Fitness Business School – Maximize Upcoming Opportunities

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here and in this episode. I want to give you five tips to make the most of the opportunity ahead. I think we’re about to move into perhaps the biggest opportunity since I’ve been part of the fitness industry and I want to help you make the most of it. So let’s get to it.

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.

I believe that the next 18-24 months stand to be one of the bigger opportunities since I’ve been involved in the fitness industry. I think there is just kind of this convergence of events where there’s more awareness when it comes to, to training to fitness then than there’s ever been, there’s been so much talk about exercise to, to help our overall health, to help our mental health. There has been more of a push to, to normalize coaching or instructor led fitness than there ever was before. With the advent of all the online training stuff with the instructor driven franchises that have come into play. So I think there’s some great opportunity. And I also think that coming out of the pandemic, people are eager to get back out, to, to be out, out in their community rather than kind of being huddled home all the time. So I just think there are so many things kind of potentially working in our favor that I want to give you a few tips to help you make the most of them.

Now, you know, these are not the typical tactical things like, Hey, run this type of ad to generate leads, or this is going to be the, the, the funnel that’s going to work the best or this, this type of challenge is what you should be marketing. These are kind of foundational things that fit no matter what type of businesses that you own, whether you’re a one-on-one business, a a semi-private small group business online, offline in home facility, it doesn’t matter. So the first is, you know, I’m going to tell you that you really have to fall in love with your clients. Like you have to be so client-centric that your you’re taking ownership of their results, their experience, you’re not hosting workouts. You’re not just an exercise instructor. You’re not somebody just delivering a program or, or hosting a session. You are somebody who really is excited about the people you work with. So you, you have to identify that target market that you’re passionate about.

And you’ve got to just follow up love with your clients, and it may sound corny. It may sound cliche, but if you really care about, about your client’s success, it’s going to permeate through everything that you do. It’s going to kind of force your hand at making everything better. The onboarding, the, the, the time between sessions, what we’ll call the other one sixty five, the, the actual experience during sessions, you’re going to find better ways to help move people forward towards their goals. You’re going to provide more accountability. You’re going to make them feel more connected, but you have to love your clients for who they are, not who you wish they would. We’re not who the avatar is, but who these actual people are, the, the, the challenges they face, the experiences they’re having, the, the things that they want, the thing are trying to escape from. And if you really become passionate about those people, it’s going to really sets you apart from virtually all the competition. So that’s, yeah. Number one, number two, I guess I think you have to love your work. You have to love the good work that you’re doing, the impact that you’re making now. You know, and I’ve shared this in other episodes. I don’t mean follow your passion. I don’t mean just, Hey, I’m going to go work with this type of person, because I’m excited about that thing. I love being in the gym. So I’m going to own a training business. No, I mean, you have to love the actual kind of get your hands dirty work. The things that might be challenging and hard, the things that force you to define solutions to get there better, because I’m, I’m of the mindset that you have to be probably bad at something before you earn the right to be good at it. And if you love your work, you’ll be willing to do what it takes to get good at something. I mean, I can look back at my work from a decade ago, and, you know, I kind of want to bury my head in the sand with some of it, like some of the writing that I’ve done, or some some of the marketing campaigns or whatever else, because we’re supposed to want to get better.

We’re supposed to continue to evolve and improve. And if I didn’t love my work, I’d kind of just be stuck in that same spot, treading water. So that’s number two, number three, sorry, you need to be looking for ways, be more valuable to everyone around you. The clients that you have, the prospects, the strategic Alliance partners, the other people in your life. You need to find ways to be more valuable. We’ve entered into this era of quote unquote high ticket, where it seems like every day, there’s somebody on LinkedIn asking me, like for a connection request. And if you look at their description on their profile, it’s, I’m a high ticket sales person or a high ticket consultant. And you know, I, I, I don’t know about you, but when I hear hear that, or when I see that when somebody says, how do I sell high ticket? You know, the, the image that comes into my mind is like that, that of every sleazy sales person I’ve ever seen, right? Like every stereotype about what’s wrong with selling that, that I think we, as an industry have really worked to try to avoid really is what’s kind of conjured into my mind. And it’s not that I’m at all against selling expensive things, just the opposite. I, I am somebody who is all for selling expensive things, buying expensive things like it’s, you know, I don’t think there’s a thing wrong with that, but I think that it’s a value exchange. I think that if you find ways to be more valuable to the other people around you, then you can justify being more expensive. You can, can earn the right to charge higher prices.

And I think that if you think about being more valuable to their clients or to your clients, they’ll gladly pay more. I mean, I look at the, the things that I invest in, and there’s rarely a case that I won’t pay more for something that I do seem more valuable. You know, I’ll, I’ll pay more to get the thing that I think will yield the best result or the best experience for me. But as it sooner, I don’t want to just blindly pay the highest price, not understanding how it’s going to be better for me, how it’s going to be more valuable, but it’s not just about price. It’s about illustrating to the prospect, how you can be more valuable to them than the competition by looking at the people in your network, the strategic Alliance partners, and thinking about how can I add value to their lives? Not always looking about how I can extract value too often. We’ve become very shortsighted probably as a society looking for how we can extract value from every relationship at every turn. And I would challenge you in the days, weeks, months ahead to kind of flip the script and think about how you can be more valuable to the other people around you. And if you do you know, I, I don’t think this is the type of thing where you’re always going to be able to, to keep score, but I have a feeling if your more valuable you’re going to see your business improve, you’re going to see your quality of life improve by leading with that kind of giving hand, if you will. So that’s number one, three, number four, play to your strengths. And this is something that maybe you feel like over the past year and half, have you, you’ve not been able to do as much. You’ve kind of been all hands on deck. You’ve had to kind of do whatever it took to, to just get by. But if you’re going to put yourself in a, in a situation to capitalize on the opportunities ahead, you can’t be doing everything. You can’t play every role wear every hat. You can’t be the Jack of all trades. You have to play to your strengths. You have to look at the things that you do well and double down on those and the things that maybe are not your strengths, the best ROI for your time and effort. You’ve got to find a way to, to delegate those, to mitigate those, to, to, to outsource, or in some cases eliminate, you know, we’re not going to be great at everything. Everything can’t be a priority or a point of focus. So you’ve got to narrow your focus and say, okay, what are going to be the things that give me the best result for the time, effort and energy that I invest. And those are going to be the things that are your strengths. Plus, if we go back to number two, if you’re, if you’re to love your work work you know, I, I, I think that’s probably the easiest way to fall in love with your work is do things that you feel like allow you to do your best work day after day, and then number five you’ve got to commit to getting better. I, the, the flip side of the, the opportunity being better than it’s probably ever been, or among the best that it’s been, at least in my guy, 20 years in this industry is the competitions are more robust than it’s ever been as well.

Not only do we have more instructor based fitness businesses than ever before because of the explosion of the franchises that have kind of gotten into that space. But we also have all of the online options that are out there now. And the, the awareness and maybe accelerated level of comfort that came with those through the pandemic where people’s hand was kind of forced. And they, they tried out working, you know, training on zoom or, or some of those sorts of things. So you have to be willing to, to kind of raise your own game, right? You have to be willing to get better. And that means improving your skills, both on the training side and on the business side, you have to be willing to adopt new or improve your behaviors that are going to yield the results you want. I think you need to raise your expectations. What’s cool about that is they’re all learn. You, you can surround yourself with new things, new people. You can put yourself in different environments. You can upgrade everything about what you’re doing, but you’re not going to get there by kind of reverting back to what you did in 2019 or, or before.

You’re going to have to put yourself in a different situation. You’re going to have to, to look for ways to get better. You’re going to have to surround yourself with people with higher expectations. If you’re going to not only have those, but maintain them. So five tips that I think can help you make the most of this opportunity ahead. If you love your clients, if you love your work, if you’re making yourself more valuable to everybody around you, if you’re playing your strengths, and if you’re committed to continual improvement, committed to getting better, you’re going to put yourself in a position to make the most of this opportunity. And frankly, it’s these types of situations where we’re wealth is built, where impact is made. So do what it takes. And I think You’re going to reap the rewards.

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.

Just go to TestDriveFLA.com to get started.