Alloy Personal Training Business

Listen in as we discuss how virtual/online training is a viable option to many gyms especially as many have been forced to close due to the current pandemic the world is grappling with. It is also a good opportunity to keep your membership engaged.We talk about choosing the best tools to help you run your online program as well as being creative with regards to equipment your clients may have in their homes.Virtual training is more than just fitness. It involves a lot of communication, emotional support and holding your clients accountable. You should thus consider it a premium service and don’t sell your services short.We talk about how virtual training can help you handle more clients due to automation. You also get to put out workouts several weeks in advance and adjust them as you get feedback from our clients and incorporating deeper personalization of your client’s programsKey TakeawaysKeeping your membership engaged through virtual training (1:55)Tools to help you run a virtual training session (8:01)Developing your program around what available equipment your client has at home (9.15)How to sell virtual training as a premium service (11.30)How virtual training helps you handle more clients and automate some things (16.46)Why virtual training is not just about fitness, it's a chance for life coaching as well (17:28)Virtual training allows for deeper personalization of client's programs (18:32)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn 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!

Leadership is important and leaders must do what they set out to do. This is amplified in a time of chaos like now. A leader must step up to the plate. We discuss this and much more in this episode. We look at it from three angles. Leading yourself, leading your team and leading your customers. To lead yourself, you must have your mind right. You must take good care of yourself and the best way to do this is through a routine. You need to control what you feed your brain as this will affect your decision makingSecondly, you must lead your team with confidence, not false bravado.  Your teams look up to you for confidence and guidance. This involves things like your body language, being emotionally available, how you present yourself and your facial expressions. All these subtle features are what your team looks at. Remember a team reflects its leader. If you are short of confidence, so will be your team. Your team is responsible for leading your customers. If you lead your team poorly, your team will lead your customers poorly. Being a leader doesn’t mean having all the answers but showing confidence in what you can control. Meeting regularly with your team during these uncertain times and reassuring them. Key TakeawaysLeaders must do what they set out to do (2:20)Leading yourself by taking care of what you feed your brain regularly (3:45)Keeping things in perspective during uncertain and chaotic times (6:58)Having a routine that involves reading positive materials and having core values (8:45)Being confident by how you show up, your body language and facial expressions (10:21)Being the best version of yourself, bring your A-game, then passing this to your team (14:06)Consistent communication with your team and your customers. You can’t over-communicate  (16:41)Get yourself in the right frame of mind to lead your team, be open and available, project confidence to them so that they can then project that to your customers (21:56)---------Additional Resources: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, we talk about the life of an entrepreneur and the things you must do to be and remain successful. There’s a whole new economy that has allowed numerous opportunities for entrepreneurship. Many people want to be entrepreneurs but do not understand the downsides and challenges there are.As an entrepreneur, you must make time for yourself. This means going away from your business and doing things that make you a better person. If you are an entrepreneur in the fitness world, you can even visit another gym to exercise. In your entrepreneurship journey, there will be times when you’ll feel overwhelmed with all the things that require your attention. Launching products, meetings, traveling, and tasks that take all your time. This is the best time to create time for exercising, whether you are a fitness entrepreneur or in another industry. The second issue we talk about is joining a community of like-minded people. Entrepreneurship with all its glamour can be a lonely endeavor. You feel alone and isolated some times, having a community where you can talk and bounce off your ideas is critical for your psychological well-being.The last thing we look at is diet and here we don’t mean the food we eat, but rather what we consume on a daily basis that goes to our brain. What we consume comes from the people we interact with, what we read and what conversations we have. These are the things that constitute your diet as an entrepreneur. Key Points of Discussion:Make time for yourself as an entrepreneur (5:26)Exercise and keeping your fitness helps your perspective as an entrepreneur (12:11)Exercise is like a performance enhancer for your business (15:03)As an entrepreneur, ignorance is bliss (15:27)it's critical for the psychological well-being and spiritual well-being of an entrepreneur to get into some kind of community with like-minded people. (21:28)Taking care of what you read and conversations you have as an entrepreneur (25:39)Having discipline as an entrepreneur on what you feed your brain and people you spend time with (26:36)Keeping of digital and doing purposeful tasks (34:02)---------Additional Resources:alloypersonaltraining.comLearn 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, we talk about how to train and work right even when the job gets monotonous. Landon shares with us his journey from college and how he got into fitness. He tells us about his early days as a coach and how he learned from his mistakes. How he was open to feedback and how that helped overcome challenges.We delve deeper into professional behavior on and off the floor. How to relate to your clients in a friendly manner while still showing them respect without sounding too formal.  We then talk about fighting the imposter syndrome that often creeps in. You are well qualified for your job but still feel inadequate at times especially when you are dealing with people much older than you. This is not a bad thing as it forces you to work even harder and improve your skills.Finally, we talk about the perceived glass feeling we feel we have hit when we do the same job for a long time. Landon opines that self-reflection and self-evaluation is how to overcome this feeling. There is no ceiling to improving our skills. That way, when an opportunity arises we are well-prepared to handle it just as Landon has the amazing opportunity to expand Alloy to the Charlotte market. Stay tuned for more.Key TakeawaysHow to train and work right even when it gets monotonous 0:54Professional behavior at work: showing utmost respect 9:45Appropriate communication on and off the floor 10:21How to talk too older people than you in a friendly manner 10:50Fighting the feeling like you are not good enough, the imposter syndrome 11:25How to stay motivated while working in a monotonous system 15:44Having the mindset of looking at challenges as opportunities 16:51Constant self-reflection and self-evaluation in your professional career 32:20Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn 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, we discuss the rules and tools of Alloy programming for active aging clients.We discuss what are some rules that Alloy believes in or that we adhere to when we were framing out programs for adults.We also discuss how the dynamic warm-up, overhead squat, and functional movement screen fit into the scheme of things. We talk about how important it is to have a balanced approach when it comes to workout - Nobody moves differently from one another. We may have deficiencies, we may have issues that we have to work around. But we all push, we all need to pull, we all need dominant movement, and we all need to do hip down movements, and there's vertical pushing and pulling mixed in there. But in a total body approach, if we hit all those every single time, you're going to get much better results, you're going to get a consistent workout.Stay tuned for more.Key Points of Discussion:Activating people with limited time - The first thing is total body training (3:19)Starting out with a dynamic warm-up when somebody comes in (5:07)Ina sitting-oriented society, where should most of the exercises happen? (9:32)In a total body approach, you're going to get a consistent workout… (10:22)Putting exercises into different blocks for varying levels of clients (11:00)Where do the folks that are a little bit beat-up go? (13:24)Alloy’s core philosophies; programming at different levels (18:00)Six core movements for each workout (27:17)The metabolic finish (27:49)About some of the bootcamp type of businesses - One workout fits all (33:14)A coach should look at it through the lens of the client, not themselves (35:00)Plugging and playing into patterns (36:12)Of suspension trainers and kettlebells… (41:19)Come up with your rules; figure out which tools are going to work (45:40)---------Additional Resources:About Dr Stuart McGillLearn 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, I sit down with my personal coach, Tim Fulton, to discuss the 5 keys to a successful small business launch.He shares with us his thoughts on having a business plan. Quoting a study that pointed out that there is a larger than expected number of small businesses that have any type of plan, he puts the absence of a plan down to a fear factor - the fear of being held accountable, the fear of this becoming real when it's in writing.He also emphasizes the fact that growth sucks up cash - Unfortunately, many business owners don't realize that until they're in the midst of it and all of a sudden, cash is getting scarce.Another pearl of wisdom - Find some advisers, and be humble enough to ask for help.He also talks about the significance of being clear about your “why”.Tim feels having a growth mindset is important. Individuals having a growth mindset almost look forward to making mistakes because mistakes are learning opportunities.Stay tuned to know and learn more.Key Points of Discussion:Having a business plan (7:59)A study found less than 20% of small businesses have a plan (8:19)Why do so many businesses not have a plan? It’s a fear factor, feels Tim (8:40)Be adequately capitalized. Growth sucks up cash (11:33)Find some advisers, and be humble enough to ask for help (15:42)Have a strong “why”; figure out your purpose, your mission (18:03)Tim feels having a growth mindset is really important (24:54)Those with a growth mindset almost look forward to making mistakes… (26:21)---------Additional Resources:Small Business Matters website"Small Business Matters" by Tim Fulton on Amazon"Small Business Matters & All That Jazz" by Tim Fulton on Amazon"Start With Why" by Simon Sinek on Amazon"Start With Why" - Simon Sinek's Ted Talk on YouTube"Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh on Amazon"Mindset" by Carol S. Dweck on Amazon"Good To Great" by Jim Collins on AmazonLearn 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, we’ll talk about policies and procedures for personal training businesses. We will zero in on three of them, namely, a 24-hour cancellation policy, medical freeze (or just simply “A freeze”), and rollover sessions.The 24-hour cancellation policy is applicable in situations where a client has booked a training slot and then they cancel, which means that the business will have lost the revenue it would have generated during that time slot. Therefore, the client has to be charged a stipulated cancellation fee when they cancel. That policy serves well in making clients more accountable because the moment they book a slot, they will always ensure that they attend the training, which of course, keeps them on track in their fitness journey. The medical freeze or freeze is when a client is looking to take time off from the gym to go on vacation, work, or anything else that might keep them away from the gym. That usually takes anything between one to three months, and it’s usually a very bad sign because it might mean that the client is trying to leave the facility. We will share our experience with this and talk about the strategies we use to overcome it effectively. Rollovers refer to when a client doesn’t use up all their sessions and they can roll them over into the next month or year. When we had annual memberships, we ran our rollovers like the old school cell phone service providers used to do where a user had a certain amount of minutes they could use every month, and if they didn't use them all, they would roll them over to the next month as long as they stayed active as a member with the service provider. Stay tuned to learn more about the best rollover tactics to use and pick all the actionable steps you can take at your personal training facility to grow sustainably. Key Points of Discussion:The questions around policies and procedures for personal training businesses (03:10)The promise that you make someone as a personal trainer to hold them accountable (05:20)Taking it back from transactional to the coach relationship (08:39)Better behavior equals better performance (13:11)Allowing a two month freeze in an annual membership but doing it in such a way that no client wants to take that time off (15:20)The best strategy for someone who might be going on a medical freeze (19:04)In rollover strategies, use or lose it is a great policy, but not the best  (21:47)Allowing clients to downgrade their memberships to use rollovers (27:18)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn 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, we discuss the best practices around creating an effective pricing strategy for your personal training business.We talk about whether you should do per session pricing or EFT.We, at Alloy, have done both. When we opened in 1992, we sold packages of sessions.The cashflow is much easier to manage when you're charging people by the month. And getting into the monthly payment mode landed us into EFT.In EFT model, you simply go to the customer, you have one transactional conversation, then you move their relationship immediately to relational and personal. And that's where it should stay forever. And for lack of better terms, the money just sort of goes away and you never have to think about it again. That's the best relational way to set up personal training as well. And there's never that awkwardness of asking for that sale over and over. Stay tuned to know more.Key Points of Discussion:Downsides of the per session pricing model (2:33)Cashflow is easier to manage when you’re charging people by the month (4:19)Pain point of going back to that client saying: “Hey, your 10 pack is up…” (5:48)In EFT, after one transactional conversation, it’s relational, and personal (6:16)When we switched to EFT, frequency of the usage went up (7:42)Moving from one-on-one into small group training… (10:14)Keep it really simple (17:18)At the sales process, definitely use unit pricing. Every retailer does that (18:02)Monthly versus annual memberships (19:41)Three buckets of people… (22:41)Sit down and review those notions at times, and challenge yourself… (25:52)---------Additional Resources:The book "Switch" by Chip and Dan Heath on AmazonLearn 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, we look at a concept from the Harvard Business School that helps us define the true "Job" of our product or service.A Harvard professor presented this concept called job of the product. And basically, what he was challenging us to think about was when someone buys a product, or they do something, they're buying that product to do a job. So there is a job in my life that I need filled and I'm going to hire a service or I'm gonna hire a product to do the said job.Remember, the job of their product is through the lens of the customer.Anybody that is starting a new business should maybe re-evaluate their business through this lens and sort of figure out: “Well, what job is my service?”So, “What job is personal training really doing for people?” is where you would start. And once you can identify what that means, then you can understand who your true competitors are and you can put more effort into that.Stay tuned as we dive deeper into the concept.Key Points of Discussion:This concept called job of the product (3:28)The job of their product is through the lens of the customer (7:38)“What job is personal training doing for people?” is where you would start (9:18)Understanding who your true competitors are (9:23)If you knew exactly what the customers were trying to accomplish… (10:00)"Healthier to spend your money on, come here, and get your community" (12:56)Exercise means a lot of different things to a lot of people (15:42)If they're not getting that community, they stop coming in (15:45)Ask that question of you, put time into it, and then run it by your team (16:06)Once you identify that job, then you put efforts into meeting it (16:22)---------Additional Resources:Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovators and how to hire a milkshakeLearn 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!

Delving into the origins and misconceptions of high intensity interval training (HIIT), the hosts discuss the risks of prioritizing calorie burn over muscle building. They explore the benefits and limitations of HIIT, emphasizing the importance of incorporating it in small doses at the end of a strength training workout. The chapter also addresses challenges of implementing HIIT in a group setting and avoiding overuse injuries.