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Fear, Doubt, Lack of Motivation, This Ever Happen to You?

Fear, Doubt, Lack of Motivation, This Ever Happen to You?

Published by on August 14, 2012 | 3 Responses

I’ve been trying to write this post for a short while, it’s been hard to get the words out for some reason but I think it’s needed from what I am hearing from many fitness professionals.

%image_alt%Ever feel like you’re in a funk? Like yesterday you knew exactly where you were going with your personal training business and today the whole thing feels like a house of cards about to tumble? Have you ever felt so paralyzed with fear about hiring a new trainer or that next big promotion?

Not too many people know this but my 7 Figure business almost collapsed, a couple of times, or whether that’s absolute truth or not that’s sure how I felt at the time. In fact I’ve rarely spoke about it to anyone until now. I guess that’s what a perfectionist does when his confidence is shaken; he waits until it’s restored to really talk about it.

But whether it is disaster or just a funk I think the feelings are the same and I think it’s a natural cycle in your personal training business or any business. We’re all control freaks at heart, we’re methodical, analytical, task and goal oriented, and demand to be at our fighting performance ALL THE TIME!

%image_alt%I hate the word motivate, what we really do is inspire people to change and that in turn inspires us. Motivation is a by-product of inspiration and comes after action is taken not before, this is why we can’t motivate anyone, not even ourselves. We must first be inspired by the vision or idea of the outcome, in other words we have to have a goal. But then of course it’s not that simple either, I mean do you really understand your goal and does your goal fit you personally? What I mean by that is I think as people we all become distracted by what we “think” our goals are “supposed” to be. For instance in our world today financial means is sought after by everyone, it’s a deep root in our culture, wealth brings opportunity, options, material objects and most importantly freedom. But are you really attracted to money and financial success? For me personally at times it feels like it and then more often than not I realize it’s not the money but the freedom and bigger still the sense of ACCOMPLISHMENT.
That right there is the mother of all things, when I doubt everything I try to focus on that simple fact. As a teen growing up I struggled with self-esteem and self-worth and as a result the sense of accomplishment is emotionally very important to me. If I’m in a low it’s, more often than not, because that basic sense or need is not being fulfilled.

I suspect with personal trainers world wide some measure of this holds true for most of us just because our series of behaviors are so similar; but if that isn’t the case for you what do you feel it is? If you can’t answer that with absolute certainty I’d totally suggest you take 20 minutes to sit in a quite place and separate yourself from everything and just think about it. Oddly the two places that this seems to happen the easiest for me is doing cardio and taking a shower (ok maybe you didn’t need to know that.)%image_alt%

 

My point of all of this is it’s normal to be in a funk, and it’s going to happen again so how are you going to deal with it?

Here’s what I’d suggest…

1)   Take 20 minutes to really consider what inspires you, or what is the one word emotion that describes what inspires you every single time.

2)   Review your historical progress, we’re often frustrated by a lack of growth or change only because we don’t realize how rapidly or how much we’ve already grown.

3)   Set goals but most importantly break them down to small, very comfortable, goals that you can achieve in a day or a week it has to feel not so bad.

4)   Get out of dodge often! Seriously I find if I don’t take a week break from my business every 8-12 weeks my productivity deteriorates to almost nothing, fear and procrastination begin to rule. (I even see this in my trainers and encourage them to take emotional breaks from clients.)

5)   Finally and most importantly, look at your giant “to-do” list and sift through it to find the one thing that really excites you, that you can do or work on right now and won’t take more than today or a couple days to complete. Something that will drive your business forward, put everything else aside and attack it. Re-ignite your inspiration and ultimately motivation with an immediate sense of success and accomplishment (exactly the same as you try to do for your clients.)

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Personal Trainers Should Be Information Marketers

Personal Trainers Should Be Information Marketers

Published by on August 11, 2012 | Leave a response

%image_alt%In order to profit as a personal trainer, you need to sell more than your time. If you only sell your time, then you will always be locked at the same income level. You can sell more than your time by a change in your perspective. For example you need to think of yourself as an advisor and information expert in the area of personal training and diet. When you think from this perspective, you will have many other ideas that you can put into action, and which will bring in profits.

There are a number of simple ways that you can create and sell products alongside your personal training sessions. One of the easiest things that you can do is to just record a session with a current client. You will need to get the permission from the client and inform them about your intentions.

During the video session, you can demonstrate exercises and how to perform them correctly by instructing your client. You can also put them through a workout that people could then follow at home. It is a good idea to choose a client that is average, so that people can see themselves duplicating the workout and the exercises.

Plan out the training program before you shoot the video to ensure that everything flows more smoothly. The video can be completed in less than one hour. It will then take another couple of hours to edit the video and add any copyright terms that you want. This is a very simple method of creating a product.

You can also create a short report that you sell from your website (as a download). This is a great idea as you can advertise your personal training sessions throughout the report. The report does not need to be very long. In most cases, people prefer a short and straightforward report that can be read and applied.

There are a number of other very good ideas that can be used for personal trainers. You can create a set of training programs that walk people through a month of training. You can tailor these programs for people who want to lose weight, those that want to gain muscle, those that want to increase their fitness levels or people that want to improve their performance in a certain sport.

There are many ways that you can create information products as a personal trainer. The more products that you have available to sell on your website, the more money that you can make. You can refer certain clients to specific products that you have created.

Thinking of yourself as an information marketer, instead of a personal trainer that sells their time for money, is a huge leap forward in your business. If you follow this type of business model you will soon increase your income and attract more clients.

You can still train personal clients as you currently do, but now your business will have many other avenues of income. This will give you a much broader reach than most of the personal trainers in your community. You will soon become the most well known and most sought after.

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How-to Launch a Profitable Semi-Private Training Program

Published by on August 7, 2012 | 1 Response

Let’s face it one-on-one training is on it’s way out. Sure it makes sense for special situations and injuries but for major profitability in your personal training business an effective semi-private and/or group personal training program is essential.

There’s no doubt that the aspect of community makes semi-private and group training even more desirable to the consumer, so what are you waiting for? And if you already offer it are you doing it right?

Semi-Private and Group programs can be the ultimate leverage in your business but I’ve found a lot of fitness professionals are shooting themselves in the foot when they set these programs up, watch this quick video and learn how I suggest you setup your semi-private and group programs in an effort to ensure the most effective personal trainer marketing.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/uhh7tqgDacg[/youtube]

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Keys to Successful Direct Mail Marketing

Keys to Successful Direct Mail Marketing

Published by on August 4, 2012 | Leave a response

%image_alt%As a personal trainer, you need to use direct mail in your local area. This is one of the best ways to bring in new leads and clients. When you use direct mail in the correct manner, you can have a torrent of people respond to your advert, and a full slate of clients soon after. There are also some personal trainers who unfortunately get the process wrong, and only lose money. This article will tell you how to ensure you do it the right way.

 

One of the major keys to a successful direct mail campaign is choosing the right mailing list or target audience. This can be easier said than done, but there are some steps that will ensure more success. The first thing that you need to do is check the type of mailing list that you are being offered.

 

You need to have a “hot” list, which means that the people on the list have all bought something recently. The more recent that a purchase was made, the more likely these people are going to buy again (from you). Besides this, you need to look for a list that is in your marketplace. You obviously need to appeal to people that are overweight, or want to be fitter.

 

As the personal training business is mostly a local business, you need to appeal to people that are in your local area. It is no use mailing an advert to those living in another part of the country, if they need to travel miles to meet you. These are the basics that need to be thought through before mailing.

 

When making a direct mailing, you also need to offer an incentive for the prospect to take an action (call you or sign up). An incentive can be a reduction in price, a prize, a free gift or something intangible (such as time saved, health increased etc.). This is what you need to think about when creating the offer.

 

The direct mail copy that you create must be benefit driven. In other words, it should offer immense value to the person reading it. It needs to connect with them on an emotional level. You need to answer the question of why someone should come to train with you. Make sure that your message is clear, concise and repeated a number of times, as people need to be clear about what you offer and how to get it.

 

As a personal trainer, you need to be very clear in what you can offer people. You should do this with short sentences so that readers are not confused or left wondering about what they will get from you. Remember that most people have short attention spans. Use everyday language that people understand and the mailing will be much more effective.

 

Having a call to action is an essential part of the advert. The call to action is the part of the sales copy that instructs the reader what they need to do. You must make the reader take action or your efforts will be in vain.

 

If you follow the advice in this article, you will have included the keys to a successful direct mail piece.

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Leverage Your Time, The Ultimate Fitness Marketing Strategy

Published by on July 31, 2012 | 1 Response

What stronger fitness marketing strategy could there be than to leverage your time and do more in less time while providing a better product and experience for your client? I’m surprised how many of my new coaching clients are still offering 60 minute training sessions, or not offering semi-private or group training sessions.

The more your clients can see you the better their results will be, and your technical ability is not usually the deciding factor but rather the frequency of your accountability and support. With that in mind it’s clear there is nothing you can do in 60 minutes that you can’t do in 30 allowing people to be able to afford to see you more often (while giving yourself a raise.)

Watch the video below, it gives you a complete walkthrough on the how and why to move to 30 minute sessions. Isn’t leveraging your time the most effective fitness marketing strategy?

[youtube]http://youtu.be/tTlCsRR04dU[/youtube]

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How-to Suck as Many New Leads From Your Website as Possible

Published by on July 18, 2012 | 1 Response

Just this morning I was reviewing a website change for one of my coaching clients, a new website offer to generate more leads for their training studio and bootcamp. As I was writing the email response it dawned on me how often I’m discussing this same thing with many fitness professionals, it seemed the ideal topic for today.

We’re all in a position where we need our websites to convert in the best way possible, it has to produce the maximum number of leads there’s no if’s ands or buts about it. The question is what offers are best for your website?

I think the larger your operation (particularly with multiple locations) the answer to this varies slightly, but I think the majority of you are one location owners, a situation where every potential prospect counts.

By now you may have tried free reports and things of that nature to build your list and realize they are dead. You may have tried $1 trials in an effort to get payment information from the get go to ensure conversion, well in most cases as some of you may already know, consumers have figured this out. No one wants to enter their credit card online more than they have to and especially not for a buck, if you doubt this just go look in the mirror and ask yourself about this.

Now higher value trial offers are often used to cross this perception gap with the trial usually for 1-2 weeks or some short term, which makes perfect sense for us but does it for the consumer?

Finally there is the classic request a free consultation opt-in that some are for and many are against. So what should your website opt-ins and offers look like? Well here’s my opinion and the logic as to why.

The Free Consult

Yes it’s old, sure you can say it’s no-obligation, no-risk, no-pressure but of course no one is going to believe you, heck you wouldn’t believe someone if they told you. None the less this is still my go-to offer and here’s why…there are actually people that will visit your website that are just genuinely interested in your service. If you’re like me I know that the best chance I have of helping you become my client is if I can meet you face to face, show you that you will be comfortable, learn about your goals, and explain the program options for you to make it easy. Therefore the consult is my most wanted response and the best option for those that are serious about taking their fitness future in their hands and finding the best available solution.

The Free Option

Next because of all the super SEO tactics many of us now employ (and the understanding that content is king and with all the great information we make available) we’re ending up with a lot of website traffic of people that are just cruising around looking for answers. The answers they’re seeking are not necessarily your services; they’re not there yet.

These individuals are just looking for a solution to a personal problem or pain, they’re not in the shape they want to be in and they don’t know what to do about it. Who’s to say that exercise is the best answer for a woman’s “saddlebags” the latest infomercial might have them believing it’s fat loss cream, pills, supplements or standing on their head!

The best way to convert these visitors is first with information, your flare and opinion hopefully on their matter of pain. These people are not likely ready to jump in the pool and meet with you to discuss spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on training, they don’t trust you (and if they did they’d sign up for the free consult.) This is why we need something free they can access that allows them to get to know you with no risk obligation or worry.

A lot of people are still using free reports, ebooks or something of that nature (in fact even I was until recently.) Truth is I don’t know about you but ebooks and optins of that nature really haven’t seemed to be that effective for growing my list recently.

I encourage you to over deliver, my favourite offer presently is the 3 Week Home Fat Loss course. I can’t take credit for this as it came about as an idea on a coaching call with a client sometime ago. When he first implemented it the response was crazy, more than a dozen opt-ins over night with no promotion and without a huge traffic base, since I’ve seen others successfully apply it as well. But here’s why I think it works so well.

It gives the visitor real value and no obligation whatsoever they never have to contact you again and could unsubscribe tomorrow is they wanted, it also allows me to develop a relationship with them over time (especially if you use video which you should) and honestly educate them that the magic is in the accountability and support that comes from our continual service. The result is hopefully that you gain their trust in fully automated way and that you lead them to contact you for the help they will inevitably need.

The Low Cost Trial

Many have tried various forms of a low cost trial, these opt-ins are great because they come with payment information that automates the whole sales process and EFT growth, unfortunately it takes a lot of traffic to really experience the magic of this process. The trial amount is important, and again just simply ask yourself what you fell comfortable with. A $1 trial is useless in my opinion, no one wants to put their credit card information online for a measly buck. A higher amount is likely better for that reason is that it needs to provide significant value to the customer yet warrant or somewhat justify the risk of sharing secure information. Quite often I see 1-2 week trials, but if we’re to consider our own consumer behavior for a moment perhaps a 4 week trial might convert better. We want people to come in, feel the love and sign up, but our consumer’s BS metre picks this up a mile away, in turn the consumer wants an opportunity to buy a ‘kick-start’ time period where they can then proceed and do it on their own. You and I both know people can’t get in shape in 4 weeks, but likely 4 weeks is just enough time for them to feel it would give them the ‘kick-start’ they’re looking for, in turn this should significantly increase the opt-in rate.

These three offers should be represented on your website for every visitor to see, hopefully you understand my logic as to why it should be these 3 offers and how to present them. It won’t always work but it should help to optimize your website leads over time.

The real magic is that the offers are being presented to meet the perception or needs of three distinct visitor groups and each situation provides a specific measure of value for that audience, it’s this synergism that I believe makes these three opt-ins so powerful.

On a final note…

Where these opt-ins are located on your website is equally critical. Two of the three, or all if possible should be located above the fold. They should be placed in the right hand column because of the natural direction our eyes travel when we read a page.

Because most of us use a banner at the top of our page as the visual introduction the Free Home Course opt-in should be located on the right side of the banner. It’s the lowest barrier offer that should be immediately appealing to the largest segment of our audience.

Your Free Consult should come next, it should basically be placed on the right side at the top of what I call the content header. Essentially just below your site header many people will have a content zone (or you should) this is best space for a video but text and the like can be useful. At any rate it’s here that your visitor will first become engaged, if they like what they see their eye’s lead them to your most wanted response.

Finally the low cost trial should be lower on the right side, possibly in part above the fold but it likely doesn’t matter as much. This audience has to make an active decision to purchase they will have spent enough time on your site to validate that decision, as long as this opt-in is clear, stands out and concise they’ll find it.

That’s my take on effectively generating more leads from your website based on the simple logic of how we all think as consumers. Hopefully it makes sense, this is working well for many of my coaching client so I know it can work for you.

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Dealing With Competition

Published by on July 9, 2012 | Leave a response

It’s normal at first to fear or be frustrated with increased competition. Our immediate reaction to increased competition is one of self-doubt or scarcity. The only way increased competition can hamper your ability to succeed is if you choose to acknowledge or give into these fears and become reactive to them.

 

If you stay focused on your plan and continue to drive your business forward increased competition almost always enhances your ability to succeed by creating greater awareness and ultimately a larger audience for your products and services.

 

As many of you may know I own and operate a very successful training studio in a small city (total population under 100,000) but what you may not know is that within a 4 block there are more than 12 fitness related businesses including: 2 training studios, a Crossfit gym, Jazzercise, 2 Pilates studios, 2 weight loss centres, 2 martial arts studios, a public gym and a Kettlebell gym. Additionally there are also more than 6 complimentary businesses including an organic market, physiotherapy clinic, 2 massage clinics, 2 spas and more. In all you could say this is the fitness district.

 

Let me also mention we are the most expensive out of all our competitors by a significant margin, in fact one of my primary competitors tends to focus on this very fact thinking it is an advantage. Personally I’d rather always be the Ferrari than the Ford.

 

Here are my tips for making competition a non-factor:

 

1)   Always provide more value to your community than anyone else. By this I mean be a star educator. Use your blog, website, lunch and learns and writing for local publications to always be the top expert in your area that gives away as much free information as possible. The more you give and the longer you give the more deep routed your credibility will be in your community. Things like fundraisers and community events also contribute to this positioning.

2)   Create systems that allow you to efficiently handle the same situations over and over with great efficiency as you grow. The better and more consistent your customer experience is the more you can stay focused on business growth.

3)   Create highly leveraged situations and tremendous additional value. By being more expensive we can afford to provide random and unexpected gifts to our customers. Why not send people meaningful birthday gifts? This can be as simple as asking their favouriote author, store and Starbucks or Tim’s on their initial client info form. Or by using semi-private and group programs you can leverage 1st month and ongoing VIP discounts to create immediate unadvertised value for new prospects.

4)   Avoid last minute marketing. Most personal trainers I know are engaged in a constant feast or famine cycle. The don’t promote until they desperately need clients and then freak out when they have too many. Set a calendar even if at first it’s just choosing special dates and holidays (like birthdays, anniversaries and special dates) for set promotions and targets. At first this seems difficult but just think how difficult it would be to train your clients without some sort of goal to work toward.

5)   Most importantly take up a Ray Kroc (if you didn’t know he was the founder of McDonalds) mentality, work to always “create faster.” One thing is certain, if you are growing your competition will make the same mistakes you likely did when you started. You will first attempt to copy or duplicate the ideas of someone you believed more successful than you. At some point to truly succeed you will need to find your own voice, when you do stay focused on your own ideas and continually create. Be the leader, followers react which is never as powerful as the person that takes action in the first place.

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An Update to an Old Idea to Become the Local Expert

An Update to an Old Idea to Become the Local Expert

Published by on July 3, 2012 | Leave a response

%image_alt%Wouldn’t it be great if you could have all the complimentary businesses in your area acknowledge you as a local expert when it comes to personal training? Wouldn’t it be great if you could borrow their credibility to quickly enhance your own?

Maybe you can. With a little persistence this tidbit of personal trainer marketing Kung Fu might allow you to be elevated to expert status in no time, even in a brand new market.

Step 1: Ask yourself who has my customers? Make a list.

Start by jotting down all the different types of businesses that have customers who might likely also use your services. Some examples might be chiropractors, hair stylists, massage therapists, maybe coffee shops, spas, estheticians and so on.

Step 2: Google these businesses in your area.

For example I might Google ‘Red Deer spa.’ In large cities make sure to narrow it down to your suburb or urban area. You might even ask your list as direct referrals are always easier to work with or approach.

Step 3: Create an interview.

That’s right, we’re going to contact these people and if all goes well we’re going to interview them. Choose only 3-4 meaningful questions and the more these questions allow them to toot their own horn the more successful your interview is going to be. For example if I were interviewing a chiropractor I might ask:

  • What are the biggest benefits of chiropractic for a person just starting to exercise?
  • Why do you feel chiropractic enhances exercise?

You see where I’m going? These questions not only make the chiropractor sound great but they also lead him to endorse you without even likely realizing it.

Step 4: Contact the community leaders.

Remember the need for nice. Contact the top ranked local businesses for all the categories you’ve chosen. Explain to them how you are a local fitness professional, how you’ve heard great things about them and ask if they could spare 5-10 minutes for a brief interview that you are going to share with many local individuals.

Now a few people may say no, but many will say yes.

The ideal situation is to interview them on camera, a simple Flipcam or even a newer smartphone will do. Make sure and introduce yourself and at the end of the interview I’d mention their website and finally to also check out your website for more information.

If they won’t make time for a video interview see if they’ll do a phone interview and use a conference line like www.FreeConferenceCall.com or a Skype app to record the call. You can have the audio easily transcribed for the next step at places like www.elance.com or www.odesk.com.

Step 5: Post the interview on YouTube.

Make sure to name the video file on your computer the same as the keywords you searched to find the business. (ex. Red_Deer_Chiropractor.flv) In the description include a link to your website and a description of the video using the keyword string. Enter the keyword string again in the tag field.

If they wouldn’t make time for the video interview but you were able to complete a phone interview or an email interview post this interview on your website with meta tags for the keyword string as mentioned above.

Videos will quickly appear in the search results.

The Big Bang!

So here’s the deal, videos should appear in the search results very quickly, try to send as many people as you can from your Facebook friends and your mailing lists to watch and like the videos so they rise even faster.

Now hopefully in days to a few short weeks when someone searches ‘Red Deer Chiropractor’ your video will appear above, below or near the link for the business you interviewed. Most people will watch a video first and you’ve now done that business a huge favor (and naturally one for yourself also.)

By interviewing them and posting it as a fitness professional you’ve effectively provided them a third party endorsement that should enhance their image with their customers, and at the same time you’ve created an introduction for yourself, and a link to your website for all of their customers to see.

Do this for enough different businesses and soon you will be the talk of the town. Common sense personal trainer marketing domination at it’s finest!

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