Personal Training Business - Fitness Business - Fitness Marketing

The State Of The Fitness Industry

June 14, 2011 By admin 30 Comments

Why the Fitness Industry Is in Better Shape than You Thought

dreamstime 17664595 The State Of The Fitness Industry

There were a number of discussions at Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit about the current state of the fitness industry. In fact, that’s been a hot topic on Facebook and blogs recently as well.

I’ve heard a number of people – many whom I respect greatly – say the fitness industry is in trouble.

I disagree. Strongly disagree.

Here’s my perspective, then you can decide for yourself.

The personal training segment of the fitness industry is very young. Compared to established professions like law or medicine – we’re in our infant stage.

How many retired personal trainers have you met? Not many… right?

Because of that, changes in the industry are frequent and rapid. That’s not a bad thing – just a fact.

Personal Trainer Business – The Big Decision

June 12, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 14 Comments

ryanleecontinuitysummit Personal Trainer Business – The Big Decision

During my talk Saturday at Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit, I covered something that I think is critical to personal trainer business success.

The concept of Value Creation vs Value Extraction.

This may be the most important concept that you’ll ever learn – so pay attention.

In the world of marketing and sales, most people focus on Value Extraction.

The try to determine how they can Extract as much from each customer or client and give little if any concern as to the Value they give back in exchange for the money they’re receiving.

Car salesmen, gym sales reps and a variety of other professions have developed bad reputations because enough of the people in their field built their entire careers on Value Extraction.

But Internet Marketing ‘Gurus’ currently seem to be the worst. Not all of them are bad – and some are really good.

But most suck.

The Key For Personal Training Business Growth

June 9, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 14 Comments

A Personal Training Business Guest Post By Ryan Ketchum

ryan The Key For Personal Training Business Growth

It is often easy to see things from an outside perspective and think that they are easy. I know that sometimes I get comments about my business and facility. Everyone wants to have a huge facility with clients; however, they don’t always consider the costs that go with these things.

I know that just one year ago I was at a crossroads. I sat in our elite mastermind meeting and was at a breaking point. We didn’t have enough help, we were overwhelmed and we had been stuck at the same revenue point for months. How in the heck could I do more and get more done at the rate I was going?

I was stressed beyond belief and ready to hand it all in if something didn’t change. It took an intervention from my closest friends and mastermind members. It took a slap in the face for me to realize how we were going to grow and how I was going to accomplish the things that I hoped could be accomplished.

The fact was I was trying to do too much myself and not letting go of the simple things. When I did let go of a few things I didn’t set my staff up for success and expected perfection without teaching it. I was so overwhelmed with what I thought I had to do that I didn’t realize what I didn’t need to do.

Value: The Key To Fitness Business Success

June 5, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 7 Comments

A Fitness Business Post By Pat Rigsby

photo 223x300 Value: The Key To Fitness Business Success

Sunday morning Ryan Ketchum and I were having breakfast with Todd Durkin and virtually the entire conversation focused on how to deliver more value to the people we serve.

Think about that – Todd is one of the faces of huge companies like Gatorade, Under Armour, TRX. He’s a Best Selling Author. He trains some of the top players in the NFL and he runs an ultra-successful fitness business of his own – Fitness Quest 10.

And his focus is how he can add more value for the people he works with.

For our businesses, it’s the exact same thing. “How can we deliver event more value?” is a question that we’re constantly asking ourselves.

The reason is simple:

The more value you provide the greater the likelihood you enjoy success.

Do you meet your fitness clients where they are?

June 1, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 6 Comments

A guest post by Paul Reddick

I’ve been nose to nose battling with a stubborn coaching client of mine recently on the most effective way to market his diet program. (I’m using Diet as the example here but this goes for marketing to your general fitness client as well)

I’m about to throw in the towel.

Here’s why:

complicated 300x225 Do you meet your fitness clients where they are?

There’s no doubt in my mind that the program is sound and will help people get healthy and lose weight. The problem is that the diet is just a tad more complicated than the federal budget. It takes discipline, some major adjustments, and access special food not easily found at your local supermarket.

His intentions are good. He wants help people and he has a program he believes in and he know works. But truth be told… good intentions are good for nothing. This diet catapults people right into the major leagues of nutrition. Not a place many regular people will ever sniff at.

As an expert, It’s your job to take people by the hand and help people navigate through the levels of any program… fitness or diet.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Business Success Tagged With: fitness clients

The Truth About Running A Fitness Bootcamp Business

May 26, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 14 Comments

The one thing needed in this day and age for fitness bootcamp business success

Yesterday I received an email from a customer saying:

“There are too many fitness bootcamp businesses out there – what can I do that’s different?”

I gave him a quick response, but I’m going to elaborate here…

Most Fitness Bootcamps Suck!

I will agree with him to a point: There are a LOT of fitness bootcamps now. A whole lot. 3 Years ago you could open a bootcamp business up and win by default. They were the new thing in fitness and if you were first mover you were almost automatically assured of success.

No more.

Now we’re past that stage and we’re on to the time where you actually need to be able to deliver a good product to succeed.

39 Lessons I’ve Learned

May 22, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 30 Comments

Today I turn 39. With just 365 days to go until I turn the Big 4-0 I did some reflection over how much has happened over the past few years and some of the lessons that I’ve learned.

Here are some of the most important ones…

1. Never compromise your integrity, for anything or anybody.

2. Deadlines are the difference between getting stuff done and just talking about it. All of my biggest successes have come with deadlines attached to them.

3. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Learn to say no.

4. My favorite business times are our Mastermind Meetings and our live events. I love being surrounded by like-minded, fitness entrepreneurs.

5. Whatever you need to get done, do it now. Not next week, not tomorrow, not later today – now.

6. My favorite times overall are simple family ‘hang outs’ like Holly, Tyler, Alex and me watching a ballgame or movie. Nothing beats low hassle quality family time.

7. When you feel overwhelmed, don’t try to do everything – just do something.

Top 10 Traits Of A Successful Fitness Professional

May 16, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 21 Comments

The other day someone asked me what the top 10 traits of a successful fitness professional are. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to answer. There are so many things that go into being a top flight personal trainer – I had trouble narrowing it to 10. Below is what I came up with – but I’d really like to hear your thoughts. So review my Top 10 and then let me know what traits I missed in the comments area below.

Education: The fitness pro’s education is not only extremely important, but it should be continual. Great personal trainers and coaches keep learning because they have a passion for knowledge, are driven to help the people they work with and want to stay ahead of the competition.
Integrity: Integrity is vital for the fitness pro. Integrity is a concept of consistency of values, actions, methods, expectations, outcomes and principles. It’s sense of one’s truthfulness and honesty in relationship to one’s motives and actions. Without integrity you really don’t have anything.

Screen shot 2011 05 16 at 10.05.27 PM 300x208 Top 10 Traits Of A Successful Fitness Professional

17 Random Personal Training Business Tips

May 11, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 13 Comments

I love lists. Bullet points. They just fit with the way that I think. I’m not much of a fiction reader – but I plow through 2-3 non-fiction books each and every week. I guess it’s because I enjoy facts… not fantasy. So when I was thinking of some personal training business tips to share with you, I decided to do it in bullet point format. I can just jump from one thing to the next without screwing up the flow of the entire post and you can pull out the ones you like (and will take action on) and pass on the rest.

So, let’s get started.

17 random personal training business tips:

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve gotten a follow-up letter or card or call from anybody I’ve spent money with over the past year. It just never happens. And this was the best kind: thank you + sales pitch. There’s a very simple formula for you. Send thank you cards and make an offer or ask for a referral.
At whatever point(s) you have one on one contact with clients in your business, there ought to be an upsell or a request for a referral… unless you already make too much money.
I just did an entire post on this here… but very few businesses ever become great without knowing who they are really trying to serve. So if you haven’t figured it out yet, decide who you are for fast.

Fitness Marketing Success: Who’s Your Who?

May 8, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 12 Comments

who 300x220 Fitness Marketing Success: Whos Your Who?

One of the biggest hindrances to fitness marketing success I see made is not knowing ‘who your who is’… or who you are actually for.

This is a lesson I learned way back when I was coaching college baseball, and a lesson which every time I’ve deviated from I’ve suffered.

When I coached, I built a very successful program by recruiting blue collar type players. Young men from middle class or lower middle class families that were usually hard workers, had been overlooked by bigger colleges and had a chip on their shoulder – determined to prove that they were better than some of the ‘hot prospects’ that had kept them in the shadows.

I knew this was my type of player. It was who I identified with. Who I was most effective coaching. In fact, it’s probably who I’d been just a few years prior.

This worked for me. Recruiting those types of players was comfortable for me. Coaching those guys was fun… we even finished 5th in the World Series one season with a team comprised almost entirely of those types of blue collar players.

The only time I ever really deviated from that recruiting strategy was the point when coaching stopped being fun. After having a decent amount of success, I was now able to get the attention of some of the more highly touted recruits. I was a pretty good salesman so a number of them ended up choosing to become part of our program.

Biggest mistake I ever made as a coach.