Table stakes is a term used in poker, meaning the minimum amount you need to get to a table and play a game. When used in business, it means the barrier of entry or the minimum offering you have to provide to be in a particular business.For instance, in a personal training business, it is expected that your facility should be clean, you should offer specificity, great programming, good enough customer service, etc.These are the things that customers expect as a bare minimum from you. You can't even market your business using these….But to succeed in a fitness business or any other for that matter, you have to go beyond the table stakes. You have to provide some extras that truly set you apart from the competition. These extras are what move the needle forward.Listen in to this episode as Rick and Matt give examples using Alloy Personal Training Franchise on how to go beyond table stakes to make your customers stick around longer.Key Takeaways- What are table stakes in business (03:07)- List of table stakes in a personal training facility (04:27)- Beyond table stakes- The extras that set you apart (07:29)- The soft-touch things that make personal training great (10:18)- The amount of time you should spend on table stakes vs. extras (17:20)- What makes customers stick around (18:59)- Moving the needle in your business (23:06)Additional Resources:- Alloy Personal Training- Learn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

In order to succeed as an entrepreneur in the fitness industry, you need to get your systems and processes dialed in. This allows you to grow, scale, retain, and repeat.This is the story of Alloy Personal Training Franchise.  Having been in business for more than 30 years and licensed thousands of clubs worldwide, Rick Mayo and the Alloy team ventured into the franchising world in 2019.Shortly after, the pandemic struck, and we all know how this affected the fitness industry.But the Alloy Personal Training Franchise has been growing in a big way, with many locations coming up across the country since then.In this episode, Rick is interviewed on The Business for Unicorns Podcast on some of the lessons he has picked from building a franchise and his entrepreneurial journey. Tune in to hear his unique perspective, including the ONE thing fitness entrepreneurs can do today to reap the biggest rewards.Key Takeaways- Why Rick franchised his business (02:29)- The power of scalable systems and processes (04:59)- Marketing and selling systems (08:11)- The Alloy franchise avatar candidate (12:58)- Finding the right Alloy franchises staff (15:35)- Hiring for character and competence (22:36)- Keep the main thing the main thing (24:57)Additional Resources:- Alloy Personal Training- Learn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts! 

Before customers can make the decision to buy your product/service, they want to find out what other people are saying about it. 91% of people will look for reviews/success stories before making a purchase.Through the lens of selling personal training memberships, success stories are important because they validate that the product works and others have experienced the results.Here at Alloy, we have success stories built on the studio design to help new customers have trust in our product.Besides the customer perspective, success stories are even more important for your team. It gives them the conviction to run the play and speak to clients, knowing that what they do is life-changing and they can see the results.This builds passion which is great for the business as they can continue working hard and convince the customers to stick to the process.Listen to this episode for tips on how to build and consistently use success stories in your business!Key Takeaways- Why success stories are important (02:32)- Building social proof (05:13)- Validation for customers (09:19)- Validation for your team (10:31)- How success stories build passion (17:25)- Increasing the conviction of your team (20:20)- Getting your WHY big enough (23:15)Additional Resources:- Alloy Personal Training- Learn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts! 

A lot of people, when getting into entrepreneurship, have an expectation of finding happiness or some kind of fulfillment that will result from running a business.Do they ever find happiness or feel fulfilled?It depends…As we have observed in other episodes, entrepreneurship is a self-development journey disguised as a business.To experience growth in your business, you have to up-level yourself. This process of self-development is not easy. It’s painful and uncomfortable but necessary.Embracing these struggles is the key to finding happiness and fulfillment in entrepreneurship.Tune in to learn more about the entrepreneurial journey and what to expect.Key Takeaways- Entrepreneurship is a self-development journey (03:24)- How Rick’s and Matt’s journeys have evolved (06:33)- Happiness is an empty end goal (09:40)- Chasing happiness vs. finding purpose (10:29)- Control what you can and don’t worry about the rest (15:05)- When you do your best, you feel happier (16:44)- The hardest things will make you happiest (17:49)Additional Resources:- Alloy Personal Training- Learn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

In this episode, Rick interviews Dan Park, VP of sales for InBody, an advanced device that measures body composition through bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA).It's a quick, noninvasive, accurate body composition analyzer providing a detailed breakdown of your weight in terms of muscle, fat, and water.Dan explains the technology behind the InBody, how they have scaled in both the medical and fitness space, and what's next for the company.Hear why and how Alloy incorporates the InBody into the sales process and how it improves the customer experience and drastically reduces the client's TTV (time to value).Key Takeaways- How InBody got started (01:17)- The science behind InBody's accuracy (05:22)- How InBody reduces Time to Value (09:37)- How InBody helps with social proof (12:46)- Where InBody device is used besides fitness (16:52)- How InBody helps with sales (21:33)- Next steps for InBody (30:06)Additional Resources:- Learn more about InBody------ Alloy Personal Training- Learn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

One of the questions we get from candidates looking into buying an Alloy franchise is who is our ideal candidate.As an investor in the Alloy franchise, you don't have to service revenue. You can find an operator who will run the facility. But you must coach and motivate them to do this job effectively. There is nothing like a totally absentee owner in any business.So for our potential candidates, the question is whether you can find the right talent needed to effectively run an Alloy.And as Rick and Matt point out in this episode, it all boils down to; are you the person that you're looking for, is looking for?Tune in to find out the character traits of the ideal Alloy franchisee and facility operator.Key Takeaways- Who is a good fit for an Alloy franchise (04:35)- Are you the person that you're looking for is looking for (05:31)- What makes a good operator (10:54)- Why it's a good thing to be 'salesy' (12:35)- Good at sales vs. good personal trainer: What's better? (18:24)Additional Resources:Alloy Personal TrainingLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

We live in an increasingly digital age where everything we do has a digital touch, and fitness is no exception.To succeed in the fitness business, you must continually improve the customer experience and keep your clients engaged even when they are not inside your facility.Personal training apps are great at achieving this.But the thing with software and apps is that it would be futile to build your own as some gym owners think they can. Mainly because you are not in the software business, and you'll likely do a poor job at it.As you'll be hearing in this episode, building an app that looks simple on the interface and the innovations needed to keep adding features takes a lot.Here at Alloy Personal Training Fitness Franchise, we use Trainerize as one of our software vendors. It came in handy during the pandemic closures by helping us keep our retention rates high even when other fitness facilities lost clients.In this episode, Rick Mayo interviews Trainerize cofounder and COO Farhad Gulamhusein. Trainerize, the largest personal training app in the world, was built with one purpose in mind.Learn how that purpose drove exceptional growth and an eventual acquisition in 2020.Key Takeaways- How Trainerize came into being (01:36)- Why you shouldn't be building your own app (06:22)- What it takes to build a 'simple' app and business (10:22)- Innovation to drive growth (17:27)- How technology enhances the fitness experience (18:22)- Trainerize purpose and vision (19:03)- The challenges of scaling a business (26:07)- What's next for Trainerize (29:26)Additional Resources:- Learn more about   Trainerize---- Alloy Personal Training- Learn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts! 

In this episode, Rick Mayo is interviewed by Dr. Kevin Christie of Modern Chiropractic Marketing on the importance of strategic branding and how to go about it.What comes to mind first when you think about all the great brands you interact with?I bet it’s the customer experience.Building a brand is more than just designing a logo and a color scheme. It’s about creating an emotional connection through every customer interaction.The secret that all great brands have understood is the ‘job of the product.’ If you understand what makes a customer ‘hire’ your product, you are one step into building a strong brand.Tune in to this episode to learn more about the process of strategic branding to grow and scale your business.Key Takeaways- What makes a strong brand (08:38)- The first step in strategic branding (14:16)- Customer experience around fitness (15:37)- The elements of a great brand (17:44)- The job to be done – it is all about the results (18:09)- The process of rebranding (21:44)- How branding fuels scalability (31:09)Additional Resources:Alloy Personal TrainingLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Time to Value (TTV) is a business concept that measures the time between when a customer purchases a product/service and when they start actually deriving value from it.The shorter this period, the better the perception of customer experience and the longer they stay.This is perhaps the most critical metric in the fitness industry when it comes to client longevity and retention.As a fitness entrepreneur, you should be working to decrease Time to Value to the shortest window of time possible to have a strong business.In this episode, Matt and Rick define TTV (Time to Value) and give examples of how it can help your personal training business.Tune in to learn more.Key Takeaways- What is Time to Value (01:26)- Why you need to bring TTV to the smallest window possible (02:12)- Kanter’s law (05:40)- Measuring the tangibles that affect TTV (07:33)- The intangibles that impact TTV (13:50)- How building a community shortens TTV (15:42)- Increasing stickiness in your business (18:29)- Why TTV is one of the most important metrics (20:21)Additional Resources:The 7 Core Tenets Of A Great Customer Experience---Alloy Personal TrainingLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Alloy Personal Training CEO Rick Mayo recently spoke at the FitPro Growth Summit in Nashville. While there, he met Amanda Hanquist of FIT CFO.She is a Financial Expert who helps health and fitness entrepreneurs with the financial side of running their businesses. In this packed episode, Rick and Amanda explore a wide range of topics in the fitness entrepreneurship space. In over 30 years of running a fitness business, Rick has gathered a wealth of knowledge that you’ll surely find valuable. Tune in!Key Takeaways- The evolution of Alloy Personal Training (03:39)- Day in the life of Rick Mayo (09:35)- Who not how (13:19)- The mistake of the All or nothing mindset (17:04)- Serve less on the menu (19:37)- Keep the main thing the main thing (22:03)- Fit CFO business model (29:46)- The magic of consistently good customer serviceAdditional Resources:Alloy Personal TrainingLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!Show Less