Fitness Business School – One Simple Winning Strategy

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here and in today’s episode, I want to talk about the one simple strategy that has built virtually all of my business wins. 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 it’s been about 20 years that I’ve been a business owner and there’s been basically one general kind of strategy or framework that I’ve leaned on throughout and it’s worked to help me build award winning franchises.

It’s worked to help me build local training businesses. Certification companies, coaching companies, everything that you can imagine, retail, consumer kind of facing info, marketing, businesses, all that stuff, and frankly, it’s worked for small, smaller businesses that were in that six figure range all the way up to consulting clients that had nine figure businesses.

And it is something that frankly, I don’t see a lot of. So I’m going to walk you through it today. I’m going to basically give you the blueprint. And I’m going to say this preemptively. This, I don’t think this is a secret. I’m going to frame it up for you. But I also know that most people won’t come anywhere near doing this.

Most people will avoid it, chase the shiny object and fumble around with a bunch of things. And all they had to do was put this in place and keep turning the dials and optimizing it. And it would pay off. Here we go. So step one Is building a community of people who have goals that you can help them achieve or problems you can help them solve.

Now, in my world, that’s largely like a community of email subscribers, but I don’t really care. It’s a community. Like however you want to communicate with people is entirely up to you. My, my good friend, Kevin nations, they’re just people who are. Connected to him on Facebook, largely. Like he’s got people that are friends or followers on his personal Facebook page, and that’s his community.

So it doesn’t have to be an email list or whatever else, but you have to have a community. The second step is you need to offer low commitment solutions that deliver 10 times. The investment you’re asking for in either time or money. And that’s a one that I think a lot of people stumble on because they don’t understand that they need to demonstrate.

Their value and the potential impact they can have. And if you offer these low commitment solutions, notice I didn’t necessarily say low cost or somebody called low ticket or whatever else. I’m just saying low commitment. So somebody can experience firsthand how you can help. The third step is seeing this almost like an audition, right?

Where you get to. Over deliver on your promises and over deliver on client experience. And you’re auditioning for the ability to build a longer relationship. And I think that very few people view things that way. Very, most people are very transactional. Most people sell something to someone and see it as a transaction, something that shows up on a spreadsheet.

Or something of that sort. And. You’ll notice it. If you read my emails, I sign off with dedicated to your success. And that’s really what I mean there is I am dedicating my efforts to helping you achieve success because I know that’s the livelihood of my business. It’s not just a sign off of sincerely or something like that is no, this is a simple reminder that this is the livelihood of my business.

If I help you succeed, my business is built around that. And in turn. I have a greater likelihood of succeeding. So if I demonstrate that I’m dedicated to somebody success, then it often presents the opportunity to invite somebody to continue on in some way, shape, or form. In most cases, those are like subscription based.

I’ve had everything from very inexpensive membership sites that were under 10 a month to franchises that were very involved commitments on both parties. And some people will choose not to accept those invitations. In fact, I would tell you that the majority probably don’t accept those invitations.

If you get 10 people, it’s not six. Take you up on this ongoing relationship. And that’s okay because. The idea then is to continue to be their fan and their advocate, right? Continue to root for them. And if you do that, then there, there’s goodwill. If you’ve over delivered in that first Interaction, then there’s the doors open for future interactions, future opportunities to work together.

If you approach this the way that most people do when they have that kind of first transaction, if you will, since that’s the way that most people approach it, if somebody doesn’t buy their next thing, then they write that person off. And I think that my model has been just the opposite.

Hey, that person. Trusted me to help them with this small commitment. Hopefully I did the best that I could to over deliver. I’m going to continue to root for them, wish them well, hope they succeed. And then in theory, if the opportunity comes back around to work together, that door is still open.

And then others are going to choose to accept that invitation and they’re going to be the core of your business. And they’re going to be. It’s going to be our responsibility, or in my case, it’s my responsibility to help them achieve their goals. It is a partnership at that point, not necessarily a legally Binding partnership, but an understood partnership.

That’s why they’re investing to work together is I’m going to provide my experience, my expertise, my direction, hopefully maybe a different viewpoint that simplifies the path to where they want to go. If I have tools or resources at my disposal, I’m going to help them with those. And. We’re going to collaborate now.

Notice. I said it’s a partnership. That doesn’t mean I’m going to go do it for them. And the nature of business that that I have for the most part, it requires the person I’m partnering with to hold up their end of the bargain. But it is. A partnership and they understand that this one strategy, this is what things have revolved around.

They understand that, Hey, I’m on their team. It’s not just that they’re on my team. And honestly, I’m not even telling you. I think this is why I know because I’ve had these conversations. It’s why I’ve had a number of clients who’ve been around for more than a decade. And let’s face it in this industry that is.

Not only uncommon, it’s almost unheard of because most people, man, they don’t keep clients for, they’ve not even doing this for a decade to be fair. Like most people who do coaching, consulting, any of that sort of stuff. They’ve not been around for more than a year or two. The way this has worked for me is this pipeline approach in this way that these relationships have been developed, keeps people around for an extended period of time in so many cases.

And it’s also why plenty of former clients return for coaching or consulting or guidance. I get some sort of outreach about it every week or two. And some of them, they’re people that. Came on board as a client. I’ve had people that were my first coaching clients back in 2005 that like one of them is still completely active at all times and has been for everything, but maybe a three month interruption.

But. I can think of the first three, the other two, one is in one of our subscription programs right now. One has been back involved as recently as 2022. And let’s face it in 2005, I didn’t have the same set of experiences. Didn’t have the same type of knowledge, the same resources or credibility that I do now.

But the, Hey, I’m going to partner with you and I’m in this. I’m on your team was. That was as prevalent then as it is now, and that’s largely why they keep coming back. This strategy is probably too simple, and most people will just skip right past this idea. They’ll be seeking out the latest and greatest.

platform that maybe they can be a first mover on, or they’ll get caught up in one of these ads that promises to, just heard truckloads of people through their front door in their gym or whatever else. And. They’ll wonder why six months, 12 months down the road, their business is no better.

And in many cases it’s worse and it’s because there wasn’t something they could build around. There wasn’t something sustainable and consistent and that’s okay. Frankly the answer here is that’s, Probably not just okay. It’s great because it’s a competitive advantage. Then if you do it, if you do something that’s durable and sustainable, everybody else is grasping at straws, then you keep making progress and that progress compounds, everybody else is just trying to hold serve.

And what’s great about this, I think also is you get to build around your strengths. You get to lean into who you are. The type of business you want to run the way that you best communicate and build something that you actually enjoy owning. So hopefully this type of pipeline approach, I call it my ideal business pipeline, that it appeals to you.

And if it does shoot me a message at [email protected] and tell me how you’re going to use it. Tell me how you’re going to build it. I would love to watch you build it. And frankly, if I can help you build it, let me know, I’d be happy to discuss it and see if There’s something I can do to support you along the way, but either way you don’t I’m not suggesting you need me to help you build it.
You just have to decide that you want to use it and commit to it. And if you do, I can almost certainly assure you that you’ll enjoy the rewards.

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.