Fitness Business School – Business Mistake #5 – Going Wide Instead of Deep

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here. And in this episode, we’re going to talk about another common challenge when it comes to running your business and how to get past it. And it’s going too wide and not going deep enough. So let’s get started.

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One of the most common challenges or problems that I see small business owners face is going too wide with their efforts and not really going deep enough on any specific thing. It’s really trying to do everything instead of committing to be great at single things, or just a narrow few things. You know, people, when it comes to the services they provide, instead of saying, okay, I’m going to have this one core program and I’m going to make this program the best in my market. It’s well, Hey, you know what? These guys over here are having success with one-on-one training. And then these guys are having success with semi-private and then these guys did great with a group. And then I saw this other person doing really well with corporate training. And so we try to do everything and nothing ever really gets the traction that you want it to get. Or when it comes to marketing saying, man, you know, I was in this Facebook group and they talked about somebody doing great on you know, with a funnel. And then these other people were using chat to get clients. And then this other person was really having a lot of success with Instagram. And then this one trainer talked about getting a bunch of online clients with tik-tok and, you know, the reality is everything can work within reason, right? I mean we’ve seen business owners build wonderful businesses doing in-home training. One-On-One we’ve seen business owners do incredible things, really just based around group training and nothing else. And then when it comes to marketing, man, we’ve seen people do wonderful things without ever really making online a focal point, just trying to get out in the community and network and build around referrals. And then some people who have become just fabulous at taking a Facebook ad and using it to drive business or, you know, really building a powerhouse Facebook group and using it the way that I might use an email list.

And if we think about this, I mean, that’s what franchising really is, right? It’s Hey, we’ve got this one system and we’re just going to replicate this system over and over and over and try to perfect this single system so that, you know, we just become the best in our respective category in each market at doing that thing. And if we think about the small businesses that thrive, you know, they aren’t going super wide. I mean, we got places like blaze pizza or Chick-fil-A in the, you know, in the kind of fast casual or fast food market that don’t have these really broad menus. They just do a couple of things really, really well. And they’ve been able to replicate that time and time again, and it seems to work and pretty much every market they go into because they’ve gone deep and not going too wide. It’s not like you go in somewhere like blaze pizza and you’re ordering steaks and hamburgers and chicken sandwiches. No it’s pizza and salads and that’s pretty much it.

So in your business, what can you be great at? Let me give you an example of how this has worked for me. There are, there are any number of marketing channels that I could use just like you. And you know, the number one thing that I have focused on really for almost 15 years now is I’m going to build my email list and I’m going to follow up with the people on my list. In fact, the vast majority of people who listen to this podcast are being driven there from emails that I send to them to just share a different format of coaching or content with them. They’re not coming to an organically, usually from, you know, just finding it on iTunes or seeing it online somewhere. They’re coming from my email list. So think about if your primary focusing your market was, Hey, I’m going to build an email list of four or 5,000 people. And that’s going to be my primary goal. I’m going to send out three emails a week and they’re going to have a little PS at the end of them making offers. So I’m getting my offer in front of prospects repeatedly. So my goal is just to build that email list to four or 5,000 people. So I’ve got, you know, a lot of potential clients getting my offers two, three, four days a week, you know, over time, that’s going to keep this steady stream of business coming in your door. Well, to do that, That, you know what I mean? You just, I need to go out and focus on adding two, three, four people to your email list each and every day.

And that is your driver. It doesn’t mean it’s the only thing you can do. Sure. I mean, you can dabble in some other things, but every day when you wake up, you know what, the first thing on your task list to do when it comes to marketing, it is it’s at three people to my email, here are the tactics I’m going to use, or if you’re going to be a group training, okay, how can I be the guy best group training business in my market? How can I provide the best service? How can I make sure my clients have the best experience? What can I do to keep those clients connected between sessions? How can I improve results? How can I improve accountability? How can I make this such a powerful community that once somebody has experienced it, there’s no way they’re going to want to go experience something different because it’s so different, so much better than anything they’ve done. Figure out what you want to be the best at.

And this doesn’t mean you have to be the best in the world at what you do. Sure. That’s a wonderful thing to aspire to, but honestly you just need to be the best in your respective market or at least the top one or two. Now, one of the biggest takeaways I ever had from a college professor had nothing to do with the curriculum in that particular course. But I had this professor who had made a bunch of money, basically doing other things outside of you know, his role at the university. And he just was talking about kind of life, life skills and life goals during a class, he said, look, you can become a millionaire doing just about anything. You just have to commit to being better than everybody else doing it. He said, you can do it being a ditch digger. You can do it collecting trash. You can do it painting houses, but you have to commit to being better. And I’ve held on to that for really my entire life and said, okay, how do I make this kind of the big time where I’m at?

You know, another line I kind of pulled from the coaching ranks the whole time that I was coaching was like, how do we make this program great? Not just pursue the next thing in your business. How do we make ourselves great at these one or two marketing channels and really be the best in our market. It doing these couple of things. How do we do the same thing when it comes to the things that we deliver inside our four walls or deliver virtually if we’re training online and if you’re worried about, well, Hey, I’m online. So now my markets everywhere narrowed down and specifically focus on a client, don’t worry about all these other potential people you could serve. Don’t worry about this fear of missing out that really drives this pursuit of going too wide. This, Hey, I could be doing this or I could be doing that. Well, honestly we can all do just about anything, but what should we be doing today? We can’t do it all right now. So what should we be doing today to move ourselves forward as quickly and effectively as possible? If we focus, if we dial things and focus on going deep in just a narrow few kind of pass and just pursue a narrow number of goals, we’re going to see so much more progress than if we kind of took the shotgun approach and try to be everywhere and do all things. So if you find yourself drifting, if you find yourself going too wide, Hey, it’s okay to look at these other things, write them down, put them on a list, put that list to the side. So, okay. As soon as I’ve mastered this, that I’m working on today, as soon as I’ve mastered that. And as soon as I have a plan in place to execute that at a high level, and I can just do that like clockwork day after day. Now I’m going to pull one more thing off that list. If you take that approach, you’re going to be light years ahead of the competition.

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.