Fitness Business School – Business Mistake #3 – Abandoning What’s Working

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here. And in this episode, I want to talk with you about another challenge that we see in the fitness industry, and that’s really abandoning what’s working. So it may seem like common sense that we want to stick with things that work, but it’s not always the case. So let me talk to you in this episode about the problem, but more importantly about the solution. Let’s get to it.

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All right, let’s talk about abandoning what is working and really, it kind of stems from boredom. A lot of times we get bored with the message. We get bored with the marketing. We get bored with what we’re putting out there and because we’re bored of it, we assume the marketplace is bored of it. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. I mean, assume that you owned a restaurant and all you did was make hamburgers. Well, eventually you’d probably want to mix things up in your own life, right? You’d want something other than an, than a hamburger to eat. But when somebody comes to you, that’s the day that they’re craving a hamburger, right? The same thing is true here, just because you were seeing this message repeatedly, just because you’re using the same marketing tactics, the same ads you’re running in the same publications offline, or you’re doing the same things on Facebook online. You’re talking about things maybe in Facebook Lives or in the emails that seem like you’re repeating yourself constantly. Well, the reality is, you know, for the market, Hey, they may have not seen this message before they may be new to this message. So it’s entirely fresh to them.

But what happens just as much of the time is timing is right. They may have received emails or watch videos or seen ads from you before and just glossed over them because that wasn’t something that was important in their life at that moment, that wasn’t a priority for them that wasn’t really tapping into the desire they had at the moment. But now maybe things have changed. Maybe their desire is heightened. Maybe timing is better. Maybe they’re just really interested in solving the problem that your, the best in your market at solving. And so they’re viewing what you’re putting out with fresh eyes. So if you were bored, don’t worry about it. That’s probably a good sign that you’re really being consistent and driving your message home in the market so that when somebody thinks of that goal, that need your, the first solution that comes to mind. But there’s a second piece of this, right?

Let’s say that you’ve had great success with one specific type of marketing. Let’s say that you’ve been incredibly successful running a specific type of ad. Well, should you abandon that and move to the next thing? No, you should find something. A channel that may be as close to the channel that you’ve been effective with, or a, a, a format that’s as close to the format that you’ve been using successfully and go one degree away. At least that’s what we’d call it. I remember when my friend and colleague and first he was a long time coaching client. Justin Yule came came in for a coaching day and he’d been having great success with one specific marketing strategy. And it was just going like gangbusters. And the first thing we talked about is like, do more of what’s working. Okay. If you’ve capped out your reach for a specific Facebook ad, is there another channel, Google or Instagram or something like that where you can run an ad that is as similar as possible, depending on what the appropriate format for that channel is. Can you run an ad to local media? Does your local newspaper have an email list that they send emails out to periodically that you can do an email drop? If the text in the ad has been working, can you do that with local homeowners associations and use that same kind of online text, that same online format without having to change too much? If you’re great at networking, can you find other places to network? Can you go from offline networking to, you know, the organic type of offline networking to more structured networking events, one degree away? Can you get in and start doing maybe a little bit of public speaking, where you can still connect and build value in what you do, but now you’re leveraging a bigger audience every time that you go in network, whatever you’re good at, if it’s video find other ways to distribute video, if it’s writing, find other ways to disseminate the writing that you do, leverage the strengths that you have leveraged, the things that have worked and do more of them. If you’ve been great with the referrals, find other referral tactics to employ or go one degree away and find ways to leverage your network that may not be a client right now, or strategic alliances, but where you can employ that same relationship based marketing approach.

Look, you don’t have to be great at everything to be effective as a marketer in your business to grow a really successful business. Take it from me. I’ve built the bulk of my business behind newsletters and one-to-one conversations. Just is, we’ve kind of gotten into the last couple of years. Have I leaned more on things like podcasts and videos to really just try to find another mechanism to share the same messages that I would have shared in an email newsletter or in a one-on-one dialogue, whether I be, you know, whether I’m at a performance or event or I’m talking to a perspective client, you don’t have to be great at everything, but the things that you are really strong in find other ways to use them to your benefit. If you do that, the boredom side of this will kind of fall by the wayside. And more importantly, you’re going to be able to magnify and multiply what works. So you’re going to be able to get the results you want in your business, spending less time doing things that are strengths and enjoying yourself more.

Thanks for listening. I’m giving away a bundle of my bestselling books, the ideal business formula, the fitness entrepreneur handbook in the path. All you have to do is go to patrigsby.com/podgift to get it. Also, make sure to subscribe to The Fitness Business School with Pat Rigsby so you don’t miss an episode and you get yourself on the fast track to creating your ideal business.