Fitness Business School – 2 Big Fitness Opportunities

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here and in this episode, I want to talk with you about what I consider the two biggest opportunities in the fitness industry right now, let’s get to it.

Welcome to The Fitness Business School podcast – the show for fitness business owners who want to grow their income, increase their impact and improve their lifestyle. Be sure to listen til the end of this episode, because we have a brand new special offer exclusive for listeners. So stay tuned.

Whenever I’m hosting a mastermind meeting or have the opportunity to speak somewhere, or maybe I’m a guest on a podcast, invariably, the topic of opportunities come, you know, it comes up, people ask, well, where do you see the industry going? What do you see the opportunities being? Where do you think people should focus in for the, for the most part, I talk about focusing on the things that won’t change, being client centric, you know, really focusing on treating people as individuals, making them feel important. A lot of the things that are going to be important to people for the next 20, 30, 40 years, because they’ve been that way for the past 20, 30, 40 years and well beyond people want things to be convenient. People want to feel like they’re getting great value for the you know, for the investment they make that people will need coaching and accountability.

Those things are never going away. I would be willing to build my business around these kinds of long-term foundational fundamentals forever, but there are a couple opportunities that, that are here that, you know, they don’t contradict any of these things that never change. In fact, I think they build on the things that never changed. So I want to talk to you about these two opportunities and how potentially you can kind of integrate them or maybe even adapt your business to take advantage of them. The first one is this hybrid business model. I had to laugh because in the past couple of weeks, the wall street journal did a feature article on the future of fitness being hybrid. Ironically enough, the first time I mentioned hybrid in a newsletter like the daily email newsletter that I write was 2008. So in fact, I released a book, the hybrid gym handbook back in the fall of 2020. So obviously, you know, that book was in development long before that. So it’s nice to see that the mainstream media is on to this, but, but I think this idea of hybrid is sometimes misconstrued, right? Like the idea of hybrid is, well, I have to run zoom classes because I’m also running in-person classes or something like that. But really all hybrid means is we’re using all the tools available to us to provide a better experience for our clients, right?

And we can choose what kind of deliverables we want this hybrid business model to be. But it means that when somebody leaves our facility, they’re not stopping interaction with us. We’re not stopping our role of being their coach of providing accountability, of providing support, providing direction and instruction and motivation to them. We have plenty of tools at our fingertips, you know, phones and computers, apps, all sorts of, you know, cool types of of things that we can use to, to facilitate their success. Instead of supporting them for three hours a week and leaving them to their own devices, the other 1 65, we can play a role in their success outside the facility, and we need to embrace that. We need to look for ways to help people succeed when they’re not under our direct in-person care. And that really is what hybrid that that’s really what hybrid is, right? Because you’re going to have some clients who are fully capable of executing their workout on, on their own, but maybe they, they need your accountability just to make sure they actually do it, or, you know what they’re doing great with their training in person, but they need some accountability and some support from you in a distance coaching format to keep them on task when it comes to nutrition or recovery or being active outside of the gym you know, you might design programs for people and just support them virtually and allow them to execute those programs.

Sure. Yeah. You can run virtual classes if you will, but that’s, that’s just one fraction of what hybrid means hybrid just means in, in totality, I’m going to coach you both in-person and from afar, I’m going to serve as your coach at all times. And that doesn’t mean you’re on call. It just means that this isn’t you hosting workouts and that’s the end of your job. You’re not just a workout instructor. This isn’t the health club that many of us grew up in where you walk in, you have access to all this stuff, but when you leave your relationship kind of stops at the door. That’s what hybrid is. And if you’re building a great business, this is really a huge opportunity for you. Because if you understand that you, you can hold people accountable, facilitate their success, make them feel important, motivate them, support them from afar. If you can use the tools and tech that are available to all of us at this point to do that, you’re going to have clients who are more successful. You’re going to have clients who stay with you longer, who get better results, who refer more.

And so that’s number one, building a hybrid business and, and understanding that that means more than just hosting classes online. Number two is the idea of integrating more wellness or probably specifically in our world nutrition into the business, right. You know, if you pay attention to any of the business media that’s out there people’s shopping trends have been kind of interesting. There are more what we would define as quote unquote, healthy foods, things like produce and, and, and meats and that sort of thing. Being purchased than pre pandemic. The, the awareness for people, you know, really trying to maximize the effectiveness of their immune system, people taking supplements, people, understanding how self-care can make them more resistant to illness. All of that stuff has probably gotten 10 times the media attention than it would have been getting you know, in 2019 or further back. And this idea that if you want to coach somebody and help them get great results, doing it with exercise alone, just instructing exercise is pretty narrow minded, it’s pretty limiting. And if somebody is going to trust you to help them go from where they are to where they want to be there, you’re going to trust you to help them achieve their goals and solve their problems. I mean, it almost goes without saying that we have to integrate nutrition, we have to make the solutions that we’re providing them set the, the, that they actually address the person a whole, not just this one facet of their journey towards getting better results or you know, whether it be losing weight or improving health or whatever else. So, you know, I see the, the growth of nutrition being part of the programs that we offer and actual nutrition coaching.

Now, obviously there are some restrictions when it comes to scope of practice. And so you have to be able to deliver a nutrition coaching program in a way that is ethical and legal, but, you know, the idea of just giving somebody a handout that has a few nutrition guidelines and leaving it that know, I mean, that’s, that, that is already outdated and probably is gonna put you behind going forward in many ways. You know, I, there’s been plenty of information out there that people have really, you know, well, I guess data is a better way to put it that people have embraced not only some of the, you know, some, some of the things that I’ve talked about earlier with choosing healthier foods, but also the awareness of things like functional medicine, the you know, the, the consideration of taking supplements that aren’t just a multivitamin or a fat burner, you know, things like that are definitely gaining more awareness. People are thinking more about things like stress relief and recovery, all this well-rounded approach to, to true fitness and wellness. You know, you can potentially be a one-stop shop for this instead of them having to kind of go and cobble things together in an al a carte fashion, but you have to choose to do it. You have to keep people under your care and help them solve the problem, not just give them a small piece of the solution. So if you’re not integrating hybrid into your business or making your business a more hybrid operation, if you’re not integrating nutrition coaching, and maybe even some of the other things like you know, like the, the recovery and stress relief type of components you know, they’re there where our industry is headed without question that is going to happen more and more in businesses. And if you want to get out in front of it, this is your opportunity to be a, an early adopter, a first move, or somebody who, who embraces this because eventually, you know, the, the big right now, the franchises that are out there kind of take one side or the other, there were an exercise franchise, or were a diet nutrition franchise. The, the future clearly will be blending those things together, beat them to the punch, be the person who takes advantage of these opportunities and makes them part of your business. It’ll help you stand out, deliver better results and enjoy having your ideal business.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the fitness business school. Before you go. I have a quick announcement. When I first connect with a new fitness business owner, they almost always ask me, “How can I get more clients and earn more money?” Well, I have an exclusive offer for you as a listener of this podcast, and it’s going to help you do just that. As a listener of this show, you can test drive our Business Growth Accelerator coaching program for 30 days free of charge.

BGA is a one of a kind program where you will get done-for-you marketing tools and a level of coaching that is unmatched in our industry to help you attract more qualified prospects and convert them into paying clients – ultimately making you more revenue and personal income. Imagine having every tool, template, ad, script, everything that you need, all proven to convert and ready to use. Plus you have access to over 10 weekly live coaching sessions to help you with everything from dialing in your Facebook ads to mastering your mindset.

You get all of this and more when you join BGA. And to help you succeed, I’m going to do something that I’ve never done before. I’m letting you test drive BGA for 30 days at zero cost. If it delivers for you in the way that I expect – it more than pays for itself, I’ll invite you to stay on. If not, you’re out nothing and have a library of proven tools and resources to keep and use as you wish.

To take advantage of this special offer. Just email [email protected] and put test drive in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.