home purchase in sunny Southern California, a lot of flying, and all kinds of new challenges and responsibilities.
It’s like over night I went from owning my two locations and coaching a few dozen other fitness pros to acquiring a few hundred new clients overnight.
It really puts in perspective the idea of “systems” and “working on the business.”
Fast forward I’ve now been away from my Red Deer location for nearly four months, and to this day I’ve still only been to my Edmonton location physically six times since we opened last March (and only twice while we were actually open for business.)
What many of you don’t know is in the last month and a half I’ve had a wholesale staff change at that location…while I was in a different country.
My Red Deer location has continued to perform on par without me, what an amazing feeling that is. My Edmonton location, well massive momentum is stalled for a moment as the team is rebuilt and stabilized but it wouldn’t have been that long ago that I think this recent experience (like it would for many young entrepreneurs) have caused me a nervous breakdown.
There’s two things that have really seen me through this transition, they’ve each provided valuable lessons and I’m convinced they will both be the top elements of future and yet to come much greater success.
Read on; give it some thought I wonder will you agree when you consider each in relation to your own business.
Did I mention that Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday? One that’s not fully consumerized, but about family and reflection of thanks.
It’s this first one that I am truly so thankful for.
TEAM
I now find myself part of 3 very dynamic teams. Two of the three communicate regularly and assist one another, the third is charged with the mission to shape this whole industry under the brand of Fit Body.
Being part of a team, and not being able to be in the trenches with them every day changes things. Further trying to develop a team that you haven’t spent any face-to-face time with is a really big challenge.
But how do you build an effective team? I’ve certainly learned a few do’s and don’ts.
Team Don’ts
Steer performance by making hard demands.
Don’t mistake as a leader who your first responsibility is to, your employees.
Make assumptions without hearing both sides first.
Let emotion lead to rash decisions that cause more harm than good.
Assume that everyone has the same vision or views your vision the same as you do.
Team Do’s
Have multiple lines of communication, the closer to how we communicate commonly the better.
Team Facebook groups can be highly productive, I suspect mass texts will work very well as well.
Ensure there are measureable means of performance and review and discuss them at regular intervals. (ex. Testimonials and completed assessments.)
Be sure to find ways to try spend time together on a non-work activities.
Foster growth by facilitating and encouraging opportunity to professional development (ie. Send them to learning opportunities and regularly set action plans.) This is a much for skills development as it is to reignite the inspiration of loving what you do.
Create as much flexibility and autonomy as possible.
Consider your team to be a family and treat them the same.
Be willing to give selflessly, but demand loyalty to one another at all costs.
Make time to spend with your team even if it requires travel, see them face-to-face and be present as often as you can. (Ideally at least once per week.)
And finally (which is the second thing) repeatedly ask “why?”
“It Begins with Why”
I was recently selected for something I consider an honour, to give an 18 minute speech to a small audience of a few hundred people at a locally organized TED event.
In my research and review of a few TED Talks considering just how my presentation might go I cam across a TEDx talk by Simon Sinek.
Here’s the link and I highly recommend you watch it.
This has become one of the most profound career points in every aspect of my business. I can look back and reflect that every single success I’ve had has always been when I pursued opportunity for no other reason than why it was important to me.
For example my personal training career actual began a few years before I ever made my first dollar personal training; truly it began when I began helping people at the local gym and I didn’t take their money because “It was stuff that I just thought everyone should know.”
When offered my latest position the negotiation didn’t start with discussion of compensation, it began with discussing the role and it’s responsibilities because I wanted to know if it matched up to my why. I wanted to know that if I took the role could I steer the business in the way I wished for what I believe will best help more people than I could have ever helped before, not much else really mattered to be honest.
We now make a point to begin our team meetings with questions surrounding “why.”
Why do we exist?
Why are we doing what we are doing?
Why do “you” want to be a part of this?
Why is it important we succeed?
Why is it important that we grow?
There’s no sense talking about anything else until this is understood by all, as how and what to do come pretty naturally after (you’ll see that I mean if you watch Simon’s video.)
Hopefully you’ve found this helpful, I leave you with this final question, what’s your why?
Cabel
