Fitness Business School – Get Over Your Assumptions

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here and in this episode, I want to talk with you about how some assumptions that you

may be making, could be holding you back. 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 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.

So when I got into the, the business side of the fitness industry, I had come from being a college baseball coach. I had been a strength coach at the university. I had taught the university and the most money I had ever made in a year was like $28,700. Now, you know, this is a while back. So that, that probably sounds a little bit more pathetic now than it would’ve at the time. But, you know, I came from a small town, Portsmouth, Ohio, where the, you know, the average household income was pretty low.

The money was definitely one of those things that, you know, people had had pretty strong views on

you know, the on money and the people I was around, you know, had that mindset that, Hey, you know,

these things are expensive, they’re overpriced, or money’s hard to come by and some of that stuff.

And, and I know that for me, that was you know, some, some quote unquote baggage that, that I may

have carried along for a while. And I think that it took me a while to understand that, you know, my

assumptions were, were limiting my, my opportunity to sell personal training when I got into that,

because I had this kind of belief rooted somehow that, well, Hey, if I’m selling this service, that’s $300/

month. Well, $300 a month is well beyond my means. So how could anybody afford that? How could

anybody spend as much money on training as I was paying for an apartment or something like that. And you know, and I see people kind of go down that path, you know, thinking, well, Hey, the market,

won’t spend this, it’s too expensive and they’ll, they’ll, underprice their services and they’ll cut their

margins pretty thin, or they make assumptions about people saying, well, Hey, the, you know, these

people don’t have money.

And, and, and I see this time and time again people making assumptions about the marketplace that are,

are really about that, that person doing the, selling the business owner, the service provider, and not

about the market itself. And, you know, whether you get into thinking about this being like the, you

know, your reticular activating system will kind of, you know, find what you’re looking for, so to speak,

or, you know, for me, it just, I, I always kind of thought of it as, Hey, this is the lens by which I view the world, right. I’m thinking about things in this way, and I’m making assumptions about other people,

knowing that they get to make their own choices. They get to decide how much money they spend on

certain things. And they may be at a different state in, in life than, than I am when it comes to the means that they have to invest.

And there are plenty of things that I probably even at that stage of life, where I was making $30,000 a

year, I might have been willing to spend one or 2% of my income on certain things. Well, if somebody’s

making 150 or 200 or $300,000 a year, one to 2% of their income is, you know, it’s, you know, perhaps

10 X, what my, you know, what my budget was for those things I was spending. So I, I think it’s

important that we don’t allow our assumptions about people. I, I mean, I remember early on, I I’d see

the cars that prospects that would be coming in for consultations would pull up in and I’d make

assumptions one way or the other about them. And I remember that the, the tipping point for me, that,

that allowed me to never fall on this trap again.

So I kind of had this rule for myself that if I was gonna work on Saturday in my, my first training

business, that I wasn’t leaving until I sold something, it didn’t matter if it was just a single session. I was

going to sell something. Well, I had this prospect that walked in, who literally was wearing a, you know a white t-shirt with holes throughout that had stains on it looked pretty disheveled. You know, you

would, you would certainly make the assumption that this person didn’t have, you know, a lot of

financial means. And so I thought, you know what? I can probably sell this person, at least program

design. I can give them something, that’ll guide them on what to do. So we go through this introductory

consultative type session. And I sit down and I go through my, my sales process starting at three times a

week, knowing that I’m going to do like a down sale, ultimately for this program design stuff.

And I, I start with three times a week and the, you know, and, and before I even kind of finish the, the

sentence describing what the cost is, and in my mind, I’m just creating this anchor, right? Like I’m gonna share the highest price thing. So when I get to the lower price thing, it is really inexpensive and he stopped me. He said, okay, I’ll take that one. Can I pay for it all now? Like, can I pay for the year now?

And this was you know, about almost $5,000 worth of training. And I just like, stopped dead my tracks.

And he pulled out a checkbook and he wrote a check on the spot for that amount of money. And then

he explained to me that he had just, you know, hi, his mother had just passed away. He had inherited a

little bit of money from her.

And her request for him was that he really go take care of himself. So this was really important to him.

So he had this just truly meaningful reason to be there and the means to do it. And I was making these

awful assumptions that, you know, because he, you know, wa was overweight at the time and looked

shoveled that, you know, taking care of himself, maybe hadn’t been a priority or that he didn’t have the

means to do it. And I was completely off base. And, you know, and I kind of latched onto that moving

forward and, and stopping those assumptions and assuming kind of the, the best in, in every situation

and not saying, well, Hey, the market, they’re not buying, they don’t have money. You know, they’re

gonna object to everything instead, just thinking, Hey, you know what, if they’re giving me their time,

this is important to them.

If they’re sitting down with me, this is a priority. And all of a sudden things got things got so much

easier. I was able to, to sell to people much more easily. And I was also very much at peace when

somebody didn’t buy, because I knew that I had gone into it in the right frame of mind. So I think the

takeaway, the lesson here is that if you are going into a sales session, or if you’re marketing and you’re

making these assumptions about the marketplace, you’re really kind of undermining your own

possibility for success. I mean, I’ve seen people spend money on things, you know, like from a health

perspective or whatever else where they’d go get a second mortgage on their house to afford some sort

of, of treatment. And I’m not talking about like for cancer or something else for like autoimmune

conditions and that sort of thing. And you know, it, and, and it was always something that reminded me

that, you know, what people can decide what their priorities are. It’s not my job to decide for them. It’s

not my job to prejudge and make assumptions. It’s my job to provide the best possible solution for the

people who do.

Seek that solution and are willing to invest in it. And I believe that’s probably the case with you do like

with you as well. I, if you stop over complicating things, stop making assumptions that the market won’t invest, stop making assumptions that, oh, $179 is too expensive, but 1 49 S cheap enough, like, and just say, you know what, I’m gonna put my best foot forward. I’m gonna care about serving the person in front of me. And I’m going to charge what I need to charge to do this profitably. So I can do it at the highest possible level. You’re gonna see so much better results. So if you’ve been making

assumptions, this is the reminder to let them go and grow your 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 fitness business owners, they almost always asked me, how can I get more clients or make more money? 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 business growth accelerator coaching program for FREE.

BGA is a one of a kind program where you 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 ads, script you need all proven to convert in, ready to use. Plus you have access to over 10 weekly live video coaching sessions to help you with everything from dialing in your ads, to mastering your mindset. You get all of this and more when you joined BGA and to help you succeed, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m going to let you test drive BGA at zero cost.

If it delivers for you in the way that I expect – it more than it pays for itself, and you’ll probably want to stay. If not, you’re out nothing and have a library of proven tools and resources to keep.

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