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In this episode Brett and Rob discuss the following topics:
- How to build a community of raving fans
- How to create transformation programs and pack them out
- How Rob generated over 75 consultations from a simple online strategy
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Episode 19: Rob King Reveals How His 42 Day Programs Are Killing It For His Fitness Business
Transcript of EPISODE 19:
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to another fit profession podcast the number one podcast for fitness professionals looking to build their fitness business. If your after more clients, more income, and more free time then you have come to the right place visit Podcast.fitprofessional.com.au today.
Brett: Hello and welcome to another fit professional podcast I’m your host today Brett Campbell and today I have a very special guest hailing on the exact polar opposite time line to me I have my good friend from all the way across the world in New Finland Rob King. Now, Rob King you may have seen him on the internet he’s fast becoming a go-to fitness professional in the industry not only from the business side of things, but also in his transformation and contest that he has been running.
Rob is a power lifter and body-builder, and he’s a contributor to publication such as Teen Nation also Arnold Schwarzenegger Fitness blog and he’s also the curator of Ripped In Forty-Two which is a transformation program that is literally taking over his country, and I’m sure it’s going to be taking over the world very shortly. Rob brother thank you so much for taking the time out of your – its evening for you and morning for me so, thanks for spending your time with us today and we are really looking forward in sharing your insights into the industry.
I gave you a little bit of an over view to our listeners about yourself Rob, so I’m sure there is many fill in the blanks so, if you could give us a bit more in depth look who you are and what you do?
Rob: Yeah, sure, well basically my main job is a coach so, I’m a coach first and I own a business called “Heavy Weights Training Center” that is my main facility/gym. I also own a sport supplement store called, “Heavy Weight Supplements” so the background of my business initially I started off as a small little supplement store and that is what I did for basically years. Then through actually a business failure I opened up Heavy Weights Training Center and from there the training and the results and everything we did just started to take off like crazy.
Basically I transitioned from been known as kind of like, the supplement guy and then into the trainer and coach guy. Now, basically I coach about twenty to twenty-five hours a week and I coach everything from bikini competitors, power-lifters, to Olympic weight-lifting. We do body transformations and then on top of that entire…like you said, I write for Teen Nation and Schwarzeneger.com, and I’ve written for Elite pretty much you name the magazine I’ve written for them. All in all I love what I do and I’m pretty passionate about it and I can’t get enough.
Brett: Excellent, and also just another accolade to add to your traffic cabinet there you have just won the PT Power Personal Trainer of the year award as well and you got a Land Rover with that, right?
Rob: No the catch was is if the person who improves there on line marketing business the most gets the Land Rover. Well I thought I got the Land Rover so I was like, “Oh, [expletive]” so they called out, “PT Power Of The Year” which I’m very, very grateful for, but I basically they told beggers and told the people like, “Listen you might as well save that Land Rover for next year” I’m coming back to get that one as well.
Brett: Oh, [expletive] that’s a bummer I thought you had the Land Rover. My first…
Rob: So, did I…
Brett: My first thoughts were how are you going to split…?
Rob: We are going to split one PT Power I’m very big on goal setting and as soon as I won the trainer of the year award I literally texted, and I was like, “Dude that Land Rover is mine next year” I said, “I’m going to screen capture next year’s when I present and win that Land Rover I can talk about this.”
Brett: That’s crazy and I was wondering even how you would get it over to your country anyhow, so. It would have been a long drive.
Rob: It would have been a nice drive.
Brett: So, Rob I know we have touched upon you’re the creator of Ripped and Forty Two and I know you have several other different products and programs based on that methodology, so let’s chat about that, and how that has really transformed your business and how that – I guess has put you on the map in that sort of programming.
Rob: For sure, well what we have is at our gym we have a twenty-one day program which is like, a lead entry program to get people in our doors, but the focus for most of our training is to get people into Forty Two so, Ripped and Forty-Two is basically a forty-two day fat loss transformation program where everything we do is laid out from the training from the nutrition, supplements, the add home work outs, the goal setting, everything is mapped out for forty-two days it’s almost like, a full proof plan to get amazing results.
We have had so many transformations and so many amazing results that are what we are known for so we really get a lot of people that when they want to get in shape they come to us because we are known for results.
Brett: On the Forty-Two now you say you have a full proof system which is obviously the key in any particular business. I guess a couple of questions for you and that is what is your thought process for the person sitting there now going, “I don’t want to have to sell people in again every six weeks on a new program” what is your thought process behind that?
Rob: Well, this is a big learning curve for us in our business where everything initially was a Forty-Two day model and it was – what would happen is they would get amazing results for six weeks. We would have a one or two week break then we would have to resign them for another Forty-Two and it’s just kind of like, everybody was always chasing the carry of what’s next.
We built a couple of other Forty-Two day programs and we have one called “Stronger Than Forty-Two” and another one called “Built-In Forty-Two” with different focuses, but still coming in the day we were still always doing the Forty-Two model and constantly having to resell about to be a pain in the [expletive]. What our goal now is when somebody does a Forty-Two day program they then qualify to enter what’s called our “Heavy Weight Elite Program” and in our Elite program we have three levels based on strength.
Level one is no strength test level two we have a strength test and level three we have a strength and body weight test, so our gym is always based – we get them in for fat loss, but our big focus is always on trying to get strength and performance. When you do that you eat well and the results take care of themselves anywhere, so we get people in for fat loss and then we transition them and teach them how to weight train, and teach them how to strength train, so the elite programs are now becoming the backbone of our membership and also our results.
Brett: Excellent, so what you’re saying is your “Elite” programs are more of an ongoing style commitment to the customer?
Emily: Yeah, so what will happen a lot of people will come in and just do there Forty-Two and then they are happy that they lost their twenty-five pounds and they feel great, but then kind of pitch to them, “Well guys the Forty-Two is just a step in the right direction you can undo Forty-Two days of results in one bad week if you really lose it” so we always try to say with the Forty-Two it’s designed to show you our results and if you like, weight training and strength training, and the vibe at our gym then you should really think about our Elite program and that’s when we can really take your coaching and take your results and training to another level.
Michael has always pushed people as a coach and makes them uncomfortable and always challenges them to do things they didn’t think they could do. Just this past weekend alone I had sixteen competitors I believe myself included for a first ever weight lifting competition, so I really encouraged our clients, “You guys should do this competition” and I took basically eight weeks and trained them twice a week. I did this free as a service to our Elite members at no extra charge, and then I had sixteen people enter in the weight lifting competition which looked amazing for our gym and our clients loved it.
Brett: I guess the backbone of all of that now and creating all of these types of programs, and I see personally, because I know that you get literally thirty, forty, fifty plus people to your particular classes, so let’s talk about that in regards to the person listening going, “Is this all one on one based training or is group based training or small groups, semi-private, etc?”
Rob: Yeah, well we can have everything in a group anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five people in our group so, “Ripped & Forty-Two” “Stronger Built” we have about fifteen to twenty-five people we try to cap the classes at twenty-five. Then what we do in every group we have a lead coach who kind of does the program design that runs the class and who basically controls it. Then on top of that we have two other coaches who assist, so we always have at least three coaches sometimes four, and then if we have two stations three stations sometimes four stations we always have a coach with the station that is technical. If somebody is doing a squat or leg lift or bench press they always have a coach watching. If somebody is doing like a weighted carry or sled-push we don’t necessarily have to coach them, but we usually have anywhere from two to three coaches for every program that we run.
Brett: Excellent, and I guess it’s because I guess what you would say a different format of the general standard group and boot camp training things out there, because you do really focus on a lot of strength based Olympic lifting those style of lifts. What sort of steered you towards that methodology versus getting people in more of a boot camp scenario and running around the park type of thing?
Rob: Well it’s just basically getting back true to what I believe and I am passionate about which is lifting weights that is my background. The name of myself and the company when I started was “Heavy Weights” funny enough I almost changed the name of business because I thought it was too hard core years ago, and I’m glad that I didn’t. Our gym is based on strength training and lifting and we try to educate and teach people that you can lose body fat and transform your body by lifting.
There is a big myth that if you want to lose fat you have to do cardio and conditioning and while that stuff has its benefits nothing beats weight training you know and increasing muscle and building more strength it just works wonders. For me as a coach I would sit there and coach for four to five hours and teach people how to lift and how to lift weights and get stronger, and then I would put them through a boot camp type of work out. I initially started doing a lot of that stuff, but it just wasn’t my passion and I couldn’t get into it so, we started focusing more on strength training and that is what I became passionate about and everything from there just took off.
Brett: Excellent, and you did right and anyone out there listening it always does come back to passion because I always tell any personal trainer that I’m speaking to there are dozens of different ways on how to achieve a specific result, but if you have to turn up to a particular training session and train somewhere in a format that you’re not passionate about you are not going to last too long, and it’s going to transfer over to the client and they are going to feel your negative energy towards it and your business just isn’t going to last.
Rob I guess in regards to, I know your really big on just like we are with our Fiit Chick Transformations Programs is it’s all about a community so, let’s talk about building a community for a moment, and if you can give us you know what would be your three tips on how to build a raving community of people who just want to keep coming back?
Rob: For sure I remember thirty years ago I went to a seminar with a guy I’m sure a lot of people probably know of, but have probably forgotten about over the years and that’s Bill Phillips and he was the number one guy years ago for doing the body transformations with Body For Life transformation. I did a seminar with him and at the seminar he said, “The number one thing for growing your fitness business and getting results is community” and I was like, “What the [expletive] is he talking about” community like, I didn’t really get it.
I thought the nutrition would matter more the training, program everybody looks at the details, and I started to pay more attention to our community our culture at our gym. When I did that everything started to change so, I always so at our gym we are not a gym we are a fitness family, so we have a very tight community at our gym. In building community I really want like, a heavy weight training center to be like this third place so to me number one is make your gym and make your facility the third place.
That is what Starbucks did so well and capitalized on and people have their home and their work and they always want that third place. Our place is basically like a fitness version of Cheers where everybody know your name, so if somebody comes to our place it’s their third place where they come to and they love it. On top of that to the second thing with community is I think building private facebook group is very important, because you always want to extend the conversation of the people who are in your facility.
So, if they are in there for one hour maybe three four days a week the rest of the time they are going to need interaction and support and that’s where facebook comes in very well. I used to have a message board and I got away from that and just creating a private facebook group really, really works. We always do charity workout so I think another big thing to be number three is to always give back, so last night alone we did a big group workout where I dressed up in a tutu and a power-lifting one-Z to basically get people in for some fun and we raised over a thousand dollars for Children’s Make A Wish so I think you really have to build your community and you really have to be getting your clients to know one another and look forward to coming to your gym, and always be giving back, because I’m a firm believer that to get everything you want in life you have to help others get what they want. We always do fundraisers, and I think last year alone we raised over twenty thousand dollars in charity, so w are always trying to give back as much as we can.
Brett: Awesome, and it’s actually quite funny that you talk about the tutu I think we may be on the same wave length here so just to give you a bit of an over view…obviously I’m a massive believer in a facebook group. We have our Fiit Chick Transformations and we have over close to fourteen thousand females in that group and they are communicating literally daily and they are daily posting and they are saying how the group has changed their life and the interaction and that type of stuff. We actually ran a bit of a charity fundraiser ourselves and funny enough mate I ended up – I don’t know what it is with us, but I ended up dressing up in a tutu and had to do some burps.
Rob: That’s awesome.
Brett: I think the takeaway point though there is to be real and people like, people who are real and at the end of the day fitness can be quite a drag for a lot of people. Whilst us personal trainers, fitness professionals love it and we train our ass off every day we need to understand that the general public isn’t like that so if we can add another reason or thing that will just get them into you know what, “I’m going to turn up to training today or I’m going to take that next step” then we certainly are doing our job there.
Rob: You have got to make it fun I firmly believe that people sign up for results, but they stay for the experience and you constantly have to be active for getting results and pushing them and getting their goals, but also by making your stuff fun. If you make it fun people are just going to be drawn to you because, it’s so much fun and everybody thinks of fitness as been, “I got to do twenty minutes on the cardio machine” and there I none of that [expletive] is urgent man everyday you come into our gym and the energy just hits you in the face, so you have to have a lot of fun and always be yourself be unique, make your gym a big quirky, make it really cool and different don’t be like everyone else.
Brett: I guess in regards to your journey Rob you know you’ve done a lot of things and generally what comes along with achieving a lot of success there is always generally a lot of…I don’t like using the word failures, but a lot of people can relate to it there are a lot of lessons that have been learnt along the way. Give us a couple of your biggest business lessons that you’ve had that will help other people out there now to be able to avoid them?
Rob: I’m a firm believer that out of the worst things in life come the best things in life and I really believe that, and I’ve had my struggles and my hardships and it’s been crazy and it still is and that’s life and business. I had a martial arts business called “Fushi-Do & A Nail” and it was me and a business partner we had it going and the business was just failing we just couldn’t get people in and we couldn’t get people to stick. We had almost a full year and it almost bankrupted me and my girlfriend and I we made the decision to pull the plug on this or we have to do something different this isn’t working.
We decided to change Fushi-Do and then opened up “Heavy Weights Training Center” literally like, over Christmas we said, “Okay let’s change it” change the sign I said, “Okay listen to the other guy you’re out” I’m going to start coaching and at the time I had not coached anybody I used to work on myself and then store it and I wasn’t a coach or personal trainer and just basically said [expletive] it and I’m going to do this, but if I’m going to do it I’m going to be the best guy I’m not going to be second best to anybody I’m going to kick-ass.
From there we just made the decision to just make the change and go for it so out of failure came success so, I think failing is a good thing as long as you know that you have to know when to quit and you have to know when to keep moving forward. I think failing is a good teaching opportunity and I think one of the things that made a huge difference and I’m sure you can attest to this as well is getting a mentor and getting a coach. I was in business for years and I thought I knew everything I had this closed minded you know approach you know I’d been in business forever and therefore; I know everything in actuality I didn’t.
I didn’t even know what the word marketing meant and when I got a coach and travelled outside and left New Finland and went somewhere different and meet new people all of a sudden my mind opened up. Once that happened everything from there just – today even know I always say I’m the biggest student as much as my business is successful. Last year at my gym alone I did a million dollars in revenue I’m still the biggest student out there in terms of attending seminars, networking, and learning, but I just think failure can be a great teacher. To not be afraid to fail, but also to get a coach and be constantly learning it’s very important.
Brett: Yeah, definitely again, can testify to that and I’m a big believer in getting a coach in all different areas.
Rob: Sure.
Brett: Don’t try and just find the one coach who can try and show you everything because, everyone has strengths and for me it’s all about getting that – an example is I’m just going through some things with my fusion-soft at the moment like, really advanced type strategies that we are creating and I hit a road-block and I’m like, okay and I reached out to a particular group of people and all of a sudden there is an expert there now I’m going to pay them for their time to be able to show me what I need to do. It’s definitely that method of you know you need to invest in yourself and your future.
Rob: Yeah, don’t be afraid to ask for help I think once be become entrepreneurs we become like an island and we think we can do everything, but getting help and having on your team and asking for help is a very good thing to do.
Brett: I run some business events over here “Fitness Business Blue Print” so it’s a one day business event where I teach personal trainers and fitness professionals how to run a successful group fitness model. One of the things I say is I say, “How many hours did it take for you to become a personal trainer?” and you know you could spend anywhere on a hundred plus hours on learning how to become a personal trainer. That allows you then to only teach someone how to a squat and take them through an exercise regime, right?
Now, I say on the flip side, “How many of you actually spent over five hours learning marketing or sales?” and no one can put their hand up and it’s like, no wonder you are expected to come out of a hundred hour fitness course with no sales experience to then try and sell people into your program, unbelievable. If we were to segway onto marketing now, I know you’re a sharp marketer and you have to be to have a business that turns over a million dollars a year. What you say if you had to describe or give us your number one marketing tip right now that is helping you get people through the doors? What would you say that would be?
Rob: The thing with marketing is I love doing it so if I had to get up and market for two to three hours a day I enjoy doing it and therefore; the time does not matter, but first of all if you don’t enjoy it and you’re not good at it outsource it. You are better of trying to get help with the things you’re not good at instead of trying to do it yourself. I didn’t know anything about marketing, but once I started to learn it I really enjoyed it so, for me once I started learning about the whole marketing idea I feel in love with it and even today the first thing I do when I get up and work at home all day is I widen my market and then I coach, so it’s really good.
The one thing I always try and do is I’ve always tried to differentiate my business of what Rob King Heavy Weights is all about compared to everybody else so I show our transformations and strengths, I show that we are very different so I’m always staying true to what I believe in and what my core business and philosophy is for the business. I also believe business wise I use facebook very heavily and I’m a big believer in building my email list so I’m constantly trying to build my facebook following and build my email list.
Those are the two big ones that I really focus on and of course building community results for people that have found you and talk about you, but I’m constantly on facebook and I’m constantly trying to build my email list all the time.
Brett: What would be a couple of ways on how you build your email list if someone is out there going, “Well I want an email list but I’m not really sure how to or where to start what would your advise be?”
Rob: Well, the simple thing is even if you just look at building an email list from local people so every time we do a free workout like, a charity workout I’m constantly building my local email list from that and I’m also giving away free program. I just did one the other day where I gave away a free fourteen day program online and said, “Here I want to help New Finlanders lose weight it’s my mission to transform New Finlanders here is a fourteen day program you can do at home.” I created a survey page basically where they fill out some information and then at the bottom it basically says, “Would you like to talk to one of our fitness coaches about our free consultation?” and in one day – I’m pretty good at creating these pages, but somebody could easily just model my page and pay a graphic designer person a code person a hundred dollars to do it.
In one day I picked up a hundred and fifty emails and seventy five consultations free it didn’t cost me anything so it’s a fantastic way to do it, but I always give-a-way’s I do surveys, squeeze pages everything like that so just keep testing, but find what works and stick with it.
Brett: I love that model of you know you give first to receive.
Rob: The crossing works then.
Brett: It does and until you actually witness and see what it can do for example our meal plan has been downloaded by three hundred thousand people in the last two years, so we give first and then – what I love there and would like to talk a little bit more about is about more of the specifics of – They download the free fourteen day program then they get directed to an opportunity to take up a consultation.
Rob: Now, the way I actually do it actually is I have everything on the one page where… on the one page is like, an intro when I talk about my passion to help New Finalanders and help people and how you can get a free fourteen program by doing these four steps. Step one is basically a facebook code where it says they have to like the page and share the page, so immediately then by liking it it builds up the likes, and then by sharing it it goes to facebook virally for free so then it appears in their new feed.
The second step is to have them fill out a little simple survey and the survey is almost like questions where I’m looking for more information about what is troubling them and what is giving them problems. So, it might be, “What is your main goal? Is it fat loss? Building muscle? Feeling better? Do you have a gym membership? Are you currently happy with your fitness levels?” then basically as they go through this – this is giving me pre- qualified information, and the second last thing is, “Would you like a free fitness council that Heavy Weights valued at fifty dollars?” and the dropdown box is yes or no.
They fill out that they want all of this stuff and then they say, “Yes” and it comes to me as an email and my sales consultant then knows this person wants to lose weight and they have a gym membership and they are not happy with their goals. When they go to do the sales meeting which is basically the fitness consultation they already have all this information on the client in order to help them with their needs. Then the final one is basically enter your email to get the fourteen day program, and it all takes under three to five minutes and the amount of leads and traffic I get it’s free and it’s really good qualified information for sales and also that I build my ebox.
Brett: The powerful thing about that is that it’s local email so the local people in your community whether they decide to take up that consultation now you’ve now got their email so you can remarket to them on a continual basis.
Rob: Yes, so they basically like my heavy weight training center page and also get their emails so I’ve been testing this out now till they decide to go bigger with it and give away online programs, so I get it dialed in nice and then my plan is to basically take it bigger and just make it more online so it’s not just local.
Brett: What’s the URL for that Rob if someone wants to check that out?
Rob: Let me take a quick look for you now. Let’s see if I can find it.
Brett: While Rob is looking for that it’s really important to hammer home the fact that there are many different modalities and different ways you can market and this is just one single strategy that Rob has out there.
Rob: Yeah, I’m always testing different things and this is the one I found recently that is really working. If you go to Heavyweightstrainingcenter.com/Rob-King-fitness-survey, now a couple of weeks ago and it’s already gone to seven likes which also gives me seven hundred more likes on my coaching page and I think from that one alone I got within the first week over two hundred and fifty emails.
Brett: That’s great so let’s just repeat that Heavyweightstrainingcenter.com/Rob-King-fitness-survey and it’s basically called my one minute weight loss survey.
Brett: I’ll put that on the show notes of this episode to so head over to Fiitprofessional.com.au and check out the episode with Rob King and you will be able to check that out. Like Rob said you know I’m sure Rob is not going to matter if you look at this and go, “Great I want to create a similar strategy” because I can tell you this right now I’ll be going to check it out myself and seeing the process. I guess on that Rob the next step from there they enter the details and if they are interested in a consultation what is then, and this I guess is where a lot of people get it wrong that seway from, “What do I actually talk to them about on the phone to get them into the actual fitness center” so what is your main strategy or tips about the phone call?
Rob: Basically by them filling out thing and saying would they like the free fitness consultation they are already inclined, “Yes they want it” so they have agreed to it so I have a very simple honest responder series set up showing our results not really pitching anything else not selling anything just showing them transformations, but I’m very lucky now that recently I have developed a sales staff so that – one of my sales reps basically then talk to the person. I like coaching I don’t necessary like selling some people are very good at it I’m not I can sell like I’m sure if I wanted to. I hate the word close, but if I wanted to close nine out of ten people I could but I’m much happier coaching people and I would spend my four or five hours at my gym coaching than I would selling.
Luckily I have got a really good sales team in place and that is what they do they follow up with the lead and I email every single person personally as well. I still totally respond every time somebody signs up for that free survey I always reply back and just say, “Hey it’s Rob King here thanks so much for your interest my Manager will be in touch with you. Look forward to seeing you at Heavy Weights and if I can help you with anything here is my personal email.” I usually do that every single day for twenty or fifteen minutes and I know a lot of people would say, “It’s a waste of time” but to me behind every lead behind every person that signs up is a real person and I really believe that we have to help people and not look at them in terms of numbers, but we have to look at them in terms of people. My sales staff is really good at that and then my job is when they sign up I get to coach them.
Brett: In regards to the process here and I guess before we do move onto that I just want to really highlight a couple of things you just said there. I would damn near say that ninety-nine percent of people wouldn’t do because you have order respond to setups you still actually personally send them a personal email from your own personal email address.
Rob: Yep.
Brett: Fantastic, and that’s called going the extra mile and that does not surprise me one bit that you do that so that’s fantastic mate. In regards to the step from your sales staff now ringing up the new prospect what are your steps there do you get them in for a consult and take them through and sell them one of the programs?
Rob: We always try get them in the gym I think it’s much easier to get people to come into our facility and see our vibe and results and culture and they will be just like, “Wow this is really cool” and I’m also okay with people coming in and been, “No this isn’t for me” our gym is very different it’s not for everybody. We try to get them in the door and show them our results and basically make them feel comfortable immediately. We don’t do much actually over the phone ask some people that sign up I would say about half the people that join our gym actually register online without coming in its only recently we have started doing the fitness counsels just to try and get more people involved in personal training. That is fifty percent of my sales for people doing forty two’s and twenty ones come right over the internet in virtually one shopping cart.
Brett: Great fantastic so in regards to your business Rob you’ve had like we just touched upon you know some of the main lessons that you have had so far in business now there is always advise and yeah, no doubt you would of heard a lot of advise over time and I’m always interested to hear from successful people like yourself. What is the best advise you’ve been given and it does not necessarily have to be business advice, but what is the best piece of advice that has stuck with you?
Rob: I would say man never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever [expletive] give up like, I’ve been hit by some stuff that would kill most people or most people would just fold, and to me I know that sometimes it’s rough and you have to just get through things, and that to me is just always overcome it and persevere because I love what I do and can’t imagine doing anything else. To me if I had to give any advice it’s really just stay true to yourself from when the hard times hit just keep moving forward because on the other side of that is something great and I really believe that most people who fail in business they are probably doing the same thing and expecting different results. When things get hard you have to get better and to me when something gets rough it’s an opportunity to become a better coach, business person, and a better person, so to me I’m grateful for the struggle, but when things got hard don’t give up keep pushing forward and find a way.
Brett: Let’s talk about that for a moment because to the person who could be sitting there going, “It’s easy to say never give up” it’s easy to say that, but when you’re actually in the moment you know that’s when it’s really tough, right?
Rob: Oh, yeah.
Brett: What are some key things that you do when you know something is not working it’s not feeling right and your feeling that lull what are some key things you do some action steps or strategies that you implement to make sure you can get out of that rut and boost yourself further faster?
Rob: Well one thing I do is I rely a lot more on my team I have a good team of people around me and it’s very easy for me to think I’m always right and have got the best opinion and the best advice, but it’s very easy once you get to a certain level or you have been something so long to sometimes miss the things that are right in front of you. I’m always asking for advice and opinions of the people around me, and I don’t necessarily make my decisions based on that, but I always try to weigh it in. Sometimes people can see things from a different perspective that you can’t as an owner or trainer so it’s always good to build a team. It’s always important to I think business wise to try and build up almost like a base of cash and good credit so, you always want to have like, what I call a “security fund’ or an “in case of [expletive] fund.”
If you’re a business owner and something hits you like, our gym last month we got hit with huge bill for air conditioning it was like a thirty thousand HVAC system we had to put in or we would have been shut down. Like, no joke the building didn’t have it and one of my competitors made a complaint against me for not having it, so then this operations person from OHS shows up and they are like, “You have thirty days to get this in or we have to shut you down” so most people would be like, “Oh, [expletive] we are done” but, to me it’s like, “This sucks but let’s solve this problem” so luckily I saved enough money and I always tried to develop a bit of money in case of [expletive], so we managed to basically pay that off. We didn’t in-occur any debt from it and got over that hump and now our gym is only better. I think that if you’re not thinking long-term for your business you’re going to be [expletive] in the end. You have to think of where you business going to be five, ten, fifteen years from now and not just three years from now.
Brett: Did you send a letter to your competitor thanking them?
Rob: The only thing I need to do for my competitors is keep getting better because the better I get it just pisses them off, so I’m okay with that.
Brett: Yeah, dead right. I want to move into some quick fire questions and you just rattle off the first things that sort of come into your head there. What is your number one technological resource? There are so many different Apps and things out there that can help you with your business, but what is your go to technical resource?
Rob: Good question, I basically blog a lot and I love to write and social media and facebook so if I do anything it’s basically build my email list I use facebook to build my following and then use my blog to educate, motivate, and to kind of put my personality out there. With video, writing and everything I’ve been spending as much time as possible which has then opened up other doors for me in terms of writing for magazines. I’m working on a couple of books now for this year so I think find a couple of good things you’re good at and just keep going with those things.
Brett: Excellent, where do you think the fitness industry is heading in the next three years?
Rob: I think everybody needs to get away from this cheap model of low cost boot camp, low cost business, and low cost gym memberships because it’s not going to work, right, and it’s going to die. I think the more that you can specialize and create culture, value, and create something unique you’re going to attract in enough people that will pay for your service. I think the sooner that people can get away from cardio machine and ten dollar a month gyms the better.
Brett: What is your best book that you have ever read and you would recommend to our listeners?
Emily: Good question. [Expletive] my library [expletive] huge… The Go-Giver was a really good book I love that book it was just so simple, amazing, really good. What is the other one? I was a big Bruce Lee fan so I used to read a lot of Bruce Lee stuff like, Bruce Lee philosophy stuff way back in the day I really liked that stuff. I wish I was in my office now I just have so many man it’s just like…I actually read so many books before I really read enough of them anymore I only read them when I travel. I just think I you can get through like one book every two or three weeks you’re doing pretty well.
Brett: Where is Rob King heading in the next five years what can we expect to see?
Rob: I have plans to expand my business I want to have a least three to five Heavy Weights facilities across Canada. My goal is to be one of if not the top guy on the internet in terms of coaching, writing and I’m on my way there now kind of like the transformations we are having in New Finland I want to take that bigger and better and hit Canada and hit the United States and wherever with it so I’m just really working hard to build my base in terms of writing and blogging and becoming better at my craft always improving and getting better. I also want to help as many people as possible and stay true to myself.
Brett: Excellent, and what would your last piece of parting advice be to the listeners today who’s wanting to take themselves to the next level and wanting to increase their business, but they are a little bit stuck and they aren’t really sure what path to take. What would your advice be?
Rob: Have faith in yourself and believe you can do it and go [expletive] do it you know at our gym you have to think about the wall as soon as you walk in it says, “Get comfortable been uncomfortable” everyday at my business I’m doing something where it’s like, “Man I don’t want to do this” and then I force myself to do it. I was so nervous when I first started coaching I remember doing my first group of four people and having a severe panic attack driving to work that day because I had to coach four people for a circuit class.
Then last night I coached a hundred people wearing a tutu and it didn’t bother me at all so I really think you have to push your envelope, do the things you don’t want to do, work on your craft, and stop making excuses you have to [expletive] get [expletive] done and keep getting uncomfortable.
Brett: Excellent, so Rob where can our listeners find out more about yourself and follow you?
Rob: Hit me up at facebook.com/RobKingfitness and then my blog as well its RobKingfitness.com and my personal email is RobKingfitness@gamil.com.
Brett: Excellent, so Rob brother thank you once again mate it’s been a pleasure.
Rob: Thank you.
Brett: Looking forward to you coming over the ditch here and getting out of that snowy minus…freezing.
Rob: Like I told you it’s on the list for this year when I write something on my list it gets done so I’m looking forward to it.
Brett: I hope so tell me when the tickets booked and we will start planning.
Rob: You got it man if you do a business event or something let me know.
Brett: Yeah, a hundred percent you’ll be there.
Rob: Guaranteed.
Brett: All right well thanks a lot Rob and mate we will be speaking very soon.
Rob: Cheers thank you for the opportunity I enjoyed it hopefully this will help people.
Brett: Hundred percent.
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