Expectations are EVERYTHING

people, expectations, gym, business, money, important, trust, set, sales, contact, coaches, immediately, professional, marketing, fitness industry, nutrition, feel, point

Tyler 00:00

listen to the podcast this week, guys, we're gonna talk about one of the most important things that you can do in your business to help you make sales easier to make your customers happier, and to deliver really high quality products all the way across the board. And that is managing expectations and setting expectations. There's a thing that I think everybody can relate to that I want to point out to you why managing expectations is important. So nowadays, there's a thing that's happened, I'd say since like 2018 19, once the iPhones had the wide angle camera lens, the GoPro was the original. And then of course, photographers, you know, had them long before that, but now that everybody has a super wide angle lens that they have at their disposal, what happens is now everything that you need to look small can look extra spacious. Take what you will DPS, yeah. But more importantly, hotel rooms, rental listings, real estate listings, Airbnb ease all those things. And I have seen so many of these things where now I'm hip to it. They used to not be everywhere. So you see, oh, that looks nice. There's a fair amount of room in here. And then you get to the place and you go, What in the fuck is this. And it's tiny, it's cramped. And then you take a closer look at the picture and you realize the walls were like walls bowed out, and the floor had that, you know, this big long arc and shit, I got duped by camera tricks, man. And it is now that it's comedic in one thing, because we were looking for new rental places here to even find a new spot to move to. And as we're looking at all these places, I started to notice how many of these places use wide angle lenses. And to make these kitchens that, you know, when you start seeing how stretched out there are in the photo, it's like I know, I can't even turn around in this space, you know, you see a bedroom or like just walls, you know, endlessly long and bowing out to the wider like this room is five feet wide. You know, these are jail cells. And you could make a jail cell local look livable, and nice and spacious with the right camera angle. And the thing is, though, that is funny, on its own, however, let's go. Let's imagine you're a realtor, right? If you're a realtor, you're going to have these professional photos made and you lean too heavily on the wide angle, right? What's gonna happen is you're going to attract people who don't want who truthfully do not want the thing that you're showing, they don't want it, they're going to be there, you're showing them something that is not meeting their expectations are this room is roomy, this kitchen is spacious this living room, I can not touch both sides of the wall at the same time. And that is the first thing that's going to happen when that person walks into that place with you, as the realtor who hopefully they trusted up to this point is, Oh, Jesus, what the hell and it's a total waste of their damn time like, and that's the thing. If you don't set expectations, right, you're going to lose trust right away. Because this is it, imagine this. I mean, the realtor thing is sending the Airbnbs and hotels. But as soon as you get in, and it's not what you expected, it's over, you're done. You're immediately going from what could be a five star experience. Nine out of 10 baseline seven out of 10. But when you're first thing is they fucking lied to me upfront, or they misrepresented what this thing was now. Done. You're pissed. And you would have absolutely picked something else you matter of fact, it's not about buying the house. It's the fact that you bothered to go look, and getting more people to show up and look is an idea. That's that I want more leads, not just the leads that I get is that same strategy, right? If you get 10 leads a week, or 15 leads a month, or whatever it is, you're getting new leads coming in, and you go God, I really would like this to be 50. That would be great. Except if you just simply had to lie to 40 to 35 more people to get it from 15 to 50 They're gonna come in and go no, no, no, no, no, this isn't what I want done. And we see that a lot with the larger scale, kind of what's the word, the soulless business practices that are out there in the fitness space is it's just let's trick people and get them in, let's do the bait and switch shit. Let's be like, Let's just tell them it is something it's not and then we're gonna say it's kind of that but it's not. And these people now no longer trust you and you never get the opportunity to do business with them. And they're still gonna go out there and trash you publicly to everyone who they talk to.



John Fairbanks 04:32

Well, even if you do get to do business with them. You're immediately a letdown. Yeah, as opposed to be like, Oh man, I'm pleasantly surprised like this is awesome or this meets exactly what my expectations were. Because I have gone to apartments that are less costly per month, because it was in our wheelhouse of what we could afford. They didn't do a good job. Taking the pictures So we kind of already were expecting things, and you walk in you go, you know what? This actually isn't so bad. God,



Tyler 05:08

Those photos were bad. Yeah, your photographer, you're better off having a shitty photographer and at least the people who walk into your space Go, go, Oh, I think I can work with this, I might do a little work with us, you know, that is and of course, yes, you're going to limit your the number of people that are going to be interested, and I'm not telling you to make your business look like shit. But I am telling you to make sure that it's you show it as what it is, if you don't know what it is, if you don't know what it's like, that's what's why it's important to establish your identity, establish what you're trying to be what your customer experience should look like, what it should feel like, what should it feel like compared to other things out there in the space that they deal with. And that is very important if you're a dirty, grimy, like, like we're a slamming bar's cousin Nores to charter mass genomics here. Like, like the mass, and I'm assuming we have here well, that place is it's like private to dungeon, everything's awesome in it, but it's a bunch of big scary motherfuckers and a handful of people who are just like training around some big scary motherfuckers. But there's a lot of people who are not interested in this place and never would be holy shit if Tanner tried to, like, ramp that up and be like, No, I just want more people. Let's get some more people. It's



John Fairbanks 06:18

for everyone, you're



Tyler 06:19

gonna fuck everyone tells me like this is crazy. I hate this, you're gonna waste and don't waste people's time. And mismanaging expectations really is about not just disappointing people and getting started on the wrong foot. It's like they say first impressions last really is and the first impression lasts forever, you don't have a second chance to make that first impression. But if you try to just drag a bunch of people in here, everyone's like, What the hell, but your main thing is you're wasting their time. Because they could just go looking for something that fits what they want. And that's why communicating thoroughly is super, super important. And so finding out so we're gonna go through some of these steps, right, so the few phases we're gonna get into today, when and how to set set your expectations and how to do it correctly, is setting it for your marketing, which is kind of before your potential client contacts you how to set expectations after that first contact, either like before scheduling a sales meeting, or before they come in and check out the gym, then we're gonna talk about setting expectations after the sale. So after you've closed them before the service, and then from there on forward, what is this experience going to be like? How do we set the tone? So we're gonna fold a bunch of different concepts into those 123 What does it mean for four different things for different situations? And those are the bases you need to cover. We get this like, fuck, we should put this into gear Academy, whatever. Y'all do this one for free, if you want. I don't. Yeah, well, whatever we thought, I haven't thought this through that hard. I should be selling this. But the fundamental thing that we talked about, we talked about expectations is I learned this when I was young, it was the best piece of advice I was ever given. I'd say that a lot. But there's only like four pieces of advice that I've ever taken. And they're all the best. So but one of them is the saying out there that says Trust is earned. That saying is total bullshit. It's not fucking true. It's just not the way it is. Trust is absolutely given, trust is a leap of faith. Trust is always done by someone taking the step trust is a choice at first. Right? It absolutely is. You have no reason to. You start dating someone at some point, you have no reason to trust that they're going to be faithful. You don't have time. Yes. If you had 20 years with them, and you knew, Okay, great. But there is a moment, the moment you choose to trust, you actually don't have enough information to make the right decision there. You're choosing to trust, trust is not given. Distrust or mistrust is earned. Okay, that's the truth. So trust isn't trust is not earned. Trust is given. I fuck that up.



John Fairbanks 08:52

Fuck, it's okay. Boss, you just won't clip that portion.



Tyler 08:58

of it. There's too many things that sound the same. But anyway, trust is not earned. Trust is given, mistrust is earned. And that's very important to know. And when it comes to setting expectations, you come in and tell people hey, we're gonna run, come in, it's free for a month, it's all free and then you get your thing and they come in, I think it's gonna be $500 We're gonna hold it in escrow thing. And then we're gonna all this shady bait and switch shit that I see going on a lot out in space. We're gonna run a challenge, but it's not really what this price is. You got to put $900 in the bait and switch angle just sucks. It sucks. And the first thing you're doing, boom, they go fuck, this is shady. It immediately sets off all the alarms in the fitness industry. Who are we talking to the other day? About that? There was like, in the fitness industry, the the red flag, the bullshit alarm is the main



John Fairbanks 09:45

thing you have to get over. Yeah, it was our ad guy.



Tyler 09:49

Our ads guy. Yes. He's great. And that's the first thing you said in the fitness industry. You could if your system could make somebody lose 20 pounds in three months, four months, five months, whatever, right? If that's what you're saying? The fact is, even if you're saying it, people won't believe you. They just won't because they're just immediately looking for it. Yeah, that sounds like something people would want to do. And now and uh, you just you by the way, it's something you do it is something people would want to do. But the fact is you're going with that direct data, it sounds shady. And so you gotta fight that bullshit radar.



John Fairbanks 10:18

And why is the bullshit radar so strong in the fitness industry?



Tyler 10:24

Everybody has muffed their expectations. Everybody knows.



John Fairbanks 10:28

I mean, the industry as a whole has worked really, really hard for everyone to not trust a goddamn thing anyone says for years. Yeah. And think about all you think about the fitness industry, because the immediate most adjacent industry to that is going to be nutrition, and what you eat, and talk about a whole nother piece that you can utilize and weaponize to really change people's lives. Nutrition. It's the joke God Louis black made a joke 10 years ago, which is like, is milk good for you? Or is it bad for you? He did a whole bit on that. It's like, nobody can fucking agree. Yep. And the reality is on nutrition, no one can agree. Exam that's where immediately it just is the trust is fucking shot. So you're, you have an uphill battle already.



Tyler 11:23

Now if you were adjacent in a totally different field, you have a little bit more flexibility with these things. But you don't in this one, you just don't not in the not in the fitness space, you do not have the flexibility to be under delivering you can't in any way. This over-promises and under-delivers is a nightmare. Right? It doesn't work over promising we'll get more people interested in showing up , it'll set off the bullshit radar. But the leads will come in if you over promise. But if you fail to deliver on those promises, even if you exceed what most other people are doing, if you're under delivering what their expectations are, they're done with you. You are a disappointment. And it's the truth. And so pre contact right before somebody comes in and talks to you, with your marketing you need to understand, put forth when someone comes in and meets, you know, what is the first thing that they're going to think are we going to be? Are we a gritty place? Are we a clean place? Are we welcoming? Or are we a fit place that sells fitness to fit people? Right? If that is lean into it, if your market is big enough to support like, now we're the extreme place, this is just bad dudes only man, let's go, are you a bad dude, this is your spot. If you're not a bad dude, to go down to the YMCA or something, I don't care. That is fine if your market can support it, but you do need to outwardly be who you are, while still making sure that who you are is something people want to do business with.



John Fairbanks 12:47

On the marketing side. Yeah, we've never said this before. But it's something that our coaches and the people that we have followed now for years, say all the time, never outsource your marketing. Yeah, people do it. And the voice isn't right, you'll quickly realize that like the soul of your place is gone. And this is the ID where, who you are exactly what you said, the tie where you're identifying what your identity is, and how you want to come across. That needs to be an extension of who you are as a person, or how you want to be perceived. So it's crucial, just as we've seen some examples when we interviewed Hunter out of Alaska, he perfected his marketing and alignment for what was important to him, and important to his people. You have to do that exercise. You have to if you're going to own or you're going to run a business, never outsource your marketing. There's lots of stuff that we'll talk about over several episodes talking about how you can outsource things, how you can hand off certain tasks. We've been asking those questions inside of the Facebook group of things that could be offloaded. What are you doing that probably shouldn't be up to you to do. Marketing is not one that you hand off to some VA or you hand off to somebody and hope that they nail it. Yeah, they won't.



Tyler 14:15

Unless your plan has been yours and is constructed from the bottom up completely and then you're handing off a system like I don't know, come up with some ideas for me it'll be cool as if it's a train wreck. So that's the other thing is the voice has to match the tone has to feel the same so that when they see your stuff on social media, they're attracted to you now what you wish you are not what they wish you would be to you and what you're doing and what your business can do for them and if you're only talking about yourself and not what you can do for them, they won't come to you anyway so just make sure that that all that fits into this first kind of the the marketing side of setting expectations be genuine, be real.



John Fairbanks 14:53

I have to share. We know what it looks like when a gym owner starts to outsource too much of their marketing, to say to ADS people that run paid ads. And in those ads, videos, and images that aren't from your gym, that aren't sure people that aren't where you live.



Tyler 15:16

What happens when those people come into your gym and they're seeing videos that somebody, some other firm, just canned and put out there? Here's exercising people and just putting it out there? Well, the expectation is, it's showing a gym. Oh, that's what the facility looks like. And if that facility is dirty, and yours is clean, well, now you're really kind of screwing yourself if that facility is clean, and yours is dirty and rugged. Well, now you're screwed, you're attracting the wrong people. And we saw that to the point where people who are already members of this gym were like, What the fuck is this, like they were turned off when they were stumbling across these ads. Other people were coming in off the street, where they're looking in the building on Whoa, whoa, whoa. And now you're all red flags. So you need to really be careful. And again, this doesn't mean that you have to spend a fortune, but it just means that it's got to come from you, yourself, your place, and it needs to make sense. So we're gonna move on to the next phase, someone sees your marketing, you've done a good job showing what you are like, it's great you speak in your own voice or copywriting tone is connected to them, and then what you can do for them and everything is aligned. Then they reach out and make contact, they say, Hey, I'd like to maybe get started. Can we chat and you and you get them to take a meeting? Right now, expectations are beyond just the details of what we send in that correspondence to schedule the meeting. It is also how quickly do we respond to them? Right? This is now your first contact with them, if you can get back with them in between 510 minutes is a home run, right? 30 minutes is about as far as you want to let it stretch, honestly, you get much for 30 minutes, 45 minutes is the same as three hours in return. As far as like responding to a lead, in my opinion, in three hours is about the same as 910 12, which people's attention span their willingness to commit, they're like, what's the momentum that they've had that got them to this point has slowed dramatically, five minutes in, they are ready to rock and roll. So now when we set these expectations for this first contact, if you can get if you are, if you're a professional, you want to be professional, and you contact them right away in five minutes. As soon as you get this thing you contact them. and off you go. Well now what's that? What are they thinking, Oh, these guys are really professional, it's really slick. They care, I feel like somebody is going to be holding my hand and guiding me through this. Meaning you have immediately set the tone, that they're not going to be feeling adrift. And now when you schedule that first meeting, you need to make sure that they know they're not coming in to talk about all their feelings for two to four hours. They need to know that they're not coming in for some sloppy bait and switch either. They need to know exactly what is going on. This was a piece we talked about in good copywriting with Doug the other day and Doug we did some stuff with him in the university, it will put a lot of his stuff with us in the gear Academy as well for this copywriting stuff. Now, once you get people kind of interested, you do need to say, Okay, here's what these next steps are going to be. Just so you know, right? You walk into the place you go, okay, yeah, so we're gonna come in, we're gonna talk about our different packages from personal training to nutrition, whatever what make sure that that aligns with what your goal is, I'll show you some options where you can decide which which path you want to go forward so that they know they're gonna hear different things they know then that it's not about your schedule and your singular price or product. They know that you do more than one thing, they'll have an idea that you do many things, the wheels will start to turn, they'll start to make these little connections in their brain beforehand, which is exactly what you want to do. So during that time, we've now set the expectations for this to be a sales thing. I have learned this the hard way. Right. We've had some salespeople come in where we do some stuff through a different facility. And some of it like oh shit, these people are actually expecting this first thing to be more like a kind of a workout thing. Right? And it's like, oh, no, no, no, no. So now when I contact them, it starts with how long is it going to be, hey, I've got 25 minutes set aside, where I can be in we can talk about some options stuff and then I want to still maybe rub that scratch that itch for them a little bit. And then of course, I can show you around the gym if you have any questions and stuff like that, where they kind of feel like they wanted to be there because they wanted to see some equipment or learn a couple of things. After finding some stuff I don't close them, I still will walk them around the gym and show me the substrates and check this out. I like this for your hip. This will be cool and you still learn some trusses, you send them off, but you have to set those expectations ahead of time. We have not and we've had a couple people that have come in and they want to talk for an hour about nutrition. I sell Nutrition Services. I'm not here to talk to you about what you think you should be doing while you don't pay you can go to you can go to whatever fucking Plexus or Herbalife or whatever nonsense someone's someone's shoving around your neighborhood this month, you know, but, but that's not what I'm here to do. So, but you can vary you can really tightly figure that out in your correspond In this correspondence before this point is standard, and it should be standard that all this should feel can be totally canned, right copy, paste, hey, here's your appointment, we're going to get in here, here's what we're going to do, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom done, you send it to every person wants to schedule an appointment, here's what to expect from this meeting.



John Fairbanks 20:16

And what's really important is those follow ups, these things can be automated, really, for quite inexpensive platforms. The platform that we've used before right is Calendly is one that's really easy to use. They're several like that. But you can for very little investment, take care of text message, follow ups, email follow ups, were just like you said, Tyler, it is canned, to 30 minute meeting 25 minute meeting to this date at this time, you remind them or a day before



Tyler 20:54

you, your voice, your plan. Oh, totally. Yeah, that's the thing. This is the nice thing about this, like having an email sequence is not something that you can have someone else write a few, but they should pay attention to the voice that's being used. If it's not you, it should be something that should be the voice of your business, whatever that voice may be. And so that's a piece that we run into a lot with his people. I don't want to be just doing some canned shit. If people go too far into the pre homemade copy paste stuff, and it just sounds like nonsense. Short war, it's the opposite, where they're like terrified of Hello, I think it'll sound shitty. Trust me, if you're just winging it every day, it's gonna sound shitty and waste a ton of your time, too. And that's if you remember, if you remember you like us. Yeah, I forgot the thing. And then you're gonna notice this when you stumble over it every time now. And up to this point, guess what? All of this feels premium. Because the more the expectation, the more the experience feels guided, and professional, this feels professional. Right? It really does that every step who sets expectations, meaning when they come in, they see a 568 $10,000 package at the top. They're like, Oh, that makes sense. These guys fucking rule. You know, I mean, they've been really thorough. They've been very professional. They've been great with me, it's been a great experience. So far. I can't afford that. But maybe I'll find my way down to something I can't afford. And I'll be eager to spend that kind of money because, Boy, these guys seem to have their shit together. They have their shit together. It's making me feel good. Like they say it's not what you say. It's how you make people feel. That's extremely important. Hang on, John, your face is really fast.



John Fairbanks 22:24

And I will say I've touched on this before, but it's when I was looking to do some home improvement stuff. And at our house, the dudes that I chose, the ones I chose because they were the first ones to reach back out to me. Yeah, like that. Not only did they text message follow up, and they were the most expensive, so it wasn't that I was necessarily planning on spending that much. But when I had now dealt with three other jackwagon operations, that I wasn't getting calls back, or I would talk to somebody and then oh, yeah, I'll send you a quote. And then they ghost me for a day. These dudes immediately got messaged back, which was an autoresponder. You don't I mean, like, it's obvious that it is. But then I got a call within an hour. Have one guy following up and then being like, yeah, we want to set an appointment, we would love to be able to come and see what we can do. Immediately. I was like, Alright, this is different. This feels different. So never assume when you have a client that comes to you that they have not already had bad experiences with other gyms with other coaches. Don't ever assume that this is the first time they've ever thought about fitness. Yeah, if they're 17 Maybe, but the odds are they're coming to you. They're in their 30s they fucked up before people have screwed them over before they've owned a Globo gym membership before and there's a reason why they're not going back there. Like there's a lot of assumptions that you can make and the bar frankly, slow is so low for you to be able to kick ass and immediately differentiate yourself from everyone else that's in your community. If you just put in the effort to do it



Tyler 24:23

I can try yes if I can just say sitting around go guy why don't people coming into my fucking gym? Are you trying? Are you with somebody right away? Are you really being professional? You're being courteous. Are you not being too thirsty, you're desperate and guests come in to be professional. Now the reason you need to do all this by the way is it does increase your potential to close bigger ticket stuff as well. If your shits are all sloppy and you are the guy who ignored you and ghosted you for two days and then messaged you back and gave you a quote and it was the cheapest quote. Would you have gone with him? No, by the way he did. And you did it with him right? Because this is important, all this leads up to one of the things that I want to talk about before we get to the other side of the sale, is that price is only one piece of the value equation. Price. One piece, right? That's it. So there's a reason a really delicious, well crafted meal from a professional can cost $500. When each of those ingredients total, the all the ingredients combined might total fucking 8050 You know what I mean? But right, it's fucking good and you want it and you're interested, you're not going, that price is only one piece of the equation. Some people don't want to be cheap. And they definitely don't want a cheap and sloppy experience. And if you're a professional and your stuff feels slick, well boy, you seems like you probably if you're prepared for this, you're probably very well prepared to do the fucking job that what you say you're gonna, because guess what you call back when you said you're gonna you message me and told me what this was going to be like, and you know what it was when I got there exactly what you said it was gonna be like, now they're comfortable and they're willing to take a leap with you. Because they still don't know you can get them results, but they're comfortable enough to take that leap into trust away from all of the mistrust that's been earned in the fitness industry with them all the bait and switch it all the gyms at this show, and they don't get results to coaches who don't give a fuck the places that are not represented accurately and they show up. Oh, God, I hate this, you know, so you don't have to earn their trust. You don't, you just gotta be better than the ones that have earned their mistrust. Super important and that's by the way, it's fucking easy. Just try these few steps and the next one after the sale, you got them you got their money, guys, you win right? bucket. So how we're so now it's super important now because they are invested. But once people buy buyer's remorse Israel, first off now you're not gonna get a ton of people are gonna back out on the fitness thing, but they're gonna start to question their decision. Fear will set in once they commit all your momentum and professionalism has offset the fear of starting something new as it should you made them feel comfortable, that you've kind of removed that fear barrier of starting something new going into a gym with a bunch of fucking strangers and having to work hard and sweat and be coached and be pushed in a whole new journey if all this change. But you can't just let off the gas now. Okay, because all of this fear is going to start to well up now, because they're committed, they're here, they're on the other side of that, and the only thing that's with them now is the stuff they got to do. And the fact that they're fucking terrified of it. And there's doubt they don't know what the next steps are. So when you send them off after the sales meeting, after you close them, here's what I'm going to do. All right, I'm gonna send you an email, you'll have an email in about 30 minutes, I'll shoot it your way. It'll tell you everything you need to do from how you check into class, I'll have you sign a waiver stuff. It'll walk you through what to do on your first day, what to wear, who to wear, what it's going to be like, how it's going to be, what it's not going to be, lay out their first thing and also maybe give them another contact point after that. It's like, hey, let's, you know, just some feel good stuff, give them a little value, hey, we're gonna come in, make sure you drink some water, guys, it's gonna be tough. But drink a little water. Here's some stretching stuff for you to do after your first day, like get a little bit, you know, just do whatever you can do to make them feel like you give a shit. First off, and just let them know that this isn't some big void that they're having to wander into. Because if you've ever put yourself in the shoes of your client, a new client, that's what it's like, they sound like okay, well, the only thing they know is the time after they bought. All right, well, here's what we're gonna do. I'm just gonna go in there. And, you know, like, in my case, when I first started, I guess I'm just gonna go be fat in front of all these fit people at 6am. And hope nobody's going to be a dick. Yeah, just hope. And so cover, what are all the things that they're worried about? Covering all of them. Come on in and take a look around, you know, make sure everyone here is super friendly. So feel free to introduce yourself. I'm sure plenty of our members will come and introduce themselves to you. If you have any questions, you want shirts, apparel, drinks, that's all here. We'll get into the workout right away. Don't worry, the warm ups are all going to be guided. If you want to just hang out and get loose and chit chat before we start, go forward. Or you can hop on a bike and get one class we'll get started. There'll be no you won't have to worry about any of the coaches holding your hand the whole time. Like you're not going to be left adrift in the ocean of fit people. Okay? address those concerns, politely, concisely and directly and like, man, these people will be really excited for their first day because he said, Oh, you know what? The thing that I thought it was going to be? It's not going to be that thank God. And that again, that is the perfect way to set that expectation. diffusing confusion. That's all you need to do to defuse confusion at this point.



John Fairbanks 29:43

The one thing that I think needs to be said is the price should cause them. To be worried,



Tyler 29:53

though.



John Fairbanks 29:55

Like it's, if you're not expensive enough for someone to think about and aren't invested in working with you, your coaches are at your gym, then you're competing in the wrong market. I don't have a bunch of nerves about what it's going to feel like to show up on the planet fitness. It Costs $5 to go.



Tyler 30:18

Yeah, everyone in Planet Fitness has nerves about a guy like me showing up at Planet Fitness. That's a different thing. Right? And it is, but you know why? Here's props to Planet Fitness. We all fucking know what they are what they aren't. Expectations have been set like it or not, absolutely. I know. I'm not welcome there. I know, I don't want to go there. We're fine. Like I don't even like I don't have to shit on it either. That's not shitting on. They are for people who are not mean, they're not for 300 plus pounds strongman competitors with fucking head tattoos. This is just, it's just not so perfect.



John Fairbanks 30:52

lean into it. There is no, that anxiety isn't there. So has to. It's important because we talked about how important it is to be able to make sure your offer is maximized, razor sharp, that you can fulfill and truly provide high amounts of value for the people you work with. But if you're going to play this game, you must. It's mandatory. You have to make sure every single thing you do next, which is this whole episode about, is that these things are equally sharp. Because that investment requires it. And if you can do these things, now, you have something that's really special.



Tyler 31:35

Yeah. So after the sale, you've got all this stuff established before they go into their first class. Right? That is perfect, right? You've got them comfortable. They're there. Now you have a little bit of nurturing to do and there's any number of things you can do there, right? You can muster up some supplements in it, you can drop in, like, hey, two weeks in, you fucking sore. Right? That's a question like you probably are sore, right? Tell you what we talked about supplements in our first meeting, I know you pass or whatever, but that's just so you know, if you're feeling sore, or your nutrition program, we're having a hard time keeping up on your protein. Here's some supplements we got if you're interested, right? But you're always just saying like, Hey, I know what it's like where you're at. Here's the thing that we can do. Right? You can reach out about everything from, you know, how's it going, just a simple check in this, this ends up becoming, you know, the stuff that we when we walk through all the real specifics of this, and literally build it with you in the gear Academy. This is essentially your master email list master contact sequence that we all build your master email sequence. And that's the thing that we do inside the gear Academy gyms, we build every step, not just kind of this, these little touch points, but like the big details for your business to maximize the sales. Going forward from here now, you need to make sure that now they understand that everything once they've gone into their first class, their first training session now that they're there are still knowing that they're going to be contacted about other things, other services, other things that they can do, you know, every What if a person came in and doesn't choose any accessor, any other programs will Great. Shoot them a message and say, Hey, we're going to contact you after the first few months, we'll check in with you to see how you're getting along with your goals. And then, you know, we'll run some of our other services. If you're interested in trying something new at that point, always let them know that there's something fresh that they can do. Because guess what, most of your people out there most people that we thought were gym owners do more stuff than people buy. First off, they offer so many services they are terrified to ask. And if they ask, they only ask in one email a fucking year if they're lucky, or one email ever, and then they never ask again. But people need to know like the expectation now is for you, you expect them to be interested in some of the shit at some point, you say like, Hey, as time goes on, you know, you may want to move into our powerlifting club or if you want to get into some of our weekend running stuff, and we have these other things. So people very often enjoy our group classes and then get enthusiastic about something else. We want to make sure that we can deliver that for you. Boom, and now they're going oh, there's other shit here. And you know it. He's kind of expecting me to be interested in that stuff. We'll see how that goes. And they're expecting now that they're going to see something new in front of them. And also they see that other people actually do it. So they feel like other people are buying this stuff because it exists.



John Fairbanks 34:24

It's putting money in the bank, from the very beginning. Right, my son is starting to do where he has to fundraise, right? And raise sponsorship dollars for his sports teams, which means he has to go ask people for money. So it's a sales transaction. And one of the things that I'm talking to him about now is all the kids on his team are fucking striking out and getting nothing. They get nothing in return. The coach has contacted everybody and their sister and nobody calls them back. And my son goes for two on his very first two hours. asks, He was hoping to get 25 bucks and get 250. Why did we go, we ate at the establishment and we showed our faces. He made the request. We have a form that's broken down with options that's customized for the group, right? Those things, investing us sitting and eating my son's like, Well, why don't we just drop the stuff off? Why don't we just drop the things off? We can hit a bunch of people all at once. Mike, this is what makes it different. And why are you getting the calls back. Yeah, is that those little messages, the idea that before someone has even said yes to you, that come to your business, they think they want to do business with you, from the very beginning, you are putting money in that bank in that person, because you are showing that you care, before you're financially supposed to. Yeah, they haven't given you any money. And as you do this every step, as you laid out Tyler, before the sale, during the sale, post sale, going into the classes, you are putting money in that bank of these people who care about me. So when you do make the ask, that's the time you get to withdraw all of those things that you've done. And that's why it works. Because if you don't put money in that bank, and you go to withdraw with some pre canned shitty script that you bought,



Tyler 36:37

you're just begging. That's all you're doing is begging man, and people don't want to but even when it could, this is the thing I get to do all the fucking time, especially with even with our business. I didn't do it from this as we work our way into kind of the MMA and fighting space. I get asked fucking fighters if I want to sponsor them. I'm like, for what? The end, you know, and I get it, you need money. But guess what, I don't have enough money to just give you for nothing. There's no value in return. Now we do some affiliate stuff for you. If you want to send some leads my way and we get them to some of our programs. I'll give you a percentage of all that for sure. I'm not giving you fucking money. What are you talking about? Right? And you need you as you all are business owners, you get hit up for every goddamn 5k and whatever. But maybe some of those things where they come in and say, Hey, will you sponsor a weekend Fun Run? Well, maybe that has value to you, because you're gonna go some of your members are going to go some of your members are a part of the thing, maybe. But also, what is that audience? Bunch of fit people fit adjacent people who maybe would be interested in joining a gym. So I'm not saying it's a huge negative, right? But that is why maybe that works, right? Someone comes out and wants you to sponsor their fucking somebody you don't know who has no connection to your gym and wants you to sponsor some cornhole tournament outside where none of your members are going and there's no you don't get anything in return. There's no question. There's no microphone time, there's no nothing. Putting a fucking sign up on a fence that it means it does nothing for you, and does nothing. So I have no desire, I have no desire to commit to something like that. Because of the value, there is not enough value. So people will buy if it feels valuable, your stuff will feel valuable all the way through, you'll care, you'll invest. Now the other thing that you did with you and Mike going in and going into these places, you know for it's a good lesson for him to learn. But it is you who went in and you've added value. You've experienced the thing that they do, you've paid for it. You're already as far as they go like a real dude than the ones that just came in and dropped a piece of paper on the thing and said, Would you like to give me money because that is just begging. That is all it is. So as a gym owner, as a person who's trying to get into sales to make some bigger ticket sales to make sales easy. You feel like you're trying to extract sales out of people, you're not setting expectations better. They don't trust you up to the point that it should be so easy to get people to cough up money. I had a client the other day who came in and he bought and signed up and did the whole thing. He was excited. He didn't even think about half the shit I put in front of him. Didn't even hardly think about it pays for all the training stuff. And he says yeah, I'll bring the nutrition money and on day one. Okay, cool, cool. I don't even remember how much he had charged, how much he had picked. We got done training and I was like, he had sweaty money in his pocket. After his first training session. He's like, I brought it I brought it I brought this man is eager to give me money. Like he's just eager to do it. And that's how it should be guys because we've set it all they want to do business they know you care. They're excited about the experience. That is what setting the right expectations is, is they're going to be optimistic about everything. Everything is now framed in the way that they want it to be that they're going to know exactly, by the way at any step of the way. You must do one of these things. If you say we have a super welcoming community, and everyone has somebody who will come in and shake your hand, feel free to come in and just chat up everybody's really great and people. Can you come in and you got some snobs in your gym? And by the way, even a couple bad eggs. That person's done if that person gets rubbed right wrong the wrong way, once by one asshole that you haven't put in check in your gym. Now he's causing you new business. And this is the nice thing about the fitness industry is you're not starting, you're not making a ton more money from one person to the next. The truth is beyond your initial thing, meaning I don't care how much fucking money this guy makes or how much personal training he buys. And you want the hassle one or two clients that now think that your gym sucks, and they go tell five people that has a snobby place and, and it's all because of this one guy, no matter how much money he gives you, you should have cut them off like fucking cancer the day you figured out that that's what he's like. And every Jim's got a few of those. So if you want to be the welcoming place, you better make sure that all your people, they get a little attitude, they get a little saucy or condescending to new people, you better have a hard conversation with them and say this is not what we do. Because you can't just talk about it. When it comes to expectations. You can't talk about it, you actually have to be about it. Because as soon as you disappoint on those expectations, you're now a fucking liar. As far as their wide angle lens, your wide angle lens man and people are going to walk and go gross. Get me out here, you wasted my time, I hate you. It's your fault, you have totally under delivered. And under delivering in this business just makes you look as bad or worse than everybody else.



John Fairbanks 41:17

On the topic of people being excited to give you money. Our video coach literally talked about this last week, we are sitting with her on a call and she goes if you do these things, right? You will never have to ask. People will want to give you money. Because you will have the right marketing, the right expectations. Everything is set to where you are speaking directly to the people that you want to attract to come do business with you that they're going to say, How can I work with you? How can I start doing what you do? I want to do the same things I want you to help. I want you to help me. And then you literally just tell them the price and they it's like the idea is like just shut up and take my money or throw money at you. That is what happens.



Tyler 42:09

Yeah, so guys setting expectations. You got to plan it, it's gotta be you meaning what you got to be it's got to be worth a shit make sure that that's the first thing be good. Y'all are good coaches. I know y'all have a lot of passion for what it is again we're in this place where we like helping people turn their passion into a profession. You've already got that so this is how you turn that into a professional being professional be it tell them that this is how you're going to be and off you go so tell we're going to be about it be about it and follow through on it that's all we got for this week. Guys, Jesus got in gear. The Academy is up and running. So if you want in on this shoot us a message message us at either the gym owners podcast you can message me directly on Instagram at Tyler Elphinstone Mr. John at Jay banks FL you can also email us at the dudes at hacker gym.com We'll and make sure to get in the Facebook group and ask any questions there but your academy we are helping people do all of these things but literally not just in this like loose concept ship like a giveaway for you to charge for this one but we do all of this stuff in a much more literally like do this right this we check that these things are done done done done beginning to end from Master email sequences to supplement launches to all these things you want to your offers your sales systems to time management to delegation to all the shit new product launches we so anything you want to do over the course of this 12 months, right we can pick one or two of these at a time and we hold your feet to the fire we hold you accountable and you start to get shit done. So that's what you can expect from us in the gear Academy. I promise so shoot us a message if you want in on that if you're ready to start making this next year the biggest year in your business and tell your other gym owner friends about this podcast guys we get more people in the Facebook group that'd be super so we've it's grown by Jesus doubled in the last month or two at least so so things are going really really well. But we'd like to get more of you like minded gym owners and their guys if you want to soul this business, feel free to move on if you're ready to make your business like you and get big results and you can really, I think earn the money that your services should deserve. Start working with us directly because that's what we're here to do. So thanks a lot everybody follow me on Instagram at Tyler Elphinstone John, at J



John Fairbanks 44:23

banks FL Alright, see you guys next week.