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.

A Fitness Marketing Post From Sam O' Sullivan

Hey there, it's Big Chris, hope you're doin' great

Here's an email I go recently from one of my coaching clients Sam o' Sullivan from the UK

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Subj: Chris - Check This Out

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My personal training business is blowing up and I wanna thank you for your coaching - your help has been huge

I thought I'd share some best practice with you and on how I'm generating lots of interest in my Boot Camps using the football World Cup.

I suppose this is just another one of my spontaneous ideas that definitely is working….again!! I was working my way through your market annihilator programme on my laptop as I was watching the Soccer and thought of this crazy idea.

Let me explain….

A Fitness Marketing Guest Post by Zach Hunt

Hey! What's up, hope you're day is goin' great

I had kinda a weird experience and I really want to tell you about it…

So yesterday I went to the grocery store with a friend. I've been trying to diet down the past month or two on a lower carb nutrition plan. And although it was working real well I decided to do a bit of cheating on my diet, or so I thought…

I picked up a frozen pizza and a few other choice items (of the unhealthy variety) and went to go check out…

Normally I would go-to one of those "self-checker" stations when doing something like this, but I was at Safeway and unfortunately they didn't have those.

We started to checkout and about halfway through ringing up my items the lady goes, "aren't you that personal trainer", I responded, "yes, I do fitness training".

I could then just see her looking at my items I was buying with a look of disapproval and possibly confusion.

Here's an email I got from one of my coaching clients Sam O'Sullivan from the UK the other day… pretty cool story… I don't think this crazy strategy is for everyone, but it works great for Sam and should get your wheels spinning…

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Hey Big Chris,

I'm gonna let you know about my lead generation tool and share some best practice with you regarding probably one of the most outrageous ideas and most effective ways I have been able to generate leads.

As one of your coaching clients and students, I've been like a sponge trying to take all the awesome tips from your blog posts, the awesome Market Annihilator and using your latest product Fitness Blogging Profits to gain clients and my business is growing on a daily basis.

I'm just like you once were, sick of the long hours, getting up early every morning and training late every night and doing this 6 days a week.

I even train clients on my days off for a few hours and lets face it… this is great for cash flow and I'm earning far more now than ever before, but this working routine is not realistic and I'm gonna burn out pretty soon if it continues to grow like it has these past few months.

A Fitness Marketing Guest Post from Christian Aguirre

If you want to market your fitness business, but only have pennies in your marketing budget, I have good news for you.

I've found three easy and highly-effective marketing strategies I am going to share with you to help get your business rolling.

The best part of these strategies? They are absolutely free and extremely easy to utilize. In addition to being free and user-friendly, they are also non-invasive, so you can market to people without them getting that "pushy salesman" vibe.

In this post, I'll cover the following…

• How to make social media work for you
• How to use blogs for marketing purposes
• How to use review sites such as Yelp to boost your keyword search rating

A "How To Get More Personal Training Clients" Guest Post by Cabel McElderry

Big Chris hit me up recently and asked me what I thought were some of my favorite strategies for really increasing credibility quickly and positioning myself for a getting a whole bunch of new leads and fitness training clients.

Well… here's a couple of offline ways to get more personal training clients that I really preach, no matter how big your city is focus on providing value to your neighborhood. If you do these things you will create an instant offline brand, you can't lose.

This will cost you next to nothing other than your time and will pay dividends for weeks and months to come.

Fitness Marketing Guest Post by Zach Hunt

Hey, Chris McCombs here, hope you're doing awesome!! Check out this killer post by Zach Hunt my partner on the membership portion of this site, the Kick Back Lifestyle Club for fitness trainers and the Six-Figure Business Program Fitness Profits Blue Print, where we show a bunch of ways to systematize your business. Literally you can just copy and paste the systems in there into your business and save years and trial and error. Anyway, here's a follow up post to one I did a few months back about a sneaky and controversial tactic I use in my business… I'll let Zach take it from here…

When I first heard about the tactic to train fitness models for free to use their pictures on my website, I thought it was brilliant, I mean true genius. See that girl Helen over to the right, that's one of his MANY figure model clients that he was known for training.

Don't know what I'm talking about? See the initial post here: Sneaky Fitness Business Marketing Tactic

I remember when I saw Chris McCombs' SoCalWorkout.com site for the first time and seeing all the testimonials from model looking girls on his site, I immediately thought he was some "elite" trainer and was definitely the best around. I mean after all the fitness models and those depending on their body for their job went to Chris. That is POWERFUL social proof.

The initial recommendation was to go onto MySpace and search for 'model looking girls' and the like on there. Now that's all fine and dandy, it does work to some extent, if you search long and hard and don't mind sending out about 1K messages to a bunch of random girls AND don't mind filtering through a ton of flakes.

However, I've found a much better AND easier way to find quality people for this offer (you won't find these girls on myspace, or even Craigslist).

Here's what I've been doing…

Hey there… hope you're doin' awesome… and I hope you're fitness training business is rockin' hard like you deserve it to be…

What a cool industry we're in… seriously… I think the best gig's in the world are fitness training and info-marketing… and I'm fortunate to own businesses in both.

This post is about getting more clients of your fitness training business… whether you do personal training or boot camps… these strategies work great either way. This is the stuff that works… period.

Now before you jump into the post, I wanna tell you about something real quick that's been under raps until now…

Next week I'm releasing Market Annihilator 2.0 … it's got some super cool new features…

First of all, it has ALL the down home goodness of the original program… all the step-by-step 'how to get fitness training clients' into your business just like I do… for example in my local area we get enough clients from the internet to feed those clients to 15 personal trainers and boot camp instructors… and Market Annihilator shows you EXACTLY how I do this… it's all about getting new clients from the internet.

Now the new version has two big new features ( BTW, if you're a current member of the original program you'll get the 2.0 upgrade right there in the portal)

Here's some cool stuff we're adding…

One- Call-in 'Q and A' days for your questions… twice a month my partner Zach Hunt will take your internet marketing questions… we'll post the days and times in the portal… and all you do is call in and fire off your questions and he'll answer them for you… so lets' say there's something in one of the videos you're not 100% clear on… or there's a strategy you have a few additional questions on… just call in on the "Q and A Day" and we'll get you all squared away

Two - Market Annihilator Simple - basically we're adding a simplified version of the program, breaking down the most important "do these first" action steps for you making it as simple as possible… we're also gonna make this part of the program into a hard product and ship it to your house. This way, you'll know exactly what to do first, second and third ( and so on) to start getting more clients from the internet as fast as possible.

So…… if you're interested in getting a ton of clients from the internet like myself and Zach Hunt do… keep your eye out on your email inbox over this next week or two … the program will open in about a week and then I'm closing the doors on it after 100 new members join… and I guarantee you those slots will go fast.

And if you'd like the 30,000 foot view of some of my favorite strategies for getting clients from the internet, there's a video up that'll be up for the next day or two… just click here to watch it

Now….onto the post…

Whether you're just starting a personal training business or have been at it for decades, here's some of my FAVORITE ways to get fitness training clients…

Here's a super quick tip that works great for…

1. Getting referrals

2. Keeping clients longer

It's really simple… call each one of your clients each and every month… so if you have 30 clients, everyday call one

Call them and tell them how proud of them you are for making such positive changes in their life

Tell them how grateful you are for trying so hard during the workouts

Ask them what they ate today and what they plan on eating the rest of the day… give em' a little quick guidance in that area if needed

Thank them again for that referral they got you the other day

Tell them you can't wait til their next workout… cuz' it's gonna be a great one

Guest Post by Zach Hunt

I remember when I first started my training business….I was fully amped, ready to hit it hard and my motivation was relentless.

I knew quite a bit about fitness marketing as I had studied a ton about the subject plus a bunch of general marketing stuff by Dan Kennedy and the like.

The only problem was my sales skills sucked, I mean bad……really bad.

The first real marketing promotion I did I sent out 500 letters and 500 postcards as part of a direct mail sequence.

Now the results weren't really that bad, I actually scheduled like 10-12 appointments with people (I was doing in-home training when I started). Now when I met with these folks I didn't know what I was doing so I actually didn't end up closing any of them. So that left me like 1K down the drain when I didnt have any clients. Not such a good idea.

Which is why I always advocate starting up on a shoestring or nostring budget, until you can easily afford the mega cost promotions.

So I wanted to come up with a list of ways to market your business for free, I'll list a few of my favorite ways here..

…and I think it would be awesome if you help list a bunch of ways you guys market you business for free in the comments section, that way we get like a big compilation going on here for reference.

So here are a few of my favorite ways to market my business for free. And the great things about these is they can be done if you're just starting out or if you have an already going business…

Hey there… hope you're doing awesome… I'd love you're opinion on something… I know where I stand on it… I'm just curious where YOU stand… lemme explain…

Here's a SIMPLE and sneaky lil' trick to blow up your fitness business… ESPECIALLY if you train groups or boot camps… it doesn't work as well with one-on-one training… but it works great for groups, boot camps and even entire fitness centers ( as Steve Hochman has demonstrated with the legendary 'Next Level Fitness Center' )

I realize this post might make me a few enemies… and so be it… nothing wrong with that

Some people may think this is a slightly unethical tactic… and I'll admit it's "sneaky"... but as long as your mission is to get as many people into shape as possible, there's NOTHING unethical about this… and it is honestly one of the best ways around to blow up a boot camp or fitness studio of group training business FAST

Now if you're a lousy trainer, either get good at it OR find something else to do… and please ONLY consider this strategy if you know what the hell you're doin'…

After you read this… in the comment section below…. I'd love to hear whether you think this strategy is ethical or shady… or if you think it's _________ ???

One thing is for certain that… this strategy WORKS… BIG TIME

I worked for me and it worked for Steve Hochman… check it out

Here's all you gotta do…

FILL your workouts with extremely attractive and super-fit female clients… the closer to a bikini model type the better… even if you train em' for free (which is what I often did)

That's it… it's really that friggin' simple…

Get a whole bunch of really attractive female clients… it works on a number of levels….

• Guys will sign up for your workouts right and left.. let's say you train 20 people in a boot camp.. if six of the twenty are really good looking girls… guys will start joining left and right… I mean most dudes are stuck at some job all day around a bunch of other dudes… and if your boot camps are filled with good looking girls, them joining is a no-brainer
• Other females will join your workouts cuz that's what they'll wanna look like
• It'll position the hell out of you as a true genius at what you do.. especially if these female clients of yours are in incredible shape… people will naturally assume that if "she's" listening to you you MUST know what you're doin' ( keep in mind… you SHOULD know what you're doing anyway)
• Their testimonials look great from a social proof standpoint on your websites and in your marketing materials

Hey there… I hope you're treatin' life good and it's treating you back equally as well…

Alright check it out…

I've decided to give away one of my products or services… not sure which one yet… it'll be one of the ones on this page… here's all you gotta do to win

If you were to refer a friend to me… to my blog… to my products… to my services… whatever… what would you say to them?

I'm looking for details here… specific details… not just "Chris is great"… but real specifics…

I'll choose a winner and then hook em' up with one of my products… it'll be quick and easy… and who knows… YOU just might be the winner

Just leave your answer in the comment section below…

And keep in mind I might use whatever you say as a testimonial in future marketing

I'll pick a winner in a few days

Just got back from Fitness Business Summit 09' where I did a little talk on blogging ( blogging has provided with what TODAY is 7 of my 8 streams of income so I'm a HUGE fan of blogging)… I'm gonna show you pretty cool video in a second, but I just wanted to touch on the Summit really quickly first.

For one thing, it was really cool is I got to hang out with so many of my coaching clients and Market Annihilator members, many of whom I've never met in person, so that was awesome… and if you're one… I'd like to thank you for being so cool. So… "thank you!"

The event was amazing…

My bud Steve Hochman was on fire when he opened the doors to him and Bedros's Project X and they had 31 people race to the back of the room to join, people literally ran, it was a buying frenzy and for good reason, Steve made a sick offer. ( He also came out as Hannibal Lector which was awesome… the dude is nuts)

It was so cool to see 300 fitness pros all come together because of my good bud Bedros Keuilian and the incredible event he put together… he is a master of his craft and it's no wonder they call him "The Crusher"

It's an honor to call Bedros and Steve two of my closest friends in the whole world… not sure which one of us is the most nuts… but I'll confess that we're all pretty whacked… thank God we each have amazing families, are die-hard direct response marketers and have such loyal followings of uber cool people.. otherwise I think we'd all be locked up in padded cells drooling somewhere… well at least those two guys would be… I'd probably be alright (;

A few of my other friends Vince Delmonte, Valerie Waters and Jason Moffatt delivered the goods BIG TIME, as well as industry icons Shelby Murphy and Greg Justice… just to name a few… there were so many great presenters.

And tons of people bought my friend Ryan Orrico drinks cuz during my presentation cuz I told the whole audience to… Ryan's a way cool dude and I've been to just about every good internet marketing conference on the planet with him and celebrity trainer Valerie Waters… both are awesome people.

In case you missed the summit this year, I opened up my presentation with a video of my crib, but please only watch it if you can watch the whole thing ( it's 3 minutes long)… if you don't watch the whole thing you'll miss something super important and will be confused and live a life of loneliness, poverty and STD's… so please only push play if you have 3 minutes… otherwise skip the video and save yourself years of bad juju

You gotta check this out…

Guest Post by Craig Ballantyne

Here's a guest post from my friend Craig Ballantyne… Craig is the creator of Turbulence Training and one of the most well-known and successful fitness guru's on the planet. DEFINITELY check out what Craig has to say…

I was in Vegas for the first weekend of March Madness (for an investment seminar, long story for another time), and I was surprised to see how many people came from all over the country just to watch college hoops all weekend.

In fact, I wrote 99 percent of this post (with my thumbs on a blackberry) while sitting at the outdoor bar at Ceaser's Palace (you know the one, if you've ever been here). The place was packed. As was every other bar on the strip (at 4:31pm on a Friday afternoon, no less).

Vegas seemed to be doing fine, if you asked me. Even the walk-up bar in the Miracle Mile mall had a line-up.

So as I sat there drinking a Blue Moon and trying to calculate how many margarita calories the drunk guy beside me would consume over the course of the day, it hit me.

The message I'd been looking to give you (after Chris "MF'n" McCombs invited me to write this blog post) was clear. And it's a classic lesson Dan Kennedy teaches over and over again.

YOU create your own economy.

Kennedy says, "All weather is local", and he means that no matter what is going on in Washington, on Wall Street, on Main Street, or in any housing market across the country, the only thing that matters is what YOU are doing to generate more business in "your world".

So here are 7 reasons why there's no recession for you and me…provided you do just a few simple things…

Guest Post by Zach Hunt

When it comes to getting a ton of publicity, making a killing in a personal training business and having business that gives the owner a TON of freedom… Zach Hunt is one of the best around. That's why not only have asked him to be a regular contributor on this blog, he's also my partner on the MEMBERS ONLY AREA of this site, where we give fitness experts tons of tools and videos to help you not only make more money, but also get a lot more done in less time.

Here's Zach's new post, an interview with Amanda Vogel (fitness publicity expert)

As far as free marketing goes - publicity is in my short list. Besides time all you need are a few basic skills and some know how and you're on track.

Not only is it free and easy (once you know what you're doing), it's also a great way to build your credibility and stand out from the crowd.

Over the course of just the last few years I've managed to secure 2 monthly articles and sometimes 3 monthly in my local area and get paid as much as $150 / article, which at the 30 minutes it takes to write the articles is like a $300 / hour rate. Plus I've been on every local TV channel multiple times. Think of how that builds trust with your prospects.

You may say, "I'm not a writer"….

Well, I'm not either. Honestly my first pitch the editor of the local newspaper went well…that is until I sent him a writing sample, he blatantly said in a few kind words:

"Your writing needs professional help"

Yeah, I guess I wasn't professional. But after a few intense months of practicing and studying everything I could get my hands on with writing I landed articles with many other publications.

Guest Post by Jim Labadie

Here's a guest post from my buddy the master closer Jim Labadie. In it, Jim talks about Howard Stern, and Howard is a character I feel we can all learn a lot from… ESPECIALLY from a marketing stand-point. He doesn't care if ya love him or hate, he has a voice, he has created a "place" for his audience to hang out, he tells it like it is, and he understands EXACTLY what his audience wants and gives to them.

Shocking. Controversial. Abrasive. Funny. Original.

There are plenty of other words I could use to describe the "King of All Media", but you get the idea. And most people think one of the above words - or a combination of - explain his success.

But I don't think any of them is the real reason. And if you've ever listened to the show you'll probably agree with me.

So how did he do it? How did he go from a tall, dorky guy that nobody liked in high school to one of the most popular radio personalities in history?

Here's the winners of my Market Annihilator Contest

Ok, first of all, I want to thank every single person who participated.

Picking a winner was TOUGH, I mean f*ckin' tough… there were AT LEAST 20 people who deserved to win…

Lots of you really spilled you heart and souls ( along with your guts )

I can't thank you enough

I really had no idea choosing a few winners would be this challenging, plus I'm kind of a slow reader and there were a ton of contestants, many wrote what could be described as a short chapter in a book… so going through all this stuff was no easy task.

( I've literally been going through this stuff for hours)

Plus, the stories ranged from sad to inspiring and everything in between…

Current members who have been getting great results with the program shared their victories.

And other personal trainers who just recently found out about my strategies talk about being broke, having sick family members and three legged dogs who pee on themselves ( some pretty crazy stuff in there)

In the end, I wanted to award many more people than I had prizes for… like I said there were probably 20 people I felt deserved the prize… but at the end of the day I basically had to choose the best ones, put their names in a hat and see what comes out.

Ok, here are the two winners of the contest who get one year of the Market Annihilator Program

One of my coaching clients asked in an email what were the top ten things he should be focusing on in his business… I thought I'd share the list with you as well as a few of these might apply to your business also… ( actually there's eleven here plus a weird funky bonus tip)

1. Have clear and defined written goals and focus on those goals every day ( Read " Think and Grow Rich" for extra credit)

2. Any hour you don't have filled with groups of paying clients, load up with free people who can pay you with referrals

3. Make sure your pages/sites are optimized for your main keyword terms, with natural on page keyword placement within the content of the page and in the title tags your top one to three kw terms ( 63 characters or less)

4. Fire TONS of links to those pages from other sites/pages on the internet related to your site. If you run fitness boot camps in Tigard Oregon,I would get links from other health and fitness sites and other sites about Tigard Oregon

5. Collect and display TONS of before and after pictures

6. Post on Craigslist on a systematic basis, using good headlines, social proof and strong calls to action… driving people to a salespage loaded with before and afters.

7. Read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and treat everyone as the book says

8. Systematize as many parts of your business as possible.

9. Find barter clients to outsource a whole bunch of busy work to ( Best for group training and boot camps )

10. Everyday think about how you can improve your business and how you can add value to your customers lives

11. Educate yourself on a daily basis and take MASSIVE action QUICKLY

Weird funky bonus tip…

Hey there… Chris McCombs here

This video gives you a quick peak into the Market Annihilator program so you'll know exactly what you're getting should you join.

The program is an online internet marketing curriculum for fitness trainers, boot camp instructors, gym owners and fitness entrepreneurs covering

• Search engine optimization
• Social media marketing
• Salescopy writing
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Video marketing
• Blogging
• Conversions
• Email Marketing
• List building
• And a whole bunch of other cool stuff that makes me a ton of money in my fitness business and can do the same for you

Having high converting websites bringing in business is like having a sales force out there working for you 24/7

And that's what the Market Annihilator program is for… letting your websites do the work for you ( or at least a large part of it)

Watch this short video to see what's in the program…

Hey… something pretty cool here I think you're gonna dig… especially if you like free stuff and making lot's of money…

I'm opening up the doors to my Market Annihilator Program this coming Monday Feb. 23

I'm accepting 75 new people (last time I opened it I took 150 members and it sold out in just a few days)

In case you don't know the Market Annihilator is my step-by-step online coaching program that shows you how to get TONS of clients from the internet for your personal training business, boot camp, fitness studio, mixed martial arts studio or weight loss program.

It's a one year program and covers search engine optimization, copy writing, video marketing, social media marketing, blogging, pay per click advertising and EVERYTHING else you need to know to get a ton of business online just like I do.

Now, I'm gonna run a little contest here and award two winners… and the prize is pretty damn big…

Guest Post by Angie Schumacher

Here's a guest post by Angie Schumacher. If you're in the social media world at all, it's hard not to notice Angie. She is doing a TON of stuff with social media and I've been so impressed with the way she's doing it I asked Angie to come on an do a guest post about it. She covers a lot of the basics that many fitness pro's and personal trainers new to social media and internet marketing probably don't know about…

Do you ever wonder why all the other fitness professionals and personal trainers are making the big bucks and are well known and you are still trying to get your online and offline businesses up and running?

Don't worry, you are not alone and I was once there.

Everyone has to start somewhere. I remember when I was struggling to get clients, posting on my blog daily and getting no readers, working diligently on my website and getting no response and bringing in no money. It was a total downer and very frustrating.

But then I decided that I was going to become successful both online and offline and started looking for ways to get myself known, respected and start bringing in the big bucks!

Check out these tips that I have used in the past couple years to make a "name" for myself…

Recently I grilled fitness info marketer Jeff "Muscle Nerd" Anderson on email marketing tactics.

Jeff is extremely successful and the dude knows what the hell he's talking about.

If you'd to learn more about Jeff ( and possibly even JV with him like he describes in the interview ) then definitely give this interview a listen. The call dropped on us so the interview is in two parts.

Jeff delivers a whole bunch of killer email marketing tips to make sure your emails get opened and read and that you sell more stuff and make more money.

Enjoy the interview…

Hey, it's Chris here… I need your opinion real quick… Do me a favor and read this post and let me know what you would prefer.

What YOU WANT is SUPER important to me…

About a year ago when I started this blog, I did a post and was looking for a pic that had something to do with weapons, well… I found a picture of a chick with a gun and posted it. I had a good response of people saying the pic was awesome and they loved it.

Keep in mind at that time my readership was like 90% males… cool dudes too… the more edgy guys in the industry are the ones who I naturally attract as readers… so one aspect of my blog besides delivering killer in-depth fitness marketing content has been a sort of Spike TV… Man Show… Maxim Magazine… Howard Stern Show… T-Nation edge.

Blog posts for fitness entrepreneurs with balls, a sense of adventure, freedom, humor and high testosterone levels. ( Yeahhhh!!!!!!!!!)

Along with that comes some pics of chicks… chicks with guns… chicks with tattoos… chicks in UPS uniforms… whatever…

However lately I've picked up a larger female following so I've considered dropping the whole "pic of a hot chick" in the blog post thing

And yesterday I got this comment, so I thought I'd poll my readers and see what YOU want… not what I think you want… so first check out the comment…

Guest Post by Zach Hunt

This is a guest post from my friend, consulting client and now business partner Zach Hunt. From our coaching calls Zach has learned how to dominate his entire area in terms of traffic AND conversions, the dudes phone rings off the hook night and day now… it's sick. You might recognize Zach from the Market Annihilator program where he is one of my contributors.

Zach is one dude who knows how to take action, that's a huge part of the reason of his success.

Recently Zach got involved in a pretty crazy situation involving a gun, a fit of rage and a snow plow driver. And the craziest part isn't the violent attack, it's what happened to Zach's personal training business because of it.

I'd never thought of myself as someone who would be charged with assault and battery. Really that would be quite the nightmare.

But, just this last week I was charged of 1st degree assault, sent to jail and charged to be put on jury later that week - or so the public thought…

Recently I asked some of my friends, cohorts, esteemed colleagues, co-defendants, coaching clients and fellow fitness marketers to spill the beans for you on their favorite fitness marketing tips.

After a few emails and a little convincing that I wouldn't steal their ideas and claim them my own I was able to get some pretty damn good tips back. Some of these guys are guru's, other are hardcore marketers and still others are just dudes who own extremely successful fitness businesses. But all of them gave some pretty killer tips.

After you read the post, be sure to leave a comment letting me know…

1. Which was favorite tip

2. Add any tips of your own we didn't cover here that are working in your business today

Don't be bonehead and just read the post, be sure to take part by leaving a comment. Successful people are the ones who get involved, and they make up less then 5% of the population, but it's the same 5% who leave blog post comments, so take action and leave a comment. (=

Be in the small percent of people who are kickin ass in life

Guest Post by Bedros Keuilian

This is an exclusive guest post by one of my good buds Bedros Keuilian. Bedros is one crazy mofo who really understands business. He does multiple seven figures every year and is one of the best salesman I've ever met in my life. He also gets more stuff done in a day than most entrepreneurs get done all month… you should see all the projects he has going that are mapped out on white boards in his office. Bedros really understands how to be an entrepreneur and am stoked to have him on board as a guest contributor to KickBackLife.com… enjoy…

Most wannabe entrepreneurs are probably better off getting a job, tucking some money away and living vicariously through real success minded entrepreneurs who know what they are doing.

Now I'm not saying that I know it all… but damn it, I know a lot because in the past I've probably made every stupid business mistake there is to make.

These days I see and hear from a lot of entrepreneurs who are making major rookie mistakes and it's costing them money, energy, and time spent away from family - all this for making about the same as they would make if they had a nine to five J-O-B.

The Undercharger - Most start-up entrepreneurs grossly undercharge and end up over worked and over stressed because of thin profit margins and an ongoing battle to sell more, more, more just to fart out a decent income.

There's two reasons for this…

Guest Post by Dustin Maher

Here's a guest post by fitness professional Dustin Maher about creating exclusivity in your fitness business. He's expanding on a strategy made popular in the fitness business by Jim Labadie and Ryan Lee called Velvet Rope Marketing

When you think of a velvet rope, what do you think of? Do you think of the red carpet at the Oscars, with the body guards at the front door blocking the entrance from those who aren't allowed to go in? Do you picture a bouncer at a hot night club controlling the long line of clubbers who are looking to get into the party?

Now what if I were to tell you that you could have that same kind of experience; the experience where clients are lining up to train with you via, one on one training, small group training, boot camps, or at your gym.

This is what I have been able to create in just the past two years by implementing some simple marketing strategies that get clients to feel like they NEED to train with me, and any other trainer/gym JUST WON'T DO. I don’t possess any magical powers and now it is your turn to experience this!

Here are my top 5 strategies to help you get clients begging, pleading, and bribing you to work with them…

Just got back from five days at the MGM Grand in Vegas… I love Vegas, it's a total escape from my businesses and allows me to relax, eat, get pampered, do some shopping, see cool shows and have a killer time. I'm not a big drinker ( at least not these days anyhow ) and I don't really gamble ( I always lose ) so we basically just kinda hang out and have a good time.

My wife Sarah and myself love to go there a few times a year, but since our daughters were born it's been a little bit tougher to get away.

You guys are gonna love this one…

A few months ago I was at one of these internet marketing conventions ( this one cost almost ten grand a year to belong to… it's in depth stuff and most of the people in it are already pretty established and successful internet marketers… so it's worth the ten G's)

Anyhow, so here I am hanging out in the bar shooting the sh*t with a bunch of other high level internet marketers. Now, I don't drink… cuz' when I do it's get's ugly… but I still find that some of the best stuff that goes on at these internet marketing seminars goes on in the bar late at night.

In fact, a few of my best friends today are dudes I met hangin' out late night in the bar at some of these seminars…

Someone in the bar finds out that I'm into marketing fitness products and services on the internet so they introduce me to Valerie Waters…

Wow… this site has really taken off lately…

8039 visitors on Saturday alone… I NEVER expected my little Internet marketing blog to make such an impact on the fitness industry and get so popular so fast… I honestly had NO IDEA it would be the most popular fitness business blog on the planet… all this attention is freaking me out a little… but I guess I'll get used to it…

One thing that I hear almost everyday is "There's so much content on this site that I don't know where to start"… Let me do my best to help you out…

First of all… if you're new to this site you're gonna wanna opt-in to my free blog updates by submitting your name and email here:

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Just got back from a weekend out masterminding with two of the most wicked and brilliant marketers alive today, Frank Kern and Eben Pagan.

That's me and Frank in the pic… I think Frank farted, just look at the expression on my face and then look at the one on his =)

Eben has a biz that does like 20 MILLION dollars a year teaching guys how to get more chicks and Frank was guy who a few years ago got busted big time by the FTC and today is responsible for four of the biggest launches in the history of the Internet.

Frank has created a persona around himself that basically says

Recently I grilled my buddy Rocco Castellano about how he gets so much damn publicity for his fitness business. And as usual, Rocco had plenty to say…

I want to talk to your readers and your listeners about is how to get the maximum benefits from publicity because publicity really isn't about press releases. A good friend of mine — Jim Labadie — talks about piggybacking off of different events with press releases and I'm personally not a big fan of press releases. I use press releases but I like to develop relationships with the media and with the press. It's very important — that's one of the best characteristics of what I do is develop relationships with the media.

 Now, sometimes it's an adversarial relationship with the media because just by existing I'm kind of controversial. Or I found trainers, especially fitness professional or trainers, tend to tell the media what they think they want to hear. And that's something that should never happen. I don't think that anyone should try to figure out what the press or the media wants to hear and I've seen so many people fall on their faces when they try to be bland and average. And I always tell our trainers, if you're edgy, if you're out there, be yourself and always have an opinion. If you don't have an opinion then nobody cares about you and nobody really gives a sh*t what you have to say.

Whether it's getting laid or getting paid… the rules of the game are the same…

The game of marketing a business and the game of seduction are nearly identical. That's why I suggest all business owners who are serious about growing their business study the art of picking up women as well as the art of business. I don't care if you're married or IF YOU ARE a woman, study seduction and you'll have a deeper understanding of what makes people tick.

Once you understand how people tick, it'll be easy to sell to them…

That's why it's so easy for a guy like Eben Pagan (aka David DeAngelo) to be successful in both markets. He teaches guys how to get more women, and business owners how to make more money. Granted, he uses two seperate channels to do this, but many of the principles apply to both groups.

The world of seducers and pick-up artists is an interesting sub-culture of our society. Guys are selling high dollar info products and hosting intensive seminars and boot camps where they'll take a bunch of AFC ( average frustrated chumps) into bars and night clubs and help them master the art of attracting women.

In fact, if you haven't read Neil Strauss's 'The Game' I strongly suggest you go read it, it's one helluva fun read but it's also a great book on marketing, sales and positioning. As you read it, just keep in mind that many of the things these guys are doing to get more women and to get laid also work to get more clients and to get paid.

I've compiled a list here of some of the blatant similarities that PUA's (pick-artists) and successful marketers have in common…

But before I get into the list, I want to…

Here's a video that explains three important elemants of marketing, which are your:
1. Market
2. Media
3. Message

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In ALL of your fitness marketing efforts it's important to make your prospects feel understood… and here's why…

People want to buy from other people… not so much from a companies… but from people… and they want to buy from people that they like and trust. Play up your personality in your marketing and play down any "company" or "corporate" aspect. Many of us have been ripped off by so many different companies over the years that we're naturally skeptical, and the more "corporate" a business looks, the more skeptical we are. You could say we have a general mistrust and dislike of most "companies" that are trying to sell us something.

I see far too many fitness business owners making the mistake of trying to make their little business have the appearance that they're some huge company. A lot of the time this has to do with ego or thinking that one must appear mega-professional and powerful to attract a lot of business.

What happens is the business owner will go out and get a corporate looking logo, a corporate looking website and a bunch or professional looking business cards with hip, slick and cool graphics…. all to create the appearance of being a big and powerful company. The sad thing is that more often than not this actually repels business.

People want a magic bullet and easy, quick, magical solution to their problems.  They don't want to do hard work, they don't want something that's going to take a long time, they don't want to have to put in a lot of effort.  They just basically want to snap their fingers and have the results.  The more that you can ethically and honestly position your service from this standpoint, the much higher that your response is going to be.

Now, when…

When I started my business I got a ton of paying clients by training a handful of others for "Free" who just paid me with referrals ( paying clients)

Now this kind of strategy works well if you already have a relationship with someone, however… if you DON'T already have a relationship with someone than giving away your product or service for free can lower response dramatically.

Most people don't put a lot of value on ANYTHING that's free. I mean, c'mon… it's free… how much can it really be worth?

They know there's a pitch or catch or something is coming and that what you're giving away for free isn't really all that great. In fact, they're thinking it probably sucks and is nothing but a way to get them to buy something else.

They know that to get the REAL good info/product/service that you have to offer they'll have to end up paying for it.

Especially in the our industry, 'free' has been so overused most people won't even consider something if it's free.

Recently I was talking to Michel Fortin about this issue of 'free' in the fitness and weight loss industry and he told me he's seen a MUCH higher response when you even just charge $1.00 for something as compared to giving it away for free. Just the fact that people have to pay SOMETHING adds value to it in their eyes.

As a fitness marketer, which is what you REALLY are if you own a fitness or personal training business, there are number of tools you’re gonna want to have in your arsenal. I mean, even the best craftsman in the world needs a tool belt fool of goodies right? And you wouldn't want our government to send a soldier to war without plenty of artillery and other soldiers to back them up…

Having a full bag of tricks, a loaded tool box and army of close allies to help you build your little fitness empire is paramount to your success. Discovering some of these resources can immediately take your business to the next level. Sometimes all it takes is one idea, one resource or one tool.

Here’s a list of things I strongly consider you ad to your arsenal (by the way, none of the following are affiliate links, just good products, services, ideas and resources that have helped me a lot and I wanted to make sure you're using)

A team –

Other trainers – Whether or not they actually work for you yet isn't important, someday there's a good chance they will. You want to know as many other quality trainers as you can, so when it comes time to start outsourcing some or all of the training, you’ve got easy access to the right people for the job. Trust me, it's much easier to find quality trainers when you KNOW a lot of quality trainers.

A writer – I strongly suggest you hire a good writer to help you create pages on your website and other sites on the web. Go with someone who’s first language is English, especially if the content is going to be for your own site. You can find quality writers to write 600 word articles for anywhere from $10 - $20 a page. Go on Craigslist and Guru.com (links are down below) and find a few writers and pay them each to write a small handful articles. Then whoever does the best job you can hire them to write for you in bulk. Make sure it's not plagiarized, do a search on Google for a few short strands of text in the article surrounded by parenthesis to make sure it's clean and not stolen from someone else or that the writer isn't giving it to multiple people.

Being a personal training business owner I'm always looking for ways to improve my biz and my life. I'm reading books, going to seminars, attending mastermind groups, listening to cd's and watching dvd's… you name it I probably do it.

But sometimes the best lessons I get are in the oddest places. It could be something my 20 month old daughter says, something I hear in a song or something in a commercial. I even get a lot of cool ideas and learn a lot of lessons from movies. And I LOVE to watch movies ( unless they suck… which today it seems like most do ). So I thought I'd throw in a few cool little fitness marketing and life lessons here from some of my favorite movies.

Goodfellas - It all catches up with ya. Meaning, if you're screwing people over in your business you're gonna be the one getting screwed over. Treat people fair and keep things and ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS keep the other persons best interest in mind

Shawshank Redemption - This is my all time favorite flick by the way. Sometimes our greatest freedom comes after we've crawled through a river of shit, just like Andy did. In my life I can look back and see how my greatest challenges led to me greatest liberations

Office Space - Having a job sucks, but of course I already knew this, it just helps to be reminded of why I love to work for myself. As a fitness professional, self-employed is the ONLY way to go, otherwise all you're doing is making some friggin' health club rich

and-marketing-tools/">fitness business? How to stand out from all the other mail and get yours read?

My buddy Big Mike has the answer. He is one of the top direct response marketing experts around, runs a $21 million a year business and is a Dan Kennedy VIP Inner Circle Member.

There's a reason why I'm not using Big Mikes last name in this article. You see, Mike's is in a HIGHLY controversial and competitive industry. And not only does his competition watch him like a friggin" hawk, but Mike just got back millions of dollars in assets the government seized from him… let's just say there was a small misunderstanding …and while he did get all of his assets back… he likes to lay low and dive in under the radar, which is exactly how tear sheet marketing works. ( Big Mike's the big white guy in the photo )

If you'd prefer, you can listen to this article in an audio recording of Big Mike, just click here.

Big Mike is going to explain how to use tear sheets for stealth personal trainer marketing and fitness marketing campaigns

I'll let Big Mike take it from here:

The first thing we need understand as fitness business owners and marketers is that our prospect doesn't believe us (and they don't necessarily want to believe us, because that means they'll end up spending money). People have been scammed and smooth talked enough times to look at advertising through the skeptical glasses of mistrust.

To overcome our prospects skepticism we need to provide proof of the results we claim to achieve, proof that we're a real person, proof that we are who we say we are and that we do what we say we do.

Here are a few different elements of proof that can dramatically increase your response rates:

Testimonials ( video, audio, and text) - Testimonials are one of the best ways to supply proof that you're legit and your service works. You can talk to someone about your service until you're blue in the face and your prospect will take everything you say with a grain of salt. But if you can get other people to do the talking for you, you're prospect is much more likely to listen. Video testimonials are best, but audio and text testimonials including pictures work well too. I find the best is a combination… some video, some text and possibly some audio.

Recently I had a chance to interview Pete Brady. Pete is the founder of $1 Million Liquid, a mentoring program for mortgage professionals who want to lend their own money to achieve returns in excess of 28% tax-free. Pete is a marketing master, and that's why I got him on the call today. You can learn more about Pete at 1MillionLiquid.com.

Pete is one of the smartest marketers I know… I've been in a mastermind group with Pete for a while now, and when Pete shares… I listen.

In this post Pete's going to talk about all kinds of direct mail and direct marketing and stuff that you can use in your personal training business.

If you prefer to listen to an audio of this interview, just click here

Pete, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your story?

This is a fitness marketing interview with Amanda Vogel. Amanda, who are you, and what do you do?

I'm a fitness professional; I've been for 14 or 15 years now, and, after I completed my Master’s degree in human kinetics, I decided that I wanted to share a lot of the information I got from my thesis, the topic being “body image and the role of the fitness instructor.”

I wanted to share that information with other fitness professionals, so, that's how I started getting into writing articles and figuring out how to pitch article ideas to editors. And it just kind of snowballed from there, to the point where I found that I was really enjoying writing articles and decided to move a little bit more into being a fitness writer as a career, as opposed to working full-time in the fitness industry.

So, I certainly still do stuff in the fitness industry, and I call myself a fitness professional, but I'm also a health and fitness writer. And I write for fitness trade and consumer magazines.

I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and I also own a writing and editing service called Active Voice, which helps fitness professionals and fitness organizations improve the quality and effectiveness of their writing and marketing material. As part of that business, I offer a free e-book called 51 Need-To-Know Writing and Marketing Tips For Fitness Pros, which is available on my website, www.activevoice.ca.

I heard an awesome interview the other day with the late, great Gary Halbert. Gary is one of the best marketers of all time and he turned out some pretty wild copy. I was listening to an interview that Michel Fortin did with him.

Gary asked the listeners to pretend that they were at a night club with an extremely beautiful woman in it, and every single guy in the club was trying to pick her up.

You had the rich guys trying to pick up on her, the famous guys, the young guys with the ripped abdominals, the alpha males, the funny guys, the pick-up artists and everyone in between all trying to pick up on this young, beautiful woman.

But, what all these guys didn't know was her secret. Her secret was that she was a heroin addict and that she was going through withdrawals and that the only thing that would make her feel better would be a dose of heroin.

By guest author Logan Strain

One of the problems of modern marketing is that people are just too jaded. For a lot of people, every time they hear why some product or service is best anyone can offer, their eyes just glaze over. And who can blame them? A lifetime of being exposed to every form of marketing known to man has created a nation of people who are far too marketing savvy for anyone’s good. Perhaps this is why word-of-mouth marketing is so powerful: because the promotion is coming from someone besides the company. Even the most cynical of consumers will trust someone’s recommendation if they have reason to believe he or she has nothing to gain from that recommendation.

But of course, word of mouth can’t be controlled quite as easily as other marketing methods, like a website or a yellow pages ad. But what if there were a way you could harness a lot of the power of world of mouth and distribute it, just like you can distribute other kinds of marketing? Fortunately, you can, and all it takes is a few of your loyal clients and a tape recorder. Ask a few of your particularly satisfied long-time customers if they would like to sit down for an interview about the company.

Here a few suggested questions

By guest author Logan Strain

There’s an old truism about marketing that goes: you always waste half of your marketing budget, but you never know which half.

This applies to most health and fitness businesses because too many try a scattershot approach to marketing, trying to be all things to all people, or worse yet, think that “brand awareness” is all it takes to reel in the clients. The missing ingredient that causes all this wasted money is information, specifically information about your market (your potential clients), your message (what you should say), and your media (how you should communicate your message).

By guest author Logan Strain

I want you think a little bit about the difference between how money flows between family and friends and how it flows between businesses and organizations. If you go out to dinner and your friend picks up the tab, no problem, you’ll just pay next time (not that anyone is keeping track, of course.) If a college kid needs some money for books or food, their hard-working parents are usually happy to fork it over.

But if someone is looking to say, buy a car or get a loan, it invariably involves time-consuming background checks and mountains of paperwork. And of course, that’s the smart way to do it, otherwise the company or bank is basically asking to get screwed over financially. So why is it that money flows much more freely between family and friends, even in cases where there is just as much risk to lose money and get nothing back in return? In and word: bonding. When you really know the person you are handing your money over to, you just feel a lot better about it, even when there is risk involved.

Ok, so a fitness service could never hope to have as strong a relationship as a parent does with their child, but they can still bond with them in a way that makes the customer feel really good about forking over their hard earned dough. To make them feel not just like they are paying for a service, but also giving money to a decent person or group of people. To start the client-customer relationship somewhere between business people and kin.

By guest author Logan Strain

Fitness Marketing is all about getting new clients, and usually it’s exhausting work. But what if I told you there was one technique that was as close to a shortcut towards getting

several new clients as a marketer could hope for? As a bonus, it is probably several times cheaper than most of the other elements of your marketing campaign.

It’s called “strategic alliances,” and it is built on the premise that you can establish a relationship with other local businesses that benefits everyone. You can take

advantage of all the time and money that they spend getting new clients, and in exchange you allow them to do the same with you.

One of the best directors in Hollywood today is Paul Thomas Anderson. His films include Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, and the new highly acclaimed There Will Be Blood… all killer films which P.T. created using his own play-book and not following any Hollywood rules (well a production company did make him name his first film Hard Eight instead of Sydney which is what he wanted to call it, but that was his first film and he had to play by their rules a little back then… we all gotta eat a little dirt when we get started)

There Will Be Blood is filled with great marketing and business lessons, and even though there wasn’t one likeable character in this movie it was still one of the best films of 2007.

Daniel Plainveiw, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, was about as serious of an entrepreneur as you can get and as business owners we can all learn from him.

Now don't get me wrong, I’m not saying to build a great personal training business you should become a cold hearted bastard like Daniel Plainview and win at all costs without any concern for others. But I would like to acknowledge the singleness of purpose and complete focus on his mission that Daniel Plainview was able to commit to.

Take out the murder, the double-crossing, complete lack of concern for others and all that good stuff that makes for a great Hollywood movie. Because that's not the stuff I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is being able to keep the end so clearly in mind and absolutely refusing to let anything get in the way it.

Here is an easy and quick way that just about anyone can use to build a service based business real fast… especially a personal training business.

It works great for personal trainers, chiropractors, martial arts instructors, yoga teachers and massage therapists. Keep in my mind that this strategy is mostly for the business owner or professional who really wants to get a lot of new clients fast. If you already have a seasoned and strong clientele, this probably isn't the best practice for you. As a matter of fact, if you DO have a strong client base, I would probably go with the opposite of this routine and up my rates and justify my high rates in all of my marketing.

But if you're just starting out or want to get a whole bunch of new clients in the shortest amount of time possible this strategy kicks ass.

Here's a little story to explain how it works…

When I started my fitness business, I was pretty out of shape compared to most trainers. As a matter of fact I didn't even really look like a trainer. Sure, I'm tall, I'm about 6 foot 6, but I wasn't super fit. So I didn't have that going for me.

But what I did have going for me is an understanding of what makes people work, what makes them tick if you will. I knew that if you give to others and you do something for them, that they will want to give back to you.

Here's an interview I did with Patrick Rigsby. When it comes to creating fitness business systems that bring in large amounts of revenue on autopilot, Patrick probably knows more than anyone. Plus he's a down-to-earth good ole' boy from Kentucky which makes him a fun guy to talk to…

Patrick, what do you do?
I kind of do a number of things. I am first and foremost a fitness professional myself. I own a personal training company with two locations in central Kentucky. I own a health club in central Kentucky as well, and a juice bar within a separate health club. So that’s the first component of my business. The second component is I’m a consultant essentially for anyone in the fitness industry, but primarily focusing on marketing personal training businesses and creating profit centers within health clubs. So I work with fitness professional and club owners alike to essentially help people build the personal training, weight management, profit center side of their business.

Recently fitness information marketer Craig Ballantyne, creator of the Turbulence Training Program answered a few questions for me about how health and fitness professionals can create and market their own information products. Craig is definitely the man and I would absorb everything he says if you're interested to fully leveraging your time

What kind of income potential is there in creating and selling your own fitness ebook?

The potential quickly overcomes the potential amount of money you could make training full-time. According to ACE and CNN Money, the average salary of a trainer is between $40-50K.

Now if you sell an e-book at $40, that means you have to sell 1000 copies in a year to make that much money. But if you write one e-book, you can probably write another. Put those together into a package at $70 for two (as I do on www.TurbulenceTraining.com), and now you only have to sell around 600 to make over $40K.

By guest author Logan Strain

If own a local personal training business or health club and a website, you already know the challenges of trying to draw traffic from your general geographic area. After all, if you run a fitness center in Albany, getting hits from the UK doesn’t do you any good. There are lots of things you can do to draw valuable local traffic, but these few steps I consider essential.

Get Links from Local Organizations - If you are a member of the chamber of commerce, get a link. If you If you sponsored a local little league team and the star catcher happens to run a website, get a link. Links from other local websites let the search engines know to point potential local customers to you.

Sign up with Local Registries in the top Search Engines - Registering with maps.google.com, local.yahoo.com and cityguides.msn.com will help you get customers who already know that they want a local business.

When it comes to marketing, sales and persuasion James May is true master. James can teach you a lot when it comes to how to market a personal training business or a fitness business James who are you? What do you do? I'm just going to kind of give you the stage.

Well, I'm an older guy; I just turned 60. I am the president of Marketing Velocity. I also own a construction company and have for years, which is a pretty good sized company that's on automatic pilot now.

It's probably worthwhile to mention that I did hypnotherapy for 10 years because I worked with clients one-on-one through the '80s. And at the time I was charging $3000 a session. I was making about four times the money that the psychologists were making because I guaranteed results, and I learned a lot of things about people and about persuasion during those times.

Currently most of my effort is in my marketing company where I create different types of information products. It's not so much that it's something that I want to sell, but there's a way of making a profit-generating system that would really be probably a good place to start because I can lay it out for you on the phone and anybody listening to the recording can write down what I say and they can start making money in their business right away.

Here's my quick rant on fitness marketing. That's right, this post is nothing but a rant and you'll probably learn not a damn thing from it…

If you're a regular visitor to this website than this post probably doesn't apply to you, so feel free to skip it. This post is the for those who put in the long hours without giving any thought or energy as to how they can improve their marketing strategies…It's amazing isn't it?

It' amazing how few chiropractors, personal training businesses, health clubs, and mixed martial arts instructors are interested in marketing.

It's amazing to go to a marketing seminar, and be the only one in the health and fitness profession. There's usually tons of real estate guys and internet marketers, maybe a few lawyers and restaurnt owners, even the occasional doctor or chiropractor makes an appearance…but they're usually few and far between.

Marketing is the front line. It is the most important thing. And everything that we do is marketing, from how we dress and present ourselves to what our clients say about us, to what our facility looks like, to what our website says, to what our outgoing voicemail says, and how we talk to people - everything.

We've all known them. The guy who's great at what he does, but because he cares too much about what people think of him he achieves little success. He could be the greatest chiropractor or personal trainer in the world, but he'll never truly succeed until he ignore the thoughts and judgments of others.

People are going to think what they're going to think, and that's all there is to it. Whether you make $10,000 a year or a million dollars a year, they're going to hold their thoughts about you, and that's their business. It's not your business what they think about you. It's your business what you think about you and what you think about them. It's not your business what they say about you, it's your business what you say about you and what you say about them.

The most successful salespeople fitness business owners could honestly give a flying hoot whether they get a yes or no answer, because they truly understand that it's a numbers game, and that it takes for example five no's to get a yes, and every no is just one-sixth of their next yes. It is nothing but a percentage of their next yes.

Recently I interviewed persuasion expert, hypnotherapist, construction company owner, fellow Dan Kennedy Inner Circle Member and Die Hard No B.S. Direct Marketer James May. (…)

I am here with Scott Colby. Scott, who are you and what do you do?
Hi Chris, thanks for having me. I am fitness professional here in Dallas, Texas. I primarily started off doing private training, transitioned over to doing private boot camps, which is something I enjoy doing and is more financially rewarding. One of the good things about transitioning from private training to running boot camps, you can make a lot more per hour, so you can actually work less hours on the training side of things and spend more time doing business related things for your company.

Recently I’ve been able to free up a lot more time to work on my business. One of the things I’ve started doing more and more of are tele-seminars and I know we’re going to talk a little bit about that and how you can make money and grow your lists using the phone.

I am here with Scott Colby. Scott, who are you and what do you do?

Hi Chris, thanks for having me. My name is Scott Colby, I am currently living in Dallas, Texas, and I own personal training business and have been a fitness professional for about the last eight years or so. Right now, the main focus of my training business is actually not private, personal training, but I actually run outdoor boot camps for women. I’ve been doing that for a little over two years now and I’m having a blast doing it. I find that it’s great for me financially because I am making more per hour so it frees up a lot of my time during the day to work on my business and I enjoy doing it more than private training. It allows me to be more creative in designing the workouts, the working out with women in a group setting is beneficial for the women, they love the support; they love it because it’s less expensive than hiring a trainer to work with them on a private basis. Really it’s been a great part of my business which I’ve been growing for the last, a little bit over two years and I urge anybody who is trying to leverage their time and is getting maybe burnt out doing private training or who wants to make more per hour to consider starting up an outdoor boot camp. Now it’s not for everybody. Not everybody likes working with people in a group setting, so you’ve got to try to find and see if that is something for you, as a personal trainer, would like to do.

Chris McCombs (CM): Hi, Tony. How're you doing today?

Tony Avilez (TA): I'm doing fantastic, Chris, how about yourself?

CM: I'm doing excellent. Tony, you know you're being recorded, correct?

TA: Sure do.

CM: Okay. Perfect. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Chris McCombs (CM): I am here with Alan Cohen; Alan who are you and what do you do?

Alan Cohen (AC): Chris, I am the owner and president of FitnessJobs.com and the career collection. We own a variety of job boards for the health, fitness, and recreation

industry.

CM: How would you go about advertising and marketing for a fitness professional?

AC: Chris, I’m going to draw on my thirty-year experience in the fitness industry, previous to my owning and starting FitnessJobs.com eight years ago. I’ve spent thirty

plus years in the industry and I’ve done a lot of fitness marketing, general management and clubs, and groups of clubs around the country, so that is where this experience is coming

from, not necessarily from FitnessJobs.com, but many of those same principles I used to launch that business eight years ago.

The first thing, Chris, that is important to any business; whether you’re a fitness professional or a club or whether you’re selling hand made cakes, you really have to create

an annual marketing budget. In any business, advertising, and marketing, public relations is a big part of a successful business in terms of whether it is a brand new business

Chris McCombs (CM): Josh, who are you and what do you do?

Joshua Carter (JC): I own a personal training business in the Los Angeles area. I also own two gyms; I own a North Hollywood gym in North Hollywood and Carter Fitness that I recently

opened up in West Hills. I do some personal training, but my focus has currently building my personal training clients with my staff trainers.

Chris McCombs (CM): Brian, who are you and what do you do?

Brian Grasso (BG): Well, Chris, I guess I’m currently the CEO and founder of the International Youth Conditioning Association. We are an educational firm, I suppose, that resides in the fitness industry here and we were incepted about four years ago now. And over the last four years we've — I guess I initiated it. I collected just a stellar board of directors and some of the best who's who there is in the industry regarding respective specialties such as nutrition and bio-motor skill development and motor skill development, etc.

And so our original initial task was to develop an educational profile, a certification, that really instructed personal trainers, strength coaches, and coaches — for that matter the world over — on how to best train and develop young athletes. I saw a huge hole in our industry in that particular demographic and was really displeased with a lot of direction our industry was going in terms of quick fixes and pushing kids too young and too hard.

So that was the original conception behind the IYCA and it's since branched out to have an absolute mind of its own to other things including development of facilities and creating jobs for people who are certified through the IYCA. We're working with organizations in Zambia, Africa; in Auckland, New Zealand; and really all over the world. So that encompasses a great deal of my time right now to spearhead the initiatives of that organization.

Chris McCombs (CM): Kevin, who are you and what do you do?

Kevin Gianni (KG): Hey, Chris, how you doing? I am Kevin Gianni. I own an in-home personal training business called Lifestyle Fitness In Home Personal Training. And we've been in business — actually, a fairly young business. We've been in business about two and a half years, to the date. Some of the things that I think the reason you're calling me is to talk about how I built my fitness business so quickly to be an extremely profitable and extremely efficient and easily run business. We just hired two new trainers, too, so we've grown pretty quickly in the last two and a half years.

CM: I know you're really into relationship building and I know that's vitally important to you. Can you tell us what that is and why it's so important?

KG: Yeah, absolutely. I think that relationship building is one of the most important things to our success — I say "our" success, I have a partner Annmarie who, when we started this thing we said, "What are some of the things that we think are most important about business?" And she'd had a ton of experience as an athletic trainer and I had my experience doing research for nutrition, and health and fitness, and wellness, and holistic modalities. And so one of the things we came up with was, "Hey, you know, some of the best things in business we come across are business that just have real people behind them." And that was one of our main goals. I mean, you can even see it on some of the stuff we have. We had a caricature done of us that really kind of represents us as people. So we wanted to make sure that we built great relationships because we knew it might not bring clients in right off the bat, but the more you can cultivate and build some of the relationships the more we could — we would benefit and be able to help them too.

Here's an interview I did with Joe Vitale from the DVD 'The Secret' on how to attract more clients, wealth and success through outrageous marketing strategies and using The Law of Attraction
Chris:    All right, I’m here with Joe Vitale.  Joe, what is it that you do? (…)

Technology might have revolutionized the way we do things today including advertising. But just the same, there’s still the need to get the word out about your business. Advertising helps create awareness of your gym. The only difference lies in that you no longer need to spend tons of money just to advertise. Aside from that, it’s even easier to identify your target market than ever before!

Sure you still have the option of advertising in the traditional media, meaning, television, radio, and publications. But you know what? More and more people are shifting to the internet for all the information that they need. More and more publications are shifting to the internet to deliver their content. And more people are getting the latest TV shows and movies on the internet – though, sometimes, illegally. But I digress.

What I’m getting at here is that there’s a huge shift from the traditional media where advertising is expensive and less effective, to the internet, where advertising is cheaper and more focused.

You have a fitness studio and you want to get more people to become your members. But since you currently don’t have a lot of clients right now, you don’t have a lot marketing budget to work with. You can’t afford to pay for huge ads and pricey promotions. But you still have to do your marketing, right?

Before you go on a nervous breakdown and cry, let me tell you that you can market your fitness studio without spending insane amounts of money in the process.

You see, the internet has made it easier and cheaper for everyone to market their services. And you can use the internet to your advantage too.

The secret (actually not so secret) formula here is for you to give out as many free yet useful information as you can to people. But why give away things for free? Because if you send them really useful information, they will trust you more and you can eventually sell your products to them with no or little objections.

As a fitness coach, you’re most likely finding better ways to help more clients. You focus on helping your clients achieve their fitness goals and make them happy. You don’t worry too much about the financial rewards because you know that when you do your job right, that will follow.

But right now, those things aren’t just happening. It could be because you aren’t marketing your fitness coaching services well. Read more as I show you some marketing strategies that you can use to expand your business.

If you aren’t getting any clients at all, it could be because you’re neglecting the most basic marketing strategy there is – spreading the word about what you do. Sure you’re a fitness coach, but don’t expect everyone to know about it until you tell them that you are.

Try to fit it into your conversations and send your business card, but always remembering not to be too pushy. That will put off your prospects. Once people know about what you do, chances are that a portion of them would be interested enough in working with you.

You have many different options when you want to spread the word about your fitness business. You can advertise on the newspaper or the web. But advertisements are somewhat impersonal. You can also offer free consultations to people interested in joining your fitness club. But although it lets you sit and talk one-on-one with your prospect, it’s time consuming.

So where do you find the balance between immense reach and the personal touch? Write your prospects a sales letter!

When writing a sales letter, you have two options: either you hire a copywriter to do it for you or you do it yourself. Copywriters cost thousands of dollars to write a sales letter. So if you’re on a tight budget, I suggest you do it yourself instead.

Not sure how you will do it? Let me lay down the basics for you.

As a businessperson and gym owner, I’m sure you are aware about how promotions can work for you. One common use of promotions in business is to attract more customers to that business. But promotions can do more than that.

All About Promotions

More than just increase your gym’s clients, promotions can also help build your brand image, promote new products, position yourself in the market, among others.

Another useful concept you must understand when it comes to promotions is that they are divided into two categories: above the line and below the line. Above the line promotions are those promotions made in the media (TV, radio, newspapers, internet, and – until recently – mobile phones).

Meanwhile, below the line promotions are other forms of promotions outside the media. They include product endorsements, sponsorships, direct mail and personal relations.

A Fitness Business Advertising Guest Post by Jackie Brown

So you've started your fitness business, found your location, set your schedule, and are ready to get started on advertising and growing your business. The first place you have to start to advertise your fitness business is to identify your target market. If you don't know who you're targeting, then you're going to be wasting a lot of advertising dollars that you could be using for other things. You may of course have several different target markets that you'll deal with in separate fitness advertising campaigns.

For example, you may be offering group training, one-on-one, boot camp and other fitness services. Obviously your advertising will be a little different for each group. You'll want to sit down and figure out who you will attack each one by first identifying the members of your target market: are they male, female, or a co-ed group? Are you offering high end services, or a larger group class for a lower rate? Once you've identified your fitness market you'll be able to start considering where you want to advertise and how to do it.