MISTAKE #1: THE TEE SHIRT
As a trainer, gym gear is important, you feel me?
The thing is, that’s not your client’s jam. It’s ours.
Why is it that every trainer who starts a personal training business thinks the
most logical way to get ‘the brand out’ is to create merchandise and tee shirts?
News-flash.
It’s not.
It’s a needlessly expensive and ineffecTve way to adverTse. Consider that all your
clients like different clothes. Some like colours, some don’t. Some wear Tght tees,
some baggy. Some wear paMerns, some wear plain.
And that’s just the men. When you try and make Tees for both men and women
you quickly realise, they're not going to like the same thing. Tees are hard to get
right and they quickly become expensive with minimum return on investment.
StarTng off in business, everything needs a return; the return on Tees is minimal;
however they do fall under the holisTc brand strategy.
To have a real brand, you need people working for you. If you are a solo trainer,
you don’t have a brand (yet), you have a promoTon. That’s you. So get one Tee
shirt for you, call it a uniform, not tees for all your customers.
Now, you might be thinking, why does both Enterprise and Wolfpack have Tees
and hoodies if I am anT-tees?
Because I am not anT-tees.
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THE ULTIMATE PERSONAL TRAINER MENTORING PROGRAM
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Our Tee-shirt budget is part of the customer experience, not a way to adverTse,
even though indirectly that might be a side effect. AddiTonally, as I said, it’s part
of branding, not adverTsing, they aren’t the same thing.
At the Tme of wriTng this, I currently employ 20 staff members and my studio
does well over 300 personal training sessions each week. I’ve built a brand people
want to be a part of. It’s totally doable for you too, just allocate funds
strategically.
StarTng out, spend money on markeTng that has a direct return and response to
bringing in clientele. You just don’t get that from a Tee shirt.
Consider business card, flyers, posters, digital markeTng, informaTon booklets,
networking events and business courses before resorTng to bulk ordering tee
shirts with your brand plastered on them.
It's a strategy that usually ends in a garage full of unwanted Tee-shirts.
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THE ULTIMATE PERSONAL TRAINER MENTORING PROGRAM
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MISTAKE #2: ONLINE TRAINING
Back in 2007 I had hoop dreams of making ‘passive income’ in my sleep and
creaTng an ‘automated business’.
I launched my first website, The Alpha Body. It was a membership site, charging
$47 dollars a month for online training. Members received monthly programs,
weekly eClass and monthly interviews with champion bodybuilders.
It sounded like a recipe for success unTl I realised how much it cost to get a
paying member (not to menTon how much effort).
At $47 a month, to make an annual income of $100,000 dollars I needed 2128
transacTons at $47 annually. This meant, to achieve 100k annually I would need a
monthly turnover of $8,333.35 which would take 178 members paying members
per month.
Sounds easy right?
Hell no.
Consider how much effort it takes to get someone to commit to their health and
fitness goals; doubled with the fact that in online sales there is no dialogue
between trainer and client, only a website where they either purchase, leave
their details or don’t. (And yes, of course I had a email funnel in case the
marketers out there reading this were wondering.)
GePng one sale like this is an achievement.
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To crack a million in this business model you would need 21,277 transacTons of
$47 annually. To achieve that goal; monthly, the turnover would need to be
$83,333 which would mean there would be 1773 acTve members monthly!
The infrastructure to make this business work and service even 178 members
monthly- AND keep sales going strong is a lot of work to get off the ground. In
fact, it’s anything but a passive and an automated business.
In markeTng your business, you are only ever working with two lists:
• The people who know you
• And the people who don’t
Unless you reach the heights of fame such as Madonna or Michael Jackson in the
90’s, the people who don’t know you will always trump the people who do know
you. This means that to hit these goals the focus would need to be on gePng the
name and business out there in the public and the site in front of eyeballs.
This means tesDng and measuring…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Headlines.
And ad copy.
And images.
And layout.
And reviewing ad spend
And pay per click campaigns
And email funnels
And search engine opTmisaTon
And in-between that, actually servicing clients
And if you wanted to grow; creaTng systems and employing staff.
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All of which means, to make it work, you would need to work around the clock;
achieving the opposite goal of what I started with; automaTon and passive.
Not giving up and persistent to make the online model work; I thought, if I create
a ‘low barrier to entry product’ I will build a big list then everyone will buy my
online membership program.
So, through days and nights, weeks and months, endless hours researching and
wriTng, I wrote my first eBook, The Truth About Supplements. I got 42 sales in
the first two days.
I was on my way…
Except aNer the third, fourth and fiNh day everyone stopped buying. I was lucky
to get a sale a week.
So I spend hours and hours trialing and tesTng different headlines, images and
layouts to make the site convert traffic beMer. ANer all that, I was siPng at about
1 sale a week.
Then it hit.
The Unbelievably Obvious.
If I wanted this to work I needed to spend more Tme markeTng and selling and
less Tme training clients.
The thing was; I did not become a trainer to sit behind a computer screen. I
became a trainer because I loved the gym and loved sharing my passion with
people.
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So I knew something had to change. I decided I would
spend the Tme I was spending to online; to offline.
This meant actually training people and going out of
my way to deliver above and beyond. To actually ‘get
good’ at my craN… Crazy right?
DedicaTng myself to ‘offline’ grew my reputaTon and
business faster than anything else I ever did online.
It wasn’t sexy, it wasn’t fast.
No one promised me that it would rain cash and I
would be jumping out of helicopters into swimming
pools of liquor and strippers. There was nothing
gangsta or ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ about it.
It was early cold mornings and late-to-bed nights. It
was all day at the gym. It was Personal Training.
AND I loved it.
The Online Trainers
The amount of trainers these days who will point to
Kayla Itsines, Ashy Bines or even Michelle Bridges and
say; ‘but look… they’re killing it’.
No shit Sherlock. Check out their websites and
businesses, their works of art in sales, markeTng and
automaTon. None of these businesses are where they
are because of what they know about ‘training and
nutriTon’ but because of a very good business
proposiTon to the general public with what would have
to be smart markeTng dollars behind it.
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Comparing your online business to theirs would be like
comparing my gym to Fitness First. Fitness First is a mulTnaTonal company with some very serious investors and
money behind it. I have one gym and only pennies to
spend in comparison to Fitness First’s almost endless
supply of cash.
These online successes have the right face, money and
business savvy behind them. You might be a solo trainer
with limited business knowledge and money to wear
things like adverTsing and building business
infrastructure.
AddiTonally, you can’t compete with giants like these on
their terms. They have more money and resources than
you-and the important one, experTse in online sales and
markeTng.
I once knew a guy who spent 20k on this online
membership site. He had great videos, a great site and all
of the packaging and service stuff you would expect. The
one thing he didn’t have was a name or reputaTon to
make anyone care about buying from him. He also didn’t
have the markeTng dollars or capital behind him to spend
on ads, nor did he have the ‘know-how’ to do it
compeTTvely himself.
In other words, no one cared or bought this online
service. It was an expensive exercise to get wrong.
I know another guy. He doesn’t have a website yet he
trains all his clients “online”. He does very well for
himself. His carved a number out for himself training
compeTtors and drinking coffee. He built his rep in the
gym training and consulTng which yields results. Those
results now are his markeTng which creates a referral
system which keeps him in business and doing very well.
He’s not a mulT-mulT-millionaire, however, he does what
he loves and does beMer than most.
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So taken from the previous examples, as a trainer; to make online both successful
and profitable you have two opTons:
1. You hang up the PT polo and become a marketer. You write ad copy, test
headlines and measure your pay-per-click. You don’t service any clients
yourself, beMer yet, find a face of the business and market them. You commit
to doing all the behind the scenes-business stuff.
OR
2. You become known for gePng results. You invest years and years into training
clients and your educaTon. You prove what you do works. Your markeTng is
the results you get. You will not be able to do this in the first 5 years of your
career. You will not make money quick. You will not achieve ‘passive income’
however when you become an expert, people will care about your opinion. Not
before.
Both will take about the same Tme and dedicaTon, just one has the percepTon of
faster and beMer. If markeTng is what you want to do why not pair up with
someone who loves training and help market them and leave the training to the
professionals.
In summary, online training is a great way to waste a lot of money fast on
websites, agencies, false promises and ads.
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MISTAKE #3: POORLY DESIGNED, CHEAP
WEBSITES THAT DON’T RANK ON GOOGLE
A website is only as good as the leads it captures or the conversion rate of the
products it sells. You can have an amazing ‘looking’ website but if it doesn’t
capture leads, it’s squandered.
If you own a personal training studio or gym (or one day want to open one) you
have to get this right. So many trainers these days are too concerned with
Instagram likes and followers; when you open a brick and mortar business, you
need to be found locally. Instagram is not the best tool for geographical searches,
Google and websites are.
The biggest mistake trainers make in regards to websites is they fundamentally
haven’t mapped out the customer experience or understand exactly what a
website is used for.
A website is not used to ‘sell’ your personal training. A website is used to capture
leads. The sales process starts when you call them.
Therefore when designing a website, you need to design it with this in mind:
The customer.
• What does your customer want?
• Not what you want.
• Not what your web developer wants to do.
Chances are your customer wants to know who you are, where you train and
what services you offer. AddiTonally, if you can give them a free download in a
topic they're interested in, that will score brownie points towards training with
you and get them on ‘the prospect list’.
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Beware of ‘Techies’
I once knew a man who owned a local gym, he worked with a web developer that
sold him the idea of creaTng an ‘open source’ platorm like Facebook for his
website. I did my best to explain to the man that this idea is a complete waste of
Tme and money as he was a local gym- and really, the only thing his customers
wanted to see is informaTon about his gym and why they would come there.
He didn’t listen. The web developer convinced him that the website would have a
members area, social funcTons, videos, and would make them millions.
They wanted to reinvent ‘websites’. They made it needlessly complicated to get
the website up, and as such, the website was never completed and now that man
is no longer in business.
The developer wasn’t a bad guy. He wasn’t trying to do ‘wrong’ by the man,
however, upon my discussion with the developer it was abundantly clear the
developer lived in ‘developer world’ and knew nothing about sales, marke:ng or
lead capture; and that’s all you need a website for.
Moral of the story. Techies are not marketers or business people. They usually
don’t understand customer experience or markeTng. This is on you. Fortunately
for you, I know exactly what I am doing in this space and teach it inside of my
Wolfpack program. If you’re reading this, you should definitely book a call with me
or one of my Wolfpack coaches ASAP, you can do that here.
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Outsourcing
In 2007, I outsourced the building of my website first (and only) website to India. To
this day I am convinced that they put bugs on my site so I would have to conTnue
contacTng them for support hours.
One day my site was working, the next hour, it wasn’t.
I ended up shuPng down that site as it just wasn’t worth the headache.
And that’s not to say outsourcing is ‘bad’, however, it is quite challenging to get right.
So for those thinking I’ll just 'outsource my website cheaply’ good luck. In my
experience it usually doesn’t work out or you need to know exactly what you’re
aNer to get the right result.
As part of Wolfpack I connect you with my web developers and support networks so
you build it right the first Tme and don’t waste Tme or money.
In Summary
Websites aren’t ‘hard’ but building a great website isn’t easy.
I relate it to deadliNing. The bigger the deadliN the more you need to prepare and
the more you need to ‘know’ about deadliNing.
Anyone can deadliN just like anyone can get a website up. But no one cares if you’re
deadliNing 40 kilos.
If you want to deadliN 300 kilos, you need to be highly skilled, strong and been
training for many years.
If you want a great website, you need it designed well, with the customer
experience in mind, have great content that people want to read and ways for
your customer to find you, either on Google organically or paid traffic.
You need to map the whole customer journey.
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Recap
1. Know what you’re building and why you're building it.
2. Map out your customer experience. From why and how do they leave their
details on the website, to signing and resigning them as a customer
3. Find the right people to help. There are a LOT of very ‘average’ people in this
space. Most can be sniffed out if you know what quesTons to ask and have the
right knowledge and know how. This is something that’s priceless that you get
in Wolfpack, both my experTse and my networks to the right people.
WOLFPACK STRATEGY SESSION
Want to get one on one advice on how to take your business and
career to new levels so you can start training the clients you want
and making the money you deserve?
Book your spot for a one on one strategy session here
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MISTAKE #4 NOT CHARGING IN PACKAGES
I get it. You have ‘stuff’ on asking for cash.
But here’s the thing, if you don’t who will?
And if you don’t, how the heck are you ever going to build a business?
Charging in packages was the single most significant thing I did to transform my
Personal Training Business. And it was actually a very logical step.
I was gePng great results for clients, so great that I was gePng booked up. Yet,
clients seemed to come and go as they pleased which led to three things:
1. Inconsistent results for clients.
2. Inconsistent sessions.
3. Inconsistent income.
It was both Charles Poliquin and Dale Beaumont
who suggested I change the way I charge to
stabilise my income. In fact I did a private consult
with Charles Poliquin in which I spent $1000 for an
hour of his Tme to tell me this.
So let me save you the $1000 bucks for the same
advice.
Charge in packages.
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I teach a simple model of creaTng 12-week programs. I have people (who are not
my customers) ask me all the Tme why we don’t have longer opTons. The reason
is, this works. Customers get it. Packages are either 12, 24, 36 or 48 session blocks
training either once, twice, three and four Tmes a week. The packages were
designed with opTmal customer experience in mind. The fact that it worked out
to be a good business model was secondary to the fact it enable clients to get
beMer results.
I have well and truly mastered the art of packaging personal training and have
done it for hundreds of trainers across the world. On the Wolfpack members site
we have specific videos detailing exactly how to do it, and most importantly, how
to sell it.
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MISTAKE #5 LISTENING TO AND LEARNING FROM
THE WRONG PEOPLE
I remember when I would do consultaTons with the late great Charles Poliquin,
people would say things like ‘no one’s worth $1000 an hour’ or when I would
spend $2000 dollars on a single Eleiko barbell, the same people would say “you
can get 20 kilo barbells from China for 200 bucks”.
These people oNen rain on your parade when you try and do something ‘beCer’.
They constantly say things like “why are you doing another course’ or ‘why do you
spend so much money on educa:on’.
Don’t worry about them. They said that to me too. Now look where I am. I started
as an average trainer who loved training; no business knowledge or university
degree to now owning Melbourne’s premier personal training studio, training
champions by the boatloads and gePng paid to do it.
My advice; only listen to people who are worth listening too. Each one of my
mentors has had their criTcs, naysayers and haters. One of my mentors is now
business partners with Arnold Schwarzenegger and I’m sure glad I took his advice
over the tall-poppy trainer who was haTng on success.
You can buy into the bullshit and drama or buy into results and facts. You can’t do
both.
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This is why when I find rare gems able to genuinely help and assist my success, I
do what it takes to get around them. The quesTon isn’t how much does it cost to
learn from them; it’s how much will it cost me not to learn from them in the
future.
Two things I’ve learnt to be a liberal spender on is educaDon and the right advice.
Why?
Because the wrong educaTon and the wrong advice is way more expensive;
especially when you factor in the cost of Tme. Advice from the wrong people can
lead you miles in the wrong direcTon. UlTmately a direcTon that can either leave
you lost or take months or even years to come back from.
It’s real simple. Success leaves clues.
Since 2006 I adapted a principle to my educaTon, its “Spend what you need”.
I don’t have a ‘fixed’ budget for educaTon as if I find a course or mentor that can
beMer me, I’m doing that course. Now here’s the thing, I adapted that thinking
WAY before the business was making money to fund my educaTon. It’s the
educaTon that allowed me to fund to the business (think about that one!).
In fact, there were years my accountant would call me up and say, “you’ve spent
$50k this year on courses… you might want to slow down as your only earning 65k
annually”.
As a wise man once said; an investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
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I’ve met my fair share of shit-talkers and snakes in this industry. Many claim to
have answers, very few with anything of merit to show. No champions, no gym,
no wealth of any sort. There’s a reason why they discount their products, advice
and service. The return on investment just isn’t there.
Consider this, I stopped Personal Training clients charging $350 per session, with
upfront payments of $4,200- in advance. I’ve trained hundreds of compeTtors, a
Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, have a team of 19 staff members and
world-renowned studio, Enterprise Fitness which is rocking 6 days a weekwithout me having to be there.
This is why I know, 4 days with me will change your business and your life, let
alone 12 months.
I hope to see you at a Wolfpack or Enterprise Fitness event real soon!
Mark OWobre
Founder
Enterprise Fitness
Wolfpack
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“I DON’T BELIEVE IN ‘PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH’ BUT
RATHER PREACH WHAT YOU PRACTICE.”
-MARK OTTOBRE
Mark is one of Australia’s most successful and sought-aNer trainers, and a thoughtleader in the world of health, fitness and personal development. He started training
at the ripe old age of 14 and has spent the beMer part of 20 years educaTng himself
and perfecTng his craN, driven by a single-minded goal to empower people through
health, fitness and hardcore training.
Mark knows exactly what it takes to help his clients achieve their ideal body. From
the gym-novice to the elite athlete, he’s transformed thousands of lives through a
specific combinaTon of nutriTon, training and supplements. And his method works.
He’s coached a Commonwealth gold medalist; Australian boxing Ttleholders in super
flyweight and welterweight divisions; a four-Tme Ms Australia; a three-Tme Arnold
Classic gold medalist; and mulTple WBFF Bikini Pros.
At the top of his field, Mark has also hosted sell-out seminars; published several
arTcles, eBooks and a long running podcast; and launched a successful mentoring
program for the next generaTon of personal trainers, called Wolfpack. He strongly
believes that physical training and self-reflecTon are the two best tools for personal
growth and has over a decade of real results to prove it.
Mark has featured in:
• WHO Magazine
• Channel 9 NEWS
• Stellar Magazine
• Max’s Muscle TV
• T-NaTon
• Oxygen
• Muscle Mag
• Natural Bodz Magazine
• Muscle and Health
To find out more about Mark, or check out some
of his podcasts, visit
www.melbournepersonaltrainers.com and
www.personaltrainermentoring.com
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DID YOU ENJOY THIS EBOOK?
TAKE THE NEXT STEP!
Book a consult with one of our Wolfpack consultants today. Email
info@enterprisefitness.com.au with your name and number and your
biggest learning takeaway from this eBook.
Visit www.personaltrainermentoring.com to stay updated with the pack.
WOLFPACK STRATEGY SESSION
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ABOUT MARK OTTOBRE
Born in 1985, Mark grew up in Melbourne’s East
Doncaster. Throughout his childhood, Mark was
known as the dorky fat kid - earning himself the
nickname ‘Pork Chop’.
Unhappy and lacking confidence, he spent much
of his childhood alone, playing video games and
watching WWE wrestling on television.
Mark’s turning point came at age 14, when he
discovered the world of health and fitness. Determined to rid himself of his
unflaMering nickname, he began training daily aNer school. From this point
on, he proved himself by commiPng to learning and working harder than
everyone else.
The hard work paid off and Mark was able to transform both his body and
his confidence. ANer countless hours spent working out and pouring over
the latest bodybuilding magazines and nutriTon guides, it was obvious that
what began as a way to lose weight, had ulTmately turned into a way of
life.
Buoyed by a single minded goal to empower people through health and
fitness, Mark decided to devote himself to personal training; to perfecTng
his craN and acTvely improving the lives of his clients.
Like all business successes, true success comes at a price: determinaTon,
commitment, applicaTon and resilience. Hard Tmes, when they came,
made him harder.
Today, Mark is one of Australia’s most successful and sought aNer personal
trainers. His studio Enterprise Fitness boasts a team of 19 staff and a 7figure turnover. Mark has coached elite athletes at the highest level,
hosted sold-out seminars and published several ebooks. He has followed
up on his success by launching Wolfpack, a successful mentoring program
for the next generaTon of personal trainers.
Not bad for a fat kid from the eastern suburbs!