5 Things You Missed on Saturday
So many II readers have written in for a copy of my presentation from the weekend, and while I can’t give you that, I do have something almost as good.
Here’s a review of my presentation from a good friend of mine, Alwyn Cosgrove. He’s a best-selling author (his latest book called “The New Rules of Lifting for Abs” hit #2 on the entire Amazon.com site recently).
Alwyn’s is a full-time “real world” business owner with his gym in Santa Clarita, California, but he also has a side business on the internet, and so his notes here are perfect for beginners and intermediate readers.
********************************************
5 Things I Learned From Craig’s Presentation
By Alwyn Cosgrove
First off I’ve known Craig for over a decade. In the internet age, we’ve only met in person about half a dozen times but we “talk” weekly.
He was one of the guys in my “corner” when I was facing cancer. Not a lot of people knew I was sick until after I’d recovered – but Craig was one of those how did.
I’ve learned a ton from him about the internet side of the business and as a result of his help I make well over six figures online.
The reality though is that I do very LITTLE online. I’m able to make six figures with a “on the side” website business largely because of ideas Craig gives me and teaches.
So I talk to him weekly, have all his products, read his blog daily, and was lucky enough to spend a few hours with him on Friday afternoon before the presentation.
So what extra stuff was I going to learn from his presentation on Saturday morning?
A ton actually…
1) You Must Really, Really, REALLY Know Your Client
“If you can see John Smith, through John Smith’s eyes – you can sell John Smith what John Smith buys”.
I preach this a lot to club owners and trainers – understand the mindset of a client or prospect.
But Craig goes into detail.
Who exactly is your perfect client? Design the avatar of your target…
Name – age – gender – job – income – location — what they do — what pain do they have — what do they NEED but don’t have Who EXACTLY are you talking to? What keeps them up at night?
HOW ARE YOU THE SOLUTION?
Confession – We’ve been good at this at Results Fitness in our offline stuff, but never even considered it with online.
POWER TIP: Craig talked about the 35 year old male with no time that was his target market – that USED TO BE an athlete.
This is huge. Using “get back in shape” as a trigger with this market will make a much bigger impact than “get in shape”.
We’ve experienced this ourselves in marketing to males in particular — adding that one single word will increase your response.
2) Provide the Solution, Not Just a Tool
Craig actually mentioned his own experience with finding a solution to a problem within an ebook.
The lesson behind this was that no one who ever bought an ebook actually “wanted an ebook”. They wanted a RESULT.
Don’t forget that the end result of your product is to be a solution to your prospects problem.
It’s not the “program” that will make you successful. It’s the solution.
Don’t ever forget that or devalue it.
3) Take Action
My coach James Malinchak says “Get Stuff Done Fast”. Frank Kern, who spoke after Craig, says “Thou shall not **** around”.
Craig says exactly the same thing but he just doesn’t have a catchy phrase.
If a person walked into your gym and asked to join – would they have to wait six months until you finished the program?
Of course not.
Your online product is no different. If you can’t get it done quickly – you’re writing on a topic that you don’t understand.
It shouldn’t take that long if you truly believe in what you offer. If it’s taking you longer than two weeks to finish it – you have two choices – lock yourself into a hotel room or
conference room (different environment) and get it done – or accept that you need a different product.
A good product should just “flow” out of you.
4) Build Value and Relationships
One of my own personal questions is how I’m able to make more money online than a lot of trainers who are doing everything right (and I’m not).
Craig answered it for me.
I give value.
I present to trainers around the world and they join my list to get more value.
I can filter information for them and help them in their businesses and lives.
If I see a product or service that I feel is of value to them, I feel obligated to mention it. I won’t mention stuff that I don’t believe in, but I feel that I am ethically obligated to mention stuff that I DO believe in.
In short – I’ve built RELATIONSHIPS with my list. Without that – you’re not going to grow your list, you’re not going to be able to market to your list because the trust isn’t there. Do something every day to deliver value to your market.
5) Have Passion
Craig didn’t teach this directly but it’s something that bears mentioning.
I used to sell ebooks and training programs on my website.
One day a few years ago I got an email from Craig talking about how he had an idea for an ebook on ab training and then stayed up until 3am just to finish it, and then woke up at 6am to launch it.
At first I laughed a bit picturing my Canadian friend shooting exercise photos while he did ab training until the wee hours.
I remember thinking that I could never get something done so fast, and no way was I going to do something like that.
But I could literally feel the passion for what he was doing in his words.
I realized that I didn’t have that passion for creating online workouts. I wasn’t going to be able to.
One my core values is “bring your best”. I won’t do something unless I know that I’m bringing my best. When it came to that stuff I realized I wasn’t going to bring my best.
So I pulled all the ebooks. I wasn’t going to be able to match Craig’s passion for this stuff and I didn’t want to shortchange my customers when I could easily recommend Craig.
Now Results Fitness writes about trainer education and business building alongside programming. I think we’re the best in the World at what we do. We really bring the passion to that side of it and it shows.
As a result of seeing Craig’s passion – Turbulence Training is now one of the online partners for us.
The lesson is — what are you TRULY passionate about? What’s your mission?
BONUS POWER TIP:
Identify your most productive and creative time of the day.
I’d never really thought about this before. I carefully manage my time and energy levels but I hadn’t ever considered that there is a time of the day (regardless of my mood, hours of sleep before or energy levels) when I’m just flat out more productive.
Craig realized that between the hours of 6-7am he could get three times as much work done as he would later in the afternoon, and FIVE TIMES as much as an hour in the evening.
This is a power strategy. It might mean getting up earlier, staying up later or canceling a client — but identify for YOU when you’re going to be the most productive and use that time to produce. That’s a power strategy for success.
We all have the same time challenges. So managing time isn’t going to be our issue – managing the energy we bring to that time is the key. Identifying your POWER HOUR is step one.
======================
Thanks Alwyn, that was almost as good as being there.
Take action on those tips today,
Craig Ballantyne
If you want something in life that you aren’t getting now, you have two choices: 1) Change your ways to behaviors that will move you to that goal. 2) Accept that nothing is going to change because you refuse to change…..It’s that simple.