Your “FREE CLASS” is a Waste of Your Time

people, gym, ice cream, class, sell, program, weightlifting, free, buy, tyler, talk, group, coach, run, members, week, pay, john

Tyler 00:04
It looks like we're not having a countdown today, John

Tyler 00:13
Tyler, John, I didn't see the countdown on the screen, did you?

00:17
Oh, yeah, it was there.

Tyler 00:18
Geez. Alright.

John Fairbanks 00:20
All right. I mean a legend. You're the one who I mean, we'll find out. I mean, I got a bag here. So I can only see so much

Tyler 00:26
Guys. Welcome to the gym owners podcast, John and I are your hosts. I'm Tyler over there as John. That's me. You got to say that that is the value. I always forget about this on this show. It's really nice to say your name. We'd like to say who it is. Because when people listen, they never they never really remember. If they're new, like what voice is attached to what person so I'm Tyler. That's John. Hi,

John Fairbanks 00:48
I'm John. We're both bald with beards. So you have a very low threshold.

Tyler 00:54
I'm sort of sad to hear that by now. The beard, the bald beard. And this guy's we want to talk about a thing that a lot of you guys a lot of gym owners are doing. And it is not a lot. I would say it's almost all and I think this stems from the generous nature, the giving nature, the community building stuff that's like in your blood as a gym owner. But you gotta stop giving away free classes. free giveaway weekend stuff for free class to let somebody come in and start for a lot of reasons. But Tyler,

John Fairbanks 01:27
People love trying shit before they buy it. I mean, ice cream places have little spoons.

Tyler 01:33
Yeah. Have you ever gone to the ice cream store? And tried ice cream? And then been like not like any of this and left?

John Fairbanks 01:40
Well, no big? No. Because reality is I'm not gonna end up my ass ain't gonna be there. Like, I'm gonna hedge my bets a little bit. Yeah, like if there's going to be time for me. If I got three boys, right. 11 and younger, right? 11 to five. So if I've already said ice cream, it's going to be a fucking mania. At my house, we're gonna go get ice cream. I have to guarantee I gotta know without a doubt that what I'm about to present to them needs to kick some ass. Because my five year old, you ain't gonna have it. If he shows up in his shitty ice cream or like everything has like a pineapple shoved up its ass because a bunch of hippie fucking weirdos are running the ice cream place. We're gonna have a problem. Like you better be like just chocolate and

Tyler 02:31
Pistachio and rosemary ice cream. Like, that's, that's exactly.

John Fairbanks 02:35
Everything doesn't need rosemary. And you know,

Tyler 02:39
One of the things about this that is interesting, too, is. So this is a thing a lot of people do, right? Come try a class for free on the weekend, right? Bring a friend. It's kind of like, bring a friend, bring a friend numbers do right. So so. And that, by the way, isn't inherently bad. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. However, are you talking to those people about joining your gym when they come or before they leave, because I guarantee you people don't. It is a way for people to come hang out in your gym and use your shit. And then they leave. If you're not selling them every time, or trying to sell them every time or trying to close or talking to them about maybe what they want or what their schedules will be or what maybe some of their needs will be if you're not making an effort to sell them. Then you're just letting them hang out in your place and use your stuff for free. It's not actually going to make you people say Oh, I do it. So people can come in and get a sense of my community and find a way that they like it. And that's great. And then you let them get up, change their shoes, and walk out the fucking door. Yeah, so what do you do? What is this ? That's not how this works? Well,

John Fairbanks 03:45
And it needs to be Why are you doing? Like, first you gotta do some honest assessments. How long have you been doing the free class concept? Right? Bring it to a friend. That's fine, but it's not just isolated to like the one free weekend class that you're doing. So if you're in a class that you've been trying to attract new people to for how long have you been doing it? How many members have you gotten while doing it? If it seems relatively unsuccessful, we need to figure it out first, okay, Then why were you doing it? And the answers that you and I have gotten is people are doing this at an alarming rate because they want more members. So okay, so you want to generate more members? Great. So then we want to generate more people in your gym. How in the hell is anyone gonna know that you're running a free class if

Tyler 04:36
If there's a yeah it exists doesn't mean people know about it. And that's really important right?

John Fairbanks 04:41
And we've learned so much over the years with the different groups that we've worked with and that we've been essentially employees for is that the one thing we learned very early on as we may think as an organization we talk about a thing a lot. Like you know how much marketing and billboards and social media but Will should exist. Like, if you think you talk about a thing a lot, you don't talk about it at all, because only 1% of it is going to be seen by anyone anyway.

Tyler 05:08
Yeah, so let's not dwell on the problem for too long, right? I don't want to keep poking at people. But so let's, what can you do to make this not be the absolute worst here? Because this does still sit like a lot of things as like an effort that is not that you're not putting any effort into. So in the end, the end goal here is like, that depends on let's clarify this. This is kind of a free come try our gym thing, right? Not necessarily like our Sunday stuff that internal members can also do for free or something like that, even though some of them may be some crossover, right? But there's not. So what we're trying to do by that is like everything that we have described, I want people to come should be an attractor, come try for free. Well, how often have you set it? How often have you set it on platforms that your members, the people who are already your members are seeing? How often are you asking your members for referrals to get people to go there? Are you asking them regularly are the emails you bring somebody to this thing? And when people do show up? Are you trying to sell because by the way, John, the reason you always buy even when you're sampling stuff at the ice cream store, is because someone's standing there expecting there to be some sort of transaction here. Do you like one of them? Cool, let's go. Now.

John Fairbanks 06:28
I'm there because I want ice cream.

Tyler 06:30
Yeah. And people hopefully are there for this thing, because they want to join a gym. And so either you let them train and walk out and you don't try to sell them, then that's you're not doing you offer them a service, or to you know, offer any real products that are worth a shit anyways. And the problem is you're trying to get them to appeal to your catch all everything product. And when you go in to try ice cream, you're not going. I want ice cream just in general. I like this one. I don't like this one. I don't like this one. Well, how many flavors of ice cream does your gym have? Is it still just group fitness? That might be a problem. That might be why. And this is why you can just take one of these concepts we talked about and just beat it to death. Because it does have to all be integrated. It's really hard to sell somebody off to your closing rate. If you're even paying attention, by the way, are you keeping track of how many people come in? Are you keeping track of how the conversation went? When you talk to him? Are you keeping track of how many of them you close, are you and if you're not, or if that rate really sucks, it may be about your products, it may be about what they're doing when they're there. It may be that you never had a conversation about what they really want. And you don't offer anything other than a room and a group of people for them to all do the same exercise around.

John Fairbanks 07:38
Yeah, if we stick to the ice cream analogy, it's walking in somewhere to buy ice cream. It's all vanilla, and there's no prices or options on the menu in front of you.

Tyler 07:50
Yeah, so there's a sample spoon there and you can get your scoop and you can turn around and leave before anybody fucking ass. And that's usually what happens.

John Fairbanks 07:57
Right? Now. The one thing though, is that the reason why I'm not a fan of this model, there's many reasons but the biggest is, is that it's the antithesis of what people's normal buying behavior is. Like, where you're on the right track that somebody wants to try something before they buy, like that's not wrong. But no one is even going to get to your gym without having some form of word of mouth. Which means when someone walks in the door, because they have heard that it's great. They've seen that it's great, whether it's reviews, whether it's friends, whatever the referral is. That means every difficult part, all of the things, every roadblock that could ever exist in someone's life. They're getting divorced. They were hungover that morning. There was bad traffic and their grandma died. They have thought through every possible roadblock and they've walked through the goddamn door which means you have an assumed clothes on your hands that like you sit down would you like to just try it? No motherfucker they want to buy that's why they just walked in. They walked in because they want to buy and the problem is is what this means is is that if you're one of these like one or two people work shops have like, your gym is just you you're the solopreneur or it's you and your buddy or you and your spouse that means your time is so valuable and if you're not selling someone when it's an assumed close I'm sorry you're wasting your time

Tyler 09:37
Yeah those should be the easiest closes you have because they because by the way I'm gonna guess you all in advertising for this thing. It is somebody coming in off of word of mouth most likely because nobody's really at fault by the way. Nobody's if you're not if you're a fitness center, nobody who's not a member of your gym is paying any attention to social media at all. So unless you're getting your members to repost stuff like this, nobody's seeing it outside of yours. face, it's just it's not really how that works. So you can do lots of things for visibility and be seen adjacently. But generally speaking, you're not putting a ton of effort into getting these bodies in. So you're just kind of letting it slide. But the thing about this also, is the expectation in how this has communicated to them, that you should try it to see if it's a fit, so that then we can talk about your targets and how you want to go forward. And like what you want to be accomplishing in these next few months with your fitness or, you know, what I mean? Like, what types of things you'd like to do, what type of arrangement would you like to be training and, you know, like, what thing you know, I mean, these are real conversations that people should be expecting to have. And if you've never set the expectation that a sale or an offer is going to be presented, then people go, oh, sweet, I get to just come in and not pay. So if your communication to all these people come in, and don't pay, and exercise and then leave, then this isn't even useful. Because your ice cream store doesn't say come in, don't pay and then fucking leave. That's not how that works, either. They're gonna give you some samples, so that you buy some goddamn ice cream. And I guarantee you what, what do you think the closer rate at closer rate is on these types of things? I'm gonna guess just based on the gyms I've talked to, and the gyms I've been around, it is not even 1%. I would be very surprised if it's five. I would be astonished. If one out of every 20 People that comes in off of you come try us for free. Like just like, Come try a thing. I guarantee you one out of every 20 schools being closed or less. Obviously, you're even asking,

John Fairbanks 11:34
Well, Tyler, then that just means that whatever class you've got going on, it's just obviously not the right one. Right?

Tyler 11:41
I mean, that's what it is. What is it though? What is this? Is this just a regular class? Is that true? It's just a big group class. Is it a specialty program? Is it a boot? Is it a booty boot camp thing, you know what I mean? There's plenty of those things. Oftentimes people do something approachable, like a kind of fluffy noon, 45 minute thing, that's kind of a free thing, a boot camp type thing, I'm a very approachable fitness program. But again, sometimes people show up to actually do a thing. And you know what I mean? Like, like, if I'm gonna go to a gym that I'm not a member of my expectation is I'm going to check this out and see if I can like it. And then if I like it, I hope to take the opportunity to become a member like nobody is going to this thing hoping that they can just duck out before anyone talks to him, because you don't even want to do that exceedingly want to have that experience that they're there because they want to join, or somebody who's there wants them to join.

John Fairbanks 12:32
I'm an absolute sloth for Mexican food. I'm a dirty whore about Mexican foods. So

Tyler 12:39
Cowboy. Exactly.

John Fairbanks 12:42
So when I find a Mexican place that we haven't been to, or a place that I like, the things that I do is I check and see what's the most kick ass thing that they've gotten. And there's a thing, which the next time you come because we didn't get to go, is that there's a thing called the Mocha hit day. Which is this big badass thing. That's like, almost like the fajita type setup. But it's in this big like, bowl that's like from Aztec time that holds like shrimp and steak and all sorts of like, amazing shit and like cactus and like all of this stuff that's shoved in it. Yeah. And then the one place that I really liked was the Mocha hit de burrito. That's literally a burrito. That's like 24 inches long. Yeah. Like, it's amazing. The reason why I'm giving this example is it's the most expensive thing on the menu. But because I'm a slept for Mexican food, if I see Mocha, hittail anywhere, and it's like $28. For one thing, I'm like, that's what I'll be having pleased. Because it's, I know that if I'm going to go, I want the thing that I knew I want and it's the most badass thing. So when I walk into a Mexican place, I'm not like in a mu. It's not like, Well, I'm gonna try the appetizers. And depending on how the appetizer is, will stay or will leave. It's like no, oh, who does? It? No one in their goddamn mind does that. So knowing that that is the behavior. And I'm gonna pick on you for a minute. You have ran into this personally. Because this was the idea of like, oh, well, then it's obviously the class that we're running. Whatever the classes that we're doing, obviously, it's not working. And it's like, no, it's not the class you could be doing. Could be totally kick ass. But the issue is, is that if you don't value it enough that you've made it free? No, but it's like, Well, shit, nobody's interested. And you have experienced this firsthand.

Tyler 14:49
Yeah, well also, one thing to know if someone comes in and experiences that class for free once a week that they're gonna have a really hard time choosing just to spend a couple 100 bucks to get that two more times. Week. Yeah. Like you've already given, you already gave away the fun. Yeah. So on the program suddenly like, what is this class? What could it be? Right? It could be anything. But like anything. I've had pet programs that I've written, that I really liked, they work really well. And I've had it for people I've sold it for, like, cheap just has to like a guy here, try this program here, try a training program, try this training program. And it's like, awesome, it's fun. You've done it. Lots of guys have done it. Totally. And I had to sell it for a guy. I mean, he did it when I sold it, of course, for like 250 bucks. He was like, Oh, this is kind of cool. And he goes, I'm gonna run this in my gym. Like the same workouts and stuff. It'd be kind of cool. And I was like, Oh, okay. Well, that's, that's cool. And the truth is, I had never even thought of that. I thought of some types of specialty programs like weightlifting, strongman, or powerlifting. Or, what's the word like endurance, you know, I mean, those are the domains that I've thought of. Yeah, I thought of a goal specific timeframe bound before that timeframe Bound program to be run as a class in a gym. As a high specialty broad program that we branded and sold. And he's like, Oh, give it a try. And he lays a fat ticket price on it. I say the number.

John Fairbanks 16:22
So we can but let's frame it. So something that

Tyler 16:26
I gave away for almost nothing,

John Fairbanks 16:28
Nothing, nothing. Nothing. That therefore, actually wasn't. People didn't come and get from, you know, like, it was like it was the only reason why you didn't charge any money is because oftentimes, it wasn't for me not trying to get you to sell. You're just like, no, like, no one's gonna buy programming Intel. You're not wrong. Oh, yeah. No one's gonna buy.

Tyler 16:53
But these things were packaged in this way.

John Fairbanks 16:55
Exactly. But if you build it into a high ticket time bound program in a gym, not pro not selling workouts, but now a program. So he's selling it for $1,000.

Tyler 17:10
See, when people buy right away $32,000 Locked in right away, done. 12 weeks program. In addition, these people are all already members. So Jim, and I was like, give me like $200.

17:26
Fuck. But

Tyler 17:28
Truth is in, by the way, it's probably their most popular high ticket item people ask about they run it twice a year now. Same thing about returning next time he's pulled almost $60,000 off this program this year, is the same thing in a class with a focus group where this is what we're doing. And by the way, when somebody comes in to sample your ice cream, this is the chocolate and that one over there is the vanilla, people come into your place. And they're swimming in a sea of boring ass vanilla ice cream again in there, and it's free, and they get the fuck out. Okay, you gotta come in. And for this type of thing, when it has value, they don't get to try it for free. But maybe they come in and meet you and see the facility and they do something but you talk about the other things that you have and do.

John Fairbanks 18:11
Right? Well, and every single person, the reason why they ran this twice a year, which we did not advise to do. He's like, Nope, we gotta run it again, was because every person that did it the first time would shut the fuck up about it. They were just like, oh my god, like, these were the results we got. And it was so awesome. So what he did is, we then worked with them to build up a proper offer, because there really was only one option. It was like, Hey, come do this thing with all these people who bought it. So this next time around, we built a proper offer and did it. And he sold half the people for the same and made the same amount of money. And only this time, there were supplements built in, there was a recurring check -in diagnostic assessment where they got assessed before it started. And then they got assessed after it started. That then allowed you to then upsell people into further programs that could fit whatever needs they had

Tyler 19:13
A window this summer I'm sure at the end of this cycle the great thing that we talked about is that cats resell cadence so they're gonna get done with this program. And now they go, what's next? And that's what happens is so now these people bought spent value loved it and now they want to buy and spend and get value again. Instead of walking in and tasting your vanilla and walking out before you show them anything else that you have to offer. Yeah, yeah.

John Fairbanks 19:38
So the invitation to anyone watching this, especially those of you that are watching because that means you're in the Facebook group, which you can find us at Community dots pack your gym.com Especially if you're watching but if you're just hearing this The invitation is if you have a class, you have a class or you have Have something that you're doing for free reframe that. Reframe whatever those specialty things you think that make you unique? And say, what if we turn this into a four week challenge? A six week program and an eight week program a 12 week program?

Tyler 20:18
Or high ticket if no, not at all, you get yourself out of the way just you don't have to go 2000 Some people aren't ready for that ask, by the way you should be. But some people just aren't ready. And you need to see some 567 $800 deals come through some bunch of $300, large scales, whatever it is you can do to see how this works. Put yourself in a situation to succeed because by giving away more stuff, for nothing stuff you do well, especially if you're good, what are you doing giving this away for free? If you're doing like a weightlifting thing on Wednesday, so like all your members can come and do weightlifting. You're like really good at weightlifting. And that's why you do it. And you're a great weightlifting coach. Why is that free? Now, there is a thing we need to make know, if you're a new gym, start with these principles we're talking about, there's no reason to go down the fucking wrong road first. If you are an existing gym, of course, you can't take your Wednesday weightlifting and just turn it into a paid thing you need. Because like those people are just not, they're just going to not buy. But what you need to do is find another type of thing that fits that same bill. And you just need to start building that culture, the culture of an internal sale, the culture of people wanting to maybe by another program, the culture has to shift away from everybody living in your catchall group fitness. And that does take some time and a few different program launches. By the way, we've launched one to four specialty programs with this other business over the course of that same time, all of them did pretty well. But this one, the most expensive one was the most successful.

John Fairbanks 21:46
And it is the most expensive one that they run. And it's but there is a cadence to these things. And we'll go into what has worked for us and worked for our people that are in our Jim hacking university that are in our higher level programs that have had a huge success on but a little bit of the taste of that is, whatever programs you have. So let's use your example that you said you have the weightlifting program. Well, if you're going to do it and oftentimes we'll see gyms that have large group classes are part of their cycle when they can do it at their gym normally, well, nobody just trains the same goddamn thing all the time, right, we have phases. So you may have an Olympic lifting phase, you may have a more power lifting phase, or whatever phase, you're gonna have a certain group of people that are going to be in your gym, it's a guarantee, it's a Guaran fucking tee percentage of the people that are in your gym, that are going to one, just be happy with the group. But that equal percentage that's down here, there's going to be another group that's equal on the other side of the spectrum, that would just love it, if you would provide just a little bit more a little bit more hand holding a little bit more value a little bit more something that's along that same topic. Because man, it's like I really dig this power thing, I really dig this style, I really dig strong man or whatever the thing is that you do, like, Hey, you would be actually pretty dope if like, instead of it being like a group of 15. Like, what if it's like a group of five or what if it was one on one,

Tyler 23:17
Then we just focus on this one thing. This one is now this one narrow scope, and then people are willing to pay for it because they know exactly what it is. They're not buying into a big empty space of fitness.

John Fairbanks 23:28
And ultimately, all we're talking about is taking a group that's large, that you've already here's, you've already programmed for this, right? You've already programmed for it. So you already have the programming, it doesn't mean that you have to do now anything different with a smaller group, you have a smaller group that you can provide more attention, more accountability for customize it a little bit more foreign because you have less fucking people to pay attention to in the class. And you now are providing a higher level service for and you're not having to sell anything. You now are just giving someone the option to buy something. Ice cream. If there's a waffle cone, I'm fucking buying it. Because I like waffle cones. Like it's, it's one of those things where it's a guaranteed thing. So for people, there's certain people that it's like, it's I like, I like a little bit more one on one attention. Yeah. But if there's no option, they're not going to be able to buy it.

Tyler 24:30
Yeah. So this is a way to start to create that cadence of internal programs. And that's what's important to do. So giving away free stuff is a way for you to cut your own. Cut your own throat as far as that stuff goes, right? You're hamstringing yourself. You're handicapping your business going forward because you've created a culture of everybody getting everything for free. So when you first thing you do is start selling other stuff while you close the door and all the other stuff where you're leaking energy. So find a new thing. thing that you want to do that you do well, and offer it to people. That's it. So a few ideas to start with and a few criteria. I'm happy to float some of these things people's way, right? One. If you want to have a weightlifting class, let's pretend weightlifting is a really good Olympic weightlifting specialist. They're really good. You know that that stuff sucks to teach in group classes with people of all sorts of fitness levels. Anybody who tells you Oh, you should be able to do it really well, they're not telling you the whole truth, because you're getting a lot of people that are either focusing way too hard on skill and not getting real exercise. Because their skill is so far behind that you're not really giving them the results that they want unless they're there for weightlifting, right, but they're not there for weightlifting, because you're doing it in group class. So you need to find a way to differentiate. So let's pretend you create just a separate track of people. You do not just do a weightlifting program, that's extra per month that has no end date, again. So let's go, we're going to do eight weeks of weightlifting, it's going to be a whole thing. We're gonna just rebuild your snatch, rebuild your clean and jerk, we're gonna specialize in this boom, boom, boom, eight weeks of this six weeks tenant, however you want to do it. But it needs to have a start date and an end date. And you start selling that internally, you don't have to sell, advertise extra, don't do anything, just shoot some emails out to your people. Make sure your coaches are asking everybody you have a few people to get you gotta people enthusiastic, if you just have these ideas, and you send out one email, put your thumb in your ass for the rest of the month, like, it's not gonna work, you do not have to try it. Just like how you doing a catch all free thing is not trying shooting out one email and not actually following up and being enthusiastic and selling. That's not trying either. But you need to have a beginning and an end to it. You can do other things with this too. You could do a competitors track, every gym has their quote, elite athletes who are a fucking pain in your ass as a coach, they are there to demand the most attention. They intimidate most of your good new clients if they kind of jam up your culture by being too cool. And a lot of them still move like shit. And so with that, and that should be a thing that costs extra. Meaning that yes, they can come and just perform great in your group classes. But if you offer them, what would you call it like an elevator in a LEED program or however you would do it pre maybe it's just a couple times a week, find ways that you can fulfill it. But have that be exactly what those people want. Fucking killer with high volume CrossFit Games type shit, right? Just smash them, give them everything that you that you can't give them in a group class, do they think that you're programming is holding them back by the way, you know it, you know, these people, give them exactly what they fucking want, and make them pay for it and they will be happy, they will be stoked, you absolutely can do it you can do with your endurance athletes to your cardio bunnies, you can do this stuff. But the problem is, again, you don't just open up a cardio class, and they'll have it sit forever, because nobody's gonna fucking come offer a program build it, you get people that like you get a few people in, maybe you don't sell a ton. Maybe you don't put all the eggs in that basket. But you get a few people the next time around. More people do it, people talk about it. And then eventually you've figured out how to sell and how to resell. You can do the same thing with all sorts of shit bodybuilding style programming, you can do fucking all sorts of stuff, you do road work, you do strongman, you can do all sorts of things that you could do, you could build in just a special little path that we make for people and make them pay because they're going to like it better, you can do better for them. And they'll definitely, definitely appreciate it.

John Fairbanks 28:20
Because and because you can give them the individual results, you can actually say, Hey, you're gonna get some fucking results here. Because if you're worth your salt, if you got good coaches, and you're a good coach, and if again, if you're watching this, this means that you're the folks that are in our community that are working hard at being good at what they do. And treat this like a craft and not like a soul. This business opportunity is you're good at what you do. So if you have the opportunity to work with someone focused for 12 weeks, are they going to get results? Yeah, you bet your past they're going to get results? Yeah.

Tyler 29:03
And how many of your, how many of you are like whoa, is as a coach, and maybe this is just me personally, I know a lot of coaches and a lot of gyms over the course of a lot of years, they get to a certain point where they just really get tired of coaching group fitness, the catch all fish, they just don't like it. It's hard. It's tough. You don't feel like you're having a difference. Why not? Because too many too many people lack specificity. You can't tune into someone's goals and really get them there at the rate that you'd like the winds to be further fewer and further between than you'd hoped that they would be. They're not as magnitude the magnitude isn't as great as they could be. And guess what you feel unappreciated because people aren't invested. So what is the solution? Right, give them what they want with specificity and make them fucking pay. Ask them to pay off for them to pay whatever language you prefer, but like, but when you do that, all of these things make sense. So this is like a should have sold this. This is free. We're giving this one away. Whatever. Okay.

John Fairbanks 30:00
Well guys, just imagine, just imagine what we could do. If you pay us No, exactly. No, that's the idea. What we want to do is value and it is something we want you to take. It is a true invitation. Take it, run with it, try it. Tell us about it. Tyler loves hearing about people that take his ideas that he gives away for free, and they make 1000s of dollars. It sounds good. It's what makes me morning,

Tyler 30:30
I give away a lot of my time more than I should. It's you know, it always, always, always blows up in my face often. But I tell you what the difference is when I see somebody who takes the things that I give to them, and they actually make it work . By the way, I have no gripe with that situation. That's exactly what I was hoping for. Absolutely. If everybody who was in that program had the actual will to just make themselves successful and sell it and wanted to make that kind of money. So he had to revamp your gym, you're just doing a different thing a couple times a year, you're offering one extra thing that takes one coach, like this costs almost no money to launch. So just be creative. Find something you do well to communicate on the terms like we talk about free products, right? Your product should align with what they want, what they're there to do, what their goals are, like, that's the thing that should be not about you, and not about the things that you do great, and what your gym has, and how hard you work as a coach, nobody gives a shit. What do they want? I want to do weightlifting off the street, because I know what that is. Oh, I'm scared of the barbell stuff. What would I like to do? Well, I just really liked to do some treadmills and bikes to get used to it and do a little pump up perfect, perfect, we got a pump session here with a little cardio that we do. For the next eight weeks, it's great, you need to have some of these paths. Because when someone comes in to sample your ice cream, don't let them sample it and leave without buying a fucking scoop.

John Fairbanks 31:47
Because how much more excited that you're going to be and motivated. You're going to be to talk about it, to share, to see what people can do when it's not for free. Because the fact is the reason why you can't market it, and you don't feel very motivated to do it. Or whatever the thing is, is because it's fucking free, you're not gonna and that's also why people aren't coming. So those feelings are mutual. Change the game.

Tyler 32:17
Nobody appreciates what you're doing, because you're not making it. You're not

John Fairbanks 32:21
Officiate what you're doing. So reframe the thinking. And that's where it's unique. We need to know if your mindset is not where it is, and we talked about this previously, but you need to get your mind right. And if your mind, right, but things aren't working, then do you have the skills that you need to be able to do what you need to do? And if you don't, then it's like, Alright, it's time to go. You've talked about being taller before. So I'm gonna invest time to go do a seminar, it's time to work on my coaching, it's time to do whatever, right? And then if you like, No, this is right, and this is right, then it's like, alright, you know what it is time to work on? Who are you affiliated with? What's your network of people? Who are your partners? Who are the people that are helping you be successful? And do the things that you want to do? What are your goals, because if you're with a bunch of fucking duds with people that just want a bitch or Tyler's has been thing you've, it's been eating away at you lately, which is about just being surrounded by fucking mediocrity, and people that are just the cult of god damn average that are just pulling you down. You can't change there's

Tyler 33:34
A thing that I've talked about, we taught it, you don't have to do a lot of pitches on the business side of what we do, John and I and like that podcasts pitch, you know, a long time ago now. So this is close enough where I can talk about this is a perfect example. Like the idea sits where I could this person could make $20,000 Every fucking quarter in a heartbeat if they just didn't think the markets the perfect fit. I've pieced together everything because my brain just sees solutions, right? So it's like we talked about, sometimes I almost can't help myself. So I just see it all in all paths go through the guy and the project is doing so I go and I say, Hey, we should talk. And I just nudge him. I said, you know, this thing would work. I try to explain it but he doesn't see it. He sees things as extra work. And he sees this as like, oh you don't understand this is this thing that will take you a couple hours a week now will make you more money than everything else that you're doing. Why the fuck? Aren't you listening to me? And then I realized that I didn't do that. I didn't charge him for the sandwiches. I was just a good guy in the conversation. Right? And then I talked with his other players, another person that manages a person and later on we who drugged me in against it, you gotta talk to him, because I know this is the thing. And so I had this conversation and it was the same type of deal. And I was like, Oh, you're so in your own way that I had to tell the guy, the guy's manager afterwards. I said, " Listen, I'm not gonna do this again. I'm not talking to him again. If I would have charged him $1,000 to have this conversation. It would have been the single most impactful conversation in his financial future and then in the last year, absolutely. Because, by the way, it's not about the money, it's that then he would have fucking listened. And then he would have done it. But because it's free, the whole thing goes, well, you're not committed to even the direction in which the conversation is going. And so I mean, it guys, I gave you this one, don't don't be like that guy. Or I'm just gonna start charging your phone calls to start charging for these types of things. But you can take this, experiment with it, run with it, but understand that John, like John, always tells people to pay attention. So if you're doing things for clients for free, that's great. But don't make that dynamic. Yeah, you can be generous and you can be generous with your time, but not on programs that you should be doing for money. You know what I mean? Like, you can be a little helpful, give somebody an extra couple minutes afterwards, have a conversation, connect. Be compassionate, be a decent fucking human being, but don't be doing the thing that you do for free? Because nobody's gonna appreciate what you do.

John Fairbanks 35:59
We're not there yet. But you know what I hear people saying about some of the most, what did you say was her mosey? He said, People that say that money cannot buy you happiness, just haven't given enough of it away. Exactly. And so the fact of the matter is, there is a fine line between being a martyr and being someone who is generous. Yeah, you need to make money. And then give it all back, like, down now gives you the ability

Tyler 36:38
To think of how great your gym could be for these people. By the way, if you had an extra $70,000 This year, because you just sold a specialty. You know what I mean? For real? Imagine what you could think?

John Fairbanks 36:49
What could be the gift that you give to your people? What could be the thing that you could do? What could be fill in the goddamn blank, but I can tell you right now, it's a

Tyler 36:57
A lot better than your Sunday class or your Saturday class or your everybody coming for free shit, for sure. So you can do a lot better with that type of money. And then you can just donate your time. Time that y'all know got. Yeah, John, they can find the community at Community dot hack your gym.com then go to hack your gym.com to hack your gym. It's open. Get in there. Go check it out. Contact us if you have any questions, but you can get in and start doing the thing. John? Yeah, John's eyes are wide like, hey, we weren't supposed to announce it. It's open. That's okay.

John Fairbanks 37:26
You did it last time. Do you think it was like Oh, that's right. It is? No, come and talk to us. You can find the podcast at podcast dot hack your gym.com

Tyler 37:35
Cool things out there. Everything else will be in descriptions. You can follow the gym owners podcast on Instagram. Follow me at Tyler F install.

John Fairbanks 37:42
And me at J banks FL

Tyler 37:45
Awesome. Thanks a lot everybody. We will see you soon.