Fitness Business University Podcast

Speaker 1: What's up guys?

It's Vince Gabriel from the
road again.

I am driving now.

I feel like I'm doing all these
podcasts in the car, but I am

driving to Providenceoff and
he's got an unbelievable gym in

New York that I stopped at
called BornFit and he joined

this kid's young, he's 23 years
old and he joined the SPF

Mastermind literally after.

I think he was only in business
for a few months and when he

showed up to the first event I
think he was doing around $8,000

a month and full disclosure.

I don't have direct contact
with every client in SPF.

We have a team of coaches and
everything like that.

And I heard this kid Christoph
was doing well, but I had no

idea what he was going to tell
me the numbers that he was doing

.

And I walked in and he was
training a one-on-one client at

the time.

It was around two o'clock that
I popped in and the client he

was training left and we got to
talking.

I was like, so how are things
going?

And he's like, oh my God, doing
great.

And I was like and the gym is
small, 900 square feet.

It's little, little square box.

It's got three racks in there,
a dumbbell rack, some cardio

stuff, but not just the basics,
real simple.

It looked like a small version
of GFP.

He had white walls with black
quotes on the wall and stuff

like that.

It's really cool.

I was like, hey, dude, what are
you doing in revenue?

He was like $45,000 a month.

I was like what?

Yeah, 45,000 a month.

I'm just like, how long have
you been in the group?

He's like I joined last July
and I'm just like, holy shit,

like 45,000, how many members do
you have?

110 members, how many staff?

He's like oh, I just had to
hire two people and he's we're

exploding, I want to open up
another one.

And I was just like, oh my God.

I was like I didn't even
realize like how good some of

these guys are doing.

I almost felt like a little
embarrassed that I didn't know

how well he was doing.

But it was super cool and I was
like he joined.

He was doing it's funny $8,000
a month.

It's not like a weird magic
number.

It's around the same revenue
that John Docherty was doing.

He joined.

It's around this.

What G-Man?

John Carlo, who I talk about a
lot, and there's a few George

McGuire, was doing around 8,000
a month.

So there's some of our biggest
success stories that were all

doing under 10K usually around
seven, eight was the number and

these guys and this guy did 40,
he's doing 45K after 12 months.

Some of those other guys I
mentioned are doing $150,000 a

month.

It's like incredible.

So if you're listening to this
and you're doing 8K a month and

you're like thinking well, you
don't You're like a couple moves

away from exploding.

This kid went from 8 to 45K.

I can't imagine how much money
this kid's sucking.

He's young too.

He's 23.

I was making at 23 years old.

I was making no money at 23
years old.

I think I was still in college,
but even when I was a trainer

like the most money I made as a
trainer when I was like 25, 26,

$37,000 a year he's making 45K a
month.

This kid, this punk, is making
more money in a month than I was

making in an entire year and
breaking my back to do it Crazy.

A couple of things I want to
shine the light on.

This kid was a stage one gym
owner.

If you haven't followed my
stuff for a while, you should

pick up a copy of my book, the
Four Stages of Fitness Business

Success, and I talk a lot about
the different stages but at the

end of the day, all of us myself
, christoph Joe Hashi all of us

started in stage one.

We started doing no money and
we had to break through, and so

there's a couple of things if
you're listening to this in

those early stages.

Now, also, this is something to
pay attention to if you're

opening a new location, I'll
never forget Devin Gage.

So Devin Gage, who was probably
doing less than 7,000 months

when he first started with me
back in the day, but I taught

the four stages, retaught it at
one of the mastermind events,

and Devin at the time was
probably doing like over

$100,000 a month at his one gym,
but he was opening up these

small gyms and he was just
launching them and he was like,

hey, it was really good for my
facility leaders to hear what

stage one is like.

So when you open up a new gym
and it's a small gym, understand

that your guy that's running
that gym is in this stage one

mentality.

So what happens is like, even
if you're like doing big numbers

right now 50, 60, 70 K a month
and you go to open up another

location, you're going to be
back in stage one, and so it's

really important that you are
refreshed and understand and

remember what that's like,
because it's probably not you

living that life, it's probably
someone else and what you need

to do as the leader of that is
to help that person.

Okay Side, that was a little
sidebar, but so what are the

things that need to get right?

The first thing that needs to
be right, and if this is not

right, people stay under 10 K or
hover between 8 to 12K forever,

seemingly.

And if they don't get this
right, they're screwed.

And this is the price.

You have to be charging enough
money to be able to warrant and

make some money and get some
separation.

Okay, otherwise you're just
going to be hanging around in

stage one.

But the classic I got a hundred
members and I'm making 10 K a

month.

It's just, it's too much work,
it's too much like things flying

around to make that little
money.

And so this kid if we do the
math, christoff, if we do the

math on him he's doing 45K and
he's got 110 members.

Average member value is $400 a
month.

Right on the money, he's
charging a substantial amount of

money.

So he Watch out Vehicle on
shoulder ahead.

Sorry about that.

So he's able.

He got price right Now,
obviously, I think some of us

will take credit for that.

We probably got him to raise his
prices.

We got him to be able to have
the courage to charge that kind

of money, because at 23 years
old, asking an adult for $400 a

month is you got some set of
cojones to be able to do that.

So that's the first thing is,
if you're not charging enough

money, you're always going to be
able to do that.

So that's the first thing is,
if you're not charging enough

money, you're always going to be
playing catch up.

You're always going to need to
be play this game of financially

struggling, right.

So you got to get that right
Now and to give you some kind of

a formula at the end of the day
, I'll give you a formula for

what you should charge right.

And the formula for what you
should charge is I don't like to

see people make under $200 per
hour in their gym, and so what

that means is you can reverse
engineer it, because you slew

together 100.

Because most of the people that
are paying trainers 20 to 40

dollars an hour, right, and so
let's say, the average is 30.

If you have a payroll on 30 and
you're making and you're

charging 200 and you're making,
you're getting 200, you're

making money, right.

You're making money unless your
expenses are at the lawsuit,

which most people aren't.

So you got that, you got the
price right and so this 200,

kind of this magic number mark
we can charge 50 bucks a person

and get four people in it.

We can charge 40 bucks a person
and get six people in it.

So it gives you this little bit
of a litmus test to be what you

charge.

Now the problem is, this is hard
to do with one-on-one.

It's easier to do with small
group.

It's a little harder to do with
large group because you do need

a good amount of people.

So if you're charging $20 a
session, you're getting what?

Would you need?

Five?

You need 10 people, so they're
not too bad.

Actually, to do that with large
group, you're charging $20 a

person, but I'd rather only find
four people than find 10.

But the reality is you have to
have some kind of semblance

around what you want to make per
hour and then you could base

your prices accordingly.

So for a small group it's going
to be anywhere from 40 bucks to

60 bucks a session.

If you're doing small group and
you're charging 25 bucks a

session sorry, you're doing it
wrong, so you got to get around

that and start charging some
more money.

So that's the first thing.

The first thing that needs to
be right is the price.

If you get price wrong, you're
going to stay at stage one for a

pretty good amount of time.

So the second thing is really
making sure that your product is

good enough.

I don't think it needs to be
the best world.

This kid is 23 years old.

He probably doesn't have a ton
of experience as a trainer.

It's going to get better over
time.

He's doing well enough to make
45K, but at the end of the day,

your product needs to be good
enough, right and this is hard

for me to say this good enough,
right, and this is hard for me

to say this, but I do believe
that the people that are stuck

and have been stuck at this
seven, eight, nine K a month

mark, they really need to look
at the product as the possible

thing that is causing that.

And a lot of times we want to go
to marketing, we want to go to

sales and everything like that,
but in the very beginning, in

this stage one, I think there
should be like this excitement

about your business, that
they're feeling the energy from

you and they're feeling the
energy from the other clients

there that there's this new
business in town that's cool and

exciting and people want to
talk about it and people should

talk about it, and if that
doesn't happen, you really lose

a lot of this momentum.

Right, there should be some
momentum that's built up from

opening a new business.

People love new and I think a
lot of people that don't provide

a good enough service and
product they're not getting,

they're not growing organically,
they're not getting referrals.

Christoph told me that before
he joined Mastermind, the way he

got to the first AK was getting
referrals and he did that

pretty quickly.

And so I think that's one of
the biggest things is that you

have to look at the service that
you're delivering, the product

you're delivering.

I often call it the soup.

The soup must be good.

I have this friend who's an
acupuncturist.

He was talking about another
friend who was an acupuncturist

and we were talking about why
this guy wasn't successful and

he was just like, yeah, his soup
sucks and that means he's a

shitty acupuncturist, right.

And same thing goes for some
gyms, right.

And this is not to make anyone
feel bad or anything like that,

but at the end of the day
sometimes you got to take a good

look at reality and be like,
walk through the gym and be like

what's the feeling like in here
?

It's the pulse, what are the
other clients happy and smiling

and talking about it?

And be like this is great,
looking forward to it.

And if there's this like dull
energy and it's like all right,

yeah, it's probably not going to
work.

And the very the second thing is
you need to be referable.

You have to have a good enough
product that you are referable

and you get some of the organic
growth.

Now we helped Kristoff with a
lot of marketing strategies and

things like that some of the
organic growth.

Now we helped Kristoff with a
lot of marketing strategies and

things like that, but at the end
of the day, he he did it right.

He did the work of like
providing a product and

providing the momentum and
providing the active activity in

the community and everything
like that.

So I think there's gotta be
some energy that that comes with

it.

And the second, the third thing
is this in stage one and this is

really an important one and
christoph probably is far away

from this because he's young,
but is you have to protect

yourself from burnout.

You, if you get burned out, the
business dies.

I think stage one.

If I use this basketball
analogy, it's like you're like

in stage one, you're like LeBron
playing with a bunch of middle

school kids and if all of a
sudden, lebron doesn't show up

that day, like that team is
going to get crushed.

And you in stage one, you're
LeBron and you have to protect

yourself.

If you get burned out.

It's not going to go well, and
so you have to make sure that

your fitness is on point, you
have to make sure that your food

is on point, that you're
managing your stress, because it

is a lot.

He told me, christoph told me
he had someone that was away and

he told me he was pulling
16-hour days.

I imagine he was doing that
when he first started and he

very quickly went from stage one
to.

I wouldn't call him in
Revenue-wise he's in stage two,

but team-wise he's probably not.

So he's getting there.

And again, the way the stages
work, it's not like you go and

get a certificate in the mail
when you go from stage one to

stage two.

It's like there's parts of your
business that stay in stage one

, no-transcript.

You know, the people that move
fast in the very beginning tend

to do well, because if you're in
stage one for a really long

time, it gets really tiring and
it starts to take a toll on your

health.

And if you're older like I was
saying before, he's 23, so he's

probably got a long runway to
not get burned out.

But if you're older and you
start a gym and you're there

every day and you're doing 16
hour days and you have kids at

home and a family at home and
you're still making 7K a month

and not able to pay, that's
stressful.

That's really hard and
stressful and you want to get

yourself out of there.

You want to get yourself out of
that position as fast as you

possibly can, and those are a
couple of ways to do it.

One is you got to make sure
that you're charging the right

amount of money.

Two is you got to make sure
that your product is good enough

, that you're getting a lot of
referrals, you're active in the

community and all of that.

People are talking about your
business.

And then the third thing is
you're protecting yourself.

You're protecting yourself from
yourself, really right, but you

are the show.

You yourself from yourself,
really right, but you are the

show.

You are the most important
piece of this business.

If LeBron goes down, we're
going to have a tough day.

Hopefully that was inspiring for
you and to see someone that

went from pretty much 8K to 45K
in less than 12 months and

really proud of him, really
proud of our coaches that did

the work with him and did a
great job.

And there's lots of people
having success and lots of

people doing well.

And don't bite into this oh, no
one's doing well in the economy

and all this.

It's like there's a lot of
people doing really well and

what you want to do is get
inspired by that.

That's why I tell this story.

You want to be inspired by the
success of other people.

Not feel worse about yourself
because other people are doing

well.

Get curious about it.

Get curious about why someone
is succeeding, why this

23-year-old kid goes from 8K to
45K in less than 12 months.

What's going on there?

And get curious about that.

Don't beat yourself up.

Hopefully this was helpful, even
even if you're not in stage one

or if you're in stage two.

Hopefully there's some nuggets
in there that you can take from

this.

But yeah, and if you want to
get a copy of my book the four

stages I don't think we put it
on Amazon, so I don't think you

can actually get it on Amazon.

So what I'll do is I'm just
going to have Leo put my email

in the show notes and if you
want a copy of the book, I'll

send you a copy.

I can stick it in the mail too.

It's like it's a small book.

It's really short.

It's like a little pamphlet,
almost like, but I think it'll

shine the light and be a helpful
resource for you to read it and

you'll be like all right, I'm
in stage one, I'm stage two and

basically the premise of the
book.

It's like all right, what do I
need to do to get to the next

level?

What we're all about as a
business is helping you get from

wherever, whatever stage you're
at, to the next stage that you

want to be at.

Hopefully this was helpful.

I'm really enjoying these.

Hopefully there's not a lot of
background noise, but I'm

enjoying talking on my phone.

It makes the time go by really
fast, so I appreciate it.

But congrats to you, christoph,
a wonderful job.

Keep up the great work.

And again, if you want a copy
of my book called the Four

Stages of Fitness Business
Success, send me an email, vince

at gabrielfitnesscom, and I'll
send you one.

Peace.