Fitness Business School – Stand Out From the Crowd

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here. And in this episode, I want to talk with you about standing out from the crowd. There are so many businesses in our market these days, online and offline. You’re going to have to work and make a decision to stand out and become noticeable to the people you want to serve. And I’m going to teach you how and this episode, so let’s get 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.

You look at all the businesses that we’re seeing in the fitness industry right now, the vast majority of them are really kind of offering the same thing. Now it may not look like that to you on the surface, but if you look at it from like a 40,000 foot view, they’re basically all offering access to workouts, right? And in many ways, it’s not a whole lot different than some of the stuff that you used to see in a group X class, right? I mean, right now people are selling CycleBar as a standalone membership that probably costs, you know, $99 or $129 or $149 a month. Honestly, I don’t really know the pricing there, but I mean, we used to have cycle classes and a health club that I owned that was just part of the membership. And, you know, there were body pump classes and there were all sorts of other group exercise classes that were just included as part of the membership. Well, now people are selling online and offline access to workouts. You know, you can come participate, it’s a group environment and we’ll host these workouts that you’re welcome to be part of. And then they market kind of loosely a tie to the results that the client is going to get. But no real direct focus on results. Once somebody joins, they, they may say, Hey, come here, lose weight, get in shape. And you know, and, and that’s great. That’s what they do to attract prospects.

But then once somebody joins, they just kind of shift to hosting those workouts. They’re not measuring somebody’s progress. They’re not doing anything specific between workouts to facilitate progress. They’re not asking somebody kind of how they feel about the results they’re getting. So, you know, that’s kind of a commonality from what I see. And then finally, when it comes to marketing, it’s all very general, right? They’re all running ads. They all use very similar kind of memes and simple social media posts that are easily duplicated. And it’s kind of the norm, right? Like it’s, it’s almost one size fits all fitness for people and that’s fine. It’s, it’s obviously selling to a certain extent. And I don’t know that that’s bad for our industry as a whole.

I think prior to the pandemic, there were more people involved in fitness and more people involved specifically in coach focused fitness than ever before. So people talking about, well, the fitness industry, or, you know, coaching group training, any sort of training based stuff is dying. I mean, just the opposite. It is definitely a robust market for fitness. It’s just, it’s evolving. And, you know, I think that creates more awareness for us. It gets more people involved, but ultimately a lot of people don’t thrive in the access to equipment or access to workout environment.

So how can you stand out and how can you win in that sort of market? Well, there are a few ways that I want to share with you today. Some things to maybe get your wheels turning that might help you become more effective and build a business that competes in kind of an apples to oranges way with the, the masses out there. And the first is by providing more accountability, by providing more of true coaching where you’re going to not only give people access to workouts, but you’re going to motivate them. You’re going to provide accountability to make sure they’re staying on track. You’re going to really kind of facilitate their success between the actual workouts where a lot of the differences made. What, what my friend and colleague Doug Spurling would call the other 165. You’re going to really play a much bigger role in your client’s lives there. You’re going to help people get back on track whenever adversity strikes or whenever, you know, whenever they need to, to have a bit of a course correction, because a lot of people start, but not a lot of people stay the course. So you’re going to help them do that. You’re going to problem solve whenever challenges arise. So providing that as a coach, really being more client centric and coaching focused instead of just hosting workouts and being an instructor would be a big shift and an opportunity to stand apart.

The next thing that you want to do is really kind of focus on creating great culture. And a lot of times culture is just, you know, it it’s expectations and standards. You’re going to set the tone for what the atmosphere is like, what people are expected to do, how people are expected to support one another. You know, you get to set the tone as to what being part of your business, what being part of your community feels like. And ideally, you’re going to do it in a way that feels inclusive, that people want to be a part of, because there are plenty of businesses out there that almost feel like they’re, they’re excluding people and it’s not a welcoming atmosphere, and it’s a little bit elitist, and you can create an atmosphere where people feel like they’re part of a team where people are rooting for them and wanting to see them succeed, which is not something that we should take lightly, because many people in their own lives don’t feel like they’ve got a bunch of cheerleaders. They don’t feel like a bunch of people are hoping to see them. When in fact, a lot of people feel like man, some people want to win at their expense. So creating a great culture is another piece of this puzzle.

And then measuring progress. We had a great discussion, one of my coaching groups the other day, and it was okay, how are you measuring progress? And let’s face it. A lot of businesses don’t measure at all. They don’t, they don’t track people’s progress because frankly, they, they sold the idea of progress to get somebody in the door, but they didn’t really care about somebody’s goals once they were in the door. I mean, how many businesses go out there? And the salesperson says, well, what are your goals? What, what would be a result that you’re looking for? What would make you happy? And that stuff never actually even makes it to the trainer that is delivering the workouts. They don’t even know, well, you can measure your client’s progress and you can do it with simple things like body fat tests or using technology. Like InBody, you can do things that allow people to track progress, but don’t lose sight of the fact that progress. Isn’t always about body composition or scale weight, or the size genes that somebody wears. Sometimes progress is about feeling like somebody did something for themselves, or, Hey, am I, am I doing something to relieve stress? Am I doing something that makes me more confident? Am I putting myself in an environment that is about me and surrounding myself with people that make me better and make me happier. So coming up with a simple little survey that you ask them that is entirely subjective, but maybe more important because you’re asking them to rate like, well, how do you feel in these areas relative to how you felt when you started, has it improved? I mean, on a scale of one to 10, how are your stress levels now compared to what your stress levels were when you started and just ask people to, to grade themselves? Because if they’re happy coming, that’s probably the most important part – if they’re succeeding by their own standards.

And then how do we stand out by marketing? Well, the use of social proof is a big thing, right? Like if, if I’m looking for something on Amazon, I’m going to look at some of the reviews. I’m going to people, see what people have to say. I’ll be honest. I probably discount the one-star reviews and I don’t pay a ton of attention to all of the five star reviews, but I want to know what the, the two threes and fours are saying, like, what, what is this experience like? But you, social proof document case studies ask for reviews, make sure that, you know, you’re not just the one saying what you do can help the people who are actually experiencing it firsthand, say it as well.

And then answer the questions that your prospects have. All the things that the competition ignores, all the things that they don’t really care to take the time to answer, answer those questions, but then take it a step further and answer the questions that your clients should have, or you wish they had, but maybe they aren’t an educated enough consumer yet in this area to ask those types of questions, like it could be as simple as answering questions about an assessment and the role that it plays in program design. If that’s something that you’re doing, and that’s a, a real cornerstone of your program, then you should answer questions about that because maybe they don’t know that an assessment should be part of what’s going on and the impact it should have when it comes to program design, or even the impact it’s going to have on somebody’s results. So answer those types of questions.

And then finally, one of the things that I think has helped me throughout the years and I’ve seen it help. So many people in our industry is really coaching people before they pay you to coach them. I mean, if you look at people like Eric Cressey or Mike Boyle, and you see the, the quality and volume of free education and information, they put out, I mean, it’s staggering, it’s so much good stuff, but it also helps you see, like, man, you know, if this is this stuff they’re putting out for free, imagine how good it’s going to be when I pay for their, their offerings. Or you’re going to start to see somebody as an expert, as an authority, you’re going to like the way that they coach, like the way that they teach, you’re going to gravitate to the way that maybe they motivate you. And if you let people experience that firsthand, then you’re getting somebody who’s choosing you for the right reasons. They’re choosing you. Not because of some incredible discount or not because they’re at this desperate moment in their journey, but because you were the best option available.

So if you want to stand out, there are a few ways that you can do this. You can be more of a coach and provide more accountability. You can facilitate the development of a really positive and powerful culture. You can measure your client’s project progress, both the, the, the common stuff, the, the scale weight, or the, the body composition or the strength improvement. And maybe some of that stuff that flies under the radar, like the way they feel in certain areas. And then you can just improve your marketing and be willing to do the things that other people aren’t doing. If you take this approach, you’re not only going to stand out, but you’re going to build a business that you love owning and operating. So if you want to stand out from the crowd, There’s the path.

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