Fitness Business University Podcast

SPEAKER_00: What's up, guys?

Here for another podcast.

I just dropped Joey of
basketball, so I'm just walking

around the field waiting for
him.

Figured I'd catch up with
everybody here.

But I wanted to let you know
that I am I think 17,000 words

into my new book.

I have been on a tear lately.

I'll be honest with you, like I
have had a pretty crazy year.

A lot of distractions, as you I
think I mentioned last week.

I ended up selling the agency
that I owned.

Earlier in the year, I acquired
it fully and then I sold it.

Issues with my mom's got
dementia, just like a lot of

crazy shit going on in my life.

It's been like actually a really
crazy tough year.

But a good year, lots of good
lessons learned.

But I have never lost the
momentum with my emails.

I don't think they've been as
good lately, but I've never

missed one.

But I have been not been writing
books.

I try to write a book a year,
and I've just been off of it.

I honestly have.

I haven't been able to sit down
and focus with all the preparing

for the events, with all the
other stuff I had going on.

Book writing took a back seat,
and it's it sucks because it's

something I really love to do.

And but I will tell you this in
this in possibly some of it was

uh closing the sale of the
business, because that's been

something I've been working on
for the last several months, and

there's just a lot of back and
forth and a lot of decisions to

make there.

But in the last seven days, I've
written like 17,000 words, and

I've just had this book like
building up inside of me, and it

just poured out in the last
week, which is an awesome

feeling.

I'm super excited about it, and
I want to tell you about it

because I think it's really
relative.

So probably about this one of my
earlier books, but probably

about seven, eight years ago, I
wrote a book called The Four

Stages of Fitness Business
Success.

And I got the concept from Ari
Weinswig, and I read in his

book, his book is called
Managing Ourselves.

And it's an unbelievable read.

You should definitely read that
book.

But the concept was built around
that all businesses go through

these four stages.

And he wasn't speaking from he
owns a restaurant business, and

he wasn't speaking from like a
restaurant business or an

industry.

He was just basically, in
general, they go through these

four stages.

And he did a brilliant job of
outlining the process of these

four stages.

And he basically outlined in
stage one, what are the problems

you'll face, what are the things
that you need to do to break

through to the next level?

What's the type of leadership
that you need at each level?

So it was a really well-done
thing.

And I was like, this is really
helpful for me.

And I want to create a version
of this for gyms.

And so I did.

And it's been something I've
talked about, but I wouldn't say

I talked about a ton.

A lot of people have read the
book.

It's a really short book, it's
like tiny.

And uh but in my probably decade
of consulting, I was starting

starting to think about how many
gyms are in stages two, three,

and four, and how many gyms are
in stage one.

And it is a shit ton more of
gyms that I've come across that

are in stage one, trying to get
to stage two.

And so this new book that I
wrote, and it's actually it's

funny because it's twice as
long.

Well, no, not more than twice as
long, it's 10 times longer than

the actual four stages book.

That's how short that one is.

And the entire book is about
going from stage one to stage

two.

And for those of you listening,
it is the clearest way I can

define stage one is a business
that's a gym that's doing zero

to 25k.

That's the ballpark range.

Now, if like you're doing 22 or
27, it's not this exact science,

but it's pretty dang close.

And so that's what the book is
about.

The book is about how do we get
stage?

How do we go from stage one to
stage two?

Because I will tell you this.

And I had some fun today in the
book, and I was re- I like to

start each chapter with a quote.

And for some reason, I was just
in a funky mood today, and I was

writing the quotes for the
chapter, and I decided I have

this one quote where I quote
myself, and then I sign my name

as I said it, and then in
parentheses next to my name, it

says, only assholes quote
themselves, right?

So I just kept repeating that,
but I saw I just came up, I just

started inventing these quotes
out of thin air of just my ideas

and things that I thought, stuff
that I've heard before, but

putting my own spin on it.

And my first quote of the stage
one chapter is stage one is a

fucking grind.

And that's the bottom line of
stage one.

It is not easy, and I have been
through stage one as a gym

owner, I've been through stage
one growing a consulting

business, I've been through
stage one growing a marketing

agency, and it's not easy, it's
tiring, it's hard.

And so if you're listening to
this and you are a stage one

gym, meaning your revenue is
between zero and twenty-five K,

and things are hard and you're
tired, and you're looking to

take the business to the next
level, this is gonna be the

perfect book for you.

Now, I'm gonna give you some
insights here, and if you're any

background noise, sorry, I'm
walking around and there's birds

chirping and stuff like that.

But so I want to give you some
insight here that if you're in

stage one, what you need to do
to get to stage two, which is 25

to 50k, which is a nice place to
be.

A nice place to be.

And the funny thing is, as I
started, and the other thing is

I got the idea to write the book
from all the people that I've

worked with that were in this
stage one.

But I started looking through my
success stories, as I always do,

and I need to build my
confidence.

And some of our best success
stories were people that went

from 5K, 7K, 8K, and scaled past
40K, 50K, 60K, some people 200K.

And I started to look at those
stories.

I was like, man, this is these
guys are doing really right now.

And sometimes I take it for
granted and I forget.

Like, we have this guy named
Giancarlo, and I've talked, I

talk about him a lot, but I talk
about him because he's like

probably my biggest homegrown
success story.

There's some guys that I've
coached that I do coach now that

they were doing pretty well
already.

And I helped them get better.

But John Carlo is a story where
this kid was like doing$7,000 a

month and he didn't know
anything about business, and he

didn't know what direction to
take his company.

And he found originally found my
surge program, and then he found

the mastermind, and then he
found CEO, and the kid is like

on a tear.

He's he grew way faster than I
ever did.

And he always has this line
where he says, I stand, I stood

on the shoulders of giants
talking about a lot of the other

members in SPF that were a
little bit ahead of him.

But that's a guy.

Like I look at what he's doing
now, and it's holy smokes, he's

kiss killing it.

But I look at not that long ago,
he was doing$7,000 a month.

And I'm not gonna promise that
if you're at$7,000 a month that

you're gonna all of a sudden be
at$200K a month like G-Man, but

I want to shine the light on
that it is possible.

There's another guy that doing a
podcast with tomorrow, Bobby

Casita.

And he is he's been with me not
as long as G-Man, but he came to

me around doing$8K a month, and
they scaled it to, I think,$55K

a month, their first gym, and
they just opened their second

gym, and they've already gotten
50 members in their second gym.

Another guy, John Doherty, Dr.

John Doherty, who's absolutely
killing it right now.

I think he's got five or six
gyms.

He's got this monster business
out in Texas.

He came to me also doing 7K a
month.

So it's like these a lot of
these success stories they hear

you hear me talk about, that you
see me highlight in like the SPF

Gym One of the Year Award and
stuff like that.

Understand that not all of these
guys started like that.

Hardly any of them started like
that.

They all started probably under
10K or between 10 and 20K or

whatever it is.

And I tell you these stories to
give you some inspiration and

some hope that if you're
floundering a little bit and

you're between zero and 25k, and
you're not making the amount of

money that you want to make, and
you're getting tired, you're

getting burned.

And I want to share with you
that there you can get to the

next level.

But you gotta get moving.

And I say that because one of
the other lines in the book is

that the longer you stay in
stage one, the more likelihood

that you're gonna get burned
out.

Because when you're in stage
one, the business lives and dies

with you.

It's pretty much the fact that
if you the way I the example

that I give is let's say you are
a bat your bet your gym is a

basketball team and you're
LeBron and you're playing the

game with five middle school
kids.

All right, if when LeBron's on
the court, things are going well

and everything's good.

If you pull LeBron out of that
game, they are not even close to

the same team.

And that's like what you are in
stage one.

You are the business, and if you
remove yourself from the

business, or you get too tired,
or you get sick, or you have to

go away, everything stops.

And so that is a lot of stress,
that's a lot of pressure.

And it's funny when I was going
through it, and this is when I

tell you, this is one of my
favorite lines: ignorance is

bliss.

Ignorance is bliss.

When I was going through it, no
one told me about this.

I was just going, right?

And then all of a sudden I
looked up and I like felt myself

like demonstrating an exercise
on the floor and literally like

doing a bridge and laying down
on the floor and not wanting to

get up.

That's how tired and that's how
exhausted I was.

So I didn't need anyone to tell
me that.

I just all of a sudden realized,
man, I am fucking tired.

I am not, my brain is not
thinking clearly.

I started drinking coffee at
that time and then crazy

monsters and all of that, just
like massive amounts of

caffeine.

And all of a sudden, you end up
like hitting a wall.

And we want to get through this
stage as fast as we possibly

can.

That that's what we need to do.

We're everyone's gonna go
through it, but if you stay in

it, it's gonna be a rough, long
road.

And I have a guy, my that
probably the happy one of the

happiest guys in my group is a
guy named Jason.

And Jason had a gym in in San
Diego.

He ended up selling it, and then
he moved all the way across the

country to New the New England
area and opened up another gym.

And he hired us before he even
opened.

And he followed all the steps,
and he legitimately almost he

went through stage one faster
than anyone I've ever seen.

We launched the thing fast, he
got marketing going right away.

Like it was just like light
speed through almost, it was

like a couple months the kid was
in stage one because he grew so

fast, and that's ideally.

And he I had a consulting day
with him not that long ago.

I'm gonna be recording a podcast
actually with him for the book.

I'm gonna take the his the
podcast I do with him and almost

treat it like a case study
because he went through, but

that's what we want.

We want to go, we're gonna go
through it.

You gotta go through it.

But the longer you're there, the
harder it's gonna be, and the

more stress to your body, the
more stress to your brain, the

more stress to your family.

And so you gotta figure out what
to do.

And at the end of the day, the
thing that keeps us in stage one

the most is us having to do
everything.

And the bigger reason usually of
why we have to do everything a

lot of times is money.

Sometimes it's you're being a
control freak and you don't want

to give anything up, but a
majority of the time it's around

money.

You possibly have chosen a price
structure that is not bringing

you enough money.

You possibly don't have enough
customers, right?

You don't you haven't figured
out the marketing or the sales

side of things, and you're not,
you don't you just don't have

enough customers.

Maybe you have this is usually
rare, but possibly you've done a

a number on yourself and taken
on a really big rent.

So your margins are small.

That's a tougher one to outpace.

But a lot of times, what keeps
us in stage one is we got money

problems.

And the way out of stage one
into stage two is not having

everything rely on you, and that
takes money because the way to

do that is to hire people,
right?

And maybe you need to hire
consultants to tell you what to

do, maybe you need to hire staff
to help you on the training

floor, maybe you need to help
someone hire you to help you

market and sell for that,
whatever it is.

What keeps you in stage one is
you doing everything, and what

keeps you doing everything is
not making enough money.

And so we gotta figure that part
out.

And the book is about profit
levers, that's what the whole

book is about.

The book is actually titled
Eight Profit Levers, and it's

essentially geared towards
getting gyms that are doing

between 5 and 25k to gyms to
doing 35 to 50k, essentially

stage one to stage two.

All right.

But we gotta handle the money
situation, and why I decided on

these specific levers is because
over the last several years, I

started giving people advice to
do things to help them make more

money to get out of stage one,
stage two.

And I sat down when I had the
idea to write this book, and I'm

like, all right, I know what the
problem is.

I know that these guys are stuck
on stage one, they're tired, but

what are the things that they
can do to get them out of stage

one to stage two?

And I started taking inventory,
I started thinking about guys

like G-Man, guys like Devin
Gage, guys like that I mentioned

before.

And I'm like, what did they do?

What's the first thing that they
actually did?

And I started writing all those
things down.

And I came up with the list.

And I didn't want to have the
book be so long, I really wanted

to keep it simple, but I came
out with eight things.

I came out with eight things
that I was like, all right, if

somebody in stage one implements
these things, there's a really

good chance they're gonna ring
the register that you're gonna

start making more money.

And if they start making more
money, they can feel comfortable

making a hire, they can feel
comfortable investing in in

things that are gonna help them
get on track and have the

business not be so dependent on
them.

So that's what the book is
about.

The book is about these
eight-profit levers.

Now, what is a lever?

A lever, the best way I can
describe a lever is like

something that gets you more
from less, right?

And so I'll give you like what
so the first lever that I'll

talk about is price, right?

And so if I have a move that I'm
making, let's say that I'm

charging$300 a month, and I make
a change, right?

I use a leverage point of price
and I make a change to the

price, and I bring the average
value from 300 to 350, okay?

And I have a hundred members.

That's an extra$50 times$100.

That's an extra$5,000 a month.

So literally, in that one move,
in one letter to 100 customers,

I increased the recurring
revenue by$5,000.

That is a lever.

I did something that was not
super.

I can't say it's not hard.

It is hard to do.

It's hard to do emotionally.

And this is, you know, what some
of the stuff we help with in

like mastermind and stuff like
that is the because yeah, it's

easy, just go raise your prices,
but there's the whole emotional

baggage that comes from that.

That's a I talk about that a lot
in the book.

But at the end of the day, it's
a lever because it's hey, write

this letter, send this to your
customers, make five grand a

month, right?

So the book is about these
things that you can do to

implement in your business that
aren't going to take a huge

amount of effort and time
because I know that's not what

you have.

You don't have a lot of time.

You don't have a lot of energy,
you don't have a lot of

resources like staff to
implement things.

And so that's kind of what I
really leaned on is what are

these levers that I can give you
to be able to get something

going.

Now, one of the other levers is
digital ads, right?

I do think that, and again, I
know a lot of people possibly

doing this do not have a ton of
extra money to spend.

And maybe you don't have the
money to hire an agency, and I

don't think it's truly
necessary.

But sometimes one of the biggest
things is like you do not have

time at all to go out and do
anything, to go out and strum up

a new business, to go out and
join BI groups, not everybody,

but some of you.

And a really good leverage point
is to get an ad up and have a

constant flow of leads that you
can follow up with.

That is a lever because it does
take some money to do that, and

you have to get around that.

You'll have to get and into
what's called this investment

mindset.

Right.

And that's kind of what I
someone on the Wednesday call

today asked a really good
question about how to think

about paid ads.

And the question was around
budget.

He's what should I be spending?

How much should I be spending?

And I was like, Well, don't
think about it like that.

Think about it like this.

It's all right, let's say your
cost per lead is ten bucks, you

can get it and put an ad up and
you get a cost per lead of ten

bucks, right?

So a hundred leads is gonna cost
you a thousand dollars.

So essentially you pay a
thousand bucks and you get a

hundred leads.

If you convert ten percent of
those customers, right?

If you have a think bundle of
hundred leads, cost you a

thousand bucks.

Okay, you can find a thousand
bucks.

Bundle of a hundred leads costs
you a thousand bucks.

And let's just say that your
average lifetime value is shoot,

I don't know, three grand, four
grand.

It's not that's not
exaggerating, something crazy.

And you get ten customers.

So ten customers times three
thousand dollar average value,

and you don't obviously get all
that at once, but at the end of

the day, you invested$1,000 and
you made, you got 10 customers

at three grand at lifetime
value, you made$30.

And so that's how you have to
look at it.

And that I know it's scary
sometimes, right?

But understand it is a leverage
point.

We can do more with less.

That's why they're called profit
levers, is because we want to do

more with less.

So putting some kind of an ad
up, even at a small budget of a

thousand bucks a month, and
maybe you don't go out to eat,

or maybe you cancel the
subscriptions, or maybe like you

figure out a way to spend the
money.

You beg, borrow, and steal.

Because when you understand
that, hey, if I spend a thousand

and I can make 30,000, shit, I
gotta do that more.

And that's a leverage point.

And the book actually has some
different bunch of different

offers and ed copy and stuff
like that.

That but those are the things
that I'm talking about.

Those are the things that I
share in the book.

And I'm don't worry, there's no
link to download the book

because it's not ready yet.

But I'm uh I'm like, I wake up
every morning super excited to

dive in and I'm done with the
main meat of the book, but I am

super excited to dive in.

But this is a specific resource
for gyms in stage one, doing

between zero and 25k to scale to
$25,000 to$50,000 a month, which

is stage two.

And uh man, I'm excited about
it.

I'm really excited about it.

And uh, I'll keep you posted on
the release of the book and

everything like that.

But yeah, it's gonna be out
soon.

And so hopefully, if you're in
stage one, just some of this

insight was helpful.

Maybe it kind of gave you a
little bit of a breath of fresh

air to realize that hey, a lot
of people have been where I am.

It does suck.

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.

It can be hard, but it is
possible to get out, and it is

possible to get out and to and
to go to great places.

A lot of the guys that I've
worked with have.

Yeah, so you can do this, man.

You can do this, you can get out
of stage one.

And here's the thing: you want
to get out of stage one.

You do.

I I have yet to have someone
say, I love stage one, I love

like doing the five to nine,
right?

Because that's what it is.

It's five to nine.

You're waking up in the morning
at 5 a.m., you're doing the

morning sessions, you're doing
whatever in the middle of the

day, and then all of a sudden
you're back at it at night, and

it's rinse and repeat.

And that is hard, and that is
exhausting.

And I don't think that is a life
of freedom.

I think we could all argue that
one of the fruits of being in

business is freedom.

And that ain't freedom.

You have to be chained to your
gym and you have to be there,

and if you're not there, you
don't make money, you have a

business, but you ultimately
have a glorified job.

And the goal is you get better
at business, and I think these

profit levers are really going
to help you.

If this resonated with you, and
you're like, I need help, I need

those levers, and you don't want
to wait for the book.

There's a link in the show
notes.

And if you click that link, you
can book a call with my squad.

And I actually have a program
that helps lead you through

this.

So, full disclosure, we have a
new program that I'm super

excited about called Gym
Business Accelerator.

It's a coaching program, it goes
for 60 days, and the entire

point of the program is to help
you scale past 25K, right?

So it's four gyms that are doing
less than 25K to get past 25K

and grow the revenue.

And we want to do it inside 60
days.

And so if you're listening to
this and you got fired up and

you got excited and you got you
want and you're like, I am

waiting, I can't wait for the
book.

I want to get going.

Click that link in the show
notes, book a call with the

squad, they'll get you rocking
and rolling.

We got a bunch of people already
running through a pilot of the

program.

It's going super well.

Really excited about it.

But that is the purpose of this.

And I'm not like hiding
anything.

The purpose of this book is to
write this book, and then the

coaching program, which is
already going on, is to help you

implement what's in the book.

So it's my team helping you
implement what's inside the book

that I'm excited about.

So go ahead.

There's that link in the show
notes.

Click that link in the show
notes, book a call with the

squad, and I will see you on the
next one.

Peace.