On Running a Fitness Business

Yesterday a friend of mine and amazing coach, Mike Perry of Skill of Strength, posted a list or treatise, if you will, on his Facebook page of things to consider when running a fitness business.

It was great.

I wanted to share them here with my own thoughts and additions.

Copyright: tankist276 / 123RF Stock Photo

On Running a Fitness Business…

1. You’re not going to get 50 leads a week. If you do, most of them are rubbish. Don’t bother clicking on that sponsored ad.

TG: The selfie video filmed from inside a private jet or with a group of models and a Camaro in the background should be a red flag enough.

The truth of matter is: allowing your business to grow organically via patience, hard work, and word of mouth is almost always going to “win out” over the quick gratification you’ll receive from dolling out a few hundred dollars to some fucktart who doesn’t even own a gym in the first place.

Guess what: Cressey Sports Performance didn’t spend one single dollar on advertising or marketing in the first five or so years we were open.

However, we got people results. THAT’s what got people in the door.

Quit looking for the easy fixes, shut up, and do the work.

2. Systems matter. Make it as clear as possible.

TG: There should be as little ambiguity as possible here. When someone reaches out to me asking about training I give them the rundown:

Assessment cost this much. In the assessment we will cover “x,y, and z.” And, to keep things as transparent as possible I even send along my pricing sheet so they’re aware of expected costs should they choose to continue.

Systems will vary depending on size of a facility. I mean, how I go about “systemizing” my way of doing things – as a one-man show – compared to when I was at CSP, tag-teaming responsibilities amongst a larger staff, needs to be taken into account.

Suffice it to say, verbiage used during an assessment (and with larger staffs, ensuring the same verbiage is used to coach and cue exercises), pricing, cancellation policies, collecting payments, how programs are dispersed, tracking of sessions, scheduling, what night is after hours Fight Club, all of it, needs to be systemized to prevent chaos.

3. You cannot do it all yourself. Well, you can for a bit. Eventually you will get burnt out.

TG:I’ll tell you this: It helps to have a very understanding partner. I can’t thank my wife enough for her support throughout the years.

“Oh, my bad babe, I can’t watch Scandal tonight because I’ve got programs to write.”

The thing about the fitness industry is that we work when others don’t. This is compounded when you factor in all the chores and responsibilities that percolate the “to do” list outside the actual hours of training clients.

Cleaning, bookkeeping, program writing, etc.

One thing I’ve done that has helped my life immensely is to hire a personal assistant. For the past year Keeley has performed all the tasks that are time sucks on my end: tracking sessions, doing some proofreading, keeping track of client’s birthdays, and other organizational shenanigans.

It allows me to focus more on the things that matter most: Netflix.

Just kidding.

I do feel some people are quick to turn their nose up on menial jobs like cleaning bathrooms and such. If you’ve just opened, and overhead is high, why “waste” money on something that’ll take you 15 minutes to accomplish.

I know some gym owners – and successful ones at that – you still do their own painting, assemblage of equipment, as well as cleaning duties.

You’re not above it. If anything it builds character and more pride in the business.

But yeah, after awhile, getting some help is life-changing.

4. If you train 30 hours a week and you want your own place, plan on doubling that.

TG: When we opened up CSP, and for the first 1-2 years thereafter we’d all put in at least 10-12 hours per day, 6, sometimes 7 days per week.

It’s no fucking joke.

Please, don’t enamor yourself with the idea that gym ownership is the holy grail, top seat, in this industry.

There’s no secret club or handshake that you’re privy to once you own a gym. For many all it means is added debt and stress.

If you’re not a businessman, don’t open a gym.

5. Social media matters. It’s a game that has to be played whether you like it or not.

TG: My tenets to social media:

Engage with your audience. What’s the point of having it if you don’t take the time to answer questions and correspond with your followers?
More times than not – and I understand this is tough given the current political and social climate – distancing yourself from political and religious commentary is best. NOTE: I actually had a new client confide in me that she left her previous trainer due to his proclivity at talking politics during sessions (and on social media). I’m not saying it’s wrong or that it should be avoided 100% of the time – I’ve dabbled in it occasionally – but everyone has to weigh the opportunity costs of doing so.
The more you make it about YOUR CLIENTS and THEIR journey’s, the better.
Share, share, share.
Less selfies, more actionable content
LOLCat memes are fair game though.

6. At first, train everyone. Eventually the energy vampires will leave and you will create a solid client base.

TG:I think this sage advice. I don’t want to touch it.

But I will anyways.

I’m lucky in that when I eventually decided to leave CSP and venture off on my own I had accrued 10+ years of experience and career capital. I had also developed enough of a name and reputation for myself via my writing that I could basically feed my Zod complex and people would just come to me.

Haha – just kidding.¹

The bulk of people who start up with me are kinda already familiar with me and know what they’re getting themselves into.

I mean, my tagline is “Because Heavy Things Won’t Lift Themselves.”

I wonder what would have happened if I named my place Toned Tony’s Palace of Techno and Tickle Fights?

7. If you are going to specialize in one thing, you should aim to be the best at it.

TG: Again, not much I need to add here as it speaks for itself.

There was a time at CSP when we were reticent to be accepted as the “baseball facility.” We were scared that if we did so we’d be leaving other business on the table.

We were wrong.

Thankfully, we (namely, Eric) saw that there was an underserved population out there and we took it upon ourselves to be THE guys to train baseball players.

I’d caution you to think you have to be a jack of all trades. Strive to be the best at one thing and I can almost guarantee you’ll crush.

So, whether you want to specialize in training certain athletes, powerlifters, fat-loss clients, postpartum, or bomb sniffing dolphins…own it.

8. Some days owning a business is awful.

TG: Makes me think of THIS post by Pete Dupuis on “hidden” costs to opening a fitness facility.

Owning a gym can be frustrating, tiring, stressful, and altogether a cornucopia of clusterfuckery. A valuable lesson I learned from Eric Cressey, though, is to not let any of that affect your ability to provide a welcoming and productive experience to your clients and athletes.

You still need to be able to shut all that out, smile, and go coach.

9. Some people are just jerks.

TG: Oh man, this could be a blog post on its own.

You learn to roll with the punches. My wife, a psychologist, is always quick to point out that most of the time when someone acts rudely or uncouth it rarely has anything to do with you as a person.

She’s a doctor and gives people the benefit of the doubt. I just point out they’re likely an insatiable a-hole.

“It’s too cold, it’s too hot, I don’t want to do this, I hate this exercise, the music sucks, I feel fat, it’s Thursday, blah blah blah.”

The beauty about owning your own spot is that you don’t have to take them on as a client, or, worse case (and this RARELY happens), you fire them.

10. If potential clients say things like ” it’s too much money” or ” do you have anything cheaper” they are most likely going to be a pain in the butt. It’s ok to say no.

TG: All I’ll say here is that I wrote an article on why I don’t think it’s a good idea to discount your rates or offer free sessions HERE.

This Isn’t It

Mike actually made a list of 20 things, and I want to chime in on all of them. I think this post is long enough and we’re at a good point where we can stop and take a few breaths.

READ: I need to go pee. Plus, I need to go coach.

I’ll post points 11-20 next week. Till then, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

August 16, 2017 Tony

Hierarchy of Fitness Industry Success

There’s a lack of resources out there informing new(ish) fitness pros what it takes to be successful in this industry. I thought I’d take some time to offer my two cents.

I’m not even going to swear, that’s how professional I want this post to be.

I’d be remiss not to give credit to Alwyn Cosgrove who wrote one of the best fucking² fat-loss articles I’ve ever read way back in 2007: The Hierarchy of Fat Loss. It’s an article I still refer to to this day and obviously served as inspiration for this one.

As with fat loss, when it comes to not sucking in this industry and being successful (whatever that may mean to you³), there’s a hierarchy of things that should be met and/or prioritized.

Just to be clear, having the cutest cat in existence isn’t one of them.

Every morning I sit on the living room floor to eat my eggs, watch the local news, and catch up on emails. And every morning Dagny keeps me company. #crazycatgentleman

A photo posted by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on Jan 18, 2017 at 4:56am PST

But it doesn’t hurt either.

Based on current trends you’d think all you need to become successful in the fitness industry is a YouTube channel, an endless collage of Yoga pants, or some kind of witty self-promotional title like, I don’t know, “Paleo Pirate” or “Han Swolo.”

[Not sure if those are already taken, but if not, you’re welcome]

I understand it’s popular and altogether easy to rag on “fitness celebrities.” I do it too and it’s often warranted. By the way, THIS article is one of the better ones in recent memory.

However:

I don’t have a million followers. You don’t have a million followers. Let be real: We both want a million followers. They must be doing something right.
Writing a snarky Facebook status or Tweet isn’t going to help anyone or solve the divide, so I decided to do something productive about it.

Hierarchy of Skillz

The roots of this post can go back several years, when we started our intern program at Cressey Sports Performance. Almost inevitably, when asked what they wanted us to cover, every new intern class wanted to go over more nuanced topics right away like assessment, PRI, or why my music playlist was way better than Eric’s

Yet, many couldn’t tell what muscles upwardly rotate the scapulae or coach a proper squat if their life depended on it. Or, on occasion, some weren’t socially comfortable enough to take the reigns on coaching someone in the first place: whether it was breaking down someone’s squat or demonstrating a proper deadbug.

It flies in the face of what many young coaches today are programmed to think, but, no, Instagramming your deadlift won’t get you into Men’s Health.

You’re going to have to build some career capital and experience the old fashioned way.

I’ll break down my hierarchy in more detail in a minute. Before that, however, I want to have a real, un-censored conversation. Here’s the umbrella theme I want you to consider the rest of the way:

I give you PJ Striet ladies and gentlemen:

“Work ethic. Cliched but true. Not many are willing to get out of bed at 4:30, get home at 8, and turn around and do it again and again, for YEARS. You work when other people don’t-early mornings, late nights, holidays.

And you have to combine that with the wherewithal to over deliver, all the time. I used to show interns a picture of a BMW or Mercedes and tell them “This is what your future clients could choose to spend their money on each month for what they will pay you. You better bring it, because this car is a helluva lot more attractive than doing lunges and rows.” This is where the people skills come in.

I’m not going to millennial bash, but most young trainers just ask me how to get in magazines, get book deals, etc. The thought of spending 17 years, much of which was spent doing one-on-one training over 14 hours a day, isn’t really appealing. God I sound like my late father.”

Copyright: kiwitaonga / 123RF Stock Photo

Man, that was good.

Okay, the Hierarchy…Finally

1. People Skills

I could just say wear deodorant and”don’t be weird,” but that wouldn’t be helpful.

It’s fashionable to think the way to go is online coaching nowadays. It’s easy and THAT’s where the money’s at, right?

Where are your clients coming from? Do you have all your systems in place to collect payment and stay on point with your book-keeping and scheduling? What about programming? What software are you using? Are you scheduling weekly or bi-weekly check-ins? How much access will your clients have to you? Are you prepared to introduce your face to your keyboard from all the emails you’re going to receive 24/7?

Sure you have the luxury of working from home or your local coffee shop, can travel when you want, and pants are always optional⁴, but online coaching can be more of a pain in the ass than people think.

There are plenty of people who do very well with it. I’d argue, though, that the ones who do really well are also the ones who spent years honing their craft coaching people in real-life.

A piece of advice I often give to new trainers who email me for career advice is this:

“In the beginning you should spend, minimum, two years working in a commercial gym.”

I did it for five. Eric Cressey did it for four. Mike Robertson did it for a while too. You’re not above it. You’re not that special, snowflake.

It’s the only way you can pretty much guarantee you’re going to gain access to as wide a variety of clientele as possible. Extroverts, introverts, Type A, Type B, athletes, non-athletes, injured, not injured, assholes, not assholes, so on and so forth.

Learning how to work with different people, from different backgrounds and experience levels is priceless experience. Experience that will make you a better coach in both real life and the virtual world.

2. Anatomy

You don’t need to be on par with Dean Somerset, Sue Falsone, or Dr. Frankenstein on the topic, but you should know your anatomy. It dumbfounds me how many fitness “professionals” can’t name all four rotator cuff muscles or explain the real function(s) of the rectus abdominus.

Likewise it’s not just knowing insertions, origins and regurgitating what your anatomy book tells you. Functional anatomy matters as well. Like, understanding that being stiff and “tight” isn’t always bad, or that if you spot a DB press like this (from the elbows) bad things will happen.

At the end of the day it’s going to be hard to break down movement and to explain things to your clients/athletes if you have no idea what certain exercises work or do.

3. Movement/Exercise Technique/Cueing

You’re not going to be able to write effective programming if you’re unable to break down exercise technique.

THIS post from Tony Bonvechio is an excellent example of how creating context and breaking down movement in ways your athletes/clients can relate to is a powerful skill to learn. Likewise, THIS post I wrote a few years ago explains the difference between External vs. Internal Cueing and how the former kicks the latter’s ass.

THIS one is more recent and also goes into external cueing.

Another skill that falls under this heading is the ability to regress/progress exercise on the fly. I’m not an infallible coach, I make mistakes. Sometimes I’m overzealous and include an exercise that’s too aggressive for someone. Other times, too easy. The last thing you want to be is unprepared. As a coach or trainer nothing reeks of ineptitude more than this.

In short, you should be able to break down basic human movements:

- - Squat
  - Hinge
  - Push
  - Pull
  - Single Leg
  - Carry
  - Rotate
  - Fist Pumps

via GIPHY

As well as match all the above with the needs, goals, and ability level of each of your clients. Moreover, you should be able to do so simply. If you start explaining something to someone and they start looking at you as if you’re speaking Elvish you’re doing it wrong.

4. Nuts & Bolts

This gets right to the meat and potatoes of what many are often too quick to jump to: exercise selection, order, sets/reps, rest intervals, tempo, etc. Essentially, program design.

I love Mike Boyle’s analogy here.

When it comes to program design you have Chefs, Sous Chefs, and Cooks.

Cooks – are those writing their first program or have very little experience writing programs. Most likely you’re better off following someone else’s lead.

Sous Chef – these are your coaches who have 3-4 years experience.

Chefs – 5 + years experience. These are your Mike Boyle’s, Dan John’s, Optimus Prime’s, etc.

Can you start to see why the previous categories help to pave the way for writing effective training programs?

5. Continuing Education

Some people get caught in the black hole of continuing education, interning, and certification grabbing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Far be it from me to dis anyone who places a premium on educating themselves and trying to get better.⁵

Read. Go to seminars. Intern. Shadow. Observe. Watch.

Do what you gotta do.

At some point though, you need to get actual experience and start applying what you learn.

6. Sales/Building a Brand

If I had any talent with photo shop or making shapes on a computer this would be at the top of a pyramid, and the least important. Not to say it isn’t important. It’s just the least important.

Many people are quick to hop on the brand building wagon before there’s a brand to even build. To put things into context (and I am not implying this is way things should be done):

I didn’t have my first logo and t-shirt made until this past year. Yet, there are some trainers who are writing ebooks two months into their “career,” and wondering why they’re unable to generate sales.

Ahem, glance at the hierarchy.

In addition, I didn’t release my first product – Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – until this past year as well (15 years in).

I know someone may chime in with, “well, I work in a commercial gym and I’m supposed to hit sales quotas each month! Shouldn’t I focus on sales?”

I get it. It sucks. However, call me crazy, but if you focus on all of the above – in order – you’ll likely have all the clients you’ll need. Get people results, don’t be a dick, have an ounce of patience, and amazing things happen.

Jordan Syatt shared a cute story the other day:

Coach emails me asking how to get more people to read their content and get more engagement.

“I give clear, straight forward instructions that, admittedly, would require them to put more effort into their work.

Coach responds with all their reasons for *not* wanting to take my advice. Then asks for more ways to get people reading their content and engaging.

I outline exactly why my previous advice is what I’ve found to work best.

Coach responds with more reasons why my advice won’t work for their audience. And what else can they do to get more readers and audience engagement.

—-

Just like fitness coaches love to tell their clients, there is no magic pill. There is no quick fix. The process is simple — not easy — and the best results come from patience, consistency, and a metric f-ton of effort.”

I tell the same people: I’ve been writing on my site since 2006 and have upwards of 1,900 blog posts (not counting all the articles I’ve written for other sites). Want to get better at writing and producing more engaging content? Stop emailing me, or Jordan, or Santa Claus about how to write and produce more engaging content and start, you know, practicing.

“I figured if I wrote quality content people would, eventually, show up. Shit content, even with SEO, is still shit content.”

The only way you’re going to get better, and build a brand, is to….do the work.

Total Swear Words: 1 (not counting asshole, twice). So 3. Not too bad.

January 19, 2017 Tony

fitness business personal training

Should You Discount Your Rates Or Offer Free Sessions?

The fitness industry gets the shaft sometimes. It endures godawful long hours, we work when others don’t, there’s rarely (if ever) paid vacation, and there’s almost zero barrier to entry which allows a bunch of numbskulls to mess things up for everyone else.⁶

Copyright: ruigsantos / 123RF Stock Photo

I can’t think of any other industry or profession where, more times than not, the expectation is potential patrons get to “sample” the service before they decide to purchase. Okay, admittedly, that 100% describes the process of purchasing a car. However that scenario is a little different. A car is merchandise. The fitness industry is a service industry.

I’m always amazed at people who ask for FREE training to try out my services. Would they ask a dentist the same question?

— Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore1) December 21, 2016

I think it’s a fair question, and feel free to insert any other profession in place of dentist (it’s the first thing that came to my mind when I wrote the Tweet): lawyer, hair-stylist, plumber, tutor, financial advisor, professional Han Solo impersonator, anything.

I also think there’s no one correct answer and that whatever side of the fence you’re on – “yes, you should offer free consultations and services” or “hells-to-the-no you shouldn’t” – has it’s advantages and disadvantages. In fact, if there’s any question that deserves the canned “I don’t know” response it’s this one.

via GIPHY

However, upon further reflection I think the more germane response is…

“It Depends”

I remember when I was working at Sports Club LA (now Equinox) here in Boston back in 2006-2007 every new member received two “free” sessions with a trainer. I say “free” because the sessions were complimentary to the members but I was still compensated for my time. Not every chain does that of course, but you can bet they all have people on staff who’s sole job it is to sell, sell, sell and/or direct people towards the trainers. In Boston, like any major city, there are several notable, big chain commercial gyms vying for people’s attention (and wallets):

Equinox
Boston Sports Club
HealthWorks
LifeTime Fitness
24 Hour Fitness
Golds
Planet Fitness
Beacon Hill Athletic Club

In addition there’s dozens of mid-level commercial gyms (not chains, but pretty big) peppered throughout the city, not mention a CrossFit box in every major neighborhood. That’s a lot of competition and it makes sense that many of them would offer a free consultation or discounted introductory rates on training to entice more people to join.

Copyright: wavebreakmediamicro / 123RF Stock Photo

Cressey Sports Performance business director, Pete Dupuis, discussed this very topic in THIS blog post, and one stat he brought up was that roughly 30% of people who are offered free consultations actually end up taking advantage of them. As Pete mentions:

“This may be a solid conversation rate from the perspective of the commercial gym owner, but not for the independent contractor who doesn’t see a single penny of the monthly membership dues these potential leads are paying. A 30% conversion rate tells me that 7 out of 10 people decided that something for nothing was actually worth nothing.”

And that’s the thing: I don’t have the luxury of hundreds (if not thousands) of people paying a membership fee just to walk through the doors. Why would I offer my expertise and time for free when I have bills to pay?

Some people may counter with “well, if you offer free stuff it’s less intimidating and allows people to see whether or not you’re a good fit.”

There are a few points I’d like to offer here:

1. Again, try walking into a hair salon and asking someone for 30-60 minutes of their time in order to sample the goods and to see if “you’re a good fit.”

HAHAHAHAHAHA – no, seriously, do it.

2. This is my livelihood, not a garage sale.

3. Plus (and not that I would ever play this card), I’m Tony motherf****** Gentilcore. People, like, me. I’m cool as shit to hang out with. Deadlifts, EDM, and random 90’s Mariah Carey trivia? Who wouldn’t pay for that…;o)

4. When does it stop? You offer a friend a discount and then what? Discounts for life? The mailman trains for free?

Worse you offer one person a discount or free sessions and another client catches wind who didn’t receive the same discount and now things are going to get weird. It’s best to just draw the line in the sand and take pride in your rates.

5. As my boy Dean Somerset has noted: free stuff isn’t the same thing as free training. I have over 1,900 blog posts on this site that are free and will help point people in the right direction in terms of training advice. Please, peruse away. That takes zero of my time.

However, time = money. If you want that it’s only fair to be compensated for it.

6. With regards to free consultations specifically, here’s the deal: that’s my assessment. I’m not taking 60 minutes just to show someone how to put the pins into the machines or to gossip about who’s banging who on WestWorld.

I’m taking that time to dive deep into someone’s unique injury history, discuss goals, using screens to assess movement quality, and taking the opportunity to see how much (if anything) I need to clean up with regards to exercise technique. All of that is information I use to write an individualized program. There’s value in that, not to mention a college degree, a CSCS certification I need to work at to maintain, and years of continuing education. If there’s any time left over, cool, lets discuss robots banging each other. I’m down.

Other Miscellaneous Things I Want to Say, But Have No Idea How to Put Them In Coherent Order.

I’d be remiss not to say this: Have a filter. Experience matters in this context. If you are in fact a new coach/trainer there is going to be a degree of doing stuff you’d rather not do. The entitlement that permeates with new trainers entering this industry is dumbfounding. There will be times you may have to offer your time for free or offer discounts in order to get more eyes in front of you. It’s not beneath you to do so. Moreover, you may end up working for a year (or longer) earning “beginner” wages. It’s part of the gig. Suck it up.
What about online stuff and emails? I take a lot of pride in that I try to answer every email sent my way. I think there’s huge value with interacting with your audience and not being an uppity dick. I’m not that much of an a-hole that I can’t take a few minutes to answer someone’s question. Where it becomes absurd is when one question turns into 17, or someone sends an email that would rival War and Peace in length. I ain’t got time for that.
I feel strongly there needs to be some form of “buy in” for the person to take things seriously in the first place. If the session(s) are free and there’s no penalty (loss of $$) on their end to 1) show up and/or 2) be accountable there’s less likelihood they’re going to be invested in the process.

This is NOT to say I don’t feel there’s value in offering discounted training/rates sometimes. The peeps over at Mark Fisher Fitness are huge proponents of offering special one-time only offers of 20-25% off packages when people attend a special bootcamp or class. I like this idea! If you’re already making the time to be at a certain place at a certain time, go for it. Offer free shit. Make it a special charity bootcamp or, I don’t know, just because it’s Thursday. MFF’s rule is run the class, get people’s names, offer the offer, stalk them for 30 days with emails and phone calls, but after that stop.

Understandably, there are some commercial gym trainers who are stuck between a rock and hard-place who receive minimal help from management in terms of client referrals. In this scenario I sense some value in offering free classes or sessions. If it’s a matter of getting more eyes in front of you I’d suggest offering 15-30 minute workshops or hands-on sessions during your floor hours where you go over core training, fat-loss strategies, or maybe offer exercise technique tutorials. Here people can get a flavor for how you roll and decide if you’re a good match or not. You totally are by the way.

Have some of your own advice to offer? Please chime in below or on the Facebook feed. I know many people have different perspectives and ideas on this topic and I have no doubts others can and will benefit from your experiences.

UPDATE

I should address a common theme I see popping up from people who oppose my view point. And that is: “I want my plumber to come and fix the toilet and that’s it. There’s more to the conversation when you factor in client-trainer relationships and the importance of rapport.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Which is why I refrain from pressuring people into purchasing large blocks of training up front. You want to talk intimidating? That’s intimidating.

“Hi, we just met and I spent 30 minutes gently tapping your glutes, want to hang out more? That’ll be $1200 for 30 sessions mmmmkay?”

Stealing another train of thought from Pete Dupuis, I’d rather earn my client’s business month to month. I only offer monthly plans. That’s a more palatable pill to swallow for most people. And, on the off-chance someone doesn’t like my glowing personality (and sweet He-Man references) or feels we’re not a long-term match, I am totally cool refunding their unused sessions. That’s just Business 101. And not sucking as a human being.

December 22, 2016 Tony

business

The Perfect Business Growth Plan: 6 Keys to Creating a Successful Personal Training Business

A common fallacy in the fitness industry is that if you don’t own a gym you don’t have to worry about “business stuff.”

Another common fallacy are those who open a gym and automatically consider themselves businessmen (or women). The idea being because they open an impressive looking gym filled with all the bells and whistles, that all they have to do is turn on the lights and people will show up.

Copyright: yuryimaging / 123RF Stock Photo

Ryan Ketchum chimes in today with an excellent article on the “fitness business” and how to build a successful one at that. I chime in too with some “TG Tidbits.”

His insanely reasonably priced resource The Academy is on sale now with tons of free bonuses.

Enjoy!

The Perfect Business Growth Plan

You didn’t go to business school and most the trainers I talk to don’t really have a passion for the business side of things. You’re in it to help people and create an impact.

Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of career options for trainers. You can work at a big box gym, maybe you get lucky and get a job working at a facility that provides you opportunities or you head out on your own.

So it’s no wonder that many great trainers end up frustrated with their business, struggling to get by or worse…

…end up leaving the industry.

You can’t SOLELY rely on your skills as a trainer to build your business. If you choose to start your own business you’re going to have to learn how to market, sell, and manage your business.

Fortunately there are 5 keys to ending your frustration and finding the success you want.

Step 1: Start With The End In Mind

If you don’t know why you’re doing something, the purpose behind it, it’s nearly impossible to get there.

Having a long term vision for your business helps you create a short term action plan that gives you purpose. When you have purpose you’re more motivated to take action.

Start by describing what you want your business to look like three years from now. Imagine writing an article about your business that’s going to be featured in your local paper or even something like Inc.

Tell the story of your business. How many clients do you have? How many team members? Locations? What are your values? What impact do you have the community? How are you innovating?

You don’t have to figure out how you’ll get there just yet. But, you need a clear picture of what it looks like when you arrive.

TG Tidbit: I remember when Eric, Pete, and I were drawing up the “plans” for Cressey Sports Performance back in 2007. The three of us huddled up at a table in a local Applebees and ~~tried not to destroy the back of our pants~~ drew up a business plan and mission statement.

I want to say the business plan was “don’t suck” and the mission statement was “make people into deadlifting X-Men,” but of course we were a bit more thorough than that. The point being: this had to be done. How else to draw a line from Point A (gym owner rookies) to Point B (WHOA – people are paying us)?

We had to write down our WHY and then how we were going to achieve it.

HINT: read Start With Why.

Step 2: Zoom In!

Once you’ve got a clear picture of where you want to be and what your business looks like in a few years it’s time to zoom in and focus.

This is what separates the dreamers from the achievers. It’s critical that you establish a 90 day plan.

At a minimum your plan should include:

Revenue and profit goals
Marketing goals
Key projects/initiatives you’re going to complete
A simple plan for hitting your marketing and sales goals

You can focus on hitting your goals and completing these projects over the next 90 days. It helps you set priorities and allows you to focus.

If you accomplished 2-3 key projects or initiatives each quarter you’d have made progress in 8-12 areas of your business through the year! That’s huge progress, but you have to take it one quarter at a time.

TG Tidbit: When I opened CORE in 2015 this was something I admittedly struggled with. I still do. I’ve never been one to write down lists and then attack them. However, now that I’m starting a family it’s become more imperative I plan a head and recognize what needs to be done to best set myself and my family up long-term “success.”

Accountant? Check.

Financial Advisor? Check

Signing up for Jason Bourne hand-to-hand combat classes, which has nothing to do with nothing? Check

Finally understanding the power of list making and crossing things off? CHECK.

Step 3: Develop Your Marketing Strategy

If you’re going to grow to six figures and beyond you’ll need a strategy to acquire new clients.

Here’s where a lot of business owners go wrong! They deploy tactics with no consideration of an overall strategy.

Tactics are things like referrals, bring a friend days, FB marketing and joint ventures.They all work, but you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish and have a clear plan of attack before implementing these tactics.

A good business owner will understand their strategy and be great at implementing the right tactical methods to get them to their goals.

To start with your strategy let’s look at what you need to define:

Your Core Offer – what are you building your business around?
Your Ideal Client – who are you building around?
Your Local Market Positioning™ – why they should choose you?

Once you have this the next step is to figure out what you’re trying to accomplish with your marketing. Defining the objectives of a marketing plan will help you create the right tactical plan to get the results you want.

Did you know that only about 3% of customers are ready to buy right now?

That means that for every 100 people who see your ads, fliers, social media posts and hear about you from your clients only 3 are ready to buy from you today.

But, what if you could educate and persuade those others?

Here are some sample objectives you can accomplish:

Get people to trust you and your business
Build credibility within the community
Educate the market why they need to work with us
Refer new business
Gain respect
Overcome price objections
Gain influence
Build urgency

Once you’ve created at least 3-5 objectives for your marketing plan it’s time to develop it.

Most fit pros get a majority of their leads from word of mouth marketing or referrals. And while you need that in your arsenal of marketing tactics it’s way too passive to grow an easy to run and fun business.

Because you’ll constantly be worried about getting referrals 🙂

If you choose to use an education based marketing approach you’ll be creating content that you can use to educate your target market that simultaneously sells your services.

TG Tidbit: Here’s where I lucked out. I started blogging in 2005-2006, when there weren’t that many people writing fitness blogs. As of today I have 1,875 posts on this site. That’s a metric shit ton⁷ of content.

Moral of the story: what are you waiting for? Stop procrastinating. WRITE! Building a brand isn’t going to build itself.

On an aside, I also think one of the often overlooked “keys” to marketing is to not look like you’re trying to market. There’s a lot to be said about authenticity and being genuine.

Determine what the biggest pain points are for your target market (this is why you need an Ideal Client profile) and create articles, videos and workshops covering these topics.
For most many trainers the primary goal for your clients is weight loss. Knowing that, what are the biggest concerns for someone that’s trying to lose weight but hasn’t had success?

Here’s a few ideas for content:

How to eat if you want to lose 20lbs without following a strict diet
How to get results with 30 minute workouts
Eating Habits For a Lean Body

Quick Tip: You can get some really cool ideas from this Headline Generator.

Creating education based marketing on these topics will not only attract the other 97% (remember only 3% are ready to buy now) but it will also position you as the expert.

Once you’ve completed your education based marketing you can offer a solution for the biggest problem that your audience is facing. This is where you try to move a lead into your intro program.

Taking an education based marketing approach allows you to accomplish your primary marketing objectives.

If you’re stuck on tactical methods to get this strategy out to your audience here’s a quick list:

Free e-books
Workshops
Seminars
Lunch and Learns
Videos
Blog Posts
Email Marketing
Public Speaking
Joint Ventures
FB Marketing (ads to your videos/workshops/etc)
Networking

Plus, when you educate your clients in your marketing they are more likely to refer their friends. And because you’ve educated them they know exactly what to say.

TG Tidbit: I had this conversation with a friend of mine the other day who started working in a commercial gym recently and has been having difficulty finding clients. I told her “why not set aside 30-60 minutes during your floor hours and provide a free “clinic” to members on topics you’re passionate about and will resonate? Topics like “Better Exercises Than Crunches to Build Your Core,” or “Fat Loss Myths,” or maybe provide a squat or Turkish get-up tutorial.

Get yourself in front of more people’s eyes, provide education (value), show them you’re an “expert,” and it’s likely someone interests will be piqued.

Step 4: Create Simple Systems

An easy and fun business doesn’t require you to do every single task. That actually sounds like a hard, lame business to run.

If you’re just starting out there’s going to be a short period where you’ll have to do it all. As long as the goal is to get non-revenue producing tasks off your plate as quickly as you can afford to that’s okay.

You need to create systems for the following:

Lead Generation (marketing) Systems
Conversion (sales) Systems
Training Systems
Customer Service Systems
Billing Systems
Accounting Systems
Human Resources Systems
Facility Management Systems

When creating your systems make sure you keep the 80/20 rule in mind. Knowing that 20% of your activities will produce 80% of your results will keep you focused on documenting the most important activities in your systems.

The rest can be up to the person completing the system. If you get all your systems to 80% and you hire the right people they can take it the rest of the way.

TG Tidbit: I’ll tell you right now, Pete Dupuis not only handled all the “business stuff” for CSP in the early days, but he also handled the calls, billing, scheduling, payments, and also helped handle cleaning duties (with everyone else). His life changed dramatically, though, the day we hired an office manager (see Step 5). However that wasn’t until three or four years into our business. The systems he developed prior were what helped him not go insane.

Step 5: Hire the Right People

Now that you’ve got your systems in place it’s time to look at hiring or outsourcing some of your tasks.

The first hires in your business should be a great accountant, a solid bookkeeper and a superstar admin.

Stacie Leary, the “face” of Cressey Sports Performance and who really runs the show…;o)

Unless you love staying up to date with tax code and spending countless hours getting your P&L ready a great accountant will save you tons of time and lots of money.

You want your accountant to do more than end of year tax prep. You want them doing your monthly P&L, cash flow statements and balance sheets. It’s also critical as your grow to have them help with tax planning so you don’t get behind or surprised with a huge tax bill on April 15th.

A bookkeeper will help you manage your expenses and work with your accountant to make sure everything is tracked correctly. My bookkeeper provided me with an accounts receivable and accounts payable report each week and I’d tell them what to pay and what to hold off on for our bills based on due dates and the cash we had available.

Hiring a bookkeeper saved me at least two hours a week doing stuff I hated!

Next you can look at hiring an admin to take on some of the work you’re doing that’s not revenue producing. Training, marketing and sales can stay on your plate for now but everything else if fair game to delegate to an admin.

Hiring trainers is a great idea once you have these other areas covered. That’s a tougher position to fill and requires more training on your part, which is why you do it after the other three.

Having an accountant, bookkeeper and admin frees up your time to train your trainer on your systems.

TG Tidbit: Having an accountant is HUGE. Especially one who’s familiar with the fitness industry and tax code (knowing what you can and cannot write off).

Also, in terms of hiring in general for your business….Hire PEOPLE not resumes.

Step 6: Know Your Numbers

Successful businesses don’t guess. They use data and information to make educated decisions.

That’s why you need to know your numbers. Tracking and reviewing a few numbers in your business will help you identify issues before they become a problem and help you make key decisions.

You need to be tracking the following weekly:

Leads
New Front End Offer Clients (people on your low barrier to entry offer)
New Core Offer Clients (those signed up for your membership)
Retention Rate

The following need to be tracked monthly:

Operating Margin
Autopay to Expense Ratio
Closing Rate
Growth Rate

If you can get this info you’ll be able to manage the health of your business and make better decisions on a weekly basis.

It’s not always fun setting things up so that you can get these numbers but it’s well worth it once you have it.

Wrap Up

You’ll be able to create a six figure strategy for your business by getting this in place. Don’t worry if you don’t have it all right now, or even if you don’t have any of it.

Start by making one of these a priority to get in place this month and then add a new one each month until they are all in place.

Not only will you be able to grow your business to six or multiple six figures quickly, but your business will be more fun and a lot easier to run.

You can get access to all the resources and training you need to build your own six figure personal training business in The Academy.

Give it a test drive and watch your business grow.

November 17, 2016 Tony

fitness business personal training rant Writing

Me Spitballing Some Sage Advice to Fitness Professionals

I have a few things I’d like to get off my chest, fitness professional.

Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_tashatuvango'>tashatuvango / 123RF Stock Photo</a> — Copyright: tashatuvango / 123RF Stock Photo

1) The Picture Above is Misleading.

I don’t consider myself an “expert” in anything.⁸

If my name happened to be Gray Cook, Stuart McGill, Shirley Sahrmann, Mike Boyle, Dan John, Sue Falsone, or Yoda then maybe I’d have some room to talk.

Truth be told: It was the only picture I could find on 123RF.com that fit the tone of today’s post, so I ran with it. But there’s a message to be made here: none of the people mentioned above – in addition to the countless others in the industry I could name drop – have ever uttered the word “expert” as an adjective to describe themselves or their services.

I find it comical (<– not “ha-ha” comical, but rather “you’re kind of a narcisstic asshat” comical) that there are highly respected coaches in this industry who have been doing what they’re doing for longer than some people have been alive and have every right to claim they’re an expert, yet don’t, but there are some industry pros out there who, for whatever reason – they read a book, took a weekend certification, eat Paleo – anoint themselves this term.

Do yourself a favor, hit up your “About Me” page on your website and your various social media profiles and delete the word. Unless, of course, you’re an expert in kitten kisses or giving high-fives.

In that case, expert away.

NOTE: this isn’t to say you shouldn’t be proud of your accomplishments or that you have to be in the industry for 10, 15, 20, or 30 years to profess to the masses you know what you’re talking about. It’s just, I don’t know, a little dose of humbleness goes a long ways.

2) And Since I’m on the “Ornery Strength Coach” Train at the Moment

Here’s a Tweet I posted yesterday:

15 yrs in the industry and I’m releasing my first product next week. Oh, you’ve trained 4 ppl for a month & writing an ebook? That’s cute.

— Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore1) October 25, 2016

Admittedly, I can understand how some people reacted the way they did. I can see how the words may have come across as a shade elitist with a pinch of “dickheadedness” tossed in for good measure.

I had two or three people send me messages saying something to the effect of:

“Are you saying someone with less experience than you can’t come out with a good product? That’s naive.”

For starters: I said first product, not good product.

Secondly: No, that’s not what I was saying.

I recognize there are numerous people who have been in the industry for a very short time who have put out remarkably good content and/or released amazing products. Far be it from me to hold their lack of fitness industry tenure against them.

However, lets be real: such examples are clearly the exception and not the norm. For every Greg Nuckols who bursts onto the scene there are 10,000 other personal trainers and coaches quick to catapult their exclusive ebook to the masses with very little experience to show for it.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it 6,097 more times:

“It’s never been easier to be heard, but it’s never been harder to get heard.”

Slow down. Be patient. As my former business partner, Pete Dupuis, would say: take the time to procure some career capital.

Practice what you preach, develop relationships, invest in yourself with continuing education, shadow/observe other coaches…do everything you can to marinate in and gain experience.

That, my friends, will be how you’re going to separate yourself. And, magically, before you know it, you won’t have to try so hard. You won’t have use words such as “expert,” or “revolutionary,” or “super secret formula sauce” to sell yourself or your content.

The content you write or products you produce will not only have more authenticity, context, and validity…but will probably have a better chance of reaching more people.

Because, you know, it won’t suck. You’ll have experience to thank for that.

And don’t just listen to me. Listen to Ben Bruno:

My best tip for aspiring fitness writers: be a coach first and writer second. Then write about what you do instead of having to make shit up

— Ben Bruno (@benbruno1) October 14, 2016

3) Want to Get Your Name Out There, Here’s What Not to Do.

I received the following message last week via my Business/Fan page on Facebook:

“Hey NerdFitness, my video is picking up a lot of traction right now, and i thought it’d be a great fit for your website! Check it out here: [link to video that I purposely left out]

In the video I give a Intense workout for burning fat that you can do at home with no equipment! If you have a minute, check it out and feel free to use this for your site.

Thanks,
Anthony B”

MY RESPONSE:

1. You might want to pay a little closer attention to sending out canned emails to people and not using the correct name. I’m not affiliated with NerdFitness. I am a nerd, though. So you’re not entirely off-base.

2. You might also want to be careful about sending out canned emails in general because A) they don’t work, and they’re not a great way to get your name out there in this industry. I don’t know you, have never spoken or exchanged a single email with you prior to this interaction (Hi, I’m Tony), or know your background…and you expect me to just toss this up on my website and drive a ton of traffic your way? FYI: no where on my site do I really emphasize “fat loss” training. B) They come across as disingenuous and, well, annoying. I don’t like being annoyed.

C) You can smell them from a mile away (I.e., “picking up a lot traction” = 14 views on YouTube? Well, 15 now that I watched it.)

3. I’m not trying to be a dick. Just giving you some unsolicited feedback on what NOT to do.

October 27, 2016 Tony

business fitness business

3 Steps to Fail-Proof Your Gym

A few weeks ago I received a text from my good friend (and former business partner) Pete Dupuis. He and I are both obsessed with Jason Bourne, so the first part of the message contained some sort of arbitrary reference to David Webb. We’re cool like that. The second part, though, asked if I’d interested in him writing a blog post on why me leaving Cressey Sports Performance and opening CORE was a good idea.

Apparently it was a topic that popped into his head during a 3AM, sleep-deprived haze as he was attending to his newborn son. Creative juices can strike at any moment I guess. This is good news given my wife and I are expecting at the end of January.

Anyways, I said “of course,” and what follows is, well, pretty freakin awesome. I’ve always said that gym ownership is NOT for everyone and that industry peeps need to erase the notion from their mind that the only way to “make it” is to sign a lease.

I fought the idea of gym ownership for as long as I could, until I couldn’t any longer. Until it made sense.

Enjoy.

Opening a Gym? Do These 3 Things First

Just over a year ago Tony Gentilcore made the difficult decision to walk away from Cressey Sports Performance. After more than 8 years of coaching, learning, and business development, it was time to step out from behind the CSP curtain and let the Gentilcore brand loose on the local fitness community.

Tony made the right move; I’m proud of him.

Here we are just a year later, and he’s flipped his world upside down…in a good way. In the past 12 months, he’s presented on multiple continents, recorded a fitness product alongside Dean Somerset, conceived his first child⁹, and gone from independent contractor to full-blown fitness facility owner.

I want to show you why Tony’s decision to open his own gym (one that thousands of people fail at each year) is extremely likely to succeed. Here are three important things he did in advance of pulling the trigger on this venture to ensure that he see a return on his investment:

1) Tony Accrued TONS of Career Capital

In a field where the barrier to entry is essentially the internet access you need to secure an online fitness certification, Tony has taken an increasingly rare route to “expert” status; he actually set foot on a gym floor for thousands of hours and earned the title.

Coming out of college, he worked split shifts in a corporate fitness setting and would eventually transition to a commercial gym personal training role for multiple years before helping to launch Cressey Sports Performance (CSP).

Tony then proceeded to accumulate more than 10,000 hours of time functioning as a strength coach here at CSP (actually closer to 12,000 – I did the math). When you add up the time spent coaching in all three settings, it is safe to say that he piled up something in the vicinity of 20,000 hours on “a” gym floor prior to announcing the birth of “CORE” to the fitness world. That’s more than 830 entire days of lessons learned, people.

In more than a decade of build up to CORE, Tony experienced multiple training models, learned to sell effectively in each, and identified his ideal business model and coaching format. He’s also been an employee, an employer, and an influencer in the development of a recognizable fitness brand.

Now I want you to stop and think about all of the gyms you are aware of. Can you name a single founder of one of these businesses with more relevant experience than Tony going in to the launch?

Don’t waste too much time trying to identify someone; this person doesn’t exist.

2) He Accumulated Good Will from Industry Influencers

Gyms that could be fantastic fail every day because of extensive competition. It’s nearly impossible to find a desirable location for your gym that is not already overflowing with competitive exercise alternatives. The unique advantage that Tony possessed coming in to this process wasn’t his funny blogs or his ability to instruct the perfect Turkish getup – it was his network.

On the day that he formally announced his departure from CSP on his Facebook page, Tony accumulated 644 “likes” and more than 100 comments wishing him luck and positively reinforcing the move. If you work your way through the comment section, you’ll quickly realize that it reads like the “who’s who” of our little fitness bubble.

The good will didn’t stop there; he went on to record more than a half dozen podcasts discussing his next step and ultimately saw his message reach the far ends of the online fitness community. People were talking. Everyone was talking. Leads started rolling in in the form of emails, and messages on Facebook and Twitter. He wasn’t opening the doors to his business at the same starting line as his competition. Tony was working with a stacked deck.

The lesson here isn’t that you need to spend your time and energy attempting to convince people to share your message on the internet. Instead, it is that you should spend more time making friends than you do accumulating enemies. You’ll be hard-pressed to find somebody who dislikes Tony in this field.

You can’t just ask for a spot on a popular podcast like The Fitcast simply because you need to announce your new business venture. Instead, focus on earning that trust and fostering relationships over time so that when the moment comes for you to take a professional jump the way that Tony did, the most influential people in our field are lining up to ask how they can help.

3) He Didn’t Overreach

Aspiring gym owners aren’t always effective at separating the difference between wants and needs. Sure, you want a 10,000 square foot gym outfitted with $100K in Keiser equipment, but do you need it to be profitable and happy?

Instead of dreaming up his perfect space and building accordingly, Tony started by outlining his perfect lifestyle and began constructing a business model and gym that allowed him to maintain it.

While most are asking themselves how many power racks and platforms they can cram in to a unit, Tony was wondering how much square footage he’d need to be able to coach clients 20-ish hours per week while leaving enough time to publish 100+ blogs annually and also be a present father in the very near future.

Being a new gym owner doesn’t mean that you have to work 7-days per week in year one. Tony assumed responsibility for an 800 square foot space, negotiated a tenant-friendly lease agreement, and identified a pair of likeminded coaches who were willing to pay their share of the rent in an independent contracting format. He was hardly stretching himself thin.

Tony “took the leap,” but in doing so, manipulated the risk to maximize an efficient journey to the inevitable success he set himself up for leading up to his move.

About the Author

Pete Dupuis is the Vice President and business director of Cressey Sports Performance, one of the premier training facilities in North America. He also learned how to deadlift from Tony Gentilcore back in 2006. True story.

He writes a very successful website targeting the “fitness business” crowd HERE and you can also follow his shenanigans on Twitter HERE.

October 12, 2016 Tony

business Motivational

Unexpected Entrepreneurial Shenanigans

“Unexpected entrepreneurial shenanigans.”

Those were the three words I wrote in the blank space describing my reason for having to cancel a Skype call with a marketing group recently.

Copyright: olegdudko / 123RF Stock Photo

I happily picked a time to reschedule and no more than an hour later received an email from one of the gentlemen I was supposed to meet up with more or less giving me kudos for coming up with the best “line” for canceling a meeting he had ever heard.¹⁰

I didn’t like cancelling, and I felt like a dick, but I was being honest.

Being an entrepreneur, is, in many cases, organized chaos. Emphasis on the chaos part.

Since leaving Cressey Sports Performance coming up on a year now, and embarking on some opportunities here in Boston, I wanted to share some quick tidbits, lessons learned, advice, and holy-shit-don’t-do-that-again moments I’ve learned as a newly minted “entrepreneur.”

I’m An Entrepreneur, I Guess.

To be clear, I don’t necessarily walk around referring to myself as an entrepreneur. As in: “Oh, hello, my name is Tony Gentilcore, entrepreneur.¹¹ Maybe if my name was Elon Musk I could pull that off. But until I start sending rockets to Mars I’ll keep my mouth shut.

However, I’d be remiss not to point out that, since 2006 (when I first started writing) I’ve been busy building a “brand” that has become fairly recognizable within fitness/health circles. Despite having not officially become a “gym owner” since this year, in many ways I’ve worn the entrepreneurial hat for about a decade. And, honestly, if you’re in this industry as a personal trainer or coach, and even if you work in a commercial gym setting, all that follows still applies.

On to the pontification.

1) Books Are Cool. But They’re Books, Not Real Life.

I’m a firm believer that if you’re a fitness professional your reading or continuing education should be divided 50/48/2.

50% = Training, program design, assessment, exercise science, nutrition, or anything related to the fitness industry specifically.

48% = Business or personal development

2% = LOLCats

Admittedly, I didn’t hop on the business/personal development train until I met Eric Cressey, but ever since, I’ve been a staunch behavioral economics nerd. I devour books by the likes of Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Ariely, Chip & Dan Heath, Charles Duhigg, and the Freakonomics badasses.

It also helps I’m married to a psychologist. So getting into “lets communicate and talk about our feelings mode” isn’t uncharted territory for me.¹²

I feel it behooves any fitness professional to take the initiative and divide their reading material.

There’s only so much about squat mechanics you can digest that will have a carry over to your business success. If you have no idea what the term “overhead” means, how the Self-Determination Theory steers a lot of what we do as coaches, whether or not you should apply for an LLC, or have any idea how to create lead generation, you need to expand your horizons outside of Supertraining.

But take all of those business books with a grain of salt.

I’ll note, and this is something Mark Fisher brought up last weekend, most of the books you find on the New York Times Best Seller list are aimed at Fortune 500 companies. The authors write them in the hopes of getting hired by said companies as an consultant. As a result many of the “systems” and protocols they discuss in their books have little weight with a fitness facility of 1-10 employees.

Still read them. Just understand that what’s written on paper won’t always apply to real life if your company isn’t named Apple or GE.

2) Get an Accountant

Waaay back in the day, circa 2007, when we first opened CSP, I learned a hard lesson in money management.

Up until that point I had always been “employed” in the sense that I had taxes taken out of my pay check and then received a W2 at the end of each tax season.

Neither scenario happened back in 2007.

And while I wasn’t an idiot and understood the concept behind paying quarterly self-employment taxes, for lack of a better term, I effed up.

Like, royally.

Needless to say it didn’t take long for me to learn my lesson, and to hire an accountant. I’ve had the same one since 2008 and my man-crush on him grows each year.

He tells me what I can and cannot write off¹³, and also tells me where to siphon my money in order to better prepare for unexpected events and to better prepare for retirement.

He’s the man.

So, get an accountant, preferably one who’s familiar with the fitness industry (which mine is). The money you spend on him/her will more than pay for itself.

3) Find YOUR Work-Life Balance

I’m at a cool stage in my career. CORE – my training studio in Boston – is exactly what I need it to be.

Many reading know the story, but as a quick refresher: I left CSP in the fall of 2015. After eight years it was just time to leave. No weirdness or animosity or knife fights ensued. Initially – from Nov 2015 through June 2016 – I was sub-leasing space/time at an already existing studio underneath a woman who owned it.

It was a perfect scenario as I had ZERO interest in owning or running my own gym. I think there’s this weird “thing” in the industry where we’re programmed to think the holy grail is to own a gym, and that you’ve MADE IT once that happens.

That’s a bunch of bullshit. Gym ownership is not for everyone.

I ended up paying an hourly rent and could train however many clients I wished any way I wished (semi-private). Plus, it was only a mile from my apartment. And I could blast techno. #winning

June 2016: Circumstances arose where the person I was sub-leasing under was not going to renew her lease. She asked if I’d want to take it over? My initial reaction:

via GIPHY

Long Story Short:

In running the numbers – overhead (rent, liability insurance, utilities), additional equipment cost, miscellaneous stuff like hiring painters, flooring, making of new logo and sign, black lights and disco balls (kidding) – it was going to be cheaper for me to take it over.

That is, assuming I could maintain my current clients (I did), have systems in place to “recruit” new clients (always a work in progress), and have 1-2 trainers sub-leasing under me to help with rent.

Also, I knew I didn’t want to be coaching 25, 30, 40 hours per week. I could change my mind, but I don’t have much interest in growing CORE to CSP levels. As of today all I need is a (badass) space to train my clients 15-20 hours per week, and an open schedule to still pursue my writing endeavors, distance coaching and travel schedule, working on some fitness products, and time to practice my light saber skills.

It was the right fit for me.

It’s different for everyone…but finding YOUR work-life balance is crucial. Not only for long-term success (whatever that means to you), but for sanity, overall level of happiness, and fulfillment too.

[NOTE: I’d head over to Eric Cressey’s site and do a search for “developing revenue streams” if I were you. It’s what will allow you to reduce your coaching volume and build on your total income if that’s something you’re interested in.]

4) Don’t Be Afraid to Ask For Help

This is the part which served as the impetus of this post. I cancelled that initial meeting because, in many ways, I’m a one man show.

I write the programs and coach all my clients, I’m the one who writes all the blog posts (sans the guest posts, but even those take time to format), I’m the one who answers all the emails, interacts on social media, collects payments, schedules, and cleans the facility. And none of this takes into account the clusterfuck of fuckedness that goes into launching your first product (Ahem, Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint coming very, very soon), and other things such as podcast appearances, writing responsibilities for other sites, and you know, spending quality time with my wife.

Oh, and I’m expected to be jacked. So, there’s that too.

It’s only been recently I’ve asked for help. You can’t expect to do everything. Well, you can…it’s just the likelihood of you doing everything well – and without driving yourself crazy – is slim.

I hired a “virtual assistant,” Keeley, and she’s been a life-saver.

NOTE: Keeley is a real-live person. I just mostly interact with her via email.

She came recommended to me via another colleague, and the cool thing – and this is something for you, dear reader, to consider – is that I “pay” her with programs and coaching (and fist bumps).

It’s a trade-barter situation. She runs various administrative tasks for me and helps me stay more organized and less likely to light my face on fire, and I write her programs and help guide her towards deadlifting dominance.

Win-win.

5) Consider Your Toilet Paper

This tip from Sol Orwell, entrepreneurial master:

“As an entrepreneur, it is VERY important that you get the small details right. That’s what separates the haves from the have-nots.

As such, here’s a pro-tip on leadership: the toilet paper should roll down from the top, NOT the bottom.

You’re welcome.”

The seemingly trivial stuff matters. Not having a clean facility matters. Not dressing professionally matters. Not taking out the garbage matters. Replacing broken equipment matters. Playing Beyonce radio when your female clients demand it matters. Smiling (even when you’re having a bad day) matters.

BOOM.

September 29, 2016 Tony

business fitness business

What I Learned Listening to Unicorns About the Business of Fitness

Unicorns are real.

Copyright: cattallina / 123RF Stock Photo

I hung out with two of them this past weekend. Except, these weren’t unicorns in the fantastical sense, you know, with horns sticking out of their foreheads and the proclivity to shoot rainbows out of their ass.

In fact, these unicorns didn’t even have four legs. Or a tail.¹⁴

No, these “unicorns” were none other than my good friends Mark Fisher and Michael Keeler of Mark Fisher Fitness, co-founders of one of the most successful gyms in NYC (or the world for that matter). A place where members are referred to as ninjas, the gym itself is referred to as The Ninja Clubhouse of of Glory and Dreams, and well, lets just say it’s not uncommon territory for spontaneous ABBA dance-offs to take place in between sets of KB swings.

Actually, it’s par for the course on a Wednesday night.

Their moniker is Serious Fitness For Ridiculous Humans. Oftentimes people see the glitterly website and think: “Huh, that’s odd/interesting/WTF, did I just see a pic of a trainer wearing buttless pants? I guess it’s a cool place/I think I need to go wash my eyes.”

And it is. It’s an amazing place. I’d make the case there’s no gym in the world that does what MFF does. It’s impossible to walk within their walls and not feel good about yourself. The incessant positive reinforcement and insatiable desire to make people happy (and to accept their unique weirdness) is impressive.

What gets lost in translation (and amongst the buttless pants) is that their staff are some of the best at what they do. Sure, they have fun (like, a lot of fun)…but they’ll also casually discuss PRI, Pavel, Strong First, RKC, Smolov squat cycles, neck alignment, McGill vs. Contreras/Schoenfeld, and the pros and cons of OLY lifting.

Further, this was the end of an email I received from Mark a few years ago when he and I were going back and forth on a job opening MFF had and what they look for in a possible hire:

“Don’t get me wrong, if they’re a drag queen, that’s HUGELY helpful, but they need to be a drag queen who knows who Ed Coan is.”

To say Mark and Michael have built a successful (fitness) business – a very unique and unconventional one at that – would be an understatement. They are the MASTERS at building community and hiring the right people who are the right fit. And, they’re also the masters at being anal as balls at implementing systems and having a spreadsheet and purpose for everything pertaining to MFF and their business.

They were in Boston this past weekend and I had the opportunity to attend Day #2 of their Inside the Unicorn business workshop. Below are some takeaways (written in list/bullet format because I know I’m going to be all over the place).

1) We’re programmed by the industry to not offer free shit, and I’ll admit I’m hot and cold on this topic. To get people into your “funnel,” however, why not host a free outdoor class and then offer some sort of one-time offer or flash sale to lure people in? $50 off one-time assessment, or some sort of reduced price-point on a initial package.

2) To that point, you can then add people to your mailing list and then, in Keeler’s words, “hunt them like an animal for 30-days to purchase or to sign-up for a service you offer.” After 30 days, pump the brakes. Keep them on your list, but stop hunting.

Some people may take a few months (if not years) before they’re ready to commit to anything. Staying on their radar – in a non-pushy, non-urgent way – is important.
Interestingly, Keeler noted how NO-ONE picks up their phones, but that leaving occasional voice messages is still relevant. They can still listen to your voice, which “humanizes” the interaction.

3) At MFF they’re huge advocates of yearly (staff) reviews. Coincidentally, they’ve found that staff members are often harder and score themselves much harsher than management. To that end, their go to source on this front is the Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement Survey.

Keeler readily admits that the questions are open-ended, abstract, and “wishy washy,” but the research on their effectiveness backs up the results.

4) Speaking of evaluations, on a more personal facility to facility level, both Mark and Michael implored the attendees to come up with their own evaluation questions based off THEIR core values.

For example, for me, some of the questions I came up with were:

“How do you demonstrate integrity?”
“Do you feel you’re in an environment where your needs are met and that you’re able to grow as an individual and professional?”
“A Tribe Called Quest is the greatest rap group of all time, right? RIGHT?”

5) In addition, during the evaluation process it’s important to hit on different categories (and to make them relevant to YOUR facility). Here are some things to consider and my questions:

Skill-Based Competence – “I feel comfortable coaching the big 3 – squat, bench press, deadlift?” Maybe you’re a KB-based facility, so a more appropriate question here is your employee’s ability to coach a swing or get-up.
Communication Expectations – “I am able to regress/progress exercises based off client’s ability level, injury history, and goals?“
Unique to Culture – “I can articulate complex concepts – PRI, joint position, etc – simply?” If you work at a place like MFF, maybe a good question here would be “I’m okay with being silly.” or “I feel comfortable coaching a squat with a dildo glued to the squat rack.” Make these questions unique to YOUR gym culture.
Open-Ended Questions – “What can CORE do better to help you succeed?“

NOTE: note the use of “I.” This makes the evaluation more personal and more apt for people to honest.

6) Piggy backing off of #5, Michael and Mark encouraged everyone to omit the abstractness of using a numbered only ranking system (1-5), and to add words. Have fun with it. Here’s what I did:

“I feel comfortable coaching the big 3 – squat, bench press, deadlift?“

1 = I suck balls.

2 = Eh, I guess I’m okay.

3 = I’m Yoda with that shit.

SIDE NOTE: I think more numbers would be best. Say, 5, to give people a more diverse system to rank themselves. I used 3 for simplicity. Too, I almost feel as if it would be beneficial to add a “0” the ranking system. As in:

0 = I’d rather throw my face into a brick wall. I hate it.

This way you can better match services and skill-sets to the strengths of your employees. I don’t know, something to think about.

7) MFF take their team meetings VERY seriously. For starters it’s paid time for everyone to attend, and their meetings run 2-3 hours every week.

Have an agenda. In MFF’s case they’re expensive, make them count.
Time each activity. As in, 5 Minutes for general intro, 10 Minutes of announcements (upcoming workshops, new class offering, etc), 20 Minutes on coaching cues, 10 Minutes on interpretive dance, so on and so forth.
Plan long-term. MFF plans their meetings months in advance. That way they’re not spending an inordinate amount of time per meeting on any one topic. If program design needs to be covered, they may allot 30-60 minutes for four straight meetings down the road so they know they have digestible chunks.
They’ve set the expectation that everyone needs to attend, and they’ve more or less made them important and informative enough that staff would attend them even if they weren’t getting paid for them.
Hold staff meetings in the middle of the week – Wednesday/Thur – so you have less likelihood of people missing due to extended weekends or Holidays.

8) And finally, one of Mark’s greatest pet-peeves is lack of communication amongst staff, to the point where people talk shit and air their grievances with other staff members or management except for the person they really should be speaking to. Just, stop it.

September 26, 2016 Tony

business

Announcing CORE: Remember When I Said I Never Wanted To Own a Gym? Yeah, About That

Some of you may recall a blog I wrote a few months ago titled I’m Not a Businessman, I’m a Business, Man.

I spilled my heart into that post and revealed a few personal things. Namely, that after leaving Cressey Sports Performance to pursue other opportunities, I had zero interest in ever running or owning my own gym.

[More to the point: I wanted to iterate to fitness pros that the “end-game” in this industry is not gym ownership, that success should not be dictated by whether or not you own a gym, and that, contrary to popular belief, you can do quite well in this industry – with a lot of hardwork, consistency, and expectation management – without that monkey on your back.]

After watching Pete and Eric in action for over eight years I came to the conclusion that “business” wasn’t my strong suit.¹⁵ My strengths weren’t in dealing with spreadsheets, client retention strategies, marketing, ROI, scheduling, and endless phone conversations with parents, athletes, prospective clients, scouts, and Comcast.

Moreover, I wanted no part in worrying about overhead (rent, payroll, equipment replacement, etc) or any other “unexpected” snafus such as CAM expenses, trash removal, and which insurance policies were the best fit for the the business.

You know, Health Insurance, Liability Insurance, In-Case-The Avengers-Show-Up-and-Wreck-Shit-Up-Collateral-Damage Insurance.

When we opened CSP I recognized that my strengths resided in being on the floor, coaching, demonstrating to young athletes that the garbage they listen to today is not hip-hop, and serving as brand ambassador. I’d let Pete and Eric take the reigns on “building” the business.¹⁶

Of course, in hindsight, despite my aversion to being a “businessman” in the ten years I’ve been in Boston (eight of which were at CSP) I did end up building a “business,” in that my brand – Tony Gentilcore – became a thing.

Thanks in large part to both Eric and Pete I was able to leverage the CSP brand to facilitate the growth of my own.

Over the years I have seen my website grow in popularity, I’ve become a published author in many of the most reputable fitness publications out there, I’ve been invited to speak in places such as Seattle, LA, DC, Chicago, Sydney, London, and Prague for crying out loud, and ticker tape parades have been held in my honor. <—- Only a slight exaggeration.

Not too shabby for a kid from Groton, NY.

When I left CSP, however, I decided the best fit for me was to sub-lease space. Gym ownership wasn’t for me. I connected with a woman who already had a training studio she was leasing (a mile from my apartment no less) and she was kind enough to allow me to vomit strength and conditioning all over the place and bring in my own equipment to utilize the space. At the end of each month she tallies the number of hours I use it and I pay “rent.”

It’s a beautiful set-up. This way I can still train people throughout the week, yet without the responsibility of running a gym. I show up, I make people awesome, I leave, repeat. I still have ample time to ~~film interpretive dance videos~~ write, take care of my distance coaching clients, and travel for speaking engagements whenever necessary.

It’s the life I’ve been living since October of 2015.

And then this happened a few weeks ago:

Introducing CORE

I now “own” a gym. It’s called CORE.¹⁷

Own is in parenthesis because it’s not like I said “f*** it, I’m done with sub-leasing and I’m going to open up a 20,000 sq. ft facility in downtown Boston complete with state-of-the-art equipment, parking, and a juice bar that serves gluten-free, dairy-free, non-GMO protein shakes with organic unicorn tears.”

That’s not even close to what happened. (Mostly because I don’t have a bazillion dollars).

Circumstances arose where the woman whom I was sub-leasing from had her dream-job come to fruition and she decided not to renew the lease. She then asked if I’d be interested in taking it over? To which I responded…

Oh. Hell. No! in #JenniferLawrence

However, after putting pen to paper, ~~hyperventilating into a paper bag~~ running some numbers, and discussing things over with Lisa, it made sense to maybe give it a whirl.

Besides it would have been a nuisance to try to sell or find storage for all the equipment I had purchased, not to mention attempting to find another space to train people out of sounded about as much fun as a prostate exam.

Plus, did I mention the studio is a mile from my apartment?

It’s a mile from my apartment.

Basically, there was no denying the convenience factor. And thanks to my wife’s support (and the lessons learned observing Eric and Pete all those years) the concept wasn’t too too daunting.

So, long story short: as of June 1st I took over the lease and have been busy in the time since making the space more aesthetically “me.”

Having more flooring/turf put in, purchasing some new equipment & storage items, and having a platform made.
New paint on the walls.
New logo (seen ^^^) and decals to go on the store front.
Adding in a smoke machine, black lights, and disco ball.

It’s nothing fancy-pants, but I’m pretty excited and darn proud of the initial result.

If you’re located in or around Boston (or stopping by Boston to visit)…don’t hesitate to reach out. Deadlifts and Tiesto will be waiting…;o)

Excuse me while I go try not to destroy the back of my pants.

Trial Run of Untitled 6-Week Beginner Course Coming Soon.

In the very near future CORE will be offering a 6-week beginner program designed to educate and prime people to become their own best health/fitness advocate.

The Initial Deets

1. The course will be six weeks, meeting 3x per week in a group setting (~2-4 per class), where the objective is to learn and hammer the basics, enhance movement quality, instill a sense of accountability and intent with training, and set the framework to make you more autonomous.

2. There will also be a nutrition and mindset component, where every other weekend the idea is to sit in on presentations and have questions answered from a Registered Dietician as well as an Exercise/Behavior Change Psychologist (Spoiler Alert: the psychologist is Lisa).

3. It will serve as a wonderful opportunity to surround yourself with like-minded people and become a part of a community who’s sole purpose is to help increase your general level of badassery.

4. Only 8-12 spots will be made available to start. And I’m not saying this to suggest a false sense of urgency or as a way to lure people in. I’m not kidding, only 8-12 spots will be made available.

5. Attendance subject to spontaneous rap battles.

I’d love to find out if there’s any interest in this sort of program from people in the Boston area. If so, please contact me via the “Contact” tab at the top of the website and I’d be happy to provide more details.

July 29, 2016 Tony

business coaching fitness business

“Real” Fitness Business Talk With Pete Dupuis

This past weekend I attended The Fitness Summit in Kansas City, MO. It was my third year in a row not only attending, but speaking as well. It’s easily one of my favorite events each year.

Not only for the huge honor of being invited to speak, but also for the people. It’s truly more of a “lets get together and hang out¹⁸” thing than it is a formal fitness event.

Ladies and Gentlemen: your 2016 Fitness Summit speaker panel.

I’ll spare everyone the words of adoration and brown-nosing (you can read that on my Facebook page), but suffice it to say: if you’re a fitness professional or just someone who enjoys ~~watching Bret Contreras and Spencer Nadolsky’s man-crush for one another grow by the second~~ lifting heavy things, than you owe it to yourself to attend.

As we boarded the plane early Thursday morning, Pete Dupuis (Cressey Sports Performance’s business director and fellow presentee) had a brilliant idea. If we were going to be stuck on a plane for 3+ hours, why not produce some blog content?

We decided to jot down a few fitness-business related questions for one another and then do a laptop exchange.

Note to Pete (after the fact): fingers crossed you didn’t click the icon labeled “Tony’s Titillating Tickle Fights” on my desktop.

If so: you’re welcome.

If not: shoot me a PM.

You can check out what I wrote for his website HERE.

And you can check out what Pete had to say below.

Enjoy!

TG – You have an MBA from one of the most prestigious business schools in the US – Babson College – which I know has served you well as an entrepreneur. Yet, I have heard you say several times that “business” is every bit as much about common sense and “feel” as anything else. Explain.

PD – I’ve been asked the question “was your MBA worth it” on more than one occasion in recent weeks.

I should probably start my answer by mentioning that I didn’t go back to school in 2006 with the intention of accumulating the skills necessary to run a profitable fitness facility. In fact, Eric was living and coaching in Connecticut when I enrolled, and I didn’t even know who Tony Gentilcore was at the time.

The idea of owning a fitness business was about as likely as me pursuing my dream job as the starting goalkeeper for the US Men’s National Soccer Team.

I had hit a point in my young career where it was becoming clear that my ceiling as a Marketing Manager in a publicly traded company was considerably lower than what I had in mind for my professional future. The economy (and job market) weren’t exactly thriving in 2007, so I decided pursuing an MBA at that moment in time was what made sense for me.

There were some skills acquired during my undergraduate and graduate level business school courses that have been immensely valuable, and others that have been filed away in the “stuff I’ll never apply” folder in the back of my mind.

One of the most useful learning experiences I covered would be the Introduction to the Microsoft Office Suite course that delved into the minutia of each application. I’d imagine that for a couple hundred bucks, anyone could enroll in a similar course at a local community college and suddenly become a rock star at writing macros in Excel.

As you’ve mentioned, I like to say that 99% of operating a profitable and efficient fitness facility is application of common sense. Don’t spend more than you collect, and you’re in business for as long as you can tolerate the entrepreneurial grind.

Lastly, and arguably most importantly, I’d encourage all fitness professionals to continuously embrace and develop the art of networking. If there’s one thing you fine-tune during an MBA program, it is the skill of professional small talk.

TG – One of the things that CSP has done very well, and prides itself on, is allowing the opportunity or “window” for the staff and coaches to use the CSP brand to build their own brand.

Can you explain why it behooves other small (fitness) businesses to follow suite? Personally, I think it’s a huge mistake when I hear stories of gyms telling their coaches/trainers that they can’t start their own website or generate other revenue streams.

PD – As it turns out, the answer to this question makes up just about 50% of my presentation content for this weekend’s event, titled “Empowering Your Fitness Team.” Here’s a look at the three big takeaways:

For starters, when your employees have the autonomy to explore the development of their own brand and identity within this industry, they are more likely to coach as the most authentic version of themselves on the training floor of your gym. I want my employees to influence the personality of my brand, and not the other way around.

The second reason that I encourage my team to pursue personal brand development is that it allows employees to increase earning potential through writing opportunities, speaking engagements, etc.

If I can assist an employee in increasing earning potential without it impacting the bottom line of my business, I’m going to do it.

Lastly, CSP coaches who successfully establish their own business within our business are more likely to think entrepreneurially as it relates to the growth and development of your gym. They also carry a little more credibility in the eyes of a new client who happens to remember having seen their name in the pages of an issue of Men’s Health or in a guest post on Eric Cressey’s website.

TG – How much does CSP miss Tony’s Techno Thursdays?

PD – About a 6 on a 100-point scale.

TG – I know it’s generic to ask, but it’s still a relevant question for any person contemplating opening their own facility: what are the TOP 3 things to consider/ask one’s self on the topic?

PD – These are the 3 questions I’d ask myself if considering starting a gym from scratch today:

Q1. Do I have something unique to offer?

Is my training model going to introduce something new to the existing set of gym options in my immediate area, or am I simply recreating the offerings of my future competition? If I’m not unique, I’m selling a commodity product. Commodity products compete on price, and that’s a horrible place to be as a gym owner.

Q2. Have I identified “my ten” and run it by them? I recently stumbled upon a fantastic blog post from Seth Godin titled “First, Ten.”

Godin explains that the best way to determine whether an idea or project is worthy of further pursuit is to run it by your ten most trusted confidants, and see if they bother to tell someone else about it.

If they decide to spread your message organically, you’ve got something solid on your hands.

Otherwise, you toss it in the trash and move on to the next endeavor. So, the question becomes: Did “your ten” bother telling friends you were thinking about opening a gym?

Q3. Have I fully come to terms with the realities of owning my own business?

TG – Can you elaborate on why you feel offering FREE consultations is not a wise choice for fitness professionals?

PD – Absolutely. Check this piece out.

TG – Trainers/coaches/gym owners think that getting their names in national publications is the key to success, when in fact it’s LOCAL exposure that pays the bills. What are some hard hitting strategies you’d suggest to anyone looking to increase both their local exposure and lead generation?

I’m sad to say that I didn’t embrace Facebook advertising until just recently. It is quickly becoming an efficient and affordable tool for us. I can’t think of a more effective way to allocate our advertising dollars in a targeted manner, so investing in Facebook ads would be my first piece of advice to those looking to spend toward the pursuit of lead generation.

We’ve managed to minimize our marketing investment over the years by instead focusing on helping our brand to grow organically within our general area.

This happens quickly when you demonstrate how much you care first, and how much you know later.

We attend baseball games. We show up to watch our clients play a gig with their garage band. We make ourselves visible in the community outside of our facility. There’s a whole big world of potential clients outside the walls of your little fitness playground, and sometimes you need to leave your comfort zone and have actual conversations with people.

May 2, 2016 Tony