Fitness Business School – Creating Your Ideal Business Pt 2

Full Transcript

Hi, Pat Rigsby here and I’m back with the second episode in this series about creating your ideal business. So 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 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.

So we’ve talked about identifying who your ideal client is and installing a marketing system and sales system to convert people that fit that kind of ideal client profile and bring them in as clients in your business. So what’s the next kind of step or piece of this framework that I use when I’m coaching people, you need to be able to deliver a result producing service consistently and I know that sounds like something that’s a bit of a foregone conclusion.

And sure, we’re supposedly in the business to deliver results to our clients. But the truth is that most businesses in the fitness industry aren’t really focused all that much on consistently delivering results to their clients at all. They’re more so in the business of hosting workouts. They’re in the business of providing exercise instruction or renting access to equipment.

Thanks for tuning in. But they’re not consistently delivering results to the people that they serve. And look, if, that’s offensive to you, look around. Look at all the businesses in the fitness marketplace and tell me, are they committed to coaching people to an outcome, to a result? Or are they just trying to funnel people into workouts or using their equipment.

The way that we, I think, rationalize this as industry professionals is that we make excuses. And frankly, the businesses that don’t really get over the hump don’t spend a lot of time on trying to get better at this. Instead, they say things like, man, those clients aren’t committed or they’re unwilling to do what it takes.

in the time that we’re not with them, or not working hard enough, or they’re not serious. But I think a lot of people in our industry forget the fact that these people paid us to help them bridge the gap from where they are to where they want to be. Not just to host workouts. And frankly, we sell that.

We sell results and, can you imagine That if you went to a restaurant and they didn’t deliver you food, they just said, Hey, we’ll set the pots and pans and ingredients out. Good luck, figure it out. Hopefully you end up with the meal you were looking for. Sometimes we sell a little bit of that. We sell fat loss and performance improvement, body transformations, even life transformations.

But, as an industry, not necessarily singling any individual out, we don’t always do a good job. Let’s try an exercise that I think helps. Imagine you’re a consumer and let’s say you have a stopped up sink, right? You try a plunger. No luck. Then you try a liquid plumber. Doesn’t work. So you hire a plumber to come to your house to repair the sink.

Can you imagine how you’d feel if the plumber comes, works for a while, and they collect their payment, and they say, I can’t fix it. You’re not responsible enough to keep stuff out of your drain. I know I told you I’d fix it, but you still need to pay me full price for fixing it. But things aren’t repaired, and really it’s your fault.

I’m guessing you wouldn’t give them a five star review, right? You wouldn’t refer them to your friends. You probably wouldn’t use that plumber again. So in the typical fitness business, the owners and their staff they’re quick to pass the responsibility back entirely onto the client instead of understanding that this is a partnership and the clients are paying.

And if they’re showing up, then. We have to be able to be moving them towards their goal. We have to be able to move them closer, not just give them more to do. And let’s face it, if clients came to us and they had this unrelenting work ethic, and they were super disciplined, they probably wouldn’t have needed so much help in the first place for most of our businesses.

So an ideal business is going to be one that delivers great results on a consistent basis to the people they serve. They’re going to find a way to set those people up to succeed, to not only reach their expectations, but in some ways they’re going to exceed their expectations because There are going to be things that they weren’t looking for or didn’t expect that are going to improve in their life.

They may have been coming to look for fat loss, but maybe their blood work is going to improve. Maybe their self confidence is going to increase. Maybe their relationships are going to be better because they are going to feel better about themselves. Ideal businesses are going to have a system in place that is going to facilitate the behavior change, or changes, that are necessary for your clients to get results.

They’re going to have a process that identifies the right prospects who you actually can help and help those people make the changes in their lives that they need to make. They’re going to onboard people. in a way that’s going to set them up to succeed. They’re going to coach and provide the accountability, the support, the education, not just the instruction, really anything else that’s needed to help them escape where they are, because a lot of people are coming to us and they’re not happy and they want to escape that unhappiness and arrive at where they want to be.

And I think that’s the hallmark of an ideal business. If you can do that consistently, And they get more people to experience it. Man, you can really write your own check as a business owner. So if you want to build your own ideal business, you have to go back and look at your ideal client, get a clear understanding of what they actually want.

And it’s probably something that it’s not quite exactly what it appears to be at first glance. We usually think they want some really clearly defined amount of weight loss, but they probably just want to be happier and feel better about themselves. And they assume some of that comes with weight loss and they’re associating that with the weight loss.

So we can make them happier from day one, right? We can treat them well, we can help them feel a sense of accomplishment, and then those daily wins accrue and compound and eventually, They see that kind of tangible metric based result. So that’s the third filter or piece of the framework that I use. The fourth is that I believe you must deliver a world class experience.

And obviously world class is relative, but because everybody’s running their own race, right? If you’re running your ideal business, it’s unique. It’s something. And. That is built around your strengths and your ideal client. But the experience dovetails with the results, because people aren’t going to do something consistently where they don’t have a positive experience.

It’s just, it’s going to be temporary at best. And let’s face it. We live in a world now we operate in a society where. People can get access to exercise guidance on YouTube. They can join health clubs very inexpensively without longterm commitments. They have no limit to the apps and resources that they can find with really nominal financial investments.

So to succeed and keep people, we need to create an experience. Where somebody is really excited to come spend time with us, where we’re one of the best parts of their day. Our clients come, they spend time with us, knowing that when they leave, they’re going to feel better, they’re going to have a sense of accomplishment, they’re going to be happier and more fulfilled than when they arrived.

That’s what an ideal business does. That’s the type of experience an ideal business delivers. So how does this work in practice? We have to understand that we’re delivering more than just workouts. We’re delivering more than exercise instruction. We’re making somebody feel happier. We’re helping them feel valued and important.

We’re educating them. We’re empowering them. We’re providing them with accountability. We’re giving them all these things that allow them not only to get the physical and hopefully emotional or psychological results they want over time, but we have to deliver an experience that makes it a part of their life.

Pleasant and even enjoyable process. And that doesn’t mean that it can’t be hard, right? Like people get a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment by doing hard things. So that’s okay. And I understand that. Yeah, it may not be enjoyable right in the moment. The heart rate’s elevated. They’re sweating.

They’re there’s some physical discomfort, but at the end, man, they’re going to feel like they, they won the day. And that is going to be something that that I think is transformative because they stack up those wins because they love that rush of feeling this sense of accomplishment. Now, ideally, they’re going to have a connection with you outside the four walls of your facility where you’re following up with them, where you’re telling them they did a great job, where you’re providing some accountability.

You’re making them feel important and appreciated. You’re recognizing them for the improvements or the progress they’re making. The ideal businesses, the great businesses, they’re more than just workouts. They’re doing these things and they’re doing them on a consistent basis. And their clients know they’re part of something special.

And if they feel like they’re part of something special, it becomes part of their identity. And because of the caliber of your experience, these clients are going to rave about your business and what you do. And staying on as a client is a foregone conclusion, right? You become almost competition free because they’re not shopping around, looking for the discount provider, the next shiny object,

because you’re different and you’re doing something that is a real meaningful part of their life.

And. They’re becoming ambassadors for your business. That’s the power of delivering a world class experience. So if you want to differentiate yourself from the competition and become a category of one, ultimately having your ideal business, then you have to deliver an extraordinary experience. So that’s the second set of filters, delivering results and doing it through an experience your clients rave about.

And if we can take that first piece, right? We take the. identifying the ideal clients and having a system in place to bring them consistently through the door. And then we deliver this result producing service through an experience they enjoy. Man, you’ve got the framework, the foundation of an absolute powerhouse business.

So we’ve got a couple more episodes in this series where I’m going to talk to you about other pieces of creating your ideal business and how. I view them, the lens that I view them through with the clients that are going to be in these meetings or have been in these meetings last week with me and help steer them in the right direction. And hopefully it’ll steer you as well. So stay tuned.

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Fitness Business School.

Before you go, I have a quick announcement:

One of of the things that we’ve been doing with our current clients is taking them through this Ideal Business diagnostic and really what it is, this checklist that allows you to pinpoint exactly what your business needs next so you can keep improving, keep growing, and build a business that you love to own, one that pays you well, one that allows you to have the impact you wanna have and one that allows you to have a lifestyle that you truly enjoy.

In this diagnostic, we walk through everything and we do an evaluation and can instantly pinpoint what you need to do next to build that business that you want. I’m going to extend this opportunity to get on with either me or my team and take you through this evaluation and fix your business’s most vital needs fast.

So if we take you through this, you’re gonna be able to make those vital changes that you need to finally have what I call your Ideal Business. If you’d be interested in going through this entirely free, risk-free diagnostic with us and learn what you already have in place, what you’re doing well and where are your greatest opportunities for rapid improvement are just shoot me an email with diagnostic in the subject line to [email protected].

Again, an email to [email protected] with diagnostic in the subject line will get
you scheduled and take you through this evaluation to help you build the business you want.