My Business Is Fitness

We've Moved!

My Business Is Fitness is more than pleased to announce that we are now on a BRAND NEW site!

We have moved over to a WordPress theme which will give you guys a ton more features and information to help you dominate the fitness industry!

The address is the same:

WWW.MYBUSINESSISFITNESS.COM

So come by and check it out and feel free to let me know what you think by emailing me at Ben@MyBusinessIsFitness.com

See you there!

Ben

Dave The Extreme PT - A Love Story

Let me tell you a little story about a friend of mine named Dave The Extreme PT.

Dave has always been a bit of a ladies man and at times I questioned his motives for becoming a personal trainer, but be that as it may, he sure is an extreme PT!

He told me this story once about a female client that he'd had, who happened to be one of the first PT clients in the world.

Her name was Maude and Maude was a Scorpio who enjoyed collecting glamour magazines and eating peanut butter from the jar. She came on as a regular client, training with Dave the extreme PT twice a week; Tuesdays and Thursdays. She just wanted to tone up a little, had played netball for her school, but hadn't exercised for about 6 months.

One Tuesday, Maude turned up for her session a little early.

It turned out that Maude had had a fight with her carpenter boyfriend One Eyed Tony, who was also one of Dave The Extreme PT's clients. Tony had played football up until a knee injury 12 months ago; but now just wanted to keep fit and work on his glutes and hams (Wednesdays and Saturday mornings).

Always the consummate shoulder to cry on, Dave asked Maude to tell him all about it.

They sat down on two 55cm exercise balls, activated their cores and faced each other with their feet at shoulder width.

"Oh my god Dave" Maude blurted out, "One Eyed Tony has totally gone too far this time!" she said.

"I caught him in the bathroom watching himself dancing in the mirror singing 'I'm just a girl' into my hairbrush while he was wearing my pantyhose and a blow drying his hair!" she exclaimed!

"Shhhh" Dave the Extreme PT said in a brooding tone patting her head "Shhhhh little one, please go on".

"Well, I stood there for about three minutes until the end of the song, because it's probably one of my favorites at the moment and then confronted him!"

It was about now that one of Dave's other clients was leaving the gym and yelled out that he was going for a pizza and a bag of ice cream. Dave yelled back "Hey, you better not Stan you lunatic!" and Dave and Stan began laughing hysterically as Stan waved a finger, nodding as he walked to the water fountain tucking his t-shirt into his shorts.

Realising that he'd laughed so hard that his pedometer was registering steps, Dave quickly regained his composure to avoid an inaccurate step reading.

Dave's core was starting to really get a sweet burn about now as it had been activated for approximately 4 minutes on the ball and he knew that Maude's would fail at 6 minutes, so he encouraged her to continue with the story.

"So" Maude said sighing, "I walked in and turned off the cd...do you know that song 'I'm just a girl' Dave? I really love it you know...anyway, I turned off the CD and faced Tony who was standing there stunned with the hairbrush still pinned to his mouth! I said to him, just what do you think you're doing you beautiful one eyed bastard!?"

"What did he say Maude...what did the bastard say!?" Dave beamed.

"He told me he loved me, he told me that he was preparing for a show...a show for me Dave!"

Maude went on to say that the relationship was over. "Show or no show" she said, "this show must not go on".

Dave de-activated his core and took Maude by her hand. He stood her up and spun her like a top for maybe 15 revolutions before stopping her abruptly and whispering these words, words which I will never forget.

"We train hard and extreme like warriors...warriors that are angry and have paint on their faces and feathers and bones and things." A tear rolled down Dave's cheek as Maude tried to regain her balance.

The moral to this story; Dave The Extreme PT is an awesome legend.

I would love to read any comments that you have below and of course, if you enjoyed this article, please share it on facebook and twitter by clicking the icons at the top of the post and to never miss an update, make sure to add your email address below and click "Get Updates"!

Personal Trainer And Business Owner Ellie Burscough's Top 10 Tips To Conquering Telephone Sales

Why is it that some people are literally TERRIFIED to pick up the telephone and call leads?

I remember back in the day when only yuppies had cell phones and 9 times out of 10 when a prospect actually gave you their contact details you were stuck with a home phone number, which meant having to try and avoid calling them during dinner, or too late or whatever.

There has never been a better time than now to actually get the person that you want on the phone thanks to the fact that 99% of the world now carry cell phones with them; yet many trainers still botch or even avoid calling leads simply because they're unprepared.

After reading this guest post by a good friend of mine and massive supporter of My Business Is Fitness; ex tele-sales gun, turned personal trainer and proud owner of Power Mums, Ellie Burscough; you will have no excuse to not kick some ass, because Ellie has VERY kindly given us her top 10 tips to making quality calls and closing deals.

Over to Ellie:

The single greatest challenge that most personal trainers face is generating qualified leads.

As I'm sure you know, there are a ton of people out there promising personal trainers proven systems to generate 20-30 new leads every week, but let's be real, there's no secret, it's just about being innovative and doing some work.

Below, you will find 3 simple lead generating techniques that I've used over the years which you can adjust to suit your business or a particular promotion.

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself - A Personal Trainers Journey

Perspective - Not everything may be as it seems.

I want these stairs in my gym!

Dictionary.com describes perspective as: a way of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance.

Some people may have all the experience in the world, but perspective is anything less than black and white.

I'm sure there have been situations where you may have misinterpreted or miss-communicated language or signals with your clients and that's cool, we're all human, but was it an honest mistake or are you so self obsessed that you're completely oblivious to what's happening in the real world?

In this guest post from one of the most handsome Scorpio's you'll ever meet; personal trainer Matt Jolley takes us on a personal journey that he recently went through and the importance of perspective in the fitness business.

Health And Fitness Jobs Dominate Top Ten Worst Paying Degrees Of 2011

Came across an interesting article today that highlighted the top 10 worst paying college degrees of 2011 and not surprisingly, of those ten listed, two of the positions were directly related to the fitness industry.

It's true for many fitness professionals that money wasn't the motivating factor that contributed to their career path decision and thankfully so. But numerous studies have shown that work/life balance and making a difference in the community is far more important than salary expectations for many people.

So why is it that jobs that help people and the community pay breadcrumbs and if that's the case, why is it that accreditation bodies continue to pump out personal trainers like Shannan Ponton pumps out endorsement deals? It's simple.

People love to help other people.

Here are some of the other jobs that were listed in the top 10 worst paying degrees:

Social Work
Child and Family Studies
Elementary Education
Special Education
Public Health

Sometimes I forget just how lucky we are to be earning an income, be it high or not so high in such a giving and caring industry.

Yes there are tools out there who take advantage of the the hard work of others but I just want to say thank you to all of you for doing what you do every day making a difference in peoples lives and for the most part, for very little reward. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

I would love to read any comments that you have below and of course, if you enjoyed this article, please share it on facebook and twitter by clicking the icons at the top of the post and to never miss an update, make sure to add your email address below and click "Get Updates"!

Full Article And Top 10 Can Be Found Here:

Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway

Do you ever wake up in the morning with that burning sensation in your toned gut wondering how your latest marketing campaign is going to perform? Or do you lay there panicking about how you're going to pay the next months rent or find 10 more personal training clients?

That burn that you feel is fear and it's your bodies way of telling you how awesome you are and to get up, get juiced and start ROCKING!

Think about this:

What was your 'why'? Why did you want to become a personal trainer? What inspired you to cough up thousands of dollars and spend hours upon hours of your time studying to be in a position to help OTHER people achieve goals? That was a HUGE decision that you made and now that you are one, why stop taking chances?

Is Your Training Partner Cheating On You?

Is Your Training Partner Cheating On You?

Have you ever turned up at the gym on a whim and caught your training partner working out with somebody else? Have you been driving along and noticed your running mate, laughing and freewheeling with a complete stranger?

It's an awkward situation and something that many of us have gone through and will probably go through again and again; but we must be strong my friends and keep our heads high.

I vividly remember the first time it happened to me. Picture this. It was a quiet little Sunday, not unlike any other Sunday and since it had been raining I thought I might head over to the gym, knock out an hour on the treadmill and catch up on some podcasts.

Every thing seemed normal until I saw my training partner Malcolm's light blue 2005 Camry with optional 17" alloy rims and custom plates "MALCDAWG" in the fitness center car park...WTF!?

How You Can Diversify Your Income Streams

With all of the channels and technology available to personal trainers and fitness professionals via social media in particular; it has never been easier to find innovative ways to diversify your income streams.

By diversifying your cash flow sources, you make your business and income more stable and resilient to forces that aren't necessarily in your control, like seasons for example.

I've written about different income streams that you can look at in the past; things like:

Starting a blog
Creating products (a DVD for example)
Affiliate sponsorships
Writing a book
Writing an ebook
Producing a clothing line

One of the reasons I'm writing this article is that if you weren't already aware; I have VERY recently (this week in fact) launched a new business which is one that I've been considering for quite some time...several years in fact.

How And Why To Add Page Owner To Your Facebook Page

If you have a facebook page for your business and you haven't already, then you need to add yourself as the page owner of your page.

Here's the why:

So people can contact you.

As you may have noticed when you visit any facebook page, there is no function to contact the administrator/s.

You may really enjoy what they're doing, or would like to get in contact with them to find out more information or maybe you have an offer that you wouldn't necessarily post on the wall (no, not that kind of offer!).

Almost every fitness professional I know has some kind of home office set up where they plan their personal training sessions, make their calls, do their taxes etc. etc. and today I've got 5 simple tips to help you increase your home office productivity.

Working from home instantly throws two very challenging hurdles at you before you even get started:

Separating business and home life,
Lack of stimulating social interaction.

So why make things any tougher on yourself?

Ever wonder where your competitors get all of those great prizes to give away to their clients and offer prospects in competitions? They probably asked for them and in this post I'm going to show you how YOU can ask for and get FREE stuff for your next big promotion.

One of the most popular promotions I have ever run was an annual event that we called the "Queen For A Day" promotion.

It was an internal referral promotion whereby every time an existing member referred someone new to our gym, they would get an entry with the chance to win a weekend of indulgence (oh yes; indulgence!).

The prize included:

A night at a local resort
Dinner for two
Spa treatment
Supplement pack
Movie tickets
Personal Training Sessions
And other bits and pieces

The prize pack usually had a retail value of around $1,000 so it was an awesome motivator to get our female members and clients working for us. And the best part;

How Can A Virtual Assistant Help My Personal Training Business?

As mentioned earlier this week; based on a question I asked on the My Business Is Fitness Facebook page, I decided to contact Lara Thomas from E - Assistant Services who specializes in helping fitness professionals just like you by taking away a lot of the mundane chores of running a small business so you can focus on things that MAKE YOU MONEY.

Lara has put together an awesome post and included a brief case study of one particular personal training business that she has worked closely with to take it to another level.

How can a Virtual Assistant help my personal training business?

Well let’s start at the beginning. Many of you are probably wondering what a Virtual Assistant is?

A Virtual Assistant is an individual who provides administrative, secretarial, business and marketing support to small business owners and entrepreneurs. Work is carried out 'virtually' from our own office, so it doesn’t matter where you are, we can still help you.

How To Choose Your Personal Training Niche Market And Live Happily Ever After

What a lot of people who get into the fitness industry don't understand is that there is a LOT more variety to this personal training gig than just helping fat people get thin.

There's

Sport Specific Training
Rehabilitation
Kids Fitness
Elderly Fitness
Pre And Post Natal Fitness
And about 127/128 other specialities that you could pursue.

Ask yourself; Who Do You REALLY Want To Train?

Sure, if you enjoy helping overweight people change their lives by dropping kilos then be my guest; but if you're finding yourself becoming bored with the same routine or having a tough time finding your place in the increasingly competitive personal training market then read on!

I recently asked a question on the My Business Is Fitness Facebook page:

"If you could have someone handle ALL of your administration duties so you could focus on being an even BETTER Personal Trainer - Would you?"

This question prompted some very interesting discussion and that's what I'd like to talk about today.

Let me explain the reason I asked this question in the first place:

You may have heard of a book by the name of The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris. In this book, Tim talks about and describes exactly how you can systematically automate your life in order to drastically reduce your active working hours to achieve an ideal lifestyle.

The reason being so that you have the time to pursue what you really want to be doing; like travelling (for example) while still earning an amazing income.

One of the keys to living this ideal lifestyle is to outsource things in your life that otherwise take up your valuable time, like administration responsibilities.

Tim describes the result of having all this extra time and more disposable income as becoming a member of a 21st century tribe he describes as the New Rich; basically meaning that you use technology and Virtual Assistants to handle mundane responsibilities that otherwise limit your time and the lifestyle that you desire.

This prompted me to contact a Virtual assistant and find out exactly what they could offer me and my business to take over tasks that quite frankly, bore me to tears.

Now, when I asked that question on facebook, I didn't prompt or mention anything about VA's or automation, I simply wanted some feedback from fitness professionals and here are some of the responses:

Would you hand over admin duties?

"I would like to say yes, but handing over control of that stuff is easier said than done." - Simon
"Hell Yes!" - Rob
"Yes, I hate admin" - Ellie
"My friend, this is exactly what I do! She runs my books, bookings, marketing! She does an outstanding job! So I focus on the "work" in the trenches!" - Kaia

There were quite a few other responses, but you get the point and it seems most of you guys feel like me - we need more time to focus on what's really important and that's earning money, not pushing paper.

The thing that concerns me and evidently you guys about handing over these sorts of responsibilities is a trust issue and whether these VA's will do as good a job as we can.

Let me tell you, a VA, if chosen properly will more than likely be BETTER at handling these mundane tasks than we are anyway!

I have a guest post coming this week from the Virtual Assistant that I spoke to the other day who actually specialises in working with personal trainers and fitness professionals.

I've asked her to put it together as a kind of case study for you guys on how she has helped one personal trainer take his business about 5 more levels than he could have done on his own and that is no reflection on how awesome a trainer he is, more to do with how terrible at administration he was.

So yes, this is a kind of a launch post for that article, because I don't want you guys to miss it!

Stay Tuned!

How Trainers Can Use Podcasts To Boost Their Authority And Fitness Business

I've never really written about personal trainers using audio on their websites and blogs to boost their fitness authority and business but it is something that I have been involved with for other sites and seen some great results.

That's one of the main reasons I asked Kyra Williams from The Get In Shape Girl to write a brief guest post on the topic of using audio files and to add a bit of background on her own fitness industry journey to get some real feedback, from a real trainer using tele-seminars in her business and making things happen.

5 Facebook Tricks That Will Make Your Fitness Business Look Awesome!

If you're not taking advantage of all the little tricks that facebook has to offer your fitness business, then it's high time you pulled your low cut socks up and take some action before your competitors beat you to it!

Here's a quick 5 tips that can make you go from looking like a facebook hack to a facebook mack in no time!

Check out these 5 facebook tips!

How Your Own Online Product Can Super-Charge Your Fitness Business

There are only so many hours in the day and only so many personal training sessions someone can physically manage in a week; so diversifying your income streams by incorporating products into your fitness business makes perfect and progressive financial sense.

Which brings us to today's article:

I'm very happy to have a guest post by one of my good friends, who happens to be an EXPERT on producing and monetizing online products; Mr Rick Watson from a very awesome blog called PT Business In A Box to give you some great advice on why and how to go about getting started and getting PAID what you're worth.

How Your Own Online Product Can Super-Charge Your Fitness Business

When I spoke to Ben the other day and he asked me to write a guest post for his blog, the first thing that popped into my head was de-mystifying the world of online products in your fitness business.

I know there always seems to be a lot of crazy marketing hype about online products but today I really just want to push all that aside and demonstrate the positive impact your own online product can have on your fitness business.

But before we get into all of that, I think it is probably important to let you know what I consider an "online product".

Did you know that just by having a well designed and interactive Twitter profile you could potentially double your business and open the door to international recognition within your niche?

Crazy huh; but ask anyone that has spent some time on Twitter and they'll all tell you the same thing...IT ROCKS AND IT WORKS!

Here are some Twitter statistics that are the most current that I could find. Mind you they'll be obsolete in no time at all, so enjoy them while they're hot!

67% Of Twitter users are more likely to buy brands that they follow
Businesses that use Twitter average 2x more leads per month than businesses that don't
Twitter plays an active role in purchasing decisions
Twitter users have higher incomes than the average population
There are 75 million active Twitter users worldwide

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Twitter and the INCREDIBLE opportunities it can create for business growth.

Is Your Fear In The Way Of Your Business Success?

Today's article is a guest post by Cheryne Blom who, as an international speaker and mentor, specializes in awakening and inspiring people all over the world to achieve their true potential. Cheryne's full bio is at the end of this incredible post.

Is Your Fear In The Way Of Your Business Success?

What if the only thing blocking your business success, right now is you? The fears, the negativity, the doubt…Are they standing in the way of achieving your ultimate goals and visions?