Fitness Business School – The One Thing to Be An Expert About

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here. And in this episode, I want to tell you the one thing you need to be an expert in that’s going to give you the highest probability of success. So there’s a little bit of mystery and intrigue in that, but don’t worry. We’re going to get to it right now.

Welcome to the fitness business school with Pat Rigsby, the podcast for fitness entrepreneurs who want to make more income, have greater impact, and enjoy more freedom in their ideal business. If you’d like an accelerated route to these goals, email me at [email protected] and put BGA in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details about our business growth accelerator program.

So I’ve been in the coaching world for a little bit over 25 years now, and I’ve coached everybody from T-ball players and, and three-year-old soccer players up to, you know, college professional athletes. Then moving, moving forward into business, you know, bare bones, kind of new startup businesses, all the way up to people who built nine figure empires. And one of the things that I think has been a true advantage for me, in fact, probably if I were to look at this outside of traits, like just persistence and consistency, the biggest advantage that I’ve had is I’ve always tried to become an expert in my clients or my athletes and their needs. And honestly, I don’t think that that happens a lot. I think that it’s pretty unique when it comes to our industry.

I think most people that do some iteration of the stuff that I do. They, they try to distance themselves from the coaching side of of things they don’t really stay connected to their clientele. I think that part of my advantage as a college baseball coach was I was young. So I understood the athletes may be a little bit better than I would have if I had been two or three decades older. And, you know, it stayed true throughout the fact that I’m coaching pretty much every day. I’m really focusing on who my clients are, not who I wish they were not who I think they ought to be, but who they actually are. And I enjoy my clients enough that meeting them where they are is both challenging and, and, you know, it’s exciting, it’s fulfilling. And I just don’t think there are a lot of people in our industry who do that.

A lot of people get really caught up in the funnel side of things or the, the sales tactic side of things, or they want to build a process or a system out for who they think the client ought to be instead of who they actually were. And, you know, I think this has served me incredibly.

Well, let me give you a little bit of a backstory and why this has worked for me, and then I’ll try to forward pace it and help you understand how you can use this to your advantage. So as that I grew up, my dad started a small service business and auto repair business where you know, he would definitely employ anywhere from maybe one other point person up to maybe having four or five people on payroll at a time and, you know, small business and a 4,000 square foot building where he was not just the owner, but he was also the primary technician, the primary service provider. And, you know, so I understood the challenges with, you know, the way money works. And if that caused discord in our house at home, I was sweeping the floors when I was in my early teens. And I eventually started doing breaks and simple mechanic task, oil changes, things like that. So I got a firsthand view of, you know, basically what a small service business was like and the challenges the, that people were encountering on a daily basis. I grew up in that.

And then, you know, as I move forward, I had a couple of different training businesses where I kind of wore every hat in the business, everything from owner to the person, you know, measuring body fat. And that, yeah, that helped me a bunch too. So I didn’t lose those things. In fact, I went back and revisited a lot of it. I went and spent some time at my dad’s garage as I you know, move forward in my career and tried to look at it through a different lens, the lenses of, of a business coach and you know, of, because I could see behind the scenes, I could see the stuff that happened after the doors were locked. What happened over the weekends? The fact that, you know, I mean, he, he wasn’t taking vacations. I mean, he went on one vacation the whole time I grew up. And you know, I think I, and understood that I, and, and I carried that forward where I spent so much time trying to understand the challenges my clients were facing. And I, and I drifted a little bit away from this probably back, I don’t know, 2013, 2014, where it seemed like I was a little more disconnected from, and I do a little bit of it, but it was more meetings, more ownership, responsibilities, and not, not a whole lot of in the business stuff in that sense. And, you know, I think it was a bad idea because I think that things continue to evolve.

I think things change. Not only do the, do the landscapes that we all have to navigate change, whether it be how we market and moving from offline to online and the different platforms that are available, but the way the industry has evolved, right from one-on-one training and selling packages to group training and selling subscriptions. And you know, now with the pandemic and people all having to kind of morph into a hybrid business or an online business, seeing all of that stuff if you’re not kind of nose to the grindstone, if you’re not intimately in it, there’s no way that you can serve somebody at a high level. There’s no way you can address them well. And because I was so passionate about meeting or they weren’t understanding who they were. And I mean, for me, that’s probably the, the most exciting part of being a coach has helped somebody go from where they are to where they want to be, see not the, Hey help somebody become who I want them to be. And if you know it, if I could kind of turn this around for you guys and say, okay, how, how does this benefit you? Well, if you have a real intimate knowledge of the people you’re trying to serve, marketing becomes easier. If you’re an expert in your clients and their needs, needs, solving problems become, you know, it becomes so, so much more straight forward because you’re not guessing, you know, Oh, you know, the things that they’re struggling with, you know, the challenges they’re facing and, you know, when it comes to retaining clients, it becomes so much simpler too, because you’re in touch with how they’ve evolved. Then, you know, people, aren’t static people aren’t stationary. So the person that you brought on as a client a year and a half ago, it has different needs and wants and interests and passions now than they did 18 months ago. They’re a different person. They have new habits. They, they, they see themselves differently. And if you’re not staying with them every step of the way, you are at a huge disadvantage, because somebody else is going to catch their interest, because they’re going to be speaking about who that person is today. Not who they used to be. And no, I think this is perfect, probably more important now than it’s ever been in our industry, because people have access to more information than they’ve ever had. They have more things tugging at their attention than they’ve ever had. They are fully aware of the fact that they’re not limited by geography when it comes to choosing a solution. They, they don’t think, well, Hey, I have to go to a gym that’s in my neighborhood or else I can’t solve this problem. I can’t hire a coach or I can’t do do a fitness program if it’s not here locally. It, I mean, it’s a savvy, far more mature market than when I got into this. When I started doing what I do. And actually when I first started my training business of the people that we sat down with, we had over 420 clients in the first 18 months of my first training business in a town like 23,000 people in the middle of Kentucky, not exactly a hotbed for fitness, I would say less than 5% of those 420 people had ever worked with a trainer or coach before they hadn’t been part of a boot camp because boot camps weren’t really a thing. Yet. They may have been a group exercise class, but not actually paying for a coaching type of experience one-on-one semi-private or based. Now the tables would be completely turned and more than half, if not, you know, really most of the people that you’d sit down with have had some sort of experience they’ve gone in and done orange theory for a while, or they hired a trainer for a little bit, or they, they bought a bootcamp off of Groupon when that was a big thing.

And, you know, they’re, they’re a far savvier audience. They know all the things like Peloton and Mirror that exist online. There are so many more competitors that are out here, you know, the not just big box health club or traditional kind of fitness group training stuff that could be independent or franchise, but then the boutique stuff that is like cycle bar or club Pilates, or those sorts of things that are more specialized, there’s a more of that than there’s ever been. So if you want to stand out to somebody, if you want to meet them where they are and get their attention and actually be the right person for them and stand out kind of as a needle in a haystack, then you need to be an expert in their needs. And it’s just not that hard. I mean, sometimes it’s just saying, you know what, not only am I going to coach this person, but it’s not going to be a one-way conversation. I’m going to pay attention to this person, not just this exerciser, not just this person or not just them as a client or a member, but actually is a human being. So I understand what they’re going through. I understand if their stress levels have increased because they’re home schooling and they’re working from home and, and they, they feel pressured the different things that are kind of happening in the world right now. I have to, I have to understand that, and I may have to address it as a service provider. If I really care about my clients, I need to understand that that’s part of their life. And I can’t, you know, the, the experience with us doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

So if you really want to be great at what you do, if you want to borrow what I think is arguably my best advantage and become an expert in a single thing that will set you apart from the competition, become an expert in your clients, in what they need and what they want. If you do that, you’re never going to struggle because it’s going to give you all the information you need to attract them, to convert them and to deliver a world-class experience to them day after day. I mean, I understand it seems very straightforward and very simple, but people want to feel important. They want to feel cared for. They want to feel valuable, and this is the easiest way for you to make it about them and not about you and your business. So take this tip the one thing you need to be an expert in and use it to your advantage. If you do, is it going to help you grow your business and really be a much happier and fulfilled business owner than you could’ve ever imagined?

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Fitness Business School. And before you go, I have a quick announcement. When I first connect with a fitness business owner, they almost always ask me, “How can I get more leads or how can I get more clients?” Well, I have an exclusive offer for you and it’s going to help you do just that. As a listener of this show, you can test drive Fitness Lead Academy for six full weeks for just a dollar. Fitness Lead Academy is a one of a kind program where you get done-for-you marketing tools and coaching to attract more qualified prospects and convert them into paying clients. Imagine having three marketing emails written for you each and every week for easy-to-deploy promotions provided to you that are proven to convert and they’re ready to use and proven ads and social media posts given to you each and every month as well. Plus you have access to three weekly live video coaching sessions to help you with everything from dialing in your brand to navigating things like building funnels and getting ads approved. You get all of this and more when you join Fitness Lead Academy. And to prove that FLA can serve you as your virtual marketing department and not only save you plenty of time, but also consistently bring you more leads and clients, you can get access to the entire coaching program for six full weeks. Again, for just $1. If it delivers for you in the way that I expect it will, you can continue on for just $199 a month. So basically, just one additional client each month and you’re ROI positive. And I’m sure that if you apply what we give you, you’re going to get more than just one additional client each month. And you’re going to likely save at least 10 hours a month to take advantage of this special offer. Just go to TestDriveFLA.com to try it out for six full weeks. If it’s not what you’re looking for, you can cancel it any time.

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