Tag: fitness industry

The most common saying in marketing these days is ‘content is king.’  And if that is the case then ‘colour of your content is queen.’  You can use colour to stop your fans scrolling past your post on Instagram, stop and read your Facebook post, or even take a detour and walk into your facility to find out more about you.

Today I’m going to share some secrets to colour!

What is your favourite colour?  Whether you are watching live or on replay tell me in the comments below and shortly I’ll share what that colour may mean in the conversion psychology.

Welcome to #JTInTheRaw show 68 where I chew the thin on business and I coming to you 3 hours later than usual!  This is because I have just arrived at Dallas Airport from Mexico City.

This week has been a very exciting week for me as I delivered the key note presentation to open the 4^th Annual Mercado Fitness-IHRSA conference in South America.  This was my 309^th presentation and my second key note.

My presentation was around leading teams in today’s competitive environment.  I shared:

• 2 responsibilities all leaders have to differentiate them from their competitors;
• 4 ways to lead the magical millennials;
• And 7 common behaviours of the world’s best business leaders

And from the new LinkedIn connections I received overnight, I think they liked my presentation.

I then returned in the afternoon to do a 2-and-a-half-hour workshop for on-boarding members for long term loyalty.  I used the basis of my ebook: How To Build Long Term Loyalty Through Your On-Boarding to build the workshop and from the looks on the faces my message resonated.

If you would like to know what I spoke about, you can grab my ebook: How To Build Long Term Loyalty Through Your On-Boarding by clicking here.

Of course, on my way to the conference, I stopped by Soul Cycle and Barry’s Bootcamp in LA for a couple of workouts.  As always great sessions and awesome experiences.  These two brands really get creating something special from when you walk through the door.

Shout Out

Not surprising my shout out goes to the teams at Mercado Fitness and IHRSA for inviting me to speak.  Thanks to Guillermo, Jose, Jacqueline, Jay and Alison.  I am truly grateful for this opportunity.

Thank you.

Colour Is The Queen Of Content

So today, I want to talk about colour!  Remember the question for the day is what is your favourite colour and whether you are watching live or on replay pop your fav colour in the comments below and I’ll let you know what that may mean shortly.

At the Industry Leaders Roundtable two weeks ago, we discussed why Barry’s Bootcamp would have red lights in their studios.  And why everything about Orange Theory is orange.  Surely, the colours must mean something!  I did some research and want to share my learning with you.

Firstly, businesses are taking advantage of colour psychology by using the colours in their visuals to subliminally cement their brand personality in the mind of their audience and market to them.

You must now think that your choice of colour is critical when creating content.  The colours form the first impressions of the content. And we all know this first impression is crucial and could be the difference between the user interacting with the post or continuing to scroll.

Remember, your fav colour in the comments go . . . because here comes what the most common colours mean.

Blue is associated with security and is used to help promote trust within a brand. When using a shade of blue it can have a very calming quality and may even stimulate productivity.

Yellow is used to increased positivity, optimism and cheerfulness. It can often promote enthusiasm for your service or product.

Orange will also lead to optimism and cheerfulness, similar to yellow.  The negative to orange thought is it can indicate a warning and anxiety if used too frequently.

Red is creates urgency, which is why you see it with any signs promoting sales.  Believe it or not it is known to encourage appetite and raise blood pressure! And not surprisingly red is linked to passionate and excited feelings.

Purple is rumoured to be used by sexually frustrated people but I think this is an old wives tale.  When used in branding, purple represents a creative and imaginative brand.  This is because it stimulates the problem-solving area of the brain!

Green is the corporate colour of Active Management, chosen years based on no research but this made me feel good! Green has very strong links to health, nature and growth.  Most exciting for me it is sometimes stumlates wealth. Green shares similar calming properties to blue and also stimulates harmony which leads to decisiveness.  I guess that means we will keep using green at Active Management and on The Fitness Business Podcast.

For the fitness business owners watching today, your goal is to build trust with prospects with your content.  Perhaps consider increasing the amount of blues and greens in your content posts.  Remember, these will help trigger thoughts of trust, health and wellbeing.

If you know anyone who could benefit from learning a little about the colours they should be using in their marketing, I’d be very grateful if you would share today’s show with them.  You can simply tag them by putting their name in the comments.  Thank you in advance for sharing.

This Week

In a couple of hours, I head home ready for a super exciting week:

• Monday I have a meeting at my rugby club as I explore with our General Manager our membership structure and marketing.
• Tuesday is the first strategic planning meeting with Chantal from the Fitness Business Podcast as we ask ourselves, “How can we increase engagement with our listeners.” If you have any ideas, pop them in the comments.
• Wednesday I am speaking at the Debit Success Masterclass in Melbourne. I am delivering 2 sessions: Around the fitness business world in 60 minutes and the behaviours of the modern-day consumer that are affecting your fitness business.
• Thursday I have half a day with the personal trainers of Ignite Health Club as we unlock getting more clients doing personal training with some simple communication strategies – like not asking for sex on the first date!
• And then Friday I am coaching clients that I had to reschedule from this week.

This is an unusually busy week of face to face activity for me – which I love! Far more stimulating than spending it in the office!  But if you’d like to have a chat with me about how I can help your business, I’ll make time for you!  You can click here to book a time for us to chat.

Thank you for joining me today for #JTInTheRaw show 68 live from Dallas Airport!  I hope you learned something about how important the colours you use are in the buying psychology.

Remember:

• If you want a copy of the ebook How To Build Long Term Loyalty Through Your On-Boarding click here.
• If you want to have a chat with how I can help your fitness business, then click here and you can schedule a time.

Quote of The Week

You can use colour psychology in your visuals to cement your brand personality and build trust with your market. Choose wisely.

 

 

 

Do you want to work one on one with JT?

Check out all previous shows here: http://www.activemgmt.com.au/category/jt-in-the-raw/

This week after an awesome Club Owners Industry Leaders Roundtable, I focus on what your business can gain from turning the mirror on operations, sales and service.

Enjoy the show and feel free to share!

 

Do you want to work one on one with JT?

Check out all previous shows here: http://www.activemgmt.com.au/category/jt-in-the-raw/

After 12 months of training I am running in the Melbourne Marathon this weekend.  All my training has given me hours of marathon preparation with running a business. I’m going to share what these 7 tips in developing your business mean.

1. Preparation
2. Mindset
3. Work on your strengths and weaknesses
4. Race pace
5. Get a coach
6. Set bite size goals
7. And the holy grail: running your own race

Welcome to JTInTheRaw show 66, where I chew the thin on business in a raw unedited live show.  This is me as raw as you get coming to you live from Sydney Airport as I head to Melbourne for the week!  There is a good chance you’ll hear planes being called in the background!

And that’s a great question for today – if you could go anywhere in the world for the next week, where would you go?  Pop the location in the comments where would you like to head for the next 7 days.

If you are watching live or on replay, tell me in the comments below where you’d like to go.

Shout Outs

My shout out this week goes to the members of the Club Owners Industry Leaders Roundtable.  We are meeting next week in Melbourne for 3 days and while we will miss Amber, we have an awesome agenda planned.  We are going to drill deep down into these clubs social media strategies. After 2 days of thinking, talking and sharing we have a goal of identifying the best practices for social media.  If you are an independent club owner and would like to know about the Club Owners Industry Leaders Roundtable click here.

This Week In My Business

This week I was reminded yet again of Patrick Lencioni’s wonderful model for a fully functioning team.  In his book the Five Dysfunctions of a Team – a personal fave – he says that every team requires a foundation of trust.  A deep level of trust where there are no personal agendas.

This week in my business, we had some robust discussions on systems.  Trying to refine and streamline how we do things.  I trust my team implicitly!  I trust Alicia, Chantal and Stacey to make the best decisions for the business.  I see one perspective and they see another.  This means we have discussion – sometimes robust, sometimes conflict – but it is not personal.  They know I want the best for the business and us and I know they want the best for the business and us.  Because we know this we can have this conflict in order to get commitment.

Thanks Active Team for helping us get better! I am grateful to Alicia & Chantal this week for really challenging me to get better!

If you have not read this book, do yourself a favour! Grab it here.

So How Is Competing in A Fun Run Like Running A Business?

Here are my 7 lessons I learned while training for the marathon and if you like them as I go through them, then give me a thumbs up or a love heart!

Preparation – for the majority of the population if you want to perform at your best in a fun run – regardless of the length of the run – you need to train!  You need to prepare for that run.  This means training.  And if you want a successful business you need to plan and prepare.  You need to train.

Mindset – you have to believe with all your heart that you can do it.  If you have an element of doubt then you’ll finish the race in the time you want or achieve what you want from the business then you will not achieve it.  You must have a positive mindset and then infect your fellow team members and clients with your positivity!

Work on your strengths and weaknesses equally – Often in business we focus on improving our weaknesses.  This can impact morale as it can be challenging to see or feel improvements when we constantly focus on weaknesses.  What we know is that if we work equally on our strengths and our weaknesses BOTH will improve.

Know Your Race pace – To achieve your goal time, you need to know what numbers you need to run.  You have to know your splits.  You have to know if you are in front or behind your target time – whether racing or in training. Numbers do not lie and they will determine your final result.  And when running, you have to hit those numbers and do what is humanly possible to hit those numbers! All successful businesses are run by numbers.

Set bite size goals – You’ve probably heard the way to eat an elephant – chunk by chunk. No matter the project you want to achieve in business break it down to small bite size chunks and tick them off as you achieve them.  This will create momentum and energy to keep driving you to finish.

Get a coach – I could not be running this Sunday without expert help.  Thanks to my personal trainer who is an expert in marathon training, I am confident to attack this marathon.  I am physically, mentally and emotionally prepared.  And that’s what a coach does.  They prepare you to do the best you can!  Now my point here is I wanted to run a marathon, so I had a marathon coach.  I didn’t employ a yoga guru or a weight loss expert.  And when you identify the area of your business that you want to work on, you find an expert coach in that area.  This may mean you have several different coaches in your business life, which is OK and remember I am a business coach!

And the holy grail: running your own race – This weekend my coach and I have discussed my race plan.  We have a strategy for the race, as you may have a business plan.  My challenge based on one marathon previously is that I get caught up in the ‘race’ and I focus on the people around me.  I worry about how fast they’re running.  In business, it is also very easy to focus on our competitors and lose complete focus on our own strategy.  Just like my coach planned, if I follow my strategy I’ll achieve my goal.  If you follow your plan, you’ll achieve your goal too.  Forget the competitors as you cannot control them and what they do.  Focus on you!

And there we have it, 7 little tips I learned about business while training for this marathon:

1. Preparation
2. Mindset
3. Working on your strengths and weaknesses
4. Training at race pace
5. Set bite size goals
6. Get a coach
7. And the holy grail: running your own race

If you know someone in business who could benefit from these tips, I’d be grateful if you share this blog or video. I’m saying thanks in advance for any sharing of the show when you watch live or on replay.

Thanks for tuning in to #JTInTheRaw Show 66 this week.  As always I appreciate watching, sharing and engaging in the show. Thank you!

Next Friday I’ll be in Bondi and will have just done an Orange Theory Fitness class and of course just finished the Club Owners Industry Leaders Roundtable.  If you are an independent gym owner and want to know about the Roundtable we can talk!

Quote of The Week

 

Do you want to work one on one with JT?

Check out all previous shows here: http://www.activemgmt.com.au/category/jt-in-the-raw/

 

Any discussion on leadership these days is not complete without mentioning millennials!  Why?  Not because so much is made of how to lead millennials but more importantly they are and will be an ever-increasing component of our work force.

Welcome to #JTInTheRaw show 65 where I chew the thin on business and today we’re talking about those millennials!  I’m going to share 4 leadership actions you can do to lead this generation.

My question for you today is that millennials were born between 1980 something and 2000 and something, give me either the start year of the Millennial Generation or the finish year of the generation.  So that’s either:

• 1980 something? Or
• 2000 and something

The 4 actions I’m going to share you can use to lead your business, lead a department or even lead a sporting a team.  No matter “what” we are discussing these actions will help you lead millennials.

 

Shout outs

A shout out to these awesome people, Chantal from The Fitness Business Podcast has been interviewing at Club Industry the past 2 days.  Thanks Brent, Mark, Blair, Marisa, Deborah and Nick for coming to the party and joining in the Precor Quick Fire Five.  You guys and gals were tops sharing your fav books.  If you didn’t see the Facebook Live shows Chantal has done over the past 2 days then pop FBP and I’ll send you the link and you can watch! Just watching these 3 minute interviews are gold!

A shout out to Elisa Valentini, a PT from New Zealand, who watched last week’s show on how I think the fitness industry is failing new personal trainers.  If you missed last week’s show I talked about how many skills a PT business owner needs when many don’t have, will never have and or are not interested in having! I also tell PT’s you don’t need more leads, so stop wasting your money on business coaches promising you leads.  You don’t need them, you just need to do your job better and you’ll have enough enquiries!  If you missed show 64, click here – it has been viewed more than 700 times!

Also a shout out to Active Management members! Don’t forget I am doing a Facebook Live Q & A for you today at 2pm Sydney time.  You can send your questions to me via email, the form you have been sent, in the closed Facebook group or just ask me when we go live!  Become a member now by going to www.ActiveMgmt.com.au/membershipoptions.

Leading Millennials

Ok so let’s get on with leading these Millennials!

As a reminder:

• Baby boomers were born between 1946 & 1964
• Generation X – 1965 to 1982
• Millennials were born between 1983 to 2001

Perhaps the challenge with the millennials is they are the first generation that have not needed an authority figure to help them access information.  They are often called the Netizens of the world, as they just access everything online now.  They are the Screenagers who are tech savvy.

Three in 5 have working mums.

And 1 in 4 come from a single parent household.

Many of us employ millennials.

Many of us have team members who are between 16 and 34.

And what has been proven time and time again: a dissatisfied millennial will leave their job faster than any other generation.

Unless we want to have a revolving door for recruiting we need to lead our millennials with purpose, direction and care.

Here are four tips when leading a team of millennials:

Visual People

The majority of millennials are visual people.  This means you’ll get a glazed look if you try explaining things to them.  They are not auditory and they just won’t get it!

They also want to understand ‘why’ we are doing certain actions.  They need a complete picture.

As leaders we need to help them understand and see:

• The vision of the business – use images to project the future or what success for the business looks like.
• What “good” looks like and what great “looks like.”
• What success means to you, the team and themselves.
• The results you are measuring against.

Scoreboard

Millenials respond beautifully to a scoreboard!  Just like at sporting game, they like to know the score and how they contribute to that score.

Show 52 of #JTInTheRaw I focussed on building a scoreboard in your business. I went into depth on what should be on your scoreboard, where is should be in the business and of course why you need one!  Watch show 52 here.

Check Ins

Your role is to check in with them.  I would suggest weekly or at most monthly check-ins with department managers and then 6 monthly or at most annual check ins with you the business leader.

With the managers, I like to suggest the first 6 of the 13 questions Marcus Buckingham puts forward in the book First Break All The Rules.  These questions are the foundation of a strong relationship but also give you great insight into the individual.

If you would like a format for the 1:1 meeting and my version of the 13 questions, then email me by clicking here. I’ll send you link to grab a FREE copy!  No catches, no strings attached just a gift to you! This is the form I used in my business to great success.  In fact, I am about to start using again with my team.

At minimum, I would suggest when you meet with them ask:

• Why do you like working for their manager?
• Why do you like working for the business?
• What will keep you happy and working here for the next 6 months?

These are what I call ‘Keeper’ Chats.

Weekly Keeper chats with department leaders and 6 monthly Keeper Chats with the business leader are my recommendations.

Relationship

The most critical aspect of leading millennials is the quality of the relationship between managers and millennials.  Another reason why your Keeper Chats are critical but so too taking 2 to 3 minutes out of your day to engage with your millennials – just saying hi and helping them see they are making a difference.

Your goal is to create an engaging work environment.  You need to lead this.  You need everyone to realise there are no employees there are human beings in your business.

Summary

I guess in summary when leading your millennials you need to connect with and care for them and in return they will connect and care for your customers.

Did you find that useful?  I know the emphasis is on millennials but to be honest, I think you should follow these 4 steps with any aged team member.  Hit the love heart if you agree.

Do you have any tips to share on how you lead millennials?  Love to read them pop them in the comments below.

As always if you know someone who would benefit on picking up 4 tips to lead a team better, please tag them in the comments below by popping their name in the comments.

Thanks for tuning into #JTInTheRaw show 65.  I really appreciate you taking 20mins out of your day or your life to listen to me and I hope you get a great return on your time investment.  If not I’ll give 10 times the amount you paid to listen to #JTInTheRaw!

Next week I’ll be en-route to a special location, so you’ll have to join me to find out where I am heading and where I’ll be!  Same time next week!

Quote of the Week

If you want to win a new customer tomorrow, then connect with your team today as human beings not employees.

 

 

Do you want to work one on one with JT?

Check out all previous shows here: http://www.activemgmt.com.au/category/jt-in-the-raw/

If you’re a basketball player and I tell you that I want to make you a rugby player, you’d laugh at me. 

If you have done ballet all your life and I tell you that I want you to start doing hip hop dancing, you’d laugh at me. 

If you play the piano and then I say I want you to play the harpsichord, you’re going to laugh at me. 

I am taking you from your area of strength, where you are comfortable, where you are unconsciously competent and where you are happy to now a completely different space.  And in these examples I had you flipping but still the same genre.  What would happen if I said to a ballerina, it’s time you went and played rugby! 

And these stark changes are why the fitness industry is failing personal trainers.  We are asking them to do things that are not their strengths and that is why they are quitting and that is why they are leaving the industry. 

Welcome to JTInTheRaw show 64 where I chew the thin on business and today I’m turning the blow torch on personal trainers and their mentors the fitness industry. 

Today’s question

Why do you think we are turning over personal trainers in the industry?  Why is the average length of stay in our industry less than a year for a PT?  Please pop your thoughts in the comments below – why do we turn over personal trainers? 

I understand there are pockets of success around the world and you may not be turning over PTs and if that is the case, tell me in the comments why you are not losing any! 

And if you are losing PTs, tell me why in the comments. 

What’s New With JTInTheRaw? 

After every JTInTheRaw we repurpose the show by loading on to You Tube and then using that link as a blog post on the Active Management website.  This helps in our SEO, creates content which Google love and allows people to rewatch the show. 

This week we have set up a new plug in on our word press website.  It is called Simple Social Press.  It is a time saver and for under a 100 bucks allows you to take your Facebook Live videos and feed them directly into your blog!  Plus it takes ALL the comments from below and includes them in your blog post.   

Alicia tells me there are just a few personalisation tweaks needed but it is generally a kick A little app!  Check it out: Simple Social Press!   

An Opinion Based #JTInTheRaw 

Are you ready for this statement – we are failing new personal trainers as an industry because the positioning of a PT career is a work for yourself business.  You are your on boss.  You’ll make “6 figures’ working for yourself.   

This positioning is assuming that every personal trainer should set up their own business – ie be an entrepreneur!  

A 2014 Global Report conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor ranked countries based on the percentage of the adult population in each country that either owns or co-owns a business.  Australia ranked 26 with 5 to 6% of the population running their own business. 

This means that for every 100 personal trainers trained in Australia, 6 are entrepreneurial. 

6% is so low for the example I want to run by you that I have to use an American number. According to Grow America, 30% of all entrepreneurs are aged 20 to 24 – a 5 times better number than Australia. 

Using the US 30% number – For every 40 personal trainers qualified 12 are skilled enough entrepreneurially to start up their own business.  

Then further data reveals one in 3 small businesses fail in their first year of operation.  This means of our 12 personal trainers opening a business, only 8 are left at the end of 12 months.  Then 50% fail in the second year, so we are down to 4 trainers and by the fifth year only 25% are left in operation – so that’s just a one PT left from our original cohort of 40 PT’s. 

This is nothing to be proud of as an industry.  In fact I think we should feel ashamed of spitting so many trained PT’s out of our industry. 

Oh and the #1 reason small businesses fail at 32% is financial mismanagement.  I would suggest that this number is at least double if not up to triple on why personal trainers leave the industry. 

Just for fun I asked on Facebook this week why people became personal trainers and the answer: 

• To change people’s lives; 
• Because I’m passionate about exercise/heath/fitness. 

No one said, so I can run my own business. 

What I am saying is we are asking rugby players to be ballerinas or vice versa. 

I believe the fitness industry is failing people as we are driving personal trainers into running their own business.  And they simply are not cut out to run their own business. 

The models that gyms offer are generally and increasingly sub-contractor models.  That is, PTs pay rent to use the gym.  Problem is they have to get clients from either outside the gym or inside the gym.  This means: 

• Marketing; 
• They have to do the sales process; 
• They have to on-board them as a client; 
• They have do the admin of collecting their payment and reconcile sessions with payments; 
• Oh and they have to still find enough time to train them and program them.

There are at least 5 completely different skill sets in that job role right there!  Some of those skills will come naturally others require training and others require years of training! 

The good news for these PT’s is there are now a few – actually hundreds – of PT business coaches that promise the world to new PT’s.   

Everywhere PTs look, they are receiving a message to start their own business without self-evaluating if they really want to start their own business. 

When I managed my first club I had a cracking gym instructor – that’s showing my age!  For those who were born post cassettes, VHS and no mobile phones, a gym instructor was someone we paid to be on the gym floor programming and creating experiences for members.  Peter was sensational.  I said to him I’d like to promote him to be the gym floor manager and to lead the team.  He said “No thanks.  I love what I do.  I don’t want to lead I just want to do what I do.” 

I had Chris who worked as a PT in my club.  For years I used say to him that he’d earn more money working for himself and pay me rent.  He’d say “No thanks. I love what I do.  I love training people and leaving you to worry about marketing, sales and cash flow.” 

And both these times I thought: WTF! You lazy so and so’s!  Where is your entrepreneurial spirit?  

It is only now when I am older and uglier that I can stand back and acknowledge the strength of these two gentlemen!  

They were round pegs in round holes. Their skill set matched their job description perfectly.  They were working in their strengths.  And both of them worked for me for over 5 years! 

Today we are either: 

1. Jamming a square peg in a round hole, which means we have chipped the edges of the square peg to make an uncomfortable fit with the peg but we are happy as the hole is filled; or  
2. We are slotting a round peg into a square hole and while it may be a snug fit there are bits missing in the corners and these are critical bits causing them to fail. 

I now commend Pete and Chris for having the strength to do what they do best: train clients! 

It appears the only option these days is for PT’s to run their own business whether that be as a rent payer or outdoors or even opening their own studio. 

And to be frank, as entrepreneurial as I am and even a risk taker I think I’d be scared shit less opening up my own business straight after a course.  And if that was my only option, I’m not sure I’d do the course!   

But kids are doing courses as the profession is glamorised and the end result is I believe over promised!  Expectations are falsely set on both the effort required, the skills needed, the time to put in and the guaranteed income. 

What about you?  Put yourself in a 20 year old’s shoes or the shoes of someone doing a second career change.  Would you have the intestinal fortitude, the grit, the capital behind you to complete a PT course and then launch a PT business when the only thing you know is training clients and know nothing about sales, marketing, administration, pricing?  

As I said as I have got older and uglier, I am not surprised at all at the turnover of personal trainers.  The success of personal training in the future is not about what service you offer it about the business model.   

I believe that every big box gym on the planet should target a minimum of 25% of members doing some form of personal training.  And owners tell me there simply are not enough trainers to get to that percentage.  I say there are enough trainers, it’s just they have been brain washed to think the only option and the best option for them is run their own business. 

If we return to an employee based model there is a greater than average chance we’ll keep our PTs longer as they will gain enormous job satisfaction and not have to do the stuff they are poor at or dislike!   

Yes that means as employers you will pay super, potentially sick and holiday leave, and you’ll need to invest in developing your Team of personal trainers.  You’ll need a PT manager.  But you’ll won’t have to advertise for personal trainers – saving you money, time, energy and reducing your stress levels. 

And yes for personal trainers you could be earning 20-40% less than what you would earn working for yourself but there is no marketing costs, no admin time, no financial management, less stress and most importantly you can do what you love: train clients! 

A Message for Personal Trainers 

I listened to Dan Henderson this week. Dan speaks with PTs every day, and he says that every trainer he speaks to says they need more leads.   

He want on to say that after hearing the great Thomas Plummer in San Fran last week, that you need to be a master of social media to generate leads.  Ok so you now have to add social media as a skill set that you need to run your business on top of sales, retention, admin, and programming.  Not sure when you’ll fit learning that skill in.  He did offer the idea of employing someone who does know social, so that’s $75 an hour going out to a social media consultant – who is good – which means you now need to either fund that through cash flow or pick up another client.  But that doesn’t include your marketing spend, so an extra client a week to cover the marketing budget! 

Now I’m not picking on Dan at all.  I agree with him.  This is another area of business you need to know as a PT business owner. 

But what I would say and I call “bull shit” is that you need more leads.   

After nearly 30 years in the fitness industry, including running my own PT business and my own gyms, here is my simple take on a successful business model: 

1. Lead buys your service; 
2. You service that client; 
3. That client stays if they are happy; 
4. That client gets results and tells their friends or friends ask what they are doing; 
5. Client refers friends to you; 
6. You get a new lead; 
7. Lead buys your service; 

And around we go again!  

Personal trainers of the world if you need more leads then you are screwing up this equation somewhere! And I will bet it is in steps 2, 3 and 4.  Unless of course owing to mis-financial management you don’t have enough money to live on, then you stuffed up the entrepreneurial component of the business and perhaps you were made for being an employee not a business owner.  

Let me give you an example.  At the gym I go to there is a PT there that I think has paid north of $10K for PT business consulting.  How do I know, because I have seen him on-line as a testimonial for the company extolling the skills he learned from the company. 

One of his clients has just broken up with him and told me he lacked energy, his arms were folded in the session, nothing was ever recorded, the workouts were boring and she had not achieved any results training with him.  He was failing in steps 2, 3 and 4 . . .  

2. Servicing the client; 

3. Making the client happy; 

4. Getting results for the client. 

 Dan recounted that Thomas said “Your weaknesses are going to kill you.”  And that is so right! If you do not have the business skills to run a business it will kill your career and metaphorically you. 

Your decision is to visit the house of mirrors and decide do you want to be a personal training business owner or do you want be a personal trainer.  They are very different careers. 

Thank you for tuning into a longer JTInTheRaw and perhaps one that may hit a nerve for some people and for others I may just have given them permission to say “I want to be a personal trainer!” 

As always I appreciate all the engagement you guys and girls give during the show.  The likes, hearts, and even the sad faces are all awesome and I’m grateful that you come back each week or that you swing by for the first time. 

Quote of the week

Do you want to be a personal training business owner or do you want be a personal trainer?  They are very different careers. 

Do you want to work one on one with JT?

Check out all previous shows here: http://www.activemgmt.com.au/category/jt-in-the-raw/