Archive for the ‘Fitness Business Strategies’ Category

Hey there… hope you’re doin’ awesome… I just go back from a killer upper body workout… lot’s of heavy pushing and pullin’ … LOVE IT

This post covers some common questions I get from trainers…

You see, in my coaching programs I get some GREAT questions from my students… below I’ve posted some random small chunks and pieces of a few recent answers here to some questions you might have regarding your own business.

( If you’re a coaching client of mine, you might notice one of your questions and answers in here… I took out specifics to protect your identity)

Most of these answers have been shortened for the purpose of this blog post

Question # 1 – If I’m just starting out, have a limited marketing budget, what’s the best way to build my client base FAST?

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Hey there, hope you’re awesome

First of all, it’s official, the doors are back open on my 10K Coaching Program … and the spots are filling up fast… you can learn more about it here

Now secondly, I’m curious as to whether or not you work from “to do” list… it’s amazing to find out that most trainers DON’T use “to-do” list … and then they wonder why they never get anything done to drive their business forward

It’s basic, but it’s soooooooo important…

If you don’t fill the time with important things to get you from where you are now to where you want to go, life will fill that time with meaningless little tasks that won’t really get you anywhere nor will they help you make more money. Like check out this kid…

You need to fill your schedule with the important 5% “high-lever” tasks that will get you from where you are now to where you want to go… I even have a side to-do list of  tasks I’m gonna put my assistant on that day.

Here’s what a typical days to-do list will look like for me…

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I’m gonna tell you about the first things you need to do if you want to become a fitness information marketer… but first, I wanna tell you why info marketing is probably the coolest gig in the world.

What I mean by “info marketing” is having your own line of information products… like fitness videos and dvd’s, audio programs, ebooks, books, manuals and membership sites and stuff ( like my buddy Vinnie’s stuff over in the picture on the right)

I don’t know one info marketer who would trade it for anything in the world… seriously… being an info marketer kicks ass

Here’s just a few of the reasons it’s so damn awesome…

1. You get paid for what you know… people will actually PAY YOU for your information

2. You create an info-product once and you get paid over and over… you don’t need to show up anywhere at anytime… you don’t need an alarm clock… you don’t get paid by the hour… you just create the product, set up the cart, drive the traffic and let it sell itself over and over

3. There’s more free time in info-marketing than any other gig in the world… seriously, you probably know I used to be a pretty successful marijuana trafficker ( back when it was illegal like everywhere except Holland pretty much)…

I had a TON of freedom when I was in that business ( except after I got popped and served some time) … well the freedom of being a drug trafficker doesn’t even come close to that of being an info-marketer… you work where you want, when you want and as little or much as you want ( and what’s crazy is… creating these products is super quick and easy… often times just taking a few hours)

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I started my personal training business oh, about seven years ago ( give or take)

Very few people thought I would make it

At the time… I looked more like a skinhead than a trainer ( I’m not a skinhead by any means) … I just kinda looked like one ( shaved head, goatee)

I had VERY little “people skills” ( thank God for Dale Carnegie)

Did horrible in school and pretty much stopped going in the eleventh grade

I lived with my mom ( 32 years old living with Mom… good times… I am eternally grateful though… thanks Mom! … btw, my Mom reads every last one of my posts and is KickBackLife.com’s biggest fan)

I had NO idea how to get clients

I had two, and they’d paid cash by the week

I refused to dress in “workout clothes” ( they look good on some people, I just don’t like em’ on me… even when I’m ripped)

I was pretty obnoxious ( I’m a line crosser and have a habit of offending)

I didn’t like all the “standing-on-a-swiss-ball-with-one-foot-trying-to-touch-your-nose-with-your-finger-while_activating-your-core-functional-type-training” that was SUPER popular among trainers in many of the big gyms at the time ( I liked Dead, Squat, Push, Pull… still do)

I could have cared less about certifications… I did read a helluva lot of books and other stuff on training though (Zatsiorsky, Siff, Poliquin, Thibaudeau… to name a few)

If you lined-up twenty trainers I looked the last one who would be a trainer ( even though I was in decent shape when I started my biz) – I just didn’t look the part

On the surface it looked like the odds were against me

HOWEVER, I did one thing that made all the difference in the world… ( Well, I did become friends with Steve Hochman which was HUGE, but that wouldn’t have mattered without this second ingredient)

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Hey there, hope you’re having a kick ass day

Just got back with Bedros from Mike Koenigs “Paid for Life” event where we were getting footage for our documentary about internet marketing… at the event Mike raised over 300k for his wife Vivian’s charity Just Like My Child … a charity which alleviates the suffering of women, children and families in rural Uganda.

Lot’s of great speakers at the event… Eben Pagan, John Assaraf, John Carlton, Russell Brunson… just to name a few… these speakers gave of their energy and time all to help a good cause, donating the proceeds of their “back of the room” sales all to charity… it say’s a lot about internet marketing community.

Mike is way cool… he brought us up and screened an extremely early version of our trailer to the audience and they ate it up… which rocked… felt great to hear all the applauds.

Alright check it out… this post is gonna be short and sweet and SIMPLE

Basically, here’s a few phrases that can DRAMATICALLY increase your income…

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Hey there… hope you’re doin’ awesome… all’s great here… this post has some great fitness business building tips

Been hitting the weights pretty hard lately after a 3 year lay-off

In the last month I gained 15 pounds but lost 4 inches in my stomach ( went from 327 up to 342 but I’m definitely quite a bit leaner… I’ll have a six pack at around 250lbs or 260lbs… guns are 20.5 inches and already have some veins poppin’ out in them)… I’m stiff-legged deadlifting 375lbs for eight, shrugging 475lbs for fifteen EASY and strict bent-over barbell rowing 275lbs for ten… no bounce at all… not the kind of big weights I used to hit, but I’ve only been back a month and hell, I almost 40… thank God for muscle memory, it looks like all those years I focused on powerlifting weren’t wasted after all

I think my hernia popped out again though.. the little f*cker… had it fixed surgically around 3 years ago… and not that thing is back dammit… but I’ll deal with that down the road

This post is about what I would if I were to start my personal training business today from scratch knowing what I know now… these are pretty much the things I did do.. some just took a few years to figure out… so this time I’d do em’ much earlier in the game

Right now it’s 1:18pm on a weekday and I just got to work… what does today consist of?

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Here’s a strategy that can help make you a helluva lot of money in your fitness business… and the strategy is super fun… check it out…

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Hey there… it’s Chris, hope you’re good… I want to thank you if you left a comment for me on this post the other day… lot’s of great feedback on what I should do to get back into killer shape… thank you so much and I wanna let you know I’ve been hitting the workouts hard and eating super clean… I’ve been out of the game for a few years now and it feels great to be back into it.

Ok, now check it out… it AMAZES me how poor of a retention rate a lot of trainers and boot camp instructors have… it seems clients leave quicker then they come in… if this sounds like you.. OR if you have a pretty good client retention rate but would like to improve it… then you’re definitely gonna wanna read the rest of this post… especially tip # 7… which may be straight up evil… but it works like crazy.

A client who stays for one month is typically worth about $150-$600 for most trainers… but a client who stays for two years is worth an average of $3600 – $14,400 … PLUS they’re a lot more likely to refer people… so in the end they’re WORTH way more then the client who only trains for a month or two.

Here are some ways you can DRAMATICALLY increase client retention rates…

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Guest Post By Zach Hunt

If you want to skip years and years of trial and error (and costly mistakes) and get the inside scoop on what really works for systems, delegation and living that Kickback Life you really want, check out the KickBack Lifestyle Club. This month Chris is giving you the royal feast with his super secret Sales Script  and conversion process that he uses with all his trainers to close near 100% of clients, check it out here.

Recently I was talking with Mitch Lee about some of the dumb things he and I had done over the years in our business…and what we do now instead.

We were talking about some real royal winner mistakes and some just plain dumb no-brainer ones. Like Mitch shares in the interview how not making a simple call could have cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.

So we decided to record this and share it here on KickBackLife.

Check out this super cool interview I did with a fellow KickBackLife reader Mitchell “Endless Energy” Lee about the just plain dumb things he and I and I’m sure many other have done as their training career progressed.

Some of the things we go over in this are:

• How long should a workout or session be and who determines this
• The big mistake in selling training programs and how to make your closing process 10 times easier
• How to eliminate pretty near all your billing problems with this simple trick (as long as you start with this now)
• Plus a bunch of other cool stuff (Mitch really spills the beans on this call)

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Hey there… it’s Chris

It’s pretty sad but most personal trainers and boot camp instructors fail and are broke ( or barely getting by)

Here’s some of the biggest reasons why…

1. Don’t take enough action

2. Don’t take the right actions

3. Don’t learn marketing, sales and good business building philosophies

4. Don’t have clear and defined written goals

5. Not enough focus on helping others

6. Works “in” the business all the time and rarely “on” the business

7. Not willing to do whatever it takes

8. Not good enough social skills ( read “How to Win Friends and Influence People”to remedy this one)

9. Too much focus on trying to impress people with certifications and using big “impressive” words when speaking with clients

10. Trying to do brand based marketing

11. Not being in charge of own marketing… letting someone else run all the marketing

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