So, this is for you guys that have bought one of those $97 programs from an ex PT about how to turn your business into a six figure income bonanza.
Geez, that looked good didn’t it? Sitting there on Facebook, wondering when the money was going to hit the bank account that the client had promised to pay today, only to see them posting that they’d arrived in Fiji for their holiday…
The gurus promised you more money.
They promised you more money, for less work.
They promised you more money if only you would follow their lessons on how to sell, their way, because their way worked GODDAMMIT.
But…however…wait a minute…
The next time you’re tempted to fork over your own hard earned to them, think about a few things.
1.) How did you find out about their product? Duh. Facebook. If their sales technique is so awesome, and they never have to look for leads, because they literally have hundreds of them coming in every week…why did you just read their ad or see their vlog post? Here’s a tip for you then: Copy and paste their entire ad, change a few words and the weblinks to your own brand new niche website, and pay some coin to Facebook to promote it. By the time the cotton on, you’ll have creamed hundreds of thousands from unsuspecting dupes and be living high on the hog in The Maldives.
2.) Just because they are sitting around in the middle of the day on their yacht doesn’t mean it’s their yacht. Don’t get sucked in by appearances. Find out the full story first. Anyone can make a website, or do a YouTube post these days. Dig deeper on their background. Did they fail along the way? Did they almost go to the wall? Did they have to start all over again?
3.) They work HOW many hours a week exactly? Four? Nine? That’s incredible…amazing…bullshit…you can’t run any sort of real business, the type that takes money for a service and actually delivers on what it says it will do, without devoting time to actually deliver a service. It’s all well and good to say, “Fuck that, get on the phone and sell”, but when your business relies on you to actually deliver the service, and follow up on client issues, then you are going to be putting in a LOT of hours to do that. It’s the Fitness industry, you get paid for your time and knowledge. You can’t just up in the middle of a PT session and get on the phone and sell. Sell fucking what? You can’t sell fresh air! But, it appears, you can sell smoke and mirrors.
4.) Some ‘gurus’ are really guruical. I just made that word up because I’m too busy to go and see what the real word is but you get my drift I hope. Some of the people selling their knowledge onto you, have done the time in the industry, actually know about training clients, nutrition needs, training methodologies, injury prevention and rehabilitation, have taken time to read thousands of studies to better understand what it is they do. Some have done the back breaking work of owning gyms, or multiple gyms, training clients on the floor for tens of thousands of hours to better themselves.
Some are just douchebags.
5.) If it looks like shit, and smells like shit, it’s MLM. Being invited to seminars to listen to former dentists tell you how they had an epiphany and turned to selling supplements or home cleaners is pretty lame. “Yes, I went from charging clients literally thousands of dollars to fix up their fangs an hour, to earning a commission on what some poor sod in Rwanda sold to his neighbour, because my job wasn’t fulfilling me.” You can passive income my arse thanks, I’ll take money for delivering REAL value to someone.
6.) The gurus tell you to tell everyone how much money you are making. Post that shit all over Facebook baby. “My client just sold $450k this week.” “I just did $20k today.” I can tell you from experience, that having people SAY they are going to pay you for a service or event is all well and good. You can say you ‘sold’ that much any time you like, if you really want to. Just as soon as you have their money, and have delivered the goods. Mind you, anyone posting about how much they actually make on their Facebook page, and has clients of theirs able to see it, might want to think about how that looks to their client. Clients aren’t complete fools, they know they’re paying for a service, but to see you post about how much you made…and not mention the word ‘value’ in there might just mean you collected your last dollar/pound/dinar from them. A little humility goes a long way.
7.) Video killed the up and coming star, video killed the up and coming star. Well, that was in time with the music in my head. My point is about credibility. You’re a wannabe Pop PT star. You have the cut and paste copy from your business coach (and don’t we all get tired of seeing that endlessly on our newsfeeds when we all know who your business coach is and we’re all friends on Facebook?) You can post about how amazing your sales techniques are, and then you go and post a video of your clients performing a routine, or worse, yourself. You may not know this fact, but sometimes people talk behind your back. About you. About your technique. Give them an opportunity to dissect any of that by not being above par, and you lose credibility. Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200.
I was going to get to 10 points, but I think I am making my point.
Gurus, as much as they love you, love your money more. Give them your money by all means, and you may just learn some amazing skills that you can apply to your business and make a very large amount of money. As one industry professional stated recently, you SHOULD make money, and lots of it. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. But you won’t make it just by buying into the six figure income argument.
Someone has to deliver your product or service. That’s you. That’s time, and effort, and lack of sleep, and stress and hard grind. That’s what you have to get into your head. You can have any product that will teach you the skills you need, but unless you are prepared to work harder than you have before, it will amount to nothing. Nothing I tell you, because there is no quick solution to get you out of your financial hole.
That’s really why you bought that sales tool anyway isn’t it? Because you are in a financial shit pit, and you want to get out of it quickly. So you sit there on Facebook waiting for the perfect product to appear so that you can buy your way out of trouble, when all along you really had all of the tools that you needed to go and make more money and get more clients. You have a qualification, and you have the power of speech.
We all laugh (even on the inside) at people that buy all of the magic potions and snake oils for fat loss, knowing that none of it works and a fool and his money are soon parted, and yet…we are looking for quick fixes too.
If you REALLY want to create a huge income for yourself, and have the yacht and the six figure income, you are going to have to go to work, and work out how to give your clients the value they deserve.
That will be $97 thanks…
Matt Jolley is a Fitness and Adventure coach and doesn’t have a six pack. He’s cool with it.
