Fitness Business University Podcast

Speaker 1: What's up everybody.

Welcome to another episode.

This is your Uncle Vinny,
coming to.

You live from Jersey.

Lots of stuff been going on
lately, man, really cool stuff.

I was down in Florida recently.

I visited my business coach and
, yes, I'm a business coach that

has a business coach.

I'm a business coach that has a
business coach.

It's probably an important
thing to do, but I spend a full

day with my guy down in Orlando,
florida, and we spend an entire

day mapping out the business
and the things we're going to

accomplish, and it's been
something I've done with this

same coach, paul Goff, since
shoot 2018.

I like longstanding.

I usually stick with people for
a really long time and they

don't let me down.

I don't leave, and he hasn't
done that yet.

Really good, lots of cool stuff
planned, big plans coming up for

the March mastermind.

March is the big one, the one
we do every year that we have a

pretty blown up theme that I'm
super excited about.

This year I'll be announcing
the theme soon.

Can't announce it yet, but
while I was down there, too, I

was able to visit two Mastermind
members that both had gyms in

Florida.

Great catching up with those
guys.

So, yeah, a lot of cool things
flying around.

I have the Green Monster that
I'm training for I did it last

year which is a 50K hike through
the mountains of Pennsylvania.

I'm doing that with my buddy,
joe Hasse, so I've been training

hard for that.

Big shout out to my friends
over at Allie Gilbert's company,

silverback.

That's been helping me get
prepared and I'm feeling good,

feeling strong, and so today
what I'm doing is to actually,

before I get into today, there
is something I'd like to share

with you.

So we you guys know, still know
that I still own my gym and

it's one of the cool things that
, since I still own a gym, I can

test things and see what works
and see what doesn't, and it's

something that I really enjoy.

And one of the things that we
did at my gym recently was raise

the price and full disclosure.

I've helped hundreds of gym
owners raise their prices, but

it's been a while since I've
raised the prices at my own gym

and we did it and some cool
things happened.

We raised the price by a pretty
good amount.

So we charge around 400 to $500
a month.

Majority of people are paying
about $400 a month.

400 to $500 a month Majority of
people are paying about $400 a

month, and so I did a 12 and a
half percent increase, which

equates to around $49.

And so that's not a small chunk
of change for a rate increase

for $49.

Now some interesting things
happened.

A couple people reached out and
they one of the things I did

and I do this with.

Whenever I do something like
this, like a pricing, I always

put my cell phone in there and
you think like the whole world's

gonna text you, like they're
not.

But I did have a couple people
reach out and they texted me and

they got on the phone with me
and they said, hey, I totally

get it, I know, I understand it,
it's so worth it, but I just

lost my job.

But I just lost my job.

Here's the situation.

And I was able to work with
them.

And the cool thing is, even
despite the price increase and

it was a chunky one even despite
that, it was a telltale sign

that my gym is doing really good
work.

And I just called the guy that
runs my gym, mike, and just told

him I was like, hey, man, the
reaction to this price increase

no one's celebrating about it,
but everyone's saying it's worth

it.

And now will there be probably
people that cancel, like a month

later, I think.

So I think there'll be like a
small handful of people that

will.

But anytime you do a price
increase, you got to have some

expectation that is going to
happen, and we did the math that

, if that happens, we're still
well ahead of the game and it

allows us to take the money and
invest in staff and invest in

the facility and all of stuff
like that.

A price increase is one of the
most powerful things that you

actually can do and something
I'll talk about in a second here

.

But yeah, so it went really
well and it was cool getting on

the phone with.

I've had very little to do with
my gym for a long time, and

it's been a long time since I've
talked to really any clients,

and so it was cool to catch up
with people and talk to them.

Even if it was a situation of a
price raise, it was.

It was a pretty cool, a pretty
cool situation to do it.

What I'm talking about today I'm
talking specifically to gyms

that are doing under $25,000 a
month.

Okay, that's who I'm talking to
today, and I think that's a lot

of you, a lot of you, and the
cool thing is that some of the

most successful people that have
gone through my mastermind

started well below $25,000 a
month.

I think that one of our most
successful members, a guy named

Giancarlo, he started with us
doing $7,000 a month.

Another guy, john Dougherty, he
started with us around doing

the same $7,000 or $8,000 a
month.

Jason Maher actually didn't
even have his gym open when he

started with us.

Bobby Casita, who's speaking at
the next Mastermind he was

doing about $7,000 a month.

So what I'm here to tell you is
if you're below that point one,

you're in good company.

A lot of people that I've
worked with that were at that

level are now doing big money.

Everyone I just mentioned is
doing over $50,000 a month and

many doing well over $100,000
per month.

So you're in good company if
you're there.

But there's some things that I
want to highlight for you to do

Some things for your business.

Of all, right, if you're below
25K, what are the things that

you should be doing?

What are the things you should
be focusing on?

Okay, so here's the first one.

I want you to focus on
acquiring more customers.

Okay, now, I know you're like
duh Vince.

I want you to understand this
first.

I know you want to get more
customers, but if I was to look

at your schedule and look at the
amount of time that you're

spending on acquiring new
customers, would that match up?

There's a lot of dads out there
and say, yeah, I love my family,

I want to be a great dad, yet
they don't see their kids at all

.

And so are your actions backing
up what you want?

And I have happened to find
that a lot of times.

If I do what's called a
stopwatch check on a gym owner

and I'd be like, all right, how
many times or how much time per

day are you spending on
acquiring new customers on the

marketing and on the selling
side of your business?

How much time are you spending?

And most of the time the answer
is not enough, and so sometimes

it's not even the strategy,
it's not even like what to do,

it's just making a commitment to
do it more, to spend more time

on that thing.

That's going to help bring you.

But that is the X factor of
scaling getting from where

you're at 7K to 25K, to past 25K
.

It really is about acquiring
more customers, because if

you're below 25K, you probably
have I don't know anywhere from

20 to 50 clients, depending on
how much you're charging, and so

for you.

You don't have a big issue with
churn yet you shouldn't at

least you shouldn't, because if
you do the math on 50 clients

and you have a three to 5%
attrition rate, you're losing

like a couple people a month, if
that.

So your churn is not usually
going to be an issue if you're

doing a good job.

The issue you run into is
acquisition and getting new

customers, and the problem is
sometimes we focus on the wrong

things.

We want to build systems,
manuals, we want to go to all

the training seminars, we want
to overdo it with the one staff

member that we've got in terms
of teaching them everything and

stuff like that, and at the end
of the day, your time is best

spent on focusing on getting new
customers.

There's this gym I'm not going
to mention what it is or where

it is, but I'm not sure how to
do this but there's a gym that

sometimes I go to and the
trainers are always doing things

like cleaning the equipment and
making sure everything's

straight and everything's
perfect, and there's never any

time spent on getting on the
community and acquiring new

customers.

It's all about what's happening
on inside of the gym and that

is not going to be the thing
that grows the business.

The thing that's going to grow
the business is you spending

active time on acquiring new
customers.

Okay, here are a couple of ways
to do it.

One, the first way and this is
one of the things I used with

Giancarlo and he took my search
program and basically I gave him

this idea to give every one of
his customers a card to give to

a friend, and the card was like
for a 30-day membership and he

gave it to all of his clients
and he ended up getting 25

clients in three and a half
weeks.

He was like it changed his
whole business.

It was like crazy how fast it
actually worked, right.

And so for many of you that are
starting out, you're below 25K.

What you have built is you have
this thing that a lot of us

that have mature businesses
maybe don't have as much, and

that's everyone wants to see you
win.

Everyone wants to like, help
you out and do the things.

So a lot of times, if you ask
people for referrals pending,

you do a good job.

When you're smaller, they're
more apt to give it to you.

So take that opportunity and
take those ideas and ask your

customers for referrals.

And one of the things with
referrals too, is don't just ask

your customer for a referral,
give them an actual gift.

Actually, it's funny One of the
people that I had to talk to

about the price increase.

She was concerned about the
price increase, right, and she

wanted to stay, she loved it,
she was concerned, and we have

this thing where, if you send a
referral to GFP, we give you a

free month.

And so I told her to do the
math.

I was like, if you send us one
referral over the next 12 months

, if you take that comp month
and you divide, that's the exact

same amount, pretty much the
exact same amount of your

increase.

I was like all you need to do
is send one referral.

She was like, yeah, but I know,
but it's like really hard to

refer people to you because you
guys are really expensive and I

have a tough time telling my
friends to come to your gym

because it's so expensive.

I was like don't do that.

Here's what you do.

You take this card, okay, and
this card is for a free month,

and now you don't have to sell
your friend on this huge

membership that you got to get.

All you got to do is give your
friend a gift, and so it's the

act of giving your clients tools
.

It's about making it easy for
your clients to refer.

That's going to get more of
your clients to refer.

So don't say just ask for
referrals.

Give them specific tools to
help them make the call for you

to give you a referral, okay.

So that's one thing to do.

The second thing to do is to
look at all of your past member

lists and make them an offer to
come back and I love this one.

And even if you're below 25k
maybe you haven't been in

business that long, but maybe
you have, I don't know and so

what you do is you take the list
of all the clients you've lost,

and I was with one of the guys
in Florida and he has a large

group business, so he's got a
higher volume of people coming

through the door Right, and we
took all of the people that he

lost.

We took his churn rate and we
took all the people he loses per

year and it was like ended up
being like almost 300 people,

because he was in business for a
few years and I was like, dude,

this is, this list is the best
asset you've got.

You just have 300 people where
you have their address and you

have their phone number and you
have their kids' names and you

know everything about these
people.

Now all you got to do is reach
out with them with some kind of

an offer, and my preference is
give them their first month free

.

Okay, I want you to come back,
but end your first months on me.

I think that's a really
powerful way to get new

customers back.

But so what we're doing is to
get to 25K.

We have to start working on the
money-making activity.

We have to start doing things
that are going to ring the

register for our company.

If we're not spending time on
this stuff, it's not just going

to happen.

It's like you go fishing, the
fish ain't jumping in the boat,

right, you got to put the pole
in the water, and all these

things I'm telling you about are
poles in the water.

And another thing is like all
right, we don't, maybe we don't

get new customers, but this one
is about leveraging how much

your customers are spending.

Right, there's three ways to
grow a business.

One get new customers.

Two, get your customers
spending more money.

Three, get your customers to
stay longer.

Right.

And so this one is can you ask
all of your clients doing twice

a week to do three times a week,
and the way to do this is to

make it a habit, and at the
first day of the month, what I

want you to do is I want you to
just pick 10 people 10 people

that are current members are
doing twice a week and it could

be once a week for you, whatever
.

I'm just saying one more and
ask the people that are doing

twice a week if they'd like to
try a month on the house of

three days a week and then talk
to them about the benefits of

three days a week and at the end
of the month, sit down with

them and be like, hey, how did
you like that?

And then sell them on the
three-day membership.

It's like one of the most
simple things that I think

people can do to increase the
amount of money that they're

making per customer, because
that's what you ideally.

What we're trying to do is we
want to increase the lifetime

value of a customer.

We want to increase the amount
of money that people are

spending with us and obviously,
if we're providing more value,

then we should feel good about
the more money.

We're not just asking them for
more money, we're providing more

value.

So that is the two-day week to
three-day week one.

Number six is and I did this
recently with two different gyms

, one in Florida, one in Long
Island but it is to rearrange

your current gym and your
equipment to be able to safely

and effectively train more
people in the same hour.

And so the example is if you
have a gym and right now you say

, oh, I can only train four
people per trainer, there are

probably things that you can do
in your gym with moving stuff

around that can get you to train
six.

Now, personally, I don't really
suggest going much over six if

we're doing traditional or true
small group personal training

like it's outlined in my book.

So I really do believe six is a
sweet spot.

I think more than that you're
barking up, you're getting.

I think more than that you're
getting a little greedy and I'd

rather see you raise the price
than just add more people in a

group.

I do have some people testing
seven.

Just add more people in a group
.

I do have some people testing
seven, some people testing eight

.

I think it can work.

I think that long-term I prefer
six with a higher price point

from there.

I've helped people make a lot
of money with this one tweak and

this one change.

So look inside your gym and be
like dude.

Do you have a freaking preacher
curl that's taking up all the

space that needs to be moved to
be able to get another person in

there?

That's going to pay you X
amount of dollars per hour every

time.

So that's another one.

Another one is follow up with
every unconverted lead that's

come in the past 90 days.

So you have leads hopefully
coming through your website.

You have leads coming through
your.

If you're running Facebook ads,
you have leads reaching out to

you through social media.

Whatever leads you've gotten,
reach out to them and go back 90

days and just go back.

I think a lot of people they
think if, oh, they didn't buy

right away, so they're not going
to buy.

No, that's not the case.

People don't buy right away.

Most of the time, people are
very indecisive.

I'm sure some of you listening
to this have people some of you

listening to this have things in
your Amazon cart that you

haven't purchased yet, and it's
just the nature of humans, right

?

So don't think that if they
don't buy right away, that they

won't buy in the future.

And I would be going back 90
days, if not more, and reaching

out to those people with an
offer and sending them some kind

of an email hey, are you still
interested in hiring a personal

trainer?

Or something along those lines.

But my point in all of this is
and then the last one would just

be raise the price.

Now there's a couple things you
need to do.

We raised the price at my gym
because we had a 1.5% attrition

rate so far this year, like
unheard of.

We majority of our new clients
are coming from referrals,

meaning our clients are sending
their friends to us.

Our conversions are really
solid in terms of when someone

sits down in our consult room,
they're converting to a member.

I think it's between 80 and 90%
right now.

Right, and so we had the green
light to raise our prices.

And what you don't want to do is
if you're doing a crappy job

and you're not making enough
money because people are leaving

, and then you raise your prices
because you're not making

enough money, that is not a good
reason to raise your price.

I think you should fix the
product first.

But if you have a good product,
if you have good retention, if

you have a good close rate, your
market is screaming at you

saying you can charge more money
, and you should, because that

is one of the fastest ways for
you to get past 25K.

If you're stuck at seven,
you're stuck at eight shoot one

price raise.

If you're stuck at seven,
you're stuck at eight, shoot one

price raise.

I believe that the price raise
at GFP it will increase our

recurring revenue by between
seven and $8,000 a month,

depending on if we lose anybody.

Probably go down a little bit,
but at the end of the day, it's

a very lucrative move for the
business, right?

Start to think about a price
increase.

Start to think about do I have
the stones to raise?

And that's the thing that
always comes back to you Do you

have the courage to do it?

Because most people don't raise
price because it's just it's me

getting these calls.

Like I didn't love getting
those calls, but at the end of

the day I knew it was what I
needed to do to be able to make

a move like that for the
business and it was the best

thing for the business.

So you got to be able to stomach
a little bit of people being

upset with you, and I think most
of the time there's some people

that were upset, but most of
the people that I talked to were

like it's totally worth it.

I get it.

I get what you're doing.

It's just really hard for me
and it went like that.

That's how the conversations
went, and so I think what we do

is we build up in our heads.

When we do a price increase, we
build in our heads.

It's like everyone's going to
quit, everyone's going to hate

me, they're going to call me a
greedy pig and like for pigging

out on me.

It's just, it's not going to
happen.

And if it does happen, if
someone does, if one person does

call you that way, whatever,
they probably weren't going to

stay anyway.

So, at the end of the day, a
price increase is the most

lucrative thing that you can do
for your business.

It's just the one.

Have you created the right
environment to do it?

Meaning, is your attrition rate
good?

Is your close rate good?

Are the people liking the
product?

Do you have a good reputation,
all that stuff.

And if you do, go for it and
try to bypass all the head trash

that you got in your head to be
able to do it.

But you can do it, man.

I'm telling you right now, like
I've had and there's this

narrative of these business
coaches out there that are

telling gym owners not to raise
their prices and never to raise

their prices on current members.

It's such bullshit.

It's, it really is.

It's not a, it's not good
advice, it's really not.

And there's.

I only say this pretty
convincingly because I have had

so many people in my group.

I've got 150 members in my
group.

Okay, I don't know exactly
offhand how many have raised

their prices, but it is a lot
and there's not one person that

I can think of that came back
and was just like dude, I can't

believe I did that.

That was the worst advice you
ever gave, not one person.

So I say this from experience.

I don't just say this because
I'm trying to be like contrarian

to other coaches out there and
stuff like that.

I'm just saying this because I
care about you and I care about

your family and I want you to
make more money and I want you

to get past 25K and not be stuck
at 10 and not stuck at 7.

And if you've earned it, a
price raise is the way to get

some really serious momentum.

So, as I said, it's not for
everybody, but, man, it is the

thing that is going to move the
needle the fastest and the thing

it takes the most is just some
courage.

So those are just some insights
, but I think that the

overarching theme that you need
to get past 25K right to go from

7K wherever you're at if you're
at 7K, if you're at 10K, if

you're at 12K, wherever you're
at right now the overarching

theme to get there is focus on
making more money and whether

that's increasing the average of
what people pay you, whether

that's acquiring more customers.

But it's you having this mindset
that you're waking up in the

morning thinking what am I going
to do to get this business more

money and how am I going to
focus on that and what do I need

to?

Here's another thing what do
you need to stop doing?

What do you need to stop doing?

What do you need to stop doing?

What are the things you're
spending most of your time on?

That is getting in the way of
you spending the time on the

money-making activities for your
business.

That right, there is the focus.

That right, there is the focus.

And if you want to start
scaling past 25K, if you want to

get out of this 10K rut, this
12K rut, this 15K rut, and you

want to get past the 25K, and
the techniques and the tactics

that I gave you today are some
things that will help.

Okay, but at the end of the day,
it comes back to looking at

your calendar.

And did I spend time on the
money-making activities that my

business needs to be able to get
past this level?

That's really, honestly, the
most important focus that you

could have right now.

So there you go, that's what I
got, and the cool thing is I

have this new thing that I'm
doing and I realized that it was

a big stretch for guys doing 7k
to come right into mastermind

and, as much as I wanted them to
do it, there were some times

where guys would come to me and
they're doing 7k and I almost

I'm like.

I was like I don't want to sell
this.

This guy Like I don't want to
put a big bill on his back, and

I knew that the mastermind would
help him get where he needed to

be.

But in certain cases, some
people joined at these low

revenue months, like these low
revenue, like 7k, 9k, and they

got stressed out by how much the
mastermind actually cost, and

so one of the things that I've
been working on with my team is

like all right, how do I get
these people that are at five K,

seven K, nine K, and how do I
create something for them that's

going to get them the result
they want to get past 25 K.

Where, at that and at that
revenue level, anyone doing 25 K

, if they have decent margins
for what we charge for

Mastermind?

Most people are like it's
totally cool, it's totally fine,

but if you're super below that,
you're super behind.

Sometimes it can be a thing
right.

And so we created this new
coaching program and it goes for

60 days and what we do is I
take the things that I think

will work the best.

What are the things that we can
implement in your business that

will move the needle the
fastest for you?

And what we do is, in the first
call, in the first day, what we

do is we pick two to three
things for you to do, and

sometimes that could be a price
increase, sometimes that could

be launching an ad, sometimes
that could be a reactivation

campaign.

But after doing this for as
long as I've been doing it, we

have this menu of stuff.

I think it's like probably 14
things that we've got that are

like hey, if you implement two
to three of these things, you're

probably going to get past 25K
pretty quickly, right?

And so what we do on the first
call is we select the things

based on where you're at right.

We look at your resources, we
look at what you have at your

disposal and we're like all
right, dude, this is it.

Now, if you have 10 members,
the price increase.

Yeah, it'll help a little bit,
but it's not going to help like

a huge amount.

If you have 10 members, we like
to, we got to just get more

members, we got to do.

And so what we do on the first
call is we sorry I said that

three times is we help you
develop that plan and then the

rest of the time we're helping
you implement everything.

And the cool thing is, like, a
lot of times these programs are

like oh yeah, go run a six-week
challenge.

That's do you know what emails
to write to run a six-week

challenge?

Do you know what landing pages
to use, do you know?

And the thing is, we've done
this thousands of times and

we've created this massive
resource database that makes

everything easy.

So, one, we're going to, we
hold your hand the whole time.

But two, it's there's
documented stuff that's going to

save you tons of time.

Plus, like, we know what works
and what doesn't.

Don't take this personally, but
an email that I wrote

personally is probably going to
do better than an email that you

wrote, and if you have no
experience with email marketing,

right, or take a Facebook ad.

If I give you a Facebook ad
copy of one of my best ads that

I've ever run, after my guys
tested it thousands of times,

it's probably going to work
better than something that

you're going to come up with if
you haven't run ads before.

And so basically, we have all
this stuff loaded up in our

vault, and so it's basically
this plan.

In the beginning, the key is
picking these two to three

things what are these needle
movers?

What are the things that we
need to do to move the needle

the most?

And then we hold your hand over
the course of and it's

one-on-one, it's a combo of
one-on-one and group stuff, but

we hold your hand over the eight
weeks and then we implement it

and we work with you to do it,
and it's a much smaller

investment than joining
Mastermind.

It's not.

It's only a 60 day program,
it's not an annual program like

Mastermind, and so we're super
excited about this.

We feel like we're going to
help a ton of people that maybe

want to join Mastermind but just
aren't ready yet and want our

help to get them past that 25K
mark.

And again, that 25K mark is
just whatever it's just.

What I've seen is, once people
get past that mark, there's a

lot of momentum that builds and
stuff like that.

So if you're doing like 24 or
26, like you probably still can

do the program or something like
that, so that's what it is.

There's a link in the show notes
.

Just click the link and there's
an opt-in form that you can

fill out to get more information
and book a call with one of my

guys and they can help you.

But this is we haven't really
had something like this before.

I've done the six weeks new
client service program, but that

was a thing that I only ran a
couple of times a year, but this

is like a new thing.

We've invested a lot of time
and a lot of energy in getting

this program launched and
getting this program ready and I

think we've nailed it.

I really do.

I think we've nailed the.

What are the things that GM
owner needs that doing under 25K

?

What are the three to four
things or two to three things

that this person needs to do to
bring the register and scale

past 25K in 60 days.

So that is what, and again, I
sell you on this.

I'm talking about it, but at
the end of the day, I'm honestly

just excited about it because
we're going to help a ton of

people doing it.

So if you're interested in
talking to us about this program

, if you're under 25K and you
want my team's help to help you

get to the next level, click the
link in the show notes to check

out, to book a call and we'll
take it from there.

So hopefully some of this was
helpful.

I will see you soon, peace.