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As you may already know, I’m a huge Jay Abraham fan. So over the next week or so I’m going to talk about what Jay refers to as the Drivers of Upside Leverage. Through my reading of his material I’ve come across nine of these Drivers, which are:

1. Your Marketing
2. Your Strategy
3. Your Capital
4. Your Business Model
5. Your Relationships
6. Your Distribution Channels
7. Your Services and / or Products
8. Your Systems or Processes
9. Your Ideology

So over the next several posts I’ll discuss each of these Drivers and how you can use them to yield more business and more profit.

On A different note – a while back I shared what I was reading. Here’s the latest update (I’m reading 4 books simultaneously…maybe that is an indicator of ADD – I don’t know.)

Why You’re Dumb, Sick and Broke by Randy Gage

The Metabolism Advantage by John Berardi

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen (at Alwyn Cosgrove’s suggestion)

The Starbucks Experience 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary, Joseph Michelli

I’ll let you know if I think any are must reads – though from what I’ve read so far, all are very good.

Brought to you by:
http://www.getfitnessrich.com

It’s Sunday so I’ll make this quick:

1- I recently saw this in a fitness pro’s newsletter.

He publicly thanked his clients who had recently referred new business to him in his email newsletter.

Simple, right? But are you doing it?

People love to be appreciated.

By the way, have I told you recently how much I appreciate YOU?!

2- My good friend Pat Rigsby recently posted an awesome sample Joint Venture letter on his site. Grab a copy at:

http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/sample-jv.html

NOTE: You should also be reading Pat’s newsletter AND you should have a copy of his http://www.getfitnessrich.com in your trainer’s arsenal. If you want to be ridiculously successful that is.

Hope you’re having a great weekend!
Who loves ya?

Yours in prosperity,

Jim Labadie
http://www.getfitnessrich.com

PS- Turn $37 into $370,000 or more. Seriously. I’m not even close to kidding.

http://www.getfitnessrich.com

Have you ever notice we oftentimes make things SO much harder on ourselves than they need to be?

I don’t really need to write much for today’s lesson. I’m simply going to share this incredibly simple, but absurdly effective tip.

It was posted on http://personal-traineru.com by Seth Albright of South Carolina.

Here it is word-for-word – with permission, of course.

“This is a way that worked for me to get an endless supply of doctor referrals!

What I did was I started writing simple two page articles.

For instance, I would write articles like: “Mommies, The pooch in your belly and the pain in your mirror”, or “How to beat the winter blues with exercise”.

I would take them to the doctors office and ask the receptionist if she would hand them out to patients. The two articles mentioned above, I took to mental health professionals and ob/gyn offices.

In no time, I had doctors calling ME! Now, I write weekly articles for all kinds of medical professionals. They refer me to patients and other physicians so it’s like a big snowball effect. Give this a try, it works!”

Here endeth the lesson.

Seth, you are the man!!! Thanks for letting me share this.

Does it get any easier?

Who loves ya?

Yours in prosperity,

Jim Labadie
http://www.howtogeneratereferrals.com

PS- Want MORE endless referral ideas?

http://www.howtogeneratereferrals.com

“Jim,

I just wanted to thank you, Joe Stankowski, and Todd Scott for putting together the Ultimate Referral Kit for Fitness Pros. One of the simple strategies you taught in the kit resulted in a referral which lead to a $1500 sale – by far my biggest sale ever!”

Scott Colby
Dallas, TX

Many of you may be wondering – “What the hell is Rigsby talking about – being ready for change? How’s that apply to what I do?”

Let me elaborate.

I was talking to Alwyn Cosgrove yesterday and a couple of things we discussed led me to talk about change.

Alwyn and I are both fans of Thomas Plummer, the Health Club Expert. Thomas was talking about advertising and told Alwyn to invest in Yellow Pages advertising. Alwyn’s response was something to the effect of “Which one? There are eight in my city.”

Several years ago, placing an ad in your local Yellow Pages was simple and probably crucial – there was one per city (in most cities) and that’s where people looked for businesses.

Today, not so simple – and I would suspect not so important. If there are multiple Yellow Pages in my town, I couldn’t tell you – I don’t own one. If I need to look for a phone number of a business, I go to the Yellow Pages online. Admittedly, I may be the exception – but if I am – I probably won’t be for long.

Not so long ago, having a website was for “techies” and probably wouldn’t help you with generating local business. Today it’s dramatically different. My friend Brian Calkins generates virtually all of his non-referral business online. The health club that Nick and I own generates a significant number of leads online – and we’re in small-town Kentucky.

Ryan Lee has made millions anticipating change and staying one (or two) steps ahead of the curve.

So are you anticipating change? Are you staying current with the trends and making the appropriate changes in your business? What worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today. So keep up. And better yet – if you are a step ahead of a coming change – you can really prosper.

Change is the only thing in life that you can count on other than death and taxes.

If you fight it, change will be your greatest enemy. If you embrace it and anticipate it, change will be your biggest ally. Nothing is more apparent than the effect of change on businesses – look around – you’ll quickly see what happens to businesses that fail to keep up with change.

Businesses go out of business every day because they fail to keep up with change. If you simply view things as they appear – instead of staying aware of trends and anticipating what’s on the horizon – you soon be left in the wake of the businesses that knew change was imminent and acted on it.

I graduated high school in 1990 – not such a long time ago (some of you won’t agree…But I’m sticking to it) For those of you who weren’t toddlers – how many people did you know in 1990 who used cell phones? How many regularly used e-mail? How about a CD player? Today in 2006 – have you tried to buy a audio tape (not to even mention a vinyl record) lately? Half of you probably don’t even have home phones. Do you go into the bank to get cash – or do you go to the ATM?

It is said that the amount of information being published and becoming available is doubling every five years is more information today in one issue of a newspaper that the average person in the nineteenth century would have been exposed to in a lifetime.

Your prospects today are more educated and have more choices than ever before. They are more demanding, more knowledgeable, more price-conscious, and far less loyal. Because change affects a prospect just like it affects you, they’re more uncertain, skeptical, and aware that they’re at risk if they make mistakes.

Things change much faster than we imagine. And with that change comes threats, as well as opportunities to build your business. If you aren’t keeping up with change, and your business isn’t built to adapt to it, change will destroy it.

Are you ready?

I’m going to point out the obvious to you.

Fitness takes hard-work, discipline and dedication.

Now I’m going to point out something else obvious.

Hard-work, discipline and dedication are the main reasons people ARE NOT fit. At least that’s what I think.

In fact, if you ask most people, the furthest thing from their mind when they think Fitness is probably the word Fun.

Do a little experiment. Go out into the public and play ‘word-association.’ When you say Fitness what is the ONE word they associate with it?

The one word that comes right to mind?

I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts it ain’t FUN.

If you want a Unique Selling Position…

If you want to dominate your competition….

If you want your clients to stay with you….

Have fun.

And also reward your clients for all their hard-work, discipline and dedication.

A wise man once said, ‘it’s all the little things that make up the big things.’

Give your clients certificates of achievement.

Give your clients little trinkets and tokens of appreciation for a training session well done.

Why not have a client, or boot camper, of the month with a grand prize of some sort?

Why not have contests between different boot camp groups or semi-private training groups?

Why not (and I got this one from Zach Even-Esh) have different colored t-shirts for different clients and/or campers?

In other words, when someone signs up with you they get the ‘standard’ t-shirt.

But when they achieve a goal…

OR have been with you a certain length of time…

OR have graduated from the beginner boot camp to the ‘expert’ level…

OR have won the prestigious ‘client/camper of the month’ honor…

they get a SPECIAL t-shirt.

It could be a different color. Or a different whatever.

Doesn’t so much matter so long as it is perceived as an honor to wear. So long as it is viewed as something very special.

See where I’m going with this?

It almost sounds absurd, but people LOVE this stuff. It’s FUN for them!

Something else to do, especially in groups or camps, is to play games.

Yes, you remember those things you played as a kid. GAMES!

Don’t you remember all the FUN you had playing games?

My friend Jeremy Boone, the speed consultant for the Carolina Panthers of the NFL, has some breakthrough fitness games you can use with your groups and boot camps.

Whether you train athletes or the general population these breakthrough games are fun and guaranteed to keep your clients from getting bored.

In fact, they’ll love them so much they’ll be sure to tell anyone who will listen how much FUN they are having training with you!!!

Don’t underestimate the power of fun. Discover Jeremy’s secret games at:

http://CuttingEdgeFitnessGames.com

Who loves ya?

Yours in prosperity,
Jim Labadie
http://CuttingEdgeFitnessGames.com

PS – Supercharge the FUN in your workouts and Boot Camps!!!

http://CuttingEdgeFitnessGames.com

Is there anything more disgusting than the negative energy associated with political election season?

Yes, it’s that time of year here in the States. It’s election time.

The good news is you have some serious potential for fitness publicity.

Why?

The media is going to be looking for as many stories on the so-called “issues” as they can.

So how do the candidates stack-up from a fitness pro’s perspective?

- Who is the fittest/fattest candidate in your area?

- Who is the candidate that supports physical education or health and fitness initiatives?

- What health issues do the candidates have (or had) and how, as an expert, do you feel it will hamper/help their status as a government official?

You get the idea, right?

Your best bet? Rank the candidates from fittest to fattest. The media will eat it up!

Who loves ya?

Yours in prosperity,
Jim Labadie
http://www.celebrityfitnessimage.com

PS- Public speaking is a great way to promote yourself as an expert. Find out how at: http://www.amazingfitnesspresentations.com

What’s more frightening than Halloween?

Two things:

1- How friggin’ good I am at getting fitness pros on TV!

2- How friggin’ easy it is for YOU to get yourself on TV when you listen to me!

On Tuesday I sent out a newsletter on how you can score yourself some easy Fitness Publicity by ‘piggybacking’ on Halloween.

You can read it here:

http://trainandgrowrich.blogspot.com/2006/10/halloween-and-fitness-pro.html

At the end of it I asked that those of you who followed my advice to please email me the result.

Well, here’s our first winner!

‘Jim,

Just wanted to let you know that I did as your recommended in your ‘Halloween and the Fitness Pro newsletter.

I landed a spot with the top local news channel!

It will be a 4-minute segment of me describing some great total-body fat-loss circuits that can be done with a pumpkin as a client of mine demonstrates.

They absolutely loved the idea and have already said they want to talk to me about future segments!

Thanks for the advice buddy, much appreciated. Now I just have to get ready for live TV!”

Yours in fitness,

BJ Gaddour, CSCS
ggresultstraining.com

Why fitness pros would NOT take the time to read my newsletter, or worse, jump off my list, is beyond me.

One newsletter. One phone call to a TV producer. One TV appearance.

SO, what are YOU going to do about it? Are you already on the phone calling your local TV news?

Who loves ya?

Yours in prosperity,
Jim Labadie
http://www.blogger.com/www.howtogetmorepublicity.com

PS- Think my Ultimate Publicity Kit is worth the money? Brian Grasso thinks so:

“I am not in the habit of writing testimonials for professionals just for the sake of doing it. I honestly believe that it is important for fitness and sport training pros to have ‘one of their own’ assess the usefulness and practicality of a product for them, and then be able to declare it worthwhile or otherwise.

With Jim Labadie, and I can tell you without exaggeration, his products and information will transform your business forever. We all want to be busy; we all want to be in the media; we all want to be recognized as an expert. The reality is however, getting all of those things require know-how. Jim has the know-how.

There are several products on the market that educate fitness and sport training pros how to gain recognition in this very cluttered and competitive industry. They all come a very distant second to Jim Labadie.

Want to test the practicality of Jim’s products yourself? Go have a look at any local Tampa paper or news medium (where Jim is from). I GUARANTEE that you will see Jim Labadies’ name. He KNOWS that this stuff works because he uses it with absolute success himself. What more do you need to know?

It’s not whether you can afford to buy this product… It’s whether you can afford not to.”

Brian J. Grasso
Athletic Development Specialist
DevelopingAthletics.com

http://www.blogger.com/www.howtogetmorepublicity.com

This weekend was fun around Fitness Consulting Group headquarters. Allen Hill of Fitness Website Design came to visit for a mastermind session with Nick and I.

If you aren’t too familiar with Allen, he’s easily the brightest mind in the fitness industry when it comes to creating and monetizing web sites.

So we brainstormed, presented issues to one another and worked on business building strategies. I thought you might be interested in a few of the points we addressed…Specifically when we worked on Allen’s business. He’s just a sample of strategies we presented to Allen to work on his business (see how they might apply to your business):

• Develop completion plans for every task that is related to your business. Everything you do should be documented in such a thorough fashion that any competent web designer will be able to step in and produce the same quality of work.

• Hire a full-time assistant web designer. Allen is swamped. Even as he’s raised his fees, the demand for his services has continued to increase. People will pay for quality.

• Develop a “labor guide.” Growing up working in a garage help me with this idea. For every task a mechanic performs, he can look in a labor guide and have an estimate of how much time it will take to perform. Allen needs to do the same so he can give estimates to prospective clients and have a reasonable idea how long it will take his assistant designer (and future employees) to produce sites that match up to the quality he demands.

• Hire a bookkeeper. Allen is a master of Quickbooks (and anything else performed on a computer) – but his time is too valuable to be spent crunching numbers.

• Begin searching for a second niche market. The type of service Allen provides has been sorely needed in our industry, but I have no doubt that other industries have a void in this area as well. As soon as Allen has his systems and staff in place – there is no reason he couldn’t go after a different target market as well.

• Use you knowledge and skills to generate passive income from the “end user” market. As Ryan Lee frequently says – and we agree with – the big money is made selling to the general public. Allen needs to leverage his skills by using his ability to create high traffic sites that appeal to the end user and have strategies in place to reap passive income from it. We actually have a JV in the works that fits with this point – but he needed to refine his thoughts on it.

Allen is easily one of the brightest guys Nick and I have ever met. However, he still runs into the same problem that most trainers run into – he spend tons of time working in his business and not enough time working on it. It’s easy an easy trap to fall in to. He makes a significant fee for the services that he provides – a substantial increase over what he made as a full-time trainer. It’s easy to keep adding jobs because of the short-term gratification on the payday – but it is very shortsighted. Pretty soon, working 40 hours turns into 60 hours and in Allen’s case – now 90-110 hours per week. Unfortunately, this approach usually leads to burnout, a shitty quality of life and a real distaste for your profession.

Follow along with me and I’ll keep you posted on how Allen’s business evolves. I have a feeling that the changes will astound you.

You can make a nice income, but you’re never going to get rich simply selling your own time.

Let me give you an example:

If you train clients (sell your time) at $50 per hour and you train 6 clients per day, the maximum that you can earn is $300 per day.

Not bad. But when you consider paying the club or studio if you’re training there – or travel expenses and time if you go to clients’ homes – not extraordinary.

Now, what if you hired a couple of trainers and were able to pay them $25 instead of $50?

You could provide them with your proven systems that consistently deliver results and any procedures that you follow.

Now you could spend more of your time selling their time. If you sold four of those trainer’s time at $50 per session and still paid them each $25 per session, each of those trainer’s providing six sessions a day would pay you $600 for doing no more work. Probably less.

This is a basic point, but one that is crucial if you want to make a lot of money. Selling your own time not only provides poor leverage, but also can wear you out – quick.

Does that mean you shouldn’t continue to train. No. What it does mean is you should be constantly looking for ways to better leverage your time.