Rising ABOVE Your Competition is EASY

gym, people, business, professionalism, work, expectations, results, clients, talking, week, money, coaches, brand, brand recognition, tyler, piece, john

Tyler 00:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to this week's episode of the gym owners podcast. I'm your disingenuous radio host having the voice of Tyler stone. John is over there. Hi, John, how are you doing? I'm over here. Hi, Tyler. We're getting through the day guys, I haven't exploded myself, we're running through a podcast, you don't need to do a podcast apparently. But it seems like I've needed my knee to do any real meaningful, productive work this week, it has been a mother fuck I was just sitting in anything makes me go, I'm gonna not do this. I'm gonna go back downstairs and sit on my chair for eight more hours. But this is the world we're living in, guys. This week's episode, we're gonna talk about what you can do to stand out above and beyond the competition in your area, your direct competition, you don't have to be the fanciest gym in the world. But what gyms are people choosing from when your gym is in the conversation? And what can you do to rise above them, and we're gonna tell you, it's pretty fucking easy, really, really is. If you objectively look back and take a look at it, it is not that hard to set yourself apart, and to set yourself much much above the rest of the competition. So before we get started, make sure you get into the gym owners revolution, Facebook group links in our description. Don't miss it. That's where all the party is happening. And if you want to work with us directly, we have the gear Academy. As our business coaching product, we say we help you take your business from where it is to where you want it to be. And we do it really with a constant focus on doing things the right way. Okay, we're not coming in to have you do the slimy shit, we're not turning your gym to some turn and burn bait and switch fucking lead lead producing monster that doesn't get your clients results at the expense of your own brand, we're here to make sure that your gym can have its cake and eat it too and pay you well in the process. So if you want it on that go to gym owners revolution.com or the link in our descriptions for that gear Academy. It's our best product. It's, I will say, this spot where John and I are able to have the most impact, wide reaching impact in regards to the fitness industry and making sure that we're changing the way that things are getting done. That's why it's the gym owners revolution. So get in there, follow the show at the gym owners podcasts on Instagram, make sure you subscribed to the show, however you're listening to it. So video versions of the show are going down in the Facebook group. So follow John at j banks FL follow me at Tyler effing stone on Instagram. And let's get right into it. So take a look around at your competition. I want you guys to know one thing: we've looked at lots of gyms. John, we've done research for some content creation we've been doing where we have looked at 10 gyms in each state that's 500 gyms 100 Not including the Great, what is it? Puerto Rico, what is what is what,



John Fairbanks 02:39

what is the territory to the US we made, we did not count the



Tyler 02:44

outlying territories, but we would have 500 gyms. And we were perusing their social media. And of course, social media is not the best indicator of how things are going in the business and what they're doing as far as results. But it does give you a good sense for what they're putting out outwardly. And I'm going to tell you guys, if you want to stand above your competition, it's not that hard, it only takes a little bit of effort. It's really, the title of this episode we're working in the bar is so low, you guys, it is not that hard. Okay, short of being a large scale, 24 hour fitness gym, where you need to have half a million and a million dollars worth of equipment, if that's your goal, go for it, save the money or whatever, start doing what you're doing now and start building or fucking it up the bank, get investors, I don't care what you need to do. But short of that, right? Actually it doesn't cost that much money to get into the fitness industry, almost any schmuck can do it. You know, I did it with a 401 K that I beefed up for just a couple years. And I was like fuck, liquidate it, let's open a gym, you know, it's not that hard to do. So the barrier to entry is very low, which means the effort that people are putting into actually growing and developing in your area, it's not that high, it's really not high and very much. So what a lot of people in the fitness industry do is put all their effort into getting open into having a gym and to becoming a gym owner, to having the equipment and getting things out there. And then they stop trying as well. And that's the thing, if you're the one putting the effort in for social media in marketing, into actually actually putting the effort into getting your clients results. And that's a big one, you will almost instantly float above head and shoulders above all of your competition, and not just in performance and not just in sales, not just in public interest. But like you literally will, Your people will get better results and the public perception all around your town is that that is the place and that happens. Very quickly. I will say this if you spend a year like we do in the gear Academy, diligently building your marketing around the fact that you actually get clients results and if you don't change in your system so that you do, okay, like really, really making that the focus of what we're trying to do here and speaking about it and maintaining a very high level of professionalism in the process of creating a premium experience, it doesn't have to just be expensive or hoity toity, but just like an experience is focused on the things that people want. One year, one year, I will guarantee you, you will have an absolute paradigm shift as far as what the reputation of your gym is, what the word is on the street, and the amount of people that are just chomping at the bit to do business with you.



John Fairbanks 05:21

That's one year though, if you know what you're looking for. You don't I mean, if you it's a year off of making, because the one thing that we definitely have noticed Tyler going through the 500 Plus Instagram accounts is 97% 97% of what we were looking at, either looked at the same as everything else, and it was dogshit. And ultimately I don't think it's the gym owners fault for why it looks dogshit in my opinion, or why it completely misses the mark. Because if you don't know a thing it can be it's hard to know what I'm looking at as what's good and what's bad. Yeah. And the fitness



Tyler 06:09

equivalent to coming in. And I'll get on the elliptical for 30 minutes and hope that you get abs by the time it's all said and done. With your business.



John Fairbanks 06:18

Do you exercise? Yeah, I do. And it's interesting marketing.



Tyler 06:24

Some posts.



John Fairbanks 06:26

And so and the reason why it's poking fun is because it's the problem is the reason why it's not your fault. Are the examples that you're seeing the examples of what you think it's supposed to look like you see everybody else's, and it looks like this, you do? Oh, well, I'm gonna post them that look like that. That's the reason why the bar is so low, because you don't know what you're supposed to be doing. And so that's where we end up taking where you may, it's the most deadly place to be, as a business owner, is to think, Oh, why? I've got that covered. I'm good. I've got that. And if you feel like well, I gotta cover because yeah, but don't we post I, my coaches, they've been posting for us for years on social media. And among



Tyler 07:14

coaches, they seem to be young and social media savvy. It's like, yeah, that's not what this is, dude.



John Fairbanks 07:21

And there's a very specific formula. And really, from what we're starting to see, there's really certain categories of content that need to be out there. And if you're missing, though, if you're missing those pieces of content, it just comes down to where you at the gym owner know it to be true, which is what we're not hitting, I'm not getting as many leads or I wish I could have more members or I'm not making as much money or you know, folks or folks leave or whatever it is whatever the things are, a lot of times it just comes down to are you crafting? Are you perfecting that narrative of what you do, what results that you are bringing to the table and are helping people achieve? Is that being said, because you're saying lots of things via social media, or you're saying lots of things, but oftentimes the things that don't connect, and they don't resonate with anyone that actually has a choice of going to your gym or not.



Tyler 08:16

Yeah. And to start the first I would say, Geez, what are we looking at here? Let's see, the first 75% of this conversation is going to be one thing and one thing only everything else falls under this umbrella. And that is the expectation. Okay? Now, there's a lot of things we use to set expectations, but that expectation should involve a capital P professionalism. Okay. That means like the way you speak on social media, it should be your tone, for sure, for sure. But just know that there is no shortage of fitness stuff going on out there with some kind of loose agreement with nothing really being sure about what's going on and what's gonna happen and who this person really is. And I promise you, if you over deliver on the professionalism in every contact that you make, whether it's direct or indirect, whether it's just social media, whether it's someone emails, you know, whether it's follow up or setting appointments, or whatever it is, if you can over deliver on the professionalism side, you you won't have to see a person or coach a person before they will start to speak or about you about how good your business is. It's really, really, really wild.



John Fairbanks 09:30

I had an experience last couple of weeks of interacting with some sports specific personal trainers, sports specific personal trainers and talking to them about their business model and listening kind of how they run their business. And it wasn't at one particular location. So this was consistent across multiple locations, either trainers that were already at a gym at a facility that let them kind of act as entrepreneurs and do their own thing. Out of that facility, all the way to somebody that doesn't have a facility and just does it on their own, and kind of has their own kind of spots, that's kind of like a closet in the wall, all the way to a sports specific gym. 45 minutes north, right and, and all, all four of these trainers had the exact same on fucking professional model that was done in the guise of convenience. And convenience was how you pay and how they handle payments. And how they handle payments is cash only. No commitments, confirming the day before whether or not you're going to show up or they show up. And kind of this week, it really



Tyler 10:47

exists on a realistic schedule to know where you fit in your next month with them is completely up in the air including the next day.



John Fairbanks 11:00

And all hinges off of a text message being delivered 24 hours prior crazy. And I go how many clients do you have? Well, you know, I have 45, and my brother has 32. And I was like, and you guys are texting people the day before? Every single week.



Tyler 11:24

Also, this is not a confirmation. This isn't this isn't like, hey, reminder, our session is tomorrow. This is our Oh, are we having this appointment? This isn't this isn't a follow up system, by the way. Because if these are describing, I don't mind somebody getting if you're if you're running a calendar, I don't mind somebody getting a 24 hour notice, saying like, Hey, you have this appointment on this day, there's a big difference between a reminder and what this is. And this is like scheduling on the fly. It's fucking crazy.



John Fairbanks 11:55

And so to think about it is if you're always thinking about, am I gonna be paid tomorrow? How much better of a coach Could you be? If that isn't the thought process? How much more could you be doing? If you're not texting 45 people a week to confirm whether or not you're making money that next week.



Tyler 12:22

And every piece that I'm going to tell you this back to on the expectations piece, we always want to bridge back to the client side as well, right. And in this piece, you're essentially doing single day commitments on short notice for the most part, and that turns into something where these clients are not invested for the long term, not at all. They don't know that they're not in like I'm in this for 12 weeks, I'm in this I'm committed, the money hasn't left their hands, which means the commitment is not made, there's always an opt out psychologically that isn't out for them. And they always have it. Okay by getting people to commit upfront and it doesn't have to be the be all and end all. But I promise you this if I had 10 people, okay, and half of them were paying literally session to session confirming 20 to 24 hours before and the other half. Were paying me flat out like the whole 12 weeks up front. The half the pay it up front what I will guarantee you will get better results. I mean, it's a foregone conclusion. And also half the pay up front is guaranteed. I'm guaranteed to get all their money. Right. And there is no way that that so once that once I close that deal, that deal is done, my time slot is locked in, we're good to go. That's because again, your system needs to be designed not just for professionalism for your sake, okay. But it needs to be done so that it makes things so that the client can worry about the only thing that matters, which is all they got to do is show up and all they got to do is do the things I tell you nutrition wise, training wise, whatever if that experience is easy, then the only thing they're doing is getting the car and go into the place. That's it , this is a thing a lot of people miss when I talk about setting expectations or making appointments or however it is you're doing this. It needs to make it as easy as possible for people to do business with you literally to pay to get informed whatever this is John with some of the online products we've sold. It's insane the difference if you have to make somebody make one more click Oh, yeah, something the drop off is crazy. And so when you're talking like okay, they don't know until the day before Well, you know, what they have done is they have all week they can make a plan for that day. And then you can shoot him a message and be like, Hey, are we doing this tomorrow? And they say no, I got a thing that came up. Versus if it was all on the schedule for the next three months. Problem solved. Yep. And then all you're doing is damage control when there is a conflict and that's it. You're only addressing and solving problems instead. This way. You're creating a problem every single time anyone who is doing this scheduling on the fly, you're out of your damn mind you're sending the amount of text messages you're sending is nuts. It's It's crazy,



John Fairbanks 14:58

no extra money. So That's where it's like, it's, it's not even Where's I? Well, you know, we can go to this session, but it's more expensive because I need to be able to know that you're in it. Yeah, you gotta know that you're here. Because think about it even psychologically from a client's perspective, and then also from you as a coach's perspective, it's what kind of result like what kind of results Am I looking to try and get? If it's just kind of like, well, maybe we'll see each other every week. Yeah. And then what type of results are you prepping to try and help a client get, you can't, if you are going session to session, and you are mapping out anything more than literally that next day. ahead of time, it's a waste of your goddamn time. Yeah, but the guy that gives you the cash for 12 weeks, or six weeks upfront, or even, even if it's just fucking four weeks up front, for the month, you're covered, at least you now have a plan for an actual continuity, to be able to get people the results. And then debt keeps them common and keeps and this



Tyler 16:03

is why we front load the money on everything that we do. And even in our consulting business, for the most part, we try to front load the money because that's where all the work is. Right? It is just where the work is. So like, sometimes the worst thing you can do is close a bunch of sales that don't have a bunch of money up front, in hopes that you're going to fulfill over the next year because that's really hard to do. Because you're like, Ah, now I gotta bring him in, I gotta onboard I get 20 new people, they're gonna jam up my classes. 20 new people that don't know anything. 20 new plans, I gotta write up 20 new ones, like, it's just a lot of stuff. And it's just not always worth it for the money that you're if you're only going month to month or session to session. It's crazy. So now the next thing too, though, outwardly, right with your social media, is that professionalism should be done in the tone as well. Right? That should be the way it is you should speak about what the process is that you, you know, we're fucking are fucking adults here. And maybe you know, if you're a badass Swat, whatever it is, and you're just, you're edgy. And we just, you know, we're, we're a dirty, grimy, strange gym. That's okay, too. But like, I need to know that I'm dealing with fucking adults here, not criminals. Like that, it's super important. Like, like, the place can be extreme and hardcore and stuff. But like, the relationship should be defined thoroughly, upfront, and that should still be defined professionally. And if it's not, you don't have a business, you have a club, and that's okay, too. But then don't complain to me because you're not making enough money. But you



John Fairbanks 17:29

can have really badass content that's grungy and feels dangerous. And still can be very, very professional. Of course, yeah, you don't I mean, like, so it can still be really sharp, and be like, Oh, that looks like a fucking dungeon in there where people are tortured. And it's like, and that looks awesome. Because that's who you're trying to attract. But you don't want it to be again, like that professionalism of like, this is gonna sound it gets starts getting a little Catty, but it's like, it's fucking photos of like, your photos are blurry. Like, the videos are shitty. Like, it's like, if it's, it looks shitty. At some point. You're exactly right. But it all comes down to like, like you said, like, the expectations and professionalism of can you charge? If you look like you can only max out and charge people $40



Tyler 18:22

That's it. You've set your ceiling. Yeah. Yeah. Now, on the other side. When it comes to expectations, and professionalism, we've kind of gotten into like, what people are thinking coming in what they know. But the moment they make contact with you, whether they're coming in for the first class, let's say after you've sold them, right, even after you've got them sold. Now you've got someone and this is your moment to over deliver. And so if you want to put effort into this for things like retention, and when people join a new gym, they're ready to start a new thing. They're excited and they talk right. But if they have any uncertainty about what is going on, or what the fucking plan is, or how it really is going to work for them, they're going to kind of not be that loud about it, they're not gonna talk to their friends about it near as much as if they got everything explained to them in a way that's great. One thing is that we were working on quite a bit with the you know, the MMA community that we the MMA gym and stuff that we work with is building a sequence in which when people people are getting all of their concerns put to rest after they've signed up meaning like hey, here's the rules of the spot. We don't want people coming in not knowing what to do you know weird is walking in a new place where everyone's like doing violence to each other friendly but like you don't know where you can step with shoes and where you can't where you hang up your stuff or like what the rules are what you say you go to some of these places and they're fucking about some picture of fucking Helio crazy on the fucking what like, like if you're a regular person on the street like this fucking weird dude. But you can also be a place that doesn't do that and but that should be no like, hey, we don't do any of that stuff. But here's what we do. That's super important to know. I mean, it really really is what to bring. You know, that would be nice. To tie your belt or what shoes are best, if I join a CrossFit gym, hey, here's the shoes that are going to be best for you. Like, here's some types that will work for you. Great, here's some types you should try to avoid. And here's the reasons why. Now the best part about this, you don't have to create all that content. You can, you can just find a subject, find somebody else out there on YouTube, or whatever this speaks, or an article, a blog, article, whatever that agrees with you on this thing, and you send them that. And by the way, they're probably better at it, more charming on camera than you, their contents better cost them a fortune to make, just use that. Just use that and send it to him and mark that down in your process. That's a placeholder. And if there's any one of those pieces of content that eventually you want to freshen up, or you want to be able to say your thing on camera about it, then you upgrade that. But this allows you to fold in all of these points of contact with no effort short of identifying what you want to be where, right. How do you know in a boxing gym, how do you know what your sparring philosophy is? Are you one of these go hard places, you just give each other CTE every fucking all the time, it doesn't matter who you are, what you're trying to do? Or do you have an actual, you know, philosophy about it? No, we do it like this, it should look like this also, and here's why. There's videos out there that you don't have to make. So this is what we try to do here. That way, people are gonna see that and go, Ah, they're immediately warmed up by the place, right? They can also use some of that material as advertising as well, totally. Hey, we know it looks, you know, that looks extreme. But actually, this is our flood. And again, you don't have to fucking make everything from scratch, you don't have to. But that stuff. Again, it's expectations. All they need to do is know. All they want to do is know they need certainty. Anytime there's uncertainty in your uncertainty, frankly, in my opinion, equals professionalism. It's there, it's almost nearly hand in hand in a business relationship. If anything is undefined. That's what I view as things being unprofessional. Like, I'll fucking call an electrician and the guy doesn't really answer and you leave them a message and then call you back and nothing happens. That's unprofessional. You call them any answers. And he says, Yeah, I'll get there later today. While that is great, you're going to hear that that is also unprofessional. I don't know, what does it mean, here's what we did, when we were in the contracting business, when we were in the service industry, you would get called with a call, right? And it was perfect, we will make sure that we will call it looks like it'll be about this time, but we will call you within an hour. And I'll give you an hour's notice. You have to be home because we're going to miss set all the expectations, our technician is going to find out what's wrong. And he's gonna give you some options you're gonna have to choose, right, so you're gonna need, you're gonna, someone's gonna need to be home to let them so they know that they also know they're gonna get a call an hour before and they know roughly about what time it's going to be. Then they get a phone call an hour before saying, Hey, Tyler, our technician is going to be there. They see they get a text message, with a picture of Tyler in front of his van, so they know what his vehicle looks like to know what he looks like. They know he's friendly. They know he wears regular fucking clothes. I know he's not a psycho. Right? Tyler's gonna be here, there's little bio shows how long have you been doing the thing, you know what I mean? It's all great. So then they know that a professional grown up, who knows how to do this is going to come here, he's going to find out what's wrong, and he's going to give them options. And then they're going to be able to choose how they want to proceed. That's perfect. They know now exactly how everything is gonna go. That is professionalism, and you pull the plug on any one of those pieces of information that you're giving them, your business appears less professional than the one before it.



John Fairbanks 23:28

And you will sell and make less money. Absolutely. It doesn't. And it feels so abstract. Because this is also another piece where it's what closing rates we get when we went hard at the idea of sales objections a few episodes ago, and how, you know, essentially stopped being a piece of shit and worried about sales objections. Yeah. And it's, but the reason why is that it's, there are so many pieces that come before the actual pitch, that probably are going to be the difference maker. That is the difference maker of whether you will close a low tier, mid tier or a high tear sale. Because just like you said, expectations have been set. Right? I'm not confused. I know exactly what to expect. So I'm walking in as a consumer, whether it's a technician coming to my home to help me with my H back unit, or whether I am going to a gym to make a decision. Maybe the one of the things that you didn't reiterate that you threw in there. That was the first thing that gets said to the person that's making the appointment, which is you're going to be making a decision. So they're already warmed up with Hey, we're gonna give you some options to be able to choose from to be able to help you, you know, do what you want to be able to get done.



Tyler 24:50

And that that removes the what is your price, right part of the conversation like oh, there's there's options. I'm gonna take a look to see what we can choose from right so I'm



John Fairbanks 24:58

so warm and I'm so ready that when I'm there, the person really dresses like an adult and speaks like an adult. Everything continues to be sharp, man. It's just like what you're doing is you are slowly just helping someone up a value ladder. Just they're hanging up these steps.



Tyler 25:19

Let me tell you the easiest thing that your gym can do because John you just mentioned this dress is like an adult easiest thing policy that your gym can implement to make things way easier on anyone who walks into your door. Have your coaches all wear fucking the same shirt? Same uniform. It's not unreasonable. Okay? They get to wear fucking sweat pants and shorts and whatever the fuck else they want. Okay, these fucking divas male and female divas all of these fucking coaches can wear a shirt with the gym logo on it. That's the same color that says coach on the back. So that when they walk into a space, they don't just see a sea of fit people off bucket ignoring them. when new people come in if you don't have so there's, I see an I mean, in every business I go to, John, I've been in gyms in fucking a lot of countries, a lot of other countries, a lot of states and have a lot of different types of gyms and finding out who the fuck works there is crazy hard. If and not only that, some of them just stand there and look around like



John Fairbanks 26:21

you're just an adult. So I need an adult your eye,



Tyler 26:24

right? That's another moment of uncertainty. Uncertainty equals unprofessionalism. Okay, uncertainty on behalf of the client means your business is performing less professionally, really, really is when I go to Apple, I know what's going on. I know what's going to happen. When I order an iPhone, it's going to show up, it's going to be packaged beautifully. I know I'm not going to get a charger anymore, which I hate. But I know it. I'm not surprised anymore. I know what because all that information is out there. I know the packaging is going to be great. The unboxing is going to be a very sleek experience. That thing's gonna feel great in my hands. It's all wonderful. But any hiccup in those expectations like the first time I ordered a phone and didn't get a charger. That was a thing for me. What just happened here?



John Fairbanks 27:06

They forgot it was assholes. No, you brought up an interesting point. I think about any industry. That's really like top of class, or even the ones that aren't? Well, certainly bad examples are just as good as good examples. I'm staying on as a good example. But like, fast food. Yeah. Chick fil A? Yep. I don't even get the opportunity to get to the fucking box anymore. To order.



Tyler 27:37

Also what are they were always



John Fairbanks 27:41

like really pristine uniforms. Everybody looks the same in and out. Say it, same thing. And I don't even get to get to the box. Now I have a kid that walks up with a tablet essentially greets me by name, you know, wants to know my name. And then and then makes the order and essentially is turned a thing where I'm kind of I feel really



Tyler 28:03

rushed. There's a long line. Now this person is talking.



John Fairbanks 28:07

I don't know what I want. And I can't really hear through the two way shit radio and no, now I have a human that's right in front of me. And they're asking me and now it's almost like a conversation of what I would like to eat. It is a significant difference in just a fast food experience talking about, enhancing the most shitty possible experience of what it means to get food in your face.



Tyler 28:30

And if you want your staff to be treated respectfully. The dress is nice. They just do it just nice. It works. If you're like, if you go to a fast food restaurant, and everybody's just wearing whatever t-shirt they would wear on the street. Like most fucking gyms do. By the way, most gyms most coaches, most personal trainers, they all dress like whatever the fuck they were gonna wear that day. That would be unacceptable in every line of fucking work cake. Why? Because I don't fucking know who's in charge here. And I got to what I have to have been here for a week or two, I have to have seen every person on staff and remembered their face separately from all the other people that I've had to meet in this goddamn place in the last month. And I got to know who works here and who doesn't just now suddenly. That's fucking hard. That's weird , it's a weird thing the gym owners do. And I'm telling you, it's super easy. require your fucking coaches to wear a uniform. That's it. That's it. It's not hard. You don't have to by the way, you don't have to do it. I don't give a shit. You're not paying me any money. I don't care what you do or not. I'm just telling you that like if you want your business when someone comes in and sees your gym to be perceived as like a real thing, like a real thing done by real adults so that a person who makes real money and has real goals is willing to pay that real money to your real business to do some real shit. That fucking everything aligns with that statement. Versus like, I don't know I came in there's just some fit guy with a hat on backwards trying to ignore me. All right. Well, that's what it is. Now, the other side of this is what I want to run next on the expectations bit, right, we want to run internally, externally, and in the sales process. So we've talked about this a million times, but testimonials are the name of the game, if you're the place that looks the part. And your branding is on point. And it's great, and I don't see anything about what anyone is accomplishing and your placement. And it's really hard, which by the way, your brand being a place to get Equinox, right, it's a big name brand, it's a very expensive product, it's not a place that is hanging his hat on everybody going I'm getting a bunch of 2030 4050 pound weight loss stories, it's really not, it's a premium place to come and hang out, it's a status purchase more than anything, which is fine results are not baked in to all of their stuff, which is whatever but your gym unless you're going Equinox deep, you're gonna probably need to actually work for people, instead of just raising your price and putting up your overhead. So your marketing should be is first off your your internal processes should all be focused on getting clients results, that's it, everything should be focused on getting them the things they want to do, proving that you've done it, defining the terms of that success ahead of time making sure the products that you're selling are aligned with getting them from A to Z in that process, get them invested upfront, because that gives them the best chance that's a system that has to be in place. If it's not, you're missing the boat. Okay? If that then allows you to actually get people results, then when you get people those results, you need to document it, define it, fucking then speak about outwardly, you need to harvest testimonials you do everything you can to leverage the success that your clients have had. Because that's when people join a gym. That's why they want to join.



John Fairbanks 31:42

You don't most of you do not have brand recognition within the community, period. I'm talking about real brand recognition, Planet Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, LA Fitness, I'm talking about that level of brand recognition. So because you don't have that, you have to play the game differently. You have exactly what you laid out, which is you have to show this is what we do as you start to build what your brand is all about. And the issue is when it comes to marketing, and when it comes to how you come across to people that are just trying to figure out what you are what you're all about, because maybe they came across maybe they heard somebody mention your name, like whatever it is, they're finally there. And it's if you are playing the game as if you are just a place for people to come work out or that is what your social life looks like. If your marketing just looks like we're a place that people workout in



Tyler 32:51

or exercise. The worst advertising like if I look at if I did describe what most gyms social media is it's insert gym name here, where exercisers come to exercise sighs



John Fairbanks 33:02

Come exercise with us. Definitely make the



Tyler 33:06

Look, we have pictures of people exercising because exercise is exercising. Look at all this equipment



John Fairbanks 33:10

that they exercise on. And that is in that is why nobody knows what the fuck else you do. Like it's that you talked about the uncertainty is unprofessional. And a confused mind won't buy. Yeah, and they're all part of that same thing. And so that's the issue is that if you just look like a planet fitness, if you just look like Anytime Fitness, if you look like any of these brands that have massive brand recognition, you now are going to be compared to those brands. And guess what? You're too fucking expensive. And your marketing dollars aren't because you don't have deep enough pockets to play that game. But here's the thing for all anyone that's listening that does have those brands, because we have several folks that are franchise owners that are inside of our group in the Facebook group. And it's just imagine how you because the odds are if you own a franchise in your town, there's another one of those cons that own a franchise in your town do yeah, there's somebody else that owns the other guys who you fucking hate to because if you're a Planet Fitness franchise owner or anytime or however you want to break any of those franchise, if you own those, you are now not competing with Mom and Pop boutique gyms. They're not your competition. No. But man, how will you set yourself apart if you are one of these franchise owners and you start talking about personal training? Talking about right now. Now you are taking a model that every boutique small mom and pop you know small dude Onan type spot if you take those types of strategies and start to implement them in your or big box massive brand recognition type a brand



Tyler 35:02

recognition will absolutely skyrocket with fuel like that. That's the thing that is absolutely, that is if you have the eyes, that type of talk of actual success, you know what I mean? Talking has actual success and accomplishment and such things and results, right? That type of talk is just high octane fuel for a system like that. And by the way, that's where a lot of those fancy gym owners out there, if you're not one of those big 24 hour gyms, you better get hip to this shit. Because they're gonna start doing this too, by the way, they're gonna start folding in some higher ticket stuff because they need to, because the market is everything has kind of been whittled down over the last decade at least to like, the lowest amount we can possibly charge to make things work and then it's, it's starting to 2020 was hard on those types of businesses as well. And now it's like, oh, what do we have to do differently? Okay, they're sitting in the same spot you are so they got a lot more money, a lot more brand recognition. So know that you need to be doing this. If you're ahead by a year, six months, three months. Okay, you when I treat it, it's treated a lot like aI whoever starts accumulating the most data, that the largest dataset it will infant will always be that much further ahead than the team that started later. That's the truth of I have a year of in my community showing and displaying and bragging about my clients results in saying that's what we do and making sure that's the thing for after pictures, testimonial, testimonials, testimonials and their words, not mine, and just blasting all that shit out there in other people's words, using other people's successes that they came came to in your gym. Now, what's the expectation when someone inquires about your gym? Yeah, man, that's the spot where people go and get shit done. Like, that's the spot. And, and you win. And if the other player starts talking about that, and you keep doing yours, you have way more, you have way more data accumulated. And they gotta fight an uphill battle. Because a lot of those places have to figure out how to get people's results.



John Fairbanks 36:54

Dylan is inside of our gear Academy, he posted something the other day that I have to mention because it's right on line on this, he goes Planet Fitness members did 470 million workouts in 2022. So Planet Fitness, 470 million workouts. Planet Fitness has 17 million members. So the average member did 28 workouts in the year, every other week, in the year total, on average. So that is where it's again, the mistake that you're seeing is you may be copying what you are seeing out there. And you may be copying someone who copied someone who copied someone,



Tyler 37:38

which is the most likely case, by the way. So I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you the truth about anything I've seen in this business in any business. And all he fucking knows anything, guys. Nobody knows anything. Everybody's just copying what the next guy said works. It was a great Ryan Long comedy, but he was talking about how like, yeah, so now I make my money till I get rich telling other people how to get rich. And then that's all it is. Okay. And that but that is the absolute truth in this business is that at every level, every franchise just ripped off from another one, and took a slight change on the brand they want to do or a slight angle at the market market. They're trying to approach. But that's really it, everybody is doing kind of the same thing. So the bar is so low, guys. Like I said, all you gotta do is try. I remember there was a time when I had first started my gym and I was doing all our social media myself. Right. And this was, you know, fucking years ago, this was now six years ago, seven years ago. And I was asked to speak at some business function thing, and it was for small businesses or whatever. And it was my understanding it was supposed to be for small business owners, right? So I'm not gonna go up there just talk about my business because I don't care. At that time, too. I was at capacity. I couldn't take any more people. So I didn't really didn't want to use this as an advertising piece. So I thought, let me just talk to these business owners, there's this twofold. One, if you can just provide value to them about this part. They then respect you as a professional, which makes these people who own businesses more likely to do business with you than somebody else, right? Absolutely. So I went out and I said, here's what I'm doing for social media. Just do it. Start trying if you're not doing it, you can hire someone to do it. It's fine. But not for the same thing, John, for the same reasons John and I have talked about before, it's like, you're gonna outsource it completely. You're just getting some fucking soulless marketing firm just stamping out bullshit in your name most of the time, but especially in the fitness industry. And I went through all this stuff in some old fucking old fuck, I'll tell you. This is a guy who owns a fucking magazine in this town. He's done digital marketing and it's out forever but he literally makes a fuck stood as a print magazine. Guy has done graphic design since whatever since computers were invented and slowly cease his market share get dwindled and dwindled into window by new kids that come out of college that do it better than him every fucking year talking about social media talking about social media. So he shows up to me after that thing, and goes by Oh interrupts me while I was at dinner with my wife and son, which was even better, because I like this guy so little. And this fucking schmuck comes up to me and saying goes, you know, I saw your speech because it was like in a theater, it was a whole thing, you know? And he was like, Yeah, I saw your thing today. And he said, you know if I was if you're so damn good at social media. How come I've never seen any of your stuff? I said, Well, Troy, fuck his name's Troy. Because Fuck you, Troy. So well, Troy. Have you seen it? All this stuff? Are you interested in joining the gym? I mean, are you interested in joining Jim? Oh, no, I never would. Okay, well, I guess leave the marketing to me then. Because you don't have any. So I should have spent a shitload of time, effort and resources, chasing people who have no desire to do business with me because that's what you do. That's what you do is bland blasting your shit out into the fucking void. You're the goddamn, like the modern Internet equivalent of doing shit on the radio still, right? Where it's like, Just get the fuck out of here. Let me just speak to people who want the shit I'm trying to do here. And that's the whole point of that thing. But what I'm telling you is the people that are even doing it, that are doing it, by the way, that guy makes so much more money than I do. Right? But his shit still sucks. And I don't like doing shit. That sucks. And if you're a gym owner, right? Do you want to make more money but your business sucks and doesn't get results and as a soloist fucking devoid of any joy and just blows like just sucks. You don't want that out of your gym either. Okay, now you can, you can, you can make more money, you cannot make an infinite amount of money. Right now. You cannot make stacks and stacks and stacks right now. Because you do have to get, can you get results you do have to scale, kind of like at a reasonable pace, because you cannot just 5x 10x right now, without losing your attention to detail and professionalism and connection with the people on the ground. Okay, but you don't have to just like, do this guy's version of it, which is like, Well, I'm just gonna start stamping out whatever else anybody else does. And that's just it. Okay, because there's a lot of fucking gatekeepers out there in this world. There's a lot of them. And don't think that you have to do things the way that other people do. Because they have no fucking idea why they're doing it. It's like the most important thing you should know is all the way across the board. I have met very successful people in the fitness industry. People that own gyms and make so much money will make you sick. People that own gyms that have brands that like the brand are so much bigger than the gym, the brand produces well more money than the gym does. And all of them almost every night they go fuck, I'm fuckin really winging this, dude. They have no idea what they're doing. They've told me personally, I'm telling you this. Okay, so don't think that you're not sharp enough to just like, oh, let me just do this. Let me just practically look, what expectations I'm trying to set with my clients. What am I really trying to do here and kind of just make every system in my business aligned with it. It's not that hard. It's not that hard. But citizens getting the bar is really low. And nobody out in this fucking business knows what they're doing. They're all pretending they're all saying shit. All the consultants just like John and I, all those other people out there, what are they gonna do? They're gonna ask you to like, start doing stuff. I have an idea. You want to try it on at your gym so I can see if it works. That's what they want to do. Okay. John and I are here to help you like what do you want to do? What is your idea? Let's fucking bounce this off of this system. This idea of we're trying to come up with best practices, do these align with you now we have something to run with. And that's the game we got to be playing.



John Fairbanks 43:28

Here's your baby. You don't, we've called this out before but the other guys are going to put you in a position where they just want your gym to look, smell and feel and ultimately ultimately become their gym. Every single strategy that they're going to give you are going to be the strategies that they want you to be running. And it's irrelevant to really what would be best and what fits your model the best. And so that is where again, go ahead. Like I



Tyler 44:04

said with this tool, they want you to be running their systems. I don't give a fuck what you run. I just prefer that it gets clients results and that you speak about that results please and you behave like a fucking professional. And you'll easily float above everybody else in the fitness industry. You make the entire industry more approachable. You make the industry look more effective. It's it if every gym owner just on Earth, okay, all of you just listen to me on this one fucking thing this one thing, make your shit about getting your clients results. Behave like a fucking professional. Set some solid expectations across the board. Problem solved.



John Fairbanks 44:42

And tell people about it. Yes, fucking post about that stuff. Yeah, make it easier for people to see that stuff. And not a goddamn rowing machine.



Tyler 44:56

And one more thing before we go. Okay, this is a piece And we might do we may elaborate on this subject a little bit later but on all these things Well John, I've just given you is pretty fucking easy. All these are simple changes you can make. What can you do to make your stuff more approachable, feel more professional to define expectations all the way across the board. What does that right? Because as you do that your business will appear more professional and more attractive, okay, especially attractive to people who want certainty and people who want certainty are usually people that pay more money. Okay, so certainty guarantees results, things like this, it's worth more money. Certainty is awesome. That's what premium everything is about certainty, right? Our most when I was even when we did our offer stuff in the heating company, a top option, or most premium and most permanent options, you know why? You know what that top option always had that had a two year warranty on everything that we repaired that day, anything we touched was warrantied for two days. Now, something else goes wrong in that piece of equipment that's not under warranty, but any piece I install work on or whatever and that thing warranties for two years, that is the certainty. And that's the certainty that basically doubles the price of that repair. Right? And it's just we're gonna stand behind it. But that certainty is worth money. Now, all of these things that we've described. What is stopping you from input starting to implement these things this week? You tell me this as a gym owner, like why? Why aren't you doing this? Okay, well, if you really looked at how you are holding your coaches, your classes? How are you holding your programming accountable to your clients results? Are you checking in with them? Right? So okay, good. You don't have it. Now. I'm not telling you, you're an idiot. But like, Okay, perfect. Now let's fix this. Right? Can you fix this, let's make sure that we're making sure our clients get results, check in with them now set. So what do you want to accomplish in the next 12 weeks? Do we have fucking email for all I care, you they're already in your business, you know, got an extra sell them right now. Find out what they want to accomplish, whether it's weight, strength, whatever, define that. Maybe it's an opportunity to upsell them into a thick, maybe it's not, maybe the services they're in are perfect to get them there. But then check in with them in 12 weeks. See how many of them didn't get there. Then you have some gaps to fill. That's okay, start filling them and do that for a year, please just do this for you. But start this thing now. Your shits gonna work. Then take all the successes and testimonials and talk about them. leverage them for testimony, do that, by the way that you can start right now to go to Google right now. Get all your testimonials, all your reviews, chop them up, put them in there, start posting about that, do that. Now start skinning your fucking actual processes. Make your coat buy, go buy your coach's uniforms, please, a nice shirt, a nice athletic fitting shirt that shows off their form or whatever it is that they need that they desire, okay, if you buy their favorite brand shirt, just go have your ship printed on it. I don't care, but they don't get to start wearing their fucking whatever their thing is anymore. They don't get to do that. So that your gym now looks like a place where professionals work and that coaches can be respected as professionals, not just people who are trying to fuck your clients. Okay, then start following through when you're doing scheduling and expectations make the approach to stuff much easier for people as you go. That's not that hard. So all of these users start implementing these things this week. And in three months, your gym will be infinitely more professional. Inside Outside, by the way, your coaches are going to have a better sense of pride. They might complain. So my favorite shirt. This isn't my Rogue shirt, like whatever, fuck them, right? If they have a problem with that, like they're, they're not right, they're not a good fit for what your business is going to be doing. It needs to actually have an impact. Okay? But implement these things right now. Right now. Because the question I want to ask you is if you're Are you hoping or are you doing all of the things you want to do right now? I want to have more members. What are you doing about it? I want to fill this class. What are you doing about it? Hoping I wish I could sell more personal training Kay I was wishing to go? What are we doing? Okay, none of these things are that hard to do? You just need to take the first step and just start doing the thing. So are you hoping or are you doing if you're one who actually wants to do the thing, which is have an impact, make more money to have a more professional facility that just looks like a place where people are willing to pay you 1000s and 1000s of dollars so you can drive a nice car and take care of your family and do all the shit you want to do and not be handcuffed to this fucking business and coach in every hour yourself like absolutely not. So you're hoping that that goes away? Are you going to do something about it? This has been your pep talk from Tyler thanks a lot for listening everybody follow the show at the gym owners podcast on Instagram follow John at Jay bass FL follow me at Tyler F and stone and go to the gym owners revolution that link is in our description that's the Facebook group if you actually want us to work with you directly so it all this talk about doing instead of hoping really applies to you that we make sure every week that you're doing and not just fucking hoping that you don't lose another year just sitting where you are. Or even worse going backwards. Like a lot of you are sorry, it's been a rough couple years right? go to gym owners revolution.com Getting the gear Academy if you have questions about the gear Academy, we want to work with us directly in a more in a more direct focus that gets to be the gear Academy exists so that you don't have to pay the price as soon Make the work to have me and John work with you exclusively. But we still offer that stuff. It's just a bigger paycheck. If you can afford that you probably should. You seem to be a real wizard with business or you're about to make a very irresponsible financial decision. So why don't you just get in the gear Academy and take a little initiative yourself? Okay. Gym Owners revolution.com Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you next week.