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Why Complexity is Destroying Your Business Pt. 1 · Gym Business Coach Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, welcome back to another episode of the gym business coach podcast.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host Randy angston joined with Zach Columbia.
• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yo, what are we doing today in the house?
• 0:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, we are in the, oh, our fresh new studio.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, guys, we're going to dive in today.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to touch on why confusion, why complexity is kind of the enemy.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: We really believe that simplicity scales, if you're trying to create a, you know, trying true business.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not always about bringing in more.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's old saying, I have no idea where it came from, but we've used it quite a bit, that more is not necessarily better, more is more.
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that there is a,
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: a belief in this industry where we want to serve everybody, we want to have multiple options, different service types, general access, personal training, maybe do group training, a little bit of everything, right?
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: But what is that actually doing for your business?
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that we'll get into it, obviously, here.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: But ultimately, I do believe that what we're doing is we're creating confusion.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're not giving our clients a path.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: where confusing the marketplace and we're making it harder to do business.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Zach from the, we're going to touch on the client side of things today, right?
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, on this episode, I should say, why don't you kick yourself in, in just kind of lay the foundation of, you know, why you believe that simplicity is the key to scale and comes to that.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know what, it's interesting.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'll go back to MDM live that we had here.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: What was that two months ago?
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some like that.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: We had 15, 17 Jim owners in the room.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you start.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's an intimate room.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody's honest.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Open up.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: It opens up.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: We just ask, like, hey, revenue wise, like, where do you fall?
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, range.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: The top performing gyms all really do like one or two things max really well.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: their businesses are super simple and they're not stuck in this like hustle operator mode.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would say both of those gym owners that were at the top were also a step removed.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so it's like, we have this in our gym and we're like, hey guys, here's what we do.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: We do some eye private training.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have 200 clients or five staff members, four coaches, director.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: two membership options, prices like it's very simplistic and the people that are in the upper ends of the revenue are at the same.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Their businesses look very, very similar, fundamentally.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you get into the lower end of the revenue.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's like these guys and gals have multiple service types.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: They do, you know, large group training.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: They have youth athletic training.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: They have one-on-one training.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's some small groupers.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: They call it semi.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's actually small group training.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're dabbling and that they, you know, do nutrition coaching, but they're revising their nutrition coaching program it it's just all these different pieces and it's like, okay, there's a clear distinction here and so I guess the question to ask is like,
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it is complexity that an enemy, you know, can disability scale and if so, then like let's step back from the business and just trying to like.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: cast a wide net and catch everything.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, let's get very specific and, you know, know who we are as a business with our identity.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's go attract that customer and let's make sure that the experience for that customer is frictionless.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that that's kind of where we take this conversation is a little bit more tactical is okay.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you do have that, if your business is very simplistic,
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: then you can map out a pretty clear client journey from the time that you really from an attraction.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you're saying, probably before they even, yeah, before they even become a customer, it's like our marketing can speak to who we are and what we do, who we serve, who you serve, yeah.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then from there, it's like everything is this, the straight line versus all these different options and paths and things.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I mean, why don't we just, let's just paint the journey.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, let's just use the example of somebody's website.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, right?
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I could think of a Jim owner that got into the iron circle and hadn't done some of my private before and they were like, hey, we're going to roll out some of my private and they added it to their website and they're like, hey, I'm not going to hold a lot of traction here.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: You remember this and we did kind of like a, I want to say a deep dive, but we didn't even have to do a deep dive.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: We just had to look at it.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we're like, I can't figure out what it is that you do because you do everything on your website.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like one is one page is talking to like a 40 plus with some of my private adult training, the other one's youth and then this one's here and then and it's all kind of blurred together.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, who are you as a
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it brings up the, we are talking a little bit, it's more of like a service offering, right?
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're an order taker at that point.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're, you're trying to cater to everybody, but you personally, your business doesn't have an identity.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you don't have like a flag planted on who you serve, how you serve them and like what you really do well.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And right out of the gate, I mean that that level of complexity, if you may,
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: It does confuse the marketplace, right?
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if we look at somebody walking into a gym, they probably, they don't know what they're looking for, right?
• 6:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: More often than not.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, maybe when it comes to like general access versus training, maybe that's like the level of what they,
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: they know they want a personal trainer okay well what style of training is going to get me the result and if you've got every option under the sun how does that person know that you're the right gym for them and that you know you speak to them I mean I I also think that in your marketing your callouts and knowing your niche and being able to speak to that individual
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, if we don't serve everybody, we don't take any, I've just anybody off the street, you know, can we can we can we get them a result probably, but is that what our business is known for what we want to be known for or the flag that we planted that creates that term that you use all time that five mile famous right you want to be known for the one thing that you do the best you can absolutely win with that and I think from an attraction standpoint like that has to be what you lead with.
• 7:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: 100%.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's like we train busy adults over 40 or we train high performing, high achieving professional women like whatever it is that you want to do.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's who you should speak to and it should be very clear when somebody goes to your website or
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: is researching you your your social media pages like hey that's who who we serve.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because thinking.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: creates objections or gives the opportunity for objections.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you make your prospect, think like, is this for me or not, you're already losing.
• 8:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
• 8:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Essentially.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: So jump, jump forward.
• 8:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's say that your website, you do get that person in for a consultation in the consultation,
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: present like you make it through the consultation.
• 8:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: You should have a pretty straight forward process for that.
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't have that in the show note, you can drop you up closing.
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Profit closing method method.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then then like when you go to present pricing.
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, how many options you have?
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, we, you know, if anybody's listening to this, been listening for a while, AB pricing, that's it.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have, we have unlimited training.
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you have an open or an annual.
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those are the two options to choose from.
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: We sell everybody the annual out of the gate.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: They have a two week guarantee.
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: They can change it at the end of two weeks.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the reason for that is like we're saying, hey, there's two options.
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: My brain, my caveman brain can comprehend like two options without thinking too much.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And oh, by the way, the way that you start is this one here.
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So now we're even eliminating that other one.
• 9:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But they know that there's an opportunity.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if somebody is like, I don't know that I want to do an annual.
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, you're signing up for a two week trial.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can switch this to the open.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: at the end.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So there's still that option in the back of their head, but there's not 10 different prices or membership options or those types of things that they have to choose from.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can do like a part two.
• 9:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: This we talk about from the staff side.
• 9:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: What that does for being able from a sales component and all the different pieces.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: But from a client facing side, it's like, I don't have to think.
• 10:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I use the analogy all the time of sitting down at cheesecake factory, right?
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's three hundreds going to take me a long time to make it through that menu.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, exactly, right?
• 10:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, but at the same time, you know, you might walk in with with a pre-determined idea of what you want, and then you see 300 options.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And like you said, the caveman brain starts going, and I don't know what I want.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now I can't make a decision, and then the next thing you know, you order something that
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: just kind of popped out last minute because you want to get in order and instead of you're a chicken breast that's it's steamed broccoli.
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's broken.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's, you know, all decisions come down to two choices, essentially.
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the more that we convoluted it with, the longer that process in decision-making takes.
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, so I mean from a front end, like on your website,
• 10:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is it clear what you do and who you are and who you serve and then they get to the consultation and it's okay here's here's the option to move forward and take the next steps or is it I don't know who you are what you do I've got 20 different I got to come in for a consultation to figure out even you know what what this looks like for me with the program looks like okay I have to leave here and go home and think about it then you sign a client up
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and a lot of gyms, the experience, okay, look, you get a download this app, this is that that we use for scheduling and billing.
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: We need you to download this app, this is the app we use for communication, then you get my fitness power, this nutrition tracking once download that app and it's like,
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: They have no idea how to communicate with you where to go what the steps are.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're asking them to download three, four different ways to communicate with you or to do their program or whatever, put yourself in that client shoes, maybe not in the fitness or just in any business, that doesn't get a good way to create a clear client
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, again, like simplicity, I would much rather, hey, this is the app, but download this app, you're going to use this app for scheduling, and we'll text you.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The clients already, you already have a phone, you don't have to download the text you from this number, that's one of the reasons why like for semi-private pro, we created it here,
• 12:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're like, we're not going to have a client facing version of this.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you come in and the programming is up for you.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to download another app or anything like that.
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, there's pros and cons to that, but the pro is like, you show up and do your work out here.
• 12:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you rely on us and it's simple from the client standpoint.
• 12:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's see.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what else?
• 12:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know there's no like one size fits all software.
• 13:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's no one one app for everything, but at the same time, like you have to simplify this process for your clients.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: like limited memberships versus unlimited memberships.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you go unlimited from the business standpoint.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing I need to track.
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's unlimited right from the client standpoint.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing I need to track.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't get to the end of the month and ran out of my eight sessions because the month fell weird and now it's like, oh, in order for me to come two times a week, I got to pay for an extra session.
• 13:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that creates a friction point in the business.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, there's no thought that has to go into doing business with.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the point that I really want to try to make here from the client's point of view.
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, man, this experience is just so streamlined that it really takes no cognitive part from me to be a customer here.
• 14:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's well said.
• 14:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you guys look at our just the nature of our business, it's not easy.
• 14:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of times clients, if you give clients a reason to cancel, or excuse to not do business with you, they will find it.
• 14:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, really, they'll take it.
• 14:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they'll take it.
• 14:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So from a sales standpoint, you know, when I'm teaching sales training,
• 14:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I always say that you never want your customer or perspective customer to say no subconsciously.
• 14:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: There should never be any red flags.
• 14:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: There should never be any friction points.
• 14:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everything, whether they see it or don't see it, most of the time they're not going to see it.
• 14:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: But subconsciously, it's like everything is telling them like this is the right decision for me to make.
• 15:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: That should also transfer over into the actual I'm a client of your business, and I'm coming in doing business with you.
• 15:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so from, you know, how you communicate with your clients to how they book training sessions to your policies and just, you know, how they do business with you, there should never be a subconscious know or a friction point, everything should be smooth sailing.
• 15:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: from a client experience standpoint, that's how simplicity scales, right?
• 15:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's how you keep your clients, that's how you make it easy to attract them to get them in the door and retain them.
• 15:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we'll talk about this in the next episode, but like from a staff standpoint, in an operational standpoint, same things apply, like the simpler it is, the easier it is to have a sustainable business.
• 15:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, very well said.
• 15:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think, I mean, I think we paint the picture pretty well.
• 16:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, taking somebody through the whole customer journey, right?
• 16:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: It hits every aspect of it.
• 16:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can overly, you can make any single area of that business to complex.
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody likes to jump to hoops.
• 16:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, at the end of the day, they care about getting the result as easy as we can make it for them to do that.
• 16:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's the goal.
• 16:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, even the transition or the progression of this business, you know, I've seen it over the years, going from multiple deliveries to single focus, different membership options to unlimited, you know, one of those things, and at Tim and I have done a podcast on this year, oh man, it's probably two years ago, back in the old studio, where, you know, it's, he's in the phase of, or this business is in the phase of optimization.
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if I look at it, it's almost like the only thing we've done is take it in a way things that didn't serve the client.
• 16:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: We didn't need to be doing because it didn't make their result any better.
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: All it did was create those friction points.
• 16:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so we've been able to identify that over the years and just continue to chip away or you know, chip things remove things if you may that just make that customer journey that much easier.
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, take that for today, look at your business, look at it from a client standpoint, you know, put yourself in their shoes, go through that journey that they're going through, and see if there are things that you're doing, just because you've done them that way, as opposed to there's intentionality around it, there's a reason for it, if something needs to happen, it might need to be in the business, but if it doesn't, chances are you're just doing it because it's the way you've done it before, for the, you know, previously.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, um,
• 17:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's all we've got for this episode.
• 17:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Join us on the next one.
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll dive into more of this staff and the operational side.
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And how complex it could be limiting your growth there, but that's all we've got for this episode.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Keep changing lives.
• 17:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: See you next show.