How To Overcome The Suck Factor

The thing that led to me writing you this post was a phone conversation
I had with a coaching clients about two weeks ago.

Since that day I haven’t been able get our call out of my mind, mainly
becuase I know there might be other trainers who are in the same mental
state as he was in… maybe even you.

Our conversation started off like this…

Me: So what’s your most wanted outcome from your business.

Him: More clients, so that I can make more money.

Me: You know, you can just charge the clients you have more and
make more money that way,

Him: I’m charging the most I can.

Me: Are you the highest priced fitness and fat loss service in town?

Him: No, I’m middle of the road. A few others change more than me,
and some change less.

Me: So there is room to raise your prices.

Him: Well, yes.

Me: Why is it that you don’t think you can change more for your program
when other similar businesses do?

Him: My demographic can’t afford to pay more.

Me: Who is your demographic? What do you specialize in?
What’s your niche?

Him: It’s really anyone who wants to workout and get it shape. I don’t
actually have a “niche”.

Me: if you could train any type of person or only specialize in a specific
outcome for your clients, what would it be?

Him: (he lit up!) I’d just train for rapid fat loss and muscle definition!
See, a lot of that is all about DIET and that’s what my degree is in and
that’s what I specialize in. But most people just want to workout and don’t
care to eating right. So I’m stuck training everyone, and their results are
so so at best because they just don’t care to focus on diet.

Me: That’s your niche my friend! Your entire marketing message should
be “if you want to lose WEIGHT and just look skinny-fat then there are
lots of options in our town for you. But if you want to lose FAT – quickly,
AND have a lean athletic body that turns heads, then I’m your man and
I can help you achieve that body becuase REAL fat loss and an athletic
body is made in the kitchen and not just in the gym”.

That marketing message would do three things for you…

1. You’d create your own category and make competition irrelevant.

2. You’d only attract the type of people that you want to train and
who would for certain follow your eating and nutrition program.

3. Because it’s what you’re most passionate about, you’d make more
money… which is what you mentioned you wanted at the start of our
call.

Him: (silent for a few long seconds)… Okay, I get it. What do I need to
do next?

We laid out the game plan for him and he’s been hard at work since.

But, you might be stuck looking for ways to get new clients too… or
to make more money… or just to cut back on your working ours so
you can actually have a life.

The average trainer in the United States makes $34,500 a year.

That’s like $2900 a month.

That’s not a lot of money at all. Heck even twice that isn’t going
to go far these days…

And that’s why I wanted to talk to you about this today.

Look, if you want more money, more income and higher profits then
the secret is not always to get more clients.

In fact, in some cases getting more clients will only put you under
greater stress and hardship if you’re not prepared to handle and
service the influx of new clients.

It’s really about figuring about what you want from your business,
and that’s the thing that a lot of trainers forget to think about.

I know a trainer who only teaches 9 AM boot camps and that’s all.

He charges $299 a month and has about 28 clients and he’s totally
happy with that.

He loves to sleep in. He doesn’t want the headache of employees,
so boot camp once a day makes total sense to him…

…and he’s fine making around $8,000 a month with no opportunity
to make more.

I mean the guy can’t make more money unless he takes on more
clients – which he chooses not to.

And he’s never going to wake up early in the morning to train clients
at 5:30 AM.

He’s fine with all of that.

That’s what he’s passionate about, that’s what he’s good at and that’s
exactly what he wants to be doing… 9:00 AM boot camp with no more
than 30 clients, and no employees.

And for a one man show he’s doing as fine as fine can be.

The guy works a total of about 3 hours a day for crying out loud!

It’s not something I could do…

I’d want more clients, more income, and to do that I’d hire a trainer or
two and an assistant to ramp the business up to about $20K – $25K
a month.

But that’s not what he wants.

And so he’s happy with what he’s got.

He’s following his passion. And that’s the factor that determines if you’ll
make it or crash… if you’re happy with what you do or if you just feel like
a hamster on a wheel.

Because success and money follow passion.

But it’s never the other way around.

And if you want to make a lot of money in this industry than you’ve got to be
passionate about what you do, the market you serve and the “thing” you
specialize in, because sooner or later you’re going to encounter the suck
factor; hardships, challenges, and obstacles and that’s when a business is
either going to sink or swim.

All businesses hit the “suck factor” at some point… in fact, several times
a year you might hit a suck factor.

That’s just life and that’s the nature of doing business.

Sooner or later you’re going to encounter something that sucks.

A sucky situation.

A sucky client.

A sucky business partner.

A sucky competitor who’s trash talking.

A sucky tax bill.

A sucky something.

Passionate entrepreneurs welcome the suck factor, because they know
that when they get to the other side of it, they’re going to be in a better place.

Money and success follow passion.

And passion is what get’s you through the suck factors in life.

It’s a simple equation.

So why don’t you take some time later today or first thing tomorrow morning
and figure out what your most desired outcome is from your business.

Build most wanted outcome around your passion.

And take massive action on it every day.

Let nothing stop you from achieving it.

And when you encounter a suck factor… and you will, you can welcome it
becuase your passion will get you through it every time.

Committed to your success,

Bedros