A fitness business owner success story by Pat Rigsby

Each month here at FBI we recognize a Fitness Business Owner of the Month.  We hope to not only recognize fitness entrepreneurs for their successes but also to inspire other fitness pros to move forward in their business endeavors.

The winner will not only get a public ‘pat on the back’ in the form of a post like this, but they’ll also receive a 1 hour coaching call, free admission to the live event of their choice and a product of their choice from what we offer here at FBI.

Our March Fitness Business Owner of the Month is Jeff McDaniel, Owner of Bootcamp: Bulletproof in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Jeff and his business Bootcamp: Bulletproof have been in operation for over 3 years and in that time have grown to serving almost 90 clients with just he and one other staff member.

Jeff initially started out running his camp in a park like many fitness pros and has grown into his own facility where he runs 6 different camps and an expanding online Bootcamp To Go program.

Jeff is one more great example of the opportunity the fitness industry offers.  In just a short period of time (he really only started studying the business side of fitness in the last year) he’s grown into his own facility and has both an offline and online presence.

So Congratulations Jeff!  I’m excited to name you Fitness Business Owner of the Month and look forward to giving you your well deserved prizes of the coaching call and the product from the FBI collection of resources as well as seeing you at a live event of your choosing soon!

If you’d like to be considered for next month’s Fitness Business Owner of the Month, please contact our Customer Experience Manager, Lee Ann Salsman at leeann.fcg@gmail.com for an application.

A fitness business owner success story by Pat Rigsby

Each month here at FBI we recognize a Fitness Business Owner of the Month.  We hope to not only recognize fitness entrepreneurs for their successes but also to inspire other fitness pros to move forward in their business endeavors.

The winner not only gets a public ‘pat on the back’ in the form of a post like this, but they’ll also receive a 1 hour coaching call, free admission to the live event of their choice and a product of their choice from what we offer here at FBI.

Our February Fitness Business Owners of the Month are Ron & Kimberly Smith, Owner of Spartan Fitness in Moberly, Missouri.

Ron & Kimberly have been in business as Spartan Training for just 5 months and in that time have grown to serving over 200 clients.  Incredible.

While they primarily offer bootcamps, they just launched a martial arts program and have already enrolled 40 participants.  They also have integrated Prograde supplements as a back end offering to their clients and are now looking to expand into the sports training market.

Ron & Kimberly and the entire Spartan Training team are a great example of the opportunity the fitness industry offers.  In less than 6 months they’ve surpassed their goal of 150 clients (with 202 at last count), already have been adding time slots and are looking for a larger location.

So Congratulations Ron & Kimberly!  We’re excited to name you Fitness Business Owner of the Month and look forward to giving you your well deserved prizes of the coaching call and the product from the FBI collection of resources as well as seeing you at a live event of your choosing soon!

If you’d like to be considered for next month’s Fitness Business Owner of the Month, please contact our Customer Experience Manager, Lee Ann Salsman at leann.fcg@gmail.com for an application.

A Post On Fitness Business Income Generation By Pat Rigsby

Since I’ve been on the business coaching and franchising side of things for fitness business owners, nothing has surprised me more than the number of business owners who fail to maximize the value of their personal network and their client base.

This is amazing to me because those same fitness business owners will spend piles of money to market to people that they have no prior relationship with.

The truth is, the biggest opportunity for an influx of income into your fitness business is right in your own database. When you make an offer to members of your personal network or existing and past clients, it’s not only easier to sell them something (versus new prospects off the street), but your business actually become more profitable because you don’t have nearly the cost of client acquisition.

The other benefit to this is that it really is providing a better, more complete solution for your existing clients and it’s helping those people in your network achieve their health and fitness goals.

A true win – win.

Your Fitness Business Database

What do you need to get started generating a surge of income for your business?

First, you need to create your Master Networking List.  This is a database of everyone in your area that you know.  You can start developing it by creating a spreadsheet and list the following people:

• Everyone in your cell phone that is local.
• Everyone in your email address book that is local.
• Everyone on Facebook that you actually know and lives locally.
• All of your clients, former clients and prospects.

List everything you know about them.  If you have any of the following, list it:

• Email
• Phone
• Occupation
• Birthday
• Address
• Hobbies / Organizations / Interests

Once you have this list started – and understand now that it’s never finished as you’ll be adding people each and every week (won’t you?) – here’s the next step…

Fitness Business Income Booster #1 – The Master Network Push

For all the members of your network – friends, family members, neighbors and more – you need to start reaching out and personally inviting them in to experience what you have to offer.

This is an easy one – but I’d bet it goes overlooked 98% by fitness pros trying to grow their business.

Send a personal email or make a personal call and let them know what you offer and invite them in for 2 weeks worth of free training. Here’s what will happen.

• Some won’t respond.
• Some will be polite, but they won’t be interested.
• Some will take you up on your offer and come in to try out your programs.
• A few will really be excited about your offer and become your biggest advocates.

Assuming that this list is a minimum of 150 people (except in rare circumstances, if the list is less than 150 people – you’re not trying), then you should be able to get through it in about 6-8 weeks if you’re contacting at least 3 people per day.

The added bonus to all this is that you’ll find doors opening for you based on this outreach.  Your friends will know people that can get you public speaking opportunities, PR opportunities and any number of other things.

Treat your Master Network like gold and focus on growing it – you may find that along with the referrals from your existing clients – that’s all you need to get the number of leads you want for your business.

Fitness Business Income Booster #2 – The Reactivation Campaign

You’d be surprised by how many past clients have no idea why they stopped using your services.  Or maybe they do know – but their reason for leaving was temporary. All they need is a reminder of why they liked working with you…and perhaps a special incentive to come back.

What could you do to reactivate past clients?

You could start with a simple email or personal card with copy something like this:

What else works well for reactivating past clients?

• A phone call from you the owner. People want to be treated like VIPs.  Make them feel appreciated and give them a special offer to come back.
• Invite them back to special client appreciation events. Make them feel like they’re still part of the community.
• Invite them to enroll in one of your Transformation Contests or attend a Charity Workout.  These are relatively small commitments compared to a longer term membership and might be just what they need to come back on board.

Fitness Business Income Booster #3 – The Triple Threat

The next Income Booster is a favorite of mine called the Triple Threat Money Maker.  It’s something we’ve used in our businesses – both training businesses and online businesses actually – and always enjoyed great success.

And the best part is that the Triple Threat Money Maker is super simple to execute – so you have no excuse not to put it into action asap.

Here’s What You Have To Do:

Step 1: The foundation of the Triple Threat Money Maker is raising your program rates.  You should be raising your rates periodically and there is no better time to do this than now as most fitness pros don’t raise their rates often enough. A rate increase of 5% is very reasonable – even conservative for group training or bootcamps.  For 1 on 1 or semi-private, adding $3-5 per session is easy and will virtually never be met with even a hint of a complaint.

Step 2: Notify your current clients that the rates will be increasing on the first of next month by whatever amount you determined was right – however, they can lock in at their current rate by committing to a 12 month membership (6 months is fine too if you’re only selling month to month memberships now).

Step 3: Contact all of your former clients in your fitness business and your prospects, and tell them about the upcoming rate increase.  Let them know that they can lock in at the current rates if they enroll in a 12 month program before the year’s end.

That’s it.

Well, that’s not exactly it…here are some details that we’ve used to make this work like crazy:

• Use a variety of means to contact your clients.  For our clients, we’ve sent letters and emails as well as making personal calls and in person notifications.  We wanted to make sure that all of their questions were answered and they were not only willing to make the long term commitment – but they were excited about it as they felt like they were getting a great deal.
• We used the same type of approach for former clients and unconverted prospects.   We sent letters, emails and made phone calls.  We’ve also even used voice broadcasts to remind people on the final day of the offer.
• It’s always worked best when we’ve intensified the push during the final days of the offer leading up to the deadline.  People are procrastinators so we always make sure that we hit everyone with a call during the final 48 hours and at least one email the last day.

With this approach you’re personal training business is going to make more money in 3 different ways and none of it is a short term boost:

• You’re going to get current clients to commit for 12 more months – which is longer than the membership lifespan of the average bootcamper.
• You’re going to get a surge of former clients and unconverted leads who don’t want to miss out on the deal – and they’re all committing for a 12 month term too.
• All your new clients – and the current ones that don’t want to commit – will be paying you more each month.

Not to mention that when you get the new surge of business you’ll have more people to get referrals from and make back end offers too…

So there you go – the Tripe Threat Money Maker – Income Booster #3.

Fitness Business Income Booster #4 – The Complete Solution

Offering upsells and back end sales to your current clients is simply trying to provide a more complete solution for the people you serve.  Whether that is giving them an opportunity to buy bands so they can workout on the road or offering them supplements (we recommend Prograde to address some of their nutritional needs – you’re simply better assisting them to achieve the goals that led them to you in the first place).

Nutrition is an easy solution to add on as it’s usually the biggest challenge you face when trying to keep your clients compliant.  The best solution we’ve found that you can add into your business to address making eating supportively easy for your clients is Personal Trainer Foods.

For you it’s great because it doesn’t require a significant investment of time or money and it doesn’t require any inventory.

For your clients it’s equally great as it addresses portion control and convenience – two big nutritional challenges to getting clients achieve their goals.

So with that, here’s how you can integrate Personal Trainer Foods as an upsell and a back end offer into your business.

Step 1: Enroll In The Program – To start offering this solution to your clients you need to enroll in the program so you can start selling products to your clients and receiving a commission for those sales.  If you want to enroll in Personal Trainer Foods program at no charge, you can do that here:

https://www.personaltrainerfood.com/signup.html

Step 2: Decide How You Will Promote The Products – We set up a few different systems to promote products to our clients.  We had structured offers at:

The Initial Point Of Sale
Periodic Assessments or Meetings
Special Events

If you’re going to follow the same approach, at the point of sale you might educate them about the importance of eating supportively and introduce the solution.

During your assessments you can educate the client on what they might do to accelerate their progress and support what they were doing during their training.

You can use a simple script like this:

“Ms. Jones, you’d like to accelerate your progress, correct?

We both know that when you’re training with me you’re working hard, you’re getting stronger and you’re steadily improving.

What that tells me is that it’s what you’re doing outside the gym / camp that seems to be holding you back.  I know that you’ve told me that you seem to struggle with eating supportively on a consistent basis breakfast, so what I suggest is that you try a nutrition program that a number of our clients have had great success with called Personal Trainer Foods.

This will ensure that you are getting the right portions of protein and produce in a convenient fashion and you’re getting even better results from all the hard work you’re putting in. How’s that sound?”

Step 3: Executing The Plan Every Time – This is the one that most people miss.  So many trainers say that they’re going to make back end sales to their clients – but most never do.
You have to build these processes into your business.  If you can build foam rolling into your training sessions, you can build a simple sales script into a meeting or assessment.

Step 4: Making It Part Of The Culture – For our Wall of Fame and Testimonial books, we not only posted the successes of the client (Ms. Jones lost 27 lbs and dropped 2 dress sizes), but we also shared how frequently they were meeting with their trainer or what program they were in and we shared what ancillary offerings they were using.

You can do things like that when you highlight your client or camper of the week / month, provide the solutions they are using as handouts or in newsletters and have links to your store in every newsletter, on your website and anywhere else you’re share online information.

A few other tips for more Back End Sales:

• Make it easy to buy.  Keep your laptop around so you can help the client make their initial order – or, if you can’t do that, keep initial order forms handy and process the initial order for your clients.
• Educate your clients.  Provide them with articles, offer good content in newsletters and educate them on the benefits of everything you do or endorse.
• Practice what you preach.  It’s much easier to endorse something you believe in enough to use yourself.
• Only sell what you really believe in.  I’d never tell you to sell something that you’re not 100% behind, so do your homework and pick the products you truly believe will help your clients.

There are 4 Income Boosters for your Fitness Business.

Start down the list and start generating more cash for your fitness business today.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat

A fitness business owner success story by Pat Rigsby

Each month here at FBI we’re going to start recognizing a Fitness Business Owner of the Month.  We hope to not only recognize fitness entrepreneurs for their successes but also to inspire other fitness pros to move forward in their business endeavors.

The winner will not only get a public ‘pat on the back’ in the form of a post like this, but they’ll also receive a 1 hour coaching call, free admission to the live event of their choice and a product of their choice from what we offer here at FBI.

Our January Fitness Business Owner of the Month is Greg McClellan, Owner of Elite Athletes in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Greg and his business Elite Athletes have been in operation for over a year and a half and in that time have grown to serving anywhere from 100-225 clients with a team of 3 full time and 2 part time trainers.

They offer one-on-one, small/large groups, sports specific training and nutrition coaching with their primary market being youth fitness & sports performance.

Greg is a great example of the opportunity the fitness industry offers.  In just under a year in business he’s grown to over 100 clients and has a staff helping to deliver his services to create leverage in his business.  He’s not only employed multiple streams of income into his business, but he’s also tapped into one of the true goldmines in the industry – youth fitness / sports performance.

So Congratulations Greg!  I’m excited to name you Fitness Business Owner of the Month and look forward to giving you your well deserved prizes of the coaching call and the product from the FBI collection of resources as well as seeing you at a live event of your choosing soon!

If you’d like to be considered for next month’s Fitness Business Owner of the Month, please contact our Customer Experience Manager, Lee Ann Salsman at leeann.fcg@gmail.com for an application.

At this point Deal of the Day offers are pretty commonplace among the fitness business pros that I talk with. 

But even with them being so common most trainers struggle to extract even half the value they can provide to a business.

With that in mind I’ve put together a little primer on how you can get value from Groupon, Living Social and the rest as the market has matured.

Determine What You Want – Are you looking for 200-800 leads?  An influx of cash?  Would you rather get fewer leads, but at a little better quality?  You need to know what you’re trying to get out of a Deal of the Day offer before you ever start.

Remember, They Need You More Than You Need Them – Very few businesses are as well equipped as a group training business to sell through a Deal of the Day site.  For their main offers, these sites basically want to sell ‘Look Good, Feel Good or Taste Good’ packages – and a lot of the providers of those are less anxious to do a deal than you’d think.

Most massage therapy businesses are ill equipped to handle big volume.  Restaurants costs go us proportionally to their sales and they don’t really offer continuity.  So a lot of these types of businesses negotiate with the Deal of the Day site to make the offer work for them – and you can too.

Remember, without something to sell, these sites don’t exist and there are a finite number of businesses in each community – so they need you in order to be successful – so negotiate to get the deal you want.

Build The Right Offer – Pretty much anything you sell through one of these site will convert best if it’s a full month deal.  My suggestion is not to offer unlimited.  A deluxe package that includes 3 days per week of bootcamp should convert well if you add a few bonuses like:

• An assessment
• An orientation
• A meal plan
• A motivational program (you could just send a series of emails)

I’m sure you can think of others.  Something like this will usually sell for $25-49 and generate the highest volume of leads. If you want fewer leads, offer something at a price point from $49-99.  This would typically include semi-private or even 1 on 1 training.  Typically your offer will sell between 15-35% of normal value.

Add Time Slots – My suggestion is to add additional temporary time slots if you have an influx of leads. The key word here is temporary.  Tell your clients your adding these time slots for 4-6 weeks to accommodate the influx of new people and the new times will disappear unless you hit a certain number of ongoing members for those times.  This will help you keep your current people happy.

Staff Up – If you need to add staff – do it.  Get superstar campers to help out as needed with orientations or as assistant coaches. The way to manage an influx is to plan for it.

Have An Online Registration Form – Ideally the Deal of the Day site will allow you to have a link on the page to a registration page on your site where the buyers can activate their coupon.  On this form you’ll want to capture name, phone and email at minimum.  On the thank you page, I’d do the following:

Step 1: Have a One Time Offer To Upgrade – have a sales page where the Deal of the Day buyer can upgrade their membership to 3 additional months where they pay just $1 for the next month and regular price for the following 2 months.  While you won’t convert a lot of these, you’ll get a few.

Step 2: Give Them a Special Bonus Page – after they exit the one time offer or take the upgrade, have the new buyer land on a final thank you page that has the following:

• An Opt In Form For A FREE Unannounced Bonus – a special report from Prograde. Prograde offers a couple great free special reports that not only will deliver some value to your new client, but will also ‘tag’ the lead under you in Prograde’s system so that Prograde will start marketing to them and you’ll get the commissions to any sales that are made…while they do all the work.

 

• Tips On How To Get The Most From Your Program - this is a big win/win where you can strengthen the relationship with the new client by giving them valuable tips and suggestions – and you can also promote things like Meal Movement as key success factors to get them most from the program.

Plug Them Into The Conversion Funnel – Ideally, you’ll then move the prospect into this type of Conversion Funnel:

Step 1: Initial Call To Build Value – If you have a number of leads that is manageable, you should try to spend 15-20 minutes on the phone with each new client during an initial call to ask them what their goals are, why achieving those goals is important to them and then explaining how your program will help them achieve what they want.  You’ll also schedule them for an initial orientation.

This step will help you get far more people to show up and pre-sell your program so that when you make an in-person offer they already feel comfortable with how your program will help them achieve their goals.

If you don’t have time to talk to everyone – call as many as you can and send questionnaires to the rest.  To convert at a high level you need to ‘find their pain’ and be able to explain how your program will alleviate it.

Step 2: Make a Confirmation Call – Everyone should receive a confirmation call to remind them of when they need to be at orientation, what to wear, where you’re located and anything else they need to do to get the most from the experience.

This will help alleviate some of the anxiety associated with a client coming to a first session.

Step 3: Run An Orientation – An orientation is the perfect bridge for your new clients to get them into your regular programs.  You can go over expectation, common exercises and do a mini-assessment where you at least assess how they might do in your regular program.

This time is also when you’ll really emphasize how your program will help them achieve their goals. You can make some personal connections. It’s really a great opportunity to separate yourself from any other fitness experience they’ve ever had.

At the conclusion of the orientation, make an offer.  Something simple like this:

“We really appreciate you becoming part of the Fitness Revolution Family.  If you already know that our program is going to be a good fit to help you achieve you goals, I’d like to make you a special offer.  You can trade in your one month membership for an additional month FREE if you enroll in our 3 month program.

Then you’d be able to train with us for the next 4 months and have only 2 monthly installments of $179 in February and March.

If you’d like to take advantage of this, you can turn back in this form today or by the end of our class on Monday.”

You’ll convert some lead right there and some others by the end of the next session.

Step 4: Send a Follow Up Text - Something simple like:

“Just wanted to let you know that you did a great job today.  Can’t wait to see you Monday!”

The highest attrition point fitness pros see from Deal of the Day buyers is those that buy but never show up.  The second highest?  People who never come back after Day 1.  This will help improve that.  It will also help sway those people thinking about taking you up on your special offer.

Step 5: Assessment / Consultation – Ideally the assessment would happen before someone is actually starting your program – but if you don’t have time due to volume, try to meet with everyone who is active to do a personal goal and physical assessment.  This will help not only deliver a better training experience – but will also help you build value in your program and form a stronger personal connection.

During this session you can give them a second chance at the initial special offer.

Step 6: 7 Touches in 21 Days – During the Deal of the Day Client’s first 21 days, you should set a goal of 7 touches.  This can be any combination of:

• Personal calls from you
• Personal emails from you
• Personal texts from you
• Assessments / consults
• Newsletters
• Thank You Cards
• Brief personal chats before or after sessions

Something that I’ve fallen in love with as a ‘touch’ recently is a tool called Postcard on the Run:

http://www.postcardontherun.com

You snap a photo with your smart phone and you can send it as a postcard straight from your phone for $1.49.  This is a great personal touch that will certainly separate you from your competitors.

Step 7: Make A Second Offer – Around the end of week 3 you can make a second special offer.  My suggestion is to phase it something like this:

“I’d like to go ahead and get you enrolled in an ongoing program so you can continue to see results.  We have a 2 session per week option for $129 and a 3 session per option for $179.  If you’d like to go ahead and lock in your spot I’ll go ahead and give you the first month for $39.  Which option would you like to continue with?”

By asking in the 3rd week, if they say they need to think about it, you still have a couple sessions remaining to secure their enrollment.

Step 8: Final Offer - On the next to last day of their Deal of the Day membership you should remind them of the offer you just made and let them know this is their final opportunity to get their next month at the discounted rate.  The deadline will convert the people on the fence.   If you have a downsell offer like a DVD of your own, a Fitness Coaching Program or a Bootcamp To Go type of program – sell it here.

Referrals, Connections & Back End Offers - Once someone becomes a client in one of your 3, 6 or 12 month programs – you should be leaning on them for:

• Referrals – as at the Point of Sale and periodically thereafter.
• Connections – opportunities to do speaking engagements, connect with charities or run corporate programs.
• Back End Sales – Nutrition Coaching, Workshops, Meal Movement, Supplements like Prograde, Bands and anything else that will complement their current program.

Maximize Their Value – Hopefully you convert 20-40% of the Deal of the Day Buyers that attended your camp into 3, 6 or 12 month clients. Using the above mentioned conversion process will certainly help.  But even with those conversion rates, you still have 60-80% that didn’t buy so we need to maximize their value.  Here are a couple ideas:

Follow Up With Low Risk Offers – If you run Transformation Contests, 21 Day Drop a Dress Size Deals, Workshops and other offers like that – make sure you’re sending them to this list.  If you get $47-197 from a half dozen of these prospects every time you run an offer – you’ll end up generating an additional $5000 – $10,000 from this list.

Sell Affiliate Promotions – Again – our goal at this point is to generate value from these leads so you can run offers to affiliate products like:

• Information Products like Fit Yummy Mummy
• Supplements like Prograde.
• Products like bands.
• Other solutions like Meal Movement.

These people have shown an interest in fitness and fat loss, so if you continue to present them with offers for solutions or tools that can help them with their fitness or fat loss goals you’ll generate some sales. This just requires to keep mailing them a newsletter with good information  – which you should be doing anyway.

If you approach Deal of the Day Offers like this, then you can potentially generate revenue at 12 different points:

1. Initial Split with the Deal of the Day Site
2. One Time Offer At Online Registration
3. Prograde sales through Unannounced Gift Report
4. Sales at Orientation
5. Sales at Assessment
6. Sales at Second Offer After Week 3.
7. Final Special Offer Opportunity
8. Downsells at Final Meeting
9. Referrals from Clients
10. Upsells to Clients
11. Low Risk Offers to Unconverted Leads
12. Affiliate Offers to Unconverted Leads

At least 12 different ways to profit from Deal of the Day buyers – and that’s not counting back end offers individually.  A little bit different than the way most people approach it, right?  Most take the split from the Deal of the Day site and maybe make a single offer and convert 5% of the leads.  Don’t make that mistake – follow this plan and make Deal of the Day offers work for you.

Good luck with your fitness business.

Tell me what you think below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

My Road To Success

by Joe Dowdell, CSCS

Sometimes, success can be a difficult thing to classify because it really depends on the perspective of the individual.  Some people view success as purely a monetary achievement while others see it as a desired or favorable outcome.  Some people become successful because they started out with lots of money; some because they worked really hard to obtain it; some because they were really smart; some because they got lucky and some because of a combination of these things. Frankly, I don’t think it really matters how one becomes successful (unless it was through unscrupulous behavior), rather what impresses me is when successful people are able to maintain their success, or even better, they continue to build upon it once it’s already been achieved it.

When I first decided to venture into the fitness industry on my road to success, I really didn’t know much about it.  I was at a point in my life where I wanted to make a career change and really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.  It was through an unexpected conversation with an ex-girlfriend’s trainer that launched me into the industry.  During the conversation, I realized that the thought of making my living by being in the gym and helping transform people’s lives was very appealing.  Plus, I’m not going to lie; I also liked the fact that he said that I could potentially make a six-figure income, which also quite appealing to me.

As a child, I didn’t come from a family with a lot of money, but I was raised by very loving parents, who provided a good home for me and my two sisters, and a Dad who had a tremendous work ethic.  In fact, my Dad was a NYC homicide detective for almost 10 years before making the decision to go into business for himself.  I watched him work long hours and really hustle to provide for my Mom and my family.  He always told me that I should be my own boss and that thought never left my head.  Eventually, my Dad became a very successful entrepreneur and he served as my biggest role model.

So, armed with his work ethic and the core values that he instilled in me, I began working at a commercial gym in New York City.  I only had a couple of fitness certifications, but it was actually a couple more than any of the other trainers that I was working beside.  Even though I was new to the industry, I could see that the quality of the training that was going on around me was poor.  There was more talking and flirting going on than training.  And, I soon realized this situation wasn’t for me and I knew I wanted more for me and my clients.  So, over the course of the 11 months that I worked at this gym, I trained my clients while also making plans to exit this situation.  I decided to follow my Dad’s advice and be my own boss so I purchase my own equipment and moved into a live/work loft near Union Square.  I carved out 400 square feet of space in my home and began training my client’s in my little gym.  Over the course of three years, I build up my business so that I had clients in my house all day and night.  During this time, I received my first big break.  I had the opportunity to train a model named Stacey Williams for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.  Now, Stacey had appeared in the previous year’s issue, but she was strictly a Yoga practitioner and she was in pretty good shape.  But, she decided she wanted to try something different and a make-up artist who I was training told her about me.  I trained Stacey for 6 months preparing her for the shoot, and she looked awesome when she left to go do the shoot.  When the issue came out, she looked drastically different from her previous appearance, and as a result, I began getting quite a bit of press and lots of new referrals. I decided it was time for me to expand my business.

I found a 2,000 square foot training loft in Gramercy Park; signed a 5 year lease and moved my business into there.  Once again, I worked and studied from 6 AM-9 PM.  I hosted weekend seminars and weeklong internships at my studio.  It was a great opportunity for me to learn while cutting down my travel costs. J After about a year, I need to hire a couple of trainer in order to train my client overflow.  Not much longer after this move, I decided to open my door to a handful of independent trainers so they could bring their clients into my facility.  My little business was starting to make some noise in the NYC market.  I started training more celebrities, a ton of top models and I began to get more inquiries from magazines for contributions.  In addition, I kept bringing in some of the top educators in the industry and I began to establish strong relationships with these individuals.  During late 1999, I received a call from Jeff O’Connell, who at the time was the Fitness Director of Men’s Fitness, and he asked if I would be interested in creating a millenium (Year 2000) workout for the magazine.  Basically, he wanted me to create a 12 month periodized training program for their readers.

So, I accepted the assignment and starting that January, I was in Men’s Fitness every month.  My profile (and that of my brand, Peak Performance) really started to elevate.  My business continued to grow and I kept reinvesting in both my education as well as my facility.  I upgraded some of my equipment and attended multiple internships with Paul Chek, Charles Poliquin, Tom Purvis and I even went and slept of Dr. Mel Siff’s basement floor for four days.  After 3 & ½ years, I realized that I was at a crossroads.  I could stay in my current facility, which was starting to reach capacity, and be very comfortable with the lifestyle that I had built or I could take a risk and expand.  I decided that I wanted more so I hired a business advisor.

Over the next 14 months, we planned out my strategy and I ended up signing a 10 year lease on a 10,000 square foot space in the Flat Iron area of NYC.  Since moving into my current location, On my road to success,Peak has continued to grow and is now recognized as one of the top gyms in the country.   I still have a huge emphasis on continuing education and I believe it’s the backbone of becoming a better trainer.   So, this is why I am so passionate about my latest program, The Peak Diet & Training Summit Home Study course, because it is everything that I wished I knew when I was starting out in the industry.  I want trainers to take all this information, digest it, and then put it into action with their clients so they can get the best results, which will help them grow their businesses.

You can save $100 on the Home Study course if you invest before tomorrow night while getting 2.0 NSCA CEUs and Pat’s Fitness Profit Formula as a free bonus. Click here

Ever since Eric, Mike and I started telling people that we were working on Fitness Business Blueprint we’ve received a LOT of questions.

Since we launched yesterday this has only multiplied.

So we’ve put together answers to the most common questions we’ve received below:

Do I have to have an existing training business to benefit from Fitness Business Blueprint?

Answer: Ideally, Fitness Business Blueprint would work best if you have your own business or at least the desire to start one. Because at the end of the day, that’s where your long-term success will come from.

But that being said, having your own business is NOT mandatory to benefit from Fitness Business Blueprint.  You can still benefit from Fitness Business Blueprint if you are an employee or a contractor in someone else’s business by learning how to be a better coach, a better marketer and a better salesperson.

But at some point, you’ll want to have the freedom that running your own business provides. And by using what you learn from us to build your own business, you’ll achieve that in record time.

What if I’m brand new to the fitness industry. Is Fitness Business Blueprint right for me?

Answer: That’s one we’re getting a lot. And it’s a legitimate concern. So here’s the deal…

If you know absolutely nothing about coaching, have no training experience whatsoever, and are a complete novice in the industry, then this probably isn’t for you.

Because Fitness Business Blueprint is not one of those products that don’t ask you to be good at your craft, we ask more of you than the average ‘marketer’ would before investing in this product.

If you have no training background, then you need to study your craft.  Dig in to Mike and Eric’s materials as well as some of the other coaching / training resources that we recommend.  Only after you’ve done that legwork will Fitness Business Blueprint yield it’s true benefit to you.

And if you’re willing to actually spend the time learning your craft, then apply what we show you, then you’ll be starting a business armed with a skill-set entrepreneurs everywhere only wish they had when they started.

You’ll avoid all the paralyzing mistakes while consistently building a successful and profitable business.

But, by simply utilizing what you learn in Fitness Business Blueprint, you’ll be able to avoid the dreaded “overworked and underpaid” stage and ascend to having the business you want much faster than you ever thought possible.

Mike & Eric – I want a business like IFAST or Cressey Performance.  How will Fitness Business Blueprint help me get there?

Mike: I love the term “fast-track” – this product will absolutely help fast track you so you don’t have to make the same mistakes that Eric and I have made along the way.

I wish I would’ve had something like this when I got started. Sure, I had access to great minds like Pat, Nick, Alwyn, etc., but I didn’t have a resource that was all-inclusive in nature. With a product like this I literally could’ve sat down and hammered out all of my systems, my marketing, etc., and not had to take so many bumps along the way!

Quite simply if you’re a new business owner, this will take you step-by-step through what you need to be successful.

Eric: In a broad sense, it shows one how to avoid the mistakes we made, but also take advantage of the things we actually did correctly!

First, The Fitness Business Blueprint will expedite the process of finding and developing a niche – which will, in turn, dictate marketing efforts. It helps trainers avoid trying to be everything to everyone.

It’ll also help fitness professionals understand the difference between lead generation and lead conversion.  For us, an intricate strategy with respect to the former has been absolutely essential, while the latter hasn’t been a concern at all.  Some businesses are the exact opposite – and you need different strategies for each of the two.

Mike and I can also help one develop multiple revenue streams to facilitate growing one’s clientele, and retention strategies to best serve your an clientele.

Above all else, I think that we can show as well as anyone that being successful and being true to who you are don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  You can run a profitable fitness facility that is built upon science, hard work, and a genuine desire to improve relationships and help others.

Can I go through Fitness Business Blueprint at my own pace?

Answer: Absolutely. You get access to the entire Fitness Business Blueprint package so you can go through the material at whatever pace you feel most comfortable.  No rush, no pressure.

Pat, I already have your some of your other products. Is Fitness Business Blueprint different?

Answer: Fitness Business Blueprint is a totally different program from B3, Client Blitz, Fitness Profit Formula or Fitness Sales Formula.

Fitness Business Blueprint takes you inside both Mike and Eric’s businesses and they share things that you just don’t get from my or any other business building products.  While some of the concepts that are shared in Fitness Business Blueprint are things that have been taught before in all of our products, nothing like this has ever been compiled in one comprehensive resource designed specifically to build a successful fitness business before.

How soon will I be able to start accessing Fitness Business Blueprint?

Answer: Right now! Fitness Business Blueprint is delivered entirely online so you can gain immediate access to this powerful business building information.

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, you can grab your copy of Fitness Business Blueprint here:

http://fitbusinessblueprint.com/

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

After our last meeting with one of our Elite Mastermind Groups I asked them to share their biggest takeaway that they were going apply to their fitness business. – and here’s what they offered:

PAMELA MACELREE

When you spend 15 hours in a good mastermind meeting, choosing just one thing that influences me the most is like trying to edit a 15,000 word article down to 1,500 words. I have at least 10 pages of notes to go through and make plans to implement. The biggest reason I continue to be a part of high-level masterminds, like the one I attended last week, is because every time I attend one, I walk away with solid plans to improve my business. I’m not talking about having mints out on the check-in desk either (which I do). I’m talking about proven methods that have been used by other people with similar businesses, proven methods that not only make my business better, but that increase the business of my business. No one can complain about increasing the bottom line. There is no doubt in my mind that the investments I make in building my business have paid off well above and beyond.

Pamela MacElree holds a Bachelor of Science from The Pennsylvania State University and a Masters of Science in Exercise Science from California University of Pennsylvania. Pamela is owner of Urban Athlete, which operates a strength and conditioning studio and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Recognizing the value in quality programs and their applications Pamela has also collaborated on developing and delivering the most comprehensive Kettlebell training certification for Fitness Professionals in the United States and Germany. You can also follow Pamela at her blog: http://PMacStrong.com

STEVE LONG

My biggest takeaway or tip from our latest mastermind meeting isn’t something that you can buy, track, test, or promote. It’s something that we all know, but I’m not sure if we all realize how powerful this is. My biggest takeaway is that you become the people you affiliate with. I’ve heard you are the the sum of the 5 people you are around the most, and it’s true. Good people bring you up, and bad people bring you down. It’s that simple. Since meeting Pat and Nick and being around the top professionals in the industry I’ve come to realize this, but it really sunk into my head this past weekend. So my advice, take inventory of who you spend most of your time with. If there isn’t anyone in your life to inspire and challenge you, it’s time to start doing a little networking.

Steve Long is the owner and program design specialist at Complete Fitness Results. Steve has assisted clients in many aspects of heath, fitness, weight loss, muscle building, corrective exercise, sports performance, nutrition, and more. Steve is known for his practical approach to training and blending the many benefits of corrective exercise into highly metabolic conditioning and fat loss programs. Steve has been mentored by, and continues to learn from the best professionals in the industry, bringing the most cutting edge programs to Complete Fitness Results.

JARED WOOLEVER

The biggest takeaway from our recent Mastermind meeting this past weekend has got to be leveraging your network.  It’s hard to pin-point ONE idea or concept after such an amazing meeting.  However, this issue seemed to come up during each and every presentation.  Nearly all of the problems that businesses face can be solved by someone within their network.  Maybe it’s a current client warming up an introduction to someone who can help you or your business out…Maybe it’s looking over your 250 list to find potential gold mines within your current business…Maybe it’s leveraging your network to save you time on creating programs, ideas, or templates.  The list can go on, and on, and on.  Work on leveraging your current network, and the opportunities are endless.

Jared Woolever is Co-owner of Accelerate: Health and Fitness Consulting located in Edwardsville, IL. Woolever has established himself as one of the top trainers in St. Louis with his passion and determination for success. Utilizing his formal education, current experiences within the health and fitness industry, and evidence based research, Jared has designed and implemented an improved social support system that smoothes and cements the transition to healthy lifestyle choices. With a diversity of goals, from weight management, cardiovascular fitness, improved agility, strength, and flexibility, to lowered blood pressure and cholesterol levels, Jared’s clients have seen superior results with his methods.

JUSTIN YULE

My Biggest Takeaway From The Mastermind Meeting…

BOTTOM LINE: If you want to fly with the eagles, don’t hang out with the turkeys.

Every time I go to a mastermind meeting or live event with my fitness business owner friends I learn something new, get recharged to take my business to the next level, and can’t wait to get back to work. I’ve also come to realize that my closest friends are in my mastermind group, and ironically, they’re spread all over the country. These are the people in my life who I can most relate to, seek advice from and count on to keep me on task. I also love returning the favor. They say “you’re a reflection of the 5 – 10 people you associate with most.” Well, knowing the folks in my mastermind group, I feel pretty damn good about that prediction…

If you want to take your fitness business to new heights you must surround yourself with likeminded people and be sure to STUDY the Fit Business Insider blog every day. For even more coaching and accountability, join us in the Fit Business Insider Inner Circle.

Justin Yule, BS, CPT is the owner of Fitness Revolution in Chanhassen, MN as well as the Director of Franchisee Support for Fitness Revolution International. To contact him for training, education or to have him speak at an event please email justin@justinyule.com.

SEAN MILLHOUSE

The best tip I can offer to explode your fitness business is to do the small personal touches better than everyone else in your area. Whether it’s a greeting card, a personal phone call, an encouraging Facebook comment or a sample menu plan…it doesn’t matter, you just have to do it! You have to outwork your competitors on these little things!!! I have been guilty of getting caught up in the next big promotion or checking our numbers, that I forgot to ensure the small personal touches were getting done consistently. This played right into the hands of my big box gym competitors. They don’t do the personal touches well or even at all…and clients know and feel it. So, I put systems into place to make sure these important tasks don’t slip through the cracks. If you do them well and consistently, your business will grow by leaps and bounds!

Sean Millhouse is the owner and head trainer of Fitness 101, located on the northside of Houston, TX. With over a decade of experience in the fitness industry, he and his business have spread the health and fitness bug to his clients and community. Sean received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston Downtown, and he holds numerous Personal Training and Corrective Exercise certifications.

KIM CHASE

The 1 most important thing that I took from the Master Mind group would have to be customer service. No matter how much you “think” you’re doing for your clients, you are soon to be proven that it’s not enough. I realized that I got a great big fail on customer service. I thought I was doing great and keeping in touch with everyone until I had a great discussion with another member about what ‘extra’ stuff they did, then I realized that I am a league under what I should be doing. There is a ton of small things that I once thought insignificant, but realized that it was the small things that people remember and keep them loyal to you. I refer to this as the ‘contact and care’ system. Make lots of contact and care about what you say and do with your clients.

Kim Chase is the owner of Chase Fitness in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. With a past passion of competative gymnastics and body building, Kim currently studies Tae Kwon Do and will receive her black belt this year. She is ex-military with experience as an F-18 aircraft mechanic and a military pilot, and her off hours as a firefighter. Kim has been personal training for 4 years now and specializes in weight loss, strength and mobility through her boot camps and personal/semi-private training. “I love my work and can’t find enough hours in the day to keep on top of the studying and reading to improve my skill.” She’s an avid supporter of cancer research, with an annual 6 hour boot camp relay to make people aware of fitness as a preventative measure. Having been through cancer twice, she advocates that by staying healthy and fit, the risk of cancer can be greatly reduced and expedite the recovery process. “The mind leads the body, so just tell it to move!”

DAMON MOSCHETTO

Accountability:
One of the hardest things for us to do is get our clients to stick to a supportive eating plan. Regardless of what method you prescribe-getting clients to follow it and not keep losing and gaining the same 20 pounds is someone holding them accountable. Just as we as business owners need support and accountability to grow our business our clients need this support big time. Sometimes we are the only suppport they have. That is why we added an offering to do just that. It is our version of a master mind but for reaching and maintaining their fitness goals. Our clients get 1-2 group meetings per month and have their own check in on a private FB page. Depending on how much time you need to put in you can charge between $39-99 per month. It is a great way to increase results and your monthly draft with minimal time on your part.

Damon Moschetto has been in the fitness industry for over 15 years and operates as a consultant for the Florida Fitness Coaches. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a degree in Exercise Science. He is certified He is a certified personal trainer and corrective exercise specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. In 2001, Damon began working as an account manager and presenter for the Apex Fitness Group and traveled across the US training trainers and consulting with club owners regarding their fitness programs.

SHELTON MASSEY

For my biggest takeaway from my first mastermind weekend I have to channel my inner Michael Jackson. So I am singing “You are not alone.”.

I really learned that your problems are never just your own. A lot of times we as business owners or people in general think that we are the only ones that surre the issues that we have. Whether it be with not generating enough leads, sales issues, problems with hiring, etc. It is similar to our clients who often believe they are the only ones that can’t control their cravings, or who struggle with weight loss.

The best way to overcome your problems is to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, as well as people that have been there before. Once you are in the group you have to take action and leverage the great ideas that will form as part of your group. Then last but not least remember to pay it forward!

Shelton has a Masters in Business Administration from Webster University, and Bachelors in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Shelton is also a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the American Council on Exercise. He has been working in the fitness industry since 1998 and is co-owner of Fit Code Bootcamps, the most comprehensive bootcamp program in the South Chicagoland area. Throughout the years, Shelton helped hundreds of clients get in the best shape of their lives through the utilization of the latest and best fitness and nutrition techniques. Through the years he has worked with a wide range of clients from weight loss, sports training, diabetics, heart conditions, back problems and a variety of other conditions. His specialization though is in fat loss and functional training.

TREVOR BUCCIERI

Besides having the final answer that my expansion will be in the town and of my current location, I think one of the bigger tips I picked up was with the deal of the day sites. My bootcamps are getting pretty maxed out and I was going to be running a deal in the near future. I was then informed to recognize that I can’t afford the headache and to focus on a new way to hit the daily deal sites. Now I am going to be focusing on Semi-private and specialty offerings! When thinking about your next marketing move, it is so easy to get caught up in your own thoughts. There is no one else to bounce off of who truly understand where you are and what your situation is. With Mastermind, we have access to like minded professionals that help put it all in perspective. Just awesome!

Trevor Buccieri is the owner of Body & Soul Boot Camp in Buffalo, New York, and has been an exercise physiologist and ACSM certified trainer for over 12 years. His experience in the fitness industry provided many opportunities, including the chance to work with and train multiple professional athletes as well as ALL other levels from individualized injury rehabilitation, clients looking to crush body fat, bodybuilders, high school athletes, expectant mothers, youths suffering weight issues, senior citizens and truly everything in between. Trevor takes pride in using the most diverse, current and effective advanced training techniques available in the marketplace today and providing his clients with unparalleled service and commitment.

JEREMY BELTER

The best business building tip I can give is the golden rule “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” This means becoming your best to serve others and then keep getting better at busines, coaching and life in general.

Jeremy Belter is the owner of Express Fitness Camps and Fitness Revolution and has more than 7 years of experience as a Fitness Professional with more than 10,000 training sessions. Trevor also owns a Fitness Revolution New Berlin, is a Mastermind and Bootcamp Automator member and is certified by ISSA and Kettlebell Athletics.

JOE CARABRESE

My biggest business tip would be to focus on your client. Cliche right? As it sounds simplistic, most “trainers” out there ignore a lot of the small things they should be focusing on. At this point you should note the difference between a trainer and a coach. A coach is someone who trains, motivates, educates, entertains and teaches – a trainer, well is anyone who does not do all of that. Use the following as a check list for each of your clients:

-Develop a relationship day one and grow it every opportunity you get: Strive to make connections, say their names 3x each session, give a sweaty hand hung after every workout, send puff up texts/emails, connect on social media, hold client socials ….to name a few

-Teach form and corrective exercise: You’re a coach right? Don’t just work people out, form is number one. Then, help them fix some of their compensations, mobility or flexibility issues. If you are new to this, check out Mike Roberson or Eric Cressey

-Deliver Results: After form, you have to be delivering on what you sold them. Earn your living, don’t just collect money. We have the best job in the world!

-Maintain the relationship using the tips stated in the first bullet

Joe has been in fitness for over 9 years and through extensive trial and error, he has created a workout system driven by functional movement, cross training and intensity that shreds body fat while building a lean and tone physique. Joe is a nationally certified personal trainer and Nutrition Specialist as well as a contributing Author to the International Best Selling book Total BodyBreakthroughs.

Joe worked as the Director of Professional Fitness Training at Branford Hall Career Institute. He earned a degree in Business Administration from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts of Amherst. Joe founded M.E.L.T. Fitness Studio (more energy, less time), specializing in 30 minute rapid fat loss solutions busy people as well as Youth Fitness. You find out more about Joe on his personal blog and about his company at www.meltfitnessstudio.com.

BEN WARSTLER

There are so many big takeaways from Mastermind Meetings. I’m always excited about these meetings because so many ideas come out and so many snags and obstacles are overcome by working closely with so many top professionals. Probably my number one most valuable takeaway is to cultivate your business. The obvious way to grow your business often is to add more services to our business. But what I discovered that is more effective is to find new ways to provide different services to the people you already service. For example, expanding on nutrition services like accountability programs, short term nutrition coaching, or one on one coaching as additional options to our Maximize your Metabolism program.

Taking what you already have and expanding upon that is a better practice then adding an entirely new service. Making sure you maximize what you already offer rather than starting something completely new I feel makes the service you provide more well rounded and you become very efficient at running the few programs you offer better than anyone else rather offering a hundred half assed programs.

Ben Warstler, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, KBA is the Owner of Fortitude Fitness Systems, Inc in Northeast Vermont. Operating Ben’s Bootcamps, one of the most successful bootcamps on the planet, Ben has helped hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds of fat. Ben, an International Best Selling Author has helped hundreds of fitness business owners grow their fitness bootcamp businesses. Ben can be contacted at www.vermontbootcamps.com or on his blog at http://benwarstler.com

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Some shared the big picture value of being in a group, others shared a specific area to work on – and that’s part of the beauty of being in a Mastermind Group or attending an event, everyone sees the same thing but they each get something different from them that propels them to the next level. And that’s what I wanted to pass along to you. Each of these extremely successful fitness pros reap their own rewards from being in the group as there’s no ‘one size fits all’ formula for success.

On a different note – I know that every time I mention our Mastermind Groups I get inquiries about joining. Our groups are invite only and we only draw from people we know that have already been in our programs and attended our events. We’ve been part of and seen dozens of groups and I’m quite confident our groups are the strongest MM groups out there – and I think that’s a big reason why. They’ve all qualified by being great at their craft, being good people, being action takers – and we’ve gotten to witness this about them for a while. Once they’re in, we feel they’re like part of our family.

And that’s why most groups aren’t very good. The only qualifier is having a credit card.

That’s just a money grab. Tough to build a great team that way

So if you’re interested in joining one of our groups, my best suggestion is to be part of the Fit Business Inner Circle and attend our live events and actually get to know me, Nick and the rest of our team.

We’re always looking to work with more great ambassadors for the fitness industry, and that’s where we start.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat

A guest post by Joe Dowdell

Joe Dowdell is one of the top personal trainers in the fitness industry today.  He runs one of the top gyms in the country, Peak Performance in New York – which has been recognized at a Men’s Health Top 10 Gym in America.

When I found out that Joe and Dr. Mike Roussell were holding a seminar to teach program design and diet – I knew I had to have Joe do a guest post so you could get to know him and what he’s about.

See, online it doesn’t take much to be an ‘expert.’  Just last week a guy revealed that he’d been posing as a college basketball recruiting expert, running a blog that was getting as many as 20,000 hits a day.

He’d never been to one game or one showcase.

He followed some of the people who did were actually running recruiting services on Twitter.  He got on all the popular forums.  He read a few other blogs.

Before you knew it – he was a ‘guru.’

And he just did it to see if it was as easy as he thought it might be to be perceived as an expert online.

It was even easier.

So when a guy like Joe – who runs an Ultra-Successful Gym and has consistently proven that he knows how to get results and isn’t just an online guru – wanted to run a workshop to help trainers get better, I knew that was something you needed to know more about.

So here’s Joe:

To be successful as a trainer, one of the most valuable skills that you should possess is being a master a getting people from all walks of life the results they want. As a fitness business owner, I know that I am in a results driven business. People come to my gym, Peak Performance, and train with me because I have developed a reputation of getting clients results no matter what.

If you want to be successful as a trainer you need to be known for getting results.

A lot of people preach specialization and recommend finding a niche to dominate. But, I think if you are really good at what you do, then you should be able to get anyone the results they want (independent of the training tools they have).

I train NBA basketball players, movie and TV stars, lawyers, bankers, it doesn’t matter who – they all get results. The key is program design – manipulating sets, reps, load, tempos, rest periods as well as properly periodizing these variables over any given time period. Some people crap on aerobic exercise, but I’ll use it, just not how most people would think.  The point is I’ll use everything, but I do it in a strategic way.

Here’s a cool story to illustrate my point about being able to get results for anyone. One day a investment banker name Sedef Koktenturk contacted me as she wanted to leave her job and compete in the Olympics (I like people that aim high!)

image courtesy of digibard

Sedef had not windsurfed competitively for 16 years. She had always dreamed of one day competing in the Olympics for women’s windsurfing.  Each week Sedef trained 3 days of strength and 3 days of Energy Systems. I rotated her through 4 week blocks which each focused on developing and maintaining different fitness qualities (strength, relative-strength, endurance, metabolic, etc).

After 6 months, Sedef’s body fat dropped from 25% to 14%. More importantly, I designed her program to not only elicit a fat burning, metabolic effect but a strength-endurance effect so that she could maintain a heart rate of 175 bpm for 45 minutes. All of this was important because in the Beijing Olympics, the wind conditions were less than optimal.  Therefore, there was an increased demand for upper body strength endurance and core strength in order to be able to pump the sail for an extended period of time, which was a critical component to the competition.

Two years later, at 34 years old, Sedef realized her dream and competed in the 2008 Olympics. Pretty cool.

On July 9th and 10th, I’m hosting a Program and Diet Design Seminar with Dr. Mike Roussell at Peak Performance. At this seminar I’ll be showing you all the tools in my program design toolbox and exactly how you can design and manipulate programs for maximum results with any client. Dr. Mike and I want to help you become the go to person known for results.
Learn more about the seminar and register here.

http://mikeroussell.com/go/peakseminar

(This isn’t an affiliate link.  I know it’s late notice since the Seminar is just over a week away – but if you’re on the east coast – this is a must attend event.)

Why the Fitness Industry Is in Better Shape than You Thought

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.

Change – or evolution, if you will – is not a bad thing.  It needs to happen to weed out the pretenders and allow the industry to become the best that it can be for the professionals and the consumers.

The people that suggest the industry are in trouble do so for usually one of two reasons:

1. They think the quality of trainers is poor.
2. They think some of the people teaching trainers marketing are of questionable ethics.

I’m not going to dispute either of those facts – because I agree.  But I would tell you that the industry is in better shape than it’s ever been… and here’s why.

1. The quality of the average personal trainer or fitness professional has always been low, but now more than ever there are an increasing number of fitness professionals aspiring to be better than average.  More trainers attending workshops and events to become better coaches than ever before. Just a couple of weeks ago I was at a Perform Better event in Rhode Island and there were 900 attendees.  Just 2 years ago at the same event there were about 500.  That’s almost double the number of fitness professionals actively going to get better at their craft. More fitness pros are paying attention to guys like Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Eric Cressey, Stu McGill & Gray Cook than ever before.  It wasn’t that long ago that ‘assessments’ were health history questionnaires, step tests, sit and reach and things like that.  Now solid fitness pros do quality assessments for their clients to optimize their programs for maximum benefit.
2. More consumers are stepping away from selectorized equipment and cardio machines and working with trainers and coaches than ever before. It wasn’t too long ago that the common picture of a trainer was the guy standing over someone seated on a machine while they were holding their trusty clipboard.  That approach is dying off quickly. With a variety of things pulling consumers off the machines and inspiring them to at least give ‘real’ training a try, it’s only a matter of time before they find their way to the best coaches if they haven’t already.
3. Along the same lines – people want to be coached more now than ever before. People are more familiar with personal training, group training has made it more accessible to people beyond just the affluent, and just renting access to equipment has failed – so being coached is the obvious answer for more and more people.
4. Starting a business is easier for trainers now than in the past.  Consumers were clearly more interested in the sizzle of big box clubs in the past – something few trainers could match.  And the first personal training franchise that got any traction required about $150,000 to get started – well beyond the means of a lot of good trainers we meet. But now warehouse gyms are the norm.  Light industrial space is the destination of choice for more and more trainers.  No more need to buy a handful of expensive pieces of cardio.  A lot of people are getting started with group training or bootcamp models using a subleased space and then graduation into their own location. Starting a business is now less expensive than in the past.
5. More fitness pros than ever before are generating six, multiple six and even seven figure revenues. When we attended the first Ryan Lee Bootcamp years ago – there were only a handful of attendees that I’d say were doing well.  The numbers of the people that are now in the middle of the pack in our Bootcamp Blueprint program are what the top performers were doing just 18 months ago. Achieving a very nice income and a better lifestyle is much more attainable and more common than ever before in our industry.

Sure – there are problems with the industry.  There are people that extract a LOT more value than they add, focused entirely on making money and not at all on helping.  There are still plenty of low quality trainers.

That’s fine by me.

There is also more competition than ever before.  And competition exposes frauds, weeds out the poor providers and makes the good better.

When you see other bootcamp or facilities pop up in your community, you hopefully raise your game a notch or two.  Good.  If they aren’t up to the task, they’ll die off and you’re now better than you were.

Our industry is evolving and part of the evolution is people succeeding due to being better – not just being the first or the only solution.

Maybe I’m off base.  I know some very smart people that have suggested that the fitness industry is in trouble.  But to me, holding things to a higher standard and weeding out the people who don’t add value isn’t trouble… it’s an improvement.

Let me know what you think about the fitness industry below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat