Fitness Business University Podcast

SPEAKER_00: What's up,
everybody?

Hope all is well.

I am in the jujitsu parking lot,
walking around aimlessly.

And thought I'd bring you a nice
podcast today.

So hopefully you're ready for
it.

I am currently writing, always
writing a book, but I'm

currently writing, well, I'm
actually rewriting a book called

The Four Stages of Fitness
Business Success.

And I wrote it a very long time
ago, and I'm doing a kind of a

revamp of the book as then
things have changed.

And so it's it's been really
it's been really interesting.

And I was writing stage two this
morning.

And stage two is anywhere uh
usually revenue level starts at

around 20 K, goes up to around
50K.

So that's kind of where I'm at
right now.

And so if you're you know
listening to this and you're

here, awesome, you're in the
right place.

And if you're not in there or
you're past it, it's it's still

you know probably be some good
reminders for you.

So stage two.

I remember stage two is very
interesting for me, where you

it's it's kind of where you go
from the guy that did

everything, right?

The the person that, you know,
nothing actually happened in the

business without you physically
doing everything.

And stage two is like where that
starts to not happen, where you

start to have some staff members
to be able to, you know, you

know, help you grow the
business, right?

And I remember, you know, I
mean, you know, stage two for me

was back in shoot 2010 or
whatever, I don't know, a long

time ago.

We had a front desk lady named
Sandy, I had Big Tom, we had

this kid named Joe, who was like
a young trainer than a new hire

named Michelle, who was really a
rock star.

And that's kind of was the team,
right?

And you know, in the very
beginning, it was just me and

Tom for forever.

And then I started bringing on
these other trainers and staff

members.

The interesting thing was is as
you, you know, have more staff,

you know, one of the things you
want to do is you want to keep

them fit, right?

You want to keep them happy with
how many hours they're working

and things like that.

And sometimes what happens is
you need to give up training

hours to be able to give them
training hours, right?

And I'm not saying in stage two
you do no training hours because

I was still doing a decent chunk
of them, um, but I was doing

less.

And the less part for me was the
hard part because the easiest

thing in the world for me to do
is show up to the gym, start the

6am session, train the 6 am
session, and then do it again at

seven.

There's no time management
skills needed, there you just

show up and you do the work.

And where I started to really
struggle as a business owner was

when I didn't have that
structure.

And there was things that needed
to get done for the business

that, hey, you don't have to
train this hour, so someone

needs to do the marketing,
someone needs to do the selling,

and there's no one telling you
what to do, there's no one

telling you how to do it,
there's no one, you know,

because a lot of stuff at that
point you don't even know what

to do.

And I found myself like sitting
in my desk many times with my

hands buried in my with my head
buried in my hands, just like, I

don't know what the fuck to do
right now.

And I found it to be such a
hard, challenging thing.

One of the most frustrating
parts of my business life was

feeling almost, you go.

Here's what happens: you go from
this point of feeling like

you're this rock star that does
everything, and you're very,

very useful to going from almost
useless because it's like you're

sitting in your office, just
like, I'm not doing shit right

now.

And you're at that point where
you're not really good at sales

and marketing, and you're not a
great leader, you're not a great

manager, you don't have the
skill sets you actually need at

stage two, yet you have the time
to do it because you've

delegated some of the sessions
to two other people.

And it's a really frustrating,
you know, conundrum.

And so if if that's you, if
that's kind of like where you're

at, I have, man, I wish someone
told me this.

You know that, you know, when
you hire somebody, hopefully you

give them what's called a job
description, right?

Where you're you know, it has
you know what what the purpose

of the job is, what the things
that task you need, the

responsibilities of the job, and
you know, hopefully you're doing

this, and there's an outline of
what the job is.

You know, that's like one of the
most important things our team

members need is clarity.

And but for a long time I never
had one of those.

For me.

It was just like, all right, and
go do some of this.

And I didn't have actually a
clear written description of

what my job is.

And once I wrote that down, a
lot changed.

And so that my first piece of
advice to you is well, yeah,

great, you're giving trainers a
job.

What about you?

So, what is your job?

What are the things that you
need to do and responsible uh

and what you're responsible for?

And the great Dan Kennedy has
this question, and he asks this

what are the highest and best
uses of your time and what needs

to happen in your schedule in
your life to be able to make as

much room as possible to do
those things.

I totally paraphrase that.

But basically, it's like
identifying the highest and best

uses to your company and then
writing that shit down, right?

Writing that stuff down and
being clear on what it is so you

can then show up to a day and be
like, all right, I know that

there are certain things that I
need to do as the owner of this

business to make it grow.

And these are it.

And it's doing sales
consultations, it's you know,

following up with leads, it is,
you know, you know, writing

emails, it's like leaving the
team, and just like the clarity

around your job is really,
really helpful.

So I found this even today, like
I have a job description, right?

For me in this company, right?

So one of my big, big things is
recording this podcast, right?

No one else is gonna do this.

If I don't do this, no one will.

And so this is like a big mover.

That's why you see me doing this
consistently.

These podcasts come out, you
know, pretty much every week.

No one else is doing it, but
it's on my list of like, I have

to do this.

This is something that's really,
really important for me to do.

So I think it's a really helpful
thing to actually have, and I

have it on my, I have a like a
lit, literally a written sheet

of all the things that are
really, really important for me

to do and me only.

And I think that could be like a
really good place to start,

right?

It's a really good place for you
to start, is, and maybe it's one

page, maybe it's two pages, but
what you know is your role in

the company?

Now, if you were looking at a
what's called an org chart,

there is probably, you know, a
box for marketing, a box for

sales, a box for operations, a
box for finance.

Sorry, the I'm usually I'm
walking on a route and usually

it's not busy, but apparently
like everyone's driving by

today.

So apologize for the noise.

So the first thing you've got to
identify is like, what are your

roles for the company?

Like, are you what are you in
charge of?

What are you responsible for?

And then on below those things
is is the most important things,

you know, in each of those
boxes.

So really just getting together
a one to two page description of

your job for the company linked
with what are the things you

need to do, what are the tests,
what are the things that need to

get done to be able to do it.

And it's kind of like this whole
80-20 rule, right?

You know, you know, 20% of the
things that you do are going to

provide 80% of the results.

So it's like spend your time
doing those things.

And I think what happens is when
we don't know what to do, we

don't have clarity on this, we
spend time doing a lot of

different stuff.

And a lot of it is not
needle-moving stuff.

A lot of it is not impactful.

I know back in the day that I
spent a crap ton of time on

stuff I shouldn't be spent time
with, right?

And I'll give an example.

Like, now, so one of the things
that I did in my first location

is this is a funny story.

So we had this, the the the my
last gym I was at, there was

like these, but this parking lot
where the parking lot was, and

there was these woods in the
back.

And one day, there was a storm,
Hurricane Sandy, and it knocked

down all the trees in the woods.

Well, not all of them, don't
tell anybody.

But I ended up looking at it was
like this utopian for me.

This utopia was, oh my God, we
can knock the rest of those

trees down and have an open
woods.

And I called my buddy, because
he's in Yumman Jersey, so I got

a guy, and I called my buddy
Tommy, and I was like, hey

Tommy, I gotta come get rid of
these trees.

So he comes get rid of these
trees.

I was like, hey, Tommy, bring
some of those machines over and

you gotta smooth this ground
out.

And he comes over, smooths the
ground out.

And I said, hey Tommy, go bring
bring me a bunch of you know uh

stone so we can spread the stone
and smooth it out.

And so we come and spread the
snow down.

And then I went and found used
turf.

And I, you know, bought the used
turf and we turfed the outside.

And, you know, about eight
months later, after almost

getting kicked out of my lease
because of it and getting almost

arrested by the community for
having massive, huge pieces of

equipment on the where I'm not
supposed to have it because they

didn't play any permits.

I just had my guy tell me just
coming and doing shit.

But I I'm I GC'd that project,
and I want to tell you the

amount of time and energy that I
spent getting that outdoor turf

was it was great.

It was like me avoiding the
doing the real things I needed

to do.

And yeah, technically it did
give us more space, but it was

like outside space that you know
was a very, very good, nice perk

and bonus.

Was not, it did not give us a
ton more income producing.

We could have done the same
stuff in the parking lot.

It was nice to have turf, but it
was just it was an example of my

inexperience as a business owner
of finding shit to do because it

wasn't clear on what I really
needed to do.

And even so, when I found out
what I was clear I really really

needed to do, like marketing and
selling, I was just not good at

it because, and what do you do
when you're not good at

something?

You try to avoid it, right?

But that's just an example of I
did not have clarity of my role

in the company, so I found all
these other things to do.

I found these shiny objects to
chase, I found these things that

weren't gonna move the needle
for the company.

We didn't get one new client
because we had turf in the back.

We just ended up a few days in
the summertime being able to be

on turf.

And honestly, I got a huge tick
out there once, and I was like,

damn it, I shouldn't ever built
this freaking thing.

Because it was literally in the
woods.

Like we had a turf field that
was in the woods.

It still exists today.

We're not at that location
anymore, but it still exists,

right?

But that's just an example.

It's just like of me not being
clear on what my job is for the

company and finding stuff to do
because it filled the time and I

felt like I was doing stuff and
but I really wasn't.

And so that's that's what you
need to do.

You need to get clear, right?

Because when you're in stage
two, you gotta new job.

Your job is no longer train
people.

Your job is learning how to lead
and manage people, and your job

is learning how to market and
sell to grow the company that

needs to be grown.

That's the job.

So you got to be clear in that
role.

And if you spend on stage two,
what happens is what a lot of

guys do is they get all like
geeked out about this stuff and

they fill their time with more
training sessions.

They're like, I don't really
know what to do, so I'm just

gonna train more.

And what you gotta do is you
gotta get past that.

That's a growing pain.

And you got to get past that
point of that uncertainty of

what to do, the uncertainty of
how to do it, and you gotta

learn.

You gotta learn.

And that's what the book is
about.

Like the book tells you kind of
what to do, what you need to

focus on at what stage and what
are the problems you're gonna

face.

Like, and that's a big one is
like uncertainty of what to do,

and lack of clarity in the role
and working on the wrong things.

It's a big, big problem in stage
two that you know business

owners really struggle with.

Right.

So that that's that's really it
for today.

That's why I wanted to just
share that with you and

understand.

And here's the thing: I bet you
someone's listening to this

that's not in stage two, or you
maybe in stage one or stage

three or whatever, that maybe
you're unclear on what your job

is, maybe you're unclear on what
your role is, and your job is to

sit down and figure it out.

Now, ChatGPT is like makes it so
freaking easy for this stuff to

do, it will just tell you what
to do.

But get that sheet of paper and
have that sheet of paper in your

backpack and desk and sit down
and make sure, right, that the

things that you do, if you could
look, if I could look at the

inventory of your day, and what
did your calendar show me?

Would your calendar reflect the
most important things that you

need to be doing for your
company?

And if it doesn't, that's with
the things you need to change.

So get clear, it's not easy.

It's there's definitely stuff
that is outside of our

wheelhouse as trainers turn
business owners, but I mean that

getting from stage two, which is
like twenty thousand to fifty

thousand, you know, to that
stage three mark, we ain't gonna

get to the next level without
learning some of those skills

and spending time on doing those
things.

So hopefully this was helpful.

I'll see you on the next one.

Peace.