Chris Cooper's Blog, page 127

Two-Brain Summit Speakers: Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink is more than his biography. Jocko is a force.

Yes, he has an amazing story. A retired Navy SEAL, Willink led SEAL Team 3’s Task Unit Bruiser, the most decorated special operations unit of the Iraq war. Then he became the officer in charge of training for all West Coast SEAL teams. His book “Extreme Ownership” was a New York Times bestseller.

Willink has one of the most popular podcasts in America—with more than 2.4 million episodes downloaded from November to January alone—and hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. He’s a jiu-jitsu black belt, and he’s been a CrossFit affiliate since 2008.

But that’s not why I invited him to speak at the Two-Brain Summit this year.

This is why:

“If you can say the word ‘good,’ guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing. And if you’re still breathing, you still got some fight left in you. So get up, dust off, reload, recalibrate, re-engage. Go out on the attack.”

This is not my usual message. Attendees at least year’s Summit were a bit surprised to hear my closing address. Its theme was “swallow the shit.” But this stuff is what we all need to hear right now:

That these challenges make us better. That it will all pay off. That, ultimately, the hard stuff is the good stuff.

Jocko and I will talk about all of this—the microgym business and what “extreme ownership” means to gym owners—at the 2021 Two-Brain Summit June 19 and 20.

This event will be online and broadcast to select regional locations as well.
Get tickets and more info here.

The post Two-Brain Summit Speakers: Jocko Willink appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Entrepreneur’s Pandemic Plan: “We’re Going to Make It Work”

Mike (00:02):

The last 12 months have been brutal. A pandemic, lockdowns, heaps of government restrictions. If you’ve had it with the negative, you’ll want to listen to Ruth Cheng’s success story, which was written despite a host of challenges. She’s here right after this.

Chris (00:14):

Chris Cooper here to talk about level method. When it comes to owning a gym, it can be really tough to show your members their progress and keep them engaged. Long-term level method provides experienced gym owners with a visual step-by-step fitness progression system. That’s fun, engaging, and easy to use with level method. Your clients can reach their fitness goals faster and safer than ever before and become raving fans of your gym. It’s a total game changer that creates powerful moments that you’ll never forget. I use it as a catalyst. It improved my conversion and my retention go to level method.com to find out more.

Mike (00:49):

It’s Mike Warkentin back with Two-Brain Radio. At the 2019 Two-Brain summit in Chicago, I was taking candid photos and looking for smiling people. I spotted Ruth Cheng right away. The owner of CrossFit PTBO was having a grand old time with new friends at her table. Over the last year, Ruth has provided tons of updates in our private Two-Brain group. And I wanted to share her story with you today. Despite adversity, she’s resolute, she’s got a plan and she’s got big goals. Hi, Ruth, and welcome to Two-Brain Radio.

Ruth (01:15):

Hey, how are you?

Mike (01:17):

I’m doing well now, I’m excited to talk to you today. I did a search for your posts in our growth group. It was a spectacular read. You know, you talked about a number of challenges in there, but between all the struggles and there were many the last year for everyone, you posted, you know, a consistent string of revenue PRs.

Mike (01:33):

So I’m going to ask you the big question first that I’m sure everyone wants to know. How much have you grown your business and how did you manage to do it over the course of what was just a terrible year in the fitness industry and the world in general?

Ruth (01:43):

So we keep track of literally every month and year over year on a spreadsheet and comparing 2019 to 2020, we’ve grown actually about 20% in gross revenue even with what’s going on, what went on last year. Surprisingly, so something to be proud of. I can only imagine if 2020 didn’t happen the way it did, what that number would be. Right.

Mike (02:12):

And you’ve grown quite a bit, even from like 2018 before that, correct?

Ruth (02:16):

Yes. Yeah. From 18 to 19, it was 26%, the year before it was 41%.

Mike (02:22):

So it’s just year on year growth. I mean, that’s incredible. And especially during a challenging situation, you know, you’re between two cities, Toronto, Ottawa, that are getting hammered by lockdowns and so forth. And we feel like we’re probably on the date of recording here. We’re probably an hour away from another stay at home order for the entire province, Ruth and I happen to be in the same Canadian province of Ontario. Give me some secrets here. Like how have you managed to do this? And again, we’ll get into some details and so forth, but just what’s the overarching reason that you’ve been able to grow through a terrible time for businesses.

Ruth (02:54):

I guess it helps that Dave and I, through our whole business, we’re complete opposites. His strengths are my weaknesses, vice versa. So we’ve got kind of our designated roles, which helps streamline everything. There’s no secrets. It’s been super challenging. There was lots of crying and frustration. And just trying to navigate day by day.

Mike (03:27):

Well, let’s dig in a little bit, cause you know, there maybe isn’t an overarching secret, but you’re doing something right. So we’re going to find out what that is. We’ll talk it out a little bit here and see what else we can go over. Take me back to January, 2020. Where were you and PTBO at? And you said a little bit what we know the financial stuff, how your gross has gone up for the year, but where were you at in January, 2020 before all the pandemic stuff started?

Ruth (03:47):

Yeah, we were hitting milestones and so January we hit—January, February, we were about 25,000 for January 29, almost hitting our, you know, mythical 30,000 per month, super excited, momentum, and then March hit. So we were just skyrocketing and on a roll.

Mike (04:16):

So when the pandemic hits, how fo you feel? Did it just feel like the wind fell out of your sails and or happened for you in Peterborough? Did you have like, was it a lockdown for you or how did, what was the scenario?

Ruth (04:24):

Yeah, it was dead on the streets. Literally. Like everyone was scared, stayed home. We as a business, we didn’t react too quickly. We thought, Hey, it’s going to only be two weeks. Right? So we shared some workouts on Wodify, didn’t transfer over to personal coaching just yet, didn’t lend out equipment. And as we figured that this is going to be much longer than that’s in April. So after the two weeks we transferred to what we call our online personal coaching, assigning coaches to each individual, checking in twice a week. And we were really hesitant on renting out equipment, but Hey, we needed more revenue. Rented our machines, barbells, dumbbells, everything had a price tag to it and people that wanted it paid for it. And it really helped bridge that gap.

Mike (05:18):

We were in the same boat. We ended up shutting down our physical location, but we were the same thing where we like, I did not want to lend out that gear, you know, because it’s basically like a carpenter loaning out the tools that he or she would use to build stuff. And you might not get them back. You know? Like how many books have you lent out over the years never to see again? You know, I was terrified of that, but then we realized that it was going to help our members out because there was no fitness equipment available. And it was also gonna help us out with some revenue. So I took the plunge too, but you know, was it hard for you to watch the stuff go out the door? Cause I was just fearful.

Ruth (05:50):

I think definitely more so for Dave, because he maintains every little piece of equipment in there and it was hard, but our members honestly know how we take care of things. They know how to take care of it. So it came back all in one piece. Luckily.

Mike (06:07):

So personally, how did that feel when, you know, you’re on this arc where you’re not even an arc, it’s a curve going up and you’re hitting PRs in revenue getting close to your big 30 K goals and so forth. And then all of a sudden you get the brakes slammed on for two weeks, quote unquote, which turns into more and longer and longer. And how did that feel personally for you? Like, was it just a gut punch?

Ruth (06:28):

Super deflating. Personally we’re experiencing our third lockdown right now. So every time, cause I’m the one that does the backend and each lockdown, you get the, Hey who’s continuing, who’s canceling. And within the hour, the amount of notifications of I’m going to put it on hold, I’m going to cancel. Like I did not want to even look my look at my phone, the tears would come out, you know, the anxiety and that’s super overwhelming.

Mike (06:59):

And I appreciate you talking about it because there’s so many people out there, there isn’t a real face to some of this stuff, right? Like you hear all the small businesses are suffering and you hear all these general just generalisms. But when people actually talk about it, it really helps other business owners in particular. And that’s the whole point of this podcast to understand that like, yeah, you’re not alone. Your anxiety, your stress, you’re not alone on this stuff. And I’ve seen a lot of people on Facebook today, especially because Alberta and other places are getting into lockdowns, people speaking out and kind of, you know, voicing their frustration and so forth. And that’s one of the reasons I really wanted to have you on the show is to talk about, you know, some of the hardships, but also some of the positive stuff. So, you know, you’re getting punched in the gut. You don’t want to touch your phone because you don’t wanna see cancellations. How do you turn that around and pick yourself up and say, OK, I’m going to keep this going. I’m going to dust myself off and I’m going to figure out a plan to serve my members and keep my business going. Did you take a couple of days to just kind of just like, you know, suck it up or how did you find the positivity to keep going?

Ruth (07:53):

With the current lockdown we were right in the middle of like at the gym, classes are running, I was transparent. Like we just were open with our members and one of the ladies asked, like, how are you doing? And with my mask on started like tearing up and she could tell I was upset. So I guess not suppressing my feelings a hundred percent helped. Facing it. Knowing like, Hey, this is reality. We’re all going through it to some degree, sharing our emotions.

Mike (08:31):

Talk to me about the quiet nights. You know, you’re at home with your partner and you’re figuring the situation out and you’re like, OK, well we’ve shut the gym down. We changed things. How do you guys find the strength? Where’s the positivity come from? And the wherewithal, obviously, you know, you run a CrossFit affiliate, you do some tough workouts and you’re a tough person, but how do you find the willpower to then go back into the breach one more time?

Ruth (08:53):

I guess our motivation would be our kids, keeping the roof over our heads. Our employees depend on us. They literally had the biggest paychecks for March ever. And then now it’s going to be quarter, maybe half, not even. So we don’t want to have to get to the point of laying them off. We don’t want to do that. So I guess that’s kind of the motivating factor.

Mike (09:21):

So it’s kind of a sense of a sense of duty. Both to you know, your family and your extended family at the gym.

Ruth (09:28):

There’s no choice. We don’t have a choice. Just like I’ll use a good example of when I went to the summit in 2019, three days later, I quit my job at the university. Sink or swim right? Now we’re down to one self-employed income versus a steady benefits pension job. We’re going to make it work.

Mike (09:49):

Yeah. And that’s the great attitude that, you know, I’ve been inspired by some of the entrepreneurs, not just in the fitness industry, but in other areas, watching some of them. And there’s a restaurant in Winnipeg and the owner, I interviewed the owner, and he said, I’m here serving customers when I can. And I’m delivering on the—I’m the server now. And I actually do deliveries and I do everything else that the owner would do. He’s working a huge amount. He actually had his wife taking care of a high-risk person. So he wasn’t even seeing his wife because he didn’t want, you know, to risk transmitting disease or something like that. But he said like, this is what I do. This is what I’m going to continue to do. So people like that, that resilience and grit is really inspiring. And are you one of those, are you kind of like one of those tough people that’ll just go through it no matter what, is that your character?

Ruth (10:35):

I would definitely say that’s definitely Dave. I’m definitely more soft, more emotional. I’ll show it more, but together, I guess, we have to be that way, right?

Mike (10:49):

Yeah. There’s a limited choice. You moved into a new space, correct?

Ruth (10:55):

Yes. We moved last May. So during the first lockdown. It was very different than the last two lockdowns. The first lockdown, both kids were still at home. They couldn’t go to daycare. We had to move locations. It actually kind of worked out because Dave did it all on his own. He’s a solo worker, you know, we’re not the type to get the whole gym, let’s move the gym together. So we were able to renovate, get things moved over and get it set up for whenever we reopened. And it was exciting for people because not only are we coming out of lockdown, but we’re going to a new home.

Mike (11:33):

But I’m sure that was an added stress that you maybe didn’t need during the lockdown. I mean, in some ways it was a blessing right. Where you didn’t have to coach classes and stuff. So you could do all that stuff. On the other side you’re like, Whoa, I’m moving into a brand new space and I’ve got all these other things going on and I’m trying to manage my gym.

Ruth (11:47):

Yeah. And I couldn’t really, I wanted to help out because this is our new space, but the two kids are at home. So I be, you know, a hundred percent part of the move either.

Mike (11:57):

So did he just move like 70,000 pounds of gear more or less by himself?

Ruth (12:01):

When it got to the equipment and the actual equipment, we did get two of our coaches to come and help. So it was literally like a morning and a half and that was done, but everything else, painting mats, et cetera, was all Dave.

Mike (12:16):

That’s incredible. And you said he’s a very stoic kind of like nose to the grindstone kind of guy.

Ruth (12:21):

Oh yeah. Get out of his way. He’ll get it done.

Mike (12:24):

Well, that’s great. That kind goes back to what you said at the beginning of one of your secrets there is that you guys kind of balance each other out, which is really interesting. So you kind of, you know, maybe more emotional and taking care of the backend stuff. And he’s just like, I’m going to paint this wall till 4:00 AM and away we go, right.

Ruth (12:42):

Before the gym, he was a foreman for, he poured basements, like concrete basements for 14 years. So good at managing and stuff like that. So, you know, this is our dream, own our business. Make our schedule, make however much money we want and it’s on hold right now.

Mike (13:01):

What was the biggest challenge over the last year? You know, again, COVID is probably the obvious one, but is there a certain aspect of things, like, was it, you know, retaining members? Was it acquiring members or tell me about what the biggest challenge that you’ve overcome is.

Ruth (13:14):

The first lockdown with the month after month, it’s the retention, keeping people interested, motivated, you know, if it’s a month, bottom line is not going to hurt. We always come back with even bigger revenue PRS. But if it lingers longer, that’s the biggest challenge.

Mike (13:33):

Right. So it’s retention. And then when you’ve reopened, when you’ve been able to, have you experienced a surge of people coming in, or have you done anything to kind of encourage a new group of signups? Or how does that go?

Ruth (13:46):

Yeah, when we reopened, so we reopened July, mid July, and August, we hit 31,000, November. We hit 40 for the first time.

Mike (13:57):

Wow, congratulations.

Ruth (13:58):

Yeah. Last month we hit, I think 46,000, like record, record numbers. And I guess, yes, people want to get back into fitness, word of mouth. People know like the integrity of what we’re providing to our members. Not only just like, get a workout in, it’s fixing their health in whatever way. They want to be a part of that.

Mike (14:24):

And so your gym is currently open right now?

Ruth (14:26):

No, no, we’re not.

Mike (14:29):

What the health region that you’re classified as?

Ruth (14:31):

Peterborough.

Mike (14:31):

Yeah. OK. So you’ve been in the gray lockdown restriction for some time. Is that right?

Ruth (14:39):

We were yellow. And then when the outbreak at the local college hit, we switched to red, which luckily we’ve always been 10 per class. So nothing changed. We’ve always kept our classes small and it worked out in our favor. We had no changes, so, yeah.

Mike (14:57):

So what’s the plan. We expect, you know, a stay at home order coming up and so forth. Are you falling kind of the Two-Brain plan of assigning coaches to people, delivering their workouts, staying in touch daily? Or how are you, what are you doing to retain members right now?

Ruth (15:10):

Yeah. So how we’re doing our online personal coaching is David has very specific programming for our members. So he kind of developed two streams, bodyweight and minimal equipment. So our coaches have access to those two streams on True Coach. We’ve assigned our members to our two full-time employees.

Ruth (15:30):

They check in twice a week. I’ve got like, you know, five people that I check in with and we’re paying a percentage of their membership. So we’re kind of taking that cut, but to still provide employment. And we’re trying to keep as many of their personal training clients going on zoom as well, because that’s still the same, you know, high value per hour rate. Just, I keep telling our members like, don’t compare your workouts at home to the gym. Right now, lockdown, our goal is try to move. If you can do, you know, one portion of the workout, Hey, that’s better than not doing anything. I guess setting expectations is really important.

Chris (16:09):

It’s Chris Cooper here. Your gym’s programming won’t attract new clients, but it can help you keep your clients longer. Good programming includes benchmarks, novelty, skills, progressions, leaderboards, you know all that stuff. But great programming contains something more: a link between each client’s fitness goals and the workout of the day. Your coaches need to tell your clients more than what they’re doing every day. They need to explain why they’re doing it. Gym’s whose coaches could explain the why connection had a 25% better retention rate during lockdowns. Imagine how that translates into better retention when things are back to normal. Now, I want to solve this problem for gym owners. Programming is the service you deliver to your clients. So I partnered with Brooks DiFiore, who had one of the highest adherence rates in the world for his group classes at his gym to build twobrainprogramming.com. We built this for Two-Brain gyms and we give them free access in our mentorship program. But I’m now making this available to the public. Programming proven to improve retention and cashflow in your gym. Visit Two-Brain programming.com to get it.

Mike (17:16):

And what has that done for clients, like to clients by and large stay around or are some taking time off? Or how does that work for you?

Ruth (17:24):

We’ve probably, for this third lockdown probably lost 30 to 40 people already that just are not into online stuff. They want to be in classes.

Mike (17:37):

So when you get to open up, do you kind of, is this a hold thing or is it a cancellation thing? Or do you have a plan to kind of re-acquire these people? Or how does that go?

Ruth (17:44):

Yeah, so that’s nose to the grindstone for me, contact every person, you know, when we’re starting back up the state. Great. It’s all ready for when we have the green light. OK.

Mike (17:57):

Basically you’re saying bye for now and gonna talk to them as soon as soon as things are better and get things going again.

Ruth (18:04):

Exactly.

Mike (18:04):

And you’ve got those plans laid out, I’m guessing for previous lockdowns now that you’ve got experience.

Ruth (18:11):

And another thing that I’ve been getting feedback from our members, every time there’s been lockdown, we’ve perfected the turnaround time. Announcements made, Dave and I talk about the plan, which is usually the same plan. Within two hours email sent out, spreadsheet is going for like, who’s staying, who’s going, who’s transitioned to True Coach. It’s all done within like 24 hours. We know what’s going on. So, our members are super impressed with, you know, how fast the communication is, how concise, and they appreciate that, right? Local gyms in the area, we hear like the owner didn’t even tell us they’re locked down and just kinda ghosted them and that’s not the right thing to do for our members.

Mike (18:57):

So I’m going to steal your thunder here, or I’ll blow your horn potentially is a better metaphor. One of the secrets, I think probably of your success in this whole thing is probably communicating a whole lot, having a plan, communicating that plan and just being in touch with your members and being open with them. You know, when I’m listening to you talk about this stuff here, you’re talking about meticulous detail, right. And having a plan, knowing how to do this, and then implementing really fast, because I have seen exactly what you’re saying, where I’ve heard and it’s general gyms in the community that I read about, not Two-Brain gyms, where I hear people talk about, you know, my gym just closed and I didn’t even know I went to the front door and it was locked and they have no idea what’s going on. Their shoes are locked inside. They don’t know if they’re being open. I’ve seen some auctions out of the blue of large amounts of fitness equipment that clearly came from some gyms. It seems like you’re doing the exact opposite of that. And really the communication and the planning is probably one of the reasons why you’re showing so much success. Do you agree with me?

Ruth (19:57):

Totally agree and going into the second lockdown, I’m going to totally credit Jay Rhodes. He went into lockdown before we did. And he posted in the growth group that this is what I sent out. When I sent it out. I followed his steps, did a pre little pre-lockdown email. Hey guys, we’re expecting this. We will be in touch when we know more, when we knew more immediately sent out, this is our plan. So yeah. Thank you, Jay.

Mike (20:26):

Yeah, Jay is one of our Two-Brain mentors who runs a gym in Hamilton and I saw the same thing. He knew lockdown was coming and he took some pretty aggressive steps. And he’s the same as you were. He’s experienced a lot of growth over the last few years he’s turned around a gym and made it into something really special to the point where now he’s able to help other gym owners. And he clearly did that here with you. And that’s honestly like, you know, with our business, we chose to pivot online and we closed our physical space down, but all this came, all these decisions were made because back in March of last year, we were hearing from the Two-Brain gyms in China and Australia, New Zealand, like everything on the Asian wave of what was happening. And then we heard in Europe what was happening. And then when it got to North America, we had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen. And we made some decisions, you know, very quickly. Did you find that same thing when the kind of wave was coming toward North America? Did you find that the advanced warning from the Two-Brain gyms over there was helpful?

Ruth (21:20):

I didn’t pay too, too much attention. I guess my parents live in Taiwan and they did everything right during COVID so we can’t compare to them because life is normal there. But, yeah, I guess hindsight’s like, yeah, we knew what was coming right.

Mike (21:41):

It was helpful for me in the sense, like, I just, you know, a couple of people asked us over the last little bit, like, how did you know this was going to be longer than two weeks? And, you know, the reason I knew it was because I had read what Chris had put up and shared from some of the gym owners in Asia and in Australia and so forth saying this is what was happening. And we were able to make some quick moves and it’s great to even in your local community, like, are you pretty tight with all of the Toronto area and Ontario gym owners?

Ruth (22:03):

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely try to keep in touch as much as I can. We’re the only Two-Brain CrossFit gym in our city. So we’re kind of the lone wolf here, but I definitely look to other Two-Brain gyms in Ontario.

Mike (22:20):

As we close this out, talk to me about kind of hope for the future here. Probably getting the lockdown stay-at-home order coming up right away, at least probably gonna be into May before we can operate again, I’m going to guess. Talk to me about May when you’re able to open, what is your plan and what are your goals for the next year? Let’s assume that May is the last of the lockdowns. What are you looking to accomplish in the rest of 2021?

Ruth (22:40):

Jay and I are already have a thing going saying, who’s going to reach 50,000 first.

Mike (22:45):

He’s not competitive at all, right?

Ruth (22:51):

So we want to blow it out of the water. I want to write the biggest checks to our employees over and over and over again. And we want to be unstoppable like yeah. And provide the best service to our members. When I also say this is part of the bright spot posts that you saw, we don’t have any weed clients. It makes our jobs so much easier because we want to help these people. I want to help.

Mike (23:17):

Did you fire them or did they leave?

Ruth (23:18):

Most leave on their own. Yeah, we’ve never really had to fire anybody.

Mike (23:28):

Weed clients are your worst clients. They’re the people that take the most of your energy and give you the least happiness. And they often pay you the least. And so we often talk about people who just don’t fit in. There is a seeds and weeds exercise that we use to help our gym owners figure out what to do with them. And weed clients often, if you’ve got the right culture and atmosphere, they often just pull themselves out and leave. In some cases, you get a really bad one that you have to fire, but you’ve clearly created a culture that allows your clients to kind of think, Oh, this isn’t for me or I’m all in. And I love this place.

Ruth (24:00):

Yep. And that’s where we’re at. We’ve got lots of seed clients. People are very happy.

Mike (24:04):

Target is 50K in gross revenue coming into May toward the end of 2021 in a race with Jay Rhodes in Hamilton. Do you have any tactics in mind, specific things that are going to be the key to that 50 grand? Like, or is it going to be personal training revenue or is it going to be nutrition coaching or what’s going to be the key to that?

Ruth (24:23):

We have very—group classes, our weightlifting club and personal training. Those are three pillars for us. And our personal training portfolio is very, it carries a lot of weight and people are, again, our seed clients want to be helped and they want to pay for the help. Those problems don’t get addressed in classes, and not necessarily problems. People might want to get a rope climb. They want to get a muscle-up, that equals personal training. So we are going to really, you know, grow our group classes back up to our regular numbers. And then just really rebuild our PTs backup.

Mike (25:03):

It sounds to me like you’re doing goal review sessions. Am I right?

Ruth (25:07):

Actually, I’ve been lacking in that area.

Mike (25:09):

So, tell me how you build that up. So if you’re not, and again, we talk about for listeners, goal review sessions every 90 days, we recommend that gyms do this, sit down with their clients, find out where they’re at, measure their progress, give them a new prescription, which includes potentially upgraded services. So how are you doing that without goal review sessions? Are you just talking to people, you know, kind of on the fly, right?

Ruth (25:26):

I guess listening to the clients, what they’re saying. They’re saying stuff without, they’re asking for help without realizing it. My shoulder aches, or I can’t lift my arm over my head. OK. Let’s fix that. Let’s do a mobility, flexibility, strength assessment that Dave is very, very good at. And if they want to get that fixed, that means personal training. So that means down the road, they’re going to be able to do workouts as usual instead of completely modified. Oh, my snatch isn’t very good. It’s not clicking. OK. Let’s work with Cody, our head weightlifting coach and work on your Olympic lifts. Hearing those equals opportunities.

Mike (26:09):

It’s formalized in the sense that you’re not scheduling people and saying, come for your goal review session and doing this, but you’re doing it in classes. Or whenever you talk to someone, you talk to someone, find out what they need. And then immediately you just like, do you quote unquote, close the sale in that conversation? Or how do you implement the prescription?

Ruth (26:25):

Yeah. Just simply asking them, I guess.

Mike (26:30):

I’ve heard other gym owners talk about this as well. And some gym owners have a very formal goal review process. When we had our gym, we tried to work with this. We didn’t succeed and it was our fault, not the member’s fault. We didn’t succeed in getting a lot of people do goal review sessions just because it wasn’t part of our culture. And we hadn’t implemented with new people coming in and so forth. But I’ve heard other gyms have had really good success with that. And then there are a few like you who are very, very good at listening to clients on the fly and just hammering it out. And that’s actually one of the things that Chris Cooper, Two-Brain founder, has written about that you can sometimes, if you’re struggling to get goal review sessions done, it’s as simple as just, Hey, can I talk to you after class for a couple of minutes? How are you doing, what have you accomplished lately? Is anything bugging you, any challenges? And from there, Oh, you’re terrible at snatching and it’s frustrating you? You need to book a weightlifting session. So it sounds like you’re kind of taking that approach. Am I right?

Ruth (27:19):

Yes. And it sounds like how your gym was run for goal reviews is the same as us, I felt like it’s a little bit—when I want to prescribe something, I felt like it was more of a sales thing and we’re good at it, but just not in that formal setting. So this works for us.

Mike (27:35):

Yeah. So you’ve just taken the process and kind of unformalized it too, which works with the character of your gym and business and people. And but you’re doing the exact same thing where you’re helping people with these upgraded services and so that’s coming out of lockdown. You’re obviously going to talk to as many people as you can, and just find out where people are at. It’s like, Oh, I gained 10 pounds in lockdown that equals a nutrition prescription and fitness. Anything else that you’re targeting for the last half or I guess we’ll call it the last two thirds of 2021?

Ruth (28:00):

No, I think that’s our main focus.

Mike (28:03):

I love it. And the last thing I’ll ask you is if someone’s listening out there, there’s probably a gym owner who’s just like beaten down by this whole thing. What advice would you give them? You’ve obviously, you’ve gritted your teeth and you’re setting a goal of 50,000, a new PR revenue goal. What would you tell someone who’s struggling and is feeling a bit beaten down right now by the whole thing?

Ruth (28:22):

For someone that is very good at suppressing their feelings, let your emotions out, feel the frustration, vent about it and have a focus and a plan to implement when you’re able to go full tilt.

Mike (28:38):

Scream at the ocean, and then make a plan and then implement it with your nose to the grindstone.

Ruth (28:45):

Yeah. And you know, and communication, if you have a partner, is super key.

Mike (28:50):

I like that one. That’s an interesting one. And Kenny Markwardt, another one of our mentors, recently wrote about working with your spouse or partner. And it was a really insightful thing for me cause I work with my partner as well. And it’s interesting for you. You’ve really noted that this is a strength for you. You know, your partner covers things that you don’t and vice versa. I’ve heard other people like, man, I could never work with my spouse. You know, it just wouldn’t work. I love that that’s a strength and I love that you guys have kind of found this, you know, resilience and strength from just being two halves of the, you know, the amulet, so to speak.

Ruth (29:22):

It’s not easy, that’s for sure.

Mike (29:26):

But you’re succeeding anyways,

Ruth (29:30):

The strengths and weaknesses balance each other out, but it is a whole, yeah, there’s a whole lot that goes into like proper communications.

Mike (29:39):

And that’s what Kenny talked about. So guys, we’re going to put a link to that Kenny series in the show notes for you. If you do work with a spouse or partner, take a look at Kenny’s series and we did have him on Two-Brain Radio as well. Ruth, thank you very much for taking the time here on, you know, in the middle of, you know, getting more bad news. But I really appreciate hearing your story because I really like—I look forward to your posts in the growth group, because I like seeing that, you know, you’re open about the challenges you’re facing, but then you’re still finding success and kind of, you know, I feel motivated by watching you, so thanks for putting those posts up, but also for talking to us today, I hope other gym owners find some motivation.

Ruth (30:14):

Oh. And another thing for people that are listening. When it’s really crappy, still trying to look out, think of something positive that’s happening.

Mike (30:21):

That’s the bright spots Friday principle, right? Like in the Two-Brain group, we all put up our bright spots and there are days like, I’ll be honest where I don’t feel like putting out bright spots because I don’t feel very bright. You know, I’m sure you feel the same way, but the purpose of doing it is to find some gratitude for something, because you know, we’re still eating, we still have roofs over our heads. You know, you can find something. And I found that by doing that, and then by looking for other bright spots from people like you, I feel better. Do you feel the same way?

Ruth (30:46):

Yep, absolutely.

Mike (30:47):

So if you’re out there and you’re feeling crappy, find some gratitude in your life and tell someone about it. There’s the other piece of advice that I’ll close with. I’ll let you get back to running the business. Thank you again so much for your time.

Ruth (30:58):

Thank you so much, Mike.

Mike (31:00):

That was Ruth Cheng on Two-Brain Radio. I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. If you haven’t done so, join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook. Chris regularly posts articles, instructional videos, and advice in there. It’s the only public group he’s in. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Join today.

 

The post Entrepreneur’s Pandemic Plan: “We’re Going to Make It Work” appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Building Your Personal Training Business: How to Market

By Joleen Bingham, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

You’ve created your personal training membership options and hired the perfect trainer—so how do you get more clients? 

Marketing! 

But that doesn’t mean you have to jump right into paid marketing. Check it out:

Affinity Marketing is the most powerful strategy to grow any personal training business: Instead of advertising to “cold leads,” we use referrals to connect with warm and even hot leads who already know, like and trust us to a degree. But instead of waiting for referrals to happen, you use Affinity Marketing to make the process very active.

Below you’ll find some of the strategies we used at 13 Stripes Fitness. They didn’t cost anything but time, and the return was substantial: In 18 months, we went from zero PT clients to the point where over 50 percent of our monthly recurring revenue comes from personal training.

1. Practice Asking

To make the marketing process active instead of passive, we learned to ask for referrals. Our trainers got over their fear by practicing over and over again and creating scripts they could use in different situations.

2. Review Goals

We renewed our focus on Goal Review Sessions. They’ve always been part of our gym, but during COVID closures, we really focused on scheduling Goal Reviews with high-risk clients first. Many clients who are nervous in group settings or have busy schedules that don’t fit with class times made the switch to PT memberships. They’re getting what they need, and the business keeps clients who might have left if we hadn’t talked to them.

3. Find Partners

To extend our reach in the community, we created a partnership with a local physical therapist. Prior to leasing space to an in-house physical therapist, we built trust with other local therapists who began to refer clients to us as they finished treatment. 

4. Connect With Clients’ Friends

A few times a year, our trainers will offer their best clients the opportunity to bring a friend in for a session together. This often leads to two-on-one sessions or additional personal training. For more on this strategy, read “When to Give a Freebie.”

5. Listen, Listen, Listen

You must listen to your clients. If you do, you’ll find many opportunities to help the people in their lives. One of our clients recently told us that her fiancé was having back pain and had stopped working out at the local chain gym because of it. Because the coach was listening to her client, she was able to contact the fiancé and schedule him for a free consultation that week. 

If you’ve ever spent money on advertising, you know it can be tough to get someone in the door. But we had no trouble getting this person to book a No-Sweat Intro because he already had a close connection to us through his partner. That’s why Affinity Marketing is so powerful.

Paid marketing is a great tool to grow your business, and we even teach gym owners how to use it in our RampUp program. But the best way to gain long-term personal training clients is through Affinity Marketing. Some gym owners who use this technique regularly find they never need to spend money on ads!

The post Building Your Personal Training Business: How to Market appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

The Absolute Best Way to Sell Personal Training

By Joleen Bingham, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

If you’ve ever gone to large corporate gyms, you’ll see they sell personal tracking in packages of five, 10 and 15 sessions—or even more. As clients use up the sessions, they purchase new packages. 

While these packages often look great to clients, they aren’t going to develop a thriving PT program with predictable ongoing revenue and high client accountability. 

The Problems With Packages

Imagine this: You’ve sold a 20-pack of personal training. Great! You’ve added additional revenue to your business.

But your client has no motivation to use the sessions, and she goes from training three times a week to twice a week to eventually once a week in an attempt to stretch that package as long as possible. She isn’t getting results because she isn’t coming in consistently.

When this client comes to buy the next pack, she has to overcome a lack of results to make the purchase, and she has every excuse to pass: “PT didn’t help me reach my goals.” If she does decide to make another purchase, she might try a different trainer to get better results, and she’ll have to form an entirely new relationship. Will her consistency improve on its own this time? Probably not. 

So are you really helping your client or your business with PT packages? 

For the vast majority of gym owners and clients, the answer is a resounding “no. “

Do This Instead

The best way to sell personal training is in a subscription model that renews month to month without any rollover. This model gives you the predictable revenue you need for your trainers and your business, and it gives the clients the accountability and routine they need to make progress and get results. 

Not sure how to create your options? Start with what your clients need. Ask yourself this question: Do your clients need to come in four, eight, 12, 16 or even more times a month to get the best results? Then price the packages that will bring success—with no discounts! 

For help on pricing personal training, get Two-Brain’s free guide “How to Add 10K in Personal Training Revenue to Your Gym in 30 Days or Less.”

The post The Absolute Best Way to Sell Personal Training appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

How PT Went From 0 to 50 Percent of Monthly Recurring Revenue

By Joleen Bingham, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

Here is the step-by-step process I used to grow our personal training program at 13 Stripes Fitness to the point where it has contributed 50 percent of our recurring monthly revenue over the last 18 months. We did this starting with zero PT clients, and we experienced two COVID-related shutdowns during this period.  

Step 1: Solidified Our Vision

When I picture 13 Stripes three years down the road, I see it clearly now, and this helps me make decisions every day. After focusing on our mission, we now know it is to help busy adults become and stay healthy. We are a fitness facility where people who previously had difficulty sticking to a program reach their goals through customized offerings. With that in mind, we recognized group classes are not the best way to serve everyone.

2. Created Our Avatar Client

We determined this client is someone who would benefit mostly from personal training, not group classes. This is right in line with the mission of our gym.

3. Created Recurring PT Membership Packages

We treated personal training similar to our group memberships: We created three personal training memberships with sessions three or four times per week. This sets us apart from every other gym in the area, whether it is a microgym or a gym in a large chain. We know our ideal clients want consistency and accountability, so we emphasize these elements. For example, we created memberships with 30-minute PT sessions because the majority of our clients are extremely busy and this time frame is perfect for them. 

4. Shifted Coach Mindset and Replaced Staff Members

Most of our coaches came from a strict CrossFit background and thought group classes were the best way to serve everyone and get them in shape. We worked hard to show coaches that not everyone benefits from a one-hour group class with high-level Olympic lifting or gymnastics. Realizing that CrossFit is not the best option for me personally anymore helped me change the way we approach serving people. We had to make some replacements on our team, but those who remain have truly bought into our mission and recognize that different people need different approaches. 

5. Hired Full-Time, Career-Oriented People

Having full-time staff people who are dedicated to a career opens up a lot of availability for clients to book personal training sessions, but it also creates an atmosphere of stability and growth. In addition, career-driven staff members are hungry to learn and dedicated to the vision of the gym that supports them. 

6. Trained Sales Reps

Sales comes down to the people on your team and the skills they have. Through training and practice, our staff members learned how to dive into motivation, goals and objections with prospective clients. This has helped increase our ability to discover “pain points” and honestly recommend personal training as the best option in sales meetings. Although all group members come in through an on-ramp involving personal training, this path isn’t the best option for people who don’t want to join group classes. Our sales reps know this and get the right clients on the personal training track in the first meeting.

7. Created the Rebuild Fitness Program

This program is designed for people who are returning from surgery or injury, looking to get back into fitness after a long period of time, or have nagging aches and pains that they cannot get rid of. The personal trainer in charge of this program has been a physical therapy assistant for 17 years and is a perfect fit. Our coaches let her know when someone is complaining of an injury or pain, and she reaches out to schedule a session. After that, she creates a customized plan and membership for them. This process has led to the development of many hybrid-style memberships, and it has provided a great option for clients who might otherwise have left the gym due to injury.

8. Used Affinity Marketing 

Affinity Marketing is the process of using existing connections—not ads—to acquire clients. You can get Two-Brain’s definitive guide here.

First, we created a partnership with a physical therapist. Prior to leasing space to an in-house physical therapy practice, we built trust with our local physical therapists, and they began to refer clients who were finishing therapy to our Rebuild Fitness program. 

Then we renewed our focus on Goal Review Sessions. These consultations with existing clients have always been part of our gym, but during COVID closures we really focused on scheduling them. We focused first with clients who were nervous in groups or who were struggling to make it to the gym due to changes in family or work schedules. 

We also learned to ask for referrals to make a formerly passive process very active—and successful. Our trainers got over their fear of asking for referrals by practicing over and over again with scripts, and now it’s become second nature. This allows us to connect with people who already know, like and trust us without spending any money to do it with ads.

9. Created a Tailored Marketing and Social Media Plan

With our emphasis on personal training and our ideal client avatar in mind, we changed our landing pages to use ad copy that does not refer to “classes.” Similarly, our social media posts have an emphasis on personal training and individual accountability. 

Good to Great

Although we’ve done a good job growing our PT program, there is always room for improvement. Our next steps are to: 

Increase the number of testimonials we are posting. Derive 75 percent of revenue from PT by the end of 2021. Determine by the beginning of 2022 if our vision would be best served by dropping the group model completely.

The post How PT Went From 0 to 50 Percent of Monthly Recurring Revenue appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

More Clicks: Simple SEO Strategies for Gym Owners

Mike (00:02):

You’ve got a great business, but your terrible website is letting you down. Today, we talk about search engine optimization and how some simple adjustments can earn more clicks and clients for your fitness business.

Chris (00:12):

More on that topic in just a second. Two-Brain Radio is brought to you by AGuard, providing elite insurance for fitness and sport. AGuard offers coverage for functional fitness facilities, mixed martial arts gyms and even events and competitions. You can also get access to healthcare insurance, discounted AEDs and discounted background checks. AGuard’s coverage options are designed to keep you safe. To find out more, visit affiliateguard.info.

Mike (00:38):

It’s Mike Warkentin, and this is Two-Brain Radio. With me today is marketing expert and web wizard, Mateo Lopez. He’s one of the great people behind Gym Lead Machine and the new SEO fundamentals course available to Two-Brain growth clients. Today, we’re going to go over some of the SEO basics that can have a huge effect on your business. First things first. Mateo, I am not ranking at all for best heavy metal guitarist of all time. Can you help me in any way?

Mateo (01:03):

I can try, but it might take a while.

Mike (01:07):

Like a week or what?

Mateo (01:09):

Definitely not a week. I mean, do you have any sweet riffs on your website?

Mike (01:19):

We actually have the revenue riff here on Two-Brain Business and I’ll get our producers to fire it in right now.

Mateo (01:34):

My face is officially melted, which is good, but I think, yeah, you probably need, probably need a bit more content, maybe a hit record or two perhaps, maybe a cool video online of you playing.

Mike (01:51):

I don’t like it when people watch me. You’re saying I have a few issues that I need to take care of first and there is no be all end all one stop shop, super fixed for SEO. Is that what you’re kind of soft selling me here?

Mateo (02:05):

That is true. Generally speaking, but yeah, let me ask, do you have any reviews of people saying, Hey, I heard Mike guitar and it was great.

Mike (02:14):

Just my dog.

Mateo (02:14):

He helped me fix my ears with his awesome playing. I recommend Mike and his guitar.

Mike (02:21):

We are empty in that category as you answer that.

Mateo (02:26):

That might be a good place to start to get some social proof. You know, that you’re actually, you are who you say you are, you shred, like you say you shred, people should search for you as the number one authority on all things shredding and heavy metal.

Mike (02:44):

So what you’re getting at essentially here is besides my astounding lack of talent, you actually are saying that there is a process to SEO and, you know, you can make inroads, but it’s not an instant overnight fix. So let me ask you this right off the top for gym owners. What is SEO? Why should people care about it?

Mateo (03:02):

Well, SEO is an acronym. I don’t know if you could tell, it’s an acronym from the online and digital marketing world and, it stands for search engine optimization. So I guess the next question is, well, what is search engine optimization? So it’s the process of curating your online content and online presence in order to rank well in the unpaid section of the search engine results, search engine result pages. So if you ever go and type into Google for something, anytime you type anything, really, once you hit enter, there’s a list of results based off of what you typed in. And so SEO is basically curating your online presence so that you rank well in that list of results for certain given search keywords in certain search criteria.

Mike (04:04):

Search engine results pages, SERPs, as they often show up. That’s another acronym. Yeah. So that’s an ugly acronym that we’ll throw at you. And then of course there are other search engines than Google, but let’s be honest. Google is the top banana, am I right?

Mateo (04:17):

Totally. That was definitely my next point in my notes here. There are other search engines. Bing is another one, if you can believe it.

Mike (04:27):

Is Ask Jeeves still around?

Mateo (04:30):

Honestly, I don’t know. We should Google it to find out.

Mateo (04:36):

Yeah, we should go, Hey, Google, does Ask Jeeves still exist. They’ll probably be like, no, never use it. So there are other search engines, even like going into Apple maps, searching for, you know, where to get pizza, like that’s a search engine, right? So there are other search engines out there. It is important to have listings in these other search engines, but yeah, the one that people use the most is definitely Google. And given the limited amount of resources that a gym like a micro gym, a solo kind of one person shop, you know, owner-operator business, given the limited amount of resources and time that that person tends to have, you know, focusing on Google is probably the best way to get the most bang for your buck. Yeah.

Mike (05:28):

And the short of is this is essentially unpaid advertising, the stuff that comes up when someone does a search in a search engine and gets results. And if you are the number one in that list of results, it’s likely that you’re going to get more free clicks than anything else. Now, of course there are paid things that pop up before these results and so forth, at least on Google. And it’s not guaranteed that anyone will click on anything and it’s certainly not guaranteed with any amount of SEO tactics that you’re going to be Google page one, because no one, only Google makes these decisions, but there are some things that you can do to rank higher. Correct?

Mateo (06:02):

Yeah. I mean, this is like kind of what you were saying that should go without saying, ranking well in the search results for relevant keywords in your niche. So, you know, ranking well for the word CrossFit, ranking well for the word strength training or whatever, like that can be a powerful tool for driving traffic and getting prospective customers to see your website. You know, there’s a stat that a lot of people like to put out there, but the vast majority of online experiences, the vast majority of what people do online, it begins with a search engine. So nearly 75% of searchers start their searches on Google. So, it’s definitely valuable to work on trying to rank well, and improve your rankings in the Google search results pages.

Mike (06:57):

I’m going to throw a stat at you. This 2020 Sistrix report said the number one organic result of a Google search gets 28.5% of the clicks, entries two and three get 15.7 and 11% of the clicks, respectively, number 10 on the page gets 2.5 and page two, basically doesn’t exist.

Mateo (07:17):

You can imagine what the open rate the click rates are for page two results. Right? And as you were saying before, you know, this is traffic that’s coming in relatively organically, you know, for all intents and purposes, right? You’re not paying per click, right? You’re not paying for anything. The work and the time spent is in order to get these people who are searching to see your website on a list of results. And obviously the higher you are, like you just said, the better chance you’re going to have of getting that person to click on your site.

Mike (07:55):

And this is a big money game. Like when we talk about SEO consultants, these are like $400 an hour, you know, $10,000 a month kind of people, right? Like for when we’re talking big, big money, SEO, if you can get to Google page one in some of these monster popular categories, which is a ton of work and very hard and no SEO consultant guarantees it, but if you can get there, you’re going to make some money, but you’re also going to have to spend some money on some big money SEO guys. Like I’m looking at, go ahead, sorry. I cut you off.

Mateo (08:23):

Like exactly what you’re saying. Imagine if you ranked number one for the word fitness, you know, like at any time, someone typed in fitness in Google, your website popped up as number one, that would obviously be very, very valuable. And so everyone who works in this industry knows how valuable that would be. So that’s why they charge a lot of money to try and get you close to those top three search results for certain words. Or certain search phrases.

Mike (08:57):

The top three for fitness, you got fitness, blender, apple.com, health.com. So we’re talking like these are the big kids.

Mateo (09:05):

Exactly, exactly. And that’s why if you’re good in the SEO world, you know, you’re able to charge a lot of money for your work because getting that top spot for those big keywords, you know, is valuable. And they know it.

Mike (09:20):

And no gym, so let’s be real. No gym is going to bump apple.com off the fitness top rankings. But we can make some inroads in local SEO. Tell me about this, because this is super important for gyms and fitness businesses.

Mateo (09:34):

So there is a difference between doing work for, you know, we’ll call it general SEO and then local SEO, right? So, you know, ranking really high or ranking well for the search term for the word fitness, obviously it would be very valuable. But you you’d have to beat out these big players. But the thing is you don’t really need to, right? Apple is trying to reach a really wide and big audience like health.com or whatever it is, you know, they’re trying to reach, everyone all over the country for that word. You’re not trying to reach an audience that big, I mean, unless you’re, you know, I suppose if you’re trying to grow some kind of virtual, personal training business or, you know, some kind of online app, but generally speaking as a gym, you know, you’re serving a local market, right.

Mateo (10:28):

So what you’re going to do and what you want to rank for is gonna be very different than if you were trying to reach, you know, people on a national global scale, right? So that’s the main difference between SEO management for a business and a website that services customers on a national or global scale, and then SEO management for local businesses and a website that needs to reach a much smaller audience on a local level. Right? So that’s really what we’re talking about here is there’s SEO and then there’s local SEO and the work that’s involved is slightly different, right? So an example, you know, like a can of Coke. No, one’s really Googling Coca-Cola near me or best soda in Miami. No one’s really Googling that. Right. So Coke versus Pepsi and, you know, Amazon versus Walmart, these big you know, companies are battling it out to rank well for a wide variety of search terms, right? And they’re spending wild amounts of money to make sure that they reach this massive audience of people who use Google and their search engine, but for smaller businesses, right. Especially gyms and micro gyms, Two-Brain Business clients, local SEO is what’s more important, right?

Mike (11:44):

Service business, right. You got to be there except we’ll cut people a pass for COVID measures right now that are putting them online. But in general, for a gym, you’d be there.

Mateo (11:54):

Right. Exactly. You know, few CrossFit affiliates or small boutique studios or local yoga studios, very few of them have a national or international presence. Right. So like you just said, they rely on training in a physical location. Right. So with that in mind, you want to attract local people who are typing into Google search engine, best gym in Houston, or get fit in New York. Right. These are the terms that you probably want to rank for, you know, if you’re a CrossFit gym in Houston, for example. And so while there are tactics and best practices for local SEO that do overlap with, you know, what you would do if you were managing a big national brand, general SEO, right? There are some few key differences that we want to keep in mind and that’s kinda what what we focus on in the new course that I just created for our Two-Brain clients.

Mike (12:52):

Quickly tell me about that. What is this course and who gets it?

Mateo (12:57):

So it’s a mini course that I just created, it’s available for the Two-Brain growth clients. And one of the things that we talk about is this exact topic here, which is figuring out OK, what’s what’s SEO and how does local SEO differ? And what are the actual steps gyms need to take in order to rank well for local searches. Right.

Mike (13:18):

So we’re not going to give away everything that’s in that course for growth clients. But if you are a Two-Brain client currently, you talk to your mentor and he or she will help you work through this thing and make some inroads. However, Gym Lead Machine, Mateo is a big player over there, has a blog. And the blog is called the guide to local SEO for gym owners. I wrote it, Mateo published it. So it’s obviously amazing. But it will give you a lot of tips on stuff that we’re going to talk about here. And that’s in the course, and again, the course is going to be much more in-depth, it’s gonna help you do the work. This will just give you an overview though. So I’d encourage you. We’ll get that link in the show notes to click it. But Mateo, you’ve got in this article, we talked about some important places where you want to pop up with local SEO. What are they, where are they?

Mateo (13:59):

Right. So, you know, with general SEO, if you were to type in a keyword phrase, like, let’s just say best gym mentorship, right? Two-Brain pops up, but there’s really only one place to see the list of results. With local SEO, there are actually two spots where a gym and its website could potentially pop up. Right. So if you were to type in best CrossFit near me, there’s two locations on the Google results page where your website could show up in a list. The first is what’s called the local map pack and that’s, if you’ve ever Googled, you know, I need to get a haircut. So barbershop, right? It’s basically this list of three businesses. And Google is basically showing you the three businesses that it thinks best match the term that you just typed into the search bar. Right. And then you’ll see where those businesses are on the map and, you know, where it is in relation to you and where you’re conducting the search.

Mike (15:00):

That’s the icons with A, B, C and points on the map?

Mateo (15:00):

Exactly. And then below that you have the rest of the organic link lists. You know, this is basically the only thing that used to exist, right. And then they added the local map pack. And so there’s basically two places and here’s the confusing part, right? There are slightly different factors that determine which business gets the top spot in the local map pack. And then which business gets the top spot in the organic listings that are below the map pack.

Mike (15:30):

I must know.

Mateo (15:30):

Well, if you want to know, you should check out the course. But no, I mean, we can talk about a little bit here, but, you know, for example, right. Here’s one way in which that plays out. Let’s say there are two websites and they have identical ranking factors.

Mateo (15:51):

They have the same amount of reviews. They have the same amount of keyword rich content, their website loading speeds are the same, you know, let’s say everything is the same on like an SEO perspective, but let’s say the only difference is that the person who is actually doing the searching, right, whatever, typing into the search bar, they’re one mile closer to location A versus location B. Well, Google will place location A in the number one spot in the local map pack results. Now let’s say that person walked a little bit closer to location B and then conducted their search again. Well then location B would actually show up first in the search results in the local map pack. Right. So Google search results dynamically change based on the location and the proximity of the actual searcher to the businesses. Does that make sense? OK.

Mike (16:44):

And that’s because of the tracking device that Google has implanted under your forehead skin. Right.

Mateo (16:49):

Exactly. Right. Exactly. So proximity to the Googler is a major factor when it comes to where a business ranks in the local pack. But that factor is not as significant when it comes to ranking in the organic listings below the map pack. So that’s just one way to kind of illustrate, hopefully that, you know, these factors are slightly different. And so that’s why it’s a little bit tricky. And why we decided to create the course, expand on this idea and give gym owners the info they need.

Mike (17:26):

It comes back to like your business plan because where you put your business is going to have some effect on your Google results. So if you are out in the middle of nowhere where no one’s ever there, you might have a different result where of course you certainly can, like you can become a destination location, but Chris Cooper’s written about this, how to choose a location. And, you know, back in the day, a CrossFit gym in the scariest part of town in a warehouse covered in skulls and blood, that was kind of cool. It maybe isn’t so much any more. So just note to people, if you’re thinking of opening a gym, you might think about location as it relates to Google search engines. So you talked about all things being equal, and you mentioned some of the things, the site speed and different stuff. Let’s talk about that. What’s on-page and off-page SEO?

Mateo (18:08):

Right. OK. So right. What I was alluding to before is there are these different ranking factors that Google uses in its algorithm to determine which sites rank where in the local pack and in the organic listings. And the tricky part is that there are over 200 of these factors.

Mike (18:31):

Does Google give us a checklist?

Mateo (18:31):

No. That was what I was going to say next. It’s tough to know which of these factors matter more and when, right. So obviously as we alluded to before, proximity can have a big effect. But it’s not the number one thing to focus on. Like you also can’t control it. Right? You can’t control where a person is when they search for you. Right. So, it’s tough to know which of these carries more weight, and which you should focus on, but there are some best guesses and there are some best guesses and there’s ways to kind of track these things and experiment and get a general idea. There is a consensus that these certain things do matter and they matter a lot versus some of these other things they matter, but not quite as much. Right. And so the best way to think about that is to divide those factors into two categories, which is what you were just alluding to before there’s on page SEO and off page SEO. That’s probably the best way to start to divide up these ranking factors and figure out what we need to focus on first.

Mike (19:37):

And I’ll just jump in and say, the reason why Google doesn’t tell people is because as soon as you let that info out, people game it. And that’s what happened with like keyword stuffing back in the day where you could just create these terrible, terrible sites that do nothing, but just stuff the keyword camera lens over and over and over again. And all of a sudden, everyone would search for camera lenses, get to these terrible sites that didn’t actually help anyone. And it didn’t help Google help people find what they want to find. So Google keeps that algorithm secret. We all try to guess what it is so we can get the traffic, but they won’t let you know exactly how to do it, because if they do, the robots will take over and game it all. So talk about the on and off page.

Mateo (20:12):

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely like, you know, you could probably rank well for free intro and personal training if you said, if your website copy was something like this, book, your free personal training consultation at CrossFit 204 in Winnipeg, we have the best personal training. You can book your free session for it in Winnipeg at CrossFit 204. Now, if you ever thought about booking a free personal training session at CrossFit 204 in Winnipeg, now is the time to book your free intro.

Mike (20:52):

Stuff it away.

Mateo (20:52):

Yeah. And so people used to do that, right. People used to cram in those keywords to rank well for those terms. But the thing is that makes for a very unpleasant experience for the user when they’re reading. And so they leave, right. That’s only going to hurt you because you’re going to have a higher bounce rate. And then, that’ll negatively affect your SEO rankings. Right. So, that’s why Google keeps this stuff close to the vest and they don’t want people just gaming the system and making it unpleasant for their users. Right.

Mike (21:25):

But you can do some stuff.

Mateo (21:27):

Yeah. But there are some things that you can do, right? So there’s on page SEO and off page SEO. On page SEO refers to the optimization of elements that belong to your website’s content and structure. So, as we were alluding to before, a website that’s rich with keyword search terms, and that offers valuable content, a website that’s responsive, that loads really quickly, that has optimized metadata. These are just some of the many factors that can influence your rankings. And these are things that you can control through the management of your actual website, right? So that’s why it’s called on page, on the actual page of your site. These are the factors that are on your website that can have an effect on your SEO, on your rankings. And so off page SEO refers to the optimization of elements that have an impact on your website ranking, but that exists outside of your website or off of your website page. So that’s why it’s called off page SEO. So, examples of off page SEO are reviews for your business, from Google or a third-party review aggregator like Yelp, back links or links back to your website from other authoritative industry related blogs and websites, the click-through rates of your website, your Google My Business page, so these are just some of the many factors that influence and determine your ranking that aren’t really related to your website, or what’s on your website.

Mike (22:59):

So I’ll give you this and we won’t dive in, cause this is a whole show unto itself, but I’ll give you this. And you can argue with me and let me know, but on page SEO, I’m going to throw this out to you. Content is king or queen, whichever one you prefer, do you agree?

Mateo (23:11):

Yes. Content is the royalty, I guess. Yeah. Content is king, content is queen, content is bae, content is super important. One of the most important things, one of the most important factors for, um, on-page SEO, right?

Mike (23:32):

You just, you have to answer questions for people and help them. So when Google sends someone to your site and someone spends a long time there, clicks through several pages and clearly gets the answer he or she was searching for, Google will be more inclined to send more people that way.

Mateo (23:46):

If Google sends people to your site and they immediately click out because it’s horrible, it sucks. It doesn’t have any great content. Google will probably take note of that and send less people your way. Now there’s also, you said there’s all sorts of other stuff like site responsiveness, speed, metadata and Gym Lead Machine, of course can take care of that for you. The content is generally on the shoulders of the website owner. They have to produce it. Lots of it, regularly.

Mateo (24:14):

An example I point to in the course is like Seth Godin’s blog, for example.

Mike (24:21):

That’s a good one.

Mateo (24:22):

Seth Godin, for those of you don’t know, he’s an entrepreneur and he offers, wisdom, anecdote stories on his blog just to anyone who wants to read it basically, but geared towards helping entrepreneurs, marketers, business owners to, you know, to learn and grow.

Mateo (24:44):

And his site is pretty simple. It’s just Seth’s Blog. And he just blogs. He just writes every day, on a variety of topics and the content is so good. What he says is so good, what he writes is so well written that people feel compelled to share it and link back to it on their blog or their site, or just share it on social media. And because it’s so good, because that gets shared so many times and so often he has generated a lot of backlinks back to his site which Google then thinks, OK, well, this guy, a lot of people are referencing this guy. He’s obviously an authority in the space. So his domain authority gets ranked higher, or he has a higher domain authority. And so ranks well for a variety of search terms. You know, he pops up a lot, and you have a really high domain authority. And it’s all just because of the content he writes, it’s so valuable. It’s so good that he gets people to share it. And that helps him rank higher, so, and have a higher domain authority. So that’s just an example of just the power of writing and writing well, and what it can do for your website and domain authority and how it ranks.

Chris (25:57):

Back to Superman Radio in just a minute. Chalk It Pro is a fitness app designed and built by gym owners for gym owners to solve annoying problems that make running a gym hard. It’s an all-in-one app that manages your members, including remote members. It also takes care of programming and it will help you keep clients engaged for longer. Use Chalk It Pro to increase value and build your bottom line. Add more personal training and remote coaching clients. Build a thriving community through social engagement and save loads of time on the backend. Do all this with one app, not three or four. Get your free trial at Chalkitpro.com.

Mike (26:32):

As a writer, I can tell you that there are tricks to writing content that search engines like without keyword stuffing and being what is referred to as black hat SEO. What it really comes down is writing a really good article, using a diverse vocabulary, figuring out certain search terms and working them in properly without stuffing and still creating a resource that works really well, but does have some optimization aspects. That’s a whole different ball of wax, but white hat SEO, the good things that Google will allow and will not penalize you for. You can use some of that stuff to create great content. So we won’t get into that. But the thing that I want you to tell me about here a little bit, we talk about off page SEO, Google My Business. Now I’m just going to go on a limb and say that if Google is your search engine, and there’s a thing called Google My Business, putting in some work on that page might help your search engine results. Am I right?

Mateo (27:18):

So yes, a big part of SEO and especially local SEO is this thing called citations. It’s basically where you get your business listed in various directories online. So, you know, if you need like the yellow pages.com, we used to have a physical yellow pages where you could look up a businesses’ phone number, its address, but yellow pages.com. Right, I know it was long time ago, but, yellow pages.com is a directory for various businesses that you can put your business in and list it so people can find you, right? So the more of these that you have, right? The more of these listings that you have, that’s one of the ways in which you can boost your ranking. One of these places where you can list your business, one of these directories is Google itself and what they call a Google My Business.

Mateo (28:09):

Its their own kind of business directory. It’s their own place where you can put your business listing, and where people can find you, right? And this is something that you can really only use if you’re a local business. So you want to take advantage of it because a lot of the bigger brands that, you know, are trying to reach people on a national scale without kind of a local physical location, they’re not really able to use GMB, right? So Coca-Cola for example, I guess maybe their headquarters could, but that really wouldn’t work for them. So, so yes, Google My Business is Google’s own business directory, and you want to have a page for your business on GMB. And some of you may already have it and you just don’t even know it, right? So you can kind of look yourself up on the Google maps and you should be able to find the listing for yourself.

Mateo (29:03):

And Google really wants its users to use Google My Business, because they want people to stay on Google. Basically. It’s almost their way of like creating a mini website for your business. And if they’re users of the Google searchers aren’t really leaving Google to go find your website. They can just find all the information on your GMB page, on your Google My Business page, that’s better for Google because it wants users to stay on Google longer. And if you take advantage of that, they’ll reward you, right? If you have a fleshed out GMB page, if you’re using it, if you’re actively posting on, if you’re responding to messages on it, Google takes note of that and will reward you by giving you a better ranking. So one of the biggest factors for where you rank in local pack is your Google My Business page. So just working on that alone can have a big impact on where you rank.

Mike (29:57):

And there’s basic stuff in there, like your address and your phone number, your hours. You can put photos up, you can do like tours and things like that. You can make posts, there’s all sorts of different stuff in there, but for the most part, you do not have to be an absolute wizard to use this thing. You can just like, if you can use Facebook, you can use Google My Business. You’re just filling out as many fields as you can. And then, you know, you can experiment with posts and pictures and things like that. And like, I’ve done this with our business and we’ll get lots of people looking at photos, tons of them. And I was surprised at how much, or how many views some of these photos I got when it was just, it wasn’t paid traffic or anything like that. We didn’t run an ad. People found this stuff. And of course, people want to see like, you know, where are you? What do you look like on the street? And things like that. So if you put these photos, what does your staff look like? All these things contribute. And like, again, they don’t publish this, but like, it stands to reason. Like you said, if your Google My Business listing is really great and helps Google out and helps people out, Google is probably going to show up more.

Mateo (30:56):

Exactly. Yeah. They reward you for that work a hundred percent by helping you rank higher in the local pack specifically, in the map pack, Google My Business can have a really big impact on where you rank there.

Mike (31:08):

Let’s talk quickly as we wind this one down, what are a couple of SEO kisses of death? Tell me a couple of things that are just like, you’re going to page 30 and will never be clicked on ever again.

Mateo (31:19):

So, generally having a broken website, like broken links, you know, having people click on like a tab, and then it goes to like, this page is missing or it’s a 404. Yeah. So redirects, broken links, just having a site that’s generally kind of broken, is gonna hurt you. Having a really slow website is going to hurt you. Although we should take a pause here about website speed. Cause a lot of people will use some of these speed testers to see if their website is slow or not. Or if it’s working well or not. Website speed is important. Like you want to have a website that loads when people click on it in a timely fashion, but at a certain point, website’s speed can kind of be like splitting hairs because there’s diminishing returns at a certain point. Right. So for example, if we go back to Seth’s Blog, right, Seth writes really important, valuable content. And if his site slowed down a bit after you click on it, if it took a little bit of time for it to load, I’m willing to bet people would still wait to read it because people are really big fans of his work and it’s valuable stuff. And if your content is good enough, people will wait for it basically.

Mike (32:40):

We’re talking like they’re going to wait like five seconds or something.

Mateo (32:43):

Yeah. Like not, yeah. If it takes five seconds to load, there’s a problem there, but generally speaking, right, if your website’s good, if it’s got valuable content on it, people will wait to access it, is kind of my point. On top of that, it’s really hard to figure out the actual speed of your site with some of these free site speed testers. Sometimes the amount of extensions you have on your Chrome browser or whatever it is that you’re using to conduct the test can actually negatively affect the site speed where you’re doing the test. So, you know, if your wifi is bad, cause you’re in a coffee shop versus if you’re standing next to your router, your speed, the results of your speed tests are gonna differ. Right.

Mike (33:30):

What if I use an iPhone 4?

Mateo (33:31):

Yep. That will definitely probably, negatively affect your speed test results. So all that being said is, you know, you want to have a speed that loads fast. You want to have a site that works well, but, you know, you don’t want to stress out too much on the minutia of some of these tests, speed test websites.

Mike (33:57):

Yeah. I’ve heard of people who just like are obsessive about their sites and they’re just constantly speed testing. And it’s just like you said, splitting hairs where it’s like milliseconds of difference that no one really, it doesn’t matter. And it could be attributed to any one of the factors that you just laid out. OK. So site speed important, not super important, but if it’s 40 seconds, like I had, it’s going to be a kiss of death. What are some of the other kisses of death?

Mateo (34:19):

The other one, bad reviews, right? Or getting marked as spam. If someone marks your GMB as a spam page or something’s wrong, or making a correction, you know, those things can negatively affect you as well. On the flip side, that’s a technique that has grown in popularity in the SEO world. That’s a technique that has grown in popularity in the SEO world lately is if you go in and clean up some of these listings, if you mark some listings as spam, if you’re white knighting a little bit and going in and doing some of the work for Google, they’ll actually reward you for that work as well. So, that’s an interesting little nugget I found in my research. But yes, so getting marked as spam, bad reviews, really slow load speeds to your website and employing black hat techniques, right?

Mateo (35:13):

You mentioned white hat techniques. These are basically, SEO techniques that abide by Google’s terms of service, black hat techniques would be the opposite, right? So this is the maybe using link farms, which are basically like hiring shady firms to create a bunch of like back links to your site from websites that are all offshore and that are just meant to create back links.

Mike (35:43):

Basically just the equivalent of bots liking your Instagram posts.

Mateo (35:46):

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So so black hat techniques, generally speaking. Google will find you Google find out you’re doing them. It may not happen right away, but once they do, you know, they could suspend your GMB page. There’s lots of things that they can do. So black hat techniques, generally speaking will also really hurt your ranking.

Mike (36:08):

Yeah. It’s not a good plan. And like you said, they might work for a brief period, but the penalty is probably going to be not worth the reward. So don’t use them, you know, that’s the best advice we can give is don’t use them, I’ll ask you one important one. What happens if your site does not load on mobile very well?

Mateo (36:24):

That will definitely hurt your rankings as well. I mean, most people are searching and surfing the web on their mobile device. Right. So you want to make sure that your site is mobile friendly, that it’s designed in a format that works on desktop, mobile and tablet. You know, I think you mentioned this in the blog post that we put out, no one wants to have to pinch and scroll around to look and try and read your what’s on your website. Right? So making sure that your website is mobile friendly, even, you know, tablet, just to cover your bases. That’s really important as well. And if it’s not, you’re gonna see a negative impact on your rankings.

Mike (37:05):

So let’s close this out, tell me first and foremost what Gym Lead Machine can do for people and what aspects of SEO that it can take care of. And then on the way out the door, give us one tip, your number one tip for a gym owner who’s listening right now. And maybe isn’t using Gym Lead Machine. What’s the one SEO tip that you would give them that they can do right after they end the show.

Mateo (37:24):

So content is a huge factor and so we make sure that what we create for our clients reads well and it’s valuable to their website visitors. Design and layout, right? That’s another huge on-page SEO factor. So with our websites we engineer reasons to keep your viewer on the page. And that’s really important for SEO. You want to make sure that you have a really high scroll through rates. And we also want to make sure that your websites don’t just have huge blocks of texts, right? So our websites, we use multimedia to keep your website viewers and visitors engaged. We also make it easy for our clients to customize their meta-tags and metadata. And we make it easy for our clients to insert keywords that they want to rank for onto their website. So keywords is another really important on-page SEO factor that we kind of touched on briefly earlier in this episode.

Mateo (38:16):

And our websites are really, really fast and they’re really responsive. We built them in formats that work well on desktop, mobile and on tablets. We also employ things like lazy load, which helps your site load faster. And we also make sure that we limit the use of plugins and widgets so that, you know, we’re not weighing down your website with bulky things that honestly don’t really, that are not really necessary for your site. And so a lot of the on-page SEO stuff is taken for you in a big way. On top of that, we have our automation platform, which makes reaching out to your clients to generate reviews really, really easy and reviews is a huge off page SEO factor that we didn’t really touch on. But, you know, it’s one of the major things that Google is looking at on your Google My Business page to see, Hey, do you have good reviews? How many do you have, that has a big impact on where you rank.

Mike (39:10):

More is better, more is better for sure. More good ones, anyways. The thing that I really like about your site is like, I can drive the content. Like that’s one of my skill areas, same thing with my wife, we crank out the stuff. But what I like is that once I get someone onto that page and I get them to read one of the blogs and so forth, you guys take care of all the other stuff where when they click for more info, they click to book, everything’s taken care of. They go into funnels and automations and things like that. And you guys also provided a lead magnet, which is great. We had someone download that thing yesterday and ask us for more info. So the thing that’s really cool about you guys is that you handle a large portion of the SEO stuff that I don’t want to deal with, which is like, you know, the site speed and all the other stuff. I had that 40-second website, didn’t know how to fix it. You guys take care of that. I just write good stuff and you help me connect with clients. So I love that part of your process. Give me the number one SEO tip for a gym owner out there right now who is going to try and do something when they hit end on this show.

Mateo (40:07):

Well, they can sign up for Gym Lead Machine.

Mike (40:11):

I would. I did.

Mateo (40:13):

Beyond the on-page stuff, there’s a lot of off page SEO things that factor in, one of them that we touched on before is, you know, flesh out your Google My Business page, right? Claim your business if you haven’t already on Google My Business, and then flesh it out, right? Flesh out the services that you offer, the products you offer, make sure you have a description in there. Add photos, figure out a way to start posting regularly, an easy way to just to repurpose what you’re already posting on social media and just do that in the Google My Business posts section, another one is reviews, right? Make sure you have a strategy for generating reviews for your business, especially on your GMB page, on your Google My Business listing. And here’s another quick tip.

Mateo (40:57):

If you can, ask your clients when they are leaving reviews to include the keywords that you want to rank well for. So for example, if you want to show up more for searches related to personal training, go to one of your personal training clients, ask them to leave you a review on Google and say, Hey, when you go to write your review, can you do me a favor? Can you make sure you mentioned how we’ve helped you with our personal training service, right? So it’s like, all right, I went to 204 fitness in Winnipeg and Mike was awesome. I signed up for personal training and I got awesome results. I highly recommend personal training with Mike because he’s great.

Mike (41:39):

He’s probably the best personal trainer in Winnipeg.

Mateo (41:42):

Exactly. So asking them to include those keywords in their review is going to actually have a really big, positive impact on ranking for those keywords.

Mike (41:52):

I love it. And I’m going to throw one final thing at you, if you have nothing else to do, publish a blog and make sure that it’s a good one. And if you want to know what to write about, ask your clients what questions they have about fitness and nutrition. And I would give you a tip to ask your newest clients, what do you want to know about fitness and nutrition, and then write your answers and make them good. So not just like, vegetables are important, right? A lengthier, more detailed answer, put some links in that thing. Use some keywords, mention some local grocery stores. You can find the exact things in this recipe at Smiths Foods, right down the street here in insert your city or whatever. Write some great content. I would encourage you to do that as well. So that’s like we were going to give one, we’ve given them four things. I think that should set them on the right path. Do you think?

Mateo (42:41):

Yeah, definitely. I mean, think about about questions that haven’t really been answered, you know, or that there’s not good data or answers on a certain topic. You know, I think that one that you did, Mike was really good, was like what shoes to wear for CrossFit. That’s a question that gets asked, but not a lot of people have written about it, right? So that’s something that you could do if you’re looking for topics, right? Because then that stuff gets shared, right? If there’s not a lot of info on a topic, you’re the one who writes a good blog post around that topic with some valuable info. That’s the stuff that gets shared. And then when it gets shared, you know, you’re building more domain authority and you’re just increasing the chances of you ranking higher for those searches related to those terms and those topics.

Mike (43:24):

Surprisingly enough, there are some very, you know, searchable topics that haven’t been covered in great detail, or they’ve been covered badly. We won’t get into the whole digging for those things right here, but I’ll just tell you that, like the stuff is out there. And if you can find a way to write about it properly, you will get some traffic. I’ve written some blogs that hit very high on Google, some page ones, page number ones. And we get organic traffic regularly from that stuff. Same thing with Two-Brain Business. We have some really solid posts that give us lots of organic traffic. Figure it out and you will get more traffic. That’s all I think we’re going to tell people for today, if you want to take this SEO course, it is in the growth group.

Mike (44:02):

And Chris Cooper has told you talk to your mentor. He or she will help you find it. If you want to adjust a lot of this stuff without having to do the work, talk to Mateo and his crew at Gym Lead Machine. And if you want more great info like this, subscribe to Two-Brain Radio for more episodes. Thanks for being here today, Mateo.

Mateo (44:17):

Thanks, Mike.

Mike (44:17):

That was marketing expert Mateo Lopez on Two-Brain Radio. I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. If you have not done so, you need to join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook. Chris regularly post articles, instructional videos, and advice in there. It’s the only public group he’s in. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Join today.

 

The post More Clicks: Simple SEO Strategies for Gym Owners appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Building Your Personal Training Business: The Critical First Step

By Joleen Bingham, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

You know you need to add a personal training revenue stream to your business, but you have no idea where to start. Or maybe you want to acquire more PT clients but don’t know how to do it.

In this series, I’ll share strategies for starting or growing a personal training program that will deliver amazing results for clients.

The Critical First Step

The first step in developing your personal training program is determining whom you will serve.

You’re probably thinking, “Isn’t it more important to hire someone to do the personal training or figure out what to charge?” 

Absolutely not. 

Your clients are your guiding light. If you don’t understand who your ideal clients are, you won’t be able to make the best decisions about how to help them. You won’t understand their problems, and you won’t be able to create the solutions they need. 

Do you have a gym of mainly working professionals who have to train outside business hours? Do you have competitive athletes who want to get to higher levels and require more advanced programming? Do people have nagging aches and pains and require more rehab or prehab work? 

You can develop a personal training program for anyone. But the language you use and your exact approach will be different depending on the type of clients you have and want to serve. 

If you don’t have any PT clients, figure out the characteristics of your perfect client. Once you’ve created the ideal client avatar and identified the key problems this person is trying to solve, you can create solutions in a personal training program that will instantly appeal to your perfect prospective clients.

Rather than spinning your wheels trying to sell muscle-up skill sessions to a group of middle-aged people who are interested in general fitness, ask yourself what problems your current clients are trying to solve. Even better: Ask them! Then determine how you can help most. You’ll find current clients are much more receptive to PT when you provide what they want instead of guess about their desires. Listen, then act.

This client-focused approach will guide every action and help you make good decisions. For example, you might avoid buying expensive sport-specific training gear if your ideal clients are interested in weight loss, and you won’t waste money on ads targeting college-aged men if your ideal market is made up of retirees. Similarly, your social media accounts and website won’t be full of huge powerlifters if your ideal client is a busy parent who wants to improve her time in a local 5-km run.

Remember: You can’t help anyone properly if you try to help everyone. Develop your client avatar and create the perfect solutions to his or her problems. Then deliver amazing service to clients who get the results they want and would be more than happy to introduce you to friends.

If you’re not sure how to develop your client avatar, our certified mentors will guide you through the process in our RampUp program.

The post Building Your Personal Training Business: The Critical First Step appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

The Microgym Model: Getting Started on the Path to Earning $100,000

In the previous post in this series, I gave you some North Star numbers. Together, they make up the “microgym model.”

Over 90 percent of the people who ask me for help already own a gym. The new gym owners are the lucky ones: They can build the model before they open, work hard to optimize it and become successful far more quickly. They reach a point in two years that most of us didn’t reach in 10!

If you already own a gym, it’s going to be harder to make the changes that will earn you $100,000 per year. Sometimes you’ll need little tweaks. Sometimes you’ll need a new direction. And sometimes, well, you’ll have to undo some big errors (as I did).

Navigating change is a mentor’s job. You can book a strategy call with my team here.

Or you can join me on my webinar on April 13 at noon EST first. It’s totally free—bring your questions.

Register for the webinar here.

If you want to get started today, begin with this diagnostic tool.

If you prefer a PDF, click here to download.

Circle the number in each category that represents where your gym is at right now.The lowest number across all categories is your first priority.

Book a strategy call to talk through your priorities and hear about mentorship here.

Get our free tools here.

Sign up for the free April 13 webinar here.

The post The Microgym Model: Getting Started on the Path to Earning $100,000 appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

The Microgym Model: The Numbers You Need to Make $100,000

Below you’ll find the targets to hit if you want to earn $100,000 per year as a microgym owner.

Are there variations? Sure. Your mentor can help you with those. But most microgym owners never reach $100,000 per year because they try to invent everything from scratch instead of starting from a great model and making little tweaks.

Here are the exact numbers to target first:

150 clients.$205 average revenue per member per month (ARM).14-month average length of engagement (LEG, the number of months clients remain members).Recurring expenses at 22 percent or less of gross revenue.Payroll at 44 percent or less of gross revenue.$70 effective hourly rate (EHR, the value of your time as owner).

To see how we obtained this data, click here.

In my webinar at noon EST on April 13, I’ll share the “why” behind these numbers, answer your questions, give you strategies to reach the numbers and help you determine what to do first (I have a cool new tool to help you with that). This is the most important webinar I’ve ever done outside the Two-Brain Business program.

Register for the webinar here.

I’ll even give you three variations of the strategy:

One in which the gym offers only group training. One in which the gym offers mostly group training with 10 percent of revenue coming from personal training or nutrition coaching.One diverse model in which the gym’s revenue breakdown is 70 percent group, 20 percent PT/nutrition and 10 percent retail/online services.

Any one of these can work. I’ll share the math for all three.

Why do I give this stuff away for free?

Because knowing these targets is the first step toward success. And the more successful microgyms become, the more the industry grows—and the more lives we change!

That pivot you need toward success? It starts with clarity. See you on the webinar!

Register here.

The post The Microgym Model: The Numbers You Need to Make $100,000 appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

What Does a Personal Trainer Do?

What does a personal trainer do and how do trainers help clients?

The list of duties is long, and it’s changing—especially as the COVID Crisis forced the fitness industry to evolve in 2020 and 2021.

Below, we’ll lay out exactly what personal trainers do. The info will be helpful if you’re a client thinking about working with a trainer, someone who is thinking about becoming a personal trainer, or a current coach who wants to know how the industry is evolving.

Be warned: Our list is more complete than most articles that just list duties like demonstrating exercises, modifying routines and monitoring progress. Personal trainers do that stuff. But successful coaches do a lot more.

Here, we’re going to give you the definitive answer to the question “what do successful personal trainers do?”

What Does a Personal Trainer Do? Here’s the Short Answer

In one sentence: A personal trainer works one on one to help a client accomplish health and fitness goals.

The best trainers employ any and every method they are qualified to use to accomplish those goals. They work with their clients to create milestones and they track progress with metrics their clients care about. They constantly evaluate progress and adjust the program regularly to ensure the client is always moving closer to his or her goals.

In 2021, personal trainers recognize that movement is important but isn’t everything. Nutrition, recovery, stress management and motivation are just as important as exercise technique. So top modern trainers take a holistic approach while staying within their scopes of practice (see below).

Finally, personal trainers create close relationships with clients and keep them motivated. This point is often overlooked—but it’s extremely important. No client cares about the Krebs cycle and the SAID principle. Yet trainers often focus on these things.

No anatomy and physiology knowledge will ever be more important than the ability to make a client smile and show up to train. Studying the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s  “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning” for the fourth time? Maybe spend some time with “How to Win Friends and Influence People” or any of the other entries on our list of the best books for personal trainers.

Remember: The best workout is the one the client will do. The best trainer is the one who can get the client to do that workout and keep coming back for more.

Personal Trainers and Clients’ Goals

It’s important to reiterate that the client’s goals are always primary.

This might seem obvious. But many personal trainers actually forget to ask clients what they really want. They’re weighed down by exercise physiology dogma or attached to a certain training method, like Pilates or bodybuilding or aerobics or barre or HIIT or TRX training. With the best intentions, they make assumptions about clients and don’t ask enough questions.

For example, a trainer holding a CrossFit Level 1 Certificate (CF-L1) might assume that all clients want to improve Fran times or set clean-and-jerk records. That might be true for some. But many others will want to lose weight or get stronger. And they won’t care about the exact method as long as they lose weight. CrossFit can help them, but they aren’t hiring the trainer to do CrossFit. All they want is a lower number on the scale.

Another example: A trainer who is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist might be very proud of the designation issued by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). She studied hard to learn about anatomy and physiology, agility drills, plyometrics and skin-fold measurements. She acquired other credentials that are well regarded by strength coaches.

So she starts every client with a Functional Movement Screen and caliper testing to measure body fat. Then she talks about testing procedures and advanced athletic training protocols.

But her new client just wants to be strong enough to care for an aging parent. He doesn’t care about anything else.

Trainers must listen to clients. If this client’s goal is lower-body strength, the deadlift is perfect. If this client wants only to increase endurance, this might not be the right approach even if the coach believes everyone should deadlift.
Use All Training Tools

Trainers exist to help clients accomplish their goals. Wise coaches never forget that.

Good personal trainers find out about their clients’ goals through consultations, and then they create plans for success. Those plans should be tailored to the client; they should not be based on the trainer’s preferences or on dogma. The method of training is irrelevant. It’s just a tool used to get a result.

You might believe CrossFit is the best way to make a client fit. And maybe it is. But if the client doesn’t enjoy that style of training, you’re going to need to find another way.

Scope of Practice

When someone asks “what do personal trainers do?” the term “scope of practice” will always come up.

Simply put, personal trainers should only do that which they are qualified to do.

For example, personal trainers cannot diagnose and treat injuries unless they have advanced education that specifically allows them to do so. For example, a personal trainer who is also a credentialed physiotherapist would have a greater scope of practice than a coach with a single basic personal-training credential.

Good personal trainers know exactly what they are qualified to do. If they are unqualified, they care for their clients by referring to trusted professionals with the necessary qualifications. For example, a trainer might develop a relationship with a local chiropractor who can advise the trainer on how to keep an injured client moving safely.

All certifying bodies will lay out what their credential holders may and may not do. And insurance will not cover activities outside a coach’s scope of practice.

For a review of top certifications for personal trainers, click here. We review the essential details of credentials from the bodies below, including cost, prerequisites and continuing education requirements. You can find links to the info pages for each credential in that article.

American College on Exercise (ACE)Athletics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA)American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)International Sports Science Association (ISSA)National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)Food and fitness go hand in hand. Would your clients have more success if you were qualified to help them in the gym and in the kitchen?
Multiple Credentials for Personal Trainers

ASCM-CPT, NSCA CSCS, NASM-CPT, CrossFit CF-L2—what does a personal trainer do with all those credentials?

In the fitness world, more credentials aren’t better. A huge collection only shows that you’re good at passing tests. They generally don’t allow personal trainers to “do more stuff.” Scope of practice generally remains the same with all PT credentials, and different education is needed to allow trainers to do more.

That said, a personal trainer can and should pursue continuing education. This is a good idea whether a credential requires it or not. The best coaches are always learning so they can serve their clients better. And if it’s obvious that another credential will enable the trainer to help clients to a greater degree, it should be acquired.

With gyms closed, the COVID Crisis showed trainers that they need to offer more to their clients—in person when possible or online when needed. The best coaches in the world now address moving, sleeping, eating and managing stress. Two-Brain Coaching offers credentials that give coaches the qualifications they need to help clients in those areas.

If you’re just starting out, we recommend you acquire one personal training credential (this list can help). Then gain experience working with clients. To increase your value to clients, consider earning a credential in a related field, such as nutrition coaching.

Personal trainers coach clients. But if they’re on their own, they’ve got a host of other duties—including sales.
What Does a Personal Trainer Do: The Nitty Gritty

If a trainer works in a Two-Brain gym, he or she will have access to marketing materials, an audience, sales systems, booking and billing software, equipment, insurance and so on. If you want to scale up fast, working in a Two-Brain gym is the best way to do it because the gym owner will take care of most of the details, leaving the trainer free to coach.

In this situation, a trainer will design, implement and update training plans. Secondary duties might include providing the gym with media and marketing material, some booking and billing duties and so on. But the primary responsibility is service delivery.

If a trainer is on his or her own, service delivery is just a small piece of the puzzle.

Additional duties are described in detail below.

Sales and Retention

On a day-to-day basis, an independent personal trainer consults with prospective clients and offers prescriptions for success. This is the “sales process.” Many trainers don’t think about it at all and consider their job only to train clients—but where do the clients come from?

On your own, you’ll need to find way to get clients, either through Affinity Marketing (get our free guide here) or through other methods, such as social media audience building, paid marketing and so on. You might believe you’re a coach, but make no mistake: If there’s no sales system in place for you, you are the salesperson. And if you don’t do that job, you don’t get to be a personal trainer. Few trainers realize this.

You’re also in charge of retention—which is essentially “extended sales.” You have to sell your service every day, and while many gyms have client success managers to handle retention, it’s your job when you’re solo. That means you’ll have to perform goal reviews with current clients, take measurements, send out cards and gifts, text congrats, provide resources, and so on.

Sales and retention are the last things most trainers think about. But unless someone is feeding you clients, these are actually critical jobs for a personal trainer.

Space, Insurance and Equipment

If you’re on your own, you’ll need a place to train. You can rent space, train in a client’s home or train outdoors (this often requires a permit in public places). If you rent and are the only tenant, general cleaning falls on the trainer’s shoulders as well.

You’ll need insurance that covers your activities—wherever they are—and equipment. It’s worth noting that you don’t need a ton of equipment to start training clients. The video below will tell you that you can start a gym—or a PT business—with just a few pieces of gear.

Equipment maintenance and cleaning is also your job. If you train outdoors or in clients’ homes, you’ll be moving equipment regularly, too.

Admin Duties

Independent trainers also have to take on all the admin tasks a general manager or administrator would do at a gym. They include serving and filing waivers and health questionnaires, booking intake consultations and training appointments, processing payments, and maintaining some sort of database.

Some trainers are very casual about these tasks, and they generally end up losing money. Admin work is extremely important and shouldn’t be neglected. 

Writing fitness programs can be a lot of fun—but don’t forget to process payments, send retention emails and regularly spend time on marketing.
What Does a Personal Trainer Do: Some Coaching!

Finally, personal trainers of course spend a lot of time coaching. The list above isn’t meant to obscure that fact. But too many people don’t realize that coaching is just part of a trainer’s job.

Coaching refers to all the fun stuff trainers signed up for: creating and delivering training plans (perhaps through an app—the best ones are evaluated here), as well as leading clients through fun, effective, safe workouts.

This is where you get to crank the music, fire clients up, teach and instruct, correct form and motivate. You’re the expert with the exact plan for your client, and you’re leading him or her to success. The satisfaction of coaching someone to a new goal is unmatched, and it will get you out of bed every morning.

2021 Evolution: Additional Duties for Personal Trainers and Coaches

Exercise technique and movement coaching is important, but the best personal trainers know that this is just a small part of coaching a client to success.

When the COVID Crisis hit and trainers couldn’t work with clients in person, it became obvious that providing accountability was even more important than perfecting squat technique. The trainers who thrived during COVID often couldn’t interact with their clients, but they still delivered daily workouts, briefs and tips. They also explained how the workouts related to the clients’ goals and made sure the clients did the work.

In late 2020 and into 2021, trainers stayed connected with their clients and provided huge amounts of support through apps or just simple texts and email. They also found they could offer more value, so they coached clients on sleeping, eating and stress management. They provided videos, education, helpful links, various challenges and so on.

Overall, the COVID Crisis showed personal trainers that their work isn’t just done in the gym. That might have been true 10 or 20 years ago. Now, the modern personal trainer is more of a “life coach” than a simple fitness expert.

For info on how to become a more complete personal trainer, check out the Two-Brain Coaching blog.

Are you a good trainer? If your clients are always smiling and doing the workouts you create for them, the answer is likely “yes”—even if you’re providing coaching online due to the COVID Crisis.
This Above All: Make a Business Plan

If you’ve read this far, you know a personal trainer isn’t just a coach. He or she is an entrepreneur. Before you commit to the career, create a business plan. Here’s one we made for you—it’s free: “Personal Trainer Business Plan.”

This is the key question: “Can I really coach eight or more hours a day and give my clients the best service?” When you’re fresh and raring to go, you’ll probably say “hell, yes!”

But the answer is “no.”

Many, many trainers have learned this lesson the hard way. Don’t follow that path.

Another question: “Are the rates I’m charging going to support me and my family?”

Do the math—even if you hate numbers. Your rates must support you or your career as a personal trainer will be short.

Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper once coached 13 hours in a row and still didn’t make enough money to provide for his family. He was burned out, and his clients weren’t getting his best. You don’t have to make that same mistake.

The most successful personal trainers make a business plan before they invest in the career.

Our advice—which is based on data—is to work with a Two-Brain gym owner who will help you create an exact plan to make what you need to make and thrive as a coach. Even better, this path lets you coach more and do less of the other duties that aren’t as fun—like cleaning toilets and updating databases.

What Do Personal Trainers Do? Almost Everything!

The info here will give you a great idea what coaches do.

Our answer is more complete than most because we come at it from a business perspective. That’s really the only way to look at the job—because you need to generate income.

If you’re thinking about becoming a personal trainer, it would be a mistake to ignore all the aspects of the job that don’t involve creating training plans and coaching movement. Too many people who love fitness have done this. Instead of thriving, they burn out and lose their passion because they never considered all the aspects of the job.

If you want to become a personal trainer, you need the complete picture.

And if you need help making a plan, you need a mentor.

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