Huge isn't Always Better

At some point you cross a line where just enough becomes too much.

One scoop of ice cream is nice; three becomes a stomachache. A few glasses of wine with friends makes for a relaxing evening, but after several bottles one of those friends often becomes a drunken ass. Muscle and strength is beautiful; too much and you’re a freak on Muscle and Fiction. And we don’t even want to start on the fine line between, "Wow, that woman is hot” and "Those giant fake boobs are so hilarious.”

Somewhere in the fitness world we also let, "More is better,” become the standard we all sought, but after searching for the perfect club for so many years I can safely state that enormous physical plants do not guarantee a good experience, and in most cases the bigger the club the worse the workout.

Fitness is shrinking and what used to take thousands of square feet can now be done better in smaller spaces. In the 90s, we used to put a premium on the size of the workout floor and every Gold’s Gym in America was proud to advertise how much workout space they had. It seemed logical at the time: the more space you had meant the more equipment you had, and the more equipment you had to use the better workout you could get. More meant variety and the larger the club the better it must have been outfitted for the ultimate workout experience.

Recently, I visited a large box club that was a part of a national chain. The club was over 100,000 square feet and I was there on a weekday night. It took me over 10 minutes once I was in the parking lot to find a space and get to the door. Check-in was packed and there was another 10 minutes getting a day pass. I was in this for over 20 minutes and was still no further than the front desk.

Just as I started back toward the workout floors, a sales person appeared and it took me another five minutes to convince him that I wasn’t a potential sale, but that I was from out of town and just there for a day pass.

It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the locker rooms, which were also huge, were in the back of the club, which added a long wander about in a 100,000 square feet. Once out of there, I was off in search of the workout floor. This club had what seemed like acres of fixed plane, single joint circuit equipment with hardly anyone using it. The classes seemed to be going well, the free weight area had people and the small functional area was packed.

Working out in this behemoth was an exercise in frustration. We are talking about one of the bigger clubs in the country and yet there was no space for a warm up, there was no place to toss a med ball and there was no space to swing a kettle. If there was anything amusing about this place, it was that I found myself standing in a corner of a $33 million dollar club using a few dollars worth of equipment that the owners felt was secondary and stuck it in a corner.

Despite what they hype, working out with several thousand of your closest friends in not a sales point. This lack of space, the inability to move and workout, the shear waste of equipment and the stupidity of creating a huge club that locks people into tiny spaces are all reasons that not only the giant players are struggling but the low priced guys too. Somewhere along the line, the member has learned that it isn’t the tool that builds a good house; it is the skill of the carpenter.

What is the perfect club these days? To me it is smaller, with about 600 members max, has coaching for sale at various levels, yet I can come and workout on my own with a plan provided by the club. And what about the price? How much do you think the top 5% of the members of a $10 club or some mass production national chain would pay to get out of those hellholes?

The financial future of fitness, meaning which businesses will generate the highest net per member, is not trying to stuff an impersonal box with 10,000 members. The future is creating a service intensive, training-centric business where everyone who is a member gets the maximum help and, therefore, the maximum results.

If you own a box, the challenge is to create a price structure that allows you to generate a higher return from fewer members. This is a concept, however, that is so foreign to these operators that most will fail rather than adjust. Seeking volume as your only business plan must be like the person who takes that first hit of crack and then ruins the rest of his life seeking the next high. Training clubs with less than 750 members are generating over $2 million a year, which is often more than big boxes can do with 3000 members. Making that transition mentally seems harder than making if physically in the clubs.

The industry is changing and the perfect club in the future just might be that 6,000-10,000 square foot training club that has that intimate feel and that becomes something the consumer looks forward to several times a week rather than trudging through a giant parking lot and trying to get through a workout that must be endured or survived rather than valued.

The issue that confuses most owners of box clubs or training facilities is price. When clubs hurt for business, the owner figures all it could be is the price, and immediately he lowers his price believing that once the price comes down, the memberships go up.

The low-price guys have believed this for a decade and the value chains, such as Planet Fitness, have built a company based upon price and the illusion that they exist solely for the beginner who is threatened by the bodybuilders, who don’t really exist anymore anyway. Talking about dated marketing: trying to scare a consumer with a boogey man that isn’t out there anymore. The low-priced guys are also now gobbling each other up like a starving jackal turning on its injured buddy. They are creating their own problems by mass copying of the same business plan by so many new players and those problems are going to get worse for them as more and more $9-19 players think the number is magic.

But what about the rest of us who don’t want to charge $9 for someone to rent a treadmill and who will never get any help as a member? You can compete against anyone if you stop chasing memberships as the primary source of revenue and start thinking differently about the market and your club.

The training clubs are killing the box clubs when it comes to generating revenue, but most box club owners just don’t believe the numbers these guys create in their businesses, or that they can do it in their own box. Selling nothing but memberships as your primary cash generator simply does not work anymore, and no matter how whacky you play with the $19 price, the volume will never be back again.

As I have noted in other blogs and on my Thomas Plummer Late Night Edition mini blog, if a box is doing a million a year in net membership revenue, but only about $84,000 a year in training where is the growth potential? Do you really think, with all the competition that is out there and more on the way at all price points, that you can continue to grow the million, or will you finally realize that the only growth potential left in the industry is getting the training revenue to match the membership revenue.

Most owners yell bullshit here because they can’t believe it can be done. Rick Mayo, owner of North Point Personal Training, generates $1.3 million a year in his facility, which is only 6,000 square feet. This business concept could easily be picked up and dropped into any box, such as the Gold’s Gyms that used to rule New Jersey for so many years, and in fact he is already doing this as a side business. But the number is so high it sounds impossible to achieve for guys who have spent their careers chasing nothing but memberships. It is hard to believe, but an owner who spends $4,000,000 to open a Gold’s can’t figure out how to get a few hundred members to pay for training.

But let’s look at it another way. Take $1.3 and divide that number by the 330 members he has, which equals about $328 per month per member average. You are telling me box owner that you have 2,000 members, but can’t find 300 who will pay more for some type of training? Even if you charge half of the numbers illustrated below, you can’t find 600 members in your base that would pay for the extra help and support? Rick’s prices, by the way, range from $99 for a template membership up to $2100 per month for unlimited 1/1 training, and this is north of Atlanta, not downtown Manhattan.

Of course these members are there, but no one can see them because everyone is blind from staring into the membership sun. Sell more memberships. Sell more memberships. Sell more… Try selling memberships, but sell the same gross dollar amount of training too each month. You would have to be a totally incompetent owner of a box to not be able to take a few hundred of your members out of thousands and turn them into training fools.

But to do this, you first have to realize several things. First of all, 1/1 training is too limiting and should be less than 15% of your entire training revenue. Secondly, stop selling sessions and packages dumb ass. There is not money in using this antique tools, just like there isn’t any money in paying aerobics instructors $40 per hour and then charging the members $19 a month. Just because we were once stupid doesn’t mean we have to stay that way.

Pricing has changed over the last three years and the emphasis now should be on showing the lowest price you can to attract the widest range of members along with a layered price structured that appeals to the different clients in the market sorted by interest, age and price.

Wow Thom, didn’t you use to teach us to be the highest price clubs in town? Yes, I did, but would anyone still be reading this nonsense if I was talking about the same things I did in 1995. Business changes, the members change, the competition changes, the economy changes, which all means you cannot use the same tools to make money we did 15 years ago. Many of you change spouses more often than you change your equipment or business plan. You will pay to get rid of the silly wanker you are married to, but won’t consider that your price structure and method of training are no longer viable and needs to be divorced too?

This also applies to training people too. Most training people build failure into their business plan by limiting their program to only the smallest segment in the market, which is the middle-age white business dude and his wife, counting on just 1/1 to pay the bills. Sessions and packages are also very limiting and have to be eliminated here as well.

All of Rick’s clients are on long-term memberships and the Cosgrove’s (Alwyn and Rachel), who could probably claim credit for virtually reinventing the training club model, won’t even do 1/1 in their club, and they are doing a million a year in 6,000 square feet with only about 280 members.

Here is a sample pricing model and whom it applies to in the market. This is the essence of what we will be teaching in 2012 in our workshops along with creating the role of the assessor who does nothing but feed the trainers. This model will have to be adjusted depending on the market. That means when you read this and yell, "This is BS, I charge $XXX per client now,” it means you have to adjust your prices for your market you anal retentive miscreant:

·Unlimited traditional 1/1: $899-2100 per month x 12 months. This is a guided program based upon full support. The more stuff you can add the more you can charge. The client would train with a coach 2-3 times per week and then be guided into other support training if he wants to come more often. This is targeted at the elite typical client most trainers seek.

·Limited 1/1 training, 5 times per month, no roll over for the sessions: $399 (based upon $80 per session) per month x 12 months. This is targeted at the elite typical client most trainers seek.

·Unlimited small group training (2-4 clients/members) offered at $249-349 per month with no limits on how many times he or she can attend: This is offered about 26-40 times per week depending on the clientele, age of the club and number of members. This tool appeals to a totally different segment than 1/1. Personal training is just to boring for too many people and there is an entire clientele that likes small group dynamics. This group will usually be in the 35-55 age range, a little more affluent and not the typical person who seeks 1/1 and the image that goes with it but also doesn’t want to be part of the big group energy either.

·Limited small group training (2-4) people per group, offered at $149-249 per month for 12 months: This group is limited to 5 sessions per month. Keep in mind that every level includes the one below it. This means that if you sign up for 1/1 training you can use the gym as you want, drop into small group or take part in large group training as you desire.

·Group personal training (12-15 per group with a coach): This is the heart of group pt and replaces your boot camp model. This is offered at $99-149 per month and is on the schedule for 8-12 times per week with unlimited attendance, although most clients die at about three times. This is tightly structured and you do the same workout for two weeks. This is nothing more than a group ass beating to music.

No one should be allowed to attend here unless they can keep up so beginners have to be brought up to speed using fundamentals for 30 days or so as needed. Contrast this with the small group that changes daily, is more intimate coaching and where everyone goes at their own speed. The client for this is not a 1/1 client. The client for this is not a small group client. The client for this is the 24-40 person who likes music, a challenge and the group dynamic. Most box clubs do not do well with this person and this potential member is happily doing crazy crap in someone’s garage somewhere because the box owner can’t figure out how to train this guy without a bench press, fixed equipment and curls, tools this client refuses to use or even try anymore.

·Template programs, offered at $49-99 per month. This program gives the client a workout/program design to follow for about 30 days. This is not personally designed, but more of a template. The training clubs would be on the high end of the rate and would spend about 20 minutes with a client once a month. The rate for box clubs should be about $20 more than you are charging for a base membership. For example, if you are charging $19, this would be $39. If you are already at $39, you can simply post workouts on the walls in the club that change weekly giving every member a "trainer” without the cost, giving you an advantage over the cheap players merely renting equipment and providing no help.

The keys here are that you are appealing to a wide variety of clients, there are price points for an even wider range of potential members and that you are offering totally different products. Do not make the mistake of trying to blend the levels by offering one of each product each month. This assumes that all clients are alike rather than targeting different clients for different products.

It is going to be a good year. Get your prices right, get your people trained, get an assessor in place to sell training and make some money this year. This could be your best year yet if you get ready for some change.

Most of you are now working on your marketing for next year. The core element I still recommend; primarily because it is still such a successful tool, is some form of the trial membership. Here are the three main ways to use this tool and why it works:

The 21-Day Risk Free Trial

This is the tool that could be used by mainstream fitness facilities that do not have a lot of competition. Do not forget that all marketing is supposed to do is to get leads in the door. Many rookie owners get upset that people show up but no one signs up. That is a sales problem, not a marketing problem and the marketing worked if someone comes through the door.

In this trial, the guest would get full access to the club and should be part of the group personal training or small group offerings. Remember that if you treat them like members they become members.

This also replaces the older 14-day trial we used to recommend. The 21-day is a smarter version that has proved to attract more leads and has more perceived value. Do not use this tool to attract potential members, get leads into the door, and then drop close the person the first visit hard. Trial works because people expect to get a few visits in before they decide to become a member. Lying to them by promising them a trial and then banging them hard once they are in the door will work against you over time.

I still believe in offering incentives, such as a kick ass messenger bag and a free month, if they sign up by day 10. Incentives still work if they are positive and you should be thinking carrot not a bull whip on the ass, which is what the old take away drop the price today and today only close is.

The Paid Trial Membership

If you are a mainstream club, run this at half your monthly. For example, if you charge $39 per month for one member then run a paid trial for 30 days @ $19. If you are in a super competitive market, then you might try 30 days @ $9 to mess with the low price guys down the street.

Training clubs should be in the 30 days for $49-89 range in most markets except in New York or other major metro areas where it could be as high as $129. Again, most trainers fight this concept because they are afraid they have to train too many people too cheaply, but put everyone into groups if you can and give yourself a chance to get some new blood into the business.

Most training clubs average about 4-7 new sales a month but you can’t grow until you average 15 or higher and you can’t do that if you don’t get leads into the door. Also remember that you can be too elite and many of you slowly starve your business because you are so worried about offending the 20-30 clients you started with your first few months.

Closing rates for all trial memberships of any kind should be about 60-65% of everyone through the door over a 30-day period of time. If someone starts at the end of month, just count that person in the month they sign up and don’t go back to the first month. All we are looking for here is gross average and the number of new members you get over a 30-day period.

The Extended Paid Trial

I like an extended paid trial that allows the guest to get fully involved over a longer period of time almost as a course they would sign up for at a community college. Phil and Michelle Dozois and Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove both do forms of these quite successfully and we have had huge success in our women’s-only club on Cape Cod using versions of the Biggest Loser to attract women we now know would have never shown up through any other marketing.

You can call this program NewYou60 and it is targeted at the person who is not experienced in fitness. It is an extended trial for 60 days and includes everything you can offer, such as nutritional guidance, full training, full classes and anything else you can throw into the mix.

Pricing for this depends on the market but you can be aggressive here. If you are using it as a true trial, keep it in the $69-99 range. If you have the stuff and team to add value, then price it in the $149-249 range and include items such as workout journals, team weigh-ins, tee shirts, etc. that give it a course feel.

This would work well in markets where you have competition but you also have been marketing for a while and need a new tool to pry out those leads that haven’t responded to the paid trials.

Use one of these for your marketing starting in January and stick with that tool for at least 90 days. You can mix these and follow one, 90-day period with another using a different tool since each one is designed to target a separate potential member.

Remember that "to know you is to love you” and that trial marketing is designed to get leads into your club for an extended period of time where you can prove your patience and caring attitude. As always, you are still looking for a 60-65% overall closing rate, or conversion into regular members, no matter what trial you use.

Market well and kill it next year.

This simple question has also become the most powerful question I can ask anyone who has come to me for help and guidance through the years. My point is, if you don’t know where you are going then no one, including me, can help you get there.

The point of this discussion always returns to one of the most basic concepts of personal development: if you know where you want to go we can build a plan to get there together, but if you are unclear on the direction you wish to travel there isn’t a person in your life who can offer guidance that matters.

It is save to say after over 30 years of coaching and mentoring, I can bluntly say that most people have no idea of what they really want from their lives, but most seem oblivious to the question and what it means in their life. But if you continue to ask more deeply you will also hear that these same people are fairly sure that they don’t have "it" yet. "It" is defined as the big thing, the meaning of your life, the goal you believe you should have that will lead to a fulfilled and satisfying life.

The point of contention is, just what is "it?" In other words, would you recognize "it" if it ran you over with a bus? "It" for most people is defined as something out there in the future that they will figure out someday but right now they would rather not think about it too much. Thinking requires growth and for many bus tracks on your back are preferable, and easier to take, than a few hours spent working and defining what your life could be.

This lack of definition leads to the randomness in so many of the careers of the people I have met through the years. Too many in our line of work are simply doing whatever job was available and it is rare to find anyone who has planned his or her life's work.

Most are doing work they don't like, for people they don't respect, living in towns that don't interest them and even stuck with significant others that they might have outgrown years ago and who work against finding your own direction and fulfillment. The first step toward achieving personal growth, and defining a life that you create yourself, is to take responsibility for your own life and choose to live at a higher level rather than accepting whatever comes your way. Again, why should you just take what you get rather than go after exactly what you want in your life?

Life is motion, and the process of constant progress toward a fulfilled life is the most important work anyone can seek. Happiness and satisfaction are the result of this progress, which can only be defined as your ability to set, target and achieve what you want, and only what youwant, and not wasting your life chasing the dreams of others.

What magic are we seeking here? Focusing your life forward, and answering where will you be in five years, is the simple act of writing goals that clearly state what you want, when you want it, and who you will be personally when you get there.

Focused goal setting is the tool you use to set your life in motion. We all have dreams that keep us occupied during idle times, while doing boring work or during that last five minutes before we fall asleep. But these are just dreams and fantasies and none will ever be achieved unless you constantly create written goals to turn those dreams into reality.

What is a goal? Goals are definable targets set in the future. Definable means that once you achieved, you can clearly recognize that you have accomplished that step in your life.

Achieving goals requires you to focus your energy, time and thought into the process by first stating the goal and then working backwards by developing all the small steps it would take you to get there. For example, if you want to own your own business, you might first clearly define what this business will look like, how much money does it take to build it and where will this business be and how it will work.

Once you know this, you can create a series of steps over time to get there. In other words, start with the goal at some date in the future and then build a series of steps in that time period working backwards to get there. If it is a worthy goal, it will take more of everything you have and are to reach it, and often the bigger the goal the more reward on arrival.

It is important to understand that goal setting is just not "things.” Goal setting is who you want to be someday, where you want to go professionally, how you want to live your life and what you want in that life.

This information, and a new workbook I am creating for our clients next year, derived from what I have called the Starbuck’s moment. For over 25 years I have gone quarterly to the corner shop and set for several hours projecting my life ahead. What do I want to achieve in business? How do I want to improve my life? What do I want to learn? Where do I want to live and how much money do I need to get there? All these questions and more filled many journals over the year and the process has defined my life and has kept me focused on the things that make me happy and that lead to the biggest rewards while keeping me from chasing the flash of the moment that is bright and shiny but doesn’t get me to where I want to be.

Over the years I have been teaching this quietly to clients and asking them to do the same thing before we work together. As noted above, if they know what they want then putting a plan together to help them get there is a lot easier.

An outcome of this teaching is that a consistent theme appeared, which became Life in 3s™. Just set 3 goals, today, this week, for the month, for the year, for three years and for the next five, and you will achieve more than you ever thought was possible. Mastering goal setting is simple: get three things done today that moves you toward the big things and those larger life goals will take care of themselves. One day at a time focused on getting just a few things done that makes you happy and that will lead to a life fulfilled.

The Art of Setting Goals

Setting goals is not hard and the word "art” refers to the fact that goal setting is personal and will reflect who you are and what you want. Here are a few guidelines to get you started. The exercises themselves will help keep you focused but after awhile you might just resort to blank journal for your quarterly review:

• Write the goals as if they are already done: For example, "I will be living in Denver, Colorado in five years working as a chef in a downtown restaurant.”
• Concentrate on what you want in your life and eliminate what you think you should be doing to satisfy others. It is your life and you need to live it on your terms chasing your own dreams.
• Don’t be afraid to write down everything that pops into your head. Keep your work private and don’t be afraid to write what you really want even if it would be embarrassing now for someone else to read it.
• If it isn’t in writing, then it isn’t real. Goals written become the threads of your life. Goals unwritten remain dreams.
• Forget the limits. Think big and create big.

• Goals equal time/How much time do you have left in your life and what are the most important things you want from that time
• Make the goal so clear you can visualize and see it in your head
• Don’t forget the small goals
• Write "I am” rather than "I will”
• Realize that goals will change over time as you age and mature
• Write every three months (your Starbuck’s moment) for the rest of your life/In a life fulfilled there is always more to see, do and accomplish
• Accept full responsibility for your life. Your life is your fault and there are no excuses or no one to blame. Living in the past achieves nothing and the future seldom turns out as bad as we fear. Live today, set a path for tomorrow and take full responsibility for who you are and who you will be

Areas you might explore during your goal setting session and some examples:

• Personal development (finish a course/sign up for a workshop/take camera courses/work on your personal health and fitness)
• Family (spend time with your parents/plan a family vacation/quiet time with your significant other)
• Money (new ventures/growing your personal income/financial planning/retirement goals/expanding your business/start a savings plan)
• Career/occupation/your life’s work (getting further education for your job/attending workshops/learning new skill sets that give you an edge/planning to change careers and what you might need)
• Fun/trips/adventures (run a marathon/enter a triathlon/plan a ski trip/plan a month off to hike the mountains)
• Future dreams (anything counts here that is important to you/career changes/major life changes/moving to the city of your dreams/opening your first business/getting married)
• Retirement (how much will you need/when is the date/when would you have enough to live your life on your own terms even if you decide to keep on working/where would you want to live)
• Spiritual life/giving back in your life (If you have a good life what are you doing to give back or share with others/what are you doing to explore your spiritual side)
• Your business (what can you do to grow it/where is it going/how will you eventually get out of it/do you want to open another one)
• Toys (what toys, loot, personal goodies are on your someday list)

Here are some exercises you can use to get started. These are only just a guide and the more often you work with these the more variables that will pop into your head. The first time you do these, you might do them in this order:

1. Your Day in 3s: What three things can you do tomorrow that will move your life and your dreams forward? Buy a box of index cards and write three things, one on each of three cards, and carry those cards with you that day. Don’t end your day until those three things are done. Do this every single day, even the days you don’t go to work. Remember that the single item on the card might be anything from calling your parents to enrolling in an advanced course. Just three things, done everyday, add up to a solid three months of accomplishments.
2. List three things you will start tomorrow, and make them part of your life for the next three months, that will enrich your life. (Examples: spend an hour a day reading to your children, spend 30 minutes walking and holding hands with your spouse, calling old friends or mentors, reading something everyday for 30 minutes that motivates you)
3. List three things that you will get done during the next 30 days that will improve your career, your life, your money, your business and your family, or any other area that is important to you.
4. List three things that you will do in the next 90 days, which might be part of the smaller 30 day goals, that are important to you
5. Where will you be one year from now? What do you want from your in one year? What do you want from personal development in one year? How about your business, family, community, friends or life. You might have three things for each of the categories.
6. Where do you see your self three years from now? Write three big things you want to accomplish in three years in all the categories listed earlier.
7. Where do you see yourself in five years? Where will you live, what will you own, where will you be in your career, how far are you along in five years financially and toward your next life and career?
8. What three things have you left undone in your life during the last few months, or longer, that you need to fix (a fight with a friend, a client that left angry, old arguments that were left unsettled that make no sense now). Fix them now and move on. Leave nothing undone because you many never get a chance to fix it.
9. What are the three "Big Things” you want from your life? What are the three biggest things you want to accomplish in your career, life, business, or personally? Remember that these can change as you grow but write three things down during each session.
10. What are the 25 things you just have to do before you die? Write this list and start checking things off now. Why wait until you are too old to care?

This is by no means a complete list but it is a good start. Remember that the act of writing something down makes it real in your mind and you will be surprised how much of your list gets done between three month sessions. Start now, take care of yourself and create the life you want.

Simple words and maybe the forgotten essence of what fitness really should mean.

Fitness should be defined to our clients as the degree which they can enjoy life. Fitness should set you in motion and motion is the very breath of life itself. Workout now and live longer. Seek a higher degree of personal fitness now and live a higher quality life later. Motion is freedom and the degree to which you can move determines the amount of freedom you can enjoy and retain throughout your life.

The problem with all of this is that we so often confuse the act of fitness with the results we seek. Far too many of us associate going to the gym as the act of fitness itself and the only way to get fit is to endure hard work in the beginning for a nebulous goal later that somehow states we are now, "fit.” If you are an old bodybuilder, the only definition of fit is muscle. If you are a cardio freak, then you define fitness as long workouts requiring high energy. Every specialist has his own definition and that definition is right for him but usually wrong for everyone else

Look again at the first statement: fitness is motion and motion is life. Motion is walk on the beach, or a gentle run through an early morning sun touched forest. Motion can be dance, gardening, animated sex or an extended tour through a new city. Motion is also biking with your kids, throwing a ball or chasing your grand child around the yard. Motion leads to fitness and fitness leads to a better life.

Sadly, we have become too pure in our definition of fitness and this affects how we treat our beginners in the clubs. We set impossibly high standards for almost all of our members by telling them that fitness is a structured activity that requires serious record keeping and at least six days a week of intense effort and sweat. Many of the current fitness books even claim that fitness can’t be achieved by mere motion but that it has to be intense in nature coupled with defined changes in the body meaning that walking and other sources of pure motion don’t even qualify as exercise.

This is all true if you are chasing advanced fitness coupled with looking fit, but most of our clients just want a better life but not always a great body. Fitness in motion is just plain feeling better with less stress and pain in our lives and is often associated with an overall stronger sense of well being. Move today and feel better tomorrow. Is losing weight and looking better the ultimate goal or should we lower our expectations and settle for simply a higher quality life through daily movement doing whatever feels good?

Is it really that simple? For fitness professionals the answer is no because the intensity it takes to achieve advanced fitness isn’t there. If you are a deconditioned female that is 40 pounds overweight; however, movement today can be life changing tomorrow and after a few months she is in a better mood, chasing the kids, riding a bike and having better sex. Movement is change and change is often accompanied by a new confidence. No, we shouldn’t stop chasing perfection, but maybe we should realize that fitness is relative to the client and her dreams and shouldn’t always reflect our narrow definition of what fitness is or should be.

This may be why we only have 16 percent of the population in this country in clubs and why we are over 62 percent in the overweight or obese category. Our definition of fitness is so severe, as defined by the masterfully portrayed negative image on the Biggest Loser, by the trainers who create an association in the audience’s minds nationwide that the only way to fitness is through pain and humiliation. Maybe fat is a better choice compared to having a semi-naked and abusive trainer in your face trying to embarrass you on television and in front of your friends. If it is that way for them on this television show, then it must be that way in every gym in America.

Fitness is life itself and any movement adds to the quality of that life. When you’re working with beginners, remember that what we consider fit may be something still in their wildest dreams and the standards we take for granted may represent something that is many years in their future if they ever reach that level at all.

When you work with someone new, concentrate on motion. Get them gently moving and keep them moving doing something that is fun and playful. Just taking some of your members to a park and kicking a ball and chasing each other in a game of tag might be the highlight of their week.

In our world, we are the coaches that set people in motion and there might not be anything more satisfying than realizing that what we start may lead to a life well led in their future.

Good gyms are hard to find.

I want a lot of good equipment; space to move and play, a staff that doesn't come unglued if you do any kettle bell stuff and some place that is clean and decent. But I also realize that it is often the members that ruin a club visit and not the owner or staff.

Working out on the road is by the way always an adventure in the bizarre. Based on too many workouts done in alien clubs, I have come to the conclusion that there are now many more disgusting members working out than in past years. Here are my rules for the tribe of pathetic, nasty gym losers that give a struggling local owner a bad name:

You, the poseur! I don't care who you used to be. I don't care that you used to be big, were tough, scored a few touchdowns in high school or were the meanest guy in your fraternity. Dude, you are now in your 30s and you are a disgusting mess. Finally, by all that is holy in the fitness business, lose the string tank top. No one, and I mean not even the woman who has just walked out of prison after 30 years, really thinks that tuff of gray, scruffy chest hair works for you. You are fat, your kids are fat, your woman is fatter and those meaty arms you are so proud of are 13 inches of muscle surrounded by 4 inches of jiggling hamburger fat. Get a shirt, put down the bench press, walk away from the leg press and try a little full bodywork.

You, stinky man! There is no excuse to stink when you work out. Here is an idea stinky boy; try a clean tee shirt or shower before you work out, try some deodorant and stay away from too much garlic. You stink, we know it, and we hate you.

You stinky girl! Perfume is nice if I am drunk and it is 2:00 o'clock in the morning. Perfume is offensive if I am working out and you are standing next to me at 6:00 in the evening. As before, you stink, it is not sexy, it isn't your personal style and you are killing us out here.

You, old man in the running shorts! Reality check here for you old guy. Yes, you have had those shorts for 16 years and we know you take great pride in wearing the same outfit every day year after year, but you are scrawny, have a bony chicken ass and any short cut that high on the side lets far too many people see junk that was out of service when Carter was president.

You, body builder dude! Screaming is stupid. If you can't put it down, then don't pick it up and leaving plates on the leg press doesn't mean your huge, it means you have the penis of a sterile chipmunk. Grunting, dropping weights, leaving bars stacked, carrying jugs of green nasty crap and wearing 1990s clothes is not cool but only validates why there are only seven bodybuilders left in America.

You, horny boy! Women come to the club to have private time, get a workout in, relax without pressure and to enjoy just a few minutes of me time a day. They aren't there as your personal stable of potential dates that are sweating for your pleasure. Don't stare, don't flirt, don't wait for them in the parking lot and don't ask them out ever.

You, cell phone idiot! I don't care if you are the president of the biggest financial company on Wall Street. Talking big and loudly on a cell in the club is poor taste and only confirms that your daddy gave you the job because you are a moron. Have to take the call? Then walk away to the lounge but I do not want to sit two feet away from you and here your call. If you can't live without the phone then workout at home where you can irritate your future ex wife and leave the rest of us alone.

You, spit fool! Whatever possessed you to think that hocking up a goober the size of a house cat and then spitting it into the drinking fountain is socially acceptable? Do you really do this at home? Do you do this at work? Are you just f@#$%*ing stupid?

You, BMW boy! Hey nice you can finally afford that new 7 series car but parking it across two parking spaces so it won't get dinged is like putting a sign on it inviting anyone with anything sharp to gouge every inch of paint you have. Two spaces? Park it way out in the lot and enjoy the walk.

You, fat girl! It is your fault you are fat. Stop blaming your ex, your boss, your genes, your job, your kids, the trainers and your life. If you are wearing it then you ate it and you won't lose it until you move it. Weight is not accidental, it is usually an insidious process that takes years and only one person in the world can change the course, and that is the owner of the big jiggle herself.

You, lying members! You signed a membership agreement with the club and now you are too lazy to workout so you lie to the staff because you don't want to pay anymore. Try a little personal responsibility here and pay for what you signed for. Clubs are not gold mines, all those cars don't mean a lot of money and you are a liar that would be indignant if that happened in your business.

You, seat saver! Hurray, you got to class early but do not try and save bikes in the front for all your friends. One member, one bike and let the next person in take their own chances. You drive members away by being rude and you aren't paying nearly enough for the owner not to throw your ass out.

And the rest of you rude members out there, pick up your garbage, don't pee on the seat lids you disgusting human piece of trash, don't flush your personal thingies down the stool, don't leave gum in the urinals, wipe the sweat off the benches, don't shower and then get your soaking wet ass on a scale, don't stand there naked lecturing me abut the economy, don't hog three pieces of equipment because you just read about tri-sets in a magazine and don't by any chance try and offer advice because you have been working out wrongly for 15 years.

Owners have hard enough time without trying to make adults out of immature idiots who have no respect for anyone around them. Be courteous, be nice and help make the club a decent and enjoyable place to go.

And most importantly, to you fart boy, you might be the rudest of them all. There is a special room in hell for you populated by hundreds of flagellant factory workers amped up on cheap beer, hot wings and shots of bourbon just waiting to blow you into eternity.

This will qualify as the shortest blog I have ever written, but has been the single hottest topic these days in our workshops so here is my take on why the low-priced guys seem to be struggling and will ultimately fail.

The business plan for a low-priced model is based upon the ability to service a lot of people cheaply and quickly. The primary tool used by the low-priced players is the circuit line (single joint, fixed plane equipment). Limit the free weights, load up on cardio and throw as much circuit style selectorized at the client as you can stuff in the room.

The reality is, however, that circuit training is dead. The clients have moved past it, athletes have moved past it, any trainer worth more than $5 per hour has moved past it and there isn't a popular fitness magazine in the country that has ran an article on the benefits of circuit training in the last decade. Circuit training is done, gone, failed, worthless except for 1% of the population too weak to stand up and has been replaced by upright athletic based training

If your entire business model is based upon failing technology, in this case thousands of low-priced guys filled with circuit stuff, then what you are doing is not sustainable. Would you risk your fortune on opening a pager store? Would you open a bookstore in the era of E-readers? And how many businesses today are based upon technology that is over 40 years old, in this case Nautilus dating back to the late 1960's?

Circuit training as a technology is dead; the members don't use it much in the clubs, and the only people still advocating this method of equipment or either the equipment companies that haven't seen the light or owners stuck in 1995. Think circuit training is sustainable as a business model? Ask the Curve's guys how that is working for them these days or any other circuit based business model.

Get over it people. If you are still setting people up on a circuit and giving them a big card kept in a box on the edge of the floor you have been warned that the end of your business is near. You simple cannot compete with out of date technology that does not work and that no one wants.

In the first example, look at 24-Hour Fitness and the advent of EFT (electronic funds drafting/auto-deduct from the member's credit card or bank accounts). When 24-Hour first started this in the 80's, it became a national craze and everyone thought they had found the magical solution to members not paying. What a simple concept: sign the member up and just take the money automatically each month.

It wasn't long before most clubs in the country were, and still do, automatic EFT payments. There were probably two reasons for this. First of all, 24-Hour was based in California and dealt with more sophisticated markets that were in many ways early adapters to new technology so most folks in that region were more comfortable allowing this process years before other parts of the country embraced it. In fact, there are still parts of the south that still don't really understand the whole check book concept yet and still keep money under the bed.

The second reason was that Mark Mastrov was a pioneer in the business and was constantly looking for new ways to grow his business and create a more solid company. He was young, in California, and surrounded at the time by many people willing to take chances. Mark was a head of his time and led the way in many innovations. He was a risk taker, something we don't see these days.

The trade shows have also been a steady stream of new ideas and tools for the industry. The first true elliptical, introduced by Precor at a trade show, set the industry on fire for a decade along side other trade show phenomenons, such as the Stairmaster.

I think both of these avenues of change are now both somewhat dated if not outright dead. There is no more innovation from the chains because there is so little leadership or risk takers left in charge. Everyone is conservative and looking for the "going public” train to come through town. Risk takers and innovators, such as Mark or Tony DeLeede, are gone and may not be replaced since the culture has changed so significantly.

Change today is coming from the ground up matching the advent of instant information and social contact and most of this change is stemming from the next generation training facility owners. The innovators are still out there, but today they are running smaller clubs and doing bigger grosses than ever before.

Perhaps the perfect example is sports performance. In sports performance training, such as that used to train professional athletes, what you do either works now or is discarded today since that athlete you are messing with cost the team millions a year to keep in the game and to keep effective. The information developed in this arena is often years ahead of what you see in the research journals since the sports performance specialist's need for what works is so immediate. He tries it, it works, and several years later a PhD candidate validates it in a lab trial at a major university.

This cutting edge information used to take years to get from the trainer to the mainstream fitness professional. The sports guy spoke at a conference, a few trainers might try what he is doing with their athletes and several years later, maybe longer, the information might make it to the mainstream.

Now, guys like Todd Durkin, Mike Boyle, Bill Parisi and Gray Cook think up new stuff, test it on their athletes and then post it tomorrow on their websites, Facebook and YouTube: instant information today from the best minds in the business.

This information posted today becomes the workout tomorrow for the middle-aged fat guy at Fred's Training Gym. Some trainer, perhaps a Boyle fanatic, reads about a workout in the middle of the night, gets excited and starts using it the next day. Instead of years for information to go mainstream: it is now only hours between a posting and a direct application.

Throw in the advent of the functional training and you have a huge push from the bottom up led by new generation trainers that is changing the very core of what we do in this industry leaving the chain clubs and their 13 lines of circuit equipment asking, "WTF happened to my business plan to sell endless memberships and not service people?”

There is also a little serendipity working here as well, meaning the right time at the right place for this to work. The consumer is bored, the era of membership gyms is dying thanks to the low-priced guys that not only threatened the mainstream clubs but also shot themselves in the private parts by spawning so many copy cats, and by the immediate awareness on television and websites as to how real athletes train.

Just as a side note, when was the last time you saw an athlete on ESPN training on circuit equipment, or do new generation professionals spend their entire time upright doing cool stuff like 50' ropes? Joe Big Belly, on the couch at home and weekend athlete extraordinaire, sees his favorite guy doing cool stuff and he now becomes the last guy ever to go to a gym and do circuit crap.

In the case of change, the philosophy of training was first but the second wave, led by folks such as Rick Mayo, Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove, Frank Nash, Phil and Michelle Dozois, Todd Levine, Jeremy Klugerman and other owners who are building training-centric businesses, are now bringing the delivery systems to the industry. First the information is developed and then someone figures out how to make a truckload of money with it. Guys like Mayo are now developing models and systems that they are installing in mainstream clubs to help those players make the shift from membership to results-driven upping the bottom line and keeping those clubs sustainable over time.

This information is available here too, and is what we have been teaching this year in the workshops and we are seeing a wider variety of players in the room then ever before because everyone realizes that the era of living on memberships is gone and the era of the trainer is just beginning.

The fitness business is at an unusual crossroads. On one side, we have the implosion of the box club concept as mainstream fitness centers struggle to stay relevant in a hyper-change business environment and where for decades the equipment has been the star at the expense of the membership.  On the other side, the evolution of the training-centric model that puts the client back into the center of the business plan is putting pressure on how we do business and who in the fitness business will survive in the coming years.

The rise of the mainstream chain-style club during the 1980’s also directly corresponded to the demise of most of what has passed as member service for the last 20 years in the industry. Chain clubs, along with the independent operators who emulate that business model, exist for one reason and that is to sell as many new memberships as possible each month.

Membership revenue in these clubs is often 85% or more of the business’ total deposit each month and if there isn’t heavy volume there is no business. The problem is that volume and member service are mutually exclusive.

The rise of a training-centric, results-driven business model will perhaps be the most important breakthrough in the last 50 years of fitness. It sounds so simplistic to say those words it somewhat negates the power of what is happening in the industry; but we are witnessing the end of the membership driven model while simultaneously watching the return of the client centered business.

Simply stated, fitness business owners have to figure out how to get the most results for the most clients or fail since the cannibalistic nature of the bottom feeders is that the cheap eat the cheap leaving little room to exist on volume alone.

This transition, however, is causing a number of problems including the not so insignificant issue of the industry no longer understanding even the rudimentary points of supplying basic customer service. The volume sales approach negates the member as relevant since it is all about sell, burn up, replace and sell again. Over the last decades this belief that the member is forever replaceable has made us forget how to value and serve the clients we so desperately seek.

When you are struggling to stay alive in a crowded market customer service is the one tool you can wield that gives you an edge at a low cost. As the box players live in the past dreaming of the glory days of volume and how to recreate it, more progressive operators can invest in customer service training at a low cost.

Members that are treated well will stay longer and pay longer. Members that feel they support a business where they feel valued with stay longer and pay longer and members who get results because the clubs touch beyond the traditional 3-6% of training clients will also stay at that club longer generating more revenue than the club that lives to turn and burn its membership.

Here are a few simple rules of customer service we have lost in the years of seeking volume. Customer service is not a hard thing to master and done correctly true service is nothing but doing a lot of small things right every day. This isn’t by any means an all-inclusive list but these few points can serve as a nice foundation to build upon:

Start with the phone: This is perhaps the most annoying part of any fitness business for the client. Trying to get information from a club employee over the phone could make a Southern Baptist minister down a pint of Jack Daniels. Nothing should be this hard nor should anyone paying a monthly fee to support a business be treated that badly. Here are a few simple rules of giving good phone:

·        Answer live by the third ring. Do not under any circumstances, ever in your entire life, not even if you are a trainer head in a small studio, ever rely on voice mail. Someone is already paying you, or might be trying to give you money so either way pick up the damn phone and say hello. There is no reason in any service business, no matter how big you are, not to answer live. You take their money? Then you take their call.

·        Answer like you care, not like you are bored out of your lame, dumbass, you interrupted my texting session, mind. Use a strong welcome statement each and every time the phone rings. For example, "Hi, we are having a great day at the Workout Company.” Energy sells and is contagious and the transfer of this energy should start with the phone.

·        Learn to screen calls. Do not say, "Who is this please? Let me see if he is in.” This is just another way of saying, "Let me see if he wants to talk to your insignificant worthless soul.” It is always safe and sounds professional if you train your staff to say, "Fred is with a member (or is currently on another call). May I take your name and number please and a short message as to what the call concerns?”

·        Master appointments online to ease the phone volume. Next generation software, such as the new ASF scheduler, is a step forward for the members to be able to book online for training appointments and classes easing the flow through the front desk phones. Many of your older members, however, will still pick up the cell and pound the buttons but keep the online registration option at the front of their minds with Facebook and on your website.

Timeliness is the basis of respect: Respecting someone’s time is the first step in showing the client that you value them as people and as paying clients. Failure to respect their time is failure to respect their money and you only need to do this a few times before you lose the client forever. Here are a few simple ways to look at time and clients in the business:

·        On time for a training appointment is 15 minutes early. Trainers that have an appointment at 3:00 and show up at 3:00 should be fired. Respecting the client means the trainer is there at least 15 minutes early and has eaten, gone to the bathroom, brushed the teeth and is ready to set the client on fire with energy.

·        Training sessions and group classes of any kind should be a maximum of 50 minutes. Despite what the divas say, there is no valid reason to keep a group class going beyond 50 minutes. Those that insist on going that extra five minutes into the next classes time because they think it is extra value need to go home now and not come back. Many people do group because it is compartmentalized and breaking the rule of 50 minutes leaves a kid standing in the rain in the front of the school for another 20 minutes. This also goes for training sessions. If you can’t do it in 50 you simply aren’t a good enough trainer to do it at all. There is simply no valid training reason or service reason for a session or class to run past 50 minutes.

·        If you still have group exercise programs (aerobics for those of you over 40) your instructor has to be part of the service act. Instructors should walk through the club prior to their classes and invite people to join and the instructor should stand at the door and thank every single participant for taking part in the class today. Yes, you should give the instructor a few extra dollars for this but this is not an option for the instructor, it is mandatory for the instructor who wants to keep the class.

·        End all group personal training with the official Todd Durkin "group hug.” I learned this move from the master of energy himself. At the end of the group session, he calls everyone in, they give the group shout and then Todd thanks them as a group: "Thank you all for being my clients and for supporting my business.” Every group is thanked every time. If you take the money, say thank you.

Your personal image is still important: The trend today is to dress down but in small business you can create a stronger business environment by adding some style to your team. Here again are a few points worth considering:

·        Wear real clothes not baggy workout crap that always looks like you are an old crazy New Jersey lady walking the streets in South Beach. There are so many uniform options now available that there is no longer any reason to rely on tacky tee shirts or golf shirts. Honor your clients by dressing a little better than you think. If you are a trainer, develop your own personal uniform that makes you look professional. Club operators are notorious these days for the jeans and shirt out look, which is fine if you are trying to get naked with strangers on Saturday night but not so good if you are trying to build a business. Just remember that one badly dressed kid at the front counter is the image of your business when a potential member visits. Control your image by controlling the look of your staff.

Every member is thanked every time they leave the club: This isn’t a hard one to master. Simply teach the staff to say, "Thank you for stopping by today, we really appreciate your business.” If the staff has an issue with this or is shy and can’t say it, fire that person and get someone who is not afraid of saying thank you to a member who supports your business with their money and time.

There has never, ever been a club that is too clean: Most of you spend so much time in your business that you become club blind. This means that you no longer see dirt clutter, or decline in your physical plant. It is sort of like the middle aged guy who drives a Porsche, wears his ball cap backward, thinks oversized basketball shorts are cool and still wears the matching jersey. This is the guy who looks in the mirror and still sees himself as 21 and cool rather than 40 and pathetic. You see what you want to see and owners who are in a business more than they are at home stop seeing the business for what it really is.

I believe dirty clubs cost you more female members than any other issue. Get outside eyes to look at your club. Get retired people to clean it constantly during the day to create the perception that it is really clean because your members watched someone clean it. Hire mystery shoppers, or honest friends, to visit the club and give you an opinion. The club is never as clean as you hope, or as you think, so get some help here. One hint is that if you haven’t used a piece of equipment or other clutter sitting in the corners in the last 60 days then throw it out. Members equate clutter with being dirty.

The final service thought is that sometimes problem members are what are helping kill your member service. In some clubs, cliques form that destroys your image and work against your staff. This group of lifters or group exercise people feels the need to control the club and will set other members straight if they don’t follow the rules of the clique. The problem is that their rules often have little to do with the club rules. Part of mastering customer service is knowing when it is time to fire your members. Some just don’t play well with others and by letting them just carry on being a pain in the ass you hurt the overall image of your club. If that member bothers you, he is probably irritating many of your members too and it might be time to walk him to the curb.

Start your service training with the thought that the member is not replaceable. If you put this on the white board at the start of your service training you will realize that much of what we do in the business is not done to retain clients but merely to service the new ones before we run them out. The big question is, "If the member is truly not replaceable, and you have to keep every member you have or fail, what would you do different in customer service?”