I’m not one of those people that is going to criticize the creators of the secret. Who cares if they made a fortune, if they helped people? I enjoyed it.

The problem critics had with the secret is that it is not really a secret. The law of attraction has been taught for like one hundred years. It’s just that back then it was not presented in terms that the average person could understand. The Secret presented these age old philosophies in a simple, easy to understand format. For some people, it was the first time they had ever heard of this.

Here is my one gripe about the secret. I think they underestimated the concept of ACTION. You can dream and visualize all you want, and for a few people that will be enough and great things will happen. But not for most of us. We have to dream, visualize and set goals, yet most of that will not matter until you TAKE ACTION!

If you haven’t yet watched The Secret, please watch it and watch it often. I watch it along with about 5 other motivational pieces weekly. At the very least it should inspire you to dream big and create a positive environment for you and your family!

After you have watched it, answer these questions:

What are my real goals for my personal training company?

What is it going to take to accomplish these goals?

What are the top ten action steps that will get me there?
I’m curious to know what you thought about the secret, please leave a comment and let’s talk about it.

Keith

The Biggest Mistake Behind Most Business Promotions

What do you think is the biggest mistake behind your promotions and most of the other promotions you see. Is it the offer? Not usually. Is it the message? Sometimes. But more times than not the single most common mistakes that cause most promotions to achieve mediocre results is….. (drum roll please)

REASON WHY – It’s one thing to offer a promotion, and another to justify why you are offering such a great deal. There have been numerous studies that make my point a credible one.

A study comprised of 2 hurried passengers approaching a jam packed security line at a busy U.S. airport. (not at the same time of course)

Case Study #1 approached the members in the line and said, “excuse me can I go in front of you” I don’t remember the exact numbers but I believe less than 20% of the people in line would let them cut.

Case Study # 2 approached the line and said “excuse me can I go in front of you, my plane is leaving soon and my wife is having our baby”. Over 75% of people were willing to let him cut.

Why? Because he gave them a reason why. That’s it. We are all people, we all have the same feelings. (well I’m not sure about some of you animals:)

So a 25% off promotion might work ok, But, it would work much better if you gave them a reason why. So what are the reasons why? That’s up to you to decide. You can be as creative as you want to be. Did you know there are holidays for just about every day of the year. There are holidays that are absolutely ridiculous, but you can use them to promote your personal training business or studio.

I’m guilty of this “NO Reason Why” sometimes as well. I will tell you from experience, your promotions will do much better if you give them a reason why.

One of the best I have seen, was a marketing expert Yanik Silver, who wanted to sell his old products. So he took a picture with all the extra boxes of products and called it the help save Yanik’s Marriage Sale. Basically, that his wife was going to divorce him if he didn’t get rid of all the damn boxes.

Brilliant. The products flew off the shelf even though people knew he was only kidding.

The key is to be creative, just don’t offend people unless of course that was part of your plan.

Get to it,
Keith

Warning: This may hurt a little, but it is for your own good and your future personal and business success depends on it.

Removing the “Red Lights” and “Motivation Vampires” from your business and life.

No matter how high you climb, there will always be someone or something that will try to bring you down.

You need to recognize the people and things that are bringing you down, And when you see them, run… run away as fast as you can. Their negativity will devour you.

Have you experienced this before? You come up with a great idea, or accomplish something exciting, and you share it with your friend, your uncle, or your colleague…. Only to be shot down with some BS pessimistic attitude.

It happened to me the other day. I was at a party and someone asked me what I did for a living. I told him “I have a few internet businesses” , he replied with “oh, so you’re unemployed”. It took everything I had to not give him a right hook right in front of every one at the party.

Instead, I said “yeah, pretty much” and walked away. I refuse to have some schmuck pour his negative energy all over me and bring me down. There are millions of people like this dumbass, everywhere, take a look around you.

You have to be willing to fire people from your life, even your closest friends and family members. I’m not saying you should love them any less, but I am saying you need to limit the amount of time you spend with them if they the suck the positive energy out of you. Unless of course you can convince them to stop being so damn negative. Tell them that you don’t want to talk about the economy, gas prices, or George Frekin’ Bush!

The sooner you embrace this and accept it the more successful you will be. It is a real challenge to stand up for yourself and take the power back, the power of what you hear, and what influences you. It’s ok to say NO.

Say no to the media, say no to your friends, say no to all the people that try to bring you down.

Taking control of your time and energy is NOT a free ticket to just be rude and selfish. Ok, maybe just a little bit selfish, but in a good way.

Keith

Each week I will give you a quick tip that will help you grow your personal training business. I will keep it short and sweet and to the point. I will attempt to make these marketing tips practical and useful, and I will continue to deliver as long as you act on them. These tips will not be in order, as I typically write these when Im inspired by something in my business.

Personal Trainer Marketing Tip #1 - Diversify your lead sources. First, write down your current lead sources, where are you getting your leads? You need to have 3-5 major lead sources. Why? Because, when the idiots in the media talk about poor economies and possible recessions it can hurt your business bad. Be honest with yourself when you are answering these questions…

Are you getting referrals? If so how often?

What % of your leads come from the internet? What specific online sources are bringing you leads? You should have at least 3 online lead sources. (search engine rankings, ppc leads, craigslist, blogs, banner ads)
How many successful JV (joint venture) partnerships do you have?

Would your business survive if the internet ended tomorrow?

Despite this morning’s national news of a possible serious recession, one of my clients (personal trainer) called me to tell me how he brought in 10k last week for his training business. He did this by diversifying his lead sources.

If you have any questions on how you can diversify your lead sources for your training biz, please let me know. Thanks!

Keith