Geovanni Derice on Time Management and Fitness Sales and Marketing

 

Chris McCombs (CM): All right, I am here with Geovanni Derice.  Geovanni, who are you and what do you do?

Geovanni Derice (GD): Well Chris, basically I’m a personal training business professional out of Brooklyn, New York, and I’ve currently train people, men and females in their homes.  So, I pretty much run that business just providing them with solutions and workout programs to actually achieve their personal fitness goals. 

CM: Geo, what is your typical day look like?

GD:  Well, I generally wake up around 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning.  I do have clients on two days of the week at that time, but generally I will be online and I’ll be posting a blog early in the morning just so I can send some content to the, to my subscribers for my newsletter as well as my clients.  Then, later on, I probably will get into writing some articles for a small paper that I right for in this area.  And then, pretty much the rest of the afternoon is devoted is to training clients that I do have.  I don’t train too many of them, but I do actually go and train the ones that I actually like training so, that’s a good thing.

CM: What are the benefits of leverage your time?

GD: Well, leveraging your time, I think, it’s something I learned a long time ago, and the biggest benefit of it all is that you’re able to actually have a life.  So, that’s why I have things like having to go online and searching for people or possibly trying to advertise or write out articles, or doing things related to publicity and things like that.  Leveraging your time is amazing because you have family and you have friends you would like to hang out with and still have a social life.  If you’re constantly working within your business and not actually on it, you’re going to go crazy.

CM: What things are you able to get done with the extra time?

GD: Well, the extra time I have — I've been hanging out with my brothers, hanging out with friends, I’m also able to go and devote time to specifically what I need to do that’s more important as far as running the business.  I’m able to keep in good contact with my clients because I have that free time.  I’m not always busy so they can call me if they happen to have questions.  I’m able to go out to movies and things like that.  So, I pretty much avoid that burning out feeling that most pretty much have within the first six months that they are actually within this business.

CM: Do you offer trainers a brief explanation of leveraging your time and the significance?

GD: Well, the thing of it, it's great.  I think I read a book by Michael Gerber called E-Myth that I pretty much recommend every trainer to read or any person who’s interested in running their own business.  Once you’re able to leverage your time, you will be amazed at how much things you can – how many things you can really do and how productive you can be.  I think when you look at things like, you have right articles, you also have to look for clients, it can get very, very time consuming in this business as far as talking and trying to get talks with people and trying to find clients.  There’s a lot of different things within this business that you need to do to be successful.  So anything you can go and probably sit and write all your emails out in advance and actually have like an auto-responder, send out those emails every so often, that also leverages your time where I don’t have to constantly go back to the computer and write some new content.  Also, things like having other people working underneath you to go and find different things that you’re looking for.  That also is a great tool and a great resource to have in your arsenal of business owner, period.

CM: Can you get into a little bit, about how auto-responders work?

GD:  Well, the way I definitely, definite come for me that you can use as for auto-responders, but what you really want to focus on, and the main thing about the auto-responders is, you want to create a buzz, you want to have a good following of people who know who you are and that you’re a reliable source.  So, you can have a, definitely I suggest you have to have a website that you can pretty much hand out from the typical trainers that you have in your health club.  I know a lot of people complain that they work at a club that has to many trainers and how do they stand out, or if you own your own business how do you stand out.  And having a website with an actual pop up or a form where someone could enter their name and their email and receive like a report or subscription for free to your newsletter.  That pretty much is where the auto-responder begins as far as getting the message out.  Having your emails pre-answered that when a person enters their name and email address, they automatically a thank you for signing up, here’s your free special report and you can actually have it set up where three days later you can say, “Hey, how are you?  Did you like the special report?”  And you can continuously — and then once you build that relationship with the people who’s in your subscribers list, you can come out with — it just creates so many opportunities for you, whereas creating a product or providing fitness coaching on the phone.  So there are different opportunities that come away from it that come away from it, and the best thing about it is that you don’t have to continuously sit at the desk and create those emails.  You can just do it all, pick a day, write all your emails out and you can be pretty much set up for several months.

CM: Many people use the word automation?  What does that mean to you?

GD:  To me automation is pretty much it ties into the auto-responder.  It’s basically having — the main thing having a system and just plugging the pieces in the right places so that you are not constantly, again, working in the business itself.  You’re pretty much working on the outside.  Like a CEO would, CEO is not working specifically on a little task like generating publishing and stuff like that.  They ask people underneath them to work and do those things.  And with automation, what you can do is pretty much set up your whole little system on your own to have emails being sent out automatically to people.  Or you can set up the way you’re taking orders from something buys things from you, or you might probably sell supplements and you might have that being done through a different company.  So, all these automation tips is just really to help you not get so burnt out because training is something where you have to wake up early in the morning; your day ends very late, and when I entered this business that’s what I thought I would end up doing.  But with things like automation and auto-responders and having — outsourcing different types of tasks to other people it’s easier for me as a trainer and as a business person to leverage my time to actually have that freedom and to other things other then just training people.

CM: What ways have you automated your business?

GD: Well, definitely I’ve have add the auto-responder that I have on my — several different websites.  I also have a blog that I put up so I can have a lot of people read that, comment on it so that can create that little community and have everybody feel like a part of something.  Also, early in my business I have different people who I have working to look at sources online and they can refer back to me as instead of me doing it myself.  And, also when it comes to signing up –

CM: When you say there are people working for you, can you get a little more into that?

GD:  Oh, okay, well I think the main thing — that’s why when you have people working under you, and I’ve learned that from different sources is finding a person who is able to buy into what you’re doing and the whole thing about that is where exactly are you going to find that person.  So, a lot of times it could be a client who you’ve had great success with who truly understands what it is that you’re doing.  So, you can have that person who’s already been through your system to help you get clients as well as setting up a referral base type business where I have a client who’s done very well and she knows, or he knows somebody who’s pretty much looking for the same type of results.  So that person automatically can become a sales person for you as opposed to myself going out and trying to find those people.  So, have people like that who also have my brothers and different people who are close to me whose also have an open ear, they’re looking in, they’re listening in, they know exactly what I would do.  That’s why that they go to health food store and they hear somebody complaining about their never lose weight, they pretty much have the same mindset that I have to go and say, “Hey, how ya doing?  I couldn’t help but to hear that you are frustrated with your results.”  And then pretty much know the process I would take to go and take that and lead it into a prospect and then turning that into a possible sales situation.

CM: Okay.  What other ways have you automated your business?

GD: As far – I think I've automated it, also I think it’s like you said previously, it's setting up everything ahead of time.  It does take a lot of work in the beginning, that’s why I’m trying to set up all these email messages, all the setting up systems as far as creating programs and pamphlets and stuff like that for your clients so that any questions that they would possibly have in the future you pretty much already answered that.  So, those are pretty much the specific ways that I’ve tried to automate the business and it’s been working very well.

CM: Do you have any specific tasks for those you outsource work to?

GD: I do have specific tasks, I have a My Space who will go and search through people’s blogs and see –

CM: MySpace?

GD: Yeah, MySpace.  MySpace is big, they have over a hundred fifty million people who signed up on their.  So, I have a person who goes and reads the people’s blogs and tells me like, you look up keywords like Weight Watchers or something and you’ll pretty much know if a person writes in their blog about Weight Watchers they’re interested in losing weight.  So, I’ve used something like that where you go and look through Weight Watchers or they look through the blog and they’ll help me by adding that person as a friend or sending that person a message saying, possibly, “Congratulations on joining Weight Watchers, I’m glad that you made the commitment to change the way you look and feel.”  And that pretty much opens up an opportunity for me to offer probably fitness coaching down the line, but most importantly to build that relationship first. 

CM:  Okay, well what other tasks do you outsource?

GD:  I have people who — business cards, things like that that I have a person who owns a newspaper in my area who works and supplies business cards for me.  She creates that.  She also actually looks for other publicity opportunities, possibly she comes up with a topic and tells me, “Hey Geo, what do you think about that?  Do you think you could write an article about that?”  Or, “I’ve seen this article on Yahoo!  And I think it would be a great opportunity for you to piggy-back off of that.”  So I have a person who, pretty much like think a PR person but they pretty much serve that purpose of being someone who does PR. 

Also I have, as far as when you’re on the website and you pretty much have graphics that’s not specifically my thing, and of course, I could sit down and learn how to use all the different types of programs and things like that.  But, again it wouldn’t be me using my strength and graphics and all this website design is pretty much one of my weaknesses so, what I do is I pretty much outsource that task as well as creating headers, and banners, and book covers, and interviews and stuff like that.  I pretty much look for people who can design the website the way I want it.  I will just send them a model of what I want it to look like and pretty much get them to work for me so I can go ahead and train my clients effectively, go to seminars, and learn more about how to be a better trainer.  And meanwhile I have people who are looking for a new prospect for me, people who’s also making my website look better, a person who’s also looking out for publicity opportunity that I can go ahead and take advantage of.  And then again, I have people working in the street that basically salespeople who just keeping that ear out for me so I can generate some referrals or I can have some hot leads.

CM:  What resources have you found beneficial for looking for people to work under you? 

GD:  The most beneficial one I also just let you go and look at your clients.  They might not have a busy schedule at night, or they might be able to be like one of those big sales force people in your army.  That’s why I was trying to get people to know about what you’re doing.  You’re clients would be the number one place I would look.  Number two, a great idea that I got recently was from another trainer is going to colleges and looking for people who are looking for internship opportunities.  A lot of colleges will require you to go and get an internship before you graduate and they will — and you don’t have to actually pay them, they will just receive credit for it.  So, that’s a great way for you to look as far as a resource. 

Like right now I’m actually searching through marketing departments in my area just so — to probably create a contest that a professional would be interested in.  And have kids working a marketing campaigning and that can lead to an opportunity where I’ll have a student that’s about to graduate with a degree in marketing who will be able to tell, who will be able to create the campaign for me as opposed to me sitting down at a desk and trying to figure it out myself.  I would have a person who’s went to school specifically for that to go and create opportunities in the marketing field and stuff like that for me.  And another to look at is Craigslist.  I think a lot of people have heard about it and Craigslist's always asking who’s posting and looking for jobs and stuff like that.  And, you can either go that route and tell them, “Well, I’ve been hiring.  I’m looking for people who are dealing with office management and administrative assistance.”  Or one key thing that I think people forget is barter.  You know, you might find someone who is, let’s say a lawyer and instead of paying that person a certain fee for their services, I can actually offer the service that I have, which is training and they can in turn provide me with  the services of a lawyer.  And that in itself is costly and if you can exchange and barter their services together, you can pretty much save yourself money and at the same time, you’re adding just another resource to your business.

CM: Geo, have you ever outsourced any work to different countries or anything, like any kind of web work or anything like that, internet work?

GD: Oh, the web work, actually most of my web work is done by people who are not in this country.  And I just like people here in the United States, they do — I’m sure they do a great job and but when you’re trying to keep your costs down so that you can have more revenue, more money in your pocket, I definitely suggest that you go and find, get your web work, get designs done by people in other countries.  I’ve had people from Hungary, India who do a fantastic job, their customer services is incredible, and I’m just happy with the results that I’ve been able to get through those people.

CM: Can you tell us a little bit about — I know you’ve recently created an e-book, can you tell us a little bit about how you created that?  Can you maybe give us a step-by-step that worked for you?  Is that something you’d be interested in doing?

GD: Yeah, no problem. 
 
CM: So how do you do it?  Takes us through the process, if a trainer wants to create an e-book, what have you found works for you?

GD: Number one, I pretty much have a different approach than some people would do.  I’ve tried to find something that I was truly passionate about and what I was really passionate about and what would get my  — get my hairs on my arms getting up.  There is the fact that I was just frustrated to see people who knew exactly what it took to get a certain result but they weren’t doing it.  And what I did was, I took the time out to research and read people’s stories who have been successful with losing weight.  And I said to myself, you know what, there’s things going on now as far as the mind set and what people are thinking about.  And how that leans to the results, they’re ultimately getting with their training.  So I pretty much, what I did, my first step was just start writing and don’t really think about — don’t really — always going to have objections like nobody’s going to want to know this, nobody’s going to want to read this and the only way you really going to understand that is if you test.  So, I had people that I threw the idea out there like, “What do you think about this?  Do you think this is a good idea?”  And the feedback was great, as far as my clients, friends you might know, other fitness professionals within the industry.  They can tell you, like, this is, — there is a place for something like this.  And, once I got the idea — okay this is a good idea, it was just a matter of sitting down at the computer desk and just typing away.  Don’t just comment a certain amount of time whether it’s three hours of just writing.  Not editing, but just free writing as much as you possibly can about the topic.  And, once I was able to do that, I realized it was much easier to write an e-book because sometimes it can get overwhelming as far as amount of information, how many pages you want to write, things like that.  I also, one cool tip I use, I don’t write my e-book originally in Microsoft Word.  I will use the notepad because psychologically — as I’m typing in Microsoft Word, I think a lot of people realize that, you start instead of focusing on the content and being as specific as possible, you will start — browsing and looking through the page.  And see that you’re only up to page two or you’re only up to page twenty.  And you start to think there’s no way I’m going to be able to write 80 pages, 100 pages, or 150 pages, with the material.  But when you use note pad you don’t have any clue what, how many pages it really is so you just continue to type and type away and before you know it, you have – came up in one day with 15 pages of content.

CM:  Okay, so once you create your content then what did you do with it.  How did you have it edited?

GD: I was fortunate enough to have people who I know who are English majors.  And I had them look at it and review it.  And they came back and sent me an email with the comments and it’s a great tool to have three, four, or five — as many as possible to go and review it because you might miss certain things, something you wouldn’t that maybe sound clear to you but again, you have to remember the e-book is not written for you.  You’re writing it with the intent on selling it to the general — to whoever your target market is.  So, I had them look at it, I made the corrections, I reread it again, sent it out to another person, had that person review it, they came back with different corrections as well and when you have three or four different people’s opinions as was grammar and content and how you can fix this, add that, that pretty much helps you as far as creating the overall e-book itself and it’s a great tool to really use the people that use your clients, use your friends, professors might want to look at it. Someone from your alma mater, you might want to go and send that back to them as well.  So they will look it over for you.

CM: So let me just ask you; once you have your content written and edited, then how did you turn it into an e-book format?
 
GD:  Well, I then took the material from notepad and I put it into Microsoft Word; you fix it up, you probably add a lot of spacing, how you want it to look, and the whole layout of the e-book.  And then, pretty much I converted it into Adobe Acrobat and make it a .pdf file for the e-book itself.

CM: Awesome.  Awesome.  Well, Geo where can people learn more about you, your product services?

GD: Well, you can go to 4evertoned.com.  That’s the number 4 e-v-e-r-t-o-n-e-d-.com.  That’s my main training website and that’s where I have more information about the e-book itself.  You can go to www.fitness-success.com.

CM: And what’s the name of your e-book?

GD: My E-book’s name is called Mind over Matter.  It’s a personal trainer’s insider’s secrets to creating the “I can do” mindset to help you achieve any fitness goal.

The has been a personal training sales, personal trainer marketing and fitness business time management interview