Pat Rigsby | Fit Business Insider - Personal Training Business - Fitness Business

Are You Too Busy To Be A Successful Fitness Pro?

May 21, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

How To Be A Successful Fitness Pro. A Post By Pat Rigsby

We all have the same 24 hours in a day and the same 7 days in a week. So why is it that some top producers seem to get mountains of things accomplished while others seem to never move closer to their goals?

Well, first I’d suggest that those high achievers have a clear picture of what they are trying to get done.

Secondly, I’d say that they value their time more than most and make sure that they are getting a significant return on the time they invest in activities.

And finally I believe that the successful plan their day to make sure they move closer to their goals.

While this isn’t specifically a goal achievement program, I strongly suggest that you spend some time deciding exactly how you want your business to look in 6, 12, 24 and 36 months. Once you have that clear picture of your future, then making decisions on how to spend your time becomes much easier. It essentially boils down to this:

Is this going to move me closer to or further away from my goals?

If the activity is going to move you closer to your goals, then you should do it. If it’s going to move you farther away, then don’t do it.

As you evolve in your fitness business endeavors you’re choices on activities will often be:

Which activity will move me to my goal more quickly?

But you need to know what your goals are. Do you?

Once you’ve decided what your goals are, achieving them becomes easier.

You essentially need to find the fastest and most direct route to the goals that you want to achieve.

This seems pretty simple, right?

Then why don’t most people live their lives this way?

Well, most of us are bombarded with so many distractions every day that the direct route is no longer obvious. So much of our attention gets diverted and so many people promise us the quick fix that keeps us on the right path that we’re usually prevented from achieving our goals.

The other problem is that we see the latest ‘fad’ and soon have a different goal that takes all of our focus away from our initial goal.

So here’s what I suggest that you do: Get very clear on what you want. Once you’re clear, work backward from where you want to be to where you are. If you are not sure of the steps in between, the easiest way to develop a path to follow is to model someone who’s achieved what you want to achieve. Learn the steps that they took and build them in to your plan.

The approach that I’ve had the most success in using backward planning is to set 3 types of goals:

Long Term Goals (12-36 months away)
Medium Term Goals (3-12 months away)
Short Term Goals (1 Day to 3 months away)

The short term goals all lead to the medium term goals and the medium term goals lead to the long term goals. Everything is interconnected.

With this approach daily planning becomes simple. I need to perform activities that move me closer to my short term goals. If they don’t move me closer to those goals I need to try to eliminate those activities.

So here exactly how I suggest that you do your daily planning:

On Sunday identify the tasks that you need to accomplish during the upcoming week to keep you on track to achieve you short term goals.

Each night spend 10 minutes planning the upcoming day. This will allow you to ‘sleep easy’ knowing that you are going to accomplish what you need to. Make sure that you have at least one ‘core task’ that no matter what, you will get accomplished in the upcoming day that will move you toward your goal. At the same time you should evaluate what you were able to accomplish during the day that’s coming to a close and whether the decisions you made moved you closer to your goals or took you farther away.

In the morning review your task list for the day. Allocate all your energies to accomplishing at least one ‘core’ task that will move you closer to your short term goal. If you’re booked with clients or designing programs all morning, get up a bit earlier or block off 30 minutes to make sure that you can accomplish a high return activity.

Review your goals and task list at least once during the day to make sure that you stay on track. By reviewing your goals too (and not just your tasks) you’ll be more likely to stay motivated.

A few tips to make sure that you get the most from your planning:

Always do your planning the night before.

Accept the fact that you’re not going to get everything that you want to done each day. That’s not an excuse so you don’t do anything.

Pledge to accomplish at least one task that moves you closer to your goals each day. Small, incremental improvements add up quickly.

Recognize that all actions move you closer to or farther from your goals as a fitness pro. Make note each evening of the activities that are moving you farther from your goals and track to see if patterns become apparent. If you’re spending 2 hours a day on e-mail but don’t have time to market, then you’ve seen a pattern that you need to change.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Filed Under: Fitness Business Success, Fitness Entrepreneur, Personal Training Success Tagged With: Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Fitness Business, fitness business success, fitness entrepreneurs, fitness pro, pat rigsby, Success

25 Minutes For Fitness Pros To Get Things Done

May 14, 2012 By admin 1 Comment

Efficiency For Fitness Pros. A Post By Pat Rigsby

timer 25 Minutes For Fitness Pros To Get Things Done

Like you, I have a lot of responsibilities. A number of business obligations including lots of phone calls, managing projects, writing, travel and any number of other things that go into building several businesses simultaneously. So below I’ve shared 4 steps I use and a few other random tips for fitness pros that I think can also help you get more done. Here you go:

Step One: Evaluate - Each night before I go to bed, I evaluate the day that is coming to a close before planning the next day. I wait as late as possible so my mind is clear when I go to bed. I look over the task list I created the evening before and see what I got done.

Did I miss or fail to complete anything important?

Do I need to follow up on anything?

Does anything need to carry over to the next day?

Is there anything that can be eliminated or delegated?

(This takes about 2-3 minutes total.)

Step Two: Plan - As soon as I’ve reviewed the previous day, I start planning the next day. I check out my Google Calendar and add any commitments listed there to my task list. Then I look at anything from the previous day that needs to be carried over and any task or activity that I know I need to get done the next day.

Once everything is listed, I’ll review my goals ( I keep a list of goals and I’d recommend you do too) briefly and then ‘star’ the top three tasks that aren’t just scheduled calls or appointments that I’m committed to. These might be something like writing sales copy or a blog post, creating a module for a program or contacting someone about a project idea.

With the 3 starred items I will block off time on my calendar to get those tasks completed.

(This takes about 2-3 minutes total.)

Step Three: Review - Each morning take 1-2 minutes to review the day ahead. This helps me prepare for the day ahead and get in the right frame of mind. For example:

If I know that I will be writing copy, I’ll make sure I have my notes on my desktop to review or any other sales letters I want to review available. Basically, when the time comes to be able to jump right into the task and not spend 15 minutes getting focused.

(Like I said – 1 or 2 minutes maximum for this.)

Step Four: Execute 25 On / 5 Off - My workday is blocked of in 30 minute increments. Most calls are scheduled for 30 minutes and if there is a chance one will take longer, it’s scheduled for an hour.

Ideally, calls will be done in 25 minutes so I have 5 minutes to catch up or prep for the next block of time.

For writing, work on projects, etc. – same thing. They get 30 minute blocks of time.

But 30 minutes is actually 25 minutes of uninterrupted work and 5 minutes of either getting out of my chair & stretching / moving or some quick stuff like responding to an email or two. No heavy mental lifting. I’ll set the timer for 25 minutes and when the buzzer goes off, set it for another 5.

It’s incredible how much you can get done in 25 minutes if you have no interruptions. I can often write an entire blog post or 2 newsletters in that time frame. But that’s the key – no interruptions.

No checking email.
No checking Facebook or Twitter.
No unscheduled phone calls.
No surfing the internet.
No interrupting yourself to go get a drink, use the bathroom or anything else that will pull your focus away from the task at hand.

Over time you’re going to get a great idea of exactly how much you can get done in this amount of time. Once you have a rough idea of this, that’s when things get easy.

Then you can break up the stuff you need to get done into 25 minute blocks and big projects no longer seem overwhelming.

For me, it’s almost a contest – a race against time to see how much I can get done in 25 minutes.

Maybe for you making 10 Business of the Week calls takes 1 Block but writing a client email newsletter takes 3 Blocks. Just break it down and schedule it.

This approach has been great for me and I think it will be great for fitness pros too.

With that in mind, here are a couple of other tips to get more done:

The first hire any fitness professional should make is a personal assistant. You should try to delegate the $10 tasks that are taking up some of your time and spend your time on the high return stuff. Besides – hiring an assistant is easier than hiring someone to train or coach. You can use your network or Craigslist and find a number of solid prospects for an Admin. Asst. position and free up a lot of your time to do the higher return stuff.

Schedule everything. As far as I’m concerned, if it’s not scheduled – it’s not important. Block off time to spend with your family. Time to read or study. Time for your own training. If you schedule time for clients, then you should be scheduling time for you too.

Hold yourself accountable. Our Franchisees and Mastermind members do a Friday Check-In to the group to share what they got done during the past week and believe me, no one wants to be the slacker. You can list things out on Sunday of each week and review them the following Sunday, find an accountability partner or if you can join one of our programs or franchises and work with us for your accountability?

Set specific goals and be accountable. This is big for me. I want a target to shoot for at all times.

Alright – there you go: my simple solution for Fitness Pros to get more done.

Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Entrepreneur, Personal Training Career Tagged With: Entrepreneur, Fitness Business, fitness pro, Fitness Professionals, fitness pros, Mindset, pat rigsby, Success

Referrals Made Easy

May 2, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

A Post On Getting Referrals By Pat Rigsby

As fitness business owner we all want more referrals. They’re the easiest prospects to sell, they are more likely to refer others and they’ll stay longer and pay more while they’re clients.

Unfortunately, referrals aren’t as easy to come by as they used to be. In years gone by all you had to do was offer up a prize or reward and your current clients would line up to send you new clients for a chance to win what you were offering or a crisp $50 bill.

It’s not quite that easy any more.

You can still be a referral driven business, but you need to set the stage to make that happen. Here’s a primer to get you started.

Big Ideas For Growing A Training Business

March 27, 2012 By admin 7 Comments

A post on Growing A Training Business by Pat Rigsby

Oven the past few weeks we’ve had a couple groups of Mastermind Members in town, held a live event and hosted a Fitness Revolution franchise training. Every chance I have the opportunity to spend time around elite fitness professionals like I recently have, I get a flood of ideas and thoughts about growing a training business.

With that in mind I thought I’d share some of them with you.

Know What You Need & Get It – Every successful training business needs to have certain processes and systems in place. First you need to know what those processes and systems are – then you need to get them in place in your business. If you don’t know what you need – talk to someone like me to fill in the blanks or model someone who is where you want to be. Once you know – create the systems yourself or lean on products, coaching or a total solution like Fitness Revolution if you don’t want to create them or you want to fast track the process.

Burying your head or procrastinating on this will prevent you from ever having a great fitness business.

Relationship Marketing With A Fitness Newsletter

February 26, 2012 By admin 3 Comments

A Post About The Benefits Of A Fitness Newsletter By Pat Rigsby

With the launch of Sam’s new fitness newsletter this week, I wanted to share my thoughts on newsletters and the role they could play in your business.

A fitness newsletter is a fantastic fitness marketing tool for building relationships. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about developing relationships with people you just met through networking or cultivating relationships with the clients you currently have – a newsletter is a must have part of your marketing arsenal. In short, a fitness newsletter:

Is a perfect way to build value in your expertise for members of your network.
Allows you to stay connected with your current clients outside of their sessions.
Is a great way to educate your network in the different things you offer and share new offerings with your client base.
Is a simple way to increase referrals.

How does a fitness newsletter build value in your expertise?

Generating Instant Income For Your Fitness Business

February 22, 2012 By admin 6 Comments

A Post On Fitness Business Income Generation By Pat Rigsby

dreamstime xs 23272249 Generating Instant Income For Your Fitness Business

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.

Fitness Business Multipliers

January 30, 2012 By admin 3 Comments

A Post On Building Your Fitness Business By Pat Rigsby

onlybusinessbook1 Fitness Business Multipliers

Recently Nick Berry and I were asked to contribute a chapter to a book called “The Only Business Book You’ll Ever Need.” This was an incredible honor as a few of the other authors were Brian Tracy, Robert Allen and Harvey McKay, all New York Times Best Selling Authors. This book won’t be on the shelves for a couple more months, but I wanted to share an adaptation of our chapter with you as it definitely can help you build your business. Enjoy this sneak peek.

As an fitness business owner, you essentially accept the fact that you’re trading the security that comes with a steady job for the opportunity that comes with owning your own business. But what if we told you that security and opportunity don’t have to be mutually exclusive? Our experience is that not only can you have the best of both worlds, but you can do it more quickly and easily than you probably imagine by creating multiple streams of income within your fitness business.

Grow Your Fitness Business In 5 Simple Steps

January 18, 2012 By admin 8 Comments

A post on how to grow your fitness business by Pat Rigsby

There are hundreds of ways to grow your fitness business and we touch on plenty of them here at the Fit Business Insider. But sometimes when you want to get more clients, generate more referrals or increase your income it really boils down to taking action instead of just knowing what to do.

So with that in mind I wanted to help you grow your fitness business today by getting you to take action.

24 Productivity Tips For The Fitness Business Owner

January 9, 2012 By admin 4 Comments

A Post On Productivity For a Fitness Business Owner by Pat Rigsby

Like you, I’ve got a lot going on. We’ve got a number of rapidly growing businesses that I play a significant role in. I have a wonderful family that I am committed to spending quality time with. I have personal goals and things I enjoy that I need to have time for.

Because of those things I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient, more productive, and to make my time more valuable. So here are 24 productivity tips for the Fitness Business Owner that I think you’ll get al lot out of.

Plan your day ahead – I prefer planning it the night before.

Always work from a list. You should actually have different lists for different purposes. A ‘Goals’ list is for your big picture objectives. Your monthly list is a list you make at the end of the month for the month ahead. Your weekly list is for the upcoming week and your daily list is your weekly list broken down into daily tasks.

Planning a project will likely cut the time spent on the project by at least half. List every step from start to finish, organize by priority and sequence.

By now you know the 80/20 rule- 20% of actions account for 80% of results. With that in mind, get your most important stuff done first.

Think long term. Before starting a task or activity – determine what the long term benefits / consequences will be.

Set big goals. Be clear on them. It will make all your short term decisions much easier. Things either line up with your goals or not. If they do – act. If they don’t – omit.

Be willing to delay gratification and make short term sacrifices so you can enjoy greater rewards in the long term. Every successful person I know has taken that approach.

Average people do what gives them short term gratification. Great ones do what it takes to achieve long term goals even if it’s not as easy or fun in the short term.

Time is going to pass whether you use it to move closer to your goals or farther away. Only you get to decide how you use that time and where you want to be in the future.

Think about the consequences of your actions and behaviors. If you do that you’ll usually take the steps necessary to get where you want to go while those who ignore the ramifications of what they do won’t.

Review your list of tasks and projects regularly.

There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do. – What are my highest value activities? What can you and only you do, that if done well, will make a real difference? What is the most valuable use of your time, right now?

The things that matter most must never be skipped over for the things that matter least.

Continuous learning is a must for success. Make time for it. The need to grow and improve never ends.

Take responsibility and know that you and only you are the deciding factor in achieving your goals.

There is never the perfect time to get started, so start now.

Challenges are there to weed out the average. Keep that in mind when you encounter them.

One of the most powerful words in time management is NO! – You have no spare time, say no early and often to everything that isn’t high value.

If you don’t schedule it – that means you don’t see value in it.

Adding something new to your plate requires you to stop doing something old.

Do the most difficult task first, start it first thing in the morning.

Use time blocks. 25-50 minutes of no email, no phone, no distractions will get you to your goals faster than 8 hours of a normal workday.

Make every minute count. – Create a sense of urgency, an impatience that motivates you to get started.

Focus on getting things done now. Successful people get more done – and as you know…You Get Paid For Done!

There are 24 tips that have helped me and that I think will help you or any fitness business owner. If you have more to share – please add them below.

Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Business Success, Fitness Entrepreneur, Personal Training Success Tagged With: Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Fitness Business, fitness entrepreneur, pat rigsby, productivity, time

The REAL Truth About Running A Great Fitness Business

August 4, 2011 By Pat Rigsby 1 Comment

A Fitness Business Post By Pat Rigsby

Why What Most Experts Tell You About Building A Fitness Business Is All Wrong And How You Can Take Advantage Of The Best Opportunity To Build A Successful Fitness Business In Our Industry’s HistoryThe REAL Truth About Running A Great Fitness Business

During this FREE No Holds Barred Fitness Business Teleseminar Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson and Pat Rigsby will reveal:

	The 3 critical mistakes fitness businesses are making that are KILLING their chances for success…and how you can avoid them…
	Why almost all Fitness Marketing Experts are all wrong about what it takes to build a great fitness business…
	The Blueprint for building businesses like IFAST (which has been recognized by Men’s Health as one of the Top 10 Gyms in the U.S.) and Cressey Performance (known as THE Destination for baseball players who want to reach their potential)…
	The critical factors that will separate great training businesses from the pack over the next 12 – 18 months…
	How a small group of fitness professionals have ‘Cracked The Code’ and built businesses that generate a steady flow of clients and have the systems in place to consistently provide results, profits – and freedom…and how you can too…
	Doing More Research. This is just another way of saying ‘you’re too lazy to do the real work.’ As I just mentioned, things don’t have to be perfect to get started, so the need for endless research before taking action is completely unfounded.
	Not Feeling ‘Worthy’ Enough. Not believing that you had enough education, knowledge, skill or experience can stop you before you get started, but the truth is that you can get experience without ‘doing’ and you can’t develop your skill without practice. Most every ‘expert’ I know felt this way at one point or another and still proceeded to take action. So should you.

To get Instant Access to The REAL Truth About Running A Great Fitness Business, simply fill in the form below and click the red “Get Instant Access” button.

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Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Business Success Tagged With: Fitness Business, pat rigsby