Episode #526: Business Savvy for Gym Owners-Vince Gabriele Talks Metrics, Client Value, and Growth

1
00:00:00,719 --> 00:00:04,500
I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership

2
00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:08,160
with The Prospect Wizard. And when I say wizard, I

3
00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:12,000
mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This allows

4
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,035
you to convert your website Immediately

5
00:00:16,494 --> 00:00:17,325
goes to you, your sales team, or anyone else in the club instantly.

6
00:00:27,740 --> 00:00:31,280
MIT shows a study that if you contact the lead within 10 minutes,

7
00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:35,180
chance of them converting goes up 9 times that of the

8
00:00:35,180 --> 00:00:38,640
average. We got the Atlanta Clubs on it, Vida Fitness,

9
00:00:38,780 --> 00:00:42,265
Gold's Gym, Mountainside, City Fitness Philly,

10
00:00:42,485 --> 00:00:46,245
College Park. Become one of the next halo

11
00:00:46,245 --> 00:00:49,925
companies to deploy the wizard. It's easy to use. Go to the

12
00:00:49,925 --> 00:00:53,730
prospectwizard.com. Get a free 30 day trial. Talk

13
00:00:53,730 --> 00:00:57,329
to my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you all set up, and let the

14
00:00:57,329 --> 00:01:01,110
leads flow based on the wizard. Go get them.

15
00:01:03,649 --> 00:01:07,010
This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC. I have the pleasure of

16
00:01:07,010 --> 00:01:10,354
bringing from the great state of New Jersey,

17
00:01:10,895 --> 00:01:14,115
Vince Gabriel, personal trainer to mastermind

18
00:01:14,335 --> 00:01:18,095
consultant. Welcome to your first Halo Talks, my friend. Thanks for

19
00:01:18,095 --> 00:01:21,670
having me, Pete. Honored to be here, brother. Awesome. So as I was going through

20
00:01:21,670 --> 00:01:24,790
your materials, I saw you had a, you had a review and a reference to

21
00:01:24,790 --> 00:01:28,170
Thomas Plummer, so I don't really need to read much further than that.

22
00:01:29,110 --> 00:01:32,390
Maybe for those people who have not been in the industry before, talk about the,

23
00:01:32,630 --> 00:01:35,290
Thomas Plummer, you know, roadshow.

24
00:01:36,415 --> 00:01:39,875
I I sat my 1st Perform Better seminar as a 22

25
00:01:40,335 --> 00:01:44,115
year old personal trainer, and I saw Plummer speak.

26
00:01:44,494 --> 00:01:48,095
And I was like, I wanna do that one day. And I

27
00:01:48,095 --> 00:01:51,840
remember I wanted bought one of his books right after he spoke. And I

28
00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,439
was sitting there reading his book, and he walked by with his big entourage. Tommy

29
00:01:55,439 --> 00:01:59,119
used to walk with his entourage of people. There's, like, 20 people behind him,

30
00:01:59,119 --> 00:02:02,960
and I remember he saw me that I bought his book. He looked at

31
00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:06,784
me. He's like, that's a good book, young man, and he kept walking. And little

32
00:02:06,784 --> 00:02:10,144
did I know that he and I would become, you know, close friends. He's a

33
00:02:10,144 --> 00:02:13,985
big mentor of mine, and, you know, I owe a lot of the things that

34
00:02:13,985 --> 00:02:17,400
I'm doing in the industry for gym owners to to plumbers. So amazing guy.

35
00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:21,640
Yeah. So back in 2000 to 2003, I had

36
00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:25,480
started a software company, and our one marketing expense was to go on

37
00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:29,319
the Thomas Plumber tour, which was probably, like, 12 cities in, you know

38
00:02:29,640 --> 00:02:33,215
Yeah. In 8 months. And, you know, it was it was kinda like a

39
00:02:33,215 --> 00:02:36,515
traveling circus, if you will, but, like, a good kind of circus.

40
00:02:36,575 --> 00:02:40,015
Yes. And he said, if you need some software, go to that guy. If you

41
00:02:40,015 --> 00:02:43,375
need some per personal training, go to that guy. If you need Yep. Treadmills, go

42
00:02:43,375 --> 00:02:46,680
to that guy. Take out your daycare center. And then, like, there was a wrap.

43
00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:50,599
Always a generous guy. Yep. So so, look, you started up, you know, as

44
00:02:50,599 --> 00:02:54,439
a personal trainer. Obviously, you were, like, kinda looking at this and

45
00:02:54,439 --> 00:02:58,200
and saying, like, there's things that could be done more efficiently here. There

46
00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:01,915
are things that, you know, can be done to maximize profits. You looked at small

47
00:03:01,915 --> 00:03:04,975
group training. So talk about, you know, 1,

48
00:03:06,315 --> 00:03:10,015
your background, and then 2, kind of, like, your intuition

49
00:03:10,235 --> 00:03:13,995
to kinda, like, go deeper and say, hey. I'm not just gonna figure this out

50
00:03:13,995 --> 00:03:17,750
for myself, but I actually wanna bring this and and scale it. Yeah.

51
00:03:17,750 --> 00:03:20,950
So the real quick story is I was a offensive lineman at Temple that was

52
00:03:20,950 --> 00:03:24,790
£300, and I needed to lose

53
00:03:24,790 --> 00:03:28,549
weight. And I got into bodybuilding magazines and the the

54
00:03:28,549 --> 00:03:32,235
whole deal, And I ended up losing weight and got my,

55
00:03:32,635 --> 00:03:36,335
ISSA certification and all of that old school stuff. Right?

56
00:03:37,035 --> 00:03:40,635
I moved to San Diego, got my first job as a

57
00:03:40,635 --> 00:03:44,395
personal trainer, and I was working with mostly pro athletes and high school athletes at

58
00:03:44,395 --> 00:03:48,230
the time. And, you know, 5 years as

59
00:03:48,230 --> 00:03:51,849
a personal trainer doing a lot of 1 on 1 stuff, I kinda got pretty

60
00:03:51,909 --> 00:03:54,950
burnt out and wasn't making a lot of money. I think the most much money

61
00:03:54,950 --> 00:03:58,010
I ever made was, like, 37 k in a year.

62
00:03:58,605 --> 00:04:02,365
And, I always kinda knew when I got into the industry that I wanted to

63
00:04:02,365 --> 00:04:06,065
open up my own gym. So I I moved to

64
00:04:06,365 --> 00:04:09,585
New Jersey where I'm from originally, opened my own

65
00:04:10,540 --> 00:04:14,380
brick and mortar gym. And did okay in the in

66
00:04:14,380 --> 00:04:17,980
the 1st year or so, but then got really I know you're a

67
00:04:17,980 --> 00:04:21,500
financial guy. I got really into some hot water because I wasn't

68
00:04:21,500 --> 00:04:25,280
doing a great job with managing money and managing my finances

69
00:04:25,420 --> 00:04:29,055
and everything like that. I got into some really hard stuff

70
00:04:29,055 --> 00:04:32,655
financially, and that is when I

71
00:04:32,655 --> 00:04:36,095
realized I needed to learn how to run a business. I was a personal

72
00:04:36,095 --> 00:04:39,535
trainer, but I had no idea how to run a

73
00:04:39,535 --> 00:04:43,349
business. And I kinda I read the at that point, I had written,

74
00:04:45,250 --> 00:04:48,690
the E Myth Revisited. I read that book, and I I I wrote I I

75
00:04:48,690 --> 00:04:52,449
was lucky enough to find some good business knowledge. I found Dan Kennedy at

76
00:04:52,449 --> 00:04:56,025
the time, learned about marketing and everything like that. And I really

77
00:04:56,025 --> 00:04:59,785
just kinda put my head down and educated myself on business as much

78
00:04:59,785 --> 00:05:03,544
as I possibly could, and I turned my whole gym around. We got to

79
00:05:03,544 --> 00:05:06,764
7 figures very quickly. And then all of a sudden,

80
00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:11,020
there's all these people coming out of the woodwork asking me how

81
00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:14,920
to grow a business, how to grow a gym, and make money with it. And

82
00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:18,280
that kinda was the origin of me being a

83
00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:21,925
consultant to other gym owners. But it wasn't until I fixed my own

84
00:05:21,925 --> 00:05:24,665
gym, and I had to learn about business and learn about money.

85
00:05:25,685 --> 00:05:29,125
So I I only was teaching other people because I was able to do it

86
00:05:29,125 --> 00:05:32,805
myself first. So, you know, if you want to, if we kinda go down

87
00:05:32,805 --> 00:05:36,450
this trail of, like, you know, what do you think would your top 3

88
00:05:36,450 --> 00:05:40,290
or top 2 biggest mistakes were that you

89
00:05:40,290 --> 00:05:43,830
were able to fix, obviously, later on when they became much larger,

90
00:05:44,530 --> 00:05:48,370
you know, emergency issues for you? But if you said, hey. If

91
00:05:48,370 --> 00:05:52,155
I if I was starting from scratch again, you know, here's a

92
00:05:52,155 --> 00:05:55,115
couple of things that I would I would avoid, or here's a couple of things

93
00:05:55,115 --> 00:05:58,794
I did that I will never do. So I know you're a finance guy, Pete,

94
00:05:58,794 --> 00:06:02,495
so you'll appreciate the story. I had early on hired a consultant

95
00:06:02,794 --> 00:06:05,534
to come in and spend a day with me

96
00:06:07,090 --> 00:06:10,850
to help me with the business side of stuff. And she started

97
00:06:10,850 --> 00:06:13,910
asking me all these questions, like, what is your cost per lead?

98
00:06:14,610 --> 00:06:17,650
What is the lifetime value of a customer? And she's asked them all these questions,

99
00:06:17,650 --> 00:06:20,505
and I was like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And she

100
00:06:20,505 --> 00:06:24,345
stood up, and she looked at me, and she's like, sorry, but I

101
00:06:24,345 --> 00:06:28,025
can't help you. And she walked out. Fuck. And it was

102
00:06:28,025 --> 00:06:31,465
like I remember it was one of the most embarrassing things that's ever happened to

103
00:06:31,465 --> 00:06:34,900
me. And she basically said she's like, you don't know your number, so I can't

104
00:06:34,900 --> 00:06:38,660
really help you. And that was probably if I look back now, it I

105
00:06:38,660 --> 00:06:42,500
went way too long not looking at the data, which

106
00:06:42,500 --> 00:06:45,860
is the critical drivers and scorecards, the leading

107
00:06:45,860 --> 00:06:49,565
indicators, and then the financials and learning how to

108
00:06:49,565 --> 00:06:53,165
read a financial statement. And it's it's weird today. Like, I used to not know

109
00:06:53,165 --> 00:06:57,005
how to read a financial statement. I have a mastermind group where we

110
00:06:57,005 --> 00:07:00,620
meet quarterly and we bring p and l. So I've looked at thousands

111
00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:03,740
of p and l's of gym owners. We do it every quarter and all the

112
00:07:03,740 --> 00:07:07,500
time. So I would say that that's probably one of the

113
00:07:07,500 --> 00:07:11,200
biggest mistakes I made and something I've really tried to teach all my guys.

114
00:07:11,580 --> 00:07:14,800
You gotta know your numbers because when you know your numbers,

115
00:07:15,755 --> 00:07:19,515
you're living in reality. Yeah. A lot of times, we we we look at

116
00:07:19,515 --> 00:07:22,475
things emotionally. We look at things. Well, I feel like this is a problem or

117
00:07:22,475 --> 00:07:25,355
I feel like that's a problem. But if you know your data and you know

118
00:07:25,355 --> 00:07:29,115
your numbers, you actually know what problems you have and you know what problems you

119
00:07:29,115 --> 00:07:32,440
need to fix. Yeah. I mean, that's a great that's a great point. There's

120
00:07:32,660 --> 00:07:36,500
companies that we've worked with where they're just checking the cash

121
00:07:36,500 --> 00:07:39,940
that's in the bank every day and not really, like, looking at what the

122
00:07:39,940 --> 00:07:43,700
KPIs are. It's just like a cat. They basically run a cash business. Granted, you

123
00:07:43,700 --> 00:07:47,385
know, that that is the most simplistic way to run the business. The cash flow

124
00:07:47,385 --> 00:07:50,025
is either up or it's down, and we got an issue, but you you don't

125
00:07:50,025 --> 00:07:53,625
really have any kinda you know, you you don't know what

126
00:07:53,705 --> 00:07:57,450
what's driving that. Right? Right. Is the issue. So we we

127
00:07:57,450 --> 00:08:00,490
had a client, you know, and he's awesome, but he's like, he when are you

128
00:08:00,490 --> 00:08:03,770
when are you guys gonna tell me what my EBITDA is? You know? Like, what

129
00:08:03,770 --> 00:08:06,970
what what are you gonna tell me on this business? I've been running for a

130
00:08:06,970 --> 00:08:10,415
long time. Like, what what what's the metric that you're trying to hit? And I'm

131
00:08:10,415 --> 00:08:13,455
like, well, you kinda should run your business like that in the past. However, like,

132
00:08:13,455 --> 00:08:16,415
we'll figure it out for you. We'll tell you. But every month going forward, you're

133
00:08:16,415 --> 00:08:20,175
gonna, like, know this number. Yeah. That's the one you're gonna actually drive towards

134
00:08:20,175 --> 00:08:23,899
because that's the one you're getting valued off of. So Yep. So that

135
00:08:23,979 --> 00:08:27,740
that's gonna be our primary one. Absolutely. You know, as you kinda

136
00:08:27,740 --> 00:08:31,020
got good at what you're doing on your own you know, look. We're in the

137
00:08:31,020 --> 00:08:34,620
services business, Dave and I. Right? So we're trying to help people raise money. We're

138
00:08:34,620 --> 00:08:38,434
trying to help people optimize their their business in order to get

139
00:08:38,434 --> 00:08:41,414
capital or in order to get to a place where you could sell the business.

140
00:08:41,714 --> 00:08:44,595
You know? And that and that takes time, and that's you have to show that

141
00:08:44,595 --> 00:08:48,355
there's, like, an engine. And, like, here's how the engine works, and here's how

142
00:08:48,355 --> 00:08:52,115
the car runs. As you've kinda take a look

143
00:08:52,115 --> 00:08:55,730
at, you know, you could've probably raised money and said, hey. I'm gonna go

144
00:08:55,730 --> 00:08:59,250
replicate what I built, and I'm gonna go do, you know, 20,

145
00:08:59,250 --> 00:09:02,610
30, 50 personal training studios, you

146
00:09:02,610 --> 00:09:06,175
know, in the tristate area. Instead, you decided

147
00:09:06,175 --> 00:09:09,955
to go down this path of writing a book, exposing your,

148
00:09:10,335 --> 00:09:13,795
you know, you you you're basically, you know, giving people your playbook.

149
00:09:14,095 --> 00:09:17,295
You know? You'd be up for $20 or $30. I didn't buy the book yet,

150
00:09:17,295 --> 00:09:20,790
but ultimate, you know, gym owners marketing guide. Right?

151
00:09:21,330 --> 00:09:24,930
It's a ultimate marketing guide for gym owners. So

152
00:09:24,930 --> 00:09:27,890
so how did you kinda go down and see, like, hey. I'm kinda here to

153
00:09:27,890 --> 00:09:31,430
serve, which kinda what a personal trainer does, like, to be part of your DNA.

154
00:09:32,565 --> 00:09:35,845
And I'm gonna stop asking the question right now because there's questions in there. So

155
00:09:35,845 --> 00:09:38,964
I haven't got a question mark at the end. So fire away, bro. So I

156
00:09:38,964 --> 00:09:42,505
I I went back and forth with what I wanted to do. Right? And

157
00:09:42,725 --> 00:09:45,605
as a gym owner, a lot of times, you think, what is the next thing?

158
00:09:45,605 --> 00:09:49,040
The next thing is more gyms and open up more gyms. And I I was

159
00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:52,320
friends with a guy named Seth Godin at the time, and I was emailed by

160
00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:56,160
this with Seth. And, actually, one of my masterminds, we went to

161
00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:59,760
his office, and that was a scary sight for Seth that,

162
00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:03,774
twelve very, very large men walked into his office. Like, he's

163
00:10:03,774 --> 00:10:07,214
not that wasn't the crowd that Seth was used to, but I got to be

164
00:10:07,214 --> 00:10:10,495
friends with him. And I asked him. I was like, I'm going back and forth

165
00:10:10,495 --> 00:10:13,855
with opening up, a second

166
00:10:13,855 --> 00:10:16,940
gym. And his advice for me was, I I think you should think long and

167
00:10:16,940 --> 00:10:20,540
hard about opening a second gym. He's like, one gym

168
00:10:20,540 --> 00:10:24,300
means you run a gym. 10 gyms means you're in the business

169
00:10:24,300 --> 00:10:27,820
of running gyms, but 2 gyms kinda just means you're all over the

170
00:10:27,820 --> 00:10:31,585
place. And what it meant was if you're not gonna do

171
00:10:31,585 --> 00:10:35,425
10, don't do 2. And that was, like, my

172
00:10:35,425 --> 00:10:39,265
thing. I was like, I I I don't want 10. I don't want 15.

173
00:10:39,265 --> 00:10:42,145
I don't want 50 gyms. That's just not me. This this is not how I

174
00:10:42,145 --> 00:10:45,940
roll. And I was like, I'm just gonna have one really good one and

175
00:10:45,940 --> 00:10:49,780
then teach others how to one how to run one really good

176
00:10:49,780 --> 00:10:53,460
gym. So it was really that advice that kinda changed the

177
00:10:53,460 --> 00:10:57,195
game for me. And my natural like, I love to speak.

178
00:10:57,195 --> 00:11:00,635
I love to write. I'm kinda in the the

179
00:11:00,875 --> 00:11:04,635
what's what we call an information marketing business. Mhmm. And that

180
00:11:04,635 --> 00:11:08,235
just fits my skill set. Right? My skill set, I like to write. I like

181
00:11:08,235 --> 00:11:12,050
to speak. So it was just a very good kind of sweet

182
00:11:12,050 --> 00:11:15,090
spot for me personally. Now I have a lot of guys that are opening up

183
00:11:15,090 --> 00:11:18,690
multiple gyms and scaling, in my group, but it was just

184
00:11:18,690 --> 00:11:20,870
not my decision to go that route.

185
00:11:24,535 --> 00:11:28,295
This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this

186
00:11:28,295 --> 00:11:31,595
company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards

187
00:11:31,895 --> 00:11:35,575
from retailers that allow you to incentivize your

188
00:11:35,575 --> 00:11:39,095
members without having to do 0 down and 1 month

189
00:11:39,095 --> 00:11:42,899
free or giving away shakes or giving away T shirts. What

190
00:11:42,899 --> 00:11:46,660
you wanna do is build a rewards program that lasts, that

191
00:11:46,660 --> 00:11:50,279
people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services.

192
00:11:50,579 --> 00:11:54,134
So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards

193
00:11:54,274 --> 00:11:57,975
vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile.

194
00:11:58,274 --> 00:12:02,115
They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be

195
00:12:02,115 --> 00:12:05,795
able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your

196
00:12:05,795 --> 00:12:09,620
club, inside your spa, and outside of the club and outside

197
00:12:09,620 --> 00:12:13,459
of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay

198
00:12:13,459 --> 00:12:17,300
their monthly dues, and to be rewarded properly for

199
00:12:17,300 --> 00:12:20,745
the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You shouldn't

200
00:12:20,745 --> 00:12:24,365
be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is real.

201
00:12:28,105 --> 00:12:31,545
When you see, I'll just get a a question because, like, this comes

202
00:12:31,545 --> 00:12:35,225
up my brain every now often. Now now and again where it's

203
00:12:35,225 --> 00:12:38,930
like, hey. I helped this this operator go from, like, you know, 10

204
00:12:38,930 --> 00:12:42,630
and there's this one guy. Actually, he was 17 when I got involved.

205
00:12:42,850 --> 00:12:46,529
Now there's, like, a 105. You know? And I I can do the math on,

206
00:12:46,529 --> 00:12:50,370
like, what his ownership is, what his percentage of that, what his net worth

207
00:12:50,370 --> 00:12:54,185
is. Obviously, we get paid, like, on, you know, the deal.

208
00:12:54,245 --> 00:12:57,445
We might get paid some, like, retainer. But I'm like, hey. I kinda like

209
00:12:58,325 --> 00:13:01,925
if I didn't do this, he wouldn't have done that, and now there's, like, another

210
00:13:01,925 --> 00:13:05,760
90 clubs that have, like, 8,000 members. You know?

211
00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,880
There's, like, a 1000000 people that get to work out now because of, like, this

212
00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:12,160
deal that I helped them get done. And I'm sitting here. They'll be like, hey.

213
00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:15,360
I don't owe any percentage of that. But at the same time, like, sighted that,

214
00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:18,640
like, I don't I guess the financial side, like, yeah, that'd be great if I

215
00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:22,475
had, you know, 5%. But it's also great that there's a 105, and

216
00:13:22,475 --> 00:13:25,535
that's kinda, like, gets me excited more than, like, the capital

217
00:13:25,995 --> 00:13:29,755
component of that. So how do you kind of bifurcate between, like

218
00:13:29,915 --> 00:13:33,675
yo. I could've done that and, you know, I could've had this potential value, but

219
00:13:33,675 --> 00:13:37,350
I also actually probably had this amount of sleep, and I probably woulda had this

220
00:13:37,350 --> 00:13:40,790
amount of liability. And who knows when the next, you know,

221
00:13:40,790 --> 00:13:44,550
COVID wave's coming through that makes that all look like awesome idea,

222
00:13:44,550 --> 00:13:48,230
but wrong timing? I think it's a great question, and I think it all comes

223
00:13:48,230 --> 00:13:51,855
back to your definition of success. Right? I think that

224
00:13:51,855 --> 00:13:55,615
some people have a view of success, but I think only you

225
00:13:55,615 --> 00:13:59,215
can define define your own definition of success. And for

226
00:13:59,215 --> 00:14:02,575
me, like, having a 105 gyms, yeah, that's a

227
00:14:02,575 --> 00:14:06,350
financially successful viable thing. But I have my own

228
00:14:06,350 --> 00:14:10,030
definition of success, which is, you know, a ton of time with my kids

229
00:14:10,030 --> 00:14:13,790
and time with my wife and being, you know, able to do the work I

230
00:14:13,790 --> 00:14:17,470
I want to do, and live a lifestyle that I want.

231
00:14:17,470 --> 00:14:21,315
So it it really was a probably the one one of the most powerful things

232
00:14:21,315 --> 00:14:24,615
I've done in my life was define success because then I

233
00:14:25,155 --> 00:14:28,595
I I don't see what others are doing, and I'm like, oh, I wish I

234
00:14:28,595 --> 00:14:32,240
did that. Oh, I wish I did this. I have created my

235
00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:36,000
definition of what I view is success, and then I go

236
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,760
after and do it. I'm kinda I'm kinda living that right now, and

237
00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:42,480
I'm happy for the guys that you know, I have one guy in my group.

238
00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:46,275
He's opened up, you know, 10 gyms in the last, like, 20 months.

239
00:14:46,575 --> 00:14:49,295
Yeah. And he's killing it, and he's making a lot of money, and I'm proud

240
00:14:49,295 --> 00:14:53,055
of him and happy for him. Yeah. You know, when when you go

241
00:14:53,055 --> 00:14:56,895
back to to where you started of being a personal trainer, what

242
00:14:56,895 --> 00:14:59,955
do you think some of the traits of personal trainers are

243
00:15:00,470 --> 00:15:03,850
that allow them to become where you're at

244
00:15:04,150 --> 00:15:07,670
or to, you know, say, hey. I did 3 years of personal training

245
00:15:07,670 --> 00:15:11,510
here, and now I'm going to open up a club and and, you know,

246
00:15:11,510 --> 00:15:15,345
a lot of if you're a celeb I'll say this. If If you're a celebrity

247
00:15:15,485 --> 00:15:19,245
trainer, like, you got your own kinda, like, ego and, like,

248
00:15:19,245 --> 00:15:23,085
diva kinda power, which might limit your ability to go and open up a business

249
00:15:23,085 --> 00:15:26,445
that doesn't have your name on it necessarily. But I feel like a lot of

250
00:15:26,445 --> 00:15:29,745
personal trainers have become very successful club operators

251
00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:34,320
very successful managers, and have gotten private equity. They start

252
00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,520
as a personal trainer. I don't know if you've kinda, like, looked back and say,

253
00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:41,040
like, hey. What did I learn? Because I learned, you know, a lot of patience.

254
00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:44,605
Am I a really good listener? You know, give give me a

255
00:15:44,605 --> 00:15:48,365
couple, like, traits that you say, like, if I wasn't a personal trainer, I don't

256
00:15:48,365 --> 00:15:50,305
think I would've gotten these things out of myself.

257
00:15:52,045 --> 00:15:55,404
I I think it all comes back to your ability to deal with people. I

258
00:15:55,404 --> 00:15:58,860
always say, like, a good trainer is when a

259
00:15:58,860 --> 00:16:02,700
client is driving to the gym and is like, I cannot wait

260
00:16:02,700 --> 00:16:05,820
to spend an hour with someone. I used to have a guy named Big Tom,

261
00:16:05,820 --> 00:16:09,500
and Big Tom was he was the first trainer ever hard. He was 6 a

262
00:16:09,500 --> 00:16:12,815
Tom Plummer. No. No. No. I was kidding. This is yeah.

263
00:16:13,835 --> 00:16:17,435
But I I remember there there's a story where I had this decision to make.

264
00:16:17,435 --> 00:16:21,035
He was a he was 6 foot 9, and he had

265
00:16:21,035 --> 00:16:24,795
no really education in fitness. He only if he played

266
00:16:24,795 --> 00:16:28,540
college football, but but, like, had no CSES or anything

267
00:16:28,540 --> 00:16:32,380
like that. And then I was also hiring at the same time looking

268
00:16:32,380 --> 00:16:36,160
at another guy that was, like, the perfect trainer on paper.

269
00:16:36,779 --> 00:16:40,459
Right? He had every kinda credential, degree in the field, all of that

270
00:16:40,459 --> 00:16:44,285
stuff. And I'm going back and forth between these two guys. And I

271
00:16:44,285 --> 00:16:48,125
was like, I picked the guy that on paper was, like, probably not the right

272
00:16:48,125 --> 00:16:51,965
person to pick, and there was some intangible that this

273
00:16:51,965 --> 00:16:55,565
guy had. And I think if I could pinpoint it, it was like people really

274
00:16:55,565 --> 00:16:59,380
enjoyed being around him. And you could be a great x's and o's person

275
00:16:59,380 --> 00:17:01,940
and a great you know, have all the knowledge and all the things, but if

276
00:17:01,940 --> 00:17:05,540
people don't like spending an hour with you, they're not gonna stay a client. And

277
00:17:05,540 --> 00:17:09,140
so this guy, he was with me for 13 years. We had an unbelievable

278
00:17:09,140 --> 00:17:12,914
relationship with very good friends today. He ended up, going off and opening

279
00:17:12,914 --> 00:17:16,755
his own gym, afterwards. But I I

280
00:17:16,755 --> 00:17:20,434
would say that it was his ability to deal with people. It was

281
00:17:20,434 --> 00:17:23,875
his ability to be able to kinda get people to laugh, to get people to

282
00:17:23,875 --> 00:17:27,329
be engaged that was the one quality,

283
00:17:28,190 --> 00:17:31,070
if you will. Now I I will say this, there are a lot of really

284
00:17:31,070 --> 00:17:34,450
good personal trainers that are don't become good gym owners.

285
00:17:34,990 --> 00:17:38,590
Right? And so it's not like just because that's one thing. So you have to

286
00:17:38,590 --> 00:17:42,405
be able I think as a business owner, you have to be able to

287
00:17:42,405 --> 00:17:46,005
overmanage your own emotions. Like, that's probably one of the most

288
00:17:46,005 --> 00:17:49,445
important things that I teach my guys. Like, we teach I don't teach this a

289
00:17:49,445 --> 00:17:53,125
lot on the marketing side of my business, but when they get inside of my

290
00:17:53,125 --> 00:17:56,580
groups, we are teaching them mindset. We are teaching them how to

291
00:17:56,580 --> 00:18:00,340
control emotions. We're teaching them how to make decisions. So just

292
00:18:00,340 --> 00:18:03,620
because you're a good trainer and you are able to be good with people does

293
00:18:03,620 --> 00:18:07,335
not mean that's gonna translate to to being a good gym owner.

294
00:18:07,575 --> 00:18:11,414
So it's, but but if I were to answer the question with the quality of

295
00:18:11,414 --> 00:18:15,095
a personal trainer, I was like, 100%. You just have the good have a good

296
00:18:15,095 --> 00:18:17,975
personality, get to be able to deal with people well, and people wanna be able

297
00:18:17,975 --> 00:18:21,610
to spend an hour with you. Yep. You know, in in your marketing

298
00:18:21,750 --> 00:18:25,049
materials on on your media kit, you talk about, you know, impacting

299
00:18:25,269 --> 00:18:28,809
communities and and kinda making the the personal training,

300
00:18:29,110 --> 00:18:32,870
you know, department almost like, you know, the the impact, you

301
00:18:32,870 --> 00:18:36,685
know, investing part of, like, the the the club or, like, here's

302
00:18:36,685 --> 00:18:40,205
how, like, you really create a tight community and then kinda

303
00:18:40,365 --> 00:18:44,145
that kinda emanates from from there. Those are, like,

304
00:18:44,285 --> 00:18:47,565
buzzwords that a lot of people kinda use, but it seems like something that you've

305
00:18:47,565 --> 00:18:51,169
actually instituted into, like, a business model. Can you talk about

306
00:18:51,789 --> 00:18:55,309
how others do that or, like, if you go to one of your seminars or

307
00:18:55,309 --> 00:18:58,029
go you know, the you know, what do you what do you get at? Or,

308
00:18:58,029 --> 00:19:01,389
like, what's the story behind the story on how you do that and not just

309
00:19:01,389 --> 00:19:05,125
say, like, we're a community based place. You know? We, you know,

310
00:19:05,125 --> 00:19:08,885
value our our members. You know? A lot of that's buzzwords, but there's like a

311
00:19:08,885 --> 00:19:12,645
there's like a playbook for that. Yeah. So I would say,

312
00:19:12,645 --> 00:19:16,265
you know, on the gym side of things, I think CrossFit

313
00:19:16,325 --> 00:19:20,105
did a really good job of this, of of teaching

314
00:19:20,620 --> 00:19:24,460
gyms how to build communities, and we had definitely, you know,

315
00:19:24,460 --> 00:19:28,220
benefited from that. But, I mean, there's all

316
00:19:28,220 --> 00:19:31,899
kinds of things that people are doing these days, especially in

317
00:19:31,899 --> 00:19:35,735
in these gyms that are not just getting people to come work

318
00:19:35,735 --> 00:19:39,335
out. They're getting people to, become part of

319
00:19:39,335 --> 00:19:42,955
this very, very thing that's bigger than themselves.

320
00:19:43,095 --> 00:19:46,860
And so you you talk about the Starbucks 3rd place

321
00:19:46,860 --> 00:19:50,620
thing. I think that a lot of gyms have done a really good job of

322
00:19:50,620 --> 00:19:54,380
their gym being kind of that 3rd place, in in their

323
00:19:54,380 --> 00:19:58,000
community. And I think that that's, like, what drives retention.

324
00:19:58,220 --> 00:20:01,515
Like, it's like it's almost like the the hair salons. Like,

325
00:20:01,755 --> 00:20:05,595
someone never changes their hairstylist. They just,

326
00:20:05,595 --> 00:20:09,375
like, keep going over and over and over again, because

327
00:20:09,515 --> 00:20:12,715
they have built a relationship with that. And I think it kinda goes back to

328
00:20:12,715 --> 00:20:16,450
what I was saying before. The leader of the business kinda

329
00:20:16,450 --> 00:20:19,730
needs to foster that, and it really needs to do do a good job of

330
00:20:19,730 --> 00:20:22,870
fostering that. If the leader of the business isn't a good kinda

331
00:20:23,970 --> 00:20:27,750
person that brings people together, it's gonna be really hard and challenging

332
00:20:27,890 --> 00:20:31,515
to do. So, yeah, so a lot of our guys are are doing all

333
00:20:31,515 --> 00:20:35,275
kinds of stuff locally in charity events and things like

334
00:20:35,275 --> 00:20:38,875
that, but, I think it's a huge area of

335
00:20:38,875 --> 00:20:42,330
of retention for these guys to be able to build

336
00:20:42,330 --> 00:20:45,930
communities, get their get their clients involved in what's going

337
00:20:45,930 --> 00:20:48,750
on, you know, with the day to day of their business for sure.

338
00:20:49,690 --> 00:20:53,530
So so one of the things I wanna pivot over to is, you know, there's

339
00:20:53,530 --> 00:20:57,265
been a lot of inflation across the entire, you know, US economy.

340
00:20:57,804 --> 00:21:01,345
There's a lot of low cost operators that are, you know,

341
00:21:01,485 --> 00:21:04,924
still out there and saying, you know, $15 a month or $19 a

342
00:21:04,924 --> 00:21:08,610
month. Obviously, that doesn't include personal training. Some

343
00:21:08,610 --> 00:21:12,370
people do have, you know, personal training on EFT

344
00:21:12,370 --> 00:21:15,410
where, you know, you go once once a week or you go twice a week,

345
00:21:15,410 --> 00:21:19,170
and that's kind of embedded. I'm I'm

346
00:21:19,170 --> 00:21:22,715
still having a problem with what it cost me to take an

347
00:21:22,715 --> 00:21:26,475
Uber from, like, 82nd Street to, like, Grand Central and

348
00:21:26,475 --> 00:21:30,315
realizing that that's, like, $60 during whatever time that they

349
00:21:30,315 --> 00:21:34,154
feel like, you know, making it $60. Whereas I'm getting a health club

350
00:21:34,154 --> 00:21:37,880
membership for, like, 19, and we get, like, small group training, and it's pay it

351
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:41,320
cost me, like, $99 a month at the place that's, like, keeping

352
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:45,080
me seen, alive, and thriving. Yet I'm paying,

353
00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:48,760
like, this Uber driver, no offense, and I just got $60. You know?

354
00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:52,475
So when you take a look at price in this industry, you

355
00:21:52,475 --> 00:21:56,235
know, there's personal trainers that say, hey. Look. You know, it it

356
00:21:56,235 --> 00:22:00,015
should be, like, 2, $300 an hour to to spend time with me.

357
00:22:00,554 --> 00:22:04,210
And others are, like, you know, no. We're gonna do, like, $25. It's

358
00:22:04,210 --> 00:22:07,990
marked up to 50 by the club. It's like, what's the price to value,

359
00:22:08,450 --> 00:22:12,289
and how do you, like, stop racing to the bottom of something that

360
00:22:12,289 --> 00:22:16,049
we should be racing to the top of? Yeah. I I think the

361
00:22:16,049 --> 00:22:18,950
most important part about price is choosing the right customers.

362
00:22:19,945 --> 00:22:23,705
And, typically, when you choose the right customers, price isn't so much

363
00:22:23,705 --> 00:22:27,465
of an issue. So when I first opened my business, I

364
00:22:27,465 --> 00:22:30,985
was a 23 year old kid. I couldn't imagine spending

365
00:22:30,985 --> 00:22:34,710
$500 a month on a gym membership. Right? It was just didn't make

366
00:22:34,710 --> 00:22:38,070
any sense to me. But the people that I was helping, the clients that I

367
00:22:38,070 --> 00:22:41,430
had, were doctors and lawyers and finance people in New

368
00:22:41,430 --> 00:22:45,110
Jersey. And I would tell them $500 a month, and then they would

369
00:22:45,110 --> 00:22:48,855
almost, like, snicker and be like, that's it? Right. Exactly. And to me, that

370
00:22:48,855 --> 00:22:52,455
didn't make any sense. But to them, it's like to this lawyer that

371
00:22:52,455 --> 00:22:56,135
values and knows he needs his health because he's got a

372
00:22:56,135 --> 00:22:59,975
really stressed job. $500 a month for a gym membership is

373
00:22:59,975 --> 00:23:03,180
like a drop in the bucket. So the key is and then I'm not saying

374
00:23:03,180 --> 00:23:06,860
that's everybody. Right? There's some people that definitely hemmed and hawed, but the

375
00:23:06,860 --> 00:23:10,700
reality of the situation is you decide on price

376
00:23:10,700 --> 00:23:14,220
based on the target market of the person. And if you wanna be able to

377
00:23:14,220 --> 00:23:17,794
have a premium business and a business that charges a a a a a

378
00:23:18,014 --> 00:23:21,695
good amount of money, then you want to decide and narrow the

379
00:23:21,695 --> 00:23:25,294
market to be able to find people that can afford that. So I

380
00:23:25,294 --> 00:23:28,815
think a lot of it comes back to, you know, your marketing and

381
00:23:28,815 --> 00:23:32,010
you deciding who is the person that I want in this business. So that's what

382
00:23:32,010 --> 00:23:35,530
I always say. It's like, that is the most important decision, right, is not what

383
00:23:35,530 --> 00:23:39,050
you're gonna sell. The most important decision is who's gonna buy it. And I have

384
00:23:39,050 --> 00:23:42,010
so many people that come to me for business advice all the time, and they

385
00:23:42,010 --> 00:23:45,554
have no they they they get obsessed with their product. They get obsessed with the

386
00:23:45,554 --> 00:23:49,235
thing they're gonna sell. But it's just, like, get obsessed with the person. Get

387
00:23:49,235 --> 00:23:52,674
obsessed with the person that's gonna buy it. What are their fears? What are their

388
00:23:52,674 --> 00:23:56,434
desires? What are their dreams? And then get to know that. I just spoke

389
00:23:56,434 --> 00:24:00,110
at a at a franchise conference called Alloy Personal Training. I was on

390
00:24:00,110 --> 00:24:03,950
stage Oh, yeah. Just this past weekend. And that was one of

391
00:24:03,950 --> 00:24:07,790
my key points in in the whole thing is is getting a PhD in

392
00:24:07,790 --> 00:24:11,230
your customer to to really understand on a deeper

393
00:24:11,230 --> 00:24:14,965
level what is this person, what are their

394
00:24:14,965 --> 00:24:18,565
needs, what are their fears, what are their pains, what are their desires, and then

395
00:24:18,565 --> 00:24:21,924
build a business around solving that person's

396
00:24:21,924 --> 00:24:25,445
problems. And you'll be able to charge a a a

397
00:24:25,445 --> 00:24:27,784
decent, amount of money for what you're doing.

398
00:24:30,860 --> 00:24:34,400
This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast.

399
00:24:34,940 --> 00:24:38,640
We are partnered up with a company called Higher Dose. Higherdose.com.

400
00:24:39,740 --> 00:24:43,280
They are the leader in workout recovery products,

401
00:24:43,660 --> 00:24:47,465
infrared technology, LED light masks, neck

402
00:24:47,465 --> 00:24:51,245
enhancers, and other products such as PMF

403
00:24:51,385 --> 00:24:54,905
mats and sauna blankets. If you have not gotten

404
00:24:54,905 --> 00:24:58,740
on the workout recovery train yet, your time

405
00:24:58,740 --> 00:25:02,420
and your stop is now. You gotta get these products in there before

406
00:25:02,420 --> 00:25:06,020
these workout recovery and spas end up saturating your

407
00:25:06,020 --> 00:25:09,860
market, having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their

408
00:25:09,860 --> 00:25:13,245
locations for $200 per month where they paid

409
00:25:13,245 --> 00:25:17,025
39 to you. Let's become an expert in workout recovery

410
00:25:17,405 --> 00:25:21,185
if we are already an authority in workouts. Higher dose,

411
00:25:21,565 --> 00:25:25,165
check it out. There's a wholesale code, and we look

412
00:25:25,165 --> 00:25:28,690
forward to helping you augment your products and services

413
00:25:28,909 --> 00:25:32,750
to meet the demands of your members. And, hey, let's get people

414
00:25:32,750 --> 00:25:36,429
happy, healthy, and sweating, and the recovery should be

415
00:25:36,429 --> 00:25:37,730
just as good as the workout.

416
00:25:41,205 --> 00:25:44,265
A lot of people have been talking for the last couple of years about artificial

417
00:25:44,405 --> 00:25:48,164
intelligence. And I, I took one of my jackets, my old black

418
00:25:48,245 --> 00:25:52,025
white black jackets, and I put on a big logo on the back that said,

419
00:25:52,085 --> 00:25:55,900
you can't have artificial intelligence until you have intelligence.

420
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,160
Yeah. I see that. You know? Go to software companies, you ask them, like, slice

421
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,380
and dice the date. It's like, bro, all you have is, like, the guy's name,

422
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:06,120
his birthday, and his credit card. Like, what do you want? I'm just slice and

423
00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:09,865
dice. Right? It's just, like, bizarre to me that you

424
00:26:09,865 --> 00:26:13,225
can't run your business to the point of what you're saying. It's like, when someone

425
00:26:13,225 --> 00:26:16,985
buys your business, they're buying your member database, right, in your

426
00:26:16,985 --> 00:26:20,825
lease. The other the other stuff is just, like, noise. Right? So, like, an

427
00:26:20,825 --> 00:26:24,580
afterthought. So when you think about, like, quantifying

428
00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:28,640
and, like, getting this data, you know, is there a part of, like, your marketing

429
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,480
plan that says, like, look. You gotta go deep. I gotta know if I'm a

430
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:36,174
personal trainer, if you're my personal trainer, you know, and I'm saying, yeah. I've

431
00:26:36,174 --> 00:26:39,554
worked out with Vince. You probably know more about me

432
00:26:40,014 --> 00:26:43,615
than if I actually had a therapist, which I've haven't gotten one in

433
00:26:43,615 --> 00:26:47,455
52 years because my mom used to say, like, oh, cousin so and so

434
00:26:47,455 --> 00:26:50,850
goes to a therapist. Like, if I went to therapy, I'd be, like, you

435
00:26:50,850 --> 00:26:54,690
know, at that level of, like, crisis mode, which her and I have a little

436
00:26:54,690 --> 00:26:58,370
issue about that. However, let's not talk about my mom. Yeah. So

437
00:26:58,370 --> 00:27:02,210
let's not go there, bro. And my point is, like, what kind of data

438
00:27:02,210 --> 00:27:05,985
are you collecting or that you know that running one location

439
00:27:05,985 --> 00:27:08,885
you might not need to, like, put into a database, but it would be nice

440
00:27:08,945 --> 00:27:12,465
if it was in there, almost like an activity log of, like, everything you know

441
00:27:12,465 --> 00:27:16,225
about me? Yep. Yeah. No. It's essential. And we do

442
00:27:16,225 --> 00:27:19,550
it pretty basic. I'm sure there's way more sophisticated

443
00:27:19,690 --> 00:27:23,230
ways to do this, but we have a what we call a client card.

444
00:27:23,610 --> 00:27:27,370
And every client that comes into our gym has a client card, and

445
00:27:27,370 --> 00:27:31,050
there are certain data points that we look for. Some of it, obviously, is

446
00:27:31,050 --> 00:27:34,075
when they come in, there's a movement screen that they do, so we'll know if

447
00:27:34,075 --> 00:27:37,515
there's a a bad knee or a bad shoulder. And

448
00:27:37,515 --> 00:27:41,355
whoever the trainer is that trains that person that day, they

449
00:27:41,355 --> 00:27:45,115
have that info. But it's also the intangible stuff. It's what are their

450
00:27:45,115 --> 00:27:48,929
kids' names? It's what do their kids do? It's like that. Yeah. And

451
00:27:48,929 --> 00:27:52,049
it and it's like, what is their job? Right? What do they do for a

452
00:27:52,049 --> 00:27:55,330
living? Do they sit all day? Are they up and moving and and everything like

453
00:27:55,330 --> 00:27:57,429
that? So, yes, we have an entire,

454
00:27:59,730 --> 00:28:03,545
card essentially on each person that that we do. At

455
00:28:03,545 --> 00:28:07,065
some point, if it got much bigger and scaled, we would need to

456
00:28:07,065 --> 00:28:10,745
automate that and create it into some kind of a software, which I'm sure someone

457
00:28:10,745 --> 00:28:14,505
out there is easily doing this. But for us and for those

458
00:28:14,505 --> 00:28:18,330
listening to this that, you know, have smaller businesses, you don't need

459
00:28:18,330 --> 00:28:22,009
to go high-tech on this stuff. We literally have a card and

460
00:28:22,009 --> 00:28:25,690
we write stuff in. And if something happens, I'll tweak their shoulder

461
00:28:25,690 --> 00:28:29,525
doing a shoulder press. We would write that on the card, and that gives

462
00:28:29,525 --> 00:28:32,985
us the notes, that we need to kinda keep moving forward to individualize

463
00:28:33,285 --> 00:28:36,965
their experience. Awesome. You know, in closing here, you want

464
00:28:36,965 --> 00:28:40,645
to, you know, give a give us, you know, a a a takeaway or a

465
00:28:40,645 --> 00:28:44,260
story, you know, or or who's the right

466
00:28:44,260 --> 00:28:47,860
people to reach out to you, you know, what what kind of situation that they

467
00:28:47,860 --> 00:28:51,620
may be in? Yeah. Yeah. So I I work mainly with brick

468
00:28:51,620 --> 00:28:55,455
and mortar gym owners. And, you know, essentially, the thing we do, we

469
00:28:55,455 --> 00:28:58,895
try to simplify it. I really think businesses can be broken down into 3

470
00:28:58,895 --> 00:29:02,255
things, getting clients, keeping clients, and building

471
00:29:02,255 --> 00:29:06,015
cash. And that's kind of the provide the service that that

472
00:29:06,015 --> 00:29:09,315
we provide for our guys is to to really getting people focused

473
00:29:09,830 --> 00:29:13,190
to focus on what matters and what are the few things that you're gonna do,

474
00:29:13,190 --> 00:29:16,650
the whole 80 20 principle. What are the few things you're gonna do

475
00:29:16,950 --> 00:29:20,390
that is going to move the needle, the best for your business?

476
00:29:20,390 --> 00:29:24,165
So, if you're a business owner that was

477
00:29:24,165 --> 00:29:27,845
into getting clients and keeping clients and building cash, then we can certainly help

478
00:29:27,845 --> 00:29:31,684
you. Best thing for them to do is just go to, get my book

479
00:29:31,684 --> 00:29:35,445
for free. It's just, smogerpersonaltraining.com, and

480
00:29:35,445 --> 00:29:39,200
they can get it for free, at that link. Awesome. Well, we use

481
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,960
the halo acronym, Health Active Lifestyle Outdoors. So you're here

482
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,640
by now, you know, an anointed halo evangelist. Thank you. And,

483
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:50,160
you know, you can use that royalty free and look forward to, meeting you up

484
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:53,725
in person here. Thanks for having me, Pete. Alright, man. Awesome.

485
00:29:53,865 --> 00:29:54,765
Good to meet you.