Fitness Business School – Learning from Pat’s Mistake

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here and in today’s episode, I want to talk with you about a big mistake I made and how it can help you. 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 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 I want to preface what I’m going to tell you by saying that I think that it can be really helpful to you to not only hear the story, but to understand how easy it is for each of us to fall into this trap and how we’re much better off. If we follow the steps I’ll lay out at the end. So the other day, Holly, who manages a lot of our client connection, community accountability, she was chatting back and forth with a business owner who had been in a short term coaching program that frankly I think was marketed very much to attract business owners who were early stage, who were stuck, who weren’t.

producing a lot of revenue and he had reached out to Holly and he was suggesting that he needed an advisor. His business is pretty good and I think he was looking for somebody to take it to a higher level. He felt like he was probably Even more advanced than what he had experienced in that group, which in hindsight, it makes all sorts of sense because that group definitely caters to people that are just trying to hit that launch stage of business.

And so his implication was, Hey, maybe Pat or his team, they’re great at helping these businesses that are at this, what I would call early to intermediate stage, those businesses that are probably doing five grand a month, 10 grand a month, 20, up to 20 grand a month. So maybe helping people At that stage of the journey getting to 20 grand a month, but I think he was tactfully trying to suggest that maybe we weren’t the right people to help him move beyond that and the first instinct that I probably had when Holly told me that was a little bit of an eye roll, right?

Because I know that I’ve gotten to do historically in the businesses that I’ve gotten to work with. And I’ve consulted with multiple nine figure businesses. I’ve built a franchise to over 50 million in franchise wide sales in multiple years, grown countless, seven figure businesses of my own and helped grow those of clients.

And so the idea that, helping somebody maybe grow to high six figures, maybe even crack that seven figure mark. Frankly, I just instinct, instinctively think, Hey, that’s what, that’s probably as good a work as I do. But the fact that he wouldn’t have known this was, Just a real failure on my part.

And don’t get me wrong. I enjoy problem solving that a lot of people in the fitness industry probably don’t. I bootstrapped my first business. I had no money, bad credit. It started, my first business was like 2, 500 throughout all the times that I have been launching businesses. I’ve only ever taken out one loan for a business that I owned.

So I’ve invested far more in other people’s businesses than I’ve ever had invested in mine in a loan or by an outside investor. So I have a soft spot for those folks. I enjoy getting into the mud. I very much made it clear to our team when the pandemic came that we were the right people for the job that I felt like I was built to help people navigate stormy seas and of our over 300 active.

engaged clients at that time. We only had one close and it was a franchise that wouldn’t let them do the things we were telling them to do or else they wouldn’t have closed. I think we’re great at that stuff, but I will tell you that I did a bad job of articulating that was probably the maybe at most a third of what we do.

And we definitely work with people at that intermediate stage and taking them beyond and helping them really grow to profitability, stability and make it their ideal business. And then we help a lot of people that have really good businesses, build great businesses and scale those businesses. And if I look back historically that I’ve spent a lot more my time and my business on those two segments than that early stage, but it got very easy.

I think in the marketing world, because there were so many offers out there where people that I frankly was pretty skeptical of saying, Hey, we’ll help you. Do this and flood your gym with these people and get clients this way. And I’m like, man, people are going to fall for that stuff. And I know what happens behind the scenes enough to know that those folks aren’t going to help.

So we’ll do it because I know we can actually deliver, which maybe is the competitive side of me. Maybe I probably rationalize that stuff as nobility or whatever else, but you, whatever the market sees is what your brand is. And if you put that stuff out there enough, people will say that’s what you do.

That’s who you are. That’s your identity. And man, you want to talk about a stark reminder of that. Like when he said that to me, I’m like, I’ve let the pendulum swing too far. I’ve gotten into sharing this offer, which was effective. We’ve got plenty of people into those programs. We helped a lot of people.

I think that there’s nobody better taking businesses from 20 grand to 50 grand a month or 50 to a hundred or more per month than we are. We’ve got just an amazing team that knows, okay, what got you to the point that you’re at won’t get you to that next stage. And to be fair, most of the people in the industry, they don’t have a whole lot of diverse experiences to share.

They can’t really. Yeah, there are people out there who will say, yeah, I grew my business to blank. Yeah. If you want to follow their model to a tee, then by all means, that’s a wonderful choice. But if you’re saying, Hey, my business is a little bit different than theirs. Most people that only have that kind of experience.

They haven’t scaled other businesses. They don’t know how to do it. They can’t adapt to your skills, your circumstances, your market. You know that business owner who’s in a major metropolitan area and has grown by selling to really affluent people probably doesn’t know what it’s like to market in a town like the one I grew up in the, that is in financial distress and those people who are on the coast probably don’t know nearly as much about middle America.

And I think that’s probably been one of the best. Advantages that I’ve had is to be able to aggregate all this stuff over the better part of 20 years. I’ve got clients who are recognized the top personal trainer in New York city and clients who have built thriving businesses in towns of 5000, 10000.

Heck, Doug Spurling before he became a business partner was a client built a seven figure business in a town of 12, 000. Look, if you fall into this trap, like I did, don’t water down your message. Don’t fall into this. Hey, this is what other people are doing and we can do it better than them. So let’s go ahead and put that offer out there and water down your brand.

If you’re great at something, make sure the market knows it, reinforce it over and over. Because I think that I really built my brand on helping somebody create their ideal business. And that can take on a lot of different forms, but very rarely is somebody’s Ideal business that early stage intermediate stage.

Yeah. Hey, we’re finally profitable, but they’re not over the hump. They’re not building security and even wealth. They haven’t reduced stress. They may still be working more hours than they want. So in your case, if somebody else in your market is promising extreme weight loss, or they’re doing something that congruent with what you do, but you see they’re gaining some traction.

You’re like, man, we can help more. We can do better. Don’t fall into that kind of competitive trap. And I get it. So many of the people that I work with are really competitive by nature, like I am and want to go out there and show that they can be the best at what they do. But I would encourage you over and over that being the best at what you do isn’t being better than somebody who may not be doing a good job.

It’s competing against yourself and running your own race. So make sure that if you are. Running your own race that you’re marketing it on the front end. So you’re attracting the right people For you to grow your business For you to partner with them and help them achieve their goals.

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.