Fitness Business University Podcast

SPEAKER_00: What's up,
everybody?

This is going to be sorry for my
crap in the back.

This is going to be very, very
cool.

And one of the things that so I
am a business coach for gym

owners, but I also still own my
gym.

And one of the coolest things of
still owning my gym is the

marketer in me gets to dabble,
gets to test things, gets to try

things.

And when I find something that
works really well, I'll usually

I'll teach it.

And I usually teach it first to
my mastermind clients.

But sometimes if I have
something really cool, I'll

share it to you guys here on
podcast and YouTube.

And doing my best attempt to do
a video that also serves as a

helpful podcast.

We'll see how it goes.

So believe it or not, uh
recently I did uh a newspaper

ad.

And I took a full page ad out in
a local newspaper.

And I think not all publications
are created equal.

I think that there are some
publications like magazines and

things like that that are, you
know, they're glorified ads,

right?

That the the magazines are
pretty much 90% ads and like a

couple articles.

And I think a lot of people
have, you know, burned a lot of

money on those things because
they're typically pretty

expensive because they're kind
of like nice-looking

publications of magazines.

Now, what I found is that there
are other local print types of

you know publications uh that
are very, very local-based,

meaning there's lots of local
news and there's ads in them,

but they're not like all ads.

There's like a lot of actual
stories and articles, preferably

of like almost like, you know,
the boys, uh the this person got

to the Eagle Scouts, or you
know, the rescue squad hired a

new person and like stuff like
that.

Like people read that stuff.

So I think that's so my my point
in telling and sharing that to

you is not trying to you know
position you to like you have to

do print, you have to do print.

And some for some of you it's
not the right thing.

But in my case, it it was and
it's actually working really

well.

Uh but what I want to kind of
share with you today is why it's

working well and how you can
take the same concept and use it

without doing a print ad.

Okay, so that's kind of what I'm
going to share with you.

So, what I'm gonna do first is
I'm gonna share with you the

newspaper ad.

So bear with me while I share my
screen here.

And I want to pull up the actual
ad that I used.

Okay, and so this was a story
from my gym, and you know, this

is a woman named Helen, and this
story happened actually shoot,

it was a while ago.

So just know that if you have
really good stories and they

happened a long time ago, it
doesn't mean you can't tell it

like it happened a week ago.

Okay, you want to say that you
don't want to say it happened a

week ago, but many of you are
sitting on good stories of past

that you're not telling anymore,
and they're still really good

stories and they still work.

Okay.

So this was a story about, and
actually we changed the headline

uh to 48 because I realized I
made a mistake, she wasn't 56,

she was actually 48 at the time.

But this is a story of, you
know, in a nutshell, a woman

named Helen came to our gym and
she was out of shape and blah

blah blah blah blah.

And her daughter was about to
get married, and she got in

really, really good shape for
her daughter's wedding.

And the the way the story goes
is if you can see this picture

in the middle here, if you're
listening on YouTube, it's

basically a picture of a woman
with a with pretty like close,

not fully backless, but like a
very exposed back, and and her

back looked jacked, right?

And it was just like the all of
a sudden she got back from the

wedding, and there's this
picture that emerged of her

back, and like the other people
are talking about Helen's back,

and then the entire thing, I was
like, How did she get that back?

Well, well, she got that back
from Gabriel Fitness, right?

Right, and so the the whole
thing kind of went I don't want

to say viral, like local viral,
but at the end of the day, what

happened was it was a really,
really good story that captured

a lot of attention, and it
wasn't something that we

actually used in our in our
marketing until today, almost a

decade later, right?

So I took this story and I wrote
the this article about it, okay,

and this ad.

And so I think that the one
thing is when you're looking for

like a really good testimonial,
what you want to be looking for

is something like this.

It's like there was kind of an
event that happened.

In this case, it was the
wedding.

Maybe it's someone coming back
from an injury or a doctor's

scare or something like that.

But if you're gonna tell like a
really you know good story, you

want to try and find something
that's almost newsworthy, right?

Like that's why I put it in the
newspaper because this is like

if you look at the the head, the
headline reads she was a

56-year-old mom from Berkeley
Heights.

So that's important.

I put the town, uh name of that
town in the headline.

Terrified, which is a power
word, to wear a little black

dress at her daughter's wedding
until this happened.

So it's kind of a play on a very
famous headline.

The the famous headline is he
sat down.

Everyone, the famous headline is
everyone laughed when he sat

down at the piano, but when he
started to play, and that was

the headline, that was one of
the most famous headlines I've

read.

So it's kind of like I copied
that format of she was a

terrifying 56-year-old mom from
Berkeley Heights, terrified to

wear a little black dress.

She was terrified until this
happened, right?

And so then what it leads to
maybe wanting to read the story.

Okay.

And basically, what I've done is
I I tell the whole story here in

this newspaper ad, and I'm not,
I'm not gonna read it to you

there, but you can see there's
QR code throughout.

I talk about the program a
little bit, but mainly it's a

news article at the end.

And we've been getting many,
many, many scans to the QR code

here, and then uh many also
conversions from the page.

I think we're operating at like
close to a 30% conversion rate

from the page to opt-in, which
is phenomenal for a cold

newspaper landing page is
actually phenomenal.

If you know what some
statistics, right?

And so I took this concept and
now I wrote this article.

I didn't use ChatGPT to write
this.

I sat down, I was like, I put my
marketing hat on, and I'm like,

all right, what do I need to say
in this ad to get someone to

scan a QR code and then fill out
a form?

Well, you gotta say a lot.

You gotta say a lot of things
that gets people inspired.

But the big thing that got me to
get to the point where I'm doing

a video on this is this one
thing that's started to happen.

Mike, who is fielding the leads
from this ad, he is telling me

that people are showing up.

One, we have a hundred percent
show rate from people that

booked consults.

100%.

Not one person that booked a
console has not showed up.

And he said the second thing is
when he's getting on the phone

with people, they're saying, Oh
my God, this story was so good.

This story inspired me.

I and they started like saying,
like, I really want what Helen

had.

If you guys can give me what
Helen had, I'm in, right?

And they they started to do uh
say things that the marketing is

designed to do.

Write this down.

Your marketing is salesmanship
in print.

And so what that means is that
the newspaper ad, this ad that I

wrote, was started doing the
heavy lifting of the sales

process.

And what we normally do is we
sit down, we sit down with

someone that's cold, they don't
know us from a hole in the wall,

and then we got to sell them on
a gym membership.

Well, this marketing is doing
the selling for them, it's doing

the job, it's overcoming
objections.

Like even uh in here, if you
look at the PS, okay, the PS I

use some overcoming objections.

PS Many people reading this
article will be inspired by

Helen, yet still still feel
hesitant to try the program.

Okay, with anything new, there's
always uncertainty.

Boom, I'm calling it out right
in front of them.

I'm I'm mapping, I'm I'm meeting
them where their objection is

with uncertainty, especially
with something like a new

fitness routine.

Okay, calling out the obvious.

But if you're not working out
right now, which is a very, very

important thing, I'm gonna tell
you ransom, when you say if

you're not working out right
now, what that's a trigger

because here's what people know
they know they should be working

out, and most people are not
right, and so it's like if

you're not working out right
now, it's like boom, that just

hit them right in the mouth.

Yes, you're I'm not working out
right now.

That is true.

I'm not working out right now,
and I know, and then that the

the caveat to that is I know I
should be.

So I just call the situation
right where it's at.

If you're not working out right
now, or you've been inconsistent

like most people, okay, right?

So now I'm not shaming them, I'm
saying they're like most people.

You've read the exact article
you need to read today because

boom, and now I go into you know
how we've been helped thousands

of people in the community in
the past 18 years.

For some, the program has had a
life-changing effect, and many

members have stayed for nearly
two decades.

A large number of them are now
in the best shape of their lives

and two decades older.

So, what I'm doing is I'm
talking about like as these

people are getting older,
they're getting in better shape.

Okay, but they all started in
the same place as anyone reading

this and considering starting
their fitness journey.

If you're still hesitant, visit
our website to give it now, give

them a different link.

So this is the downsell.

Ideally, I want them to scan the
QR code, but I also want a

secondary option.

Okay, and the secondary option
is I need more proof.

And so I send them to a page
that has testimonials laced with

testimonials.

Sent them to that.

But the ideal thing is they scan
the QR code and it takes them

right to an opt-in page for a
14-day free trial.

So it's a really good offer.

And again, you got to be good on
a newspaper ad.

If you're not, if you don't have
a good offer, if you don't have

a good copy on a newspaper ad,
you're gonna you're gonna burn a

lot of money.

So it's gotta be good.

Okay, now, so that's the the
overall premise of this is

working, this is why it's
working, but that is not even

close to what I want to share
with you today.

Okay, what I want you to do is
understand that I wrote this

article from my 20 years of
experience and marketing mind.

I didn't pop this into ChatGPT.

I sat down, everything I know
about marketing, everything I

know about sales and persuasion,
and I put it into this article.

But I realize that a lot of you
are not marketers, a lot of you

are not, you know, copywriters,
and sometimes we need just some

to do things faster and help and
support.

I realize gym owners are busy.

And so I did this for my
mastermind clients.

I was like, how would I make
this an article like this that's

working so well be easy to
duplicate or replicate by

another gym owner?

Okay, and so that is what I did,
and I want to share my screen

again.

I apologize if you just bear
with me here.

Share my screen again.

And I created in a program
called Claude, which I really

actually like Claude over
ChatGPT, uh specifically for

writing.

I'm not gonna get into why, but
I basically created a

testimonial email builder.

So I took the concept of this
article, right?

This newspaper article where I
had to go deep, where I had to

go big, and I had to really use
everything I needed to get

someone from a printed to an and
uh a landing page and then a

landing page to a call and then
a call to a consult and a

consult to a close.

A lot has to happen, right?

But I realized that you know an
email is an easier thing to

write.

It's easier to write a 200-word
or a 300-word email than it is

to write a thousand-word
full-page newspaper ad, as I

know most of you won't be doing.

And so what I did is I took the
the newspaper app that I wrote

that's having success, that's
winning, okay, and know it's

winning, and I put it into
Claude, and I created a

testimonial email builder.

So essentially, what you do is
you take a testimonial that

you've got and you put it into
this builder, and then what

happens is you can create an
email similar to what the

article that I wrote from your
story.

Okay, so now what I'm gonna do,
I'm going to show you exactly

how it's done.

Okay, so I'm gonna click start,
so bear with me here, but you'll

see kind of how to do it.

Okay, so I'm gonna click so
start building my email, and so

you would put the client's first
name.

So you would take pick a story
that you've got from your gym.

I know you got lots of them,
okay, and you would put what is

their first name.

Okay, and so I'm just gonna put
my stuff in here.

So I'll put Helen in here.

So I just type that, and then I
would click next, Helen.

Okay, then it asks them how old
are they and what stage of life

are they in?

Let's call it, I'm gonna call it
an active professional.

Okay.

What neighborhood or city do
they live in?

Because we want to show that
it's a real person in a real

place.

So I'll just put Berkeley
Berkeley Heights.

So you just put your town or the
town they live in.

How would they have described
themselves before joining?

Let's see.

So now we're looking at, you
know, what was the what was the

before bike?

Let's put in constant pain.

We'll just put that.

Right.

And you could also click more
than one of these if you want to

put in constant pain and
embarrassed by their body, you

could do that as well.

Okay.

We're still on the before
section, right?

And the next question is what
were their specific physical

complaints before starting?

Let's call it low energy and
back pain.

Okay, how did they feel about
themselves emotionally?

Let's just call it, they feel
like they lost themselves and

depressed.

What did they try before?

I always like to pick personal
training elsewhere, like they

tried personal training, or they
tried the same thing like you do

at home.

And then another one you could
put is like solo workouts at

home.

Like they try to do it on their
own, they just know they can't.

What finally made them walk
through your door?

Let's call it this one an
upcoming event.

Uh, like that.

That's a big one for people.

What were they afraid of when
they first started?

Like now we're getting into the
fears of that not being able to

keep up and being judged in out
of place, which is a big one.

What surprised them most about
your gym or program?

Let's put not safe, let's put
yeah, how quickly they saw

results, right?

Because there's a lot of people
are afraid of like how long it's

gonna take.

How did they train and what
coaching, what did coaching look

like for them?

Let's follow smugger personal
training.

That's what we do.

Did community coaches or
accountability play a role?

Coaches noticed, but okay, there
you go.

Coach noticed when you didn't
miss a session, and then let's

put you know, fellow members
became friends, something like

that.

Now the results, what specific
physical changes happened,

included numbers of possible, a
loss of significant pain, and

eliminated chronic pain.

Was there a specific moment when
they realized how far they've

come?

Let's call it a special event.

Look kind of almost like Helen.

How is our life different now?

Inspired others and their
families to get healthy, more

confident, work in school.

Boom.

What direct quote from a member?

I always like this one.

I feel better at 50 than I think
we did at 40.

Something like that.

And then boom.

What is your gym name?

I'll put Gabriel Fitness for
mine.

Okay, who do you serve?

Adults boom.

Free drawers, we'll put 14.

Okay.

Personal training experience.

unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: And then what URL
phone number just put like your

website, GabrielFitness.com.

Build my email.

Okay, so now what happens is if
you're if you're not watching

it, if you're on YouTube, or if
you're on podcasts, you can't

really see this.

I strongly suggest you you go to
the the YouTube video to watch

out.

So essentially what I have just
created by answering all those

questions is the prompt.

That didn't create the email,
that just created the prompt.

And I'll read this out.

It's basically the prompt is
created, right?

It's you are a direct response
copywriter who specializes in

writing story-based testimonial
emails for local fitness

businesses.

Your emails are warm,
conversational, and read like a

compelling feature story,
similar to the newspaper ad that

I wrote.

Not a sales pitch.

They make the reader say, That's
me, right?

And this is literally my words,
that's me and inspire action

without feeling pushy.

Using the member story details,
and again, I'm reading the

prompt right now.

Using the member story details
below, right?

A 300 to 500 word testimony
email.

Now, you can change that if you
want it to be 200, if you want

it to be 800, you can kind of
give them the guide.

You can tweak this how you want
it.

And you email with this
structure subject line, opening

hook, below before, the turning
point, the transformation, the

bigger picture, the offer, the
qualitation, and PS, which is

basically all the main
components of really good direct

response marketing.

And then the tone is
conversational, warm, and then

it gives you all the stuff on
the bottom.

It gives all the stuff that you
created.

Okay.

So what you would do is you
would click copy, copy to

clipboard.

So click that.

And now what you can do is once
you copy the clipboard, you can

put this into any format, right?

You can put it into Claude,
which is what I prefer, but you

could put it right into Chat
GPT.

Since I know most people use
Chat GPT, I'll just show you.

You know, I'll put it into
ChatGPT, and then I'll just show

you.

Boom.

That's the prompt that I just
copied.

And then I click generate the
email.

And then it shows me the email.

Now again, I like Claude much
better than ChatGPT.

I kind of almost don't like
writing anything in ChatGPT.

Because here's why I hate these
stupid, like short sentences.

Nobody like writes like this.

This is so dumb.

And they're all like these one
short sentence thing.

I just I don't like it.

What when you write, it needs to
flow.

There needs to be some longer
sentences, followed by some

shorter sentences, followed by
some really long and then some

really short.

The way they do it is terrible.

Okay, so I'm just telling you
right now, I'm not a huge fan of

ChatGPT, but I would definitely
use Claude for this.

But you can see like it puts
together a pretty good

testimonial in a short you know
period of time.

So you can kind of start to see
how this could be really hey,

now if I was pushed to do you
know one testimonial-based email

every week, that gets
overwhelming, right?

That's like, oh my god, I now
have to interview somebody after

this, but you could literally go
to your Google reviews and you

can probably take a Google
review and put it in the

information from the Google
review into this you know format

and this platform or have a
conversation with somebody and

then create a pretty simple
email.

So it's it's something I'm super
excited about.

It it's something that you know
my I showed my mastermind

members the other day, and they
were like, Oh, the cut the con

the chat the chat botch was
exploding with OMG.

How the hell did you do this?

Like blah, blah, blah.

But I kind of just figured this
out.

Like I was like, I didn't know
how to do a test, like an email

builder, like I knew how to
create prompts, but I didn't

know how to do like the builder
stuff.

And so this was one of the first
times I've done something like

this uh before, but it came out
pretty good.

And I think if you use Claude,
it probably will come better now

than the email that we just
produced on Chat GPT.

But understand that, you know, I
think AI is fine, and I think

you should be using it.

Obviously, I'm giving you
something right now or sharing

something, you know, uh of how
to use it, right?

But it doesn't replace
understanding principles, right?

And understand this there's
there's six laws of persuasion

that Chaldini talks about.

The most powerful is social
proof.

If we know that, then we know we
want to use social proof more in

our marketing.

We know we want to put out more
testimonials, we know we want to

get lots of good Google reviews.

We know that, and and that's the
foundation.

So you want to start
understanding principles of

marketing, not just using AI to
just do everything for you.

You still I I don't create this
testimonial email builder if I

haven't had the background and
the knowledge, right, to you

know, build that first ad that's
generating leads from a

newspaper.

And so I think this doesn't what
what I'm gonna share with you

today doesn't replace your
should be what you what should

be your thirst for knowledge of
how to be a better marketer,

right?

That's part of part of your jobs
is as a gym owner to understand,

you know, and how to win you
know the game in marketing.

So that that's essentially what
you know I wanted to share with

you today.

And really what I want to do is
give you an opportunity to get

the email builder.

And so the way I'm doing this, I
have a feeling that there's

gonna be a good amount of people
that reach out uh to send me the

so I'm I'm actually purposely
making this a little more

difficult.

I'm not giving you a link to go
and download it, going to

essentially say you need to
email me personally.

And my email is vince at
gabrielfitness.com.

And if you put in the subject
email builder, I will send you

the email builder right from
from there.

But you I'm gonna make it a
little bit more difficult for

you because I realize a lot of
people are going to want this,

and and you know, this is a
really cool tool, and I think it

helps a lot of gym orders.

I try to do too, is like there's
a lot of stuff I do that I don't

share here on YouTube or podcast
or anything like that.

A lot.

Okay, I give it to my members,
and you know, they're paying me

a good amount of money to do
that.

But there are things that I
think I've created that are

pretty good that I think will
help a Lot of people.

And I know there's a lot of
people out there that you may

not be ready for mastermind.

You may not be ready to do any
coaching programs with me.

But hey, if I could help you
write a testimonial email once a

week that takes you four minutes
to do, I think that's a good,

you know, use of your time.

And it's something I'm willing
to share.

I'm not willing to share
everything, obviously I can't,

but this is something that I
think will help a lot of people

out there get content out, share
the stories of the people.

Because that's the thing.

You know, you're you're you're
you're basically in the

storytelling business.

And that it why this is also
important right now is AI is

going to generate a lot of
content for you.

If you can create an easy
article about why someone under

40, over 40 should should work
out and all the reasons why, and

all stuff about facts about GLP.

What's harder to replicate in
these types of platforms is the

stories.

So now you have to create the
stories.

That's not my job.

Okay, this tool just helps you
capture the stories.

And if putting my marketing hat
on in the next three to five

years, storytelling is going to
be storytelling will always be

important, right?

But even now, where everyone's
trying to like, you know, drown

each other out with information
and content and exercises and

all this bullshit, you can win
by telling really good,

inspiring stories that get to to
what's happening in my gym right

now.

Well, people are calling and
they're like, oh my god, the

Helen story really inspired me.

I really need to get going.

That's happening right now, and
that's from a newspaper ad.

And so what if you could do this
at your gym?

If you could give yourself the
challenge, which is not even a

challenge anymore, because I
just gave you the prompt, right?

No, not even the prompt, the
builder, the tool, to do this

once a week, right?

To do this once a week.

Now, I will caveat with this,
and I told this to my guys on

the mastermind.

Don't think that just because I
gave you this tool and it's

really cool and it's really
helpful and it doesn't take a

lot of time to do, that all of a
sudden you're gonna have this

flood of new people if you write
one email.

It's not about that.

It is this works when it's
consistent.

Let me give you an example.

One of our members uh was
talking about a bring a friend

day.

And I was like, Well, how many
clients do you get from a bring

a friend day?

And he's like, Two.

And at first you're like, oh,
two clients from a bring a

friend day.

And I said, Well, how many of
them did you do last year?

And he said, 12.

I was like, Oh, you do one a
month.

And he's like, Yeah.

And I was like, How many did you
get?

He said, Two every time.

And he's like, Oh.

So you got two every time.

So you did twelve, you had
twenty-four new customers last

year from something that cost
you almost no money.

So it wasn't the two, it's not
the send, the one send.

It's the consistency, right?

It's like every Wednesday you
show up and you have an email

about a customer that's doing
well.

And you can take that same email
and you can create a social post

out of it, right?

It's so easy to do that stuff.

Take a picture of the person and
create a social post out of it.

So you can put a Facebook post,
an Instagram post, and you have

an email.

Right?

Um, but but the key is that is
the consistency on it.

And you know, maybe your first
email doesn't get any customers,

maybe you get no replies, maybe
it wasn't a great story.

If it's a great story, it
probably will get some replies,

and especially if you can link
in a really good offer at the

same time.

Okay, but hey, if all of a
sudden every Wednesday you have

you can take seven minutes and
put in my email builder in and

create grab a story from your
gym and do this every week, once

a week, and you do this 52 times
over the next course of the next

year.

I I haven't bet that you're
gonna get at least one customer

from it.

And it costs you next to nothing
to email people, right?

And if you get one customer from
it, it's probably a really good

use of seven minutes times 52.

I don't know, a couple hours,
yeah, more than that.

I should actually figure out
what it is.

Like put this all in to do an
email every week would cost you

in time.

So hopefully that's helpful.

I know if you're listening to
this on podcast, it was probably

a little hard to follow.

So that's why I strongly suggest
uh actually, if you're listening

on podcast, what I'm gonna do is
also put a link to YouTube so

you can watch it on YouTube so
you can see the article and then

see the me kind of walk everyone
through the builder.

But if you're listening to this
and you want the builder and you

want me to send it to you, you
just send me an email,

vincegabrielfendus.com, and put
I don't remember what I said, I

think uh testimonial email
builder in the subject,

something like that.

I I I'll figure it out.

But then what what I'm gonna do
is I'm I'm gonna field these

responses myself.

Like I'm not just going to you
know put it on my sales guy,

like so understand that you know
I'm I'm gonna rip it back to you

and give me some some time to to
do this.

I'm not it's not an automated
response that you know will come

back, uh although I probably
should do that.

We'll see actually.

If I get inundated with these
responses, I'm pretty sure that

I will probably have to put some
kind of an auto response in

there to give it.

Really, I'm just gonna shoot
back the link and and give it to

you.

So if you just shoot me an
email, vinsacaperfitness.com,

put testimonial email builder in
the subject line, and then I'll

know you got it from this
podcast, and then we can go from

there, or YouTube or whatever.

So hopefully this was helpful.

If you're watching on YouTube, I
put my email below.

If you are listening on podcast,
there's my email below, but also

there's the link to the YouTube
to watch it so you can actually

see me go through the
testimonial builder.

So hopefully this was helpful.

I got I stayed up really, really
late doing this.

I found it really fascinating to
you know to work with Claude to

create something, you know, like
this.

That's pretty cool.

I'm gonna be doing more of this
lately, and hopefully this was

helpful for you.

And you get the builder.

All right, talk to you soon.

Peace.