Marketing Agencies & Gym Owners Ep 5

In the Gym Secrets podcast, the hosts discuss the pitfalls of gym owners who diversify into marketing agencies targeting other gyms while neglecting their own. They observe that these dual entrepreneurs often fail to maintain a successful gym business and, as a result, start selling marketing services without a proven track record of success. The hosts argue that focusing on one business is crucial for growth, as splitting attention leads to subpar performance in both ventures. Citing personal anecdotes and a metaphor likening this to a bikini coach who can't maintain her own fitness, they caution gym owners against such agencies and advocate for self-reliance in marketing. They conclude by offering their own services for gym owners looking to improve their businesses.

• The hosts, including Speaker A, are discussing a trend they've observed with gym owners who also run marketing agencies.
• There has been a significant increase in applications to work with the hosts.
• The hosts are grateful for the influx of applications, indicating a high level of interest in their work.

What's up, everyone? And welcome to the Gym Secrets podcast. We're going to be taking brief excerpt from the origin story and talk about something that's been riling our gears. So recently, Layla and I have been at it, you know, not romantically. Well, not, not romantically, whatever. Anyways, the point is we've, you know, we've had a flurry or an influx of applications to work with us, which we're very grateful for, and that's what it's all about for us.

This quote sets the stage for the podcast episode, introducing the topic and the hosts' perspective on the recent developments they've experienced.

• Gym owners start marketing agencies after initial success with their gyms.
• They learn marketing to improve their gym's performance but eventually hit a plateau.
• Unable to refresh their marketing strategies effectively, they look for alternative revenue streams.
• The hosts suggest that these gym owners should have concentrated on their primary business.

They started a gym, and then they learned some bit about marketing. And then it probably started working a little bit for their gym, and then it stopped working because then they didn't know how to refresh, copy, or change their offer, or refresh the creative or have a conversion process that worked and was reliable, or they didn't know how to scale it with a team or for ready reasons, whatever, right? But it started in the beginning and it worked, and then it stopped working.

This quote describes the trajectory of gym owners who branch out into marketing, highlighting the challenges they face in maintaining successful marketing strategies.

• Gym owners who start marketing agencies often end up neglecting their primary business.
• The hosts argue that if the gyms were highly profitable, the owners wouldn't need to start agencies.
• Splitting focus leads to two mediocre businesses rather than one successful one.

Now, the crazy thing here is that what they really needed to do is focus on their gym. Because if their gym was making $50,000 a month, I guarantee you they wouldn't have started the agency. They'd be focused more on their gym and then maybe thinking about opening another gym, but that wasn't the case. And so then they split their attention and then made two shitty businesses instead of one.

Speaker A emphasizes the importance of focus and the negative impact of dividing attention between two ventures.

• Speaker A references a conversation with Russell, who attributes his financial success to focusing on one business.
• Russell had multiple businesses but couldn't surpass a certain revenue threshold until he consolidated his focus.

Russell, when he and I were talking about this, he's like, you know what took me from 3 million a year to 30 million? He was, like, focusing. I had eight different businesses, and at my max, I had twelve businesses going at one point, and I could never crack 3 million. He's like, it was only until I got rid of all of m

This quote is an anecdote that underscores the theme of the podcast: the importance of focusing on one's core business to achieve significant growth.

• Diversifying into multiple businesses can lead to spreading oneself too thin.
• Focusing on a single business is more likely to yield success.
• Entrepreneurs often face the temptation to start new ventures when current ones struggle.
• Prioritizing one business can help in overcoming challenges and prevent feeling overwhelmed.

"My businesses and only focused on one, that my business exploded. And that was a really big lesson for me, too, because luckily I was just bad enough at business that I only did one at a time."

• This quote emphasizes the speaker's personal experience where concentrating on one business led to significant growth. It also touches on the idea that not being skilled at managing multiple businesses can be an advantage.

"But speaking from experience here, if you have that temptation to start something else because your current business isn't working, you're just going to have twice as many problems now instead of just one time as many."

• The speaker warns against the common entrepreneurial pitfall of starting a new business as a solution to problems in the current one, suggesting it compounds issues rather than solving them.

"And if you're in that situation, just pick one and I guarantee you that you'll make it work if you only had one to focus on."

• The quote provides advice for entrepreneurs to concentrate their efforts on a single venture for better chances of success.

• Gyms starting food prep companies as an extension often do not make money.
• The motive behind starting an additional business is usually due to the primary business underperforming.
• The extension businesses often fail to be profitable.

"I can't tell you how many gyms start a food prep company because their gym doesn't make money. And my second question to that is, does your food prep company make money? The answer is always no."

• The speaker discusses a specific trend where gyms start side businesses in food prep to supplement income, but these ventures typically do not succeed financially.

• Marketing agencies with failing gyms face a moral dilemma when selling services to other gym owners.
• There is a conflict of interest when a business sells services that it cannot successfully implement for itself.
• The speaker is against working with marketing agencies that cannot demonstrate effective results in their own gyms.

"So we're peeling back the layers on the dual marketing agency gym owners who are applying to work with us. So the first thing is they shouldn't have two businesses, but they do."

• This quote introduces the issue of gym owners running dual businesses and the inherent problems with this approach.

"These guys or these marketing agencies have a gym that they're incredibly personally invested in and are unable to get results for and still feel morally okay about selling their services to other gym owners who don't know the full picture."

• The speaker criticizes marketing agencies that run gyms for selling marketing services to others despite not being successful in their own gym business, highlighting a moral and ethical concern.

"And even if we said, hey, you can only use this for this gym, it would just be real hard to take the stuff that we do that lights everyone's gym on fire. And by that I mean like blows it up and fills it up in 30 days, which is what we do, and then all of a sudden not be able to do that and start marketing as your own business."

• The quote reflects skepticism about the ability of dual business owners to effectively implement successful strategies in their own gym while also running a marketing agency.

• The speaker promotes the video version of their podcast.
• Visual elements in the video podcast can enhance understanding and engagement.
• Different content formats cater to various learning and engagement preferences.

"Hey, guys, love that you're listening to the podcast if you ever want to have the video version of this, which usually has more effects, more visuals, more graphs, drawn out stuff, sometimes it can help hit the brain centers in different ways."

• The quote encourages listeners to engage with the video version of the podcast for a potentially more enriching experience due to additional visual elements.

• The speaker is promoting their YouTube channel as a free resource.
• They encourage people to visit the channel if they're interested in the content.
• The promotion is mentioned casually as part of a broader conversation.

"Check out my YouTube channel. It's absolutely free. Go check that out if that's what you are into, and if not, keep enjoying the show."

The quote highlights the speaker's non-pushy approach to promoting their YouTube channel, suggesting it as an optional resource for the audience.

• The speaker offers advice to gym owners, suggesting they should focus on their core business.
• The advice includes closing their marketing agency to receive help from the speaker's side.
• This is presented as a side note but is indicative of a larger conversation about business focus and specialization.

"So if you have a marketing agency and you have a gym, close your marketing agency and we will help you out."

This quote is a direct piece of business advice, emphasizing the importance of concentrating on one's primary business venture for better success.

• Layla introduces the concept of the "epiphany bridge" as a metaphor.
• The metaphor relates to recognizing when a business model, like a gym, is failing.
• It warns against selling services to others without understanding the underlying issues.

"But here's the great epiphany bridge that Layla pointed out."

The quote introduces the concept of the epiphany bridge, which is a moment of realization or a turning point in understanding a problem.

• Speaker B shares an epiphany about the fitness industry while performing a mundane task.
• They draw an analogy between a bikini coach's practice and poor business practices.
• The analogy highlights the issue of short-term success without sustainable results.

"Had this epiphany when I was driving to go pick up dog food today. Really exciting. But I got it from Whole Foods trying to give them some organic dog food."

The quote sets the scene for the speaker's realization, linking the mundane task of buying dog food to a moment of clarity about broader issues.

• Speaker B criticizes a bikini coach for offering unsustainable coaching services.
• The coach's clients experience temporary success followed by negative outcomes.
• The pattern of failure among clients suggests a lack of understanding of long-term health and fitness.

"So this bikini coach not only is coaching other people whom she should not be, because she, yes, can get them to a competition, but what's the point in doing that when we all know they're going to get fat after?"

The quote is a critical assessment of a coach who leads clients to short-term success without addressing the long-term consequences, reflecting a lack of sustainable practice.

• The conversation draws parallels between the fitness industry and marketing practices.
• Both fields have examples of individuals who lack a deep understanding of their craft.
• The bikini coach's search for her own coach mirrors a gym owner's struggle with ineffective ads.

"Still, I don't understand why my ads aren't working. They used to work before. They don't work anymore. What's going on?"

This quote connects the previous critique of the bikini coach to similar issues in marketing, where tactics that once worked no longer yield results, indicating a superficial understanding of the field.

• The speaker had an epiphany about the ineffectiveness of certain marketing strategies.
• Companies approach the speaker with issues about their failing gym promotions.
• The speaker researches potential clients on Facebook to understand their business before engagement.
• The speaker discovers that these companies are selling marketing services that are no longer effective for themselves.
• This situation is likened to a bikini coach selling a fitness plan that resulted in personal weight gain post-competition.

That's like most of the companies. So they come to me. Well, they come to us, right? But I'm the first one who talks to them, and they're talking about how their gym doesn't work. They had offers that used to work, but the offers don't work anymore.

This quote explains that companies approach the speaker with their business problems, specifically about their gym's marketing offers no longer being effective.

And it's the exact same thing because they're telling me that what they're doing when what they need help with doesn't work anymore yet that's what they're selling to these gyms.

The speaker highlights the irony of marketing agencies seeking help for their own failing strategies while simultaneously selling these ineffective strategies to other gyms.

• The speaker advises marketing agencies not to sell ineffective strategies.
• Gym owners are cautioned against working with marketing agencies.
• The speaker believes gym owners should learn to market themselves as it isn't overly difficult.
• A warning is given regarding agencies that have few clients and are likely to provide subpar service due to divided attention.
• The speaker expresses a desire to discuss marketing strategies for gym owners in more detail in a future episode.

So, yeah, if you're one of those marketing agencies, don't do that. And for everyone else who is watching this or listening to this, if you are a gym owner and you're approached by a marketing agency, a, I don't think you should ever work with a marketing agency.

The speaker advises marketing agencies to avoid selling ineffective services and suggests that gym owners should not work with these agencies.

I think you should learn how to do it. It's not that hard, I promise.

The speaker encourages gym owners to learn marketing themselves, asserting that it is not a difficult skill to acquire.

• The speaker promotes their own marketing services, specifically for gyms.
• They mention a website where interested parties can learn more about their methods.
• The website offers quizzes and case studies to showcase their success in marketing gyms.
• An invitation is extended to apply for their services.

And if you want to find out more about how we do what we do and how we fill gyms in 30 days in every single market that we go into. You can go to gymlaunchsecrets.com quiz, and we will catch you on the other side and get four free case studies that'll show you a whole bunch of cool stuff.

The speaker provides information about their website, which explains their gym marketing strategies and offers resources to demonstrate their effectiveness.

• The speaker sends well-wishes to the audience, regardless of when they are listening.
• There is an anticipation of future communication with the audience.
• A brief goodbye is offered by the second speaker.

Hope you guys are having an amazing day night, afternoon, car drive. Wake up whenever you're listening to this, and we look forward to talking to you guys soon.

The speaker extends good wishes to the audience and expresses eagerness to engage with them again soon.

All right, talk to you soon. Bye.

The second speaker concludes the conversation with a simple farewell, indicating the end of the discussion.