Fitness Business School – Brainstorming with Pat

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here and in today’s episode, I want to brainstorm an idea with you and kind of show you this brainstorming process that I go through to move my business forward. Let’s get started.

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

I know that was kind of a vague and, and just really, almost not very useful intro, but, so, you know, when I come up with new ideas for, for my business, or maybe not even new ideas, maybe when I just kind of start to shape ideas there, there’s kind of a process that I go through. And so I wanted to talk through some of that with you because you know, maybe it might be useful to you.

I’m not sure, but I know that you know, for me, I’m constantly trying to observe what’s happening in industries outside of fitness, because I think fitness is pretty ancestral. I think that, you know, people just kind of knock off one another’s ideas, both in the local fitness market and in like the business
coaching market, right? I mean, you know, I’m sure this is not unique to me, but the number of people that have gone out there and borrowed a lot of what I do very directly is, is pretty, pretty amazing. And, you know, if you are the, you know, if you’re one of the more established people in your market, you’ve
probably found that some of the other competitors in your market have done the same. Well, that’s fine. I mean, that’s business in general. And I think that you know, the point of this, this talk isn’t that so much as it’s why I kind of go and look outside the industry for new ideas.

And I know for me, a lot of the new ideas come when I’m out of the office. You know, I’m, maybe I’m out on a walk listening to a podcast, maybe we’re on vacation, and so I’ve got a clear head, but it’s, you know, I’m not in the day to today working in the business stuff. It allows me to be more creative, more
observant connect ideas or thoughts differently. And so the first step for me is kind of just getting out of the norm, going to conferences or masterminds. I’ve always been a really good source of that for me when we take our trips to, to, you know, vacations to Florida or, you know, Disney or California, or I, you
know, we’re, we’re gonna do Hawaii this year. I mean, I usually, most of my good ideas come when I’m in different environments, right?

There’s just the start. And then they come from different topics. Like, I don’t subscribe to fitness industry podcasts like business podcast, you know, if I subscribe to anything in the industry, it’s you know, the guys like Cressey or Mike Robertson, the you know, the training, that sort of
stuff to, you know, to, to stay kind of dialed in on what they’re doing or, you know, making sure I’m up to date on what Mike Roussell’s doing and that sort of thing. So you know, I’m looking outside the industry trying to gather ideas from other places, and then you know, and then it, it’s not typically just
some sort of, Hey, I get this idea and it’s instantly implemented. It’s okay, how do I take this idea and translate it to our audience? Because I’ve seen people time and time again, try to come up with ideas and transplant them directly to the fitness industry and fail miserably, right?

Like, I you know, I’ve seen people take stuff that was designed for 20 million a year businesses and try to apply it directly to $200,000 a year businesses. I’m wondering why it didn’t work. So that’s kind of the next step for me is like, okay, how does this make sense for the people that, that I serve? Because I think
that I understand, you know, the, the market that I serve pretty, pretty darn well, you know, it’s primarily, not exclusively, but primarily businesses that are doing under a million dollars a year. It’s primarily, primarily independently owned businesses that are, they’re not big corporate businesses.
They’re not you know, they’re, they’re not most of the time not franchised businesses. So they’re independent operators that are coaching focused, they’re service oriented. They’re doing you know, usually anywhere between you know, $10,000 a month and $80,000 a month, right?

Depending on, and I know that’s a big spread, and there are definitely people that are outliers, but when we think about so many of the businesses that are out there that are, are much bigger, what this helps me kind of wrap my head around is, okay, these are local type of single shop businesses or, or two
location businesses, or that sort of thing. And so, you know, I think I understand that that market pretty well. So it’s like, okay, how do I translate this idea? How do I apply it in this market? What are the constraints that I have to understand? How do I make it work? How do I lower the friction? How do I
make this a fit? So like I, I’ll give you an idea of one that I am kind of working through right now, and it’s this idea of being a growth partner to a business.

And, you know, I think there are a lot of people out there that do agency work, and I think there are a lot of people that do coaching work, and I’m involved in both of those. Obviously, I spend the bulk of my time in coaching, but definitely have a little bit of an involvement in agency stuff. And the, the idea for,
for coaching and agency work is usually pretty directly tied to, okay, it’s a fee for service. And that’s very normal, and that’s very you know, very easy to wrap your, your head around is is both the provider and the client. But the idea of being a growth partner is something that’s always appealed to me
because I am very much a, you know, a a person who wants to kinda feel like I’m locking arms and on the same team with the people that I serve.

I’m somebody that feels confident that, hey, I can help somebody get thing, like, get a really good result. I mean, we’ve done so much stuff with free and low cost trials and front, like things where a lot of values front loaded and the, the fee structure is discounted early on. So I would be taking more of the risk and
taking some of that away from the person that I served. And so this idea of, of being a growth partner where there is some sort of I mean, it’s a little bit like a fractional cmo a fractional kind of board member thing where there’s some strategy involvement and, you know, assisting in some of the execution o of
certain things. I’ve tried to wrap my, my head around how something like that could work in practice without something being a franchise, which I’ve obviously gone that route.

I’ve owned, founded and owned two different franchise organizations. You know, how could you be a growth partner where you are sharing in some of the upside, but your compensation is really directly tied to that upside. How do you, how do you do that? And yeah, I mean, it sounds simple in theory,
right? But from a management standpoint, from a logistics standpoint, there, there probably has to be the, you know, the billing has to run through like a central location. So it’s easy to track the growth. There has to be a willingness to have congruency on both sides. Like if, if for example, my team was out running some of the marketing for somebody while the somebody walking through the door would have to feel like the, in the gym experience matched up with the outside marketing. I mean, there, there are things like that you gotta kind of dot the i’s and cross the t’s with and, and, and work
through.

And so that’s, for me, those are how ideas happen. It’s like, okay, it starts with this kind of connecting of ideas from other industries and brainstorming and seeing if it kind of fits through the filter of like my values and the way that I wanna operate. And then, okay, does it match my market? Can it work in
practicality knowing what I know about my audience? And then you get into the, the how, how does this work in, in practice? Because I think there are a lot of things that if you said, Hey, well, if I ask you for example, hey, if, if your entire livelihood depended on you getting a specific result for this client, what
would you do? And odds are, it’s not exactly what you’re doing right now, right? Because it, it’s not that scalable, it’s not that easy.

I mean, you know, you’d probably make sure that person had a private chef, you’d probably make sure that you were very diligent about knowing what they were eating. You would have some sort of activity tracker and recovery tracker that, that you could manage in some way, way. I mean, there’s, there,
there’s a lot of stuff that you would do. And then from a practical low friction standpoint, you have to kinda walk your way back from there and say, well, okay, what is practical to manage and scale and do in a way that is profitable for you and effective for them? And so that’s, that’s how I kind of work through
ideas because ultimately I think that I’m very much like you in that. My, my big driver is, Hey, how do I get the people that I serve this dream come true result through an experience they enjoy, but I need to be able to do it profitably without my business owning me.

And so that’s, that’s how I work through an idea. Now, that may have been a little bit muddled, but you know, it’s not as simple. I think sometimes people just think that, you know, business models and strategies and, you know, the format that you’re gonna run, training or whatever else, you
pull it on the shelf and you deploy it. Well, I think that when people do that kind of straight swipe and deploy without customizing to themselves and looking at how it works in their own environment with the people they serve and the circumstances they have, that’s where a lot of breakdown occurs. I mean,
it all sounds good in theory, but you need to be able to adapt things to your unique circumstances and your goals to make them work for you and hopefully get the result you want from it.

So I know, like I said, that was a kind of a roundabout way of talking through that. But I just thought, you know, I mean, there’s so many people that I see out there that they, they try to swipe a funnel or an ad campaign or something just straight off the shelf and they wonder why they don’t get the same
results that the person who originally used it got. And I mean, it’s pretty simple, right? It was designed for that original person. So you need to adapt it to you and, and, and make sure it works for you if you’re going to turn this idea into your desired outcome.

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 fitness business owner they almost always ask me, “How can I get more leads or how can I get more leads and client?”

Well, I have an exclusive offer for you, and it’s gonna help you do just that.

As a listener of this show, you can test drive our Fitness Lead Academy coaching program for a full 30 days for just $1. FLA is a one of a kind program where you will get done for you marketing tools each and every month, plus coaching to help you execute everything you need to do to generate leads and convert them into clients.

It’s unmatched in our industry, and it’s gonna help you bring in the new business that you need, ultimately making you more revenue and personal income. Imagine having every tool template, add social media posts and script, you need all proven to convert and ready to use.

Plus you have access to coaching calls every week with the same people who run my ads and do my marketing. So that I trust them because this is who I put my livelihood in the hands of. Everything that you need to know to dial in your ads, to maximize your follow-up and convert clients, you’re gonna have the tools and the coaching you need to be successful. You get all of this and more when you join FLA.

And to help you succeed, I’m going to let you test drive FLA for 30 days for just $1. If it delivers for you, the way that I expect and more than pays for itself, you’ll likely wanna stay. If not, you’re out nothing. And you’ll have a library of proven tools and resources to keep.

To take advantage of this special offer – just email me at [email protected] and put TEST DRIVE in the subject line, and I’ll get you all the details.