A Fitness Marketing Post by Chris McCombs

NOT For the Uptight or Easily Offended

Hey there, it’s Big Chris…

The fam and I are getting ready to move into our new house, my assistant Del is packing up the old one and scheduling the moving company, and my wife and daughters are stoked cuz it’s over twice the size as our current one.

Ocean view, two 2 car garages, custom pool, HUGE backyard, 4500 sq feet, gated community with full-time security officer at gate… there sure is something to this whole internet marketing thing.

I am also grateful and thankful for my customers, clients, blog readers, wife Sarah, assistant Del, Zach Hunt, Rich Golisch, Andy Jenkins, Dan Kennedy, Bedros and Steve, the BIG MAN upstairs ( or wherever he is) … and Mom, for taking me in for a few years to help me get back on my feet back in the year 2000.

In my twenties I spent time in a 6 foot by 9 foot cell, and after that had periods homelessness… living in sheds and stuff, so it really makes me grateful for all this today.

Ok, about this blog post…

It’s a new column I’m starting here on my blog where I’m gonna bust out quick answers to questions I get or my staff gets

This new column will be as raw and real as possible, so if you’re easily offended then I urge you to not read this post or any other posts that come out in this series.

Question: Chris, why do you swear in your posts, talk about your “not so perfect” past and make jokes that might turn a lot of the industry off? Aren’t you worried that people will be turned off or offended?

I’m not worried one bit… there’s some people I actually want to offend, that way they don’t end up as customers… lemme explain

It’s better to be loved by some, and hated by some, then it is to be liked by all. Because the ones who love you will buy over and over and over. But to get some to love you, you need to be bold enough that other will hate you ( or at least dislike you)

I speak only to a certain segment of the market, and that segment pays me handsomely. Some of the other segments I hope to drive away as soon as possible because they simply aren’t my target market, not that they’re bad people or anything, they’re just not a good fit for my teachings. ( And those ones are usually a pain in the ass to deal with anyway)

You COULD say I’ve preselected my market and crafted my message to drive all others away.

Plus, in person I swear and joke around a lot, and I want to be as authentic as possible, it would suck to have to NOT be me in my marketing and in my courses n’ stuff. Being fake sucks.

You simply can’t be all things to all people, sure, some people are turned off immediately by what I do, but for others I’m a perfect match, in fact for some, they feel I’m the first guy to speak their language.

Actually, I envy my friends who sell mostly to powerlifters, bodybuilders and MMA guys, cuz they can really let loose in those markets cus’ like sailors and go on angry rants as often as they want… but since I teaching business type stuff, I have to hold back a little.

I simply don’t want to have to be polished all the time, that would be boring and would suck, plus it would fake, and people could smell it a mile a way.

Better off to just be myself… and it’s worked out pretty damn good so far.

Question: I work at a big box gym and I hate it. I want to break off on my own but I have no idea how to get started. Any tips?

Yeah, fill up every hour that you’re not full with clients with human billboards ( you can watch the human billboard video here)

Train groups and boot camps

Put everyone on long term EFT agreements

There’s plenty of info on the blog showing you how to do this, just search around, you’ll find it.

Question: Are Steve and Bedros gay?

Why does everyone think that?

No, they’re not gay ( not that there’d be anything wrong with that if they were though)

They’re Bi… just joking, believe it or not they’re completely straight.

There just really great friends. They both have insanely quirky senses of humor, are fitness marketing geniuses, way cool, Type A entrepreneurs who love their family.

So no, they’re not gay, a little weird sometimes, but not gay.

( However, recently these pictures have surfaced which make me wonder a little bit )

Question: I believe in hard work… and it seems like you almost preach don’t work. Are you lazy or something?

I’m not lazy ( well, maybe a little)

The truth is I can’t stand trading hours for dollars, life is just too short and there are so many other cool things to do. I’ve seen too many people trade their entire lives away just for money, and that’s not how I personally want to live.

I actually do work REAL hard sometimes, but I work hard to create systems that can make me money over and over. Make it once, get paid over and over.

After being stuck in my training business for about 5 years trading training hours for dollars I decided they’re just had to be a better way for me, so I spend a solid year dialing in my training business to where it got clients on auto-pilot that I could give to other trainers, so I wouldn’t have to do any work at all ( but it DID take a year of busting my ass to figure it all out and set it all up) – and for the past 3 or 4 years now that business has made me six-figures a year and takes NO TIME AT ALL on my part, it’s all automated.

( BTW, to use the same system I did to automate all the client getting, and be able to do in it about a fourth of the time it took me, since you won’t have to make all the mistakes I did, just click here )

Next, I busted my butt to build my info-marketing empire, a business that makes my FAR MORE than my training business does. I spent a year going through courses, seminars, blogging and building relationships, and then I spent a month or so working 60 to 80 hours a week to launch my first info-product, but that product did over $300,000.00 in billable sales in seven days and continues to pull in six figures a year.. so I’d say the month or so of long hours were worth it.

Now, I can create and market MOST products in just a few hours, and those products sell over and over online. I have a shitload of products now, you can see them by clicking here.

For me personally, I work real hard to create systems, systems that keep the day job as far away as possible.

Systems that give me freedom, freedom to spend all day riding my Harley, working out and hangin’ with the fam.. or freedom to build more systems to make even more passive income.

Question: You’re always talking about how important it is to have a blog. Why is it so important?

Well, for starters, a blog allows you to…

- Establish yourself as an expert

- Build credibility in your niche

- Start win/win relationships off with the giving hand

- Build a feeling of reciprocity among your readers and followers

- Become a well-known celebrity for what you do ( like an internationally known fitness guru, or even an in-demand LOCAL fitness celebrity if you want to stay local)

- Connect with your audience on a core level

- Get your message out to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands people at time

- Build of tribe of loyal lifelong clients and customers for LIFE

- Create something once and get paid for it over and over

- Suck in qualified traffic from the search engines every single minute of the day

I could go on and on, but the point is, blogging is a damn good thing… and when done right it can be HIGHLY profitable as well

For example, take this lil’ ol’ blog you’re on right now… doesn’t look like much right?

I mean it looks pretty cool, but there’s TONS of more impressive looking sites out there… however if I told you this blog is on pace to do seven figures this year you might have a hard time believing it… but it’s true.

This little blog in my little tiny niche bring in thousands of dollars every single day – and a good portion of that comes in when I’m sleeping (=

Now I’m not trying to impress you with this, I’m just answering your question and letting you know what’s possible on the internet these days for fitness professionals… and even if you’re a complete computer dunce just like me, with the technical skills of a baboon.

Blogging is all about marketing, but not in the way most people think about marketing, it’s kinder, softer, more cool and under-the-radar way to market yourself.

I don’t care how good you are at getting people into shape… if you’re not a great marketer you’ll never have a great business

FAR too many fitness professionals are only focused on being great at getting people into shape… but they’re HORRIBLE at marketing themselves…

Like it or not… when it comes to making money, getting people into shape is FAR LESS important than marketing.

It’s important to be good at what you do, but FAR too many trainers are just focused on being good at getting people into shape, that they COMPLETELY neglect becoming good at the MARKETING of what they do.

Getting people into shape can only take you so far, and if you don’t know how to let the right people know about your amazing abilites of getting people in the shape, you’re dead in the water.

If trainers would just take some of the time and money they spend on all those certifications and invest it into their marketing education… they could EASILY make five to ten times what they’re making right now.

Certifications will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to get you more clients or make you more money… NOTHING ( besides maybe increasing your level confidence in yourself… and increased confidence can lead to more clients… so it CAN help)

Proven marketing systems and strategies are what it REALLY takes to have a great business.

But MARKETING HAS CHANGED

Because of all the hype and scams out there… people are naturally distrustful and highly suspicious of anyone trying to sell them on just about anything… ESPECIALLY on the Internet.

There IS one way to thrive in this world of skeptics and suspicion…

And it’s Blogging

A blog actually allows you to ethically sneak in under their radar, and become a trusted and well-liked friend and authority… a friend who they’ll look to for ALL their fitness needs.

With a blog, you develop win/win relationships with your customers… you start by helping them get what they REALLY want in life, THEN THEY give you some money, you then help them get MORE of what they really want in life, and then they give you MORE money.

You keep helping them get what they want.

They keep giving you money.

It’s a win/win relationship in the truest sense of the phrase.

And not only that, but…

Blogging Allows You To Create Die-Hard Fiercely Loyal Clients and Customers For Life

With a blog you’re able to connect with your audience in a way that just isn’t possible using any other form of mass communication.

Your audience will like and trust you on deep level… allowing you to convert many of them into lifelong clients and customers… and this is one of the true secrets to success… having people willing to give you lots of money for years and years.

AND… with a blog you can work where you want and when you want, doing work once and getting paid for it over and over… being seen as one of the top fitness experts in the world…

I Simply Can’t Think Of One Tool That Can Add As Much Freedom To Your Life as Having Your Very Own High Authority Fitness Blog

And with a blog, there’s TONS of ways to monetize it… a few of them are…

- Your local training business or boot camp… using one of two proven strategies… OR even fusing the two…

- There’s a way to set-up your blog so you come up for just about anything ANYONE in your local area would search for locally in the search engines

- And then there’s the Local Celebrity Blog, where your blog positions you at the Go-To Fitness Expert in your entire local area

- And you can also make money on your blog from Info-Marketing and Affiliate Marketing … two of the easiest, most fun and coolest ways to make money that I know of

If done correctly, your blog can literally make you an industry super-star

Did you know that in the early 70′s Sylvester Stallone couldn’t get a good gig in Hollywood for the life of him?

He kept getting one rejection after another

So finally he just went out and wrote Rocky, making sure he was the one to star in it no matter what the big studios wanted. If they wouldn’t let him star, they couldn’t make the movie, it was that simple.

Well, to make a long story short Rocky became his ‘personal star vehicle’… the thing that launched his entire successful career.

That’s exactly what this blog has done for me, and it’s what blogging can do for you as well… it can be your ‘personal star vehicle’

Just like Rocky was Sylvester Stallone’s Personal Star Vehicle, your blog can be YOUR Personal Star Vehicle, making a fitness celebrity, authority and Guru in hardly no time at all.

If you’d like to learn more about blogging, I STRONGLY recommend you check out Fitness Blogging Profits

You can learn all about it by clicking here.

Question: The other day on Facebook I saw you go on a rant against multi-level marketers. Being in the fitness industry and being approached by these guys all the time myself I feel the same way you do. But don’t you worry you’ll come off looking negative for saying the things you said? It seemed a little harsh.

I assume you’re talking about this one:

It went on to say: “The answer will always be NO.. capiche?”

And here’s the comments it got:

Now, I personally have nothing against people who are just in MLM – I actually have friends and family in it

Plus, hey, I’m a marketer myself, but I do direct response marketing to people who have raised their hands with interest in what I’m doing – meaning, I’m more into the whole selling hamburgers to a hungry crowd thing… a hungry crowd that is actually LOOKING for something to eat -  not the whole ‘bug the shit out of everyone around you’ with the hopes of building some massive fucking downline.

It’s when they get pushy, and call my business lines trying to talk us into selling their stuff, talking about all the money we could make, when most of them are just barely getting by themselves.

It’s like just because we own a fitness business we have a big target on us that says “We’d be great for your downline, please try to get us to sell your shit and to get others under us to sell your shit… so we can burn bridges and piss off all of our cool friends”

Because my fitness business comes up # 1 in Google for hundreds of keyword terms we get TONS and TONS of these calls, it’s an every day occurrence and it’s just like getting the old unwanted telemarketing calls.

Penn and Teller did a great episode of The Bullshit Show about MLM’ers recently which you can check out by clicking here

And I actually know one trainer named Cabel who turned it around on the pushy MLM’ers, you can learn about it by clicking here. ( it’s in the middle of the post)

Now, did I come off a little negative?.. sure… but are YOU positive all the time?

And actually, going on a rant about something that most of your customers have similar feelings for creates a deep bond, it’s an “us against them” type of thing, and we’re on the same side. People instantly bond with others who share the same enemies.

Plus, it makes me more human to my market, cuz’ pushy MLM’ers actually DO rub me wrong, and since I don’t sit around all day meditating in sweat lodges with James Ray and have butterflies flying outta my ass, I’m not gonna tryin’ act like I do.

Question: Chris, how can I get clients from Facebook?

EASY, use the ad feature and target as deep as possible ( age, location, gender, etc)

Use a pic of ( mostly) women ( attractive ones) working out having fun in the ad ( unless you ONLY train men) – you see both men and women like to look at women

Use an attention grabbing headline and compelling copy to get people to click, and actually TELL them what to do.. like “Click here to find out more”

Bid two cents above their lowest suggested bid, and if your ad isn’t showing add a penny or two a day until it starts showing

From the ad, send people to a squeeze page with…

• an attention-getting headline
• a promise
• a picture and short explanation of something free that delivers on that promise ( like a voucher for two free weeks training)
• show a picture of the free thing
• tell them HOW to get the free thing ( like “just put your email in below”)
• an opt-in form
• and a trust statement and symbol about how you won’t sell their email addy.

Here’s an example of a squeeze page I use for my fitness marketing niche ( this is not for local training, it’s for fitness marketing, but the template should give you an idea of what I’m talking about)

On the page they land on AFTER they’ve given you the email, deliver on the free thing

You could give them a free report or video and then have a sales copy for your services under the free thing they got… OR…

The free thing could be like a free two week pass for your boot camps or group training or whatever.

The ones you don’t convert right away simply put them in your prospects campaign in your email management software and send them content ( like on your blog) and offers/pitches on a regular basis, to convert them from prospect to client.

Question: Chris, I tried to get ahold of you 16 different ways, but had no luck, I have a ton of business questions I want to ask you… Why haven’t you responded to me?

I appreciate you reaching out. I kinda covered this in my ‘Rules o’ Bizness’ post I did the other day, which you can see by clicking here

I’d love to be able to respond to everyone personally but quite frankly if I did, I’d be working 25 hours a day, getting nothing done and would be broke. And believe it or not, most people wouldn’t do anything with the advice anyway, since it was free, they wouldn’t really value it

I easily have 100 times as many people trying to get a hold of me than I have time for.

Now, if you have a customer service question my support team will happily help you out, in fact you can reach them here.

You see, one of my main rules is…

Everyone Pays First – I Speak To No One With Questions About Their Business on The Phone Or Via Email Unless They’re a Paid Coaching Client ( or a close personal friend ) - If I didn’t live by this rule I’d spend an average of 25 hours a day helping people for free and wouldn’t have time for what’s important to me and my family, this seemingly selfish rule has enhanced my life tenfold

Plus, it’s not fair to my paid coaching clients for me to give away the same thing they pay for

Also, if someone isn’t willing to pay for something, they most likely don’t value it and won’t take action on it. Years ago, I couldn’t afford coaches and high level info products, but I knew I needed them to learn all the business and internet marketing stuff I wanted to learn, so I maxed out credit cards and took out loans to make it happen.

Today, investing in those programs have paid themselves off literally thousands of times over.

Now… before you call me a rude and selfish SOB, keep in mind,  I DO give away free content, right here on the blog, in fact I spend a lot of time creating content that I charge absolutely nothing for, but this way I can do a post that helps thousands of trainers at one time, instead of just one at a time on the phone or via email, which isn’t time well spent, unless they’re willing to invest in it.

We get people asking for free help all the time, and while I feel bad saying no, I simply have to, otherwise I wouldn’t have time for much else

( BTW, if you WOULD like private access to me, via phone calls and email, you can learn about my private coaching and mentoring program by clicking here )

Hope you enjoyed this Fitness Marketing Undercover post, more to come in the future.

I’d love to hear your comments below