Should I focus on my Gym SMMA?

[ali.lari2x]

Hi everyone,

Backstory

This is my first post on the Forum. I read TMF in early 2022 when I was 19 years old (I’m now 21) in university hopping from business idea to business idea. Ever since I was 12 or 13, I’ve had this vision or goal in mind of building a business that gives me location, time, and money freedom, but I didn’t fully comprehend these concepts until I got exposed to MJ’s work.

So after some research, I decide to start a marketing agency in the summer of 2022 with a friend of mine. Long story short I was scattered and learning how to do everything, we didn’t end up landing any client and I cut ties with my friend as a business partner (but still hang out with them haha) because it seemed like he didn’t want to put in the same amount of work as me.

So not much happens with the business, I try getting into content creation to build a brand and audience but that wasn’t moving the needle (getting my first client).

Last summer, things changed a little, landed two clients but as a freelancer so it was a one-off job. I niche-hopped better than a group of bunnies. First it was ALL fitness/health businesses, then gyms, then personal trainers, then online coaches, then real estate agents, and now I’m back to gyms again.

I’m back to doing 25 cold emails/calls per day. I offer pay per-lead lead generation through Facebook Ads and then a subsequent lead follow-up and nurturing system via GoHighLevel (side question: is there a better alternative for this? I heard Zapier is quite good but GHL seems to have all the things you need to manage clientele)

So I’ve been seeing a lot of talk here on the forum that the agency model is not fastlane and requires too much sweat equity, which I agree with but the system seems very scalable as long as you put in the hours and learn what you need to get to digital marketing.

My Question
My question I guess is not whether it’s possible to make money through SMMA, but rather whether I should put myself in another vehicle or not. I tend to be a generalist, meaning I can learn and work to get good at basically anything, but my interests do lean toward digital businesses as I’m very competent at handling new technology after some time tinkering with it.

I have one semester left before I get my mechanical engineering degree, but I would like to make a large online business while working as an engineer.

Some of my skills include:
-Video editing (Premiere Pro)
-Making thumbnails and creatives (Photoshop)
-Lead Prospecting and Lead Generation (learned this recently through cold outreach)
-Math (for some reason throughout my school and college life I’ve always done really well in math despite studying the least hours compared to my other courses)
-Talking to a camera (I’ve been making talking head YouTube videos on and off for almost 10 years)
-Facebook Advertising (I know basically all the basics about that platform now)
-Boxing

Skills I need to develop:
-Sales and persuasion (my BIGGEST bottleneck in the business)
-Time management and prioritizing tasks
-Learning to see how I can provide more value in any exchange. I tend to wait until I see a crystal clear green light before I enter an endeavor that involves money, but when it comes to my own life I tinker a lot.
-Interpersonal dynamics, being a good communicator and speaker (talking to a camera is good but it seems to not translate over to real life as well)

I’m open to hearing everyone’s thoughts because I’m genuinely confused about what to do. It feels like I’m forcing myself to push through the SMMA but I think that’s part of the struggle. The desert of desertion is very real right now.

 

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[EliaR]

Hi everyone,

Backstory

This is my first post on the Forum. I read TMF in early 2022 when I was 19 years old (I’m now 21) in university hopping from business idea to business idea. Ever since I was 12 or 13, I’ve had this vision or goal in mind of building a business that gives me location, time, and money freedom, but I didn’t fully comprehend these concepts until I got exposed to MJ’s work.

So after some research, I decide to start a marketing agency in the summer of 2022 with a friend of mine. Long story short I was scattered and learning how to do everything, we didn’t end up landing any client and I cut ties with my friend as a business partner (but still hang out with them haha) because it seemed like he didn’t want to put in the same amount of work as me.

So not much happens with the business, I try getting into content creation to build a brand and audience but that wasn’t moving the needle (getting my first client).

Last summer, things changed a little, landed two clients but as a freelancer so it was a one-off job. I niche-hopped better than a group of bunnies. First it was ALL fitness/health businesses, then gyms, then personal trainers, then online coaches, then real estate agents, and now I’m back to gyms again.

I’m back to doing 25 cold emails/calls per day. I offer pay per-lead lead generation through Facebook Ads and then a subsequent lead follow-up and nurturing system via GoHighLevel (side question: is there a better alternative for this? I heard Zapier is quite good but GHL seems to have all the things you need to manage clientele)

So I’ve been seeing a lot of talk here on the forum that the agency model is not fastlane and requires too much sweat equity, which I agree with but the system seems very scalable as long as you put in the hours and learn what you need to get to digital marketing.

My Question
My question I guess is not whether it’s possible to make money through SMMA, but rather whether I should put myself in another vehicle or not. I tend to be a generalist, meaning I can learn and work to get good at basically anything, but my interests do lean toward digital businesses as I’m very competent at handling new technology after some time tinkering with it.

I have one semester left before I get my mechanical engineering degree, but I would like to make a large online business while working as an engineer.

Some of my skills include:
-Video editing (Premiere Pro)
-Making thumbnails and creatives (Photoshop)
-Lead Prospecting and Lead Generation (learned this recently through cold outreach)
-Math (for some reason throughout my school and college life I’ve always done really well in math despite studying the least hours compared to my other courses)
-Talking to a camera (I’ve been making talking head YouTube videos on and off for almost 10 years)
-Facebook Advertising (I know basically all the basics about that platform now)
-Boxing

Skills I need to develop:
-Sales and persuasion (my BIGGEST bottleneck in the business)
-Time management and prioritizing tasks
-Learning to see how I can provide more value in any exchange. I tend to wait until I see a crystal clear green light before I enter an endeavor that involves money, but when it comes to my own life I tinker a lot.
-Interpersonal dynamics, being a good communicator and speaker (talking to a camera is good but it seems to not translate over to real life as well)

I’m open to hearing everyone’s thoughts because I’m genuinely confused about what to do. It feels like I’m forcing myself to push through the SMMA but I think that’s part of the struggle. The desert of desertion is very real right now.

Stick with SMMA.
Every field has hard things you need to overcome.
You've already learned a ton I'm sure.

I'm also into digital marketing, focusing on landing page creation.

 

[kr8nt]

Hi everyone,

Backstory

This is my first post on the Forum. I read TMF in early 2022 when I was 19 years old (I’m now 21) in university hopping from business idea to business idea. Ever since I was 12 or 13, I’ve had this vision or goal in mind of building a business that gives me location, time, and money freedom, but I didn’t fully comprehend these concepts until I got exposed to MJ’s work.

So after some research, I decide to start a marketing agency in the summer of 2022 with a friend of mine. Long story short I was scattered and learning how to do everything, we didn’t end up landing any client and I cut ties with my friend as a business partner (but still hang out with them haha) because it seemed like he didn’t want to put in the same amount of work as me.

So not much happens with the business, I try getting into content creation to build a brand and audience but that wasn’t moving the needle (getting my first client).

Last summer, things changed a little, landed two clients but as a freelancer so it was a one-off job. I niche-hopped better than a group of bunnies. First it was ALL fitness/health businesses, then gyms, then personal trainers, then online coaches, then real estate agents, and now I’m back to gyms again.

I’m back to doing 25 cold emails/calls per day. I offer pay per-lead lead generation through Facebook Ads and then a subsequent lead follow-up and nurturing system via GoHighLevel (side question: is there a better alternative for this? I heard Zapier is quite good but GHL seems to have all the things you need to manage clientele)

So I’ve been seeing a lot of talk here on the forum that the agency model is not fastlane and requires too much sweat equity, which I agree with but the system seems very scalable as long as you put in the hours and learn what you need to get to digital marketing.

My Question
My question I guess is not whether it’s possible to make money through SMMA, but rather whether I should put myself in another vehicle or not. I tend to be a generalist, meaning I can learn and work to get good at basically anything, but my interests do lean toward digital businesses as I’m very competent at handling new technology after some time tinkering with it.

I have one semester left before I get my mechanical engineering degree, but I would like to make a large online business while working as an engineer.

Some of my skills include:
-Video editing (Premiere Pro)
-Making thumbnails and creatives (Photoshop)
-Lead Prospecting and Lead Generation (learned this recently through cold outreach)
-Math (for some reason throughout my school and college life I’ve always done really well in math despite studying the least hours compared to my other courses)
-Talking to a camera (I’ve been making talking head YouTube videos on and off for almost 10 years)
-Facebook Advertising (I know basically all the basics about that platform now)
-Boxing

Skills I need to develop:
-Sales and persuasion (my BIGGEST bottleneck in the business)
-Time management and prioritizing tasks
-Learning to see how I can provide more value in any exchange. I tend to wait until I see a crystal clear green light before I enter an endeavor that involves money, but when it comes to my own life I tinker a lot.
-Interpersonal dynamics, being a good communicator and speaker (talking to a camera is good but it seems to not translate over to real life as well)

I’m open to hearing everyone’s thoughts because I’m genuinely confused about what to do. It feels like I’m forcing myself to push through the SMMA but I think that’s part of the struggle. The desert of desertion is very real right now.

It looks like you are focusing too much on the HOW and forgetting about the WHY. Your primary goal should be to find a problem you can solve and then create a solution for that problem. Only after you have identified a problem you should start focusing on how you are going to deliver the solution and what is it going to be, doing it the other way around doesn't usually end that great, at least from my experience.

Focus on finding the WHY and then you will have a clear HOW. For example, let's say you spend some time focusing on the problem, then after you have found it you realize that the perfect solution for this problem would be to create an app then you create the app. If you do it the other way around, there is still a chance that you will somehow accidentally hit a problem you didn't even know people had, but whether you want to risk it, or clearly know what you are going for, is on you to choose.

 

[EliaR]

It looks like you are focusing too much on the HOW and forgetting about the WHY. Your primary goal should be to find a problem you can solve and then create a solution for that problem. Only after you have identified a problem you should start focusing on how you are going to deliver the solution and what is it going to be, doing it the other way around doesn't usually end that great, at least from my experience.

Focus on finding the WHY and then you will have a clear HOW. For example, let's say you spend some time focusing on the problem, then after you have found it you realize that the perfect solution for this problem would be to create an app then you create the app. If you do it the other way around, there is still a chance that you will somehow accidentally hit a problem you didn't even know people had, but whether you want to risk it, or clearly know what you are going for, is on you to choose.

Sounds like you're overcomplicating things.
Problem is obvious - gyms don't make enough money.
Why? because they don't have enough clients
Why? because they don't know how to market

There's no need to reinvent the wheel

 

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[kr8nt]

Sounds like you're overcomplicating things.
Problem is obvious - gyms don't make enough money.
Why? because they don't have enough clients
Why? because they don't know how to market

There's no need to reinvent the wheel

You are right about this, this is a problem and it needs a solution, which means that he can now focus on the HOW as this is the WHY and my goal was to explain this to him, so that he can think about finding a different HOW as he wrote that he doesn't feel like continuing with the SMMA.

I completely agree with you that there's no need to reinvent the wheel, but if you have a chance to choose between multiple HOW's, then wouldn't it be better to choose the one you don't have to force yourself to work on? In the long run this could potentially mean a higher chance for success as you would be more passionate about actually working on the solution that you are more passionate about rather than the one you have to force yourself to work on.

 

[ali.lari2x]

You are right about this, this is a problem and it needs a solution, which means that he can now focus on the HOW as this is the WHY and my goal was to explain this to him, so that he can think about finding a different HOW as he wrote that he doesn't feel like continuing with the SMMA.

I completely agree with you that there's no need to reinvent the wheel, but if you have a chance to choose between multiple HOW's, then wouldn't it be better to choose the one you don't have to force yourself to work on? In the long run this could potentially mean a higher chance for success as you would be more passionate about actually working on the solution that you are more passionate about rather than the one you have to force yourself to work on.

Some good points here. I just had a long day of work today and when it comes to how I ‘feel’ I feel rather calm and serene. It seems to me that any activity that involves creation behind a computer comes easily and naturally to me, so it doesn’t really matter what I do specifically as long as I can create something that is of value for others.

I guess the market is validated. Digital marketing will be an evergreen industry probably for the rest of our lives. And as EliaR mentioned, gyms with decent revenues who have hit a plateau need more clients. All that is required of me is consistent action.

 

[kr8nt]

Some good points here. I just had a long day of work today and when it comes to how I ‘feel’ I feel rather calm and serene. It seems to me that any activity that involves creation behind a computer comes easily and naturally to me, so it doesn’t really matter what I do specifically as long as I can create something that is of value for others.

I guess the market is validated. Digital marketing will be an evergreen industry probably for the rest of our lives. And as EliaR mentioned, gyms with decent revenues who have hit a plateau need more clients. All that is required of me is consistent action.

It's a great mindset that you have! If you keep up with your words and actually continue trying to create something that is of value to others, then it's only a matter of time until you figure out what is exactly that you are good at creating, that provides value to someone.

You are definitely right about the fact that the gym market is validated, so that means you clearly have your WHO, the HOW can be anything, there are infinite possibilities even without the marketing, so keep at it until you find your HOW and never give up, no matter what!

 

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