3 Secrets of Wildly Successful Fitness Professionals

FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE

3 SECRETS OF WILDLY SUCCESSFUL FITNESS

We’re moving on up the Value Ladder and now we’ve arrived at Step 3!

If you’ve been following along with the first two parts of this series you know that we’re trying to add top dollar revenue to your business. We’re going to make you a top earner no matter where in the country you are located and no matter what type of fitness business you work in.

I know that there’s a lot of competition out there and in some ways, that’s truly a great thing. What that means is that people are looking for results and they are looking for ways to transform themselves into healthier, more energetic, people. I constantly remind the fitness professionals I encounter that we are not just trainers, we’re health care professionals. We help people get to newer and healthier versions of themselves.

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FITNESSPRENEUR'S TIP:

Listen to your customers. It saves

guesswork.

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But training alone isn’t going to do that. If it were, we’d all be there already. The fact that there are so many approaches and philosophies shows that different people are looking for different results. What I’m presenting in this series is quite simple. I’m helping fit pros lose the mentality of being a trainer that needs to be on the floor. Instead of that old way of envisioning ourselves, a new paradigm of thinking is what I’m introducing. I’m approaching all of this from a value perspective.

Essentially what this means is that in order to earn top dollar from your customers, you’ll need to provide a top dollar value to them. This includes articulating your vision for what the transformation that you offer will mean for your clients in the future. Along with that, you will need to have programs at the ready for them to keep fully engaged and empowered in their transformation.

Getting people results means being in their lives beyond the gym or studio. They need convenient solutions and we need to be realistic about how we get our message across. People are mobile. They are on the go all the time all over town. And wherever they go and whatever we do, you need to be a part of their daily schedule. If you are proving to them that you add a significant value to their lives.

That’s what the Value Ladder is. It’s a way to engage your customer base and continually add value to their lives through a series of targeted programs and products. If you can’t be the person who provides them a constant value, in addition to new challenges, then you become obsolete. You’re basically like all the other fitness professionals that content themselves with trading their long hours for dollars.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not trying to work more to earn less. Using my Value Ladder method allows you make big bucks and work on your schedule. Best of all, it’s a system that once you put in place, you won’t need to monitor it on any constant basis. You just kick back and let the dollars keep coming to you. Now you can take time off, go on a vacation, or whatever!

Sound crazy? I think it’s crazy to keep hanging on to the old model of doing things when it doesn’t provide financial results. So if you’re a forward thinking person, a thought leader who’s looking to usher in a new era of income for you and your loved ones, check out these steps and see if they make sense for you!

FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 SECRETS OF WILDLY SUCCESSFUL FITNESS PROFESSIONALS


















3FITNESSPRENEUR’S LIFE: 3 SECRETS OF WILDLY SUCCESSFUL FITNESS PROFESSIONALS


I’m a big fan of any program that a fit pro can be a part of, so long as it falls within the scope of what we can do. And nutrition programs seem like the obvious and perfect choice for fitness professionals to make residual income without adding time or work to their schedules.

Remember, as fit pros we can’t diagnose and prescribe. We don’t need to. Because what we can

do is help our members with their eating habits and how to change them. We can counsel them on their relationships with food. We can help them take a long hard look at their behaviors and see what can be adjusted to maximize the work they’re doing with us.

Selling nutritional programs and products makes perfect sense. There are so many products on the market that it wouldn’t be hard to find something that aligns with your principles. Do your due diligence

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and research everything like crazy. You have to know the ins and outs of what’s being offered in addition to whatever products you decide to get behind.

For my business, it was a no-brainer. We plugged in Shakeology and it’s been a hit. It's not just a supplement, it’s a whole food. Plus it’s got all the good stuff that's making the headlines now, so customers can feel good about putting it in their bodies. It’s organic and non-GMO. It’s nice and considered high density nutrition. That fits perfectly with our core values and beliefs. Even if you have different values and desired outcomes, there’s something out there waiting for you.

But I have to tell you, I have really encountered some resistance to this one over the years by trainers. Some contend that advising clients on nutritional stuff isn’t what they’re all about. They think that their mission is to focus on the body that’s in front of them, in the gym, and nothing else. My response? It must be nice to throw money away like that!

Because the reality is that your customers are buying nutritional products, supplements, or whatever else with or without your guidance and approval. They’re taking their money and spending it at GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, or Costco. Wouldn’t it be better if you were making that money instead?

The problem begins when we assume that once they leave our gym, they’re living out their lives exactly as we’ve told them to. We think they’re probably taking good care of themselves at all times and eating what’s right..every time and every day. Huh?

These are human beings we’re talking about and sometimes there just isn’t enough time to make a meal. Or sometimes they cave in to their desires and eat some fast food. What I’m saying is that often people are just people and they need supplements to help them stay on track. Do you want them buying those nutrition products from someone else or you?

So you have to move with the times. Our recent history is littered with examples of businesses that didn’t move fast enough to keep up with the changing technological times. What happened to Borders? Remember that bookstore? Amazon destroyed them. Borders didn’t move fast enough and




Think of yourself as a guide. You're

guiding people to new healthy fit

versions of who they used to be.

















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now it’s a memory. Same thing with record stores. iTunes came along and now the idea of going somewhere to try out what your music sounds like seems insane. I’m not talking about whether or not this development is a good thing. I’m talking about reality. When your customers are going to GNC anyway, save them the trouble and let them order their products directly from you, online, or on an app.

Did you think I expect you to keep shelves of inventory behind your front desk? No way! Everything that you need to be successful with nutritional products is online. It’s all about linking. One click and it arrives at your door.

And when you plug it into already existing programs, it becomes an even easier part of your relationship with your customers. The products don’t need to be a separate component from what you do with your customers. They’re the complimentary piece of it all. Take our use of Shakeology. We plug it into the appropriate programs on a case by case basis. We’ve got it connected with our 21-day Slim Down. It’s a big part of our 5-Day Fat Furnace. We teach the program and show our members the necessary intake to achieve their goals. Once they see the value, the transformative power of it all in their lives, they simply want more. Now you’re not selling, you’re just recommending what works. More results for them means more revenue for you.




Nutrition programs can create a source of residual revenue that comes with no inventory needed.

















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The next aspect of Step 3 that I want to recommend to you is online coaching. In a previous article outlining Step Two, I explained the importance of automating everything. The future is digital and the frontier is online. You have to be there because that’s what intelligent business people who are on top of what their customers are demanding do.

The simple fact is that most clients don’t have a lot of time on their hands. With work, kids, community services commitments, and just life in general, there aren’t enough hours in the day to get things done. And what’s the thing that most often gets dropped on the priority list? Health and fitness activities.

What people are doing more and more frequently, however, is connecting through their personal devices. They’re connecting online with all sorts of technology, websites, and apps. You need to be a part of

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that connection. The essential part is keep that connection going with your customers when they aren’t right next to you on the floor.

The truth is people want to be connected. They want to get Facebook messages, texts, and emails from you to feel like you care for them. They want to feel like they’re getting a greater value by getting more of your time and attention. They need the help throughout their day. They want to be inspired. They want to remain motivated.

Online coaching accomplishes these things and so much more. As in

the case of other programs, you can create specialized groups for anyone looking to get fit for a specific reason. Anyone training for a marathon, for example, can join your Facebook group for a nominal fee and then you simply send them the link or invite to join. You can create dozens of groups made up of people who connect with you and each other. Now you’re offering the value of community, and anyone around the world can join. That’s a market in the billions!

If you put your mind to it, you’ll never run out of clever ways to get your online coaching up and running. Want to show someone corrective exercises? Create a bunch of videos and post them to YouTube with a private link. Anyone who wants in, can join, and you send them the link. It’s that easy!

You can even combine this idea with the nutrition programs I outlined above. You can create Facebook pages that offer advice and information on whatever nutritional supplements you’re selling and include links to purchase them directly on the page! How is everyone not doing this?

The bottom line on this is that online coaching is a way to stay with your customers when they’re not at the studio. By maintaining an online presence in their lives (something that they entirely control, by the way), you’re offering a whole other level of value to them. They feel like they’ve got a trainer on call, one that’s specifically designated as theirs. That’s an incredibly powerful feeling especially in an age when things are getting expensive and the general feeling among all of us is that the things we’re purchasing are dropping in value.

The future is a vast online ocean with unlimited potential. By increasing your value to all of your customers, you’re cultivating a relationship that potentially has no end. And that is the very essence of business. Top dollar, here we come!




Different approaches to fitness provide

different results. There aren't limits to

the # of programs



















Putting together specialty programs is the culmination of everything we’ve been doing so far. It takes all of your working fitness knowledge and combines it with what you’ve learned from your customer base.

Is there a group of people that needs a specific area of their bodies targeted? Is there a big event or part of the calendar that requires people to tone up for? Are there major life events that people can rally around, like a pregnancy? All of these ideas and more could benefit from a specialty program that you put together and can even lead.

I’ll use one example to show you exactly how it works. A while back in my gym we had a big group of people that wanted to try their hand at running a 5K for the very first time. Right away, that’s different than just fitness training and different than a fat loss program. We’re talking a different style of training that requires you to

SPECIALTY PROGRAMS

















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work on your diet and develop flexibility among other things. When you do this, you’ve got to teach customers about shoes, clothes, recovery, what to do before the race and after. In short, it is its own self-contained program. So we developed a 21 Days to Run Your First 5K program.

With that concrete goal in mind, we’re doing something beyond just fitness. We’re lifting their ambitions, which is a far cry from just simply training day in and day out. If we did that, they’d get pretty bored really fast and wonder where the value was. With something to strive for, we’re basically selling them on a new lifestyle. And that lifestyle creates an even greater belief in themselves and the value that we offer. The numbers bear this out. We were selling that particular program at $97. And whenever we ran it, we would get 20 people to sign up. So we knew that any time we offered that program, we could count on an extra $2,000 from our already existing member base. And with such great results, people were clamoring for more programs that offered a similar value. We put together train to run programs, an outdoor boot camp series, and much more.

These are specialty programs that not only deliver results but create an aura of exclusivity. You’ll be doing things that specifically respond to the needs of your customers. What can be more personalized than that? Now your members know that you’ve got their backs and are offering programs and events that no one else is doing. That’s the essence of creating ever-evolving value and a key component to retaining members. Pretty soon, they’ll undoubtedly be telling their friends about you and now business is booming.

Once you feed that specialty monster, your customers will constantly be wanting more. That’s how you build a successful business in the long term. You create a cycle where the more value you deliver, the more the need for that value will grow. You’re instilling a belief in your clients that they can do anything. The more you push them, the more they’ll say, “I can keep taking this further."

The further along you take them on your value ladder, the more willing they will be to spend money. Guaranteed. Whereas they didn’t know what they would get when they started with you, you’ve given them a solid track record of results. As their lives transform, you are seen as the




Selling clients on a new lifestyle means creating more belief

in themselves through fitness.

















essential component to this. And now you have their attention and loyalty pretty much around the clock.

Our next and final level is Level 4 on the Value Ladder. This is where we get to the truly great stuff that goes against the old modality of fit pro thinking. Are you ready? I know I’m ready to share it with you.

In the meantime, keep these ideas at the forefront of your mind. I’m sure you have some great ones, too.

You’re now well on your way to living the Fitnesspreneur Life!



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As a certified High Performance and Funnel Optimization Coach, Vito La Fata, is the NO BS business & personal brand coach to the wellness and fitness professional or company that is looking to get outside the box of the industry and start learning how to grow a personal brand online and offline utilizing a hybrid business model of offline and online marketing strategies that deploy customer value optimization systems in order to create as much benefit and offering for the customer and as much profit and lifestyle for the company as possible.

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3 Secrets of Wildly Successful Fitness Professionals