Hey there it’s Big Chris… here’s a very personal post I wrote for you about something I’ve struggled with in my own life countless times… and I’d be willing to bet good money that you’ve suffered from this yourself to some degree or another yourself in your life and your training business…

The good news is that while this one may seem like tough one to overcome… the solution is SIMPLE… and once you get this one right, MANY other aspects of your life and business will fall into place with ease.

Imagine the following training scenario… now this is about to get a little weird… but trust me… just open up your mind for a moment and pay close attention… because on the other side of this wild training scenario is the key that unlocks one simple change you can make…. ONE THING… that could have more impact on the success of your training business than any other factor

And it’s not about some marketing tactic, sales strategy, product to buy or business system … nor is it “positive thinking” … nothing wrong with any of those things… but that’s not what this is about…

Ok… imagine training people way back… and I do mean WAY back… like back in the caveman times… think about how cool that would be…

Training real live cavemen as clients.. seriously, putting prehistoric man through kick ass workouts and getting paid with extra-slabs from the days kill…

The workouts would be effective and super-fun… 

- Boulder rolls ( Since you wouldn’t have tires to flip)
- Sabertooth tiger sprint ( AKA “Outrun the Kitty or Die”)
- Tree pull-ups
- Boulder drags and pushes ( Kind of like sled drags and prowlers )
- Walking log lunges … as well as log squats and all it’s common variations
- Rock swings
- Man makers using dinosaur bones instead of dumbells

And lots of Rocky 4 type stuff and of course you’d also have the cave dudes doing push-ups and basically all the body-weight exercises you can think of and of course anything you can come up with to do with the terrain available to you.

Now, many of the principles would be the same…. but there would be many differences in the way you’d need to train people and do business, as well as what you’d need to train them FOR… which would probably be something closer to ‘basic survival’ than today’s common client hot-buttons like “looking sexy in your skinny jeans”

While at the core level the end goal would be procreation and survival of the species… same core reason for working out then as it is not, just different mechanisms for reaching the end goal

Today most people workout to get sex ( or a mate ), keep sex ( or a mate) , feel confident so they can produce so they can afford food and shelter and to stay healthy so they can live longer…

All tied to survival and re-production

Back then your clients would want workout that help them to hunt better, become stronger, more powerful ( which would help make for a better protector) , faster… similar to the way an athlete would want to be trained… except just like your typical client today, it would all be tied to survival.

HOWEVER… back then you’d ALSO need to worry about surviving the actual workout itself…

Think about it

That’s a HUGE difference from the way the workouts go today, where most of your clients are pretty sure they’ll make it home tonight

You AND your “caveman” clients would have something very real to fear each and every workout that Billy Biceps down at Billy Body Boot Camp, down in the local strip mall or at the city park, doesn’t have to worry about…

The fear of getting eating alive by some hungry and massive per-historic jungle lurker

You and your little “Land of The Lost Boot Camp” will always need to stay on the lookout for something that wants to make you it’s lunch…

As I’m sure you know, back then we hadn’t really earned a very nifty spot on the food chain yet

So fear played a very important role in our survival

And in fact today “fear” still plays a key part in our survival…

There’s nothing like a body surge of fear-based adrenaline to make us stronger, faster and more alert…

According to Wikipedia:

Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. In short, fear is the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it (also known as the fight-or-flight response)

Now here’s where the problem comes in….

As humans, we’re wired to be extremely alert and in fear for our lives because WE HAD TO BE if we wanted to live and not become some giant dinosaur’s dinner

But today we live in a time where we’ve had it BETTER than ever… and dinosaurs haven’t been around in like forever… so we should be able to chill a little and de-stress

But we’re not wired to chill.. we’re wired to survive, and in the past that required healthy doses of anxiety… and today we’ve carried that “fight or flight” wiring into our modern world and brought it into all sorts of situations that it serves us actually no purpose

We walk around with a knot in our gut and fear based thoughts even when walking into situation we should be totally cool with…

Things like signing up a new client, what people think of us, finances, rejection, and many simple day to day things that you’d *think* we should be totally cool with and shouldn’t cause us any anxiety at all when you think about it

But they do, we bring our per-programed state of unease into these extremely SAFE situations

When I’m at the gym, or an industry event or when I’m first getting started working with a new private mentoring client and we peek  what’s really goin on their business and it’s often apparent that fear is one of the biggest things holding them back.

Now, many of them don’t SAY that it’s fear… in fact they aren’t even aware it’s fear at all… but all the signs are there

Often times they opt for the safer and more comfortable path ( as humans we all do this)

Examples I see all the time of trainers letting fear control the destinations of their business are…

- Choosing to wait until ________________ (they get that next cert, find that perfect location, etc. ) to start moving things forward…

Instead of hustling to build their business with unbridaled enthusiasm… the way successful businesses are meant to be built.

- Being intimidated to make big changes in the business in fear of what the changes will bring... lots of trainers put off important changes like raising prices, switching from selling packages for cash and checks to putting people on monthly automatic debit… or switching from private training to group training.

Even though the money is way better with semi-private and group training … many trainers who wanna make the switch to more profitable training models avoid doing it for fear of what unexpected changes the transition may bring

Let’s say you train one person per hour for say $60 an hour… many trainers avoid switching over to a semi-private model… EVEN THOUGH they could make way more charging say five people $45 each for the session… which comes to $225 for the very same hour…

All because they fear what could happen when they go to make this change… the uncomfortable conversations, the possibility of a few clients dropping out… the risk of clients not being happy with the new workouts.

A high percent of the training industry want so much to avoid the anxiety that these kinds of situations can cause them, they put off making over the switch to training more people per hour… often times indefinitely… even though just making the simple switch to group workouts could increase their hourly rate as well as total income MANY times over… not to mention all the other positive things it can do for their business … like improve referral and retention rates.

- Leaving thousands of dollars in potential easy extra revenue every month by simply not offering upsells at the point of purchase… all because of the fear of rejection

With the right upsell in place at the point of closing a new client, you can easily get 10% to 20% of your clients to take that upsell… stuff like meal delivery services, auto-ship supplements like Prograde, nutrition classes,  high ticket more personalized training and coaching programs… can all make GREAT add-ons that not only can help your clients reach their goals faster, but can put a ton of additional revenue into your training business each month

For example, every client you put on something like These Personalized Personal Trainer Foods can add an additional $60 or so  to your pocket every month… so ten clients is $600 a month in extra income, 20 clients an additional $1200 a month in recurring income and so on… not to mention the % of the profits you can make from any trainers you might have working under you who’s clients take the upsell offers as well.

And I’m talking about RECURRING income that you need to do very little to make… just a maybe an additional few minutes at the end of your normal closing or “sign-up” procedure to make the option available to them if they’d like to get better and faster results…

The problem is most trainers avoid doin’ stuff like this, even though it can add a TON of money into your training business… if you use a decent closing procedure, 20% of your clients … give or take …is about what you can expect to take a well-positioned upsell like this, especially if it’s presented properly

Now if 20% take it, that means around 80% won’t take it … and the mistake many trainers make is that they focus on the 80% who say “no” instead of the 20% who say yes…

If they would just re-frame the “no’s” from the 80% as a necessary part of getting “yes’s” from the 20%, they’d be fine… like if they’d just re-frame each “no” to be “20% of their next ‘yes” instead of associating the “no’s” with rejection.

Many trainers fear the rejection so much that will come from the 80% who will say no, that they avoid the massive profits they can make on the 20%… even though they could make those profits by hardly doin’ almost anything at all… just a small 2-5 minute presentation of offer towards the end of the closing process can make a HUGE difference in revenue for trainers

The problem is most trainers have a frame for this that is focused on rejection… and they let their fear of that rejection hold them back from what could easily be thousands of extra dollars a month for offering an extremely valuable add-on service to your clients that will help them get optimal results

- Many trainers avoid calling back leads in a timely manner and often choose to send off a quick text or email off, when a phone call would have probably done a better job of getting the lead to come in

Just because texting or emailing a new lead is easier than calling, doesn’t mean those are the best ways of converting that lead into a client, but because those are fairly comfortable actions to take as opposed to getting someone on the phone many trainers opt only for these first two options… HUGE mistake

- Relying ONLY on online sources to get training clients… I may be partially at fault for this by all of the internet marketing tactics for trainers that I talk about on my blog and in my business building and marketing programs for fitness professionals 

Getting clients online CAN be easy… I mean just Google, Facebook and Email alone are client-getting BEASTS… and often times the the only part that arouses any kind of anxiety from getting clients from the internet is maybe the first phone call and the close… but most of it can be hands off and automated…. which is great…

HOWEVER…

The internet changes… FAST… and you need some offline funnels of new clients UNLESS you want to have constantly stay up on the advances in the ever-changing technology … and remember, there’s plenty of technologically savvy youngsters coming up who are much better at dealing with the ever changing technological playing field we’re all on then you and I probably are…  that’s why it’s important to have offline client getting sources as well

But often what happens is trainers just want to put up a website that will do all the work for them … since the offline client getting strategies require putting yourself out there sometimes on what can seem like the Chopping Block of Uncertainty

Getting clients from places like referral programs, contests, challenges, local media and social appearances, workshops and public speaking gigs… joint ventures and endorsed offers with other local business owners, and all sorts of belly to belly sales situations and guerrilla street-marketing type stuff can not only get you a ton of new clients and leave you with a feeling of security knowing you have new clients coming in from many different sources, but often times these offline and “grass roots” marketing strategies put you in situations that stretch your comfort zone a bit past the level that you may be used it…

For example… Putting yourself out there and talking to local business owners about forming win/win joint venture partnerships requires you to put your ass out there more than if you were say just positing something on Facebook

But many trainers won’t put themselves through the uncomfortable process of walking into local businesses and making an offer to the owners… they may do it once or twice, but they rarely stick with it… however strategies like these are numbers games and volume is the key.

Another example is the well known “Human Billboard Strategy” …

Offering to train people you’ve never met in exchange for referrals is often times a bit more of an uncomfortable situation than say, just sending out an email blast to your list… putting your offer out there in person to a stranger and risking rejection is much more challenging for many trainers than say just pushing the “send” button your lap top

But if it’s done with intention, focus and “stop at nothing attitude” …  and if you can put up with all the flakes… hitting the streets, taking to TONS of people and offering to trade training for referrals can be by far one of the best ways to build up a training business fast… ESPECIALLY if you’re just getting started out and need to build up your referral base.

However it requires trainers to step just a bit outside the boundary of their comfort zone… sometimes hundreds of times over… luckily the tenth time is easier than the first and the hundredth easier than the tenth

And when you’re just getting started out… often times trainers don’t have a lot of money to spend on having a website built, doin’ SEO or for putting up pay-per-click ads…

No problem, there’s PLENTY of evergreen ways to get clients that have nothing to do with either…

a). the internet or

b). spending a bunch of money on marketing to get clients

However… these strategies often require not only a little more legwork … they require A TON more situations that many trainers find to be strange, intense and funky… and loaded with anxiety and self-doubt… situations that stretch the comfort zone of many trainer’s if you will

So what happens is, trainers avoid the uncomfortable face to face type stuff and are relying more and more on technology to do a lot of the selling for them…

And make no mistake I’m a HUGE fan of technology and getting clients from the internet, HUGE FAN

In fact, that’s how I get almost all of my clients these days for my trainers

But things like Google, Facebook, email marketing and basically ANYTHING in the realm of technology is changing, CONSTANTLY changing… some of the online client sources that trainers are relying on right now to get clients might not work in a year from now or even in a month or a week from now

Now… getting clients from many offline sources like referrals and face to face marketing, networking and selling will ALWAYS work… no matter how technology changes things

So you always want to include a mix offline AND online client-getting strategies if growing to a solid six figures a year … and staying there… is a goal of yours.

The more sources of clients flowing into your training programs … the better.

HOWEVER, you can’t hide behind a Facebook profile and a lap top using the face to face stuff…

While some offline stuff can be outsourced, walking into local business and meeting the owners is an example of something you need to be doin’ personally… things like that shouldn’t be outsourced now matter how big you get… you just can’t pass it on to others like you can do with sales calls, using something like Trainer Sales Force

YOU… the owner or independent trainer building your own client base, following and destiny… needs to be the one doin’ that kind of high level networking

However, you’d be amazed to find out how many trainers avoid simple things like this that can be super profitable…

That constant anxiety we walk around with and fear of what others think of us will cause many trainers to avoid take action on high-level actions like this because they’re waiting for their web guy to get their site up… or their SEO guy… or their client who was gonna bring in a referral.

Basically they’re avoiding goin out and building their business with gusto… and they pretty much just stick to the easy and comfortable strategies to get clients… building their business in a more “passive” style…

Sticking their toe into the business-building water but never diving in head first

But it’s this act of taking massive action and confronting your fears that will make you stronger, happier and more successful

Thickening your skin and building your confidence

Moving in the direction of your goals, no matter what uncomfortable situations you need to walk through or how many times you need to walk through them… becoming stronger and more confident with every “no”… ever obstacle… every challenge, set-back and disappointment

Sure moving forward in the great “here and now” can be a little nerve-wrecking and intense at times… and I guarantee you if the goals you have for yourself are worthy ones, you’ll have to face your share of your own brand of fear and self-doubt

The only way to overcome those fears, is to not let them paralyze you, but rather to move forward in the moment of courage towards your great vision, and in doin so you become stronger, you attract success and your fears become weaker each time you face them and walk through them

And on the road to a successful training business, there is no way around these fears, only THROUGH them.

But the good news is that there’s a cap to how bad your fears get… and once you reach that peak… freedom, ultimate self confidence, inner strength and the life you picture in your moments of visualization… all await you

All you gotta do is face those fears, decide to move forward ‘through them’ in the moment they arise… avoid over thinking them, embrace the raw energy and excitement you feel cursing your body and take (bold) forward-moving action

This is called being courageous.

And since nothing really is good or bad and all situations truly are neutral, it’s just how we perceive them and the label of “good” or “bad” that we attach to those situations that gives them the meaning they have to us…

When you move forward with this mindset you realize deep inside there actually isn’t to fear anyway

So all you need to do is re-frame any challenges, hurdles, obstacles, set-backs, disappoints and apparent failures as lessons and opportunists to adjust your course accordingly and become stronger along the way… especially the better you get at re-framing

I know, I know… easier said than done.

There’s also a side benefit that comforting your fears can have for you besides success, strength and character

It’s called “Excitement”

These fears, the sense of uncertainty, is what makes life fun and juicy… if you knew how everything would play out… and if EVERYTHING always worked out the way you expect it to… life would be boring

If you always just immediately got whatever you wanted without having to overcome obstacles, twists, turns, drama and the mystery’s of life unfolding in the moment… life would be dull… in fact, you couldn’t even call it life, because that’s what life is… a mystery full of twists and turns.

There’s a quote by the great jazz legend Miles Davis which I first read in the book The 50th Law by Robert Greene and 50 Cent … Miles said:

“The very first thing I remember in my early childhood,” says the incomparable artist Miles Davis, “a flame, a blue flame jumping off a gas stove. … I remember being shocked … by the suddenness of it … that stove flame is as clear as music is in my mind. I was three years old.I saw that flame and felt that hotness of it close to my face. I felt fear, real fear … But I remember it also like some kind of weird joy, too. I guess that experience took me someplace in my head I hadn’t been before. To some frontier, the edge, maybe, of everything possible. … The fear I had was almost like an invitation, a challenge to go forward into something I knew nothing about … everything I believe in started with that moment. I have always believed and thought since then that my motion had to be forward, away from the heat of that flame.” – Miles Davis

The books talks about 50 Cent’s life and how he become so fearless… it’s not so much a book about 50 Cent as it is a book about taking fearless action.

Basically 50 became fearless because of the circumstances he was raised in and quickly saw that putting himself into extremely scary situations over and over was the way out of that horrible environment he was surrounded by.

50 became fearless by subjecting himself to situations on daily basis that would make 99 out of 100 people poop their Fruit of the Looms

And by doin this, he become immune to most any of the fears that one would need to overcome to make their way to the top of the entertainment and business world .. something he was able to do in just a few short years

I guess once you’ve been shot nine times, things like getting rejected by someone or caring what others think of you really don’t come into the the equation anymore

50 was able to move towards his goals by taking massive “fearless action” .. not caring about what anyone thought about him, what risks he would have to take or what obstacles he would have to overcome… he realized that it was all just part of the journey and that facing things and running right into them, was the only way to truly succeed in life.

Maybe you haven’t been shot nine times like 50… and maybe you didn’t grow up surrounded by gangs, abandonment, guns, violence and death…

But there IS a way for YOU to become fearless as well

And it’s SUPER simple.. I didn’t say easy, because it isn’t… but it IS simple, meaning ANYONE can do it

Remember, it’s just an “in the moment” step that requires very little thinking, and mostly just doin… it’s a simple “this way or that way” choice you have the moment it pops up

You can go this way…

===> TOWARD FEAR AND GOALS / TAKING ACTION ( Awesome life, true inner strength)

Or this way…

( Lousy life, still scared and avoiding the same old situations ) AWAY FROM FEAR AND GOALS <===

The only way to become bigger than the fears you face as a successful training business owner, is to move forward in the moment of courage towards your great vision, and in doin’ so you become stronger, you attract more success and your fears become weaker each time you face them and walk through them

People aren’t born without fears… becoming fearless is a journey and something you never truly 100% master, because once you grow stronger in one area, you’ll be challenged by another

To become an evolved, successful and as extremely reasonably happy of a person you can be, you must walk into the fears that pop up time and again… AS they pop off

Putting them off just wires you in a way to avoid things, while moving forward wires you to MOVE FORWARD IN THE FACE OF ANYTHING

Like everyone I’ve faced, and continue to face, my share of fears, challenges and set-backs

I have this one little “reminder” phrase that helps me stay check whenever I feel myself becoming anxious… it’s:

“Action alleviates anxiety”

And if I’m feeling a lot of anxiety, there’s probably things I’m avoiding that are causing me to have this anxiety

Fear is something EVERYONE has struggled with and had to come face to face with on a daily basis

Moving forward in spite of your fears, re-framing that feeling in your gut as “raw excitement” instead of “fear” , moving forward fast, being willing to mess things up, to break a few things and rub a few people wrong along the way… to come up against criticism and others wishing to see you fail,… to be rejected and judged… to do whatever it takes to succeed as long as it has everyone’s best interest in mind and is a win/win for all involved

This kind of momentum is exciting to be around and will inspire others around you to

That’s the kind of fearless momentum 7-Figure Sam built his entire gym with and is now building his fitness marketing info empire with… anyone who knows Sam will tell you this is exactly how he does it and it’s a HUGE reason for the massive success of his recent 7-Figure Email Launch

“Your own level of excitement and self-belief will convince people that you know where you are going and should be followed.” – The 50th Law

Attack your life and business with this type of enthusiasm in your life and business and watch the F out

I’d LOVE to hear your comments below regarding some fears you’ve personally overcome, or maybe some that are still a challenge for you… your comments are welcome and appreciated below.

And here’s a few more quotes for you from the book ‘The 50th Law’ I thought you’d really enjoy…

“By a paradoxical law of human nature, trying to please people less will make them more likely in the long run to respect and treat you better.”

“Your fears are a kind of prison that confines you within a limited range of action. The less you fear, the more power you will have and the more fully you will live.”

“The greatest fear people have is that of being themselves. They want to be 50 Cent or someone else. They do what everyone else does even if it doesn’t fit where and who they are. But you get nowhere that way; your energy is weak and no one pays attention to you. You’re running away from the one thing that you own – what makes you different.”

“Move before you think you are ready. It is as if you are making it a little more difficult for yourself, deliberately creating obstacles in your path… When you feel that you must work harder to get to your goal because you are not quite prepared, you are more alert and inventive. This venture has to succeed and so it will.”

“Every negative is a positive. The bad things that happen to me, I somehow make them good. That means you can’t do anything to hurt me.”

“When your work does not communicate with others, consider it your own fault – you did not make your ideas clear enough and you failed to connect with your audience emotionally. This will spare you any bitterness or anger that might come from people’s critiques. You are simply perfecting your work through the social mirror.”

I highly recommend checking out the book “The 50th Power” by Robert Greene and 50 Cent

Another great book about overcoming fear is “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers

And if you’re serious about making 2012 a year of being courageous..  a year of overcoming … of rising above and reaching your goals and taking your life and training business to new levels of success and mucho awesomeness no matter what you need to overcome within yourself to get there… AND if you’re a cool person to work with, I’d love to help you reach your goals for 2012 ===> Just click here to get my help and to kick a ton of ass in 2012