Fitness Business School – Embracing the Trade-Off

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here. And in this episode, I want to talk with you about a concept that I think a lot of people overlook, but it’s completely true. And that with everything that you do, there’s a trade-off, I’ll explain in this episode.

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 one of the things that I think that a lot of business owners and really people in general struggle with is making decisions and really you know, being a decisive leader in their life or in their business. I mean, all you have to do is go to lunch with somebody and you can probably figure out that making decisions is not a strong suit for most people, right? They’ll they’ll look at the menu. They’ll second guess themselves. They’ll spend so much time deciding over a decision that they’re probably making, you know, a, a thousand times a year, what am I going to eat right now? Right. So if that sort of decision is a challenge for people, imagine how tough it is for them to make what I would consider far more important decisions. But you know, the, the thing about it is we’re not going to be able to be perfect in decision-making perfection is, is a myth.

In fact even, even my ten-year-old Alex understands this to the point that he, he will regularly tell me that perfect isn’t a real thing. So, you know, we have to understand, we’re not going to find the perfect answer, but with every decision that we make, there’s a trade off. We’re conceding something when we’re selecting something else, you know, I, there there’s this opportunity costs that comes with everything. If you’re choosing to spend time watching a TV show, there are hundreds of other things you’re choosing not to do. If you’re choosing something for lunch, there are hundreds of other things you’re choosing not to add. And, you know, I think what we’re always, hopefully trying to do is business owners is trading up, right? We’re making a better decision that moves us towards our goal.

But you know, we, we also fall into this trap of doing things that, you know, are, are holding us back. And we’re not intentionally doing it a lot of the time, but it’s still choice. It’s still a decision. If you’re spending time scrolling social media, it may not be this intentional thing where you say, you know what, I’m going to put it in my planner today from 10 to 11, I’m going to scroll on social media. But the absence of a really proactive, conscious decision is still a decision. So when you’re thinking about building your business so much of it is just understanding that we’re making decisions constantly, and there’s always something we’re giving up. And there’s always something that we’re we’re gaining or we’re adding, or we’re choosing to do. If you think about this in the micro sense, scrolling on social media, we’re, we’re potentially trading that for, you know, we could be following up with prospects. We could be sending emails or text messages to unconverted bleeds.

If we’re consuming something on YouTube or on Netflix or whatever else, that’s time we’re spending in consumption mode instead of creating, right. We can be creating our own content, creating content to attract our ideal client, creating content that would serve our current clients better. And then, you know, we’re killing time in between appointments. We may just say, well, Hey, I’ve got 10 minutes between training sessions. That can be a really common occurrence. Right. And we rationalize it saying, well, I’ve got this appointment coming up, but you know, the, the reality, yeah. There’s one thing that we teach in our coaching programs called a 10 minute sprint where we use those little 10 minute windows to accomplish things that move us towards our goals, because sometimes your day is busy and sometimes you don’t have a lot of available space to go and do big business growth tasks. But almost always, we we’ve got these 10 minute windows throughout the course of the day that we can do these micro tasks, if you will, and then reap the benefits of the cumulative effect of a handful of those done each day.

But, you know, in, in that model grow, since those small decisions are, are the things that are likely leading us to either winning the day or just kind of wasting the day. And you know, that that’s perfectly fine if you were okay with the status quo, if you’re okay with not moving your business forward. And you’re just very comfortable with where you are, but if you’re the person saying, Hey, I want to earn more. I want more clients. I want to be able to create more flexibility, more freedom for myself. Well, we’ve got to do things differently. We’ve got to make progress. We’ve got to gain ground towards where we’re going. So if we think about this in more of a macro sense, then you know, it, it is kind of doing what’s necessary to create our ideal business or get where we’re trying to go versus just getting through the day. I mean, how often do people say, well, you know what, I deserve this break, I’m tired, or I’ll get to this tomorrow. And as a business owner, we have so much more autonomy with this, right? I mean, we, we have the luxury of kind of moving deadlines around because we’re the ones who usually establish most of those deadlines. And yeah, you, you probably, aren’t likely missing training sessions with the clients that are scheduled appointments.

But invariably, I talked to people very, very regularly that, you know what, Hey, I put off asking for referrals, I’ll do that tomorrow. I’ll do that next week. I put off sending out my emails or putting up this new ad or something and I’ll get to it later, man. You know, that’s, that’s the type of general approach, general way of behaving of operating that holds people back. And then, you know, again, in the macro sense, it’s, you know, it’s choosing to just kind of take it the easy path in a given day versus doing the hard stuff that might be necessary in a building phase to have the thing that you do want, you know, I, I often tell clients that, yes, it’s great to have like, to want your ideal business, but you don’t get to have your ideal business.

While you’re building your ideal business, you’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone. You’re going to have to probably put in longer hours than you want. You’re probably going to have to do some tasks that you don’t love to do and spend some time working on things that you’re not as excited about because you’re, you’re laying a foundation, you’re building an infrastructure, you’re establishing processes. You’re really putting things in a place that allow you to eventually earn the income you want to eventually have the lifestyle you want and to play the role in operating a business that you really love to own, but you don’t just get to all land in that spot accidentally. You’re going to have to trade some things off in the beginning to earn it, to earn the right, to have something better and different than most people have. Right. And you know, it doesn’t take long to, to look around and see that most business owners are, are kind of stuck in that middle ground right there. They have elements of their business that they like, but there is many things about their business. They don’t like. And you know, it may be a hard truth for a lot of people to accept, but much of that is about not being willing to make the trade-offs necessary to get to this place where they really love the business they have.

Now, you know, I, I also am a realist about this, that there are certain external circumstances, like what we’ve experienced in the last year that are beyond your control and business is this fluid thing. Employees are gonna leave. Clients are gonna move. Things are gonna change. So once you get there, it’s not just, Hey, I’m at the mountaintop. And you know, I’m never going to have to do any more work, but you’ve done most of the hard. So once you get to that point, a lot of it is easier either because you’ve already practiced it. And you kind of know how it goes, or you’re doing less of the hard, because you’ve already put in the legwork that most people don’t. So when you’re thinking about how you’re spending your time, make sure that your behaviors align with your goals, because if they don’t these aren’t realistic goals, they’re not like for me, a goal is something that we have a plan that allows us to potentially achieve things that are a realistic goal. It’s something that is within our capacity. If we’re willing to do the work. Whereas if you are not willing to make these trade-offs, it’s just a dream. It’s just a wish. And I think the sooner we get clear about that as a business owner, the better off we’re going to be. So embrace the fact that there are trade-offs, you’re making to build the business that you want and that most people won’t do it. So if you do, it’s a competitive advantage. It’s something that’s going to set you apart. So embrace the trade-off.

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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