Cause & Effect [Progress Thread]

[luminis_]

Hey All! Long-time lurker here.

After meeting some of the Fastlaners in Toronto yesterday for a great lunch, I got inspired to post to the forum more and chronicle my entrepreneurship journey. I plan to update this thread every Sunday and periodically contribute to forum posts throughout the week.

But first, some quick background info...

• 23 years old
• Started a marketing agency about 6 months ago and got 3 clients in different industries
• Achieved minor success, but realized very quickly that the "operational drag" of serving 3 different niches and providing 3 different service offerings was not going to be sustainable
• Decided to niche down into helping gym owners scale their business and get more long-term paying members
• My goal is to build this into a fastlane business that makes $100K / month in profit
• So far, I've booked 3 sales calls (2 for this week) - I have not made a sale yet
• I've cold-called about 300 gyms so far

The plan for this week:

• Make at least 100 cold calls per day
• Send at least 20 personalized emails per day (see below for more info)
• Track market feedback and iterate as needed
• Watch 1 hour of training per day (how to run FB ads, email copy, cold call tips, mindset, etc.)

The Cold Call Script

"Hi, is this the owner of [GYM]? OR if I know their name Hi, is [NAME] around?

Perfect, so I’m gonna be honest with you, this is a cold call, I have something that’s going to help your gym. Would you like to hang up now or give me 30 seconds and then decide?

I’m starting this company and I’m helping gym owners like yourself fill up their facilities, get more members, and keep them for many many years.

Does this sound interesting to you?"

I would really appreciate any feedback from cold callers on the forum - I'm finding it challenging to garner interest and stand out from the rest of the marketers who are calling gyms constantly. The offer needs to resonate with them more, but I've yet to figure out how to structure it in a unique and compelling way. On the bright side, I'm finding it relatively easy to get passes gatekeepers, but still come across the "but why are you calling?" - again, would greatly appreciate any cold callers on the forum!


The Personalized Emails

I am experimenting with an email that leads in with free value upfront - specifically, I'm providing a custom FB Ad template + copy as an attachment to the email to stand out from the sea of other agencies pitching to gym owners. Not sure how it's going to perform, but I'm going to send out at least 50 emails + follow-ups and track the data. I've attached a sample of what the freebie would look like, would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

I'm also bulking and training at the gym (currently weigh 133 lbs at 5 foot 6, with the goal of bulking to 150 lbs) - training 5-6x per week and mixing in cardio at least 2x per week.

So that's where I am at right now - I'm looking forward to being a regular contributor to the forum and evolving my business and character. I hope to share as much value as I can along the way and connect with you all!

 

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[luminis_]

The Week of July 17th, 2023​

It was a humbling week, here are the stats:



Nowhere close to the 100 dials and 20 emails per day metrics I set for myself. And a straight-up zero day on Thursday (mindset binging). BUT, there is some data that I've been able to work with and I came to a few useful conclusions.

Highlights:

• Booked 4 sales calls in total (although one of them was a no-show)
• Had a great call yesterday with a gym owner who just started ramping up her marketing efforts last week. She wanted to speak with her business partner first, and I have another call with her next week to close the first deal hopefully
• Hit a couple of PRs at the gym, including 50 lbs for 3 reps on the incline dumbbell bench press
• Made a conscious effort to actually start eating healthy - changing one meal at a time, starting with lunch (simple roasted potatoes, broccoli, + meat)

Lowlights

• Did not hit my outreach targets for the week. I overestimated how many calls I could make within the time frame I set (I dial from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM every day and then work my day job WFH) - could definitely find some pockets of time throughout the day to make sure I hit my targets
• I only got 3 responses from my emails with all being a hard "NO!" Also, a lot of my emails are bouncing, so there is a lot of work that needs to be done in the process of scraping the leads (currently using Apollo.io for emails and Google Maps for numbers)
• I haven't made my first close yet
• Inconsistent with hitting my calorie and macro benchmarks for the week - still at 133 lbs

What I'm thinking about

• Cold calling has been the best form of outreach right now when compared to emailing - however, I don't know if it's a lead quality problem, a communication problem, or a combination of both. I'm going to have to do some digging and figure out exactly what's going on (a lot of emails are bouncing, no responses after 3 follow-ups, etc..) Another thing is gym owners are generally on their feet the whole day (classes, personal training, working out, etc.) - so it may be easier to catch them on the phone
• Using Hormozi's "constraint" decision-making process - I'm pretty confident I can get at least 2-3 sales calls a week right now. The problem is that I am not CLOSING any of them. Therefore, I've been taking sales training and I'm currently going through Sam Ovens' module about sales in his Consulting Accelerator course.
• While training will be useful, I'm assuming with enough repetition, my sales calls will naturally become better over time.
• I would like to scale up my outreach (so it's not just me sending all the emails) but I'm thinking it's a better idea to nail my communication/offer before hiring VAs and using automation. I'm not sure if this is the right frame of thinking

The Week Ahead

• Reducing the daily cold call goal to 50 dials per day. Once I can prove that I can make 50 dials every day, then I'll increase it every week
• Before sending out any more emails, I will scrape better-quality data that doesn't get bounced or buried in a non-usable address. After that, I'm setting the goal of 10 emails per day and increasing it until I can prove to be consistent
• Going to eat a consistent healthy lunch every day, consisting of beef + roasted potatoes + broccoli. At this point, my goal is to reach my maintenance calories and slowly increase from there by replacing my existing meals with healthy options
• Keep working out at the gym and hit PRs on the main compound lifts

Questions for the Fastlaners

• What are your recommended lead scraping tools for local businesses - especially for emails and phone numbers?
• What are some email best practices to ensure deliverability is high and bounce rate is low (I've been using Instantly.ai to warm up email accounts)
• What do you think of my cold call script (in the previous post)?
• How do you track outreach data effectively?
• How do you know when to change your approach or iterate based on market feedback, when it comes to cold emails/messages?

That's all for this week, still experimenting with the format for these posts, so bear with me. Hope everyone has a GREAT week ahead!

 

[luminis_]

The Week of July 24th, 2023​

Just a quick update for this week

Had a waveform week - what do I mean by that? Here's how it went:

Monday

"Ugh not really feeling it this morning, woke up super tired. Let's pick up the phone anyways and go with the motions, just stay consistent and keep putting cause to effect"

*5 cold calls later*

"Meeting booked!! Let's goo, so glad that I stayed persistent"

*20 more cold calls later*

"Another one!! Woohoo, this week is going to be GREAT! Let's stop cold calling now and watch some sales training videos so I can secure the deals (totally gonna ignore my 50 call quota)"

Tuesday

"Alright, today's the day - we got 2 calls lined up, one is a follow-up from last week and one is from yesterday's cold calling session"

I get a text from the first caller saying something along the lines of: "Hey limunis_, we're not comfortable spending money on marketing right now, let's cancel today's meeting"

"Ok fair - not the end of the world, still have a call with this other gym that I booked from Monday's cold calling day"

*crickets*

Another no-show and I could not get him to reply to my emails or texts.

Wednesday

"Yesterday was a bit of a dud - but we still have one more call for later today, let's crush it!"

*crickets*

Yet another no-show.


I ended up reaching the 50 cold calling quota on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Friday was a religious holiday (sad occasion) so didn't feel appropriate to make cold calls that week. And to be completely transparent, I threw away this weekend in favour of pointless YouTube videos.

Regarding the no-shows, I watched a great video from Charlie Morgan who taught a pretty simple but profound lesson:

"Don't suggest a time for the prospect!"

Instead of saying "How does 3 PM tomorrow work for you?" I am going to start by saying "How is your availability today or tomorrow?"

Then double down and confirm it 24 hours before, 10 minutes before, and on different social media platforms.

This week, I need to get the gears rolling again. Head-down and dialling. I finally set up an online phone dialer using Go High Level so that should speed up things a lot.

But yea, still no clients.

Keep putting causes to effect.

Crush this week

 

[WJK]

Hey All! Long-time lurker here.

After meeting some of the Fastlaners in Toronto yesterday for a great lunch, I got inspired to post to the forum more and chronicle my entrepreneurship journey. I plan to update this thread every Sunday and periodically contribute to forum posts throughout the week.

But first, some quick background info...

• 23 years old
• Started a marketing agency about 6 months ago and got 3 clients in different industries
• Achieved minor success, but realized very quickly that the "operational drag" of serving 3 different niches and providing 3 different service offerings was not going to be sustainable
• Decided to niche down into helping gym owners scale their business and get more long-term paying members
• My goal is to build this into a fastlane business that makes $100K / month in profit
• So far, I've booked 3 sales calls (2 for this week) - I have not made a sale yet
• I've cold-called about 300 gyms so far

The plan for this week:

• Make at least 100 cold calls per day
• Send at least 20 personalized emails per day (see below for more info)
• Track market feedback and iterate as needed
• Watch 1 hour of training per day (how to run FB ads, email copy, cold call tips, mindset, etc.)

The Cold Call Script

"Hi, is this the owner of [GYM]? OR if I know their name Hi, is [NAME] around?

Perfect, so I’m gonna be honest with you, this is a cold call, I have something that’s going to help your gym. Would you like to hang up now or give me 30 seconds and then decide?

I’m starting this company and I’m helping gym owners like yourself fill up their facilities, get more members, and keep them for many many years.

Does this sound interesting to you?"

I would really appreciate any feedback from cold callers on the forum - I'm finding it challenging to garner interest and stand out from the rest of the marketers who are calling gyms constantly. The offer needs to resonate with them more, but I've yet to figure out how to structure it in a unique and compelling way. On the bright side, I'm finding it relatively easy to get passes gatekeepers, but still come across the "but why are you calling?" - again, would greatly appreciate any cold callers on the forum!


The Personalized Emails

I am experimenting with an email that leads in with free value upfront - specifically, I'm providing a custom FB Ad template + copy as an attachment to the email to stand out from the sea of other agencies pitching to gym owners. Not sure how it's going to perform, but I'm going to send out at least 50 emails + follow-ups and track the data. I've attached a sample of what the freebie would look like, would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

I'm also bulking and training at the gym (currently weigh 133 lbs at 5 foot 6, with the goal of bulking to 150 lbs) - training 5-6x per week and mixing in cardio at least 2x per week.

So that's where I am at right now - I'm looking forward to being a regular contributor to the forum and evolving my business and character. I hope to share as much value as I can along the way and connect with you all!

Find one business owner and help them regardless if you get paid or not. You must create a track record to show what you can do. Have you thought about going around to gyms and doing a guest workout? You could work out a couple of times per day to get your nose under the tent.

 

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[luminis_]

Find one business owner and help them regardless if you get paid or not. You must create a track record to show what you can do

Hey @WJK appreciate the response!

So I have helped a couple of other business owners get some success in different industries (helped a startup get their largest client to date) - yes, it was not directly with gym owners but the conviction and confidence to help them is there. And from my experience, the fact that my offer is extremely risk averse on their end (I guarantee at least 10 new members in the door in the first month or ALL their money back + $500), I feel like it's even better than offering to work for free

But I do understand what you saying completely - I think a part of it is my ego thinking I should get paid now due to my short track record. Do I sound crazy lol?

Have you thought about going around to gyms and doing a guest workout? You could work out a couple of times per day to get your nose under the tent.

No, I haven't really thought of trying this! I did have a conversation with my local gym, but he can't actually make any changes since he's only a franchise owner (corporate makes the marketing changes). However, approaching local gyms and doing trial workouts sounds like a really great idea! I think that's how Hormozi got started with GymLaunch as well, he went to work out with a pen and clipboard.

 

[WJK]

Hey @WJK appreciate the response!

So I have helped a couple of other business owners get some success in different industries (helped a startup get their largest client to date) - yes, it was not directly with gym owners but the conviction and confidence to help them is there. And from my experience, the fact that my offer is extremely risk averse on their end (I guarantee at least 10 new members in the door in the first month or ALL their money back + $500), I feel like it's even better than offering to work for free

But I do understand what you saying completely - I think a part of it is my ego thinking I should get paid now due to my short track record. Do I sound crazy lol?



No, I haven't really thought of trying this! I did have a conversation with my local gym, but he can't actually make any changes since he's only a franchise owner (corporate makes the marketing changes). However, approaching local gyms and doing trial workouts sounds like a really great idea! I think that's how Hormozi got started with GymLaunch as well, he went to work out with a pen and clipboard.

The reason for possibly working for free is to set up a trade with that owner. My idea is for you to make your relationship very successful for that business. Then your future prospects could call that owner for your personal reference. That would be powerful. It only must work to get you up and going.

Show up. There is no substitute for putting your face out there. Turn on your charm and good personality. Think of all you can learn about those businesses. Who can you talk to while you work out? How can you help them?

As far as a franchise, how can you do a workaround? Can the owner set up an event that doesn't fall under the franchise agreement limitations? He may not be able to become a full client, but there may be ways to bring him under your tent.

 

[MRiabov]

Hm. I can't say for sure, but gyms (for me at least) are pure definitions of productocracy)

For me, the gym is the place where I work on besting myself, and that better be a darn good place.

And I don't pick gyms on random.

Good gyms are recommended. Good gyms are seen from the main street where their dwellers are working out sweaty.

My point: can you really market a gym? Perhaps for those, who don't work out - yes, but your focus better be not those who work out, but those who don't.

Just think about these points when you are going to market. Maybe you should say that "we will bring a lot of people, who are out of the market yet"

 

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[luminis_]

The reason for possibly working for free is to set up a trade with that owner. My idea is for you to make your relationship very successful for that business. Then your future prospects could call that owner for your personal reference. That would be powerful. It only must work to get you up and going.

Show up. There is no substitute for putting your face out there. Turn on your charm and good personality. Think of all you can learn about those businesses. Who can you talk to while you work out? How can you help them?

As far as a franchise, how can you do a workaround? Can the owner set up an event that doesn't fall under the franchise agreement limitations? He may not be able to become a full client, but there may be ways to bring him under your tent.

Wow...I need to adopt more of your mentality - that's such a great idea to help a gym owner for free in exchange for a referral. It's gonna be worth way more than the $1K or $2K that I would charge them in the long run and I would learn so much.

For sure, in conjunction with cold calling, I'm going to put myself out there and sign up for some trial memberships this week. Ultimately, nobody talks about "showing up" in person as a means to help a business - it's always cold emailing, calling, DM'ing, etc.

As you said, there's no substitute for putting your face out there! Thanks for the reminder. I can already feel so much resistance to doing it, but that's why exactly why I NEED to do it.

Regarding the franchise - good point, I'm sure there is some kind of workaround. I have just been avoiding them tbh because I thought it would be easier to reach owners of small, local gyms. But I'm going to try again and pitch a lite service offering or even just advise them on how I would go about their marketing.

 

[luminis_]

Hm. I can't say for sure, but gyms (for me at least) are pure definitions of productocracy)

For me, the gym is the place where I work on besting myself, and that better be a darn good place.

And I don't pick gyms on random.

Good gyms are recommended. Good gyms are seen from the main street where their dwellers are working out sweaty.

My point: can you really market a gym? Perhaps for those, who don't work out - yes, but your focus better be not those who work out, but those who don't.

Just think about these points when you are going to market. Maybe you should say that "we will bring a lot of people, who are out of the market yet"

Interesting perspective, never really thought about it that way.

IMO choice of the gym also depends on things like location, price, and equipment. The local gym I go to is pretty small but it's only 3 min away from my house, so I'm more inclined to go. If I went to a bigger gym that was 15 min away, it would be tougher to go consistently (again, just my experience but it does seem like most people are not very motivated at all to work out lol)

I believe you can also market to people who like to workout - for instance, a free PT session, body assessment, diet plans, supplements, etc. - there are a lot of ways to increase the value of a single gym member.

But to your point, the priority will be in helping turn strangers into clients of the gym.

 

[WJK]

Wow...I need to adopt more of your mentality - that's such a great idea to help a gym owner for free in exchange for a referral. It's gonna be worth way more than the $1K or $2K that I would charge them in the long run and I would learn so much.

For sure, in conjunction with cold calling, I'm going to put myself out there and sign up for some trial memberships this week. Ultimately, nobody talks about "showing up" in person as a means to help a business - it's always cold emailing, calling, DM'ing, etc.

As you said, there's no substitute for putting your face out there! Thanks for the reminder. I can already feel so much resistance to doing it, but that's why exactly why I NEED to do it.

Regarding the franchise - good point, I'm sure there is some kind of workaround. I have just been avoiding them tbh because I thought it would be easier to reach owners of small, local gyms. But I'm going to try again and pitch a lite service offering or even just advise them on how I would go about their marketing.

I've already had a couple of cold calls this morning. I hung up on them. I was busy. Your face is your best business card. Talk to everyone! As I've said before, use your mouth and your ears in the ratio God gave them to you. Listen twice as much as you talk. When you talk, ask open-ended questions. Their favorite topic is themselves. Give them an audience. That's how you find out how you can help them.

 

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[Tubs]

I've already had a couple of cold calls this morning. I hung up on them. I was busy. Your face is your best business card. Talk to everyone! As I've said before, use your mouth and your ears in the ratio God gave them to you. Listen twice as much as you talk. When you talk, ask open-ended questions. Their favorite topic is themselves. Give them an audience. That's how you find out how you can help them.

To add onto this. If you want to bring customers your way you could establish yourself publicly in your niche.
For example you could make YouTube where you give free advice on gym marketing, and then you can also offer your own services at the end of the video for the people who see your content but don't want to deal with the hassle themselves.
That way you build an audience that trusts you and has a connection with you, compromised entirely of the people you want to sell to.

 

[WJK]

To add onto this. If you want to bring customers your way you could establish yourself publicly in your niche.
For example you could make YouTube where you give free advice on gym marketing, and then you can also offer your own services at the end of the video for the people who see your content but don't want to deal with the hassle themselves.
That way you build an audience that trusts you and has a connection with you, compromised entirely of the people you want to sell to.

Good idea!

 

[luminis_]

The Week of July 31st, 2023
​

Late to post an update - solid week overall, I am SO CLOSE to signing my first client - had a great call with a gym owner who just recently bought the location a few months ago. The gym is currently not very profitable, but members have doubled in the past 6 months. I offered to run a reactivation campaign (she has 10K+ people in her database) and FB ads potentially down the line.

@WJK I followed your advice (albeit halfway) and offered her a very affordable rate for the first month - after that, if things go well, I am going to offer to work for free in exchange for her to be my "golden referral"! In hindsight, I should have just offered for free initially, but I was being greedy (truthfully) because the call went so well. I'm still waiting for her to sign the agreement, been following up for a couple days.

Still continuing with cold calling, its been a grind but I feel like my tonality, confidence, and objection-handling is getting better and better. Every call is a mini sales pitch and I am determined to become an absolute master at sales. I have not gone to any gyms in-person yet to sign up for free trials tbh.

This upcoming week

Start DM'ing gyms - my plan is to start DM'ing gyms around North America and pitch my services. I'm not really sure what's going to work so I'm going to try a very simple follow - like 3 posts - comment - DM sequence and see how it goes.

Thinking of niching down further - right now I am pitching to all fitness related businesses, including personal training studios. But I'm not getting great reception from PT studios because they can't handle many new appointments even if they wanted to! Probably going to niche down into CrossFit and carve my offering to suit them specifically.

Fight the resistance - There is something constantly pulling me to not do the work when I'm supposed to. It's like my "current self" does not want me to become my desired "future self" - but there is no option than to walk through the fire. It hurts to dial the phone, send a cold email/DM, scrape leads, track metrics, etc.

But I have to....or else I'll face much more pain later in life if I DON'T achieve what I set out to do.

Doing the things that I know I must do even if I do not want to do them (that's a mouthful lol)

Anyways, just a quick update. Hope everyone crushes it this week

 

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[WJK]

​

Fight the resistance - There is something constantly pulling me to not do the work when I'm supposed to. It's like my "current self" does not want me to become my desired "future self" - but there is no option than to walk through the fire. It hurts to dial the phone, send a cold email/DM, scrape leads, track metrics, etc.

But I have to....or else I'll face much more pain later in life if I DON'T achieve what I set out to do.

Doing the things that I know I must do even if I do not want to do them (that's a mouthful lol)

Everyone feels that resistance. Change hurts. Changing habits is a pain. Stop fighting. So, take it one phone call at a time. Just keep doing one more. And when you do a few, stop, stretch, and tell yourself how well you are doing. Then do one more. And another. Just one more. One more before you take a break. Baby steps, baby steps!

How are the guest workouts going for you? Are getting buff yet? What have you learned? Who have you met?

 

[luminis_]

Everyone feels that resistance. Change hurts. Changing habits is a pain. Stop fighting. So, take it one phone call at a time. Just keep doing one more. And when you do a few, stop, stretch, and tell yourself how well you are doing. Then do one more. And another. Just one more. One more before you take a break. Baby steps, baby steps!

Tried that the last couple of days and went super well. Was feeling pretty unmotivated yesterday but took it one call at a time - ended up making just under 100 calls!

How are the guest workouts going for you? Are getting buff yet? What have you learned? Who have you met?

I have honestly not been to any new gyms to do guest workouts yet....on the bright side, I did connect with a pretty successful gym owner who had to shut down during COVID. I have a call with him this weekend to pick his brain a little and I am going to try setting up an in-person meetup with him.

Appreciate the advice and accountability, @WJK

 

[luminis_]

It's been a while since my last update here...cold calling's been going alright, volume has been up and down though throughout the weeks. My appointment booking rate is about 1% right now.

I have a VA scraping leads for me now which has saved a ton of time - been experimenting with Loom email outreach combined with following up on multiple different social media platforms.

Was super close to closing my very first client who I offered a really good deal, but she's since ghosted me since and I've been following up everyday. I guess its just the aim of the game, nothing personal there. It does suck though because she was a perfect fit and I am ready to bring her outstanding results lol!

Anyways, I've also been building tracking systems in my outreach to keep myself accountable and make it as frictionless as possible to send out cold emails/DMs.

So yea...not much to update on from the past couple of weeks and there isn't much value in here. To make up for that, here's some stuff I did come across recently that might help any agency owners or generally to anyone:

Service Delivery Gems and SOPs with video walkthroughs

Spam Checker to Write Better Emails

Cold Calling Rebuttal Resource that helped me secure meetings

Email Deliverability Resource (I know we had a forum post few weeks relating to this)

Hope everybody has a great week!

 

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[luminis_]

The Week of August 21st, 2023
​

I am getting so so close to signing my first client. I know once I get passed the initial Zero to One, I'm hoping the snowball effect can start to kick in.

Averaged about 100 cold calls a day this week but I'm going to be doing much more starting next week, when my internship contract ends. I'm going all in on this business and going to do everything to make it impossible I DON'T succeed.

Here's how I'm structuring my days right now:

After waking up and a quick morning routine, I do 2 hours of deep, concentrated work. This is in the early-ish morning (about 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM) - this is when I'm doing the hard "eat the frog" tasks, like tweaking my offer, building tracking spreadsheets to make sure my metrics are being exposed, and building my appointment-setting machine. After that block, its cold calling and my day job (usually try to squeeze in calls before work meetings).

That last task, the appointment machine is a particular gruelling and difficult one. So far, I've only been cold calling, but I need to figure out a way to generate organic appointments through email, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

My plan is to utilize a multichannel approach and leading off with a strong first email, consisting of a personalized Loom video. With so much competition for the services I provide, I need to standout and make sure I attack this in many different angles.

For this week, I have a couple of follow-ups with gym owners who were interested in my services - one in particular was an interesting guy. He pretty much always ignores cold calls but for some reason felt compelled to give me a chance. I think it was my delivery and the fact that I ask for permission before pitching. My offer to him (and everyone else) is 20 guaranteed appointments per month to the gym on a pay-per-appointment basis. For him, I offered to provide the first 10 appts for free for the first month. Would love to know the Fastlaner's thoughts.

Overall though, I'm truly understanding how cause & effect works - its so damn simple: just figure out how many meetings you want, and divide that by your booking rate. If I wanted one meeting a day and my booking rate is 1%, then I need to make at least 100 cold calls per day. In future posts, I want to flesh out how took my overall goal (making $10K per month in this business) and broke it down all the way into the specific daily actions required to get there.

That's where I'm at right now - really looking forward to next week and beyond where I can go all-in on this business. It's not 'fastlane' right now, but I am confident that with the right systems and human capital in place, I can fully automate this business and turn it into a money tree (not to mention the fact that I would be vicariously helping more people get in shape by filling up gyms around the world!)

 

[Consolation]

Show up. There is no substitute for putting your face out there. Turn on your charm and good personality. Think of all you can learn about those businesses. Who can you talk to while you work out? How can you help them?

As far as a franchise, how can you do a workaround? Can the owner set up an event that doesn't fall under the franchise agreement limitations? He may not be able to become a full client, but there may be ways to bring him under your tent.

This thing works.

I have the idea of providing live streaming services. This is not your typical iPhone and then going live on social media. This is what you see on sports matches where several guys holding big cameras.

I contacted several business owners that I think need this type of service. More than 5 said nothing. I showed up one day in an MMA gym and handed my brochure. Several months later, I went back to offer my services for free for their tournament.

Showing up, offering free work, and being curious with business owners got me 4 sales. And it's not only limited to my proposed services. Further, I got to know one 'big gun' in the industry.

I tried a rough hypothesis. What would happen if I kept texting businesses about my services?

Guess what? I still got zero sales.

 

[WJK]

This thing works.

I have the idea of providing live streaming services. This is not your typical iPhone and then going live on social media. This is what you see on sports matches where several guys holding big cameras.

I contacted several business owners that I think need this type of service. More than 5 said nothing. I showed up one day in an MMA gym and handed my brochure. Several months later, I went back to offer my services for free for their tournament.

Showing up, offering free work, and being curious with business owners got me 4 sales. And it's not only limited to my proposed services. Further, I got to know one 'big gun' in the industry.

I tried a rough hypothesis. What would happen if I kept texting businesses about my services?

Guess what? I still got zero sales.

Keep putting your face out there. There is truly no substitute!

 

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[Andy Black]

Keep putting your face out there. There is truly no substitute!

I posted a carousel on LinkedIn today and PM'd everyone who Liked it to say thanks. Wee conversations have ensued and I'm chatting to someone next week. They won't become a client, that's not why we're chatting. She does email marketing and is interested in whether Google Ads could help the business she works for (I suspect not). I'm curious about email marketing so thought it would be good to connect and chat.

Keep putting your face out there. Keep helping people, even if they're not your target market. Good things start happening, and you start dialling in who your target market is, and how to get your face in front of them better.

 

[luminis_]

Keep putting your face out there. Keep helping people, even if they're not your target market. Good things start happening, and you start dialling in who your target market is, and how to get your face in front of them better.

I love that - just getting out there and talking to anybody and everybody without expectations - everybody knows a guy who knows a guy, etc. but you'd never know unless you say "hello!"

 

[luminis_]

Keep putting your face out there. There is truly no substitute!

I guess the one benefit of cold calling vs going in person is the # of conversations I've had.

I've been able to have conversations with at least 30 gym owners in the past couple of months and got really good insights into their problems and challenges. Only about 10 of those people moved forward to a sales call, but it has still been so valuable to learn from them. They allowed me to step into their world and it has been super insightful

 

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[WJK]

I love that - just getting out there and talking to anybody and everybody without expectations - everybody knows a guy who knows a guy, etc. but you'd never know unless you say "hello!"

My husband is very introverted. He keeps asking if I have to talk to everyone. I keep assuring them that I do. I never know who I'm gonna meet.

 

[JohnE10]

To add onto this. If you want to bring customers your way you could establish yourself publicly in your niche.
For example you could make YouTube where you give free advice on gym marketing, and then you can also offer your own services at the end of the video for the people who see your content but don't want to deal with the hassle themselves.
That way you build an audience that trusts you and has a connection with you, compromised entirely of the people you want to sell to.

Absolutely.

By doing that, you'll also put yourself in a position where gym owners in need of marketing come to you for help, as opposed to you chasing after them, which is a much better position to be in for closing deals.

And, when you first reach out to a gym owner, chances are they'll google your name or business name, it helps when they see videos of you showcasing your expertise in the subject.

 

[luminis_]

By doing that, you'll also put yourself in a position where gym owners in need of marketing come to you for help, as opposed to you chasing after them, which is a much better position to be in for closing deals.

I was just thinking about that this weekend - my plan is to spend 80% of my time doing cold outreach on all channels (immediate sales) and 20% of my time making content (which will pay off in the long run)

 

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[JohnE10]

I was just thinking about that this weekend - my plan is to spend 80% of my time doing cold outreach on all channels (immediate sales) and 20% of my time making content (which will pay off in the long run)

Definitely worth a shot. Good luck to you bud.

 

[luminis_]

Just signed my first client and secured payment!!

After months of cold calling and countless rejections and a false close, it's extremely exciting to finally close someone and get started!

She runs a boutique fitness studio and my plan is to initially run a reactivation campaign to get some of her previous clients back at the gym - then, using the profits from the free campaign, my hope is that she'll be receptive to running Facebook Ads to really start filling up her pipeline.

I'm also following Hormozi's $100M Leads free course and I'm building out my funnel. I'm making a free video showing gym owners how to run reactivation campaigns themselves and creating a more extensive PDF guide.

I also have an idea and would really appreciate any feedback - I'm seeing a massive trend in niche communities online from platforms like Skool which have higher quality (less quantity) discourse. During some of the conversations I had with gym owners, I pitched my idea to create a free community for gym owners to network, share tips, and grow. They all seem very interested in it and my plan is to build a "waiting list" of 10+ people and then add them all at once to the community.

Essentially, rather than purely selling based on my free value video + resources, I am thinking of funnelling prospects into a Skool community where they can be extremely engaged. As a bonus, I would be able to host mini courses (paid and free) to provide even more valuble to the community.

Simply, this is how I see the funnel working:

Prospect sees Facebook ad for free training -> Prospect watches quick video and downloads the detailed PDF -> Prospect is prompted to join a community of like-minded individuals -> After engaging with them in a community setting, pitch them my 'premium' service to help them grow beyond their capabilities.

Full disclosure, this wasn't my idea, I saw a mini-course by Andrew Kirby who spoke about it and showed this:



Would love to hear FLF's thoughts!

 

[WJK]

Just signed my first client and secured payment!!

After months of cold calling and countless rejections and a false close, it's extremely exciting to finally close someone and get started!

She runs a boutique fitness studio and my plan is to initially run a reactivation campaign to get some of her previous clients back at the gym - then, using the profits from the free campaign, my hope is that she'll be receptive to running Facebook Ads to really start filling up her pipeline.

I'm also following Hormozi's $100M Leads free course and I'm building out my funnel. I'm making a free video showing gym owners how to run reactivation campaigns themselves and creating a more extensive PDF guide.

I also have an idea and would really appreciate any feedback - I'm seeing a massive trend in niche communities online from platforms like Skool which have higher quality (less quantity) discourse. During some of the conversations I had with gym owners, I pitched my idea to create a free community for gym owners to network, share tips, and grow. They all seem very interested in it and my plan is to build a "waiting list" of 10+ people and then add them all at once to the community.

Essentially, rather than purely selling based on my free value video + resources, I am thinking of funnelling prospects into a Skool community where they can be extremely engaged. As a bonus, I would be able to host mini courses (paid and free) to provide even more valuble to the community.

Simply, this is how I see the funnel working:

Prospect sees Facebook ad for free training -> Prospect watches quick video and downloads the detailed PDF -> Prospect is prompted to join a community of like-minded individuals -> After engaging with them in a community setting, pitch them my 'premium' service to help them grow beyond their capabilities.

Full disclosure, this wasn't my idea, I saw a mini-course by Andrew Kirby who spoke about it and showed this:

View attachment 51235

Would love to hear FLF's thoughts!

You only need one at a time. Then find the next one.

 

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[luminis_]

I went through my list of about 40 warm leads, who were either hesitant to move forward (primarily due to my lack of past success) or had good conversations with them, and I offered 30-day free trials for my services. 2 people said yes and I sent them the agreement on Friday.

Definitely a hit to my ego but I know in the long-term, this will be worth it - I made a deal that if I perform well, they would make a video testimonial for me. Right now, being able to implement my marketing funnels for gyms and getting a video in return is MUCH more valuable than a $2K per month retainer.

The offer that I'm really working towards is something along the lines of: "Double your memberships in 60 days or less guaranteed or 2X your money back" - and instead of charging a monthly retainer, it would just be one payment (or split into 2) of $5K - $10K+. Completely DFY, I do not want to add 10s of hours per week to anybody's schedule. THIS is what's going to separate me from Gym Launch.

But I understand that to get there, I must help a gym get 10 new members a month, then 20, then 50, then....

In the meantime, I'm hiring a VA to create Loom videos for me (using my pre-recorded audio) and send hundreds of emails per day. My goal is to test out 3-4 email/offer scripts and see which one sticks.

 

[luminis_]

In the meantime, I'm hiring a VA to create Loom videos for me (using my pre-recorded audio) and send hundreds of emails per day. My goal is to test out 3-4 email/offer scripts and see which one sticks.

I have this really annoying limiting belief that I need to do absolutely everything in the business and nobody else can be trusted. It's also this weird thing where if I don't "feel" like I'm working hard, then something is off.

It's hard to explain, but I think this is what years of employee doctrine created.

I bought 10 domains a couple of days ago for cold email and these past couple of days I've been banging my head against a wall trying to set up all the DNS records, Google Workspace, and making sure deliverability is superb.

Meanwhile, I was thinking this morning (after hours of frustration) - "why not just pay someone $100 on Fiverr to do this?!" - and that's exactly what I'm going to do.