Is Your Lizard in Control?
Someone directed me to this video of Seth Godin and I thought it was great, I think it pretty much applies to anyone who is or wants to be an entrepreneur.
A View From the Summit…a Different kind of Fitness Conference
Only 3 people had a badge this long for attendance, contribution and achievement, you could say I'm a wiley veteran.
Like every other year the Fitness Business Summit was over the top in 2012.
If you’re like me you may have times where you’re feeling burnt out, tired, like it’s hard to focus and get shit done. If it means rolling pennies, turning in bottles to go to events like this you should. The raw energizing inspiration is invigorating, you will stretch your vision, rekindle passion for your business and come back believing far more is possible than you ever believed before.
This single event has been an evolution for me, I’m proud to call Bedros my mentor and friend, it’s pretty neat to take the stage each year and talk about our successes and even more neat to see all the new people talking about their successes.
The content is always fantastic. From basic understanding of there are only 3 ways to grow your fitness business:
1) Get more clients.
2) Raise your prices.
3) Sell each customer more things.
More than a dozen strategies were walked through this weekend for getting more clients. From using appreciation tools like thank you cards and coffee shop gift cards as a mechanism for stimulating referrals to SEO strategies for organic leads to using the boy band post card to bring old customers back.
Pricing discussions always revolve around EFT and if you’re not using it you’re seriously leaving your business in a precarious situation. Then there is the discussion of bundling services and how you can easily create items of extra value with services like FreeConferenceCall.com or a simple FlipCam.
If all of this get’s your head spinning maybe answering these questions will help. They came from an excellent presentation by Craig Ballantyne on getting started with your first info product. Ever been to a conference where the presenter buys everyone in the room a beer? Like I said a conference like none other.
Fitness Business Summit is truly a different kind of conference, expected anything.
Ask yourself:
1) What do I do better than everyone else?
2) What are my best qualities, skills and characteristics?
3) What do I know better than everyone else?
4) Who are my raving fans?
5) What is my ‘Magic Time’? (Magic time is those couple hours a day that we all have where our mind is the sharpest and we just get far more done in a short period of time. Craig says it’s critical to identify, utilize and viciously protect this time.)
These questions can be a real game changer in your business, you see as fitness professionals we all get caught up in being good technical trainers. We wait for people interested in our services to inquire. Truth is there are only a handful of those customers that every fitness professional is fighting for. There is a much bigger audience that wants to look and feel better about themselves but haven’t even considered using something like personal training, and the best news is there’s no one fighting for them.
Take the answers from the above questions and really focus on them. Everything you write, all the ads you create should be centered around identifying with those answers. This is how you create your brand image and your customers will love you for it.
Jay Abraham was amazing, he stretched your vision well beyond where many of us reside today. Hanging out with 8 time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman was pretty cool also. All in all the event was amazing but the absolute best part was just being around so many like-minded individuals. I was so motivated I created my lead box marketing product Saturday afternoon and put it up for sale late Saturday night. You will find those are the kinds of odd miracles that happen when you attend these kinds of events. I can’t wait for Profitable Personal Trainer Live next month to experience this kind of thrill and inspiration again. Not to mention to be able to monopolize Bedros at an event with only 100 people as opposed to 400 people is going to be a serious competitive advantage. Where are you in your business and where are you going?
Part 3: From Absolute to Relative, Let Your Passion Work For You
After establishing ones self as an expert in their given niche, it is important to further diversify yourself from other given experts that may be in the same field. While doing this you may also find additional ways to leverage your time further and develop not only a greater absolute income for yourself but also a relative income that is more passive and conducive to your lifestyle. Consider the population you have made yourself an expert in and now consider ways you can reach similar individuals on a grander scale, with little to no additional time investment.
An absolute income is one that you will continually trade time for dollars for. This is fine, considering that your passion has now lead to an income and therefore the time you trade is something you enjoy doing; however, to be truly successful you need to be able to separate yourself from a business model and have it continue to generate your income. By separating yourself from this income stream you are now free to consider additional populations and repeat your successful model, or you are now free to relax and enjoy additional things in life outside of business.
A relative income is such that little to no work is involved in order to maintain an income. This can be established and accomplished in a number of ways including, but not limited to, hiring additional individuals to train according to your principles while taking a percentage of the income generated as a bonus to yourself for hiring and teaching the individuals these principles. As well, generating a series of manuals or possibly an ebook that allows for little to no overhead costs while still generating an income for individuals looking too educate themselves on your expertise.
Time is the only limited commodity. There are limitless amounts of money in the world; however, money does not buy you time. Make time for yourself and let your success be defined as the achievement of an ideal lifestyle and not the most riches.
At the end of the day the worst thing that can happen is failure. Period. And as soon as you determine the worst case scenario and ways to avoid it then you have not only defined your fear but have generated ways to stay away from it. Keep failing! Fail better. Learn from mistakes, and keep moving forward.
Define your passion. Let it drive you. Riches will follow suit.
Joshua K. Neufeld
Niche Your Passion
You may have tuned in a couple weeks ago as Joshua Neufeld talked about finding your passion in the fitness industry. What many of you may no know is that Joshua only began his real fitness career barely 3 years ago, it began as two very nerve racking interviews with my business partner and myself at One-to-1 Fitness. Joshua has progressed from college grad to senior trainer at One-to-1 Fitness, and more importantly, a budding entrepreneur as an author who’s made his way to five continents.
It’s been amazing to watch Joshua grow, he’s really a product of his environment as I’ve always aimed to share what I’m learning with our whole team in an effort to see each of them grow in this industry, yet I’d hardly take credit for what he has achieved.
I wanted to share this with you simply because no matter where you are now, unless your career or business is exactly what you want it to be, you can quickly grow more than you thought imaginable just as I’ve seen Joshua grow over these last couple years. Beyond your passion understanding your niche is the next critical step.
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After establishing what it is you want in life, it is important to find a way to leverage that passion so that you can continue to do it for as long as you so choose. The great thing about passion is the motivation to be better always exists; however, it is also important to stay mindful of your lifestyle and the types of things you still need to account for (ie. Mortgage, family, bills…etc.). Therefore, after defining your passion it is important to establish the types of things you wish to keep in the remainder of your life, more specifically the amount of cash-flow you need to continue your lifestyle.
What do you need to make your world go around?
After establishing some absolute numbers for income, break it down further on a quarterly, monthly, and evenly weekly basis as to how much you really need to generate to allow for your lifestyle to continue while pursuing your passion. Dependent upon your situation it may be necessary at this point to control some variables in your life according to the amount of income you can generate in a given location. As well, be mindful of the fact that you ALWAYS get out of situations what you put into them. So when pursuing your passion, do so whole-heartedly.
In the fitness industry passion is plentiful, but developing a niche to leverage can be difficult. Consider populations that are unaccounted for and begin to develop ways that you can cater specifically to them and how you can convince these individuals that the service you offer is worth the dollars they earn. At the end of the day any true fitness professional would agree that all individuals (without exception) can benefit from the effects of proper training and nutritional coaching. Therefore, step outside the box and explore populations that have been overlooked by the rest of the industry and by your competitors!
It’s no secret that weight loss is always going to dominate the fitness industry, and given the latest trends in childhood obesity and the poor activity and nutritional habits of the majority of North Americans this is not going to change. But in business sometimes it is better to be a big fish in a small pond, than the opposite. Rather, by stepping away from the “norm” of weight loss clients and going after special populations with more specific needs you will soon establish yourself as a given expert in your “pond” and will leverage your income in a way that most “dime-a-dozen” trainers simply cannot.
The idea is not necessarily to be better, but rather to be different! When walking into a gym for the first time a middle-aged individual will have a hard time determining which trainer will suit them best and in turn your chances of landing that client are slim. BUT! If you can establish yourself as an expert in a given field, and masterfully market yourself to those individuals then you will have successfully established not only a niche clientele but also a definitive and secure place for yourself inside the industry.
Identify Your Passion
A special guest post by: Joshua Neufeld, NeuFitness
To do what you love, and be able to make money doing it, is something few individuals have the opportunity to truly experience in their lives. The fitness industry is such that if you don’t show up to work every day with a passion for changing lives, then your existence will be short and unsuccessful. In order to be truly effective in such a vast and complex industry it is important to not only adapt, but identify what it is that truly makes you tick. What do you wake up every morning hoping you accomplish with your clients? Better yet, define your client. Your IDEAL client. Who is it you want to work with, and why? This is your passion, and this is what makes getting out of bed so much easier.
Simply put, a life without passion is one of monotony.
A passion is something that you do with the expectation of nothing in return. Therefore, income generation is not necessarily the goal. Rather the idea that when one is passionate enough and is willing to pursue such interests, riches are bound to follow. Separate yourself from the idea that your passion HAS to make you money and ask yourself: If I already had all the money and riches I desired, what would I do with my time? Guess what! This is your true passion. How you would spend your time if money was no object is the ultimate determining factor of one’s passion in life. Therefore, money cannot be ones motivation as it is more often than not the only factor limiting one from their passion.
A man’s fortune is not of riches but of experiences; fulfillment, not to be confused with accumulation.
With a passion comes an otherwise unattainable level of focus and drive towards your commitments. The internal motivation that comes with doing something you love everyday and knowing your lifestyle will be catered too because the effort put forth (although seemingly similar) will be much greater when the idea of time and hourly wage are no longer prevalent and you are simply going about your dreams, instead of punching a clock. Wake up with purpose beyond cash-flow. Remember, pursue your dreams and riches will follow once you put yourself in a position to be truly successful emotionally and mentally. Financially, the success will follow.
“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.” –Timothy Ferris
Much the same, the uncomfortable conversation you must have with yourself when deciding to abandon the status quo and go after a dream. Define your passion, and then go after it, relentlessly.
Come learn from Josh on April 21-22 in Edomonton at www.ProfitablePersonalTrainerLive.com
You Should Be Worried If They Say “No”
Are you regularly asking your clients for testimonials? Most trainers are not. This won’t be a long blog post at all but it will be one packed with great purpose.
I’m certain by now you know the benefits of testimonials. Social proof is worth more than just about any pricey, elaborate marketing campaign. It’s worth more than ten certifications and all kinds of post-secondary education. So I’m sure you understand the marketing value of asking for testimonials. But there is a far more important reason to be asking your clients for testimonials on a regular basis.
Let me be blunt, and glaringly obvious.
If you asked your client for a testimonial today and they said NO; what does this say about your service or the value you are providing?
If you are providing the value, results, and service that you both think and say you are, shouldn’t you be 100% comfortable asking your clients for a testimonial? I mean if they say no, shouldn’t you be concerned?
Maybe concerned isn’t the right answer but you should most certainly be asking, “what is missing from my service that you don’t feel comfortable providing me a testimonial?”
Now this isn’t just true of testimonials but also referrals, they go hand in hand. If your clients over the top love your service it’s a natural occurrence that they will want to share and tell their experiences to others, if they don’t something isn’t right.
Start asking, the feedback will catapult your business forward.
List Explosion, Ethical Marketing?
This post on very viable personal trainer marketing might raise a few eyebrows and ruffle a few feathers.
Recently I learned of an amazing new strategy of adding 100s of new contacts to my list in minutes using Facebook and Yahoo. The prospect of this could potentially generate thousands of dollars of revenue instantly for anyone ready to run an email campaign for gaining clients or selling an information or internet product.
Naturally I was instantly thrilled and excited about this, afterall, having an edge, an opportunity to dramatically grow your business is always exciting. So I’m going to share it with you.
If you goto Yahoo.com and set up a new email address there is an option that will allow you to import your contacts, one of the ways you can do this is to import all of your friends from Facebook. Once that’s done there is an option to export all of your contacts to a spreadsheet, from there they could be added to your favourite email marketing software like Aweber, iContact or what I use; FitPro Newsletter.
Presto, you could add as much as 5000 new contacts in just minutes.
But wait a minute…
Is this ethical? How will these contacts respond? If they respond negatively will they still buy?
Truth is I started to listen to the reports of others that have done this, some were bad, some were really bad, some were not so bad, but very few were extremely positive.
None the less, any diligent marketer knows you’re going to face a few haters along the road to success, so what.
But…
The more I began to think about it the less I liked it, maybe it’s because I’ve been so immersed in Books like Delivering Happiness and Pour Your Heart Into It that talk about company culture, core values and beliefs that I just really didn’t feel comfortable with the idea exploiting what Facebook was originally intended to do…socially connect people.
Everything I’ve learned about effective marketing really comes down to a basic fundamental that I continually try to stand by, treat others I as I hope to be treated, and always try to over deliver.
Ultimately I just didn’t feel this strategy fit my core values for marketing, and it really got me thinking about all the crazy marketing things I have tried and the marketing that we presently offer and will offer in the future.
As things continue to move at lightspeed, and as service seems to fall lower and lower on the list of large corporate values I think this becomes an even bigger opportunity for the small entrepreneur. It’s easy to be distracted and dissuaded from your core values, it’s easy to walk on or cross over the line at times so I urge you to review, assess and re-evaluate often your own practices.
I’d love to hear your comments.
Remember It’s About the Numbers
So last week I ran an email referral contest to generate new names and leads for my mailing list. I’d avoided this contest for months because I didn’t like the greyness of it in association to privacy (something I take very seriously.)
Now ultimately I opted to run this contest because of the success of colleagues in other areas, some have gained thousands of emails in just a week. It is a given that a number of the emails received won’t be viable customers but even if 10% are, it’s often a very winning venture.
I do and have tracked just about everything in any way I possibly can. A number of things I’ve overcomplicated because of my hunger for understanding and information (and have now eliminated once I’ve gained that understanding.) At one point I could tell exactly how much it cost on average to generate an email address from a radio, newspaper, online classified or a Facebook PPC ad in my area. Without a doubt I can tell you that the results typically achieved with the email referral campaign would be the equivalent of spending thousands of dollars in these other mediums.
Anyways…
I’ve felt August to be an especially great time to run an email referral campaign, often sales are a little better than July but still not up to par with the school months where everyone has regular schedules. Leading into September it only makes sense to expand your list in an effort to have a wider audience to educate in the fall and hopefully if enough value is provided turn them into paying customers.
Now additionally a few of my coaching clients have been running this same contest at the same time. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, I always find it interesting when I have a heavy week of emailing, or a campaign that some people don’t like the reaction you sometimes get. You know what I mean the….
STOP %$^KING EMAILING ME
When all they had to do was click the unsubscribe link at the bottom. Now I don’t know about you but I don’t enjoy negative feedback from my audience, for more than seven years I’ve written countless articles for newspapers, websites, blogs, etc trying to educate people to lead a longer, healthier happier life. I receive many great comments like…
“Cabel You continue to selflessly provide some of the best info to your clients and friends. Once again, Thankyou for your e-mails.”
Yet still just like you the occasional hatemail seems to make me doubt it all. Mid way through the contest, I think after my 3rd broadcast for the week (low by internet marketing standards) I’d received about three such hatemails, it honestly made me apprehensive about sending the fourth, I felt bad.
I’ve had coaching clients that shut down promos because one person on a list of a thousand replied with something negatively, or others contact me in worry and question their current marketing objective because of the reaction of a couple of people out of hundreds.
Remember it’s about the numbers, negative constructive feedback is very valuable but negative general feedback is just a distraction don’t let it weaken you. Marketing is about behaviours, we can never really predict them so all we can do is quantify them, if you are ever doubting your initiative check your math to see if your doubts are simply an emotional reaction, if so get over it as quickly as possible and move on.
NOTE: I’m not an expert on privacy laws so I’m not sure where this falls in relation, but I truly believe in being very transparent so if you run a similar contest it’s critical to utilize good practice and send all the emails a welcome email explaining how you received their information and giving them a fair opportunity to opt-out immediately. Additionally bring real value to people, if you are asking for referrals you must truly believe in what you are providing. Recently I offered advice to someone that potentially saved them from a serious health concern, so much so their doctor made a point to thank me, these are the reasons you should be wanting these referrals so you can bring real value to the people that are referred to enrich their life whether they ever buy from you or not.
Below are the exact emails I sent, feel free to use them if you’d like to run a similar contest.
EMAIL #1: Mon
Subject line: hey…
Title: Win an IPAD2 this Friday!
(Consider adding pic of iPad at store with clerk, caption win an iPad this Friday all the details in this email)
Hey, this is Cabel at One-to-1 Fitness, your local fitness expert
You’re getting this because you subscribed to my newsletter that I send out twice a month so you are either a client or a local resident. What I am looking to do is help more local residents get in the best
shape of their life. I realized my One-to1 Fitness Newsletter does that because of the feedback I’ve received from you.
So what I would like to do is help more Red Deer residents have access to my healthy articles, fitness tips and tasty recipes. So I’ve decided to hold a contest; what I want you to do is send me the email addresses of all your local friends, family and co-workers so that I can add them to my newsletter. Twice a month they can get awesome tips to looking and feeling great via their email. Oh, and don’t worry, I don’t ever share anyone’s email addresse, promote bs stuff or fill up their inboxes with junk. This is the same content rich newsletter that you get twice a month. As always, they can unsubscribe with a single click at any time.
Now to make this contest more interesting, I set the end date for this coming Friday, (Insert date) and I’m giving away 2 prizes – to the first and second place winners.
Prize one is an Ipad2 to the person that sends me the most email addresses.
Prize two is 3 months of free group personal training and if you are an existing client we are going to add 3 months to your current Group PT program.
So here’s what I want you to do now. Go to your email contacts, hit reply to this email and send those emails on over to me and I’ll be keeping track to let you know if you win by this Friday.
Thank you so much,
Cabel
Email #2: (Wed)
subject line: Urgent Update!! (Notice the two exclamation marks 🙂
(Consider photo of Ipad again, top caption, Win an iPad this Friday, bottom details in this email, and the top 5 worst Starbucks drinks to order!)
Hey it’s Cabel again,
Wow! It’s been an overwhelming response & a very tight race with about 30 people contributing. Who’s it gonna be? Contest Ends: Friday @ Midnight!
Just wanted to let you know I spent a few minutes on the Starbucks website and I found the top five drinks that have the highest calories and here’s what they are.
1.Peppermint White Hot Chocolate 720 Cal
2.Iced Peppermint White Mocha 700 Cal
3. Mint Chocolatly Chip Frappucino 680 Cal
4.Tazoa Green Tea Frappucino 650 Cal
5. Eggnog Latte 630Cal
And because it should never be all bad news here are the 5 drinks with the lowest number of calories. J
1. Skinny Caramel Macchiato 140 Calories
2. Skinny Latte 130 Calories
3. Caffè Misto 110Cal
4. Frappuccino Light Blended Beverages 110 Cal
5. Unsweetened Brewed Coffee or Tazo Tea 0-5 Cal
If you go to Starbucks (like I know many of you do) you probably want to know if the drinks you choose are in the top fatty ones or the top low calorie ones.
And oh by the way…… Remember I am running that contest for referral emails because I want to help more Red Deer residents. Seriously we get so many positive comments about our free fitness newsletter and our new fitness magazine we know it helps people, please help us reach as many people as possible.
“Keep those emails coming, the best information I’ve seen anywhere and it all makes sense.” -Bob Fournier
So far it’s been overwhelming; a lot of people are sending me emails…the race for the IPad and the 3 months of Group PT is a tight race with about 30 people participating and I bet you are one of them. So if you want to be sure you win the first place iPad, just keep replying to this email and send me the email addresses of local friends, family and co-workers.
Remember to do before midnight on Friday. That’s when I turn into a pumpkin…err I mean is the deadline. I’m keeping score and will let you know who won the IPad and who won the 3 months of boot camp.
Have a great day everyone!
Yours in health,
Cabel McElderry
Director, One-to-1 Fitness
2009 Finalist for Small Business of the Year
Email #3 Thurs
subject line – I screwed up…(but am making good, time sensitive.)
Hey this is Cabel again,
I screwed up and I failed to let you know that I decided to make it 4 months of free Group PT for second place in the referral contest and not three. I made that decision on Wednesday due to the overwhelming response (we just really wanted to say thank you) when I emailed you but I failed to tell you. I raised the stakes from 3 months to 4 months for the second place prize. (We really want to help a lot of Red Deerians (is that even a word?) get access to newsletter for fitness
tips, recipes etc)
Remember they can unsubscribe anytime they want to and the more local residents you can help me reach, the more local residents will get in the best shape of their lives…and by the way it may ensure Red Deer stays of the Men’s Health Magazine’s list of top 10 fattest cities.
Did you know that statistically as many as 3 of 10 people in Alberta are considered obese and Alberta’s obesity rate is almost 20% higher than the national average?
So, here’s what you want to do, hit reply to this email and start helping your local friends and family stay in the 7 of 10 rather than the obese 3 of 10 in our population our totally free newsletter is a great place to start, that and the 100s of articles we publish and send out are really making a difference for some people.
Don’t worry we’ll send them a welcome email and they can unsubscribe with a single click anytime they choose, you have until tomorrow at midnight to do this to win the iPad and Group PT. Help us help Red Deer.
Yours in health,
Cabel McElderry
One-to-1 Fitness
Email #4. (Friday early)
subject line: Holy cow…
Do you love Booster Juice as much as I do? Unfortunately their smoothies can still be loaded with sugar, here are my top 4 personal rules when ordering a smoothie @booster juice below:
1. Ask for No Sorbet
2. Ask for No Fruit Juice
3. Ask for No regular yogurt
4. DO ask for extra berries, water, ice, milk, and maybe an extra
boost (i.e extra protein/energy)
Hope this helps:
100% Committed to your success!
Hey, I also just wanted to give you a heads up, tonight at midnight, Friday, the contest ends. There are over 10 people in the running for first place to win the IPad2 and about 8 people in the second place running to win the 4 months free Group PT. I want to help more Red Deer residents get in the best shape of their life. I want to add your friends, family and co-workers that are local to my fitness newsletter. So please send those email addresses to me and I will let you know this weekend once I do the math (it’s crazy hard when I run out of fingers…and toes…and toothpicks, to count that high 😛 You know personal trainers don’t count so well right?) who won the IPad2 and who won the 4 weeks of Group PT.
Yours in health
Cabel
PS. 1st and 4th place are only separated by 50 emails.
Friday #2)
re. Hey…a welcome email to your referrals
Hey, I had just a couple people raise concerns about sharing their friends emails with us, and you know i understand the way the world is today, so I wanted to send this to you so you know just how polite we are about people’s privacy.
Here’s what your friends and family will receive.
Subject line: Welcome (action required)
Hey, I’m Cabel McElderry from One-to-1 Fitness, Red Deer’s Top Fitness Expert.
You are getting this email because your friend, family or co-worker is either a client or a subscriber of our free fitness newsletter and magazine and cared enough that they suggested we send it to you also. Our newsletter and magazine is bi-monthly and is packed with healthy recipes, fitness tips, and cool fitness articles.
Now we totally respect your privacy which is why I’m sending this welcome email. For whatever reason you decide you don’t want to get this newsletter at the very bottom of this email, and all the emails I send
to you, is an unsubscribe button, just click it and you will never get this email from me again.
Otherwise, enjoy the emails that I send you, I think you’ll find the content very valuable in fact right below,
here is the first one.
Hope this helps you and many others in Red Deer look and feel amazing!
Cabel McElderry
Director, One-to-1 Fitness
Welcome Alwyn Cosgrove
As you know things have changed a lot for me in the last four years, thanks to many kind and gracious fitness professionals that have been willing to share their business success secrets with me. I’ve been able to move my career in a direction I never believed possible, in essence that’s what brought Profitable Personal Trainer into existence. My decision to begin writing and coaching was a result of the desire to want to pass on what’s been given to me by other fitness professionals to many more in hopes that we can help still more people live longer, healthier, happier lives.
Let me introduce Alwyn, another giving, well known fitness professional who was kind enough to share some words on just what happened that allowed his own career to change and grow. I know there are a number of people that read this blog that are where I once was, or where Alwyn once was and I remember how motivating it was for me to learn what made the difference for others. I hope this helps you with that next big step.
Committed to your success,
Cabel
Introducing Alwyn Cosgrove,
The turning point in my career came when I realized that everything I needed to know about the fitness profession, training people and running a business was already out there.
All I had to do was read it or listen to it. I then started to invest in myself and I’ve never stopped.
I decided in 1995 that I would take one training session’s worth of income each week and invest it in my own education. At that time I picked up 2 books per week and committed myself to reading them. If there was a seminar or educational event I attended that. At that time there were no Perform Better educational events – really there were only certifications – so in a short time I ended up with I think 17 certifications from various organizations. Every week I disciplined myself to read 2 books or watch a video (there were no DVD’s then!) or listen to an educational audio.
It all started when I read this quote-
“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations – we fall to the level of our training” -Archilochus, Greek Soldier – and believed in it so much that it changed my direction
My goal was to learn one new thing per day — so that in a year I’d know 365 more things. That progressed to one hour of study per day – so I’d spend nine full 40-hour work weeks per year by comparison fully immersed in education.
I also started writing a 100 word summary on every training session I did – results, coaching cues that worked, exercise modifications etc. I averaged around 35 sessions per week at the time – so at the end of one year – I had close to a 200,000 word thesis on training and coaching methodology. Then, different strength coaches and rehab specialists started holding seminars. I attended everyone’s events (and actually started hosting them for additional events).
Around about the time we opened our gym I had a realization. As a trainer, I could get anyone better results with my programming and my instruction than they could on their own. I recognized that I became a black belt martial artist because of my instructors programming and instruction, better than I could on my own.
“All wealthy top achievers have coaches” – James Malinchak
So it hit me – it was time to move beyond self-education and actually hire coaches for my business. All aspects of my business. Coaches who could really fast-track my business progress and get me to the next level faster. And as a direct result of that decision – Results Fitness is one of the most successful fitness businesses in the country.
You see coaches help with a lot of things. Most goal setting programs work something like this (from the book: The Secret Code of Success):
1. Set goals (know what you want)
2. Take action towards your goals
3. Evaluate your progress
4. Adjust the approach based on your evaluation
The problem with that – is that’s not how it works for most people in the real world — here’s pretty much what happens:
1. The Fog (you have no clarity – no idea of what you truly want)
2. Treadmilling (you’re busy – really busy – but you aren’t actually moving forwards)
3. Feel like a failure (as you didn’t get any closer to your goals)
4. Try again (hoping that doing the same thing over and over will somehow lead to different results)
Hiring a coach helps figure out EXACTLY what you want – and provides ACTION steps to get you closer to that.
The biggest piece of advice I can give anyone in this field is to continually invest in yourself. Education is the single biggest difference maker in any field. Investing in yourself never fails to reap big rewards.
What I’m Doing Wrong and You are Too
Do you know what your weaknesses are? I know exactly what my primary weakness is and I think it’s something you will relate to. I’ve been working to overcome it for years, with all the progress I’ve made I still have much work to do. I’m undoubtedly a control freak and what’s worse not only do I like to be in control of everything I still get wrapped up in a scarcity mindset. You know exactly what I mean, that little voice that says, “It won’t take long, and it would be cheaper and easier to just do it myself.”
Can you relate? I think just about any entrepreneur can, I mean at heart we all start as technicians, we’re really good at something and that something generally ties into a skill that we can easily sell because we’re so good at it leading to some people writing us cheques. Somewhere along the line you get this idea to turn that skill or service into a business, you work hard reach your physical limit and after a great amount of fear and trepidation you leap and begin to hire people.
Once you take this gigantic and critical step new fears and problems arise, and you are their creator. At first you resist giving up control, you resist letting people make decisions and ultimately mistakes, after all it’s your name on the line. As you work to overcome these fears and slowly let them take some responsibilities you then take on new projects, now you are doing things you may not necessarily be really good at but you persist. You justify that you need to do it, that that was the reason you hired these other people that are now doing what you were really good at. You further justify that in order to be profitable it’s just better if you do it yourself.
The truth is these are all big fat lies; believe it, because even I’m still doing it wrong too often. Writing this is like therapy, it’s often easier to tell others what to do than do it yourself, yet it’s also that first step in changing your own paradigm or mindset.
When you make the transition from job to self-employed you do so with a passion for what you do, you love what you do and it makes you leap out of bed each morning with vigour and enthusiasm. Once you reach the point of hiring other people you then face responsibilities for things you’re not good at and often don’t enjoy, but the right answer is that if you don’t enjoy it with the absolute passion that you started your business with you shouldn’t be doing them but rather these are the tasks you should be hiring and delegating to other people. You may think you can’t afford to but the truth is you can’t afford not to. Now if you’re like me I’ve read and heard that in many success books and audios and I often was left thinking, “yah but these guys forget what it was like to be really small with no budgets for these kinds of things.” Truth is that’s just your scarcity mindset.
If I wanted to give you this car, could you raise $25,000 for it? Of course you could, yet we often don't trust ourselves that things will "work out."
At our recent workshop in Calgary I remember Bedros talking about something, an example, like someone had a Ferrari sitting in front of them that was worth like $250,000 or more and that person was going to offer it to you on one condition, you had to raise $25,000 in the next 24 hours. The question is, could you do it? Sure you could, anyone could, I mean you could literally approach an almost near stranger to borrow the money on the premise of selling the car at a gigantic discount, paying them a healthy return and pocketing enough to go buy a brand new less expensive sports car of your choosing, it would be that simple. My point is, is that any time you tell yourself you can’t afford to do something in your business you are probably lying to yourself because if you needed to do something you would find a way, there are no if’s ands or buts, it would just happen. That’s how the universe works if you believe in something or commit to something with every fiber of your being it generally just happens.
So now let’s put this back in perspective with your business and the problem with being a control freak and a scarcity mindset. Do you ever feel burnt out? Sure you do, everyone does at times. I was recently listening to an audio program by Dan Sullivan and he said something about when you do things with passion it should fill you with energy, even more than you already have. You shouldn’t burn out very often from doing the things you really like to do. What an amazing concept for the success of your business, don’t bog yourself down with the things you don’t like to do, they will only kill your creativity, your productivity and they obviously aren’t your strengths or you would like to do them.
Find others who have the strengths to do the things you don’t like to do and aren’t good at, let them shine by doing what they are good at. This is now easier than ever from www.kijiji.ca classifieds to www.elance.com and www.odesk.com you can find someone to just about anything you need in hours. By freeing you up to do what you are good at it will be easy to produce the revenue you need to pay for this new service in fact if you doubt this just look at your current to-do list, look for 1-2 things that have been on there for way too long. What have you been putting off? Everyone dreads or avoids something that seems to never get done. What would you have had to pay someone else to do this for you? How much new revenue could this have created your business if this had been done when you originally thought of it? Truly these numbers can be frightening and staggering when you begin to add up the lost opportunity of all the tasks you’ve been procrastinating on.
What does this mean?
1) Dan Sullivan teaches “define your 10 best habits.” What are the things you do every day that you really enjoy doing, give you more energy, and you are really good at? These are the things you should be doing, try to delegate all other things to people that have those skills in their 10 Best Habits. (Make the 10 Best Habits and exercise for any prospect you are considering hiring, if they enjoy what they do, do you think they will work hard and be highly productive?)
2) Don’t think about what you “can’t” afford, instead ask yourself how much will it cost to have someone else do it, then work backwards to determine how much new business you will need to create and if you can create that new business in the same or less time, I bet you can.
3) Let others make mistakes, it’s a hard lesson to learn but if you wish to grow a successful business you have to remember that you learned what you have by making mistakes. Let the people in your organization make mistakes also, by having confidence in them to learn from failure and right any wrongs along the way you will likely have a more loyal team that grows much faster.
4) Leave your comments in an effort to initiate your own “therapy” if you too are trying to overcome this weakness. 🙂
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