Active Management

Category: Management

You’re Invited To Apply For The Personal Trainers Roundtable If . . .
You Want To Strengthen Your PT Business

The Personal Trainers Roundtable is a group of business owners who want to:
- Increase the number of clients they have
- Increase their profitability
- Work less hours
- Learn from their peers
- Get support from people who go through the same business challenges
- Stay ahead of their competitors
- Increase their knowledge on best business practices
- And be part of a world wide network of fitness business owners.
And with only limited numbers on a roundtable, now is your opportunity to join this exclusive group. The PT Roundtable has a variety of PT businesses from studios to outdoor to mobile and they welcome a limited number of new members.

We compare each other’s numbers, look at marketing, explore retention and share innovations and winning strategies – all in a collaborative and supportive environment.

Yes there is an investment to attend: less then what a client pays once a week for a PT session with you! And I guarantee that every meeting you will get at least one idea to keep a client longer and get new clients. The return on investment will be there in dollars and also in emotional return. You will leave every meeting motivated, focused and feeling part of a supportive group who care about you and your business.

Being a sole trader PT can be lonely. It can lead to sleepless nights as you worry about different aspects of the business. The Roundtable is an amazing support mechanism. Your peers are there to help you through thick and thin.

There is nothing like the PT Roundtable in Australia!

The final component of the meetings is the education, experience and value from me. I am the facilitator of the Roundtable and after 28 years in the fitness industry, running roundtables for clubs and PTs for 11 years and travelling the world looking at business models, I bring a wealth of knowledge to the table for you to tap into.

There are limited spaces on the Roundtable, so if you are interested in strengthening your business, having an improved work life balance and connecting with other PT entrepreneurs then call me today on 02 9484 5501 or email me [email protected].
May 30, 2016
Surviving the Disruption

Around the world trying to survive the disruption from 24 hour gyms, Crossfit and increased competition is a major challenge for Club owners. So how does someone keep profit increasing? How do I stay different? How do I find out what to do?

In any competitive market there are those that not only survive but thrive. They are the hard working heroes that have been an ‘overnight success’. ‘Success leaves clues’ and these people are the clues us average folk need to look to.

Mark Fisher is one such story. Like us all he started on his own reaching the dream of building a Club with 25 Trainers, 700+ Members and a $3m+ turnover within three years, now changing so many people’s lives he never runs out of friends.

In his own words ‘Mark Fisher, deep in his heart of hearts, (is) a ridiculous human.

Mark Fisher has created his own style. You too need to create a business, offer and culture that is true to yourself. But you don’t have to ‘re-invent the wheel’.

In the world of business, R&D can double as ‘rip-off and duplicate’. I’m not suggesting you R&D anyone or anything. But you need to look for answers. You need to find where success exists then immerse yourself in that success as much as you can. Visit the Clubs, smell, breathe, listen to everything about success. Ask questions of everyone around that success, spend time to understand what makes it live and breathe. Then you will know how to make success work and you can put your own stamp on it.

The Business of Fitness 2016 USA Study Tour – Atlanta-Boston-New York, from 28 August, 2016 – 2 September 2016, is an exclusive opportunity for 20 Club Owners from around the world to immerse themselves in successful Clubs. Get inside, workout and question the owners of some of the Top 10 Clubs in America. For one week you can experience how successful Clubs are beating the competition and how they are different to your own Club. This will give you the answers on growing profit and staying unique.

Written by David Flanagan, Director of Freestyle Health, leading the USA Study Tour. See www.freestylehealth.net

May 19, 2016
See Inside 1Rebel UK
The 1Rebel studio I visited was at Broadgate in London on Sunday morning last year for a combination workout of treadmill and strength training. Since then, they have opened a second studio, done some crowd funding, and upped their exercise offerings with boxing and indoor cycling.

Who is 1Rebel?

Taken directly from their website:

“We’re revolutionising London’s fitness industry. With centrally located, no-contract ‘pay-as-you-train’ boutiques, we’re ditching the tired model and building destinations, not just gyms. Highly intense fitness sessions against a backdrop of live entertainment. Bespoke playlists curated and mixed by internationally acclaimed DJs. Engineered layouts that inspire and motivate.

Our boutiques are built to a balance of beauty and function, with spacious changing facilities fully stocked with top-end grooming and skincare products, sports-luxe retail fashion zones and a post-grind workout courtesy of Roots & Bulbs’ cold-pressed juice bar. Everything we do makes it easier for you to sweat harder.”

What I Love About 1Rebel

I love the My Trainer videos on the 1Rebel You Tube channel. They are raw, honest, personal and amazingly authentic. Something every club could do easily. Check out Esmee’s . .

My Experience At 1Rebel

After my experience I would agree with the website description – except there was no live DJ on my Sunday morning.

I was really impressed with the branding of the club. It was super consistent and also very cool. I loved the exposed hot water pipes in the showers, the barber’s chair in the change rooms and the lighting throughout.

I loved the purpose built 1Rebel benches we did the workouts on. These were awesome and so clever.

The class was fun and the teacher I would rate as:
- Entertainer – 5/10
- Coach – 6/10
- Instructor – 7/10
I felt she had minimal engagement with the class. Although in saying that there were a group of Nike employees in the class and I felt they didn’t want to be there, so she was getting nothing (no energy) back from the rest of the class and she had to focus on teaching them how to do the exercises.

The front desk team was pleasant but didn’t really engage in conversation. There was neither sales pitch nor encouragement to come back for another class. I guess on a Sunday morning they may have felt their job was just about smiling and making the customer feel welcome.

Since my workout, I am on the email list from 1Rebel. I think they let themselves down here a little. There is no consistency in when they arrive which must have an impact on their sales. Nevertheless, they are good: great layout; easy to read; and an excellent overview of what’s going on in the studio.

My summary:
- Online booking – 7/10
- Branding – 9/10
- Workout experience – 8/10
- Service experience – 5/10
- Ongoing communication – 6/10
- Chances I would return for another workout – 9/10
Note – I paid £20 for the visit and these are my personal experiences on the day of workout.

To see inside 1Rebel with JT’s eyes, become an Active Management Member for as little as 24.90 a year.

Become A Member Now

Already a member? Click here to login
May 12, 2016
Sharpen Your Group Fitness Manager’s Leadership Skills
The Group Fitness Managers Roundtable will launch on Friday 7th October with the first meeting being held in Sydney. It is the most exciting new opportunity to develop the skills of your group fitness manager in Australia.

As a former club owner I experienced first hand the challenges of the group fitness team. They were a tough team to manage; have them engage with the club culture; and most importantly retain. I have also seen many instructors promoted to “GFM” as they were the best instructor or the person who had the most time.

Your group fitness program is critical to generating leads, closing sales and keeping your members. Which in my opinion means the GFM is as important as a sales person in your club and the sales people often get the training love from us. Not any more . . .

We have developed Australia’s first and only Group Fitness Managers Roundtable.

The concept of a Roundtable is very simple: the same non-competing group fitness managers from across the country meet for a full day, twice a year, build trust and delve into the management, successes and failures of their departments. They will receive out of industry education on building teams at every meeting; opportunities for them to ask their peers questions and support their fellow GFM’s with their experiences. We will share participation numbers and learn why some classes ‘fly’ and others ‘bomb.’ And all professionally facilitated.

Your GFM will utilise the power of their Roundtable to hold themselves accountable. Perhaps more importantly they can tap in to the knowledge and experience of others to #STRENGTHEN their own skills, your program and your group fitness team.

Where Did Roundtables Come From?

After seeing the incredible advantages of being a Roundtable member for 15 years, in 2006, I launched the Industry Leaders Roundtable for club owners. This has grown to now 3 PT Roundtables, 1 Anytime Fitness franchisee table in Australia and the 3 in the US. We are continually tinkering with the model to ensure maximum learning, engagement, implementation and trust. If you are interested in knowing more about the Club Owners Roundtable drop JT an email.

Six months ago Leisl Klaebe, one of Australia’s most successful GFM’s told me, “I want to help GFM’s, can we run a coaching program for them.” I think Leisl was thinking a product like ‘business coaching for GFM’s.’ However, after a decade of seeing the power of peer to peer education, I knew a Roundtable would be JUST what GFM’s need to sharpen their management sword!

Who Is Leisl?

When I first met her, I could see she was an inspirational leader, passionate and and energetic person. She had a high emotional intelligence and was someone striving to improve and learn herself. One of her strong values is her belief in leadership and the important role this plays in teams.

As the GFM at Macquarie University Sport, she set record attendances for group fitness 4 years running, successfully attracting over 117,000 member attendances through Macquarie University Sport’s group fitness program in 2015. More importantly, she had a line of instructors wanting to work in her team and an amazing retention of instructors.

I will be working closely with Leisl. The Group Fitness Managers will receive educational material from our parent company REX Roundtables in the US as well as what the Australian Industry Leaders Roundtable receive.

This GFM Roundtable is Leisl’s group that together will set new industry standards on leading group fitness teams.

The Roundtable Launch

In establishing the Group Fitness Managers Roundtable, this will be the only time that it will be advertised. If you do not join the first meeting, you can only by be invited by a current member to join.

There will be no competitors allowed to join. If 2 GFM’s from the same suburb want to join, the first to commit to joining will determine if the second person can join.

You must understand from the outset that this is not a one off meeting. You are joining an elite team of GFM’s from around Australia who truly want to better themselves and have a better team.

Can Your GFM?

For the Roundtable to be successful and for your GFM to gain maximum value, they must:
- Be open to ideas. Every meeting new ideas will be shared that may challenge or further support how your group fitness team is led or operated.
- Be prepared to share. Every meeting your GFM will be asked to share successes and failures so we can learn from them and ensure they don’t happen again for any of the Roundtable.
- Keep their mouth shut! The core essence of a successful Roundtable is confidentiality – which is why no competitors are allowed on the Roundtable. Your GFM will hear things and the only person they can tell is you! This means you will also need to abide by the same confidentiality agreement.
- Come prepared. Each meeting your GFM will be able to add agenda items to discuss as will the other members. This means there is an expectation that your GFM will have thought about their fellow members issues to be able to provide quality feedback.
If your GFM ticks these boxes, then they can apply to join the GFM Roundtable.

Your Investment

The first meeting investment is 299 (plus GST) and if you continue as a member will then be 99.95 per fortnight, with a 5% increase on the 1st February every year. Your only other cost is getting to the meeting!

The First Meeting:
- 8am to 4pm
- Friday 7th October
- Sydney
- Venue – TBC. If we have a number of interstate members, then the meeting will be close or at the airport. If the majority are NSW based then somewhere cool and funky in Sydney!
What Now?
- Move Fast. There are a maximum of 15 places on the GFM Roundtable and with no competitors allowed, you need to make a decision fast if you want to professional develop your GFM. FYI – we already have 25 enquiries!
- You Want To Come. Then tell us you want to come. Click here to book your spot.
- Not Sure? We can have Leisl or myself give you a buzz to chat more about the program. Click here to make a time for one of us to buzz you.
- Not Interested. No worries at all, just thought we’d let you know!
I know that GFM leadership development has never been a priority for many clubs. I also know the clubs that invest in their GFM’s keep them longer and have stronger programs. So for less than the investment of 2 memberships, you will be improving a key aspect of your business and enhancing a key person in your business.

If you have any questions or want to chat, call me 02 9484 5501.

Book Your Spot On The GFM Roundtable
May 6, 2016
Finding That Extra Time In Your Week
When you hit a crisis or a special event it is amazing that you can find the time to tackle it. Almost from nowhere, you put together a few hours to problem solve. However, in a normal week (ie crisis free) those hours are often buried and never seen in unnecessary interruptions, meetings, and perhaps even general inefficiencies.

Don’t wait for the next emergency, find the time now with these two ways to regain wasted time:
- Analyse Your Calendar – Look back at the last 30 days and see if there was any time wasting. Now look forward 30 days and make the decision today to eliminate any time wasting meetings or catch ups that will not have any consequence if you are in attendance.
- Ask For Help – Check with your Team, as many time wasting activities are invisible to us. So check with your team and see if they can suggest anything you could stop doing or meetings you don’t need to attend.
You could take about 2 to 4 hours a week with some careful thinking.
May 3, 2016
#2 Reason To Become A Member: Gym Photos From Around The Globe

If you ever needed convincing to be an Active Management Member, here it is: Once every 2 weeks, we will post photos of a gym somewhere around the globe!

We’ll include their website and photos of reception, change rooms, gym floor, and internal marketing. And the ONLY place you’ll see it . . . at the NEW Member Hub!

If you’d like to access the photos and much more, become a member now!

Become A Member Now

April 21, 2016
Ann Handley From MarketingProfs Challenged Industry Leaders at #IHRSA2016
Thanks to Meredith Poppler, I got to sneak into the IHRSA Industry Leaders Council special presentation by Ann Handley from MarketingProfs. And I am SO grateful as this was a hi-light of #IHRSA2016 for me.

Here are just some of the pearls of wisdom that Ann shared on marketing in the new world that we live in . . .

Lets start where Ann finished:

Ann kicked off her presentation by saying that many industries (especially the fitness industry) was too safe in it’s marketing. She believes this is a missed opportunity.

Interestingly, she re-iterated Jay Baer’s comments from the morning (click here to see my blog on Jay’s presentation) that we cannot keep yelling at our customer and calling that marketing. We must be useful to our audience.

She said we must provide engaging content. I would suggest music to the ears of many business owners was “It is more about the best brains than the biggest budget” now in marketing. You just need content that will create engagement.

77% of business to consumer organisations plan to produce more content in 2016 and 50% plan to spend more on content in this year.

Use your big story to convert people to your tribe (or as Ann said: Squad). Your story is what makes you unique. This uniqueness will help create content that is deep and broad for your audience.

When you give deep value to your customers, you make them smarter. This means the new marketing is “training.”

In marketing, answer these 4 questions:
1. WHO do you want to reach?
2. WHAT value are you going to give them?
3. WHY is that important to them?
4. WHAT do you want them to do next?
Smart companies don’t follow shifts in culture, they lead them.

A great example of someone being bold in marketing is Bill from Slack. It is an example of a new way to explain reality.

The voice you use in your marketing reflects your culture, amplifies your story and communicated with empathy to the people you want to reach. So (but remember the laws of multiplication – if one of the factors is 0 then the answer will be zero!)

A tough voice in marketing is your gutsiest and bravest asset.

Are you refining and evolving your content based on customer and internal feedback.

Your customer must be the hero on your story. So tell stories of relatable influencers. And most importantly your story must be different to your competitors with a specific point of view.

Challenge: can you say who you are in 3 words? Then describe yourself? Then how you achieve that?

New acronym for your marketing:

How to evaluate your marketing, is ask this simple question:

To get Ann’s book click here:

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The IHRSA Industry Leadership Council

The Industry Leadership Council is a group of club operators and industry professionals — competitors and friends, independent clubs and large chains, franchisors and franchisees, individuals and suppliers— who work together, contributing time, expertise and funds, so that IHRSA and the industry have the resources needed to achieve common goals. For more information click here
April 19, 2016
4 Toxic Beliefs To Stop Your Success
As a business owner or manager doubt often stalls our progress. The best leaders know how to rid themselves of these negative thoughts:
1. The only person you can control is yourself. Stop blaming others when the tough gets going.
2. You have the same amount of time as everyone else. Could you be working as efficiently and quickly as possible?
3. Change your thinking that money will be your reward, not the driver for exceptional effort.
4. You are special, so put the effort in to see where your exceptional skills lay.
March 31, 2016
Capture Your BIG Ideas In Simple Ways
Don’t rely on your memory! There is too much going on in your head to keep track of everything PLUS your new ideas. Here are 3 tools to help:
1. Notes App on your phone. That little yellow icon on your phone or iPad is a great tool for just jotting down ideas when they come to you. You don’t have to embellish them, just get them down to work on later.
2. Voice recorder. Again on your phone there are 100’s of voice recorder apps you can use, so use one. When you get an idea just hit record and start thinking out loud!
3. Mind mapping. Every great idea needs to to be mapped out and the old school method of coloured textas and paper works like a treat to brain dump ideas and flow charts.
March 22, 2016
Do You Have The Pain Of An Average Fitness Business Owner?
No one ever likes to be called ‘average’ but lets see how you go with these 4 questions:
- What is on your wish list (not including business goals) for you?
- What gives you sleepless nights?
- What do you consider threatening to your business?
- What would you do with more energy, money or education?
What were your answers?

In November we asked members of the Active Tribe – club owners and managers who attended FitnessBiz brunches and webinars; and members of Active Management – these exact questions and their top 4 answers were:

What is on your wish list?
1. Travel more
2. Spend more time with family
3. Financial security
4. Better work life balance
What gives you sleepless nights?
1. Money
2. Personal health
3. Spending time on what’s important
4. Family health & happiness
Threats to the business?
1. Competition
2. Staffing
3. Cowboys in the industry
4. Lack of consumer education
With more energy, money or education?
1. Conduct more staff training
2. Renovate
3. Understand & use digital marketing
4. Develop online revenue stream
Across all 4 questions, there was an under current of improved work life balance, developing staff, being able to focus on what’s important in the business and marketing in the new age.

Did your answers match these?

If they did, then maybe we can help. We have improved the Active Management membership program to help you improve what’s important to you. The new Membership 2.0 will tick these boxes and more for you. Check out everything that is included and see if these resources help:
- A worldwide forum to discuss weekly fitness industry news;
- A book club to share insights from fellow fitness business owners;
- 9 pre recorded webinars to help in staff training;
- 5 ebooks to help your own knowledge and your teams;
- Over 300 social media posts that will guarantee engagement on your social platforms;
- Marketing templates ready for your logo or to stimulate your own ideas – including thank you cards, birthday cards, reactivation campaigns & more;
- Management reports to enhance your leadership skills;
- Monthly professional development videos to make growing your skills convenient as you can watch them when it suits and repeatedly;
- Powerful Insights monthly magazine where you learn best practices from industry leaders;
- Access to Ninjas – world experts to help your business – as they educate and are online to answer your questions;
- And more coming every month!
There is already over $5K worth of resources here for you at your finger tips! This is what the average fitness business owner wanted and we are delivering it plus more.

No matter where in the world you are, your investment to become an Active Management member is less than the two cups of coffee a week that you’ll drink while visiting the Member Hub twice a week for your professional development fix! Get started now…

Become A Member Now
March 18, 2016