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Limits of Liability / Disclaimer of Warranty:

This manual is designed to provide information in regard to the subject mattercovered. It is provided with the understanding that the publishers and authorsand advisors are not rendering medical or financial advice or other

medical/health or financial services.

The authors, advisors and publishers shall have neither liability nor responsibilityto any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged tobe caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

Copyright Notices

This book contains material protected under International and Federal CopyrightLaws and Treaties. All rights reserved. Copyright 2006 by FitnessConsulting Group, LLC.Any unauthorized transfer, use, sharing, reproduction,sale, or distribution of these materials by any means, electronic, mechanical, orotherwise is prohibited. No part of this manual may be reproduced in any formwhatsoever, without the express written consent of the publishers.

Published under Copyright Laws of the Library of Congress of The United Statesof America, by:

Fitness Consulting Group, LLC111 Amy CourtElizabethtown, KY [email protected]

E-book compilation/creation, layout, logos, and graphic design performed bywww.FitnessWebsiteDesign.com. Copyright and Trademark 2006, GuaranteedFitness Solutions. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents

Introduction5

Chapter 1: Unleash The Profit Potential of Your Personal TrainingBusiness An Interview with Alwyn Cosgrove7

Chapter 2: Building a Successful Online Training Business by KelliCalabrese MS, CSCS...31

Chapter 3: The Business of Fitness by Patrick Rigsby38

Chapter 4: Secrets of Effective Lead Generation For Fitness Professionalsby Eric Ruth...44

Chapter 5: Establishing a Lucrative Niche In The Fitness Industry AnInterview with Bill Hartman54

Chapter 6: How To Live the Perfect Life and Make Money 24 Hours a DayBy Publishing a Profitable Online Fitness Newsletter by CraigBallantyne..65

Chapter 7: 24/7/365 Automated Fitness Marketing by Brian Calkins74

Chapter 8: The Ultimate Guide to Profits While Maintaining Integrity byDamon Mochetto..85

Chapter 9: How To Leverage Your Fitness Coaching Services WithNutrition Product Sales- And Get Paid For Years! by Sean Greeley.94

Chapter 10: Top of Mind Positioning: So You Never Have to Sell Againby Stephen Holt..113

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Chapter 11: Following Your Dreams to Prosperity by Lee Taft140

Chapter 12: Tap Into the Billion-Dollar Weight Management Industry AnInterview With Chris Mohr...149

Chapter 13: Secrets of the Studio on a Shoestring by Nick Berry..161

Chapter 14: To Be An Independent, or To Franchise. That is the Questionby Matt Hunt168

Chapter 15: The ABCs of Wellness by Marilyn Gansel.173

Chapter 16: How To Become a Local Celebrity by Cliff Latham..185

Chapter 17: The Power of Joint Ventures, Strategic Alliances, andEndorsed Offers by Frank Pastorelli192

Chapter 18: Creating Your Own Personal Training Money Machine byPatrick Rigsby.199

Contributing Authors208
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Introduction

Dear Fellow Fitness Professional,

Ive got to be honest with you. When I first came up with the idea for this e-book,

it was basically a pipe-dream. Ask a handful of tremendously successful

personal trainers to share the secrets to their success.

Sounded great - but it seemed far-fetched. How would I ever be able to get them

to take the time to write a chapter that essentially disclosed their successsecrets? But what I soon came to discover was that as busy as all of these

cream of the crop trainers were, they all were willing to contribute.

Each and every one of them expressed a strong desire to give back and to help

raise the fitness industry as a whole by sharing their ideas and strategies for

professional success as a personal trainer.

Youre going to read about a number of strategies throughout this book that can

literally transform your business the contributors held nothing back.

But make no mistake a large part of their tremendous success can be traced

back to that very passion for the fitness industry and their willingness to pay

forward.

So as you begin to prosper from applying these techniques, strategies and

tactics to your business, I challenge you to do the same thing these fitness

professionals did pay forward.

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There are many successful people in this and any field that are unwilling to help

those that come after them climb the ladder of success. Dont fall into that trap.Im certain that if you apply what you learn in the pages of Fitness Riches, you

will soon achieve new heights of success. When you do, be willing to help others

do the same.

Sincerely,

Pat Rigsby

Editor and Co-Author


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Chapter 1: Unleash The Profit Potential Of Your

Personal Training Business

An Interview with Alwyn Cosgrove

This is Pat Rigsby here with Alwyn Cosgrove and unless you have been hiding

under a rock you are well versed in who Alwyn is, but for those of you who may

not be familiar with Alwyn he is one of, if not the most sought after speakers and

writers in the fitness industry. You can see his work in Mens Health, Mens

Fitness, on T Nation and various other websites. He is the owner of Results

Fitness in Santa Clarita, California and he also is the co-author of a very recently

published book - The New Rules Of Lifting. Alwyn also has a couple websites -

www.AlwynCosgrove.com, and www.professionalfitnessnesscoach.com

also. Alwyn, before we move forward, is there anything else I missed?

AC Nope, I think you got everything.

PR I am very honored to be able to have Alwyn on the line. Today we are

going to talk about how to maximize your training business and how to reach

as many potential clients as possible. So essentially were talking about the

power of leverage. Ill start off by asking you about your small group or semi-

private training model. I know you are a big believer in that approach, so

could you describe how you utilize that model in your health club?

AC It hinges upon that the first stage of this and the first business book I

recommend anyone to read is The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. This book

establishes the importance of creating systems in any business and that a

system is basically a replicable system that will create the same result

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regardless of who is implementing the system. That is the first part. The best

example that I can give of this is McDonalds. If you go to McDonalds inScotland, McDonalds in New York, McDonalds in Moscow, Russia,

McDonalds in London, McDonalds in LA and you order a Big Mac, it is

always the same because McDonalds has the system down and the

employees just execute the steps and create the same hamburger every day.

A lot of people think that this is a low quality model, but it is actually financially

very successful. So you have to look at that, dont look at the nutrition, look at

the success. So it all started off with just me training people and then my wife

was training people and there was a slight reluctance in the beginning for

people who did not want to train with my wife because I had the reputation,

but it was less so. Then we hired our first staff member. So we have a

situation where you have two owners of the business and a third person.

Well, no one wants to train with that third person, they all want to be with the

owners. So we created a model where I wrote all the programs in the

beginning so that when you came in to my facility it didnt matter who

supervised your session, you were going to get the same program, which was

huge because it took the trainer out of it and it focused more on the systems.

So that was step one and obviously I taught that system to the staff so they

can replicate and do their own program. Then I realized that one-on-one

training was a flawed concept to begin with. If you look at training from the

entire spectrum of training, if you look at rehabilitation, the physical therapy

model, you are not one-on-one when you are in physical therapy. There areusually a couple of you. There is usually one physical therapist that designs

the program, and bunch of assistants who are supervising, but it is never one-

one one, there are usually a couple of people. Even when you go to a



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chiropractor and it is technically one-on-one when he is there. He is seeing

three people at once sometimes and jumping around. So I became awarethat at the rehabilitation level there was no one-on-one training. Then I

started to work with a lot of athletes and worked with a lot of strength coaches

- and at the elite level of the sport, it wasnt one-on-one either. When the

Lakers had a strength coach, everybody trained. The Oakland Raiders have

a strength coach, the Dallas Cowboys have a strength coach, everybody

trained. Not one-on-one training. So I started to question why at the serious

injury level and the elite performance, supervision wasnt one-on-one, why in

middle - which is where we technically are as trainers, why is it one-on-one?

Thats when I realized that the model was flawed. Could I as a trainer equally

supervise two people at once? I think I could. If you are taking Martial Arts

classes, you are not taught one-on-one, and each generation of fighters gets

better so the system works. So at that point we started to allow more than

one person at once. Two things happened. The first thing was that now

training became more about the client and less about the trainer because the

client came along and somebody else would be in with them and they would

be talking - how did you do this week, did you stay on your diet, how was

your competition this weekend and the supportive relationship between them

and they trained harder, so it is no longer about the trainer. The second thing

that happened is it allowed me to charge a little bit less so more people could

come into the gym and see me. The third thing, which is the most important

thing for everyone reading this - is that instead of charging $75.00 a session, I

was charging $55.00 a session and getting three people at once so my feemore than doubled. I dont care what you are charging. If you are charging

$250.00 a session and you can get it, you can get three people in that group



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at $150.00 a session so the client pays less, the trainer gets paid more, yet

the system takes over and the clients program remains the same.

PR That makes great business sense. I think too often trainers just kind of fall

into what they witnessed in a health club and what they have seen before and

dont give any thought to why they are approaching training the way they do.

AC And largely that has been the problem - that we are doing things in the

fitness industry because that is how it was done. Without thinking why was it

done that way and should we be even continuing to do it that way. There is

no reason you can give me for one-on-one training. The argument will come

back as that you lose the one-on-one attention - which I dont really buy. I

dont feel like I ignore any of my clients. If I watched most trainers in most

gyms, I doubt that for the whole hour they are completely 100 percent

focused on everything that client does and I doubt they have to be. People

train themselves a lot of the time. The ability to supervise a workout is not

where your skill lies as a trainer. Youve seen training partners that train

together and both guys are jacked right? Theyve never had a trainer in their

life, but they supervise each other. Their program sucks and they could get

better results, but it is unlikely that one-on-one supervision is the magic thing

between them. So trainers have to understand that the ability to supervise a

workout requires about 5 percent more skill than the ability than to do the

workout. It doesnt require you to be an expert. Supervising a workout is not

hard. More people are on their own than are using trainers. I saw study thatsaid that the one-on-one personal training model attains about a 3 percent

penetration rate into the health clubs so only about 3 percent of the members

are actually using it. Now even if your clubs different, the fact is that there is



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a bigger market for semi-private. More people do group exercises than do

personal training. It shows you that its attracting numbers. One of thereasons why people fail in fat loss programs is a lack of social support.

Youve gone out to dinner with your girlfriend or your wife and one of the

ladies at the table gets up to go to the bathroom and they all go. They all go

together and then they come into the gym together and we want to split them

up? Were like one-on-one for you and they say no I dont want to be one-

on-one; I want to be with my friends. The model sets it up that whoever

supervises the program is almost irrelevant so for staffing reasons it gets

better because the program is written regardless of who the trainer is. The

clients are put in groups based on their availability and they are just put into a

group. Ill be honest - I am in this to make money. Im not going to lie to

anyone. Im interested in making money and being financially successful. If

there was a better model, I would probably be using the better model. So

everyone who wants to debate this with me, just come up with a financially

more successful model that gives clients results and Ill switch. I have no

religious attachment to this - I just see that it works very well.

PR That makes all great sense. I think the most successful people in the

fitness industry have seen what is going on in peripheral industries and been

able to take what theyve witnessed and apply it to their business and when

you explain it, it makes all the sense in the world.

AC The key is a replicable method of designing programs so that the trainerimplementing it is almost irrelevant. Now it can still be used if you are

working it yourself. But the system has to run on its own. My theory being

that should I have to take two weeks off or I fly home to visit some day or I



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break my leg and I have to take some time off, my clients should be

uninterrupted. The program shouldnt change because it is different trainer.The next trainer should be able to step in and it eliminates any personality

issues that may be an issue because you are just implementing a system.

PR That is very simple to understand. I think the main objection I have heard

with trainers is how do you group people together? Do you group them by

fitness level, do you group them by time or do you group them in the social

groups they are comfortable with?

AC Lets think of it in two extremes. Ive got a grandma and Ive got an elite

athlete. This is as extreme as it gets, so this doesnt happen. But lets think

about it. The athlete is doing power cleansand, the grandma is doing bridges

with her feet on a box. The athlete does the power cleans and rests; the

grandma does her bridges and rests. They dont need to do the same

program and I dont really think I need to watch him during his rest period. Ill

watch her and if he is really skilled, I actually need to watch him less than her.

So people are so concerned with the grouping - but thats minor. Like if you

go a Martial Arts class, youll see different belts in the same class - which is to

signify that some guys have been there for a year, some guys have been

there for three months and still the instructor manages to get all these guys

better. Some of my staff, Im pretty sure could supervise five and six at a time

and still be good. We cap it at three. If you honestly feel that three is

overwhelming - then you can stay with two. One-on-one is just a waste oftime. You dont need to supervise someones rest period.



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PR Everything youve said makes great sense from a business standpoint and

a training standpoint. You can impact more clients, youre leveraging yourtime and more people are getting results every reason a trainer would be in

business.

AC It hinges on having that program design method to start with. If you are the

kind of trainer that kind of wings every session, this model will not work for

you. You have to have a planned program that you can execute.

PR It seems like then it just comes down to geography. Make sure they are in

close enough proximity that you can provide supervision and you are all set.

AC Yep. What I tell people it is a better model - not an easier one - you are

going to work harder, but you are going to get double to triple the money you

were getting. That is a huge increase in profit, but it is not an easier method

of training - it is just better. So the having three clients at once will not be

easier, no - you are going to work and you are going to be moving around.

But it is a financially more successful business model and it is far more

effective for training clients.

PR You have alluded to how important the program design component is to this

approach. I think this is a great segue for us to start talking about using

program design as part of a trainers business model because Ive read some

your thoughts on this and I think this is something that would be of value toevery fitness professional in the industry.



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AC Trainers have this idea that they get paid for their supervision time that they

are not billing for the time they spend doing the program. So if you arecharging $50.00 an hour to supervise a clients training and you spend an

hour designing the program, that should be an extra $50.00 fee right? Most

people agree that they should be paid for all their time. Does that make

sense?

PR Yes, that makes perfectly good sense.

AC So if you are designing a program, you should be billing for it. Most people

do not understand that. Some guys just include in the one price. Thats ok,

you can include anything in one package. You can say it is $500.00 a month

and you get five training sessions plus a program. But you have to let the

client know that you do work for them outside of them actually being there.

Thats the first important fact. Same as with a lawyer. You dont just get

billed for the time he spends in the office, but you get billed for everything.

Same as with a doctor. You dont just get billed for the five minutes he

spends with you, you get billed for every hour he looks at your file and every

test result he interprets, you have to pay for everything. It is the same as

being a trainer. If I am working on a program, someone is being billed for it.

Now the problem most trainers get into is if it is $50.00 an hour for my time,

then it is $50.00 an hour to do program design. My question is this - which

one requires the most skill? Supervising a workout? We have already

established that this is a low skill activity. Designing a program is a high skillactivity. So if you want a program designed by an expert trainer who really

knows what they are doing, dont you expect that that will cost more because



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of their skill level? Rather than the time it would take for someone to just

supervise you while you are doing pushups? That makes sense too, right?

PR Yes, very much.

AC So we understand that the actual supervision of workout is a low level

activity. Program design is a high level activity. So lets say that you and I

are equally good at writing programs, but it takes you an hour and it takes me

15 minutes. Should I charge less because I am faster?

PR No, not at all.

AC Technically I am better than you to the level of four times as good. If I can

get the same program written in a quarter of the time, technically Im four

times as good as you if the programs are going to be the same. So therefore

we are getting away from how long does it take and we are getting into how

good is it. It is irrelevant how long it takes. Its not how long it takes me to

design the program; it is knowing which program to design. That is what you

are paying for. So we have established that less than 10 percent of the

people hire you for your ability to supervise an exercise session. They hire

you for your expert knowledge in how to design a fitness program. So they

are two separate fees. Making sense so far?

PR Yes. Once again Alwyn - perfectly good sense.

AC So my feeling is that regardless of how good you are as a trainer, if I write

the program and I get you the client and I have you supervise it, how much



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should I pay you to supervise my program? Im not giving you $200.00 to

supervise a workout, thats about $25.00 an hour of work to be honest. I dontcare how good you are. Supervising the workout is not that hard and not that

skilled. So I started looking at supervising a workout as $25.00 an hour,

designing a workout as $750.00 a month (my fee for the month plus 10

sessions is $1,000). The client will break it out to $100.00 a session, but is

not, it is $25.00 a session plus $750.00 for program design. It doesnt matter

what the numbers are, the key is that the client understands that you spend

time on their program outside of their presence and this is billable time that

they have to pay for. The supervision time is extra time. So they can buy a

program and no supervision. Technically they can buy supervision and no

program; no one ever does that of course, but technically they are two

separate roles. Your program design skills and your workout supervision

skills. That is also why you can hire me to design a program or my staff to

implement it. Technically you can hire my staff to implement any program,

but no one is going to do that - as I said. But it is clear that we have to

separate these roles. The problem starts when people start to bill per time. If

I take 15 minutes to design a program that is just as good as yours, why

should I charge less when it is clear that I am better - I should be charging

more. Everyone understands that. What if you have a difficult client,

someone who comes in who had a spinal injury and is rehabbing and wants

to come back and do the ultimate fighting championships. That program

takes you a little longer. Do you bill double for that person because it took

you longer? Most people cannot answer these questions if you asked them.If it takes you longer, do you bill double? You get an easy client, it takes you

half the time, do you bill half? No, program design is a flat fee regardless of

how long it takes you. Because as you get better, it takes less time. As you



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get better, you are worth more money, not less. So theres a real skill

involved. Weve gotten into a higher paid construction work manual labor where we bill an hour of our time for an hour of money. You have to get into

the skill set of a professional personal trainer which is that I design programs

for a very high fee. A 16 week program is what I design. That will cost you

forget about how long it takes me to design it it is going to cost you $200.00,

but you can do it for 16 weeks. So we get away from this time for money and

start exchanging our skill level for money. Now here is another question that

usually blows trainers minds away. If we both have a client and she wants to

lose 10 pounds of fat and I train her and in 10 sessions, she loses 10 pounds

of fat and you train her and in 5 sessions she loses 10 pounds of fat, should

you get paid less because you got results faster than anybody else?

PR No, I should be paid more.

AC You should be paid more, right? But it only took five sessions and you are

billing per session right now probably and five sessions is less than ten

sessions. Because you have been billing for time instead of billing for

program and results. If I can get the same results in less time than you, on

paper, the client paid me less when I am doing a per session model. Does

that make sense?

PR Clients want results so tying the fee to results makes sense. I think

unfortunately too many people in the industry are tied to this archaic hourlymodel.



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shit, I dont know what to do and will probably do nothing. So I am going to

give you some steps to take to make sure that doesnt happen.

First, get away from a per session model and switch to a monthly

membership. That can include however many supervised sessions you want,

from one a month to three a week. Thats up to you. But that fee includes a

program design component. It is not an optional fee. This fee includes this

there is a program design fee attached to that. So when someone looks at it

and says wow it is a thousand a month to come to you thats $250 a

session if I come once a week. It is not $250 a session just to come once a

week, its $800 a month for your program and $50 a week for supervised

sessions. The program design is really what you are paying for. I can tell you

that selling products on line, selling programs to other trainers, I make just as

much money from that as I do from supervising workouts. So people are

paying you for your skill, not for your time. They understand that; trainers do

not understand that. Like I said at $100 per session if I can get the job done

in 2 sessions and it takes you 20, then financially I am worse off and Im a

better trainer than you. The trainer says, Ill keep raising my fees. The

problem still stands that the longer you take to get the result, the more money

you are going to make. So technically on that model, the worse you are the

more financially successful you will be. Its ballsy most trainers dont have

the guts to put their reputation on the line for results. Because theyll say -

What if I get a client who doesnt follow the program very well. I never had

those people; I charge a lot of money. They are very motivated to come tosee me. They are not in it to trick me. So focusing on that is a measure of

failure not a measure of success.



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PR If there is a second step in this, what should the fitness professional do?

AC - You must have a replicable system of program design and I publish what I

do with my Professional Fitness Coach Manual. This is not a sales pitch; this

is just what I do. You have to create your own manual so that anyone could

come in and take over your business - you can sell it. Everything in your

business has to be in manuals. If you come into our gym tomorrow you could

see how it works and you can make us an offer for the business and all the

operation manuals in it including the program design manuals, how we track

clients, how we track sales. So basically you have to create a franchise even if

you are working for yourself and you are never, ever going to sell it. For ease of

business, you have to create the model as if you are going to sell it. You have to

have a replicable system of program design. Thats number one. The second

thing is your billing has to reflect a program design first model, not a pay for

hours model. We have already discussed the limitations of that. Thirdly,

supervising the session - you have to accept it as a low level activity, therefore

you can get two or three people in at once. Now it becomes a high level activity

because the skill in supervising three people is higher than supervising one. The

real value is in implementing all these steps together. One-on-one training is

dead. No one should be even offering that. It is just flawed technology. It is just

a poor usage of your time. I dont care how much money you are getting for that

hour. If you are getting $1,000 an hour, you can get three people at $750 each.

If your market can handle $1,000 an hour, your market can certainly handle

semi-private $750 per session. Ive use the term per hour a lot which is wrong.How long is a workout?

PR As long as it takes.

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AC So again, if it takes me 30 minutes to get the same results as it takesanother trainer an hour, do I charge half? Do I charge double?

PR You should charge double.

AC You should charge double. So just get away from how long it takes and

start getting into there are 10 minutes left, lets do some extra abs. Now you

are not on your program anymore, you are just making shit up. So execute

the program based on your knowledge and if it takes 55 minutes fine; if it

takes an hour and 5, great. You are just implementing the steps. Hopefully

that is something useful. Going any deeper will get people confused.

PR I think that this is outstanding. This is stuff that any trainer - regardless of

the situation, regardless of their current approach to business - can really

absorb and make their business model much, much better.

AC One of things I always say is if you are to leave and you move from New

York City where you charge $100 a session and you move to Wisconsin

where the going rate is $45, your income cuts in half. But I bet if you go to

Wisconsin and charge $35, you can get three people in a group and actually

take a raise in your income.

PR This is outstanding. The problem Ive seen in health club settings is that

they only reach that 3% penetration rate this makes personal training viable

for so much more of the population - so if you are dealing in a health club



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setting, a much greater percentage of the member base becomes a candidate

for personal training.

AC Yes, it is less expensive for them and more profitable for the trainer. Its a

no lose. The people will think - my existing clients wont like it if I change. Im

like ok, keep them the same, but for everybody new this is how you do it and

see how quickly you get fed up. When from hour one you are making $75.00

an hour and in hour two, you are making $200 for three people. Youll soon

come around. When we changed, clients didnt like it, but I have a business

rule, I honor all the deals Ive made. There is an incentive for them to change

because it is cheaper and often it is just rolling over the existing package.

They get more sessions and it is really not any less effective when I see two

people at once. They see that very quickly. So I give them an incentive to

change. If they choose not to change, Ill honor the deal I have made. When

it comes to renewal I have two options. To continue to honor that deal or tell

them hey, I no longer honor that deal. So Ill either lose the client - which is

unlikely if you are good - or they switch at that point. So it does require

change but this is the easiest way to reduce hours for a trainer without

affecting your income. Right now, if you are doing 40 hours a week, you can

get that down to 20 hours a week and actually make more money and then

you have more free time. If you work 40 hours a week and you see 40 clients

and you get them into 20 hours a week and see the same amount of clients.

Youre saving 20 hours a week. You can cut your hours by 50% and only cut

your income by 10%. Or even better with correct structuring, you can cutyour hours by 50% and increase your income by 20%. So a lot of times the

trainers time off is the bigger motivation than money.



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PR I think a lot has been said about trainers leveraging their time through

creating information products and be it selling things to clients, different thingslike that; creating passive backend income streams. This seems like the

foundation for leverage for a fitness professional and I think this is something

that has been really skipped over.

AC I think that that is a good point, Patrick, because a lot of people right now

are talking about information products and stuff who, with no offense to

anyone, youre not good enough to be selling information products yet

because you are not good enough at what you do. So you have to get better

at being a trainer before you start trying to reach a bigger market. The

second thing is where does that time to create the information products come

from unless you start at the grassroots level with your clients and reduce the

time spent with them. Without ignoring them, if you reduce the time spent,

now you free up some hours, you can say hey, I finish Fridays at noon.

Friday afternoon from one until four, I am going to work on an e-book. Very

quickly you start to build that. The other thing that trainers are doing that I

should say is caused by people like myself, and Ryan Lee and Jim Labadie -

there is a concept that trainers should target other trainers with information

products thats not the biggest market, just be aware of that. If I wrote a

program design manual for trainers, there would be a market. But I can tell

you writing a fat loss manual for new mothers has a bigger market than

anything you can market to trainers. So be aware of that because there is a

tendency now that everybody seems to be marketing towards fitnessprofessionals. There are other markets out there, dont ignore them, there

are some big markets there.



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PR You just mentioned new mothers. There are hundreds of niche markets

just like that with much more potential than the fitness professional market.The volume of people in each of those particular niches is so much greater. I

think that is definitely the way to go, but I think you hit the nail on the head. It

starts with honing your craft and being better at what you do and by actually

training, I think implementing this model forces trainers to be better because

they are going to have to write that many more programs.

AC Ive said often that the difference between a good trainer and a great trainer

is 1,000 programs. It just the time and energy that you have to spend. You

can study and you can try to fast track it, but at some point, that is the

difference between a white belt in Karate and a black belt, hours in the gym.

You need to get that done. I had a guy come up to me at the boot camp and

he was pitching me on a product he had that was good for trainers. It would

track all their sessions on this software and asked would I be interested in

having a look at it. Im interested in looking at everything. But, I asked him

how much money he was making as a trainer and he told me well. I get the

excuses. So if you are not making any money as trainer, why would I model

my business after what youre doing. I dont mean that offensively because

you can tell me all about your product all you want. When you are making

$18,000 a year as a trainer, this is a product that doesnt work because your

business model is failing. I think my worst critic out there - this guy hates

what I do. The guy has emailed me and said that he hates my accent. Im

trying to change that. The guy that hates everything that I do - my worst critic- would have to say that I have been very successful financially at what I do.

So this is a model that works. Im not saying that to be pigheaded or to try to

impress anybody, but Im saying that to show that this is what I do. Im not



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trying to fake anything. These are the steps Ive made in our business to

make me more financially secure.

PR Just for those people who will be reading this, did you initially start out

doing more of the one-on-one approach.

AC Of course. When I think about it - I was in a Martial Arts group and went to

the world championships. We were a national team, we trained as a group.

When I got out of school, I worked for a physical therapist. You saw 10 people

at once with his assistance. Then when I went into personal training, I did

one-on-one it doesnt make any sense, right? But that is what everybody

did, so thats what I did too. Its just a flawed model, there is nothing I can say

to defend that. And Ive done it, so when people defend it, I say you know

what, Ive been there, Ive had these clients. But Im telling you - I think Ive

lost maybe one ever who didnt like the small group approach in the course of

my personal training career, but Ive picked up thousands.

PR Alwyn, the way that you present it I cant understand why anyone

wouldnt revisit what theyre currently doing. It is very rational. It is founded in

common sense above all else.

AC And thats the key - if you can argue why it is not as financially successful

and why it wont work, Ill listen. You have to come at me with the same angle

- common sense. Unless you are the only guy in the gym and its your client its not one-on-one anyway youre working with equipment, you talk to

other trainers or other clients, youre just being polite so its not one-on-one



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anyway. It doesnt matter if it is one trainer and two clients or one trainer and

one client. That whole one-on-one thing is a fallacy anyway.

PR Something else that I see. I know it is an important component in my

business that I think this just plays right into that is because you are able to

impact more clients, those backend sources of revenue be it weight

management programs or you sell dietary supplements. Now you have that

many more people that are potential customers for those backend services.

AC Exactly. If you sell something like a post workout drink or some type of

protein / carb drink to all your clients - which you should be doing if you

understand nutrition at all - you should be doing that. If you see 30 clients a

week, that is an extra $150 a week you make. If you see 300 - as we do in

our facility - that is an extra $1,500 a week you can make. Its just a matter of

numbers. If before you were youre training a mom whose son was trying to

gain weight for high school, now you are training 10 moms whose sons are

trying to gain weight - so just by having more clients, you get more clients and

I think everybody recognizes that. I want to touch on nutrition briefly too,

Patrick, if we have time.

PR Certainly go ahead.

AC Just as program design has to be a separate fee and separate hours,

nutrition is also separate. You can bill them altogether and dont give peoplean option of doing training and then nutrition, but you have to create a

separate fee with a separate value. We want it as a completely separate

program. You have a separate contract for everything. We use the Apex



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software and my wife handles nutrition. What you cannot try to do as a

trainer is try to run this yourself. Apex allows you to run it with full ADA andRDA approval. You can modify the diets and customize it for everybody.

What you cannot do is make up your own diet. That is outside of your scope

of practice and that opens a door you do not want to open. However, using a

formalized program like Apex allows you to charge money for an established,

replicable system of nutrition. Again, the same as program design. That you

are repeating the same steps regardless of whos implementing them or who

the client is to figure out a nutrition program. So, if you dont have a nutrition

program, then you are losing a large part of your income because you are

probably asked nutrition questions.

The last one is supplements. Supplements are a gray area. Eighty-five

percent of the American public now takes a supplement every day. So

whether you believe in them or not, your clients are buying them. So I would

rather my clients buy a multi-vitamin that I recommend or a protein powder

that I know what it is than just go to the discount store and buy something that

is garbage. So somebody is profiting from selling your clients supplements.

They are going to take supplements anyway whether I endorse them or not.

They are going to take the wacky fat burners. You need to be able to educate

them on that and I believe that there are some supplements out there that are

good, but you do need to be aware of them. So you can offer supplements

that you believe in and can ethically recommend to your clients and make a

profit. Make sure that you have in addition to all this, a nutrition program.

PR You hit the nail right on the head. That is a key component of the business

model that I use. You can use it as an entryway program to get those



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deconditioned people that might have traditionally been in the Weight

Watchers market.

AC It is huge. There are largely two groups of people. They look in the mirror

and theyre like my God, my abs look horrible, my butt looks big. And they

either do one of two things, they join a gym or they join a Weight Watchers.

Most of them join a Weight Watchers. We have nutrition programs in the

gyms and Weight Watchers do recommend exercises. This is all true stuff.

We can sometimes take away from Weight Watchers by offering an upfront

nutrition program.

PR That is kind of the unheralded component to offering nutrition coaching or

weight management coaching. It just sets a lure for other potential clients.

AC Yes, you can run it as a separate business out of your gym. We are into

advanced stuff now. But you can run a sports conditioning program out of

your gym under a different name. It is nothing different other than a different

sign. You can run a nutrition program and call it Los Angeles Nutrition. They

come in there and there is a little office and stuff. The whole idea is that there

are multiple streams of income that are available to you.

PR Essentially youve turned your facility into a fitness mall - so to speak -

where you are the one-stop fitness resource.

AC Yes, and if I had the space, I could see the benefits of making it even

bigger. I dont have group exercise - like in terms of classes, but I can see

the benefits of that. I can see the benefits to having a day spa type thing. I



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trainer. That is under $3.00 a week. If that is too much money for you, I

understand, but I guarantee you will make 10 times that money by buying it,just in your program design skills.

PR You can find this at www.professionalfitnesscoach.com. And I couldnt

give it a more emphatic endorsement because I know that weve used it to

really be the foundation for our own training manual - to be the model.

AC It comes in a binder designed to be written on and cross referenced and so

on. It is designed as a workbook. So if I ever see it in someones gym, I

expect to see it written on and things highlighted and pages out of it. I dont

expect to see it on a shelf looking pristine. It is supposed to be a workbook.

PR Well, Alwyn, I appreciate everything today and with that well wrap this up.

AC Thank you. I had a good time.

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Chapter 2 - Building a Successful Online Training

BusinessBy Kelli Calabrese MS, CSCS

2004 Personal Trainer of the Year Online Training

There is no escaping the information age; in fact, its progressing at light speed.

We are stimulated by more information in a day through technology, than people

were in a year just one century ago. But could a hands on service like personal

training be done on the web? Whats next, hair cuts? You may be considering

online training or maybe even signed up for a subscription based service to give

it a try. In my experience, trainers have not been all that successful with online

training being the profit center they had hoped for.

One of the reasons for the failure is that trainers believe if they build it, they will

come, which is not necessarily true. Your online training business should be an

extension of your in person business in order to be successful.

As the former lead fitness expert for eDiets (the internets leading diet

destination) and eFitness, I can share that beyond the novelty factor, technology

only takes us and our clients so far, no matter how sophisticated. So how can

we successfully reach the masses, support out clients and help them see

significant results online?

Exercisers and dieters will always need support from a team of professionals,

which includes some combination of a personal trainer, coach, eating disorder

specialist, psychologist, nutritionist and medical doctors. Downloading workouts

and grocery shopping lists is not enough to change someones lifelong habits,

much less their bodies. While online training provides a foot in the door with



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clients, it can also be a gateway to personal coaching opportunities, partnering

with other health professionals and offering a host of other services andproducts.

Simply printing out a new workout every week or two may be appropriate for the

few elite exercisers who are looking for a fresh routine. However a majority of

others, especially those who are struggling to lose weight and who have failed at

exercise in the past, will need much more support. Whether customized or from a

proprietary program, a printed workout wont help clients execute a fitness

program, handle eating triggers, control portion sizes, manage stress, curb binge

eating, learn strategies for dining out, handle saboteurs and take the necessary

steps to making health and fitness a permanent part of ones life.

This is where the future is headed for todays fitness professionals. Whether you

have already jumped on the bandwagon or are already considering it, online

training and its ancillary services have a huge potential to grow your business by

allowing you to reach more customers. In the process, youll help clients change

their lives while stretching your skills as a personal trainer.

You may be skeptical about online training, as was I. I had been a hands-on

trainer for 14 years prior to my first experience with online training. Thats when I

realized the power of technology to help people change their lives.

Many of the tools we use in person with our clients--like journaling, weighing in,calculating target heart rates, developing goals and varying workout routines--

can all be done online. And todays online systems can quickly format the clients

data, making record keeping easy and convenient. Month-to-month comparisons



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are available at the touch of a button to keep clients honest, and online sites can

also offer access to personal support and unlimited information, includinglibraries of articles and a variety of other services. As a result of automation, we

can offer more complete service to our clients while saving time and ultimately

money.

So, how can you make money as an online personal trainer?

In my experience, it takes fewer resources to attract an online client. Its not

necessary to place ads or print brochures or even pay for a fancy web site.

Instead, customers can find you using the tools available on the Worldwide Web,

such as personal training locators. When I look at how Ive attracted personal

training clients both on and off-line over the past three years, its about a 50 /50

split between referrals and online locators.

You can optimize your web presence by writing articles that incorporate key

words your clients would be likely to use in their internet search. You can also list

your services in appropriate directories. Tie online training into all of your

marketing efforts both on and off the web.

When a potential customer is searching online with her credit card ready, the

promptness of your reply, what you say and how its presented can make or

break the sale. A personalized letter, endorsements from clients and a sample of

what your online training programs look like will create a professional

presentation that can set you apart from the competition. You are likely to getmore clients when you make a great first impression.



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You can reach a whole new market of individuals who want the convenience and

affordability of online training. One opportunity for additional income is offeringonline training privileges for your in-person clients who want access to your

customized workouts when theyre traveling. Online membership can also be

appealing to club members who want the edge of a personalized workout to help

keep their interest high and their workouts productive. Its also an affordable

solution for people who see you once or twice a month in person and want the

support throughout the month.

During the initial contact with clients, inform them that the first session begins

with a phone (or in person if possible) consultation, which includes a review of

the clients history, preferences as well as developing the plan and committing to

goals. For those who are within driving distance (as a majority of my online

clients are) you can also schedule a fitness assessment. Of course, these

services should be billed accordingly.

At the initial consultation you will assess the new clients needs and determine

what other services and products would be beneficial to help them meet their

goals. For example:

Be prepared to suggest affiliate programs and referrals that tie back into

your business. Those recommendations can bring you additional income.

Possibilities for affiliate programs include heart rate monitors, water filters,

books, videos, exercise equipment, supplements and the like.



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Suggest a 30-minute phone consultation on a recurring basis. For some

clients, every other week is sufficient while others will need more frequentsupport, and a few will be fine with a monthly coaching session by phone.

Create support material for your online training programs. For example,

produce simple exercise videos of yourself demonstrating exercises that

would be appropriate for most beginners. Another video might model a

lower body routine for women or an advanced core routine. Clients will

buy your products as gifts or to enhance their own programs.

Videotape yourself giving presentations in your community on topics

ranging from the facts and myths about weight loss to mastering health-

wise grocery shopping. Make these tapes available for purchase.

Here are some other ways to generate cash from your online training site:

Provide online clients with a monthly membership upgrade, which includes

getting answers to up to four of their questions per month via e-mail. Ive

not had a single person take full advantage of this; in fact most rarely use

this benefit.

Develop an informative online newsletter featuring video clips of new

exercises, a recipe of the month and highlights from your success stories.

Allow clients to access your library of articles in a members only section.

Offer online training as an upgrade to your health club membership,

allowing members the ability to ask x number of e-mail questions



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monthly and receive one new customized workout a month. This is a

great way for trainers to fill down time by supporting members online, andI believe that extra touch ultimately contributes to member retention.

What will it cost me?

Its relatively inexpensive to get an online training business started. Your first

client-of-the-month should cover the cost of your subscription to most online

training programs like Fitness Generator or Hi Tech Trainer. You wont even

need your own web site because most programs will provide your own home

page. But if you prefer your own website, www.websitesfortrainers.com

provides templates, a library of images and support to get you started.

To assure a steady income flow, set up all your on-line clients for recurring

monthly memberships that can be cancelled at any time. Charge for your time in

30-minute increments, based on your typical personal training fees.

Include your web page and highlight your online training business in all of your

marketing and promotion efforts.

The next time youre in a supermarket or restaurant and you see someone

pounding away at her cell phone or PDA to calculate her Weight Watchers

points or to count calories, its a sure sign that therell never be a shortage of

prospects out there for your online business.

Rest assured that in 2006 and beyond, dieters will continue to be confused, the

number of gastric bypass surgeries will soar to new highs, the demand for over-

the-counter appetite suppressants will continue to grow, and medical weight loss

http://www.htclient.com/affiliate/redirects/cala-01.htmlhttp://www.websitesfortrainers.com/http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/http://www.websitesfortrainers.com/http://www.htclient.com/affiliate/redirects/cala-01.html


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programs will be more aggressively marketed. Its up to personal trainers to bail

Americans out of the fat trap, and online training is one way for us to make thebest use of our time and reach more people in our communities and around the

world.

If youd like more information on how to build a successful online personal

training business, I have a few other resources available:

Online Personal Trainer Success - Audio CD

ISSA Personal Fitness Coaching CEC Course

http://calabreseconsulting.com/fitness_store_online_training.html .

All of these tools will empower you with additional knowledge you can use tomake your online personal training business a success.

http://onlinefitnesstraining.com/http://issaonline.com/ceus/enroll/ceu_info.cfm?ceuID=51http://calabreseconsulting.com/fitness_store_online_training.htmlhttp://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/http://calabreseconsulting.com/fitness_store_online_training.htmlhttp://issaonline.com/ceus/enroll/ceu_info.cfm?ceuID=51http://onlinefitnesstraining.com/


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Chapter 3 - The Business of Fitness

By Pat Rigsby of www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com

Early on in my fitness career I was yearning to own my own business, but I didnt

have any idea where to start. I was browsing around the local bookstore looking for

something that might provide me a little direction when the by-line of a book caught

my eye: Why Most Small Businesses Dont Work And What To Do About It. Little

did I know that I had stumbled across what would become the most influential

business book I had ever read, The E-Mythby Michael E. Gerber.

If youve not had the good fortune to read this book, I urge you to go pick it up

immediately, but in the mean time let me share with you excerpts from that very

important book, and I quote:

The technical work of a business and the business that does the technical work

are two totally different things. But the Technician who starts a business fails to see

this and that is the root cause of most business failures.

The carpenter becomes a contractor. The barber opens a barbershop. The

technical writer opens a technical writing business. The hairdresser starts a beauty

salon. The engineer goes into the semiconductor business. The musician opens a

music store. All of them believing that because they understand the technical sideof the business they are qualified to run a business that does that kind of work.

Not true!

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Forty percent of start-up businesses fail within the first year. Within five years 80

percent will have failed and of those that survive those first five years 80 percent

will fail within ten years.

Most businesses are operated according to what the owner wants rather what the

business needs. And so you work. Ten, twelve, fourteen hours day. Seven days a

week. Youre consumed by it; totally invested in doing whatever is needed to keep it

alive. But youre not only doing the work you know how to do but also the work you

dont know how to do. You are not only making it; youre also buying, selling,

shipping it. You are a master juggler keeping all the balls in the air.

Its easy to spot the Technicians business. If you removed the owner from the

business there would be no business left. The owner and the business are one

and the same thing

You dont own a business. You own a job.

IBM, McDonalds and Procter & Gamble did not end up as mature businesses. They

started out that way. Tom Watson, the founder of IBM said, I had a very clear

picture in mind of what the business would look like when it was finally done. You

might say I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream - my

vision was in place.



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based on past experience - the model of work exactly the opposite of what is

needed if the business is to free him from work.

The Entrepreneurial model has less to do with whats done in the business and

more to do with how its done. It looks at a business as if it were a product sitting on

a shelf competing for the consumers attention against a whole shelf of competing

businesses.

The Entrepreneurial model does not start with a picture of a business to be created

but of the customer for who the business is to be created. Without a clear picture of

the customer no business can succeed.

The Technical business however, is designed to satisfy the Technician not

the customer. To the Entrepreneur the business is the product.

Think of your business as anything but a job! Go to work on your business

rather than in it and ask yourself the following questions:

How can I get my business to work without me?

How can I get my people to work without my constant interference?

How can I systemize my business in such a way that it could be replicated 500

times so that 500thruns as smoothly as the first?

How can I own the business but still be free of it?

How can I spend my time doing the work I love to do rather than the work I



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that will live or die according to how well it performs its sole function to find

and keep clients.

I knowIve thrown a lot at you in just a few paragraphs. For many fitness

professionals this is a complete shift in mindset. Most fitness professionals

cant imagine even delegating clients to other trainers assuming that no one

can do the job as well as I can. So what Im asking you to do is really

consider the long range goals you have for your business. Start with the

following questions:

If youre 30 years old now, do you plan on training clients at age 60?

If not, what is your exit strategy? Do you have one?

What is your business worth without you?

Could you sell it if you wanted to?

Take some time and come up with your honest answers. Then, if youre not

satisfied with what you discovered, utilize some of the concepts and principles

Ive provided and look for ways to engineer your business around them. Youll

soon find yourself in a situation where your schedule is more flexible, you dont

feel guilty for catching the flu or going on vacation and you have peace of mind

that your employees are providing consistent, quality service.

If you dont have any employees, approach it in the same exact fashion so that

when the day comes that you want to add one (or more), the transition is

seamless. Document and organize your systems and your methods and

before you know it youll have a business that you own instead of one that

owns you.



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Chapter 4 - Secrets of Effective Lead Generation for

Fitness Professionals

By Eric Ruth of www.HowToSellFitness.com

Imagine for a moment that you have a list containing the phone numbers, home

addresses and email addresses of 5,000 people in your local area who can

afford your services and have an interest in improving their health and fitness.

Imagine that all 5,000 of those people know who you are and what you do.

Imagine that they all not only know you, but also like you and trust you. They

open and read your emails and letters, and respect what you have to say.

Would your business be more fun and more profitable if that were the case?

Would the struggle to find new clients be over if you had a house list like that

a list you could market to consistently and frequently with very little cost a

highly responsive list of your ideal prospects all in need of your solution?

Obviously, the answer to both those questions is YES!

The information in this chapter is designed to show you how to build that list.

The information in this chapter is designed to teach you how to have a fun and

profitable business. And the information in this chapter reveals what is far and

away the most important business/lifestyle improvement strategy you will ever be

exposed to: Lead Generation.

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What Is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is a strategy for developing your very ownpersonal

marketplacethat holds you up as the preferred choice, the obvious expert, the

health and fitness guru.

The goal of lead generation is to leverage media (direct mail, email, telephone,

space advertising, seminars, web site, business cards, flyers, publicity, radio,

television, etc.) to get every person in your local area (or globally) who has an

interest in your particular solution to raise their hand indicating that interest.

Why Should You Use Lead Generation?

The list is king. When you develop your own house list of prospects, you can

communicate with them whenever you choose and however you choose.

Marketing is about communication. The better you become at communicating

your uniqueness in a compelling way, the more business you will get. But you

cant communicate if you have no one with whom to communicate. And you

communications will carry so much more weight, so much more power and be so

much more effective when they are received by people who:

1. Have an interest in what you offer.

2. Know, like and trust you as a credible source.



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Capturing Leads

In order to effectively generate leads, you must have a mechanism for capturing

them. In the example above you would be using your website. On your web site,

prominently placed somewhere near the top of the page, would be an opt-in form

(where you request the first name and email address) the visitor could complete

to gain access to your special report.

When the visitor completes the form they are automatically taken to a page on

your site with the free report, or automatically sent an autoresponder emailmessage containing the report (possibly broken down into multiple emails an

email mini-course), or the email may have the report attached in the form of a

PDF.

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This Is Not Just About Advertising

The example Ive provided so far illustrates how to generate leads from space

advertising. Thats just one of many, many ways you can use this strategy. Lead

generation can and should become your primary marketing strategy, regardless

of what media you use to get the word out about your services. Here are more

examples:

Telephone: Almost nobody does this right. The telephone is your primary

marketing tool, but very few people use it properly for lead generation.

Every time someone calls your office/club/studio, you (or your assistant)

MUST capture their contact information. As you know, the lions share of

incoming phone calls are not from folks who are ready to buy. Most have

questions. If you just give them answers over the phone and then hang

up, youve forever lost the chance to continue marketing to them (unless

they call back). So, when the call comes in from a prospect, regardless of

the question being asked, your answer should be something like, Thats a

great question, Mrs. Jones. Theres lots of things to consider when hiring

a personal trainer (joining a club, etc.), so its great that youre doing your

homework. What Id like to do is send you out a complete information

package on our services, providing you with all the details you need to

know to make an informed decision. Included in that package is also a

special report revealing the 7 biggest mistakes people make when hiring a

personal trainer (joining a club), and how you can avoid them. All I needis your mailing address and Ill get that out to you today. Bang! Youve

captured the lead.



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Chapter 5 - Establishing a Lucrative Niche in the Fitness

Industry

An Interview With Bill Hartman of www.yourgoffitnesscoach.com

PR This is Pat Rigsby and I am here with Bill Hartman, the owner of Your Golf

Fitness Coach and you can find that at www.yourgolffitnesscoach.com.

Bill is the leading golf fitness professional in the country and has an extensive

background in the fitness industry as a whole. He is one of the countrys

most sought after speakers on fitness as it relates to golf. You can find him inthe pages of Mens Health, Mens Fitness and a number of other publications.

Bill could you go ahead and tell the readers a little more about yourself?

BH Ive been a physical therapist for the last 15 years or so and been in the

fitness industry longer than that because that was one of the ways I worked

my way through college was working in gyms and doing some personal

training. Im an active release practitioner, which is a pretty sought after soft

tissue technique that resolves a lot of the overuse syndromes that people

experience and also increases performance. Im also a USA Weightlifting

Sports Performance Coach. I sit on the Board of Directors for the IYCA and

contributed a chapter on the Practical Application of Strength and Power

Development. I am a published author. I wrote a book called The Muscle

Prescription with Adam Campbell and that is available at

www.musclestuff.com. I have a joint venture with Eric Ruth that a lot of

people might be familiar with especially if they are familiar with your joint

venture that you did with Eric recently which was excellent by the way. As

you mentioned, Im also a regular contributor to Mens Health Magazine and

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have appeared in Golf Week, Golf World, Jersey Golfer, and Mens Fitness.

Basically, Im just trying to stay busy.

PR Thats an understatement. What we want to talk about today is one of the

ways that a fitness professional can really grow their business and create a

lucrative opportunity for themselves by finding a certain segment of the

market or a niche, so to speak, and really capitalizing on that. When I was

putting the list of authors together and knew we wanted to touch on this, you

were obviously the first person to come to mind because you have totally

maximized that golf fitness niche. You now, from what I gather, have clients

from all over the country coming to visit you. You speak all over the country.

So what I wanted to start with is how did you get the idea to target that

specific niche golfers?

BH It wasnt because I have a love of the game like most golfers. Actually one

of my clients was an avid golfer; he was obsessed with it and he came to me

and said I am interested in the general fitness component, but I really want to

do is improve my golf game. So at the time, I was totally uninterested in golf

as a sport or even as a component of my business. He was so excited about

it, I decided I would indulge him and actually I spent probably a good year,

year and a half developing what has evolved into the system that I use and

just studying any reference I could get a hold of and so that is basically how it

started. The hardest thing, and I talked with Eric Ruth about this at length;

the hardest thing was making that big step into sort of getting into the nicheand right now I would have to say it is smartest thing I ever did. I think the

concern with a lot of guys is they are afraid that they are going to get

pigeonholed in this one component and they will never be able to get out of it;



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PR Once again, I have kind of a passing knowledge of some of the things

youve done because its just been the model for how somebody canapproach this, but I would like to see if we could get you to expound on it. I

know that youve used publicity to help you as far as press releases and such

to market this. How have you been able to tie in your niche market to

generating publicity?

BH Lets just talk about the press releases first because that was kind of like

the thing that sort of got me going on a national scale. I sent out a press

release, and it was very controversial. In the golf fitness realm there is a lot of

promotion of using yoga and Pilates as a component of the fitness training. I

basically went against that straight up and just said if you are doing this, you

are probably doing it wrong. That certainly got a lot of attention right away.

In fact, I sent out a press release on a Monday and Tuesday afternoon I got a

phone call from the largest golfers golf magazine. It not your typical

newsstand magazine, it is the kind the serious golfers buy. That really got the

ball rolling from a national perspective because I have shown up in that

magazine a couple of times and that has drawn clients to me from California

,Michigan, and Alabama. So the press release was really, really powerful.

Also, the same press release got me on TV locally which was a big boom to

my business as well. Thats basically where is started from a publicity

standpoint.

PR The readers of your chapter would be very prudent to hop onto yourwebsite, www.yourgolffitnesscoach.comand if they go under the your

coach section, they can find a clip of your TV interview so they see what this

has actually transpired into.

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BH The neat thing about the video clip and I dont know if anybody knows thiswhen you are talking about it from a publicity standpoint. If you have looked

on Yahoo recently, theyve got the extra link across the top where you can

look for images and videos and things. That video actually shows up in those

Yahoo links. So when you are talking about promoting yourself, if you put

those things on your website, it is a great addition from a publicity standpoint

because people come across that and then they work backwards from that

link to find you so that also helps.

PR Youve been able to parlay this into a full spectrum business where you

have products, you have a web presence, you have some passive income,

you do speaking engagements as well as the actual one-on-one training.

Could you elaborate on some of the different aspects of your business?

BH I do the one-on-one training. I do small groups. Probably by the end of the

summer I will have a brand new seminar that I am going to do that I will

charge for. Again that has shown itself to draw clients on a regular basis as

well. I highly recommend it to anybody that wants to build their business and

wants to get out and get their face in front of people and start talking to them.

The big product that I have right now is Your Golf Fitness Coachs Video

Library 1.0 that is basically a very extensive golf flexibility video. Its got four

different components to it. All of this stuff has just kind of evolved as I said

before from my development of a system that I use to train the golfers. I haveFree Reports Marketing System which I joint ventured with Eric Ruth had

been a consistent producer. Eric would tell you the same thing and I dont

think he has ever actually promoted it. He never really had to so that is a nice



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BH Absolutely. I dont think there is any doubt. Like I said before, I think youhave to. If you want to go out and compete as a general fitness personal

trainer, think about how many people are training in a general fitness setting.

So you have to have that thing that separates you from everyone else. What

makes you special; what makes you different. Obviously in my case, it is golf.

There is a guy up the street from me that all he does is train baseball players.

That is his niche, but hell see other types of clients as well but he is known as

the go-to guy for baseball. Im the go-to guy for golf. You can be anything;

you could be master of weight loss. You could be any niche that you can

think of. As long as you set yourself apart from everyone else and market

yourself as such, I think you can be infinitely successful.

PR I think if you step back from it, there are so many different niches that are

available - be it fitness for seniors or a particular sport. It could be a health

restriction, the fitness professional for diabetics.

BH It just establishes a target for you to market to and once you know that,

everything becomes very specific. For instance, since I deal with golfers, I

know where to market. I need to market near or around golf courses where

they buy their products. I need to market to the teaching professionals that

send me the clients. I need to market to the massage therapists and

chiropractors that work with golfers because they are going to need a fitness

component to their program. I think it becomes so much easier once youestablish what that specialty will be or your unique selling proposition (USP).

Once you do that everything falls into place and again you establish the target

and you market directly to the target.



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PR You mentioned before, and I think it goes without saying at this point, it isnot like golfers are the only people that youd be willing to work with but that

can become your core business. I suppose people could have two different

niches that they target to.

BH Absolutely. There is never an issue with that as long as youre not showing

up in the same place as two different specialists. I wouldnt want to create

any confusion like Im Bill Hartman, your golf fitness coach and then have that

same person see Bill Hartman, expert weight loss, because then it sort of

dilutes your specialty a little bit. But as long as you are marketing to two

separate populations specifically I think there is no problem with doing that at

all.

PR Is there anything else that you can think of that we missed, that you can

touch on?

BH Three things that I think are imperative especially when youre dealing with

a very specific population like I do. One, is to start with your sphere of

influence which are the people that you know. If there is some specialty that

you want to approach, you are going to know somebody or they are going to

know somebody that can help you get started in that niche and I think that is

where you have to start. That has worked so well for me that I think anybody

can do that. The second thing that I think is essential is establishing therelationships with non-competing professionals. For instance, the biggest

referral source that I have in training golfers, are the teaching professionals.

All I needed to do is establish a relationship with two or three very well known



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professionals in my area and once they were on my side, it was very easy to

use them as my sales force. They say, Hey, you know what, you have thisproblem with your swing, here is the guy you need to go see, and they come

see me. And again, it is a no pressure situation for either of us. They come

to me with a need and I simply fill that need so I think those two things when

you are trying to establish your niche are essential and once you do that, it

just flows and becomes a much easier process. The third thing that I think is

essential is what I would call learning the language. In my case, golf was not

a strong interest for me at first. I had to learn the language of golf, so I could

communicate with my clientele and my marketing targets. Immerse yourself

in your niche for sufficient period of time to where you feel comfortable w

fitness riches

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