The Voice for Fitness Professionals Podcast

Tempted to buy marketing templates that take care of your newsletters and social media posts? Stop. Unless you want to donate money to the seller.

Here’s why it will never get you results. Especially since the world changed in March 2020.

The problem is not the quotes, or the posts, it’s the lack of YOU in them.

Why You Really Can’t Use Other People’s Templates

It’s the lack of you using analytics (that are FREE on every social media platform) that kills your social media marketing.

No one is you. If you’re given a template you’ve taken personal training and already watered it down. Personal training that is about the uniqueness of an individual – their flexibility, mobility, strength, endurance, their alignment, their daily repetitive movements and postures… should also be about the optimal match between the client and the unique trainer.

You’re the Brand

You’re unique in your “why” and your education, and credentials, in your life history and work history. You’re unique in your brand.

Marketing templates that give you the same quote cards and memes, even images to use as any other trainer, make you lost in the sea of hundreds of thousands of trainers pouring content online.

What’s happening now is that the few that are good, really good, really connecting are standing out. You can still find room to stand out too.

What you do need is a system. You need a style guide, and a way to create blog posts that don’t take you 8 hours like many other well-researched articles can. You want to know how to generate SEO for gaining traffic organically before you ever spend money on advertisements.

The short cuts right now? The work every day.

Your GPS

So, it’s true my friend. You will work harder. You will not have it handed to you. And it’s also true that you will sustain your career by rolling up your sleeves.

I will add a link in this very short episode for both the Style Guide, and for the 5-Minute Blog posts.

If you don’t have content on your website, start with the 5 Minute Blog Posts. Block off three hours. Create 6-8 blog posts of at a minimum 300 words. Give each a scientific reference and an internal link your website. Don’t ask a blog reader to buy something. Ask them to leave a comment or question. Ask them to follow you on social media.

When you have the right actions in the right sequence you will create a business that will last.

Resources:

5 Minute Blog
Style Guide  

Leave a rating, comment, and subscribe in iTunes  

Ask a question there and I’ll answer it in a future podcast

What are the Best Social Media Fitness Posts?

Looking for the key to fitness posts and wondering why you can’t get any traction? Well, here’s what’s getting in the way for most fitness centers and trainers. Especially if you’re an introve

rt! Because as far as social media and fitness posts, it’s the personal ones that do best.

That’s you … a person… talking, sharing, taking someone on a tour of your home, your kitchen, your pantry, your gym.

It’s you… having your massage therapist, nutritionist, personal training director or most popular trainer do the same. It’s you as the general manager or owner getting on talking about what YOU do… and what you struggle with, what a typical day is for you.

Your Best Social Media Fitness Posts for Personal Training & Fitness Programs Now

Connection with people who feel isolated, lost, uncertain, and need a positive message that fitness can provide is a foot-in-the door for fitness professionals who will do the work. You have to do something that many trainers aren’t willing to do. You have to 1) open the kimono and 2) share the imperfect side of your life 3) tie it to your audience.

If you can do that, and will do it consistently you can win hearts, alienate the people you are so wrong for anyway, and you will help people.

This episode is all about what makes the best social media posts.

Best Social Media Fitness Posts right now include:

• Tell a story
• Share behind the scenes
• Talk about the elephant in the room
• Ditch the camera-ready perfection
• Turn it on live
• Be transparent and open about the business struggle
• Be transparent and open about your own personal challenges
• Invite a conversation
• Engage with the audience when you’re live
• Ask a question
• Avoid asking for a like constantly

In the episode I break down each of these and give you examples of how you can use them. Here’s how you take your unique qualities and create the best social media fitness posts to position you for your ideal customers.

Tie Your Business to Your Social Posts

Combine your unique interests and skills with your client’s desired transformation and the unique method you use to get it for them. Are you an artist? (that’s one of mine) and do you help athletes or midlife women like I do? And how do you do it?

Even if you think you don’t have a unique method or system, I bet you do. You meet with a client first by? Phone call or consultation, currently by zoom.

Nothing unique?

• But what series of questions do you ask them first?
  Which ones have the most meaning for you when you’re trying to create a step-by-step process?
• What will you ask them to start, stop, change first?
• And next?
• And next?
• That is probably a system or method you should name.

You may not be able to see this “thing” yourself. Someone else can though… consider asking someone else- a dozen someone else’s to tell you why working with you was so great and got them such good results when nothing else had.

Then go back through the list… and you’ll have a better idea of how to tell stories and you can also plant the seed about your unique process/method/or system in all of your messages. As you keep mentioning over and over again, people will want to know more.

End Notes

In this episode we covered the prompts for the best social media fitness posts right now. They’re personal. You have to connect.

And we covered the what is missing in many posts that could be “best” … but that won’t ever result in more business. When you use your special sauce and combine these, you will steadily see your influence and your leads begin to grow.

Resources: 

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

Subscribe in iTunes

Fitness testimonials are still one of the best ways to connect to your next customer.

If you can get your customer to create a video answering these questions I’m going to share with you – whether they do it on their phone or you record it on yours or in the social distancing Zoom or Skype recordings of the moment, video is gold.

If not video, then get them to write it and ask if you can use their picture with it.

If not their picture, their full name. If not their full name first name and last initial. And age is also relevant when you’re gathering fitness testimonials.

Another strategy is to ask a question in your Facebook group. Your paid program probably has a private Facebook group.

Ask questions:

• How has _____ helped you?
• How has _____ helped you the past few months get through COVID19?
• How were you feeling before you got started?
• What almost stopped you from doing _____?

How to Edit

You can ask permission of these people to use their posts OR you can screenshot them and block out their name and profile image.

It still shows in real time and in a believable representation, someone else- not you – took time to add a comment and we’ve come to believe that if it’s from Facebook it’s legit.

What doesn’t work?

Fitness testimonials you’re talking about what someone else said. You can make that up and whether you would, you did, or you didn’t, if your customer really doesn’t believe enough in your services to do a video, write a letter, send some kind of tangible proof they are raving fans and recommend you, then it’s probably not a good fitness testimonial.

The more like your ideal client the subjects you choose for your fitness testimonials are the better. If you’re choosing to ask clients that aren’t like your ideal clients you’re wasting your time.

Outstanding Examples

There’s definitely a reason you might want to choose someone people aspire to be, someone in the public eye that people know and respect. Maybe they show how someone as busy as the mayor or the president of the university can do it, so the watcher will think, I can too. But if they’re too different, too eccentric, they aren’t in the same income category or educational status as your ideal customers, then it won’t do you as much good. 

How to Get Started with Your Fitness Testimonials

So, you want to first go to any of your prior clients, the ones who got great results – and remember great results aren’t always a before and after picture. Sometimes it’s reducing or stopping medications or gaining confidence and not something as visible as losing 25 lbs.

Then you want to make sure you ask for what you really want – video first. If you don’t get it, at least, you’ll have a default if they won’t do video, you can ask for a written or social media fitness testimonial instead. Let them know you’ll send them the questions you’d like them to answer so you make it really easy for them.

That way you do make it easy for them and you take control of the content you’re going to get. Tell your client that you’d really appreciate it if they use the question to start their statement.

So, if you ask, What almost stopped you from starting with this online membership? They would say I almost didn’t join the membership because….

Personalize

Focus on problems you help in your questions, too. If you work with people who have back pain, or fibromyalgia, or osteoporosis, get specific with your questions.

How were you feeling in regard to your back pain before you started? How was your strength before you began personal training? Then once they answer, you may prompt them with… How is life different for you now?

It’s really nice if you’re there with them and doing video but if you can’t be try to either write it or use a voice message.

You can create a voice message on your phone and just have them pause and record their responses. They can send them all to you and you can edit them to create one video or keep the short clips to use in a variety of ways.

Summary

There you have it. It’s easy to do. If you have a little more time than you wanted right now, it’s a perfect time to get these. Update your old ones. Fitness testimonials are important to people finding you.

Remember the greatest value though is in that next customer finding someone in your prior customer – as well as you – being like them. It’s not just that they need to know, like, and trust you. They need to feel that you are like them.

More on that in an upcoming podcast.

Resources:

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

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You’re going to make a fitness marketing mistake during your career. Otherwise you’re not trying hard enough. Most success comes from trial and error. With marketing something works for a while until it doesn’t and that’s how you know to change.

During this particular time however there are mistakes that are easy to avoid. And 5 of them are in this episode

Key Points to Help You Avoid Your Next Fitness Marketing Mistake:

1) Selling the same thing you were selling January 2020

There are unique problems happening right now. Uncertainty, and less cash flow are true for some. If you know your clients you know if that’s them. So low-ticket offers can be a smart thing to do. Get them into a short-term program not an ongoing, open-ended program. Focus on the right now problems they have.

2) Targeting a market that has shrunk or disappeared.

Target those with urgency, fear, and with money rather than those who were barely able to pay. There are a lot of people who don’t have time right now. Our time has turned into more work not less. Don’t assume that everyone is sitting around.

3) Thinking no one is spending money right now

You won’t do anything if you believe this. It’s just not true. And remember you’re not selling services to just those in your backyard right now either. At least you don’t have to.

4) Waiting and worrying for things to get back to normal

It’s not going back to the same business or the lazy way trainers were fed clients by clubs. The revenue inside gyms is going to be lower. The clients inside gyms are fewer. Clients of your local gym have access to trainers worldwide and know it now. Unless they have sessions paid in advance, you need to be not just a trainer. You need to be the trainer they need.

Waiting for someone else to figure it out for you

5) Being tone deaf.

Look everyone wants a little normalcy right now. We don’t want to keep talking about this virus and all that brings. But we also can’t ignore the fact it’s changed things. Especially in your fitness business. So, you should be talking about it. This is easily the biggest fitness marketing mistake of them all.

You’ve forgotten how to have a conversation. They’re just people. Your people. Talk to them.

Mentions in this Episode:

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Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

Do you have a true fitness community?

People are social beings. There’s so much documented about longevity and health connected to social connections. This COVID19 has gone on long enough that everyone to some degree is missing the connection with their groups, attending events of like-minded people, and the health benefits that come with it.

If you are in a fitness center if you’re in one, the same people aren’t all choosing to be there in a group. Schedules have changed such that the same faces aren’t there for those members that do come in.

You can be a solution to this problem and provide yourself with a unique way to learn what offers right now may be of interest to your prospective members. You can use this as both nurturing for current clients and attractive for prospective clients.

Platforms

• Facebook groups
• Zoom town-hall meetings (so people can see one another)

The idea is to create a community within a community. You may think you’ve done that with your membership. The reality is some of your members have nothing in common. You want to find ways to connect people to each other, not just to you. Then serve them in that group.

Think clusters of smaller groups with special interests.

Ideas for Developing small fitness community groups

• Classes for kids – movement, snack-making, stories
• Parent’s night off – read to them, play games with them, teach them card tricks, teach them to skills or tricks or drills, do yoga with them. Teach them a dance.
• Cooking and meal prep classes – focus on a problem not a food (time, food sensitivity, dressings & dips, BBQ marinades & sauces, substitutions for sugar, eliminating gluten, etc)
• Expand to wellness and health habits
• Speak about immunity & exercise
• Bring in experts regularly

How to Handle the Workload

Got a team? Have one of them do one a week. Give each day of the week a theme. Focus on doing them Monday- Friday and use the weekend to send them out in emails. (to your segmented list that wants them). By the way this segmented list is the key to your success.

If you’re still emailing everyone on your list every time you email, now more than ever you’re killing your success. If you send all your emails out to all your customers, you can’t nurture your people with what they really want.

You ignore their behavior which is a clue that you’re not talking to them about anything that’s interesting to them. If customers aren’t opening your emails because the title or the contents were never for them if they did? It’s a pretty sure thing that you’re never going to sell them.

Don’t Forget Fitness Community Segments You’ve Ignored

How long have you been ignoring the people on your list that your personal trainers have the least in common with? The guys in the weight room more than you think they should be? They definitely have something they want. They’re there early every morning or every night after work.

There is probably something they would respond to if you started talking about it. You can talk about protein needs, recovery, ability to gain lean muscle or avoiding injury from XXX by switching out to ABC. Wouldn’t there be value in finding out if you’re leaving money on the table?

More Topics to Get You Started

Have a nutritionist or health coach teach cooking or simple ways to eat well. Get specific. Teach to a special audience. Teach to older adults. Teach to moms with young kids. Teach to the cooking-for-one older or younger segments. Do a segment on salads in a jar, making dips and dressings, talking about the difference between keto and paleo.

Have your massage therapist teach a myofascial release session. Although you think that will decrease the need for their work you couldn’t be further from the reality. Random bits of information in videos ultimately give you the opportunity to serve first, engage with them, gain trust, and see that they need and want more structure than just this.

Do It Live

If you’re a procrastinator worried about what people will think, getting flustered or getting it perfect? Focus on the real connection when you’re human. No one wants perfect. Be relatable, especially now. Everyone has roots grown out, unruly hair, has gained a couple pounds, is a bit forgetful… talk about that in fact. Fitness community is not about perfection and platforms to speak. It’s places to connect.

Do it live even if…. There doesn’t seem to be a large live audience. There’s something about live that is attractive and real and raw (Just like I would say if you’re not recording live classes you’re teaching (and you’re paying people who aren’t working?) you’re crazy! You should be recording your spinning instructors, your yoga classes, your Zumba classes, and sharing those with your customer base.

Whether you gift them a new video weekly in a member’s area and organize by category or you use this area as a new product to sell right now, it’s gold and you’re wasting an opportunity.

After You Have the Live Meeting

Share the recordings in emails. Segment your list for those that want the food, the core, the stretching, the yoga for cyclists & runners…. Whatever your themes are. Don’t make the mistake of doing what you want to do. Base this on the most popular classes you have (the ones that were packed) and poll your customer (Survey Monkey or Typeform) base.

Don’t Skip the Survey

Let them tell you what they want. Segment your members into personal training clients, group fitness attendees, and the rest. You might also include massage therapy clients.

How You Ask Is Everything

Ask a few short questions. To develop a fitness community you have to get answers.

Include a list of some of the topics above. Have them check the ones they’re most interested in.

Then ask them to list them in order of importance – say their top 3.

Include one open-ended option for them to add a topic that would support them most. What’s your biggest challenge right now? What topic area interests you most?

Have them include their gender, age, and email. With the email you have a way to segment them or follow up with them.

A Real Fitness Community

Everyone has a voice and a vote. I know you have to set the Standard Operating Procedures and contrary to popular belief the customer is not always right or going to choose what they need. But people buy what they want. So you will find out what they want and be able to serve them, engage them, support their messy lives right now, by asking them.

If you’re not emailing your best customers, your next customers, and your prior customers regularly you’re missing an opportunity that they’re finding online in other groups. Why not yours?

Resources:

Subscribe in iTunes 

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist 

12+ Marketing Fitness Ideas Podcast

Show notes fitnessmarketingmastery.com/community

Need a New Fitness Marketing Idea (or a dozen) for Right Now? Feel like possibilities and leads have dried up? Even your current clients aren’t interested right now? I get it, these are unique times. But when everyone is lamenting about how hard it is, there’s an opportunity for some. You just have to focus on the changes for customers as you take action.

Fitness Marketing Idea #1 Email frequently

            If you’re scared people will unsubscribe if you email more than once a week… or if you have let your list go cold and don’t even mail once a week, I’ve got news. They are waiting to hear from you. They want health and fitness content right now. They’re too close to the refrigerator, they can’t sleep and they a need strong immune system.

I say this with respect, if you are afraid of emailing you’re really afraid you have no idea what you’re doing and you don’t know where to get help.

I’ll link to prior podcasts and blogs that help you with this. And in a podcast tomorrow I’ll help you generate ideas. You need to start warming them up again. You need to communicate regularly with something of value. They aren’t waiting to hear what you want to sell though. That’s not giving them value. So if that’s all you do, you’ll soon burn out your list.

Idea #2 Know what your clients open

•             Recipes
•             Videos
•             Quick wins and solutions
•             Share personal touches

Fitness Marketing Idea #3 Segment your list

            If you still email in one batch to everyone on your list… even those who never answer or haven’t for more than 30 or 60 days you’re hurting delivery and having the wrong conversation with them. It’s time to clean up your list. Regularly.

Keep them in a group – knowing 85% of your list doesn’t buy right away. They have to think about it for up to two years. I’ve literally had customers say to me they’ve been on my email list, listened to podcasts and read my blogs and books for a couple years before they ever buy.

So keep the long game in mind even now. And know that some of those long game people may have urgency in COVID19 they didn’t have before.

Fitness Marketing Idea #4 Better titles and email subject lines

            I’ve shared before my favorite tools – like Headline Analyzer and I’m linking to it here. Save your headline for last, just like you save a subject line of an email til last. Then create 15 to 20 of them and play with them until they get a good score on this Headline Analyzer tool and they’re rich for the key words you’re going for on your site.

Marketing Idea #5 Get engagement

            If you’ve segmented your list, and you’re writing better subject lines – after you’ve written content that answers questions, you need to make it a conversation. Every email should have a call to action (CTA). Sometimes that is simply to click on the video you’ve embedded in the email. Others it’s to click to your website where you have the recipe for the image you put in your email. In another podcast I talked about polls and surveys. Everyone loves to be asked and to give their opinion. So poll regularly. Let them know you’ll share results.

Right now polling about wearing masks, or exercising at home vs fitness centers, or cooking in or eating out would be topics people definitely have an opinion on. ASK! Then share the results next week. You’ve given two great reasons to engage with you.

When you get that kind of action on emails, when you are asking them to learn more about a program they are more likely to click to that too.

Fitness Marketing Idea #6 Use “you”

            YOU is simply the #1 most powerful marketing word in the world. However, “you guys” is one of the worst. Check in with your social media manager or copy editor for emails. You need them to be good at copy writing, not grammar, and not English literature until the time you stop needing to persuade someone.

Idea #7 Use emojis

The open rate for emails with emojis in subject lines is 56%. You could overuse that too. So try once a week. The copy you choose for the subject line still matters. The content inside better be targeted to the one individual opening that email. Don’t waste an email open on content that doesn’t serve your subscriber or you’ll lose them.

Fitness Marketing Idea #8 Use infographics, lists, and photos of the transformation

            Pictures speak a thousand words. No secret. And images like infographics that teach or show are savable. You can also share those on social media. They’re hot right now when they’re done well.

Marketing Idea #9 Get quality content on your site

Make it SEO-rich with key words your ideal customer searches for.

Do they search for Pilates? Or do they search for an answer to a problem?

Fitness Marketing Idea #10 Be Customer-focused

            Ask them, answer them. Serve them. Meet them where they are. Polls and surveys are the easiest and fastest way to learn more about what they want and will buy.

Idea #11 Use testimonials with names, and images, or videos

No one believes it when you say “customer said” unless you use a name, age, something to make it real. First and last name is good. Image is better. Video is best.

Fitness Marketing Idea #12 Create video stories

Not stories on FB or IG, though you might do that too. Tell stories, show prospective customers how to do something or how not to. Show them what it’s like to work with you. If you’re worried about your hair and make-up, you’re on the wrong track. If you’re worried about getting it perfect or making mistake, you’re not thinking about customers. Once you’re out of your head you will deliver the take that is going to connect you with others.

BONUS

Fitness Marketing Idea  Lead, Don’t Follow.

Leaders make choices based on best for everyone. In your case, that may be you and your clients. That may be you, your employees and customers. Right now you probably need to make money or you need to constantly be changing the way you used to do business. You’re forced to think bigger and globally instead of 25-mile radius if you’ve been a face-to-face service provider.

What you do doesn’t come with a GPS or a road map or a model that’s been used before. Don’t wait for it. Don’t keep ideas to yourself. Watch what’s working. Apply it to your own model.

Know When To Ask

Are you constantly giving free live sessions away and never making an offer? Lead. People need organized step-by-step progressive fitness. Random acts of dropping in or choosing Pilates, or yoga, or weight training for toned arms does not equal specific results. Specific protocols and plans for specific people gets specific results.

So ignore what others are doing. Do what is best for best results. Change what you’re doing not just to abide by restrictions. Do it in all of your services.

Get rid of negative talk about the situation. Yours and others.

What are you waiting for? Make a difference like only you can today.

Resources:

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

4 Ways to Grow Your Email List

Reasons Procrastination Could Kill Your PT Business

Procrastination got you? Feeling helpless? I’m not saying you don’t have reasons. We all do. And yet, there’s never been a time when health, a strong immune system is more important to every single human than now.

Everyone needs to exercise. From the physical immune-boosting benefits, to the avoidance of muscle and bone loss, to the mood boosting and support for anxiety and depression, or enhanced sleep benefits, we need it.

Right now all of those are top priorities for many more people than realized it before. So, while the gym may be closed, or it may be limited in capacity, and it may not be the place people feel safe, your services are still much-needed.

So how can you stop wishing, worrying, and waiting? I’m going to share 4 reasons procrastination shows up in the first place. You’re not alone and you’re justified, my friend. But there are things you can do to get out of this and to feel better. And those who are staying in action, are staying positive, and who are finding solutions for what’s happening now, not trying to sell the same thing they were selling in January 2020, are going to be okay.

#1 FEAR

Fear is the number one reason for procrastination.

Actually, right now nearly everyone has some level of fear. Hopefully you have an equal “it will be alright” attitude of optimism. Even if you can’t see it, believing that will help. You may not know how to get from here to there but you’ll figure it out.

Do one thing, one small thing that you’re scared of every day. Heading into the unknown is one of them. You may have had a system of doing things or followed someone else’s for years, even decades, but even if it’s only months, now you have no system.

We haven’t had time yet to figure out a new system entirely. A system gets predictable, consistent results repeatedly. In the moment we’re in, some of the predictable has fallen out.

But the building blocks of it are still there.

You solve problems. Figure out how to do that now. With existing clients and with new clients. Some of your prospects may be people who had a routine before this all happened. Then their world has changed. They have more on their minds, and may be a new source of clients who need help with a routine and an anchor every day.

You don’t have to do the proverbial get out of your comfort zone. Just think of it as stretching the comfort zone you have. Things in your life have happened and either we shrink or grow from them. If you’re still listening, you’re someone who grows.

Step-by-step

So create a step in the right direction, away from procrastination. Fear only gets to stick around if you imagine that you had one option and you were doing it.

That is only the way you were perceiving it. Can you allow yourself to believe that there are a dozen ways to do what you really did anyway? You solved problems. You did it in a unique way that people wanted to work with you. Identify those people.

What was it about them that is similar? What did they all like specifically about you? Why did they stay with you? If they were the people you loved working with… you can start getting over your fear by starting to connect with more of them again.

Can you make just one video today talking to that ideal customer? Can you call every client you know and ask if they’d like to do a virtual small group accountability training? Can you contact someone who is successfully doing what you want to do and ask for help?

Take one small action in the direction of your fear.

#2 OVERWHELM

If you’re trying to picture the future 5 and 10 years and all you have to do you invite overwhelm. Especially now. There’s a reason to dream and have a vision.

Can you just focus on how many people you’re going to contact today? How many people do you need to follow up on?

Just one thing all week. For me, it was reaching out to 10 people a day about my TEDx talk. I shared it with each. That led to them sharing, to new coaching clients, to speaking opportunities and it’s an easy anchor in overwhelm.

Find a way to sort through all the possible things you could do today and do the biggest needle mover. If you have one step you’re much less likely to succumb to procrastination.

#3 UNCERTAINTY

Right now this is a hot bed for not doing anything but hanging with the family or friends, or just the couch. While that has been part of the silver lining of COVID19, you’ve got to ask if you’re hiding behind it. Truth is no one can be certain of whether this is 6 months, 12, or what the forever changes will be.

But you can still be certain people need health, immunity, positivity, protection against disease that appropriate exercise brings.

You can be certain of one step. Plan a few small steps are that are reasonable. Baby steps.

Procrastination comes easy when you’re uncertain. Choose one much smaller step than normal.

#4 PERFECTIONISM

Take action, imperfect action. Elizabeth Lombardo, a friend and fellow mastermind member is a well-know frequent guest expert on the Today Show and GMA. She’s has her own reasons to be stuck. Her husband was diagnosed about 4 years ago with Lou Gherig’s disease after countless weeks and months of mysterious illnesses. Her mantra before and now? Done is better than perfect.

Plan for it not to be perfect.

You know these shoes. You put new clients in them all the time. They are CEOs and outstanding in their work and world. Then they come into the fitness center and they’re not good at it or that’s their perception. With pounds of weight, no energy, and habits that make them feel terrible exercising, they expect after years of no exercise to be good at it.

You’re not going to be good at something you’ve never done before. Plan on it. Plan on doing it anyway. If you do it badly there’s a chance you can get better at it. Baby steps.

Not good at sales? Or don’t like sales? Pick up the phone. You can’t be good at something you never do.

There they are, four reasons procrastination may have had you for a moment. And how you can prevent it.

Resources:

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

Problem solving podcast

What to Sell Right Now podcast

Today’s episode is all about how to grow your email list by making better videos that stand out. Let’s face it there are a lot of people online right now. Both your customers and your competitors so you might think that’s good and bad.

The truth is its good and good.

Consistency Often Wins

Few people are going to get in it and stick with it long enough to look at the stats and change what they’re doing to get better results. Consistency if that’s your greatest asset, will get you far.

So while you can’t just create videos you think they need, you need to create fitness videos they want and meet them where they are, you can make a very good compromise.

This episode is really about diving into what your stats and insights tell you about your videos so that you can make the right decisions. SO if you haven’t been using analytics to your advantage on your fitness videos, now is the time. You can only grow your email list by tracking numbers and using strategy.

• Views – up or down
• Watch time – up or down
• Subscribers – up or down
• Top Videos in this period

Are They Yours?

What you want to know from there is are those people coming to your email list? What has been most effective for you to grow your email list?

To do that you have to have something they want and will exchange their email address for.

So while I’m not going to go into that now, I’ve got blogs and podcasts on how to create something of value that customers can consume in a short amount of time and get a quick win.

You’ve got to be looking at your Google analytics too.

If you’re using YouTube or Facebook or Instagram, are you able to see that your social media channels, particularly the one you want to shine are actually a source of traffic on your site.

What You’ll Learn to Grow Your List

From my own analytics for instance I know that I have both organic and paid traffic. When I separate and only look at everything but ads my biggest source of traffic is organic traffic – meaning I’m coming up in searches for my key words. That’s thanks to content.

Then my next source of traffic is direct meaning people actually know my name or Flipping 50 and they add that to the browser and get to my site. Then? My next source is YouTube.

Which is good. I can confirm that the time and effort I put in making videos is worth it and then I may want to use ads to grow further. The next question I’d need to ask is whether it’s working to grow my email list. How many of those people landing on a web page with a form actually sign up?

Analytics

Then you want to look at the videos that got the top number of views during a certain period. What do people like? And is it inspiring subscribers? Are they watching the content longer?

What were the most popular topics? Is this seasonal? Is it consistent?

What’s the truth about the popular top 10?

Say you have 3 or 4 videos in your top 10 that have titles about arms

Or you have several that are titles featuring abs or core

You’re looking for the themes that attract the most people

First Funnel

What you have is the beginning of a funnel. So create a cheat sheet that goes deeper into the topic that the most people are clicking on.

Place a call to action in your video to get your cheat sheet. You have to have an email service – something like Constant Contact or AWeber or Mailchimp are common ones to start out with.

Free to Fee

When you send them from the video to the website you’ll have your webform there. Front and center where they’ll opt in for your freebie.

From there you nurture them with similar content, and offer them a service or product that makes sense.

Keep in mind that right now people need a different type of product or service than they used to need and want. So think problem solve.

I’ll link to yesterday’s podcast where I talked all about problem solving – the mindset of trainers who are thriving right now.

There you have it, how to make videos that serve a purpose for both you and customers who are looking for answers to problems.

Resources:

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

Think your fitness career is down the drain? I call BS

Show notes: Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/grow-your-list

Are you a trainer whose business is down the drain?

You think that everything that you just spent your last 20 or 30 or 10 or 4.. recent college grad, I’m talking to you, is all down the drain?

I call B.S.

This episode is all heart… and more than a little frustration.

If you think right now that your education, and all that time that you put into learning how to be a personal trainer or how to be a health coach is a waste of time or it’s down the drain. You my friend, are pretending you’re a victim.

And you are not.

If you choose not to be.

That is, you’ve got to get creative.

I know people who will survive, people who are truly personal trainers, understand that they weren’t just somebody who had a job.

If you think about what you do, and what I do and how I’ve done for 36 years….

Its problem solving. We solve problems. You can solve problems on the telephone, you can solve problems, via FaceTime, you can solve problems via Skype, using zoom.

People have problems and you can solve them today just like you could in January and in July 2019.

You can use any combination of those tools, but those are just the platforms. It doesn’t change the way you relate to someone.

If you can only deliver your services by demonstrating them? You may be in need of improving your communication skills.

How well can you articulate, either through your voice by speaking it, and giving excellent cues, or by writing it, or transcribing what you speak?

So you are an excellent instructor. You can cue.

You can tell someone how to do something where to feel it, where not to feel it, and how to correct their movement. With the excellent articulation of your instructions.

No one took that away from you.

If you can do that speaking. You could simply transcribe it so it’s written. And you have minimal editing to do to make that. I did exactly that with this episode. I created it while on a walk, talking to my phone. But every episode is also a blog post at the show notes on the site. So the transcription has time stamps.

You can create a checklist, a description that accompanies a video of yourself. Now you have a product that you can sell.

Not just to one client, one time, one hour at a time. No, you can sell one thing over and over and over. If you’re open to possibilities. And you are really somebody who’s passionate, not just about getting dressed, being in a position where you are in front of a mirror, or on a stage, you can do this.

If you’re really about problem solving, then you’re not seeing this as a huge obstacle after more than 3 months. It’s just a reason to get creative.

There is always going to be a business model for trainers for health coaches for fitness instructors who are excellent at communication.

As long as they don’t get stuck, thinking there’s only one model of delivery.

Pick up your telephone call those people who you had been helping. They still have problems. They need them solved.

But the problem somebody has, in June and July and August of 2020 and far beyond that, during COVID-19 are different than the problems that they had in January in February of 2019 or 2019 or 2018. So, if you’ve been a trainer for a while and you’re stuck, thinking, the gym is closed (that you worked for), or it’s open but clients aren’t feeling safe coming back in. You really don’t have a problem.

You have opportunities.

Because your gym isn’t serving these people.

So you have two options. If you were working for a gym, you either approach the owner or the manager and suggest that collectively as a team, you begin to deliver service in virtual or digital way, by phone, by Skype by FaceTime, by zoom a combination of those with products or single sessions. That you create that serve problems.

And you’ve got to remember that this is opportunity.

This may actually make you a better trainer.

If what you’ve been doing in sessions, has been more about simply accountability. And I don’t discount, accountability, because for some people that’s 90% of it, but you can still do that in every virtual way that I’ve just described.

You can also be a better problem solver. A blind person it’s said has a heightened awareness and use of every other one of their other senses. They can smell, taste, and feel with their fingers, better than they could, better than sighted people, because they’re forced to.

You get better

And when you no longer are simply entertaining, you’re no longer distracted by everything else going on in the gym, by everything else that a client might be talking to you about, or that you might be excited to talk to them about like what happened to you last night or last weekend. What you’re looking forward to tomorrow or next weekend…they’ve done this weekend and they’re doing next weekend.

You know, it’s part of conversation, as you’re building rapport with your customers. Sometimes that becomes the conversation. Sometimes, to the extent that your training is actually overshadowed by the need for a social life for your client, and maybe for you.

If you think about it, we all spend a lot of time at work, more time that we spent in our own homes. Sometimes with our families. And sometimes we can get confused and the boundaries get blurred.

When you take yourself to digital delivery your other senses will improve. You’ll become a better problem solver. So rather than thinking about a creative workout for your client, what you’ll be doing more of is creating a workout that solves the problems of that unique client.

And when there’s one individual who has those problems there’s another one. There may be 10. And there may be dozens, and there may be hundreds, or maybe thousands. And that’s where you really give birth to a business model.

If one client has lower back issues.

Where there’s one there are more

If one client has a lack of mobility, solving those kinds of problems, then becomes something you can sell to the masses.

Now you have a business model based on problem and solution, not based on personality, not based on how you look, or your popularity. Not based on a single client meeting you for a single hour. There’s an opportunity right now that has never been better for trainers who can see it. And if you’re willing to do the work you may have a learning curve.

But it doesn’t take much to learn how to turn on your FaceTime doesn’t take not to learn how to record a training session on your phone. That you then have in a library, not just for one client. For many clients.

To get started, as soon as you’re willing to open up your mind to the fact that the strong will survive the creed, those willing to those who really do have a passion, and that platform inside a gym is only one way to look at things. Don’t wait to become better.

You can grow and be bigger, and really have a business that’s sustainable, potentially than where you were before, where you have more revenue than you had expenses.

So create products that people want because they solve problems.

Additional Opportunities

One of the other opportunities that you’ve got in front of you is thinking about what do you know, that other trainers and other health coaches need to know. Are there things that you can teach them that they otherwise wouldn’t acquire on their own, or that would years for them to acquire, can you accelerate their progress.

Can you accelerate or amplify the reach that they can have by teaching them new skills, making them more attractive to more people. Use your skills and apply them to their specific niche or market.

For Example

So, a trainer works with young student athletes. Maybe High School maybe college. Maybe those that want scholarships, pending we opened back up. At some point, we will. But those students right now may not be working with coaches and won’t be necessarily doing team workouts. And those students who have motivation, and they have the programming that can get them ahead. Will Survive potentially and thrive and be the ones who stayed consistent and not waiting for things to blow over.

So can you teach. Another trainer, how to use the skills you have, maybe its back pain prevention is your thing, your special power. You go deep in that. who doesn’t need that, right? Specifically athletes need it.

You know, and so how can you teach that and offer it to them? And you can also teach it to trainers who work with older adults, males or females. You could teach it to trainers who do specifically golf conditioning or back issues are common among golfers.

So think about all the populations that you might choose to teach your special sauce to packaging, what do they need to know. So then you’ve got two different revenue streams coming in. That kind of product or service that you can offer to customers. Virtually on any virtual digital platform.

And you’ve got the same type of delivery system, and platforms available to you to teach to trainers, and generally when you’re teaching it to a trainer who will be teaching to multiple consumers, you can charge more. The value of that product is greater. Remember it is now and has always been about the transformation for the client.

So that may be a revenue stream that you want to look into. If you are feeling like other things, other methods of increasing or earning revenue have closed their doors, other doors have opened. You’re just not looking for them. And you got to get to the handle of the door and try to turn again.

Don’t assume that a closed door is locked.

Resources:

Programs

Otter app

Show notes: Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/bs

How Do You Plan Your Fitness Career in These Times?

“It’s a mess.”

…said dear friend of mine and university lecturer describing what it’s like for kinesiology students who were to graduate or did this spring or summer 2020.

“I’m at a place where I don’t have money coming in but I need to invest money in my future.”

… said a participant in a recent master class.

Sometime in the future this will be the year of COVID19 and you will be looking back knowing exactly what you did and how it worked out. You won’t be stressed or emotional as you talk about it. It will just be a memory.

Right now, it may feel like a black hole. There are things you don’t know.

What We Know

Let me remind you though there are things we do know. We know people can’t be healthy without exercise. We know that they are distracted by other things right now. PPP loans and layoffs and full houses or empty houses, or work-at-home.

We know they’re confused by what to do. We know they have so little time and energy. We know they’re scared, potentially depressed or anxious. All of those things point to a need for support, a plan, and that’s a model for business. Especially for those looking for support whose gyms are closed, or even reopened but they don’t feel comfortable.

The business you end up working for may not even exist yet. Just 10 days ago authorities projected that 35% of brick-and-mortar businesses won’t be here next year. That’s before the next 6 or 12 months when we don’t yet know what will happen.

New Business Models

So while it’s easy to focus on the negativity of that, focus on this instead. New businesses will be there instead. They may be online or entirely different hybrid models. You may start your own business. Can you teach? Did you know with Zoom fitness instructors with a following are charging $8/class. Say 100 people do a class. That might work. One class won’t work but if you give people a reason to feel good, they’ll come back. That could be a membership. Instead of $8 a class, $29 a month. You can make it easy. Easy to get started.

It’s not hard to set up Venmo or Paypal to accept money. Send the link for the private paid class. That’s figuroutable.

How to Plan Your Fitness Career

Whether you’re in your 50s and you need to decide how you’ll recreate your business, or you’re in  your 20’s with ink waiting to dry on your diploma  -or just hoping you get one now that the internship you’d planned has been put on hold indefinitely or cancelled… this is for you.

No matter what you need to do right now at the moment – and it may be away from health and fitness – if you’re committed to a career and life in fitness, don’t stop building a foundation.

It may feel like there’s nothing. But there is opportunity.

When others are quitting, folding, going out of business, there is more opportunity for you.

Few others will do the consistent steps I’m going to suggest. They’ll start and then realize it’s not convenient or it’s not earning them any money and they’ll quit. There are trainers and instructors who are getting paid unemployment and enjoying being at home getting paid. They’re probably trainers who should have been fired because anyone on your team complacent is not someone you want to work with.

If you will stick with it, it will set you apart. Because no matter if you want to work for yourself or you want to work for someone else when that opportunity arises. Look, online fitness platforms are going to expand and going to be hiring … people all over the world are now potential hires when a business goes digital.

What’s True

People have found they can exercise at home. Some have enjoyed getting the commuting time back, the ease of any time they’ve got time, and that they’re not dependent on a class. Some have always exercised at home. But one thing most still need… is accountability. They need to report to someone. That is never going to go away. App or no app… talking to a person about what you are going to do, what you did and how it went, the value of that will remain.

Start to Plan Your Fitness Career for NOW

So, here’s what I’m suggesting you do: establish an online presence. Find your voice. Start getting comfortable with marketing in a way that will feel comfortable to you if you love fitness. No matter what happens in your future influencing someone else will always be a skill you want. And you’ll benefit personally in the process.

Create a challenge that you’re willing to do yourself.

You’re going to share the whole thing on social media. You can blog it, vlog it, share it in Instagram or Facebook or YouTube lives or recorded video. Here’s a rough idea of how to start.

Choose something that is challenging for you.

• Want to go 100% plant-based?
• Want to start running?
• Want to learn to golf?
• Want to cook for yourself every day for 30 days?
• Want to start doing yoga?
• Maybe you weigh yourself every day and you want to stop doing it.

Make it legit.

Choose a walk to run program only if you’ve never been a runner. If you’re already a runner isn’t a true challenge.

Cooking for yourself every day for 30 days is only really a challenge if you can’t cook! A yoga challenge is best if you are stiff as a board.

Here’s why: people want to be able to root for you. They want to see you struggle. They’ll root for you if you’re more like them. Think reality TV. There have to be just real raw days of you doing this.

Where to Do This?

Choose a platform you’re already comfortable on and use. You may already have followers or fans.

Choose a platform after you choose an audience that you want to work with. It’s the platform they’re on that you want to use.

My advice for the project here is do this on a platform you’re already interacting on. You will be more comfortable and have less learning curve. What you’ll be able to do is replicate this whole experience later and do it for another “market” after it works for you.

No matter which way you go: talk to ONE person whenever your posting. You want to talk as if you’re talking to a best friend. The best friend most likely to do this with you or want to watch you to see if it works before she does it.

Know the Rules

If you talk to “you guys” you forget a huge marketing tool. YOU is the most influential word in marketing. Know that anyone person is watching from their phone most likely. So, what “you guys” are you talking to? You’re not. Don’t think about what it’s like for you… think about what it’s like for the viewer. Seem like a small detail? It’s not… your following will drop off, you lose. Every viewer wants to feel special. The mind says, this is for masses, not for me. It feels weird. A listener doesn’t even know why but they begin to think you’re not talking to them.

Start a pre-launch.

First lesson in marketing! You’re going to choose a start date. Maybe you choose the 1st of the month or a Monday or your birthday happens to be this month.

The week or two before that you start talking about this. Post about it, text about it, place polls about it.

Invite others to do it with you.

Set some “rules” or guidelines around it.

Keep asking, polling, and getting engagement from your audience during this pre-launch phase. People like and support things they’ve helped create. They’ll be more personally invested in it.

Then start, aka launch.

Post the whole story. Track your progress behind the scenes. Are you getting more followers, more engagement? Use your insights. The world is online right now. Yes, you have more competition because of that, but I mentioned about, few people will be consistent. If you can commit to doing something for 30 days, showing up when it’s not convenient, when you don’t want to do it, talk about THAT.

That’s real life. And people are resisting health habits now. They’re getting too comfortable staying up late watching Netflix or eating junk because it’s in the house. They’re trying to exercise but there’s no gym. They’re trying not to drink but the wine cellar is right there.

You’re a marketing influencer.

You have to start somewhere. Marketing is a skill that you will need no matter what else you do. We are all marketing all the time. You’ll learn so much from this little experiment – about how to talk to your audience, about how to attract the right people, and what they love. This doesn’t cost you anything. A little time and creativity.

You’ll be in action. And that feels much more in control than waiting to see what you should do. The Gods are not going to open up and reveal the answer. No one in the world has ever gone through this before. Everyone in the world is going through it. Your answer could be just what you need, and maybe others are helped in the process.

How Not to Plan Your Fitness Career

Don’t wait and worry for things to get back to normal.

They are NEVER going to be the same as they were. Ever.

If you wait 6, 12, or 18 months for a see-what-happens answer you will have wasted that time. The time is going to pass. Start creating the future you want.

Don’t try to do this all yourself.

Get a mentor – whether they know it or not – and follow, study. Be careful with this one, however.

Don’t surround yourself with people who are doom and gloom or feeling sorry for you.

You may be related to them. So, you can’t just leave, but you can get the equal and opposite support. Find groups online, and podcasts to listen to that put positive, actionable steps in your head. Every time you listen to someone/news or around people ask yourself how it makes you feel. You need to find the things that make you feel good and make you want to take action.

No leaders later are sitting back right now. They don’t know exactly what they’re doing either but they are making one decision and action at a time all the time.

Don’t ignore other opportunities now to help you earn money.

Get some money coming in and get grounded as you grow the fitness career you want. You may need to drive for door dash, or be a virtual assistant, or do social media for another business. Don’t however get complacent with that and forget proactively what you really want to do. Ten years from now you’ll still be driving for Lyft if you do that.

There you have it the steps to plan your fitness career even in these uncertain times. There are fitness businesses that have been waiting and watching for more than 12 weeks now. They haven’t changed what they’re doing or what they sell. That is an opportunity for you.

Just Start

Don’t get hung up on the need for perfection. Think through these details. Pick a challenge that makes you a little nervous as well as excited. Have fun with it. That’s the key to staying excited about it on a bad hair day, no make-up day, too busy to do this day… you’ll post anyway.

Last… don’t make this about Pilates, or Yoga, or TRX… make it about a transformation. You have to be solving a problem. You may use Pilates or running or weight training to do it. But people look for answers to problems. This is how and why we buy. We don’t go shopping for Pilates first. We have a problem we believe Pilates solves. Before that we have a problem. More on this in the next episode.

Time to share

Post in the show notes if you’re going to do this. If you’d like some support, and followers and feedback put your URL in the comment.

Resources:

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist