The Voice for Fitness Professionals Podcast

Resources:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist… offer BONUS

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

Storytelling for Fitness and Health Coaches: Get Emails Opened and Read

April 20, 2021

Storytelling for fitness and health coaches gives you a way to bridge a relationship with customers you otherwise won’t have.

You are Too Good to Be True

Say you’re fit, athletic and always have been. Say you’re happily married, and have the grown kids, a big house and your husband’s the big breadwinner, so you enjoy big vacations and no stress.

Or you’re thin, have your hair done religiously, live alone, have no one but yourself to schedule around. You always put make up on before you leave the house and you work out daily even if it means doing it at 5am before work. You never eat anything “bad” and there’s no junk food in your pantry.

Can people who need you really relate to you?

Not unless you tell a story. You’re too good to be true. They think they’re too different than you. Storytelling for fitness and health coaches is a big asset. And it’s free, fun, and everyone has stories.

I recently gave a master class about the connection between libido and exercise. It goes far beyond looking good and feeling good. If you’re interested in the connection between type, timing, of exercise and hormones for libido, the Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist is just for you and the clients you want.

Headlines Matter

The subject was: Here’s how my stepdad said “the date is over”

Inside I told readers how my dad would flash the landing lights at about midnight, and definitely more feverishly if it was after midnight. So, my date and I sitting on the couch would get the message it was time for him to go.

Then I launched into the details of libido then and now. Emails like that, not only get opened (remember that’s because of the subject line), but they get responses. People write in things like, that took me back to high school.

That’s exactly what you want.

Storytelling for Fitness and Health Coaches connects you

Your story is not about you. It’s telling a story that allows your reader or listener to put themselves in the story.

Stories connect you to an audience like facts and research – that are also important – can’t. But guess what? They remember the stories. They remember you told them.

Because as the saying goes, people don’t remember what you said, they remember how you made them feel.

How to tell your story:

Start by collecting your stories. Just think about ones you always tell at family gatherings. These might be the ones you have to live down and have since you were 12!

Just do a dump and spend 10 minutes writing the details out of stories that come to mind. Even pieces of stories. Don’t filter them. You’ll figure out later what you’re going to do with them.

Categorize each story by the emotions you felt when it was happening.

Think about emotions your ideal customer goes through. What are they feeling before they start to work with you? What are they feeling as they start to work with you? After they work with you what do they feel?

You want a lot of stories. And you want to follow them all the way from beginning to end so you can:

Identify with a client where they’re at now
Relay how you coped or overcame
Reveal how it is now or after it was over

The Moment You Know

At the end of 2012, I knew I wanted to leave my job and start something bigger. I’d already started to pull away from traditional, safety, and security. It had been a big deal for me to quit my position as a Senior Lecturer in Kinesiology at Iowa State. I loved it. But I no longer had the hours to do that and manage personal training department at a multisite gym. I wanted to have a bigger impact, faster and the path to do that wasn’t clear, but I trusted it.

Then 4 years later after creating systems and seeing what worked (and didn’t) I wanted to share it with more fitness professionals. I quit.

Show Them: I’ve Been There

While building courses and an online presence…

I have felt completely lost, been easily distracted, not known which thing to do first, second… and which things I needed to stop doing.

And I figured it out. I learned how to ask for help. I joined courses, master classes and masterminds… not one.. many of each over the next 7 years. I now know which ones I could have skipped and which gave me exactly what I needed.

Invest in Yourself

I’ve spent over $200,000 in masterminds, training, and courses in the last 7 years. Much of it before I had the actual $25,000 to reinvest on masterminds. You have to do a small amount of investing in yourself and put yourself on the hook.

I was comfortable before I quit. Very comfortable. That’s what made it hard to quit. But I believed there was more… more influence on changing the fitness industry, on changing lives of fitness professionals who care, and helping more of the population improve their quality of life.

Fast Forward (But It’s Not an Overnight Success)

But today? I’m making 12x the monthly revenue I was at that very comfortable place. I can live anywhere in the world I want to, I have amazing colleagues and a network of people I’ve connected with from all over the world. I’ve lived in Boulder and Scottsdale … and am choosing right now where I want to go next.

And so can you. It’s why I started the BYB Mastermind Masterclass series for Flipping 50 Fitness Specialists and others who want to grow their business, originally, and why I brought it back in 2021 to help coaches build and rebuild their business.

Need Real Business Support?

REGISTER HERE: Flippingfifty.com/taxmc

Episodes you also might like:

Resources:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

REGISTER HERE: Flippingfifty.com/taxmc

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

How to Charge More, Raise Your Health Coaching Rates, and Not Pee Your Pants Doing It

April 19, 2021

Know you should charge more and raise your health coaching rates but afraid you’ll lose clients if you do?

Here’s what happened when I raised rates. (Listen to the podcast)

In the first week I attracted 2 lawyers, a realtor, an entrepreneur, and a financial planner who purchased without ever talking to me. I lost clients who were overly concerned about every minute, and got ones who focused on the transformation, the ones who do the work and own up when they don’t.

How to Raise Health Coaching & Fitness Training Rates

Announce rates will be going up in advance (30, 60, or 90 days)
Send the message again with more frequency as you get to the last week, last few days
Include the message on your sales page, and at checkout, in blogs and social posts
Reach out to prior clients and let them know you’ll renew them now at the current rate if they’d like to take advantage of that
For VIP clients you can grandfather them in at the rate they’ve got now by using a coupon code or creating a separate new coaching product and hiding their special rate.

Rate raising becomes a big launch opportunity when you approach it like this and treat your current customers like VIPs you’re letting in on a secret. Raise your health coaching rates with confidence.

Keep Promoting

Just don’t neglect to continue promoting your services after you raise your rates. It’s important that you address any imposter syndrome. It’s natural to feel uneasy raising health coaching rates. But you’ll be surprised how it gives you more confidence to do it and you’ll upgrade your service as a result.

Raise Your Health Coaching Rates Enough

Make it worthwhile for you to go to this effort to raise your rates. Meaning, if you don’t double them, at the least make it noticeable. I raised coaching rates by $200, then $300, and then by $500. That was the equivalent of between 20% to 25%. When you add the increased revenue with grade A clients there’s a lot to love.

You can do something similar when you discontinue a product. You’re using urgency to your advantage but it this case it’s not a short term same, it’s real.

Need Real Business Support?

Episodes you also might like:

Resources:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

https://www.flippingfifty.com/taxmc

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

5 Fitness Business Legal Documents | Your Checklist

April 18, 2021

Your fitness business needs a minimum of 5 legal documents and probably more. But here’s a start.

What not to do:

Just go online, Google terms of service, copy and paste and use it on your site. You are not protected. You have no idea if your services and products are all included.

Here are the 5. Think of this as your checklist for what you have and what you need on your website. Don’t panic; but do start putting your next legal step on your radar.

Terms of Service
Refund Policy
Affiliate Disclaimer
Privacy Policy
Disclaimer

Terms of Service

In this document you include everything about delivery, what they have and don’t have after purchase, access, and the refund policy is also often here. Each product or service you have may have a unique clause. My membership for instance, is an automatically renewing subscription until we’re given notice for cancellation. We specify when then cancellation must come or we can withhold a portion of the refund if we choose to on a late cancellation.

Refund Policy

People will pursue refunds even if you’ve clearly stated your refund policy. It will still take time and time is money. It’s also stress and takes you away from what you should be focused on. But at the least if PayPal or a credit card chargeback do occur, you have recourse. You can show the service or product terms agreed to, that you did your part, and 4 out of 5 times I’ve “won.”

Though it’s never a sweet victory. The customer is still angry. Often, I was too in the beginning. I’ve softened. Usually, a customer is confused, stressed about something else in their life, upset they didn’t keep track of their purchases and it was never about you.

Affiliate Disclaimer

Sharing any equipment or products you love? Maybe from your Amazon store? You have to tell them in plain site that you’ll make money if they use your link. I have a resources page. I highly recommend to our Flipping 50 Fitness Specialists that affiliates be a part of their business!

There are products and services that make your customers more successful. If you’re recommending them, why shouldn’t you get some credit? You should. But you do have to have a disclosure statement on the web page, or in an email when you share.

Privacy Policy

Everyone wants to know you don’t share their information with anyone. You don’t store their credit card information on you website. As an extension of this you may also want to tell them if you’re using cookies on your site.

Disclaimer

If you are posting images of exercise, or videos, or even discussing how to create a workout, a disclaimer is important. And yes, you should be doing all of those things. But you should do so under the umbrella disclaimer that “Not all exercise is appropriate for every body. The advice on this site is in no way a substituted for medical advice. Before starting this or any exercise program seek the advice of a medical professional.”

Legal documents shouldn’t be an afterthought. Have them updated regularly. As you add, delete, or change your services, so too should your legal documents change.

Other Items You Want Legal Advice on:

Guarantee
Testimonials
Images of students
Claims avoidance

Lost in Legal Document Mumbo Jumbo?

In May and June as a part of my Mastermind Masterclass series I’m hosting not one but two lawyers who specialize in these details (as well as Trademark and copyright types of questions).

For a special early bird rate, I’m opening these two masterclasses to the public, and if you want in, just respond to this email. I’ll shoot you the rate (we don’t even have the order form filled out yet – but you’ll get first dibs on asking your questions if you’re in early).

And I’m also hosting a tax strategist. You can get the two masterclasses together for one low price, and one major relief for a business that’s truly in good shape.

GET TAX & LEGALLY STRONG:

(for the tax & legal masterclass bundle: early bird through May 4)

Episodes you also might like:

Resources:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

Fitness Pro, How Important Is List Building to You?

April 17, 2021

Do you really need to be list building when you think you need to be training clients, and writing workouts? Do you really need to be learning how to write better copy on the sales pages you have (or need to create) so that you can sell the products and packages you have now?

Do you know if you need list building, or more products or to raise your rates? Many fitness professionals love training. They love people basically. They feel good doing training. They love sharing what they know about fitness to help clients. But they also want to have a home, a family, a life and time outside of the work they love.

Busy Isn’t Productive

You can’t see the picture when you’re in the frame. -Mary Morrissey

You’re doing lots of things. You’re busy. You can easily fool yourself that you’re doing meaningful things but look up at the end of the week or month or 6 months and know the truth. You haven’t made any more money. You may have gained clients, but you also lost them. You’re in the same exact spot with no time to take off, no two weeks of vacation, certainly not paid, and you don’t really jump out of bed loving what you’re doing.

Where do you need to focus?

List building so you’re able to reach more people with your offers?
Nurturing your email list
Nurturing your current members or students
Converting more sales
Increasing the dollar amount of sales (increasing profit margin)
Increasing the number of people in a group (increasing profit margin)

Almost all fitness professionals can improve in each area at least a little. We all want to be doing what we do better and more effectively, right? But there’s one thing that will make the biggest difference for you right now. Do you know what it is?

List Building Isn’t Sexy

List building for many is not very sexy. But it is the real estate you own.

List Building or Dumping Members?

Unfortunately, too many fitness businesses think of it as a place to dump their members when they join. So, they can email them spammy emails about more ways to spend money with programs.

That’s not a model that works very well.

If you’re not giving your email subscribers something to look forward to in your emails, a recipe, a gift, a workout, a research study, a statistic, why do they need you? The Harvard Wellness newsletter or the Google can give them more support and fewer sales pitches.

Episodes you also might like:

Resources:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

The Fitness Marketing Goldmine Waiting for You

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

5 Ways to Increase Every Fitness Sale

April 16, 2021

If you could increase every fitness sale by 15% or 20% would that make a difference in your bottom line? Of course, it would.

You’ve Been Upsold

Have you ever gone for a massage or booked online and had the option of adding a scalp massage, or an eye treatment? The massage itself was $85 or $100 and the add-on was $10 or $20, right? That was my recent experience for a birthday massage anyway.

Private coaching calls
Meal planning – custom or pre-finished programs
Custom stretching/yoga videos they’ll do between sessions
Group coaching programs
Provide a membership option with online access to the above

It Can Work for You

There you have it, 5 more ways (I’ve shared others) to increase every fitness sale. If it works with chocolate cake, it will work with health and wellness right now.

But only if you ask.

The biggest key for you, is doing this “upselling” so that you’re not exchanging more of your time. You make it easier for your customer to succeed at the core service they purchased by offering something they need to do that. But you create it once and sell it many times so they use it on their own, or with prompts from you during their sessions.

If you’ve never created this type of passive income that gets your customers much more actively engaged in your business, and have no idea where to start to create something of value, join me for a masterclass about building your business. It’s the start of how to learn more about serving women in midlife.

More episodes you might like:

3 Things to Increase Your Fitness Business Now

Resources mentioned:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

Don’t miss “Goldmine of Fitness Marketing” episode for easy and simple marketing strategies right under your nose.

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

Do You Have Shareable Fitness Content, Fitness & Health Pros? Mom was right!

April 15, 2021

Shareable fitness content gets you more likes, comments, and um, shares. But more than that it gets you more exposure. When the right people (your ideal customer) shares, saves, comments, or likes (in descending order of importance), you get more love from your platform.

First things first.

Are you on the right platform? If you have no audience, no followers and more of your tribe are on Facebook than Instagram and you’re killing yourself on Instagram, you’re wasting your time. There’s only so much time. You don’t have time to waste right? So the post creation, posting, responding to your comments and asking questions to engage… you likely have other things to do today.

Make sure the time you spend (and yes, you need to be there) on social is giving back to you.

Now, let’s talk shareable fitness content. I’d be willing to bet that you have some posts that you thought were juicy, thought-provoking, and deserved more love but got the cold shoulder. Am I right?

If that’s true don’t be afraid to go back to it and repurpose it into one of these ideas.

What’s shareable?

Graphics – infographics that illustrate a point
Images – say a series of exercises or yoga poses
Quotes – someone famous, or even you, as long as it resonates with your audience in a way that makes them say, “Amen!”

Why they’ll share?

It’s news. Share a study, a research finding, a statistic.
It’s shocking.
You made them laugh: it’s funny.
It’s heartwarming.
It makes them look smart.
Yes, it’s practical – you gave them today’s core workout or a series of stretches to use while sitting at the desk, or a recipe – right there, no clicking to a blog.

Make it specific: not “everybody” friendly.

Here’s why… if you want to grow a niche and a strong following, you are talking to one demographic. A large gym? Having multiple accounts would be smart. Time consuming? Yes, but guess what? The time you’re spending talking to no one specifically now is a huge waste of time getting you nowhere. Give your accounts to the trainers or people who work with a specific demographic. Middle and older women, young moms, and young men are a best start.

Resources I use:

Canva – graphics, infographics, photo editing
Piktochart – also an infographic, handout editor

Never steal.

If you look at someone’s post, you love it and you share it, take note. What about it did you love? And realize you’ve just been marketed to in the best way. Someone gave you something you find useful and want to use again.

Do that for your tribe.

Resources mentioned:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

Don’t miss “Goldmine of Fitness Marketing” episode for easy and simple marketing strategies right under your nose.

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

3 Things That Will Increase Your Fitness Business NOW

April 14, 2021

Increase your fitness business now so that when more and more people are vaccinated, gain confidence, they have it in you. Push that re-entry up by weeks or months by being there, being transparent, and having conversations.

Host Educational Zoom Classes

Active classes
Cooking classes
Q and A about the pandemic/safety/risk/rewards
Q and A about topic specific (make them want you)

Host Lives on Facebook and Instagram

Quick Tips for Energy or Specific Problem Solving

Instead of “drink more water” make it HOW to do it, how to make it easier, tips and suggestions from trainers

Instead of “prioritize sleep” make it about HOW to do it, sleep hygiene tips that work, a a guided relaxation session

Publish more content-rich articles…

…that you share in email and social media than “posting to post” empty memes that go nowhere (especially not back to your website).

What Must Happen to Increase Your Fitness Business Now?

Make them laugh
- My son, “Covid can’t get you sitting down.”
Make them say, “I didn’t know that.”
- Most of our clients and customers think they know more than they do. They know what they were taught, but they haven’t stayed on top of science. And they capture bits and pieces of the media-interpretted studies. Be the liason for them.
Make them say, “I’ve been doing that wrong”
- Without being teachy or preachy, you can lead them to you. Point out it’s not their fault if you’re pointing out mistakes. Let them know even you may have taught or believed that once, too.
Make them feel like you’re on their side fighting a common enemy (no lectures or sermons).
- Be there for them. Invite their questions. Let them know you’re the fitness advocate they come to when they’re tempted to try something new.

Resources mentioned:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

Look at yesterday’s “Goldmine of Fitness Marketing” episode for more.

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

The Fitness Marketing Goldmine Waiting for You

April 13, 2021

Need a fitness marketing goldmine to kickstart better results? You already have it. Frequently asked customer questions are an amazing (and easy) source of content to create.

You’ve probably answered the same questions dozens of times if you’ve been in business serving the same demographic for very long at all.

What you’re looking for is not the generic:

How does this work
How much does it cost
How many sessions in a package

But you’re looking for the questions that your best paying customers have or had before they became customers.

Things like this are a fitness marketing goldmine:

How do I choose weights?
What if I can’t do squats?
What’s the best way to do core?
What are the best arm exercises?
What is the best way to tone inner thighs?

Other fitness marketing goldmine sources are those Q and A sessions you offer (you are offering them right?)

Nervous About Q and A Sessions?

If you’re nervous about doing that, or afraid of getting a question you can’t answer, you’re not alone. Let’s deal with that before I go on. No one ever has all the answers in the universe. Right? So, I want you to know that at any moment you might have to say, “I don’t know the best answer to that right now, but I’ll find out. Thank you for asking.”

Authentic.

Second, I want you to know that you’re controlling the questions you answer. Do that in two ways.

Have a list of questions you’ve already rounded up. Come prepared. That will get the ball rolling and you’ll be comfortable because you have been able to prep.

Then, you won’t necessarily be able to answer every question on every Q and A session. So, if you have someone doing it with you who can screen the questions great. But most of the time you’re doing these solo when you start and you are taking the questions. Have two screens, the one you’re live on and the one you can see comments coming in on. There’s often a delay and you don’t see the Qs in real time on Facebook.

Then also go back and look at that or have a team member do so a couple days after. As others watch the recording, there will be new questions. Don’t let the questions asked that you answered in the video bug you! Take those added questions as a sign, they are hot topics.

Repurpose that Fitness Marketing Goldmine

You can take that very video you did and splice it into several posts. You’ve got content to rotate into your social media that can support your marketing for weeks.

But it’s not just creative content that you’ve tried to copy from someone else. It’s literally the best possible kind of content coming right from your ideal customers.

Know the Right Questions

Don’t settle for less. Don’t be tempted to come up with questions they should ask. Even if stating their questions out loud makes you cringe a little. Here’s what I mean.

Prospects often think that they know more than they do. They still have old ideas about exercise. They might say, “I’m tired all the time and can’t lose weight. Which should I do, xxx or yyy first?” And I’m thinking, neither of those is a good option for you based on what you’ve just said. So, the question you ask might make you feel like you want to correct it even before you ask it. That’s okay. Ask the question the way the individual asked it. Then answer respectfully. That could be the moment of truth bomb that makes someone realize they don’t know what they don’t know.

Summary:

Did you do a Q and A?
What were the most FAQs?
Break them into single questions and answer in posts.

Resources mentioned:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1:

Tune in for tomorrow’s podcast! It’s all about what to do NOW to get the growth coming in 2021.

You can find them all on iTunes or at fitnessmarketingmastery.com

Need to Upgrade Your Audio and Video, Fitness Pro?

April 12, 2021

Do you need to upgrade your audio and video to do social media and zoom meetings?

Is it lights, camera, audio and action or are you stalling?

Your images, and video quality do matter.

The right lighting makes all the difference. Here’s a random collection of tips that you still have to do when you upgrade your audio and video. Start now and make whatever you’re using better!

Tips to upgrade audio and video presence online

Always front lit not back lit
Straight on, warm light, no shadows – 2 from the sides
But if you have a video where the video matters less than the audio and audio is fine, it’s a go!
They have to hear you.
A microphone – your earbuds might work (make sure they’re plugged in and the source)
A room with carpet, rugs, books, furniture improves acoustics dramatically over a tile or hardwood floor in a room without “soft” furniture.
You in light clothing against a dark background or vice versa
Making full workout videos, you want a microphone (wireless pack) plugged into your recording device
For zoom and webinars on other platforms a webcam (not on your computer) makes a big difference. The image is sharper not grainy and dark. I have a logi tech BRIO that’s relatively new. I got tired of terrible images. The importance of connecting now while we’re online is more important than ever.
Get lighting that also boosts your video quality. A pair of Elgato key lights have been a great investment for me. One might be enough.
Don’t let a story you tell yourself about a need to upgrade your audio and video be an excuse though! If you’re truthfully stalling because you don’t want to do it anyway, this is another story.

Below are a few of the worst mistakes you can make:

Not doing anything! (your phone has an amazing camera in it and major fitness brands have shot video – including programs on their phone)
Shooting video outdoors with traffic going by
Shooting outdoors in windy (at all) conditions
Shooting yourself against a bright window (you’ll be in silhouette)

Tips to enhance video:

Make your background brand-specific
Plan your clothing – brand specific and so that you stand out.

Most of all… know the “look” you’re going for and do it. Whether you’re on a plane taking a selfie with a “fan” – the first time this happened to me three years ago I was so surprised… and humbled. Here’s why…

I’d been in a super big hurry, worked til the last minute, left for the airport essentially in a baseball cap and old sweats (not really but you get the idea, no shower no makeup). Of course that’s when it happens! Kind of a fail for my brand though it was very authentic!

If you always use a filter… do. If you never do, don’t. But don’t be sometimes using and sometimes not.

If you always do close ups, do. If it’s always food or people or … you decide. Call the shots. The content you use the message you share should be so strong they’ll tolerate a poor audio occasionally. But make it the absolute exception. Sometimes that killer content you’ll have to kill to stay on the quality brand you want.

Resources:

Resources mentioned:

Don’t Miss All the April Fitness Marketing & Selling 2021 streak! Starting with this episode on April 1: