Fitness Riches
Transcript of Fitness Riches
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Limits of Liability / Disclaimer of Warranty:
This manual is designed to provide information in regard to the subject mattercovered. It is provided with the understanding that the publishers and authorsand advisors are not rendering medical or financial advice or other
medical/health or financial services.
The authors, advisors and publishers shall have neither liability nor responsibilityto any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged tobe caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.
Copyright Notices
This book contains material protected under International and Federal CopyrightLaws and Treaties. All rights reserved. Copyright 2006 by FitnessConsulting Group, LLC.Any unauthorized transfer, use, sharing, reproduction,sale, or distribution of these materials by any means, electronic, mechanical, orotherwise is prohibited. No part of this manual may be reproduced in any formwhatsoever, without the express written consent of the publishers.
Published under Copyright Laws of the Library of Congress of The United Statesof America, by:
Fitness Consulting Group, LLC111 Amy CourtElizabethtown, KY [email protected]
E-book compilation/creation, layout, logos, and graphic design performed bywww.FitnessWebsiteDesign.com. Copyright and Trademark 2006, GuaranteedFitness Solutions. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
Introduction5
Chapter 1: Unleash The Profit Potential of Your Personal TrainingBusiness An Interview with Alwyn Cosgrove7
Chapter 2: Building a Successful Online Training Business by KelliCalabrese MS, CSCS...31
Chapter 3: The Business of Fitness by Patrick Rigsby38
Chapter 4: Secrets of Effective Lead Generation For Fitness Professionalsby Eric Ruth...44
Chapter 5: Establishing a Lucrative Niche In The Fitness Industry AnInterview with Bill Hartman54
Chapter 6: How To Live the Perfect Life and Make Money 24 Hours a DayBy Publishing a Profitable Online Fitness Newsletter by CraigBallantyne..65
Chapter 7: 24/7/365 Automated Fitness Marketing by Brian Calkins74
Chapter 8: The Ultimate Guide to Profits While Maintaining Integrity byDamon Mochetto..85
Chapter 9: How To Leverage Your Fitness Coaching Services WithNutrition Product Sales- And Get Paid For Years! by Sean Greeley.94
Chapter 10: Top of Mind Positioning: So You Never Have to Sell Againby Stephen Holt..113
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Chapter 11: Following Your Dreams to Prosperity by Lee Taft140
Chapter 12: Tap Into the Billion-Dollar Weight Management Industry AnInterview With Chris Mohr...149
Chapter 13: Secrets of the Studio on a Shoestring by Nick Berry..161
Chapter 14: To Be An Independent, or To Franchise. That is the Questionby Matt Hunt168
Chapter 15: The ABCs of Wellness by Marilyn Gansel.173
Chapter 16: How To Become a Local Celebrity by Cliff Latham..185
Chapter 17: The Power of Joint Ventures, Strategic Alliances, andEndorsed Offers by Frank Pastorelli192
Chapter 18: Creating Your Own Personal Training Money Machine byPatrick Rigsby.199
Contributing Authors208
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Introduction
Dear Fellow Fitness Professional,
Ive got to be honest with you. When I first came up with the idea for this e-book,
it was basically a pipe-dream. Ask a handful of tremendously successful
personal trainers to share the secrets to their success.
Sounded great - but it seemed far-fetched. How would I ever be able to get them
to take the time to write a chapter that essentially disclosed their successsecrets? But what I soon came to discover was that as busy as all of these
cream of the crop trainers were, they all were willing to contribute.
Each and every one of them expressed a strong desire to give back and to help
raise the fitness industry as a whole by sharing their ideas and strategies for
professional success as a personal trainer.
Youre going to read about a number of strategies throughout this book that can
literally transform your business the contributors held nothing back.
But make no mistake a large part of their tremendous success can be traced
back to that very passion for the fitness industry and their willingness to pay
forward.
So as you begin to prosper from applying these techniques, strategies and
tactics to your business, I challenge you to do the same thing these fitness
professionals did pay forward.
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There are many successful people in this and any field that are unwilling to help
those that come after them climb the ladder of success. Dont fall into that trap.Im certain that if you apply what you learn in the pages of Fitness Riches, you
will soon achieve new heights of success. When you do, be willing to help others
do the same.
Sincerely,
Pat Rigsby
Editor and Co-Author
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Chapter 1: Unleash The Profit Potential Of Your
Personal Training Business
An Interview with Alwyn Cosgrove
This is Pat Rigsby here with Alwyn Cosgrove and unless you have been hiding
under a rock you are well versed in who Alwyn is, but for those of you who may
not be familiar with Alwyn he is one of, if not the most sought after speakers and
writers in the fitness industry. You can see his work in Mens Health, Mens
Fitness, on T Nation and various other websites. He is the owner of Results
Fitness in Santa Clarita, California and he also is the co-author of a very recently
published book - The New Rules Of Lifting. Alwyn also has a couple websites -
www.AlwynCosgrove.com, and www.professionalfitnessnesscoach.com
also. Alwyn, before we move forward, is there anything else I missed?
AC Nope, I think you got everything.
PR I am very honored to be able to have Alwyn on the line. Today we are
going to talk about how to maximize your training business and how to reach
as many potential clients as possible. So essentially were talking about the
power of leverage. Ill start off by asking you about your small group or semi-
private training model. I know you are a big believer in that approach, so
could you describe how you utilize that model in your health club?
AC It hinges upon that the first stage of this and the first business book I
recommend anyone to read is The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. This book
establishes the importance of creating systems in any business and that a
system is basically a replicable system that will create the same result
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regardless of who is implementing the system. That is the first part. The best
example that I can give of this is McDonalds. If you go to McDonalds inScotland, McDonalds in New York, McDonalds in Moscow, Russia,
McDonalds in London, McDonalds in LA and you order a Big Mac, it is
always the same because McDonalds has the system down and the
employees just execute the steps and create the same hamburger every day.
A lot of people think that this is a low quality model, but it is actually financially
very successful. So you have to look at that, dont look at the nutrition, look at
the success. So it all started off with just me training people and then my wife
was training people and there was a slight reluctance in the beginning for
people who did not want to train with my wife because I had the reputation,
but it was less so. Then we hired our first staff member. So we have a
situation where you have two owners of the business and a third person.
Well, no one wants to train with that third person, they all want to be with the
owners. So we created a model where I wrote all the programs in the
beginning so that when you came in to my facility it didnt matter who
supervised your session, you were going to get the same program, which was
huge because it took the trainer out of it and it focused more on the systems.
So that was step one and obviously I taught that system to the staff so they
can replicate and do their own program. Then I realized that one-on-one
training was a flawed concept to begin with. If you look at training from the
entire spectrum of training, if you look at rehabilitation, the physical therapy
model, you are not one-on-one when you are in physical therapy. There areusually a couple of you. There is usually one physical therapist that designs
the program, and bunch of assistants who are supervising, but it is never one-
one one, there are usually a couple of people. Even when you go to a
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chiropractor and it is technically one-on-one when he is there. He is seeing
three people at once sometimes and jumping around. So I became awarethat at the rehabilitation level there was no one-on-one training. Then I
started to work with a lot of athletes and worked with a lot of strength coaches
- and at the elite level of the sport, it wasnt one-on-one either. When the
Lakers had a strength coach, everybody trained. The Oakland Raiders have
a strength coach, the Dallas Cowboys have a strength coach, everybody
trained. Not one-on-one training. So I started to question why at the serious
injury level and the elite performance, supervision wasnt one-on-one, why in
middle - which is where we technically are as trainers, why is it one-on-one?
Thats when I realized that the model was flawed. Could I as a trainer equally
supervise two people at once? I think I could. If you are taking Martial Arts
classes, you are not taught one-on-one, and each generation of fighters gets
better so the system works. So at that point we started to allow more than
one person at once. Two things happened. The first thing was that now
training became more about the client and less about the trainer because the
client came along and somebody else would be in with them and they would
be talking - how did you do this week, did you stay on your diet, how was
your competition this weekend and the supportive relationship between them
and they trained harder, so it is no longer about the trainer. The second thing
that happened is it allowed me to charge a little bit less so more people could
come into the gym and see me. The third thing, which is the most important
thing for everyone reading this - is that instead of charging $75.00 a session, I
was charging $55.00 a session and getting three people at once so my feemore than doubled. I dont care what you are charging. If you are charging
$250.00 a session and you can get it, you can get three people in that group
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at $150.00 a session so the client pays less, the trainer gets paid more, yet
the system takes over and the clients program remains the same.
PR That makes great business sense. I think too often trainers just kind of fall
into what they witnessed in a health club and what they have seen before and
dont give any thought to why they are approaching training the way they do.
AC And largely that has been the problem - that we are doing things in the
fitness industry because that is how it was done. Without thinking why was it
done that way and should we be even continuing to do it that way. There is
no reason you can give me for one-on-one training. The argument will come
back as that you lose the one-on-one attention - which I dont really buy. I
dont feel like I ignore any of my clients. If I watched most trainers in most
gyms, I doubt that for the whole hour they are completely 100 percent
focused on everything that client does and I doubt they have to be. People
train themselves a lot of the time. The ability to supervise a workout is not
where your skill lies as a trainer. Youve seen training partners that train
together and both guys are jacked right? Theyve never had a trainer in their
life, but they supervise each other. Their program sucks and they could get
better results, but it is unlikely that one-on-one supervision is the magic thing
between them. So trainers have to understand that the ability to supervise a
workout requires about 5 percent more skill than the ability than to do the
workout. It doesnt require you to be an expert. Supervising a workout is not
hard. More people are on their own than are using trainers. I saw study thatsaid that the one-on-one personal training model attains about a 3 percent
penetration rate into the health clubs so only about 3 percent of the members
are actually using it. Now even if your clubs different, the fact is that there is
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a bigger market for semi-private. More people do group exercises than do
personal training. It shows you that its attracting numbers. One of thereasons why people fail in fat loss programs is a lack of social support.
Youve gone out to dinner with your girlfriend or your wife and one of the
ladies at the table gets up to go to the bathroom and they all go. They all go
together and then they come into the gym together and we want to split them
up? Were like one-on-one for you and they say no I dont want to be one-
on-one; I want to be with my friends. The model sets it up that whoever
supervises the program is almost irrelevant so for staffing reasons it gets
better because the program is written regardless of who the trainer is. The
clients are put in groups based on their availability and they are just put into a
group. Ill be honest - I am in this to make money. Im not going to lie to
anyone. Im interested in making money and being financially successful. If
there was a better model, I would probably be using the better model. So
everyone who wants to debate this with me, just come up with a financially
more successful model that gives clients results and Ill switch. I have no
religious attachment to this - I just see that it works very well.
PR That makes all great sense. I think the most successful people in the
fitness industry have seen what is going on in peripheral industries and been
able to take what theyve witnessed and apply it to their business and when
you explain it, it makes all the sense in the world.
AC The key is a replicable method of designing programs so that the trainerimplementing it is almost irrelevant. Now it can still be used if you are
working it yourself. But the system has to run on its own. My theory being
that should I have to take two weeks off or I fly home to visit some day or I
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break my leg and I have to take some time off, my clients should be
uninterrupted. The program shouldnt change because it is different trainer.The next trainer should be able to step in and it eliminates any personality
issues that may be an issue because you are just implementing a system.
PR That is very simple to understand. I think the main objection I have heard
with trainers is how do you group people together? Do you group them by
fitness level, do you group them by time or do you group them in the social
groups they are comfortable with?
AC Lets think of it in two extremes. Ive got a grandma and Ive got an elite
athlete. This is as extreme as it gets, so this doesnt happen. But lets think
about it. The athlete is doing power cleansand, the grandma is doing bridges
with her feet on a box. The athlete does the power cleans and rests; the
grandma does her bridges and rests. They dont need to do the same
program and I dont really think I need to watch him during his rest period. Ill
watch her and if he is really skilled, I actually need to watch him less than her.
So people are so concerned with the grouping - but thats minor. Like if you
go a Martial Arts class, youll see different belts in the same class - which is to
signify that some guys have been there for a year, some guys have been
there for three months and still the instructor manages to get all these guys
better. Some of my staff, Im pretty sure could supervise five and six at a time
and still be good. We cap it at three. If you honestly feel that three is
overwhelming - then you can stay with two. One-on-one is just a waste oftime. You dont need to supervise someones rest period.
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PR Everything youve said makes great sense from a business standpoint and
a training standpoint. You can impact more clients, youre leveraging yourtime and more people are getting results every reason a trainer would be in
business.
AC It hinges on having that program design method to start with. If you are the
kind of trainer that kind of wings every session, this model will not work for
you. You have to have a planned program that you can execute.
PR It seems like then it just comes down to geography. Make sure they are in
close enough proximity that you can provide supervision and you are all set.
AC Yep. What I tell people it is a better model - not an easier one - you are
going to work harder, but you are going to get double to triple the money you
were getting. That is a huge increase in profit, but it is not an easier method
of training - it is just better. So the having three clients at once will not be
easier, no - you are going to work and you are going to be moving around.
But it is a financially more successful business model and it is far more
effective for training clients.
PR You have alluded to how important the program design component is to this
approach. I think this is a great segue for us to start talking about using
program design as part of a trainers business model because Ive read some
your thoughts on this and I think this is something that would be of value toevery fitness professional in the industry.
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AC Trainers have this idea that they get paid for their supervision time that they
are not billing for the time they spend doing the program. So if you arecharging $50.00 an hour to supervise a clients training and you spend an
hour designing the program, that should be an extra $50.00 fee right? Most
people agree that they should be paid for all their time. Does that make
sense?
PR Yes, that makes perfectly good sense.
AC So if you are designing a program, you should be billing for it. Most people
do not understand that. Some guys just include in the one price. Thats ok,
you can include anything in one package. You can say it is $500.00 a month
and you get five training sessions plus a program. But you have to let the
client know that you do work for them outside of them actually being there.
Thats the first important fact. Same as with a lawyer. You dont just get
billed for the time he spends in the office, but you get billed for everything.
Same as with a doctor. You dont just get billed for the five minutes he
spends with you, you get billed for every hour he looks at your file and every
test result he interprets, you have to pay for everything. It is the same as
being a trainer. If I am working on a program, someone is being billed for it.
Now the problem most trainers get into is if it is $50.00 an hour for my time,
then it is $50.00 an hour to do program design. My question is this - which
one requires the most skill? Supervising a workout? We have already
established that this is a low skill activity. Designing a program is a high skillactivity. So if you want a program designed by an expert trainer who really
knows what they are doing, dont you expect that that will cost more because
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of their skill level? Rather than the time it would take for someone to just
supervise you while you are doing pushups? That makes sense too, right?
PR Yes, very much.
AC So we understand that the actual supervision of workout is a low level
activity. Program design is a high level activity. So lets say that you and I
are equally good at writing programs, but it takes you an hour and it takes me
15 minutes. Should I charge less because I am faster?
PR No, not at all.
AC Technically I am better than you to the level of four times as good. If I can
get the same program written in a quarter of the time, technically Im four
times as good as you if the programs are going to be the same. So therefore
we are getting away from how long does it take and we are getting into how
good is it. It is irrelevant how long it takes. Its not how long it takes me to
design the program; it is knowing which program to design. That is what you
are paying for. So we have established that less than 10 percent of the
people hire you for your ability to supervise an exercise session. They hire
you for your expert knowledge in how to design a fitness program. So they
are two separate fees. Making sense so far?
PR Yes. Once again Alwyn - perfectly good sense.
AC So my feeling is that regardless of how good you are as a trainer, if I write
the program and I get you the client and I have you supervise it, how much
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should I pay you to supervise my program? Im not giving you $200.00 to
supervise a workout, thats about $25.00 an hour of work to be honest. I dontcare how good you are. Supervising the workout is not that hard and not that
skilled. So I started looking at supervising a workout as $25.00 an hour,
designing a workout as $750.00 a month (my fee for the month plus 10
sessions is $1,000). The client will break it out to $100.00 a session, but is
not, it is $25.00 a session plus $750.00 for program design. It doesnt matter
what the numbers are, the key is that the client understands that you spend
time on their program outside of their presence and this is billable time that
they have to pay for. The supervision time is extra time. So they can buy a
program and no supervision. Technically they can buy supervision and no
program; no one ever does that of course, but technically they are two
separate roles. Your program design skills and your workout supervision
skills. That is also why you can hire me to design a program or my staff to
implement it. Technically you can hire my staff to implement any program,
but no one is going to do that - as I said. But it is clear that we have to
separate these roles. The problem starts when people start to bill per time. If
I take 15 minutes to design a program that is just as good as yours, why
should I charge less when it is clear that I am better - I should be charging
more. Everyone understands that. What if you have a difficult client,
someone who comes in who had a spinal injury and is rehabbing and wants
to come back and do the ultimate fighting championships. That program
takes you a little longer. Do you bill double for that person because it took
you longer? Most people cannot answer these questions if you asked them.If it takes you longer, do you bill double? You get an easy client, it takes you
half the time, do you bill half? No, program design is a flat fee regardless of
how long it takes you. Because as you get better, it takes less time. As you
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get better, you are worth more money, not less. So theres a real skill
involved. Weve gotten into a higher paid construction work manual labor where we bill an hour of our time for an hour of money. You have to get into
the skill set of a professional personal trainer which is that I design programs
for a very high fee. A 16 week program is what I design. That will cost you
forget about how long it takes me to design it it is going to cost you $200.00,
but you can do it for 16 weeks. So we get away from this time for money and
start exchanging our skill level for money. Now here is another question that
usually blows trainers minds away. If we both have a client and she wants to
lose 10 pounds of fat and I train her and in 10 sessions, she loses 10 pounds
of fat and you train her and in 5 sessions she loses 10 pounds of fat, should
you get paid less because you got results faster than anybody else?
PR No, I should be paid more.
AC You should be paid more, right? But it only took five sessions and you are
billing per session right now probably and five sessions is less than ten
sessions. Because you have been billing for time instead of billing for
program and results. If I can get the same results in less time than you, on
paper, the client paid me less when I am doing a per session model. Does
that make sense?
PR Clients want results so tying the fee to results makes sense. I think
unfortunately too many people in the industry are tied to this archaic hourlymodel.
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shit, I dont know what to do and will probably do nothing. So I am going to
give you some steps to take to make sure that doesnt happen.
First, get away from a per session model and switch to a monthly
membership. That can include however many supervised sessions you want,
from one a month to three a week. Thats up to you. But that fee includes a
program design component. It is not an optional fee. This fee includes this
there is a program design fee attached to that. So when someone looks at it
and says wow it is a thousand a month to come to you thats $250 a
session if I come once a week. It is not $250 a session just to come once a
week, its $800 a month for your program and $50 a week for supervised
sessions. The program design is really what you are paying for. I can tell you
that selling products on line, selling programs to other trainers, I make just as
much money from that as I do from supervising workouts. So people are
paying you for your skill, not for your time. They understand that; trainers do
not understand that. Like I said at $100 per session if I can get the job done
in 2 sessions and it takes you 20, then financially I am worse off and Im a
better trainer than you. The trainer says, Ill keep raising my fees. The
problem still stands that the longer you take to get the result, the more money
you are going to make. So technically on that model, the worse you are the
more financially successful you will be. Its ballsy most trainers dont have
the guts to put their reputation on the line for results. Because theyll say -
What if I get a client who doesnt follow the program very well. I never had
those people; I charge a lot of money. They are very motivated to come tosee me. They are not in it to trick me. So focusing on that is a measure of
failure not a measure of success.
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PR If there is a second step in this, what should the fitness professional do?
AC - You must have a replicable system of program design and I publish what I
do with my Professional Fitness Coach Manual. This is not a sales pitch; this
is just what I do. You have to create your own manual so that anyone could
come in and take over your business - you can sell it. Everything in your
business has to be in manuals. If you come into our gym tomorrow you could
see how it works and you can make us an offer for the business and all the
operation manuals in it including the program design manuals, how we track
clients, how we track sales. So basically you have to create a franchise even if
you are working for yourself and you are never, ever going to sell it. For ease of
business, you have to create the model as if you are going to sell it. You have to
have a replicable system of program design. Thats number one. The second
thing is your billing has to reflect a program design first model, not a pay for
hours model. We have already discussed the limitations of that. Thirdly,
supervising the session - you have to accept it as a low level activity, therefore
you can get two or three people in at once. Now it becomes a high level activity
because the skill in supervising three people is higher than supervising one. The
real value is in implementing all these steps together. One-on-one training is
dead. No one should be even offering that. It is just flawed technology. It is just
a poor usage of your time. I dont care how much money you are getting for that
hour. If you are getting $1,000 an hour, you can get three people at $750 each.
If your market can handle $1,000 an hour, your market can certainly handle
semi-private $750 per session. Ive use the term per hour a lot which is wrong.How long is a workout?
PR As long as it takes.
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AC So again, if it takes me 30 minutes to get the same results as it takesanother trainer an hour, do I charge half? Do I charge double?
PR You should charge double.
AC You should charge double. So just get away from how long it takes and
start getting into there are 10 minutes left, lets do some extra abs. Now you
are not on your program anymore, you are just making shit up. So execute
the program based on your knowledge and if it takes 55 minutes fine; if it
takes an hour and 5, great. You are just implementing the steps. Hopefully
that is something useful. Going any deeper will get people confused.
PR I think that this is outstanding. This is stuff that any trainer - regardless of
the situation, regardless of their current approach to business - can really
absorb and make their business model much, much better.
AC One of things I always say is if you are to leave and you move from New
York City where you charge $100 a session and you move to Wisconsin
where the going rate is $45, your income cuts in half. But I bet if you go to
Wisconsin and charge $35, you can get three people in a group and actually
take a raise in your income.
PR This is outstanding. The problem Ive seen in health club settings is that
they only reach that 3% penetration rate this makes personal training viable
for so much more of the population - so if you are dealing in a health club
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setting, a much greater percentage of the member base becomes a candidate
for personal training.
AC Yes, it is less expensive for them and more profitable for the trainer. Its a
no lose. The people will think - my existing clients wont like it if I change. Im
like ok, keep them the same, but for everybody new this is how you do it and
see how quickly you get fed up. When from hour one you are making $75.00
an hour and in hour two, you are making $200 for three people. Youll soon
come around. When we changed, clients didnt like it, but I have a business
rule, I honor all the deals Ive made. There is an incentive for them to change
because it is cheaper and often it is just rolling over the existing package.
They get more sessions and it is really not any less effective when I see two
people at once. They see that very quickly. So I give them an incentive to
change. If they choose not to change, Ill honor the deal I have made. When
it comes to renewal I have two options. To continue to honor that deal or tell
them hey, I no longer honor that deal. So Ill either lose the client - which is
unlikely if you are good - or they switch at that point. So it does require
change but this is the easiest way to reduce hours for a trainer without
affecting your income. Right now, if you are doing 40 hours a week, you can
get that down to 20 hours a week and actually make more money and then
you have more free time. If you work 40 hours a week and you see 40 clients
and you get them into 20 hours a week and see the same amount of clients.
Youre saving 20 hours a week. You can cut your hours by 50% and only cut
your income by 10%. Or even better with correct structuring, you can cutyour hours by 50% and increase your income by 20%. So a lot of times the
trainers time off is the bigger motivation than money.
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PR I think a lot has been said about trainers leveraging their time through
creating information products and be it selling things to clients, different thingslike that; creating passive backend income streams. This seems like the
foundation for leverage for a fitness professional and I think this is something
that has been really skipped over.
AC I think that that is a good point, Patrick, because a lot of people right now
are talking about information products and stuff who, with no offense to
anyone, youre not good enough to be selling information products yet
because you are not good enough at what you do. So you have to get better
at being a trainer before you start trying to reach a bigger market. The
second thing is where does that time to create the information products come
from unless you start at the grassroots level with your clients and reduce the
time spent with them. Without ignoring them, if you reduce the time spent,
now you free up some hours, you can say hey, I finish Fridays at noon.
Friday afternoon from one until four, I am going to work on an e-book. Very
quickly you start to build that. The other thing that trainers are doing that I
should say is caused by people like myself, and Ryan Lee and Jim Labadie -
there is a concept that trainers should target other trainers with information
products thats not the biggest market, just be aware of that. If I wrote a
program design manual for trainers, there would be a market. But I can tell
you writing a fat loss manual for new mothers has a bigger market than
anything you can market to trainers. So be aware of that because there is a
tendency now that everybody seems to be marketing towards fitnessprofessionals. There are other markets out there, dont ignore them, there
are some big markets there.
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PR You just mentioned new mothers. There are hundreds of niche markets
just like that with much more potential than the fitness professional market.The volume of people in each of those particular niches is so much greater. I
think that is definitely the way to go, but I think you hit the nail on the head. It
starts with honing your craft and being better at what you do and by actually
training, I think implementing this model forces trainers to be better because
they are going to have to write that many more programs.
AC Ive said often that the difference between a good trainer and a great trainer
is 1,000 programs. It just the time and energy that you have to spend. You
can study and you can try to fast track it, but at some point, that is the
difference between a white belt in Karate and a black belt, hours in the gym.
You need to get that done. I had a guy come up to me at the boot camp and
he was pitching me on a product he had that was good for trainers. It would
track all their sessions on this software and asked would I be interested in
having a look at it. Im interested in looking at everything. But, I asked him
how much money he was making as a trainer and he told me well. I get the
excuses. So if you are not making any money as trainer, why would I model
my business after what youre doing. I dont mean that offensively because
you can tell me all about your product all you want. When you are making
$18,000 a year as a trainer, this is a product that doesnt work because your
business model is failing. I think my worst critic out there - this guy hates
what I do. The guy has emailed me and said that he hates my accent. Im
trying to change that. The guy that hates everything that I do - my worst critic- would have to say that I have been very successful financially at what I do.
So this is a model that works. Im not saying that to be pigheaded or to try to
impress anybody, but Im saying that to show that this is what I do. Im not
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trying to fake anything. These are the steps Ive made in our business to
make me more financially secure.
PR Just for those people who will be reading this, did you initially start out
doing more of the one-on-one approach.
AC Of course. When I think about it - I was in a Martial Arts group and went to
the world championships. We were a national team, we trained as a group.
When I got out of school, I worked for a physical therapist. You saw 10 people
at once with his assistance. Then when I went into personal training, I did
one-on-one it doesnt make any sense, right? But that is what everybody
did, so thats what I did too. Its just a flawed model, there is nothing I can say
to defend that. And Ive done it, so when people defend it, I say you know
what, Ive been there, Ive had these clients. But Im telling you - I think Ive
lost maybe one ever who didnt like the small group approach in the course of
my personal training career, but Ive picked up thousands.
PR Alwyn, the way that you present it I cant understand why anyone
wouldnt revisit what theyre currently doing. It is very rational. It is founded in
common sense above all else.
AC And thats the key - if you can argue why it is not as financially successful
and why it wont work, Ill listen. You have to come at me with the same angle
- common sense. Unless you are the only guy in the gym and its your client its not one-on-one anyway youre working with equipment, you talk to
other trainers or other clients, youre just being polite so its not one-on-one
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anyway. It doesnt matter if it is one trainer and two clients or one trainer and
one client. That whole one-on-one thing is a fallacy anyway.
PR Something else that I see. I know it is an important component in my
business that I think this just plays right into that is because you are able to
impact more clients, those backend sources of revenue be it weight
management programs or you sell dietary supplements. Now you have that
many more people that are potential customers for those backend services.
AC Exactly. If you sell something like a post workout drink or some type of
protein / carb drink to all your clients - which you should be doing if you
understand nutrition at all - you should be doing that. If you see 30 clients a
week, that is an extra $150 a week you make. If you see 300 - as we do in
our facility - that is an extra $1,500 a week you can make. Its just a matter of
numbers. If before you were youre training a mom whose son was trying to
gain weight for high school, now you are training 10 moms whose sons are
trying to gain weight - so just by having more clients, you get more clients and
I think everybody recognizes that. I want to touch on nutrition briefly too,
Patrick, if we have time.
PR Certainly go ahead.
AC Just as program design has to be a separate fee and separate hours,
nutrition is also separate. You can bill them altogether and dont give peoplean option of doing training and then nutrition, but you have to create a
separate fee with a separate value. We want it as a completely separate
program. You have a separate contract for everything. We use the Apex
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software and my wife handles nutrition. What you cannot try to do as a
trainer is try to run this yourself. Apex allows you to run it with full ADA andRDA approval. You can modify the diets and customize it for everybody.
What you cannot do is make up your own diet. That is outside of your scope
of practice and that opens a door you do not want to open. However, using a
formalized program like Apex allows you to charge money for an established,
replicable system of nutrition. Again, the same as program design. That you
are repeating the same steps regardless of whos implementing them or who
the client is to figure out a nutrition program. So, if you dont have a nutrition
program, then you are losing a large part of your income because you are
probably asked nutrition questions.
The last one is supplements. Supplements are a gray area. Eighty-five
percent of the American public now takes a supplement every day. So
whether you believe in them or not, your clients are buying them. So I would
rather my clients buy a multi-vitamin that I recommend or a protein powder
that I know what it is than just go to the discount store and buy something that
is garbage. So somebody is profiting from selling your clients supplements.
They are going to take supplements anyway whether I endorse them or not.
They are going to take the wacky fat burners. You need to be able to educate
them on that and I believe that there are some supplements out there that are
good, but you do need to be aware of them. So you can offer supplements
that you believe in and can ethically recommend to your clients and make a
profit. Make sure that you have in addition to all this, a nutrition program.
PR You hit the nail right on the head. That is a key component of the business
model that I use. You can use it as an entryway program to get those
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deconditioned people that might have traditionally been in the Weight
Watchers market.
AC It is huge. There are largely two groups of people. They look in the mirror
and theyre like my God, my abs look horrible, my butt looks big. And they
either do one of two things, they join a gym or they join a Weight Watchers.
Most of them join a Weight Watchers. We have nutrition programs in the
gyms and Weight Watchers do recommend exercises. This is all true stuff.
We can sometimes take away from Weight Watchers by offering an upfront
nutrition program.
PR That is kind of the unheralded component to offering nutrition coaching or
weight management coaching. It just sets a lure for other potential clients.
AC Yes, you can run it as a separate business out of your gym. We are into
advanced stuff now. But you can run a sports conditioning program out of
your gym under a different name. It is nothing different other than a different
sign. You can run a nutrition program and call it Los Angeles Nutrition. They
come in there and there is a little office and stuff. The whole idea is that there
are multiple streams of income that are available to you.
PR Essentially youve turned your facility into a fitness mall - so to speak -
where you are the one-stop fitness resource.
AC Yes, and if I had the space, I could see the benefits of making it even
bigger. I dont have group exercise - like in terms of classes, but I can see
the benefits of that. I can see the benefits to having a day spa type thing. I
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trainer. That is under $3.00 a week. If that is too much money for you, I
understand, but I guarantee you will make 10 times that money by buying it,just in your program design skills.
PR You can find this at www.professionalfitnesscoach.com. And I couldnt
give it a more emphatic endorsement because I know that weve used it to
really be the foundation for our own training manual - to be the model.
AC It comes in a binder designed to be written on and cross referenced and so
on. It is designed as a workbook. So if I ever see it in someones gym, I
expect to see it written on and things highlighted and pages out of it. I dont
expect to see it on a shelf looking pristine. It is supposed to be a workbook.
PR Well, Alwyn, I appreciate everything today and with that well wrap this up.
AC Thank you. I had a good time.
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Chapter 2 - Building a Successful Online Training
BusinessBy Kelli Calabrese MS, CSCS
2004 Personal Trainer of the Year Online Training
There is no escaping the information age; in fact, its progressing at light speed.
We are stimulated by more information in a day through technology, than people
were in a year just one century ago. But could a hands on service like personal
training be done on the web? Whats next, hair cuts? You may be considering
online training or maybe even signed up for a subscription based service to give
it a try. In my experience, trainers have not been all that successful with online
training being the profit center they had hoped for.
One of the reasons for the failure is that trainers believe if they build it, they will
come, which is not necessarily true. Your online training business should be an
extension of your in person business in order to be successful.
As the former lead fitness expert for eDiets (the internets leading diet
destination) and eFitness, I can share that beyond the novelty factor, technology
only takes us and our clients so far, no matter how sophisticated. So how can
we successfully reach the masses, support out clients and help them see
significant results online?
Exercisers and dieters will always need support from a team of professionals,
which includes some combination of a personal trainer, coach, eating disorder
specialist, psychologist, nutritionist and medical doctors. Downloading workouts
and grocery shopping lists is not enough to change someones lifelong habits,
much less their bodies. While online training provides a foot in the door with
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clients, it can also be a gateway to personal coaching opportunities, partnering
with other health professionals and offering a host of other services andproducts.
Simply printing out a new workout every week or two may be appropriate for the
few elite exercisers who are looking for a fresh routine. However a majority of
others, especially those who are struggling to lose weight and who have failed at
exercise in the past, will need much more support. Whether customized or from a
proprietary program, a printed workout wont help clients execute a fitness
program, handle eating triggers, control portion sizes, manage stress, curb binge
eating, learn strategies for dining out, handle saboteurs and take the necessary
steps to making health and fitness a permanent part of ones life.
This is where the future is headed for todays fitness professionals. Whether you
have already jumped on the bandwagon or are already considering it, online
training and its ancillary services have a huge potential to grow your business by
allowing you to reach more customers. In the process, youll help clients change
their lives while stretching your skills as a personal trainer.
You may be skeptical about online training, as was I. I had been a hands-on
trainer for 14 years prior to my first experience with online training. Thats when I
realized the power of technology to help people change their lives.
Many of the tools we use in person with our clients--like journaling, weighing in,calculating target heart rates, developing goals and varying workout routines--
can all be done online. And todays online systems can quickly format the clients
data, making record keeping easy and convenient. Month-to-month comparisons
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are available at the touch of a button to keep clients honest, and online sites can
also offer access to personal support and unlimited information, includinglibraries of articles and a variety of other services. As a result of automation, we
can offer more complete service to our clients while saving time and ultimately
money.
So, how can you make money as an online personal trainer?
In my experience, it takes fewer resources to attract an online client. Its not
necessary to place ads or print brochures or even pay for a fancy web site.
Instead, customers can find you using the tools available on the Worldwide Web,
such as personal training locators. When I look at how Ive attracted personal
training clients both on and off-line over the past three years, its about a 50 /50
split between referrals and online locators.
You can optimize your web presence by writing articles that incorporate key
words your clients would be likely to use in their internet search. You can also list
your services in appropriate directories. Tie online training into all of your
marketing efforts both on and off the web.
When a potential customer is searching online with her credit card ready, the
promptness of your reply, what you say and how its presented can make or
break the sale. A personalized letter, endorsements from clients and a sample of
what your online training programs look like will create a professional
presentation that can set you apart from the competition. You are likely to getmore clients when you make a great first impression.
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You can reach a whole new market of individuals who want the convenience and
affordability of online training. One opportunity for additional income is offeringonline training privileges for your in-person clients who want access to your
customized workouts when theyre traveling. Online membership can also be
appealing to club members who want the edge of a personalized workout to help
keep their interest high and their workouts productive. Its also an affordable
solution for people who see you once or twice a month in person and want the
support throughout the month.
During the initial contact with clients, inform them that the first session begins
with a phone (or in person if possible) consultation, which includes a review of
the clients history, preferences as well as developing the plan and committing to
goals. For those who are within driving distance (as a majority of my online
clients are) you can also schedule a fitness assessment. Of course, these
services should be billed accordingly.
At the initial consultation you will assess the new clients needs and determine
what other services and products would be beneficial to help them meet their
goals. For example:
Be prepared to suggest affiliate programs and referrals that tie back into
your business. Those recommendations can bring you additional income.
Possibilities for affiliate programs include heart rate monitors, water filters,
books, videos, exercise equipment, supplements and the like.
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Suggest a 30-minute phone consultation on a recurring basis. For some
clients, every other week is sufficient while others will need more frequentsupport, and a few will be fine with a monthly coaching session by phone.
Create support material for your online training programs. For example,
produce simple exercise videos of yourself demonstrating exercises that
would be appropriate for most beginners. Another video might model a
lower body routine for women or an advanced core routine. Clients will
buy your products as gifts or to enhance their own programs.
Videotape yourself giving presentations in your community on topics
ranging from the facts and myths about weight loss to mastering health-
wise grocery shopping. Make these tapes available for purchase.
Here are some other ways to generate cash from your online training site:
Provide online clients with a monthly membership upgrade, which includes
getting answers to up to four of their questions per month via e-mail. Ive
not had a single person take full advantage of this; in fact most rarely use
this benefit.
Develop an informative online newsletter featuring video clips of new
exercises, a recipe of the month and highlights from your success stories.
Allow clients to access your library of articles in a members only section.
Offer online training as an upgrade to your health club membership,
allowing members the ability to ask x number of e-mail questions
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monthly and receive one new customized workout a month. This is a
great way for trainers to fill down time by supporting members online, andI believe that extra touch ultimately contributes to member retention.
What will it cost me?
Its relatively inexpensive to get an online training business started. Your first
client-of-the-month should cover the cost of your subscription to most online
training programs like Fitness Generator or Hi Tech Trainer. You wont even
need your own web site because most programs will provide your own home
page. But if you prefer your own website, www.websitesfortrainers.com
provides templates, a library of images and support to get you started.
To assure a steady income flow, set up all your on-line clients for recurring
monthly memberships that can be cancelled at any time. Charge for your time in
30-minute increments, based on your typical personal training fees.
Include your web page and highlight your online training business in all of your
marketing and promotion efforts.
The next time youre in a supermarket or restaurant and you see someone
pounding away at her cell phone or PDA to calculate her Weight Watchers
points or to count calories, its a sure sign that therell never be a shortage of
prospects out there for your online business.
Rest assured that in 2006 and beyond, dieters will continue to be confused, the
number of gastric bypass surgeries will soar to new highs, the demand for over-
the-counter appetite suppressants will continue to grow, and medical weight loss
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programs will be more aggressively marketed. Its up to personal trainers to bail
Americans out of the fat trap, and online training is one way for us to make thebest use of our time and reach more people in our communities and around the
world.
If youd like more information on how to build a successful online personal
training business, I have a few other resources available:
Online Personal Trainer Success - Audio CD
ISSA Personal Fitness Coaching CEC Course
http://calabreseconsulting.com/fitness_store_online_training.html .
All of these tools will empower you with additional knowledge you can use tomake your online personal training business a success.
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Chapter 3 - The Business of Fitness
By Pat Rigsby of www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com
Early on in my fitness career I was yearning to own my own business, but I didnt
have any idea where to start. I was browsing around the local bookstore looking for
something that might provide me a little direction when the by-line of a book caught
my eye: Why Most Small Businesses Dont Work And What To Do About It. Little
did I know that I had stumbled across what would become the most influential
business book I had ever read, The E-Mythby Michael E. Gerber.
If youve not had the good fortune to read this book, I urge you to go pick it up
immediately, but in the mean time let me share with you excerpts from that very
important book, and I quote:
The technical work of a business and the business that does the technical work
are two totally different things. But the Technician who starts a business fails to see
this and that is the root cause of most business failures.
The carpenter becomes a contractor. The barber opens a barbershop. The
technical writer opens a technical writing business. The hairdresser starts a beauty
salon. The engineer goes into the semiconductor business. The musician opens a
music store. All of them believing that because they understand the technical sideof the business they are qualified to run a business that does that kind of work.
Not true!
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Forty percent of start-up businesses fail within the first year. Within five years 80
percent will have failed and of those that survive those first five years 80 percent
will fail within ten years.
Most businesses are operated according to what the owner wants rather what the
business needs. And so you work. Ten, twelve, fourteen hours day. Seven days a
week. Youre consumed by it; totally invested in doing whatever is needed to keep it
alive. But youre not only doing the work you know how to do but also the work you
dont know how to do. You are not only making it; youre also buying, selling,
shipping it. You are a master juggler keeping all the balls in the air.
Its easy to spot the Technicians business. If you removed the owner from the
business there would be no business left. The owner and the business are one
and the same thing
You dont own a business. You own a job.
IBM, McDonalds and Procter & Gamble did not end up as mature businesses. They
started out that way. Tom Watson, the founder of IBM said, I had a very clear
picture in mind of what the business would look like when it was finally done. You
might say I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream - my
vision was in place.
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based on past experience - the model of work exactly the opposite of what is
needed if the business is to free him from work.
The Entrepreneurial model has less to do with whats done in the business and
more to do with how its done. It looks at a business as if it were a product sitting on
a shelf competing for the consumers attention against a whole shelf of competing
businesses.
The Entrepreneurial model does not start with a picture of a business to be created
but of the customer for who the business is to be created. Without a clear picture of
the customer no business can succeed.
The Technical business however, is designed to satisfy the Technician not
the customer. To the Entrepreneur the business is the product.
Think of your business as anything but a job! Go to work on your business
rather than in it and ask yourself the following questions:
How can I get my business to work without me?
How can I get my people to work without my constant interference?
How can I systemize my business in such a way that it could be replicated 500
times so that 500thruns as smoothly as the first?
How can I own the business but still be free of it?
How can I spend my time doing the work I love to do rather than the work I
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that will live or die according to how well it performs its sole function to find
and keep clients.
I knowIve thrown a lot at you in just a few paragraphs. For many fitness
professionals this is a complete shift in mindset. Most fitness professionals
cant imagine even delegating clients to other trainers assuming that no one
can do the job as well as I can. So what Im asking you to do is really
consider the long range goals you have for your business. Start with the
following questions:
If youre 30 years old now, do you plan on training clients at age 60?
If not, what is your exit strategy? Do you have one?
What is your business worth without you?
Could you sell it if you wanted to?
Take some time and come up with your honest answers. Then, if youre not
satisfied with what you discovered, utilize some of the concepts and principles
Ive provided and look for ways to engineer your business around them. Youll
soon find yourself in a situation where your schedule is more flexible, you dont
feel guilty for catching the flu or going on vacation and you have peace of mind
that your employees are providing consistent, quality service.
If you dont have any employees, approach it in the same exact fashion so that
when the day comes that you want to add one (or more), the transition is
seamless. Document and organize your systems and your methods and
before you know it youll have a business that you own instead of one that
owns you.
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Chapter 4 - Secrets of Effective Lead Generation for
Fitness Professionals
By Eric Ruth of www.HowToSellFitness.com
Imagine for a moment that you have a list containing the phone numbers, home
addresses and email addresses of 5,000 people in your local area who can
afford your services and have an interest in improving their health and fitness.
Imagine that all 5,000 of those people know who you are and what you do.
Imagine that they all not only know you, but also like you and trust you. They
open and read your emails and letters, and respect what you have to say.
Would your business be more fun and more profitable if that were the case?
Would the struggle to find new clients be over if you had a house list like that
a list you could market to consistently and frequently with very little cost a
highly responsive list of your ideal prospects all in need of your solution?
Obviously, the answer to both those questions is YES!
The information in this chapter is designed to show you how to build that list.
The information in this chapter is designed to teach you how to have a fun and
profitable business. And the information in this chapter reveals what is far and
away the most important business/lifestyle improvement strategy you will ever be
exposed to: Lead Generation.
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What Is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is a strategy for developing your very ownpersonal
marketplacethat holds you up as the preferred choice, the obvious expert, the
health and fitness guru.
The goal of lead generation is to leverage media (direct mail, email, telephone,
space advertising, seminars, web site, business cards, flyers, publicity, radio,
television, etc.) to get every person in your local area (or globally) who has an
interest in your particular solution to raise their hand indicating that interest.
Why Should You Use Lead Generation?
The list is king. When you develop your own house list of prospects, you can
communicate with them whenever you choose and however you choose.
Marketing is about communication. The better you become at communicating
your uniqueness in a compelling way, the more business you will get. But you
cant communicate if you have no one with whom to communicate. And you
communications will carry so much more weight, so much more power and be so
much more effective when they are received by people who:
1. Have an interest in what you offer.
2. Know, like and trust you as a credible source.
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Capturing Leads
In order to effectively generate leads, you must have a mechanism for capturing
them. In the example above you would be using your website. On your web site,
prominently placed somewhere near the top of the page, would be an opt-in form
(where you request the first name and email address) the visitor could complete
to gain access to your special report.
When the visitor completes the form they are automatically taken to a page on
your site with the free report, or automatically sent an autoresponder emailmessage containing the report (possibly broken down into multiple emails an
email mini-course), or the email may have the report attached in the form of a
PDF.
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This Is Not Just About Advertising
The example Ive provided so far illustrates how to generate leads from space
advertising. Thats just one of many, many ways you can use this strategy. Lead
generation can and should become your primary marketing strategy, regardless
of what media you use to get the word out about your services. Here are more
examples:
Telephone: Almost nobody does this right. The telephone is your primary
marketing tool, but very few people use it properly for lead generation.
Every time someone calls your office/club/studio, you (or your assistant)
MUST capture their contact information. As you know, the lions share of
incoming phone calls are not from folks who are ready to buy. Most have
questions. If you just give them answers over the phone and then hang
up, youve forever lost the chance to continue marketing to them (unless
they call back). So, when the call comes in from a prospect, regardless of
the question being asked, your answer should be something like, Thats a
great question, Mrs. Jones. Theres lots of things to consider when hiring
a personal trainer (joining a club, etc.), so its great that youre doing your
homework. What Id like to do is send you out a complete information
package on our services, providing you with all the details you need to
know to make an informed decision. Included in that package is also a
special report revealing the 7 biggest mistakes people make when hiring a
personal trainer (joining a club), and how you can avoid them. All I needis your mailing address and Ill get that out to you today. Bang! Youve
captured the lead.
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Chapter 5 - Establishing a Lucrative Niche in the Fitness
Industry
An Interview With Bill Hartman of www.yourgoffitnesscoach.com
PR This is Pat Rigsby and I am here with Bill Hartman, the owner of Your Golf
Fitness Coach and you can find that at www.yourgolffitnesscoach.com.
Bill is the leading golf fitness professional in the country and has an extensive
background in the fitness industry as a whole. He is one of the countrys
most sought after speakers on fitness as it relates to golf. You can find him inthe pages of Mens Health, Mens Fitness and a number of other publications.
Bill could you go ahead and tell the readers a little more about yourself?
BH Ive been a physical therapist for the last 15 years or so and been in the
fitness industry longer than that because that was one of the ways I worked
my way through college was working in gyms and doing some personal
training. Im an active release practitioner, which is a pretty sought after soft
tissue technique that resolves a lot of the overuse syndromes that people
experience and also increases performance. Im also a USA Weightlifting
Sports Performance Coach. I sit on the Board of Directors for the IYCA and
contributed a chapter on the Practical Application of Strength and Power
Development. I am a published author. I wrote a book called The Muscle
Prescription with Adam Campbell and that is available at
www.musclestuff.com. I have a joint venture with Eric Ruth that a lot of
people might be familiar with especially if they are familiar with your joint
venture that you did with Eric recently which was excellent by the way. As
you mentioned, Im also a regular contributor to Mens Health Magazine and
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have appeared in Golf Week, Golf World, Jersey Golfer, and Mens Fitness.
Basically, Im just trying to stay busy.
PR Thats an understatement. What we want to talk about today is one of the
ways that a fitness professional can really grow their business and create a
lucrative opportunity for themselves by finding a certain segment of the
market or a niche, so to speak, and really capitalizing on that. When I was
putting the list of authors together and knew we wanted to touch on this, you
were obviously the first person to come to mind because you have totally
maximized that golf fitness niche. You now, from what I gather, have clients
from all over the country coming to visit you. You speak all over the country.
So what I wanted to start with is how did you get the idea to target that
specific niche golfers?
BH It wasnt because I have a love of the game like most golfers. Actually one
of my clients was an avid golfer; he was obsessed with it and he came to me
and said I am interested in the general fitness component, but I really want to
do is improve my golf game. So at the time, I was totally uninterested in golf
as a sport or even as a component of my business. He was so excited about
it, I decided I would indulge him and actually I spent probably a good year,
year and a half developing what has evolved into the system that I use and
just studying any reference I could get a hold of and so that is basically how it
started. The hardest thing, and I talked with Eric Ruth about this at length;
the hardest thing was making that big step into sort of getting into the nicheand right now I would have to say it is smartest thing I ever did. I think the
concern with a lot of guys is they are afraid that they are going to get
pigeonholed in this one component and they will never be able to get out of it;
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PR Once again, I have kind of a passing knowledge of some of the things
youve done because its just been the model for how somebody canapproach this, but I would like to see if we could get you to expound on it. I
know that youve used publicity to help you as far as press releases and such
to market this. How have you been able to tie in your niche market to
generating publicity?
BH Lets just talk about the press releases first because that was kind of like
the thing that sort of got me going on a national scale. I sent out a press
release, and it was very controversial. In the golf fitness realm there is a lot of
promotion of using yoga and Pilates as a component of the fitness training. I
basically went against that straight up and just said if you are doing this, you
are probably doing it wrong. That certainly got a lot of attention right away.
In fact, I sent out a press release on a Monday and Tuesday afternoon I got a
phone call from the largest golfers golf magazine. It not your typical
newsstand magazine, it is the kind the serious golfers buy. That really got the
ball rolling from a national perspective because I have shown up in that
magazine a couple of times and that has drawn clients to me from California
,Michigan, and Alabama. So the press release was really, really powerful.
Also, the same press release got me on TV locally which was a big boom to
my business as well. Thats basically where is started from a publicity
standpoint.
PR The readers of your chapter would be very prudent to hop onto yourwebsite, www.yourgolffitnesscoach.comand if they go under the your
coach section, they can find a clip of your TV interview so they see what this
has actually transpired into.
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BH The neat thing about the video clip and I dont know if anybody knows thiswhen you are talking about it from a publicity standpoint. If you have looked
on Yahoo recently, theyve got the extra link across the top where you can
look for images and videos and things. That video actually shows up in those
Yahoo links. So when you are talking about promoting yourself, if you put
those things on your website, it is a great addition from a publicity standpoint
because people come across that and then they work backwards from that
link to find you so that also helps.
PR Youve been able to parlay this into a full spectrum business where you
have products, you have a web presence, you have some passive income,
you do speaking engagements as well as the actual one-on-one training.
Could you elaborate on some of the different aspects of your business?
BH I do the one-on-one training. I do small groups. Probably by the end of the
summer I will have a brand new seminar that I am going to do that I will
charge for. Again that has shown itself to draw clients on a regular basis as
well. I highly recommend it to anybody that wants to build their business and
wants to get out and get their face in front of people and start talking to them.
The big product that I have right now is Your Golf Fitness Coachs Video
Library 1.0 that is basically a very extensive golf flexibility video. Its got four
different components to it. All of this stuff has just kind of evolved as I said
before from my development of a system that I use to train the golfers. I haveFree Reports Marketing System which I joint ventured with Eric Ruth had
been a consistent producer. Eric would tell you the same thing and I dont
think he has ever actually promoted it. He never really had to so that is a nice
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BH Absolutely. I dont think there is any doubt. Like I said before, I think youhave to. If you want to go out and compete as a general fitness personal
trainer, think about how many people are training in a general fitness setting.
So you have to have that thing that separates you from everyone else. What
makes you special; what makes you different. Obviously in my case, it is golf.
There is a guy up the street from me that all he does is train baseball players.
That is his niche, but hell see other types of clients as well but he is known as
the go-to guy for baseball. Im the go-to guy for golf. You can be anything;
you could be master of weight loss. You could be any niche that you can
think of. As long as you set yourself apart from everyone else and market
yourself as such, I think you can be infinitely successful.
PR I think if you step back from it, there are so many different niches that are
available - be it fitness for seniors or a particular sport. It could be a health
restriction, the fitness professional for diabetics.
BH It just establishes a target for you to market to and once you know that,
everything becomes very specific. For instance, since I deal with golfers, I
know where to market. I need to market near or around golf courses where
they buy their products. I need to market to the teaching professionals that
send me the clients. I need to market to the massage therapists and
chiropractors that work with golfers because they are going to need a fitness
component to their program. I think it becomes so much easier once youestablish what that specialty will be or your unique selling proposition (USP).
Once you do that everything falls into place and again you establish the target
and you market directly to the target.
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PR You mentioned before, and I think it goes without saying at this point, it isnot like golfers are the only people that youd be willing to work with but that
can become your core business. I suppose people could have two different
niches that they target to.
BH Absolutely. There is never an issue with that as long as youre not showing
up in the same place as two different specialists. I wouldnt want to create
any confusion like Im Bill Hartman, your golf fitness coach and then have that
same person see Bill Hartman, expert weight loss, because then it sort of
dilutes your specialty a little bit. But as long as you are marketing to two
separate populations specifically I think there is no problem with doing that at
all.
PR Is there anything else that you can think of that we missed, that you can
touch on?
BH Three things that I think are imperative especially when youre dealing with
a very specific population like I do. One, is to start with your sphere of
influence which are the people that you know. If there is some specialty that
you want to approach, you are going to know somebody or they are going to
know somebody that can help you get started in that niche and I think that is
where you have to start. That has worked so well for me that I think anybody
can do that. The second thing that I think is essential is establishing therelationships with non-competing professionals. For instance, the biggest
referral source that I have in training golfers, are the teaching professionals.
All I needed to do is establish a relationship with two or three very well known
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professionals in my area and once they were on my side, it was very easy to
use them as my sales force. They say, Hey, you know what, you have thisproblem with your swing, here is the guy you need to go see, and they come
see me. And again, it is a no pressure situation for either of us. They come
to me with a need and I simply fill that need so I think those two things when
you are trying to establish your niche are essential and once you do that, it
just flows and becomes a much easier process. The third thing that I think is
essential is what I would call learning the language. In my case, golf was not
a strong interest for me at first. I had to learn the language of golf, so I could
communicate with my clientele and my marketing targets. Immerse yourself
in your niche for sufficient period of time to where you feel comfortable w