Dead Fly Secrets To Fitness Business Success

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"How A DEAD FLY Taught Me The Secrets Of Personal Training Success"

Not that long ago, I was sitting in the reception of one of my personal training studios. It was a nice day so we had the studio door open to let in some `real' air and freshen up the place a little.

As I sat there watching people come in and out for their training sessions I noticed a large, black fly had flown in and after buzzing around for a few minutes and finding nothing of interest, it decided to leave.

It flew right past my head and with a `thump', hit the plate glass window before bouncing off and falling to the floor in a daze.

After a few seconds of circling around on the floor it took off again and took what I can only describe as a 'run-up' (fly­up?) at the window in a greater attempt to get through the barrier that was keeping it from its goal of the outside world.

With an even louder `thump' the fly went down again and spent more time on the floor.

Well, to cut a long story short, that fly got up again and again and again and pounded at that window with all of its might for over 10 minutes before I had to get up and take care of a customer.

About 30 minutes later I sat back down in the same spot having totally forgotten about the fly and went back to my `people watching' when, out of the corner of my eye I saw the fly laying at the base of the window on its back, legs in the air.

It was dead.

Now, usually the death of a fly is not worthy of remembrance but this one I will always remember because its death taught me one of the greatest success lessons I've ever learned and I continue to reap the benefits of its teaching to this day.

(In fact, just before posting this message today I realised that I'd forgotten the lesson I'd been taught and realised why I'd been feeling a little stressed and frustrated today)

What Did It Teach Me?

That Working HARDER Simply Doesn't Work!

You see, in theory, that little fly was doing everything right. (According to the goal setting experts anyway)

It had a clearly defined goal − To get out.

It had passion − It risked and eventually paid with its life.

It was willing to work as hard as necessary to bring about its goal.

In fact, that little bug kind of reminded me of Me!

Actually, not only did it remind me of me, but of many, great personal trainers
that I'd met who knew what they wanted, had passion and were willing to work as hard as necessary to achieve their dreams but who were, over and over again bashing their heads in on the same invisible barrier that did for that fly.

And whilst it may not have ended in physical death for the trainer (I hope not!), nearly always it ends in the death of their hopes and dreams which, to me at least, is pretty much the same thing.

No, at that very moment it was clear to me that working harder would only ever
take me so far but that, if I were willing to do what the fly and so many other people were unwilling to do, I could achieve far more than I was that time.

All I Had To Do Was...

Change My Strategy!

You see, that's where that little fly had gone wrong and, truth be told, where I had gone wrong so many times, (including this morning!) is that it doggedly stuck to the same strategy even once it had failed to work.

Instead of flying 5 feet over to the open door to its freedom and whatever life awaited it beyond that invisible barrier, it continued to bang its head off of the window and, despite the fact that it was giving it everything it had and despite being so close to reaching its goal... failed miserably.

Just 5 feet in another direction would have made all the difference.

I'm sure you get the moral of the story but let me spell it out for you just in case...

If you think that working harder is going to get you what you want, you're probably wrong (unless you're really lazy already). If that were true then builders, scaffolders and any number of manual workers would be millionaires, right?

Hard work can only ever get you so far.

You've got to work smart.

You've got to look for a strategy that works and USE it rather than dogmatically sticking to one that you've become accustomed to or, like that fly, you'll end up on your back, legs in the air with nothing to show for all your time, all your efforts, all your money.

Only YOU know if your strategy is right or not.

If you're consistently achieving more, earning more and having more of the lifestyle that you always dreamed of then your strategy works. Keep using it and yes, in this case, work harder at perfecting it.

If, on the other hand, you're struggling with your income, your expenses, your time, your relationships and your health then there's no ifs or buts about it, your strategy is plain wrong.

Stop trying to make it work on muscle alone. Working harder won't get you what you want. Quit what doesn't work and start over.

So, c'mon then, what's NOT working for you? Identifying it is the starting step to change, so spill the beans : )

Dax Moy
Fitness Marketing Made Simple

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Join My FREE Fitness Professional Community
at www.personaltrainersuccess.ning.com TODAY and switch from working harder to working
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Think Like A Farmer For Personal Training Success

Today I want to talk about something that's VITAL to your succes as a personal trainer.

It's called PATIENCE!

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not the most patient of people by nature. I get an idea in my head and start to run with it and hope to see immediate results from my efforts.

The problem is, that's just not how things work.

Especially marketing!!

Marketing success , like any other success is the result of great preparation, careful cultivation and patience.

In fact it's just like farming.

First, you prepare the ground, next you plant the seed, then you tend the field, wait for the crop and enjoy the harvest.

You can't short-circuit the process!

You can't throw your seeds at the ground, wake up the next morning and say 'where's the crop?' can you? It's absured to even entertain the notion!

So why do we expect something different with marketing?

You know what I mean.

We usually don't prepare the ground at all, choosing instead to throw our 'seed' (our ad materials or website) onto the ground and then immediately wonder why our phones aren't ringing.

And the worst bit?

We do the exact same thing again and again and again and expect something different to happen each time.

THIS IS INSANE!!

And it gets worse yet.

Many trainers are guilty of the worst possible crime of all. They prepare the ground, they plant the seed, they wait a while...


...and then they up and walk away just before the crop comes in!

Are you one of those people?

If you are, things have got to change or you'll never get anywhere!

Let me give you a couple of examples;


Three of my mentoring students (they subscribe to this group so they'll know who I'm talking about)have taken very different approaches to the advice they've been given.

Student 1 listened to what I had to say, nodded in all the right places and agreed a plan of action.

When the mentor call was over, he discarded EVERYTHING we'd talked about and ran ANOTHER ad (that had failed to work for him EVERY time he's ran it)in his local paper.

Result: £568 later and no new clients, he told me he'd have to 'rethink this mentoring stuff' 'cos it doesn't seem to work...

Student 2 listened to what I had to say, implemented nearly every idea into her business, created a great weight management course, new promo materials, had several great press releases published over £2000 worth of newspaper space - fre.e) and yet contacted me this week to say 'I'm not busy enough yet, I'll have to rethink this 'mentor stuff'.

Result: Despite some great results early on, the sprouts of the crop are just coming through. Yet, this crop is likely to get left in the ground and not harvested because of impatience.

Student 3 was like student 2. He had some great successes early on but took these as a 'bonus' rather than the norm.

He got a website up, an e-book published, a google adwords campaign, a subscription newsletter, a series of published press releases and yet he's only just beginning to earn money from his efforts.

In other words, the crop is only just starting to come through.


But he's patient.

He KNOWS that he has never had such exposure, such media potential, such a captive audience as he currently has now. He's getting 'slightly famous' and with that fame comes the money that he needs to get him to the next level.

Look I know it's hard to be patient. I know you want results now or preferably yesterday but, well, it 'aint gonna happen. Not with any regularity that you can depend upon.

BUT...

If you keep preparing your ground - by understanding your market and your ideal client.

If you sow the right seeds - by providing the best possible solutions to your prospect's problems.

If you 'tend the field' - by using 'keep in touch' marketing through as many viable media as possible...

I GUARANTEE that more often than not you will get the bumper harvest that you deserve.

BUT...


If you fail to do these things, I GUARANTEE you'll be met with frustratingly poor results on a regular basis.

So, what type of farmer are you?

Will you fail to plant at all?

Will you plant but then walk away because it's all too slow?

Or, like the real farmer, the master of patience, will you do everything necessary to bring home the crop?

Only you know the answer to that, but while you're thinking about it a little, take a look at every successful person you know of. What type of farmer are they?


To your success

Dax Moy
http://www.personaltrainersuccess.ning.com

How I Quadrupled My List Opt-Ins and Sales Part 2

A couple of days ago I told you how I managed to quadruple my opt ins and sales at my fitness marketing website by changing from a 'soft' opt-in to a forced opt in process.

In case you can't remember what that means, it's simply that my 'home page' is a brief intro to the site and what you'll get when you sign up followed by a sign in box that they MUST go through in order to learn more.

They have a simple choice at this point; opt in or leave. There's no window shopping.

Now, many of the students on my Mentoring and Coaching Program are initially very worried when they hear about this. In fact, they're terrified!

"If I force the opt in won't I just annoy people and they'll leave?"

The short answer is, yes.

Yes, you'll have some people quit, leave and go elsewhere having felt frustrated that they couldn't learn more.

But these people weren't serious contenders for your services or products anyway. After all, if they wouldn't give you their opt in info, how likely are they to give you their credit card info?

Not very, right?

So stop panicking and freaking out about what doesn't matter. The truth is, forced opt in will improve both the size AND the quality of your mailing list almost s soon as you start using it.

Now, I promised a new tip didn't I?

How about another one that increased my opt ins by 400% plus?

Well, long before I used forced opt in I started to use a strategy that I'd seen many of the top internet marketers using for their products on their own sites. It was a simple ideas and one that made lots of sense to me at the time, but one which no-one in fitness seemed to be using. Not for their products and certainly not for their PT services.

So, contrarian that I am, I used this technique on my personal training website and 'Hey Presto!' not only did my subscriptions go up for my newsletter, but the telephone rang more often too. MUCH more often!

Whenever I spoke to my new prospects about what it was that made them come to me they all indicated this one thing as a major part of their choosing to hire my company.

What was it?

Putting a personal audio message on my site.

Just saying Hi, welcoming people and telling them what they can expect as they work through the pages made all the difference.

You see, as I always tell my students, people buy people they don't buy into websites, technology, ebook reports or anything else, they buy into developing a relationship with you, getting to know you, getting to like you and learning to trust you.

Your voice on a site makes you real.

It starts off the know, like, trust cycle that much faster.

It puts power, passion and promise into the lifeless written words on your pages.

It helps people to connect.

And connect they do... in droves!

Yet, y'know, as I look at trainers websites today I have a hard time finding more than a handful with any attempt at using audio on their sites. Those guys are usually already on six figures a year too.

Coincidence?

I don't think so!

The power of audio is not to be underestimated, I promise you. Add it to your site today and see for yourself what results it brings. You'll be astounded.

Here's my favorite audio generation site. I love it because you can get on the phone (or upload via the web), record a message and immediately pick up the code and paste it into your site so that within less than a minute you can have a voice message.

You can use it for client testimonials too. Just imagine, their own 'live' voice on your website telling people how great you are.

Couldn't hurt sales could it?

I promise you, combine forced opt in with audio on your site and you'll see an increase in signups and conversion to sales like you wouldn't believe.

Get it done! : )

Dax Moy
www.personaltrainersuccessacademy.com

P.S - In the interests of full transparency I want to tell you that the links to the audio service are my affiliate codes so I stand to gain financially by your purchasing it (doesn't cost you a penny more). But that's not why I'm promoting it. Besides, you can just cut off my affiliate link if you'd rather I didn't get anything....

But I really think you should try the service on your site. Even if for just a month. If it does a tenth of what it did for me you'll be smiling...