Jim owned a company called Autologue and they made those computer systems inside auto part stores that would search out parts for your year, make and model car – only thing is he did this for small privately owned mom and pop auto part stores.

And in that industry competition is steep!

First of all he can’t sell his “system” to the corporate owned stores like Auto Zone, Pep Boys, and NAPA Auto Parts – they have their own proprietary version (which according to Jim was crap).

Secondly the big auto parts stores would compete against him by re-selling their parts management system to small mom and pop stores. A brilliant idea since they has the system anyway, so why not leverage it by offering it to other stores for a monthly fee?

And that’s how they competed with guys like Jim…

But Jim’s business was always rock’in no matter the competition or how aggressively they advertised to the mom and pop stores.

For Jim his formula was simple… make a better product, give a better user experience, demonstrate value and always evolve.

I later used Jim’s “evolve or perish” method in my training business to give my clients greater value and a better experience.

- We used to offer one-on-one 60 minute training sessions, we evolved to 30 minute sessions by cutting rest time in between sets by half and incorporating more compound and total body exercises giving our clients 60 minute results in 30 minutes time. This in turn gave our clients an additional 30 minutes a day more time and because we also lowered our price by ten dollars a session, they got better value and we were able to market to a larger part of the community.

- To give our clients better results and user experience (convenience) we incorporated DietMaster into our program for only ten dollars more per month. Now our clients had personalized daily meal plans to follow (something they probably would have gotten from else where) and therefore got better/faster results. And we got an additional $10/month from each client.

- Later on we wanted to do something unique for our clients who were either too busy to train more than once or twice per week or they simply couldn’t afford to train more than a couple times per week with us. I knew that if I could think up a way to give them a solid program to either follow at home or do on their own at the gym they’d get better results and probably appreciate us for it.

That’s when Hitech Trainer was born, a software program that I created and used to craft a workout, print it out, and give to our clients to use on their “off days”. Originally we only used it with our “in house” clients to add more value to their programs and give them a better experience.

Later Hitech Trainer become one of my core products that I made available to the fitness industry. In fact many people don’t know this, but Hitech Trainer was one of the very first fitness “apps” out there – even before the word “app” was hip.

We had a partnership with Sprint from 2003 – 2005 and Hitech Trainer was one of their top selling fitness apps in their Jukebox (yep, that’s what they called their app store).

What Happens When You Don’t Evolve…

Like I said, Hitech Trainer was one of my core products and frankly it was a hot seller. However as technology evolved Hitech Trainer didn’t. And by 2008 the software code that ran Hitech Trainer was cumbersome, clunky, and the program took up a lot of time if you had a bunch of online training clients to train.

So in 2009 I stopped selling Hitech Trainer and only kept it up because we still had hundreds of users on board.

In 2010 I chose not to let the current users renew because the product did not meet my personal expectations. You’d think turning down $20,000 month would have been difficult – actually it was an easy decision to make because the product did not give my clients the experience it once used to. Perished by choice.

After almost three years of being on the shelf, a new version of Hitech Trainer will soon be available – this NEW version not only meets my expectations… but actually exceeds it. More on that in the near future…

My point here is that as an entrepreneur you have an ethical obligation to your market to provide the best service, program, and outcome if you want to stay competitive or better yet create your own “category of one.”

One exercise that I do with my coaching clients is to have them evaluate their business every six months through the eyes of their avatar – their most ideal and preferred client.

Times change, technology changes, the speed of life changes, people’s needs and wants change, competition evolves, new solutions come about and if you don’t evolve, grow, and adjust your business then your business will perish.

How To Do An Evolution Audit On YOUR Business…

Get away from your business – go to a book store or something. Bring your lap top and all of your marketing, operations, and systems manuals, files or documents with you.

Study your website… the headline, the offer, the ethical bribe, the testimonials, the before and after pics, and color, the flow, the copy, the user experience, the auto-responder that they get when they opt in or apply for a consultation.

* Is your website and all it’s moving parts congruent with what your avatar wants or is looking for?
* Does your site deliver the message that you want?
* Are you current services, offerings, promotions, and guarantee adequately represented?

Now study your marketing, operations, systems and services that you offer…

* Is your marketing old and out of date?
* Could you improve your marketing message?
* Does your message resonate with your avatar?
* Are you delivering what your marketing promised?
* Do your clients feel unique, special, and cared for?
* Could you offer your clients other services and products that might add more value to their program?

Now go to your facility and look at it through your client’s eyes…

* What is the first impression?
* Can the place me cleaned up, painted, organized, or lit up better?
* Are your walls covered with testimonials and social proof?
* Does the place smell?
* Do your equipment need to be updated or repaired?
* Are the restrooms clean, well stocked, and not overflowing with trash?

The market place has evolved. You’ve got to evolve with it or face losing market share.

One of the most recent evolutions in my organization took place over the last 11 months. A good product got better. Loose ends were tied. And systems and operations were tightened. A major evolution took place…

In mid 2009 when Fit Body Boot Camp was first launched, it was offered as a licensing program to our industry.

Our goal with the “product” was to teach FBBC owners marketing, lead generation, sales systems, retention strategies and referrals generation tactics. All this was done though twelve DVD’s, an owners manual, and a FBBC owners only members site.

The product included a ready-to-use website, a protected territory, use of the Fit Body Boot Camp brand and logo, ongoing marketing support and materials and coaching.

FBBC was way ahead of it’s time… cutting edge in all ways… but not without flaws.

Since it’s launch in mid 2009 Fit Body Boot Camp grew to hundreds of locations nationwide and into five counties. The growth of the business model was faster than we ever expected. A good problem to have – never the less, painful.

As with anything when you grow quickly and are able to take in a lot of feedback you’re able to evolve faster and improve quickly – while stressful, certainly a blessing in disguise.

Your Lesson: Don’t let stress and set backs, put you on your back.

For a period of 11 months we stopped taking on new Fit Body Boot Camp owners and instead focused on…

- Helping our current location owners grow their business and better systematize.

- We globally trademarked Fit Body Boot Camp(TM)

- We converted the model into a franchise giving the brand more “street cred” (I love that phrase!) and legitimized the model.

- We brought ALL out-sourced services in-house such as web design, Search Engine Optimization, Facebook fan page creation, Facebook ad creation and management, and even brought in a Google adword certified pay-per-click expert to craft and manage PPC ads for our owners – all in house.

- We tippled out support staff at the FBBC headquarters.

- Overhauled the DVD’s, the member’s only site, and the individual FBBC local sites (which by the way are kicking major ass!)

- We now set up google places, yelp, and other review sites for FBBC owners to give them maximum credibility and search engine optimization.

- We handle all Youtube videos and optimize then all for targeted traffic and lead generation.

- By building a strategic relationship with Groupon we now do all of the deal of the day negotiating and setting up for FBBC owners. We do all the heavy lifting, structure the deals, negotiate the price point, and even handle the groupon buyer inquires and questions and even the after purchase scheduling so FBBC owners will never have to stress out with getting a ton of calls and email.

In fact the most recent groupon promotion we orchestrated brought in over 1300 buys… not too shabby.

- And as we continue building the Fit Body Boot Camp brand and recognition we’ve been able to connect with strategic partners such as Spa Finder for Wellness Week (coming up in March) giving FBBC locations exposure to over 10,000,000 fitness and wellness enthusiast along with targeting mailing from American Express and Costco to their customers. Epic!

The new Fit Body Boot Camp model is entirely based on Done-For-You marketing, systems and services allowing our FBBC owners to focus on what they do best – which is delivering awesome results and giving each client an over-the-top workout experience.

Even our application process has evolved. In the beginning anyone was able to buy into FBBC and use the brand and model to grow their business. I guess you can say this was pretty naive on our part, but that’s what happens when you’ve never created a franchise business model before.

During the 11 months of hiatus we took a long hard look at our culture, our core values, what we stand for, and what we want the Fit Body Boot Camp brand to represent and we came to the conclusion that while most of the FBBC owners on board were a great culture fit – we had inadvertently brought on owners who were simply not a good fit with our culture and core values.

Thinning of the herd…

In fact that’s what encouraged us to create this new acceptance process that we have today.  It’s entirely different than when you could simply “click and buy” into Fit Body Boot Camp.

The new process goes like this…

Step 1: Expression of interest form.

Step 2: Application to check financial and criminal background

Step 3: “Getting to know you call” (this reveals a LOT)

Step 4: Final approval.

Sure, this process takes an average of 38 days to bring someone into the system. We’re fine with that… and the outcome has been nothing short of AMAZING.

Even then, each and every new owner must attend Fit Body Boot Camp university here at the HQ for five days (three days of operations, systems, marketing, and sales training and two days of hands on training in a live boot camp environment)

Some think this is excessive… we don’t.

Today we accept less than 2% of the folks who apply for ownership into Fit Body Boot Camp. And this has made ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD at the ownership level, core values, and the service and results that every client receives.

Your Lesson: Like my pal Joe Polish says; Sift, Sort, and Screen. The last thing you want to do is to bring on a client, employee, or business partner who simply is not aligned with your vision and core values.

If you’re in business, it’s probably because you feel that you can do something better than anyone else around. If you’re in it for any other reason, then you’re better off quitting and getting a job somewhere.

Evolution in business is not just about making money or being cutting edge – it’s about serving your market and giving them the best possible service, solution, product, or experience available and exceeding their expectations in every way.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and feedback. Just drop me a note in the comment box below

The HQ is is buzzing with action, excitement, and preparation as we get ready for the sold out Fitness Business Summit 12. And since I have what I consider “level 3″ A.D.D. I’d pretty much stand there in the middle of the HQ and watch all the hustle and bustle and not get anything done.

Thank God for my beloved Starbucks

Onward…

If you’ve ever read the book “Delivering Happiness” (the Zappos book) Tony Hsieh talks about the “science of happiness” and how at the end of the day everything you do is to bring you closer to your desired outcome, which for most people is happiness.

It’s true. Ask someone who wants something why they want it… and then continue to ask “why”… and they’ll ultimately say “because it would make me happy”.

And that’s what YOUR clients want more than weight loss, more than strength or speed gain, and more than self-esteem and confidence… they want the end OUTCOME which is happiness.

And happy clients pay more, stay longer, get better and lasting results and ultimately refer their friends, family and co-workers to you – thus making YOU happy

So how do you deliver happiness to your clients?

It’s actually pretty easy, albeit often times overlooked.

Here’s a “Client Happiness Checklist” for you to use:

== The Four Variables to Delivering Happiness ==

#1 Deliver results as promised.
- Did you and your client set a “first 30 days” goal?
- Are you doing at least monthly fitness evaluations and showing quantifiable results?
- Are your clients journaling their eating habits and getting nutritional guidance?

#2 The experience they get.
- Don’t promise a unicorn and deliver a donkey.
- Is your facility clean, modern, odor free and inviting?
- Do you and your staff know every client by name?
- What’s the unique experience that you deliver that your competitors can’t, won’t or don’t?

#3 Appreciation is one of the most basic and primal needs we have.
- Do your clients feel appreciated daily?
- When was the last time you sent your clients a meaningful and unexpected gift?
- Do you send your clients hand written thank you cards?
- When was the last time you randomly texted your clients with a note of appreciation?
- How about a client appreciation party?

#4 Recognition
Years ago IBM did a survey of their entire work force and found that to their employee recognition had greater value then money.
- Are you actively (and loudly) giving your clients recognition during their workouts?
- Are you posting to your client’s Facebook wall and puffing them up for a job well done, inches or pounds lost?
- When was the last time you high fived a client at the end of a workout and gave them a meaningful compliment?

Anyone can offer personal training, boot camp, weight loss or a gym membership. But only you can deliver the most desired outcome that your clients want… happiness.

I don’t know about you, but I love stories of triumph and success. Ever since I could remember I was more into “feel good” movies than horror films and action movies.

There’s just something about seeing someone bust their ass and succeed, you know? And the guest blog post below is something that as fitness trainers we could all relate to.

I’ll let Shawna take it from here…

Hi I’m Shawna Kaminski and this is my journey,

While this isn’t a financial Cinderella story, it does have elements of it.  My story isn’t a ‘rags to riches’ one because I was never in rags and I’m in the process of getting to ‘riches’ now. The part of the Cinderella story that sometimes gets overlooked is the ‘quality of life’ element, more on that later…

I was a Catholic schoolteacher for too many years to count, okay, so it was 20 years. In the beginning of my career I loved teaching. I love children and I found teaching very satisfying. I was successful; I helped write curriculum, I presented workshops and both parents and the kids I taught loved me. In fact, I still run into my students now and they tell me I was their all time favorite teacher. Who could ask for anything more?

Well, as satisfying as my career was from the outside, I got bored so I started a small group training studio at the same time as I was teaching. I’ve always been involved in sport and fitness so this wasn’t a big jump. I was well versed in the training aspect of my business, but I was NOT well versed in the ‘business’ aspect of my business.

Luckily I found Fitness Business Summit 07. I stepped out of my comfort zone, and nervously booked the Summit, my flight, my hotel. At the time, I didn’t know that trip would forever change my life.

That first Summit really did start the domino effect in all aspects of my life, business and personal. I came home from the Summit and one month later I started a fitness boot camp. For a few months I continued to teach school, run my fitness studio and I also started my fitness boot camp business. (Did I mention I’m a Type A personality that’s not afraid of hard work?)

My boot camp took off with 30 people in the first month. I could see how I could continue my teaching career in a different setting. Thanks to that first Fitness Business Summit I found a way to take my passion to teach and help others in a new direction.

Something had to give, three jobs was one too many. Oh, did I mention that I have two children in sports and an energetic dog? I took a leave of absence from teaching school so I could focus on my studio and boot camps. I knew I needed more business support so I signed up for private coaching with Bedros.

If I can offer you any advice here: get a mentor as soon as possible. In fact, get a mentor even before you can afford one. Why re-invent the wheel? I avoided many costly mistakes by tapping into Bedros and his genius right from the start.

Over the next couple of years, I continued my mentorship with Bedros and didn’t miss a Fitness Business Summit. I was like a sponge just soaking up information. I closed my training studio to leverage my time more effectively. I added more sessions to my boot camp. I had a vision to help as many people as I could. Even with seeing up to 60 clients a day, I still felt that there were people I missed.

The thought of information marketing entered my mind right from the beginning of my treks to Fitness Business Summits. I knew that I wasn’t ready for this endeavor yet. There’s that ‘shiny ball syndrome’ that I wanted to avoid. (That’s when your eye catches something intriguing and you start too many projects without having the knowledge or support to follow through with them.)

But finally I got to the point that I knew that the only way I could meet my goal of helping more people was to enter the world of info marketing.

I went to the Fitness Info Summit in the fall of 09. I knew it was for me. I applied and was accepted into the information marketing mastermind with Bedros and Craig and so I began a new and exciting journey.

An important note: during this time, I changed my boot camp to Fit Body Boot Camp. This helped me grow my offline business exponentially. Again, I tapped into resources to leverage my time and efforts to yield greater success: I could help more clients, I gained financially and I learned business systems that allowed me to step away from my offline business to grow my online business.

My first product is called ‘Female Fat Loss Over 40’ and provides a fitness and fat loss solution for women in and approaching their 40’s. Through the info mastermind, I learned how to take an idea, build a marketable product, create a sales page and lead gen funnel to get people into my ‘tribe’ and to buy my program.

Product number two… With the direction of Bedros and Craig Ballantyne, I created a second program called ‘Challenge Workout’. This is more my style since I’m a hardcore gym rat. As with anything, it’s important to follow your passion. The idea of ‘challenge workouts’ resonates with me more than ‘female fat loss over 40’.

I’ll continue to promote both products, but my challenge workout product is more of ‘who I am’ and the work I do for it comes much easier.

My first product had a long and slow learning curve that allowed me to achieve faster success with my second product.

The lesson here is to not give up. Info product creation and marketing is a detailed process. The world of internet marketing is fast moving and complex.

I’ve seen a number of people invest their time and energy in a product only to put it on the shelf when it doesn’t make money over night. The learning curve is high and steep with information marketing, but the good news is that there’s success to be had in the field with a little tenacity and patience.

My tenacity was recognized by important affiliates by the time Challenge Workouts was good to go. I had rubbed elbows and befriended enough people that I had made a good impression as a hard working up and comer in the biz.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. Being successful in information marketing is all about creating a product of value first. You need to be able to offer something of value that fills a gap in the market place.

If you have nothing new, different and worthwhile to offer, no matter who you’re friends with, you won’t be a successful info marketer.

Lucky for me, I got the direction and support I needed from the info mastermind group to make a great product that people in the business were willing to support.

In a matter of a few weeks of launching Challenge Workout I had over 700 sales!

Affiliate support in this business helped my business grow exponentially. The amazing part about info marketing and affiliate info marketing is that affiliates of a quality product can make exceptional money by selling another person’s program. My program sold by an affiliate will provide the affiliate 75% commission on every sale.

I checked with Craig, and as an example to you, he allowed me to share this one email that he sent out to his list that brought him a significant windfall of cash.

You’re welcome to use it yourself if you’d like.

********************************************************

Subject: How to do more pushups and pullups (embarrassing story)

There’s a woman – in her 40′s – who can KICK my butt in a
push-up and pull-up challenge.

Your Name
INSERT AFFILIATE LINK

********************************************************

Here are the stats when Craig ran this email to his list:

3% conversion rate
$0.67 earnings per click
51% click-through rate

(Trust me, in the info-marketing world, these are great numbers. When the Turbulence Training genius is bragging up conversion on my product it’s a great day for me.)

The lesson here is that you too can join the world of info marketing in a variety of ways. If you have a kick ass idea and a fire under you to help a specific niche, you can make a product.

My strong suggestion is to apply with Bedros to see if you’d be a good fit for the info-marketing mastermind where you can get coaching and guidance from Bedros and Craig – plus you’ll be connect to a bunch of other fitness info marketers, too.

Plain and simple …. Coaching buys you speed and helps you avoid costly mistakes.

Your second option is to become an affiliate info marketer. If you have a list of people that know you, like you and trust you, you have a gold mine.

All you need to do is find quality products that will resonate with your list. You can use emails, like the one Craig sent out above, and/or blog posts to push your list in the right direction.

I’m here to tell you that anyone, including you, can better your place in life. I had very humble beginnings as a teacher, to fitness business owner to info marketer.

I would never have guessed that this is where I’d be a mere five years after my first Fitness Business Summit. I shattered limiting beliefs that I could make a living with my fitness boot camps. Then I shattered the limiting beliefs that I could make a living in the info-marketing world and I’m here to tell you that in the next year I hope to replace my fitness boot camp income with info marketing income.

So, in the end it is sort of a Cinderella story. I went from a mediocre existence to a life that’s more than I bargained for. I reinvented myself. I acted courageously when I had little to no courage, I envisioned where I wanted to be and I ‘acted as if’ to make things happen.

My suggestion to you is to set the bar high whether it is in your fitness business, info business or any area of life. Then set about reaching for your goals.

When you have a talent, a purpose and a plan, (especially when your purpose includes helping others) you can NEVER fail!

And now, here’s Part Two of this awesome interview where Tony Robbins gets Jay to explain why most small business owners have “built in” self limiting beliefs that lead them to have mediocre businesses and the ONE simple shift required in order to overcome business and marketing mediocrity and to create a wildly successful business.

At 7 Minutes 28 Seconds into the interview Jay explains this whole concept really well.

Here’s Part Two of the Jay Abraham Interview. Enjoy

Click Here to download (.mp3)

Feel free to drop me a comment and share your thoughts on this interview down below…

I hope you’re sitting down becuase I have a REALLY killer interview for you that is going to give you a whole new perspective on what marketing your business really means and how to leverage EVERYTHING you do to get more clients, retain them longer and stimulate more referrals.

As you probably know Jay Abraham is our Key Note speaker at Fitness Business Summit 12 (March 9-11 in Costa Mesa, CA) and he’ll be teaching some really high level business building and client getting concepts that have personally helped me with my personal training businesses and I know that you’ll get a ton from his teaching.

Yesterday Jay sent me this two part audio program to share with you. It’s actually one of the best audio programs I’ve ever purchased.

Here’s part one for you… Enjoy

Click Here to download (.mp3)

The registration fee for FBS12 doubles to $1200 on January 31st, So if you havn’t registered yet be sure to do so now and join over 400 success minded fitness pros for a fun and content packed weekend. Click Here to Learn More About Fitness Business Summit 12

… hope you’re liv’in easy

Trainers always ask me if there’s still room in the market place to grow an online fitness info business. My answer is always; “Yes, IF you’re passionate about the topic you’re going to teach”

And here’s a great example of that. Travis Stoetzel, an all around awesome guy, and member of my 100K Fitness Info Mastermind group hit is first $1,000 day recently – that’s a BIG thing and usually when you hit your first $1K day, more days like it seem to follow. Here’s Travis’ journey in his own words. I hope this will inspire you and get you to Never Stop Dreaming…

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My Journey To Living My Passion Online

It all started out when I got my first job as a personal trainer back in 2006 at a large corporate gym.

At first, I felt on top of the world and I felt that I had the BEST job in the world, but then I quickly realized that the corporate fitness world was NOT for me.  I hated how things were run, I was always pressured into selling, and I couldn’t train just the people I personally wanted to train.

After researching online, I found a “Fitness Boot Camp” that Ryan Lee was putting on so I made the fast decision of booking a trip (with money I didn’t even have) to Stamford, CT to attend his fitness info boot camp where my eyes were first exposed to the power of online fitness marketing. But,  I still didn’t quite get “it” yet as I was still caught up in finding a way to get out of the corporate gym arena.

Not long after I got back home,  in order to get out, I did more research online to find an answer and that’s when I first stumbled across Zach Even-Esh and The Underground Strength Gym.  I quickly identified what it is I wanted to do…  Build up my own hardcore strength gym!

So, I quickly booked a trip out to see Zach at his Underground Strength Coach Certification with again, money I didn’t even have and put it all on a credit card.  Needless to say, when I got back to Omaha, I was determined to make things happen to get myself out of the big box gym scene and into my own hardcore strength facility.

My best friend and now business partner Joe, quickly found a spot to open our own hardcore strength gym and within a few months, The Forged Athlete Gym was born and I was my own boss training the people I loved to train.

I was in heaven.

As the months past by and my business grew, I started to receive emails from various people around the country and even from overseas interested in the way I trained as they would find me through the various videos I would post weekly on my YouTube page and hardcore strength blog.

They would ask if I could write them a workout program, create a nutrition plans, or even coach them and it wasn’t until after the 20^{th or} 30^th time I got asked to be someone’s coach that something inside my head finally “clicked”.

“I need to take my business online” I said to myself.  Why limit myself to just the people I could help locally?

I knew what I was doing within my gym was working with my clients, but as soon as I realized the POWER the internet had at giving me the opportunity to spread my knowledge and passion for training, I quickly started to create ways I could use this to my advantage and started to write up different ebooks and manuals I could sell or even give away online.  I knew I needed a way to reach more people and creating an online presence was the answer.

I started to research other top strength and conditioning professionals that were doing fitness internet marketing and I started to reverse engineer what they were doing.  At first, I had NO system, I had no direction, and I had ZERO tech skills.

It was a daunting task trying to build an internet business at first and everything I did felt like it was uphill.  There were many times where I told myself that I should just quit the whole “internet” thing, but I’m NOT a quitter so I kept forging ahead!

I pushed myself forward and after a short while, I had built up a large number of online coaching clients.  It was amazing as I had guys from Australia, New Zealand, London, and a few from the US and the list went on.  Coaching people one-on-one online is simply amazing as I still do it today, but I knew that if I wanted to help out and reach even more people, I had to create some sort of system to make it easier on me and them to get access to my programs.

So, after a short while I finally created my first fitness info product, The Bags, Bells, and Bodyweight Training System. I basically took the NO B.S. training system I put myself and my clients through and posted it up online for sale.

At first I thought that just because I felt this was the most kickass program ever (which it is ) that everyone who stopped by the page would buy it, but I couldn’t have been more wrong!   I knew that in order to make it, I was going to have to get a coach or invest into program that taught me how to do it.

So, I ended up investing in a lot of different programs and just like with my education when it came to strength and conditioning, I started to get better and better until I learned to basics of what needed to be done.

In plain English, I HUSTLED my ass off by constantly posting up blogs, videos, answering questions, and studying marketing courses that Craig Ballantyne and Bedros offered.

Overtime, I used the skills I was learning through the programs I invested in and my online success started to grow, but I still wasn’t as good as I wanted to be so that’s when I broke down and took the leap to join Bedros’ 100K Fitness Info Group.

I knew I had the skills to get people results and I knew I had the abilities to create awesome programs online, I just needed to learn how to do it right.

Fast forward ahead to today and my amount of success online has skyrocketed since I first started!  Being apart of the mastermind and being around other success minded fitness professionals that truly care about helping people has truly accelerated my progress ten-fold. Not only has it helped build my knowledge about online marketing, but it has also given me the accountability needed to stay focused on improving my online business.

When you join a mastermind and you may be spending a ton of money to be in it, and with that, there’s a bit of a fire that burns under your ass to get things done…

Since being in the group, I have learned the different types of systems needed to help expand my reach to the people I want to help most online.  I’ve also been able to overlook the fact that online marketing isn’t such a bad thing as at first, I thought all info marketers were just sleazy online salesmen that really didn’t care about the end user.  Back when I thought this, I didn’t want to be one of these “snake like” people, but since joining the 100K group and meeting some of the most outstanding and caring people within the fitness industry, I knew that online marketing was what I needed to do in order to reach more people and build up my tribe across the world!

Overtime, what I’ve done is be ME and live my passion online.  I post videos constantly, answer people’s questions and just share my knowledge with the world.  The people that want to hear it and listen follow me and those are the people I help.  The main thing I’ve done to build more success has been through building up my online tribe of followers through being totally transparent.

Recently, I launched a program and the success I had launching it was a HUGE milestone for me as I was able to hit my first $1K day online and for the first time, I’ve truly started to BELEIVE in the fact that I can make it online living my passion.  I can make a lifestyle out of this stuff!

The success I had with my most recent program came from modeling Craig and Joel Marion’s most recent launch, 24/7 Fat Loss.  I used the same type of email blasts and launch sequence as they did and it exploded my sales.  I also used the great wisdom of Bedros and my fellow masterminder’s at my last mastermind meeting to help tighten up my launch (that undoubtedly boosted the overall sales I had).

The program that I had such great success with is called, The 28 Day Athletic Muscle Formula and it was a program I created specifically for MY people.   My tribe members asked for this type of program and so that’s what I gave them.  I believe that the relationships I’ve been able to create and the value I’ve built all through my online presence on my blog, has helped create the success I’ve had thus far and will continue to  do so on into the future.

I’ve worked hard at helping my people get the results they want online and I know that as I continue to do so on into the future by supplying even more value, that my business online will continue to grow even larger.

Sky’s the limit!

When I first started my personal training business
I didn’t take it too seriously

…I’d get client through word of mouth, train them
and keep the money.

Pretty simple formula.

Pretty lousy one, too.

It wasn’t till I got serious about my business and
started planning out and applying the systems
that business really took off.

Funny how it was easier to operate five systematized
and organized training facilities then one that was
was operating on the principal of controlled chaos..lol.

What reminded me of this story from my past was a
Facebook message I got this weekend from a trainer
who (in his own words):

“for the most part I’m successful, but I feel like I’m
operating by the seat of my pants and can’t help but feel
that the bottom is going to fall out sometime.”

I don’t know about you, but I would NEVER want to
live in that level of anxiety about my business.

But good for our Facebook friend for realizing that he’s
running his training business like a hobby and not a
true business.

Let me explain…

In all business there are two ways to make money.

Way one: Systems and Processes

- Choose a niche

- Figure out who you want as your client

- Craft all your marketing pieces (website, postcards,
print ads, Facebook and PPC ads) to only attract that
person into your funnel.

- Get a predicable system of converting leads into clients

- Have everyone on EFT (Monthly Auto Debit)

- Deliver killer results and systematically stimulate client
referrals

… you know, pretty much the PT Business Course way
of running a successful training business.

Way two: Be a promotion machine

This is what our Facebook friend is doing – and you may
be doing something like this too.

They’re very unpredictable, unstable, and always a month
or two from going out of business.

Promotion machines are training businesses who try
to live off the money generated from promotions…

- Groupon promotions

- 14 Day Fat Furnace promotion

- 21 Day Rapid Fat Loss promotion

- 28 Day Flat Belly Formula promotion

- 6 week transformation promotion

- 3 sessions for $99 bucks promotion

Don’t get my wrong, promotions are awesome for
your business as lead generators

…NOT AS MONEY GENERATORS.

I see way too many trainers trying to make a
living off Groupon and email list promotions.

A deadly mistake.

Promotions are “front end money”.

Fitness business longevity comes from the back end
money – once you convert that promotional lead into
an ongoing FULL PRICE client.

Front end money generated from promotions is just
icing on the cake, that’s money to offset the cost of
your marketing

AND…

that’s also money that you should reinvest into giving
your new prospect/client the WOW experience.

For example, if you run a 14 Day Fat Furnace promotion
for $67 to your email list. And lets assume that you get
to 25 people to take the offer which means you just made
$1,675.

As far as I’m concerned you now have $67 dollars to spend
on each of those new promotional clients over the 14 days.

Use all or part of that money to give them an awesome
experience, to get them to know, like and trust you, and to
add tremendous value to their lives.

Then use a proven script and system to convert each of
those promotional clients into on going full price clients.

Just makes sense to have systems and processes in
place doesn’t it?

Best off all a business built on systems and processes
gives you security, peace of mind and RELIABLE income.

Listen, it takes the same amount of effort and energy to build
a business on systems and processes as it does to run
your business as a promotion machine.

Plus a promotion machine can easily be put out of business
when a new trainers comes to town with more sophisticated
marketing and better systems.

Hope that gives you a better idea on how to run your training
business moving forward.

Live Easy,

Bedros Keuilian

P.S. The registration fee for Fitness Business Summit 12 jumps
more than doubles to $1200 next Tuesday the 31st. There’s limited
seating available so check out the FBS12 speaker line up here and
register to attend!

The External lead generation systems we used were lead boxes and direct mail pieces.

Internally we used email marketing to “warm” up the list by delivering high value content crafted to educate, entertain and to build rapport, trust, and liability – then we followed that up with low barrier offers which produced a big influx of new clients.

The CORE of the marketing in my facilities however were all based on the Three ‘R’… Retention, Referral Generation, and Re-Activation.

And as promised I have the Re-activation Trifecta sequence for you… the same one I used and the same one my coaching clients have gotten solid results from.

This is something I thought about packing up and selling for $197, but I’d rather give it out to our community and see you get a few of your past clients back.

So without further ado, here’s the low down…

1. This is a three step proccess. It works best when you use all three steps.

2. The purpose of each of the three steps is to force multiple each other.

3. Don’t focus on trying to make money on the front end – just focus on getting your former client in on a very special offer, giving them the “wow” experience, and converting them into on-going clients.

Step one of the three step proccess is the snail mail.

Step two is an email follow up four days after mailing the snail mail.

Step three is a phone call follow up the day after the email.

(this is typically where you’ll close the client on the introductory offer)

THE SNAIL MAIL

**********************************************************

THANK YOU!

Hi <Name>, It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you, so I wanted to reach out and say hi

In case you don’t remember me, it’s <Your Name> from <AWESOME FITNESS> here in <YOUR TOWN> – you used to workout with us, remember?

We miss you and want to invite you back to continue your personal training program.

I know life can get busy at times and even with the best of intentions things like your fitness program sometimes takes a back seat. But it’s time to get back in here and focus on YOU a little.

Remember how good you felt after your workouts? The all day energy a good workout gives you, the weight loss results, confidence, and self-esteem boost. Remember?

I know that fitness is important to you and that you have tried other fitness solutions recently . In fact most people I talk to who have tried other solutions after leaving my program report that the results have been less than stellar.

Maybe it’s been that way with you?

Listen, I want you to come back and let us get you back on track. Lets get back into a routine, get you in shape, drop the unwanted pounds and give you the body you’ve always wanted.

- – I’M GOING TO BRIBE YOU – -

Nothing beats a good bribe, right? So I want you to come on back and try my Three Week Rapid Transformation Program. This program is designed to give you fast results and includes a personalized nutrition program, unlimited accountability and motivation, a pre and post program fitness evaluation,  and the awesome workouts we’re known for!

Now regularly this program runs $397, but since I promised to bribe you to get you back in here I’m going to give you this three week transformation program for $97.

– THE CATCH –

Now there is one small catch with this program. No, you don’t have to workout at weird hours of the day or pay any hidden fees on top of the $97 I mentioned… but you do need to call me to start this program by <DATE 10 DAYS OUT FROM MAILING DATE>.

Fair enough?

You can reach me at <### ### ####> or just shoot me an email at <AWESOMETRAINER@Gmail.com>
to start your three week rapid transformation program.

I’m guessing you miss working out and how good it feels as much as we miss training you. Take this opportunity to do something for yourself – it’s really a good deal!

Again, just call me at <### ### ####> before <DATE 10 DAYS OUT FROM MAILING DATE> to start your three week rapid transformation program for only $97.

All the best to you,

<SIGNITURE>

<YOUR NAME>

<PHONE NUMBER>

<Website URL>

****************************************************************************

THE EMAIL

Subject: Re: Your program (action required)

Hey <Name>,

I hope this email finds you well…

A few days ago I mailed you a letter, I hope you received it. The purpose of the letter was to invite you back to <AWESOME FITNESS> so you can start training with us again

We miss you training you, and so I created a shameless bribe to get you back in here.

Here’s it is…

Come try my Three Week Rapid Transformation Program for 75% off. This program is designed to give you fast results and includes a personalized nutrition program, unlimited accountability and motivation, a pre and post program fitness evaluation,  and the awesome workouts we’re known for!

Now regularly this program runs $397, but since I promised to bribe you to get you back in here I’m going to give you this three week rapid transformation program for only $97.

– THE CATCH –

Now there is one small catch with this program. No, you don’t have to workout at weird hours of the day or pay any hidden fees on top of the $97 I mentioned… but you do need to call me to start this program by <DATE 10 DAYS OUT FROM MAILING DATE>.

Fair enough?

You can reach me at <### ### ####> or just shoot me an email at <AWESOMETRAINER@Gmail.com>
to start your three week rapid transformation program.

I’m guessing you miss working out and how good it feels as much as we miss training you. Take this opportunity to do something for yourself – it’s really a good deal!

Again, just call me at <### ### ####> or reply to this email before <DATE 10 DAYS OUT FROM MAILING DATE> to start your three week rapid transformation program for only $97.

Really looking forward to helping you get the fitness and weight loss results you’re looking for.

Talk soon,

<FIRST NAME ONLY>

***************************************************************************************

THE PHONE SCRIPT (these calls are made the day after sending the email above)

YOU: Hi, this is <YOUR NAME> from <AWESOME FITNESS>, is this Susan?

CLIENT: Yes it is

YOU: HI Susan, I just wanted to follow up on the letter and email I sent you last week. Did you get them?

CLIENT: Yes. No. What letter and email?

YOU: The email I sent you was exclusive to you because it was a special fitness and fat loss program that I created just for my former clients to win you back.

It’s a three week rapid transformation program and it’s designed to get you fast and amazing results fat loss results.  Best of all it’s only $97 and not $397 which is what we typically charge for this program.

So can I count on you to come on back and try this program out? We really miss training you and helping you get into better shape.

CLIENT: Yes, for sure!

YOU: Great, I just need your credit card number and some details and we’ll get you squared away and get you started on <DATE> okay?

CLIENT: Yes, that’s fine.

YOU: That’s great Susan. I’ll see you on Monday for the first day of this amazing program.

Take care!

************************************************************************************************

That’s the famous Re-activation Trifecta sequence for you!

A few things you should know about this re-activation sequence…

1. Use a regular #10 envelope, a first class stamp, and hand write the addresses on each envelope.
(a high school kid should be able to know this out for you in a day for $10 bucks an hour)

2. Send out 250 batches at a time. If you have a bunch of past clients and send them out all at once you might face a logistical nightmare.

3. Have a program read for them to continue on. Make them the offer for the continuation program a week or two into their three week transformation program.

4. Make the offer into your continuation program irresistible too. Remember that these are former clients. They’ve said yes to your programs once before and they are most likely to say yes again when you give them the “wow” experience.

Live Easy

Trust me when I say this…

…I operated five personal training facilities averaging $45K in monthly revenue each, and never had a website, google for SEO or pay-per-click, and the word “Facebook” didn’t even exist let alone targeted leads from Facebook and all the cool and crafty viral stuff you can do on “the facebook” these days.

All I had was an email list, lead boxes, direct mail and word of mouth in my personal trainer marketing arsenal. But we did well, really well, even with rent at $16,000/month in a couple of my locations.

Back then, (and by “back then” I’m talking about 1999 – 2003) the core of my marketing rested on the three R’s:

- Retention

- Referral Generation

- Re-activation

I’ll explain it in detail for you in just a moment…

Sometimes I think I had an advantage over you back then because I didn’t have a ton of marketing stuff to pick and choose from. All I had was all I had, and so I had to make the most of it since there was no new shiny marketing object to turn to.

My “external” fitness marketing strategy was brilliant in it’s simplicity…  Get leads from lead boxes and direct mail pieces, then add them to my email list and get them to know, like and trust me – AND THEN MAKE THEM LOW BARRIER OFFERS.

That’s it!

We also had what I affectionately called “call girls” in each facility. Their job was to dial for dollars… well not dollars exactly… more like call folks up who gave us their numbers from the lead boxes and direct mail pieces and make them offers to come in and try a free Body Diagnostic Program (which was basically a fitness eval, a training session, nutrition eval, weigh in, and body fat test using the ol’ Futrex 5000).

If you’ve been in the industry for any length of time them you remember the Futrex 5000 – unreliable as ever, expensive beyond words, and large as a cinder-block.

Anyhow…

Email offers and call girls is all we had to get new prospects into the door and those two external marketing tactics served us well.

But that’s not what accounted for our highly profiting personal training business.

The REAL secret was in the client retention, referral generation systems, and the re-activation process I had in place.

RETENTION: My business model was to treat every client like they were our ONLY client. I do that with my coaching and consulting business today.

We showed appreciation in a ton of different ways… client appreciation parties, prize give-a-ways for keeping food journals and not missing sessions, and each and every trainer that worked for me was trained in giving every client the “experience” – results, motivation, and appreciation.

REFERRAL GENERATION: One of the first things I learned from Jay Abraham about a decade ago was to; “make referrals a condition of doing business with you”. So each time a new client signed up for a training program we’d shake hands, welcome them aboard and say: “Mrs. Jones, as I help you achieve your fitness and fat loss goals… can I count on you to help me reach more local residents by referring your friends, family and co-workers to us?”

Right then and there the expectations were set!

And as my staff delivered the “experience” to each and every client, that gave us the opportunity to reach out to clients via phone, snail mail and email and ask them for referrals. We did this systematically each and every month using one, two or three mediums to ask for referrals …. really depended upon how bad we needed new clients that month

These days I don’t see enough personal training studio or boot camp owners growing their business through word of mouth referrals. It’s almost like you’re satisfied just to get a new client from your external marketing efforts – which btw costs you a LOT more then if you were to make a rule that you expect to get at least three new clients from every current client over the life of their training program.

Remember This: It will cost you four to seven times more in marketing dollars to get a new external lead then it would cost you to get a referral from an existing client.

AND it’s infinitely easier to close a referred prospect on a training program then it is to close a brand new lead who has no clue who you are from a hole in the wall.

RE-ACTIVATION: Now, from time to time, no matter how awesome of a trainer you are, you WILL have clients who drop off your training program or boot camp. That’s a given.

Some drop off for financial reasons

Others may drop off because of personal reasons

Yet others may have reached their goals, dropped out with every intention to maintaining their new found body but somehow they fell back out of shape.

Over time and over multiple locations (if you have more than one location) the number of inactive “former clients” really add up.

Again, it’s a lot easier to re-activate a former client and get them back into your training program then it is to prospect a new client.

One thing that worked really well for me was to systematically reach out to former clients and invite them back on a unique promotion that was only offered to them and not anyone else. Exclusivity was stressed in the promotion.

Several months ago I took that process to a whole new level and crafted the “Re-activation Trifecta” sequence which is a snail mail letter, follow up with an email and a phone script.

When I gave my Re-activation Trifecta sequence to my coaching clients they reported an average of 21% re-activation. Not too shabby considering that one letter followed up by an email and phone call could get 21 out of 100 former clients back into your program.

Like I said at the beginning of this post…. sometimes I think I had it easier than you because I only had three or four simple fitness marketing systems and put all my effort in them and they proved really profitable and helped me sustain and later sell my personal training business for a nice chunk of change.

And even though the personal trainer marketing landscape is different today…

…even thought you have more options, solutions, tactics and strategies at your disposal, the best and most effective fitness business growth strategies remain the three R’s… Retention, Referral generation and Re-activation.

I don’t know if you’ll want this or not… but I’m thinking of giving you my “Re-activation Trifecta” sequence to try out.

If I get enough feedback in the comment section down below telling me that you want the Re-activation Trifecta, I’ll post it up here on my blog for you to download and use.

Globo-Gym

This type of fitness franchise has the huge floor plan, all the amenities that are available and large staffing requirements.  Typically when people think of joining a gym they picture these types of facilities. They are a popular depiction of a gym in the movies and on television which is what makes them the most memorable.

The problem with starting a fitness franchise with a globo-gym format is the initial cost. The floor plans are huge, which means the cost of space can be double to triple of other fitness franchise formats. They have all the amenities. Amenities are nice, don’t get me wrong. A sauna, pool, hot tub, tanning booth and indoor running track all have their benefits. When constructing a building a gym these amenities can add up to costly construction numbers and after the gym is open they can be very expensive to maintain.

Typically globo-gyms do well if they can maintain steady numbers and if they can maintain their facilities. I have seen many of these style gyms that have not been maintained properly and suffer because of it. If not operated correctly with the right amount of staff these gyms see high attrition rates.

Personal Training Franchises

This is the type of franchise most personal trainers consider when starting a fitness franchise. They are lower cost as usually the franchisee just gains a title and access to marketing techniques. There are few personal training franchising opportunities that have their businesses construct a single location. Most personal training franchises encourage training out of an established facility, out of the client’s home or out of your home.

While cheap to get into, personal training franchises can be harder to maintain. These type of franchise opportunities require a large amount of customer service ability. Many times a personal trainer will train a specific social circle. If the trainer has not perfected their ability to meet the demands of high end customers they may lose an entire client list with one mistake.  A personal training franchise can be successful with the right type of person leading the training.

Skeleton Franchise

An attractive option when starting a fitness franchise may be a skeleton franchise. These franchises are based on the essentials of gym equipment. They typically are found on small floor plans inside of shopping centers and even malls. The skeleton fitness franchise is designed to run 24 hours a day with minimal interaction. A franchise on this path will typically only have a manager.

The reason that these franchises look so attractive is because there is little work that goes into maintaining the franchise. They are designed to operate on skeleton crews and cater to the busy urban dweller or corporate employee. They have steady attrition rates and it makes membership easy to maintain. Some people find this format to be far too disconnected. Some have even attributed the increase in complaints against fitness businesses to this model.

If being involved in your business is something that you want, then starting a fitness franchise with a skeleton model is not for you. These types of gyms cater to the very busy and the people who simply want to get their work out done and leave. While this may be the right format for some it is definitely not the best for everyone. Many people enjoy the social aspect that fitness activities can provide. Depending on the closeness of the community that you are building this form of franchise may prove to be less successful.

Fitness Class Franchise

The most popular type of fitness franchise is becoming the fitness class franchise. These franchises offer great support for those who may be just beginning on their road to a healthy lifestyle. They provide that necessary social interaction that is not available from a skeleton franchise. A fitness class franchise is going to allow business to function whether or not one client is satisfied because there are more demographics being served then one social group. Finally fitness class franchises offer sense of personal connection that is not available from the large globo-gym varieties of franchises.

Start-up costs for class style franchises tend to be less than other forms because you are not furnishing an entire gym, with all of the amenities. Some fitness classes require no equipment at all. Others require the basics like stability balls and free weights. Either format is going to be much less initial investment because there is not an entire gym of weight machines, cardio equipment and other amenities to be furnished.

Fitness boot camp classes are becoming a popular alternative to many other forms of fitness class because they incorporate the resistance and strength elements that are essential to a great physique. As a result of this trend in the fitness industry the fitness boot camp has become a great franchise opportunity for those starting a fitness franchise. These offer all of the benefits of the other varieties with none of the drawbacks.

Greater than not equal too

After reviewing the different types of fitness franchise opportunities it is easy to see why fitness class franchises are the best franchise option. They provide most of the benefits with none of the drawbacks of the other franchises. The popularity of this format alone is enough to make anyone consider opening a boot camp franchise. It is easy to see why there are so many franchises with this specific formula opening up. Choosing a fitness class when starting a fitness franchise will ensure a successful business.

Click here to discover the #1 Fitness Boot Camp Franchise and see if it’s right for you!