In this episode, Rick speaks with Dr. David Jolson about why he chose to bring 3 Alloy locations to Greenville, SC, and how he sees the pairing of the clinic and Alloy as the perfect marriage. He also shares the secret behind his strong presales. Anybody who has gone through a presale will be amazed by the fact that he has spent $0 so far. Three weeks in, he has secured almost 100 members without spending anything. Essentially, he is reaping the trust and reputation he has built in his community...
Mar 08, 2023•49 min•Ep. 183
When many people think of being a semi-absentee franchise owner, they often don’t have a realistic expectation of the time and involvement they’ll have with the business. As a semi-absentee franchise owner, you might not be involved in the day-to-day operations of your business, but you are ultimately responsible for anything that happens, both good and bad. Our guest today, Casey Kelly, one of the earliest franchisees of Alloy, knows this too well. He encountered a few hiccups early on but quic...
Mar 01, 2023•26 min•Ep. 182
Franchising is a unique business model where entrepreneurs own their own businesses while still adhering to the guidelines set by the franchisor. It can be a rewarding business model for both franchisor and franchisee, but it requires a deep understanding of the unique relationship between them. In his book The Franchise E Factor , Greg Nathan, an Australian author, outlines 6 stages of franchise relationships. While not all franchisees may experience these stages in a linear fashion, both franc...
Feb 22, 2023•21 min•Ep. 181
Investing in a franchise offers access to a successful system, along with training and support; however, the franchise owner's individual level of success is ultimately dependent on how much they put into it. Not everyone is cut out to be a franchisee, but those who are able to attain success often share many of the same character traits. As obvious as it may sound, one of the character traits is the ability to follow a system. This sounds simple enough, but you'd be surprised how many people st...
Feb 15, 2023•40 min•Ep. 180
We have always found great wisdom and lessons from the stoics of a long time ago that remain relevant today. Some of these stoic tenets cross over to the business world. In this episode, Rick and Matt go through the diaries of Marcus Aurelius, a Roman empire widely regarded as one of the greatest stoics for some of his teachings that will improve you and your business. His writings, which he did for himself at the time, have been applied today to teach important life and business lessons. If you...
Feb 08, 2023•34 min•Ep. 179
We recently deployed an Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) at our corporate offices. For those who've read the book Traction, this is the system on which the book is based. A lot of great businesses use EOS to keep track of the team's progress and increase productivity. It is a framework for accountability and, ultimately, how to structure your business. EOS helps to build a better leadership team, strengthen individual accountability, and achieve greater clarity, traction, and results. By c...
Feb 01, 2023•35 min•Ep. 178
There's an old Greek parable that says the fox knows a lot of things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Foxes are cunning and got lots of ideas to try and get the hedgehog, but the hedgehog does one thing really well. It rolls into an armored ball with spikes on it, nothing can get it, and it does it every time. It always works. Applying this concept in entrepreneurship is essentially identifying the one thing you can be good at and doing it consistently. However, it is not as easy as it sou...
Jan 25, 2023•16 min•Ep. 177
Depending on whom you ask, we are already in a recession, or it's just around the corner. But there's little doubt that a recession will hit us at some point in 2023. Many fitness entrepreneurs and those looking to invest in this industry are asking whether it's safe to invest during a recession. The answer, as always, is it depends. For Alloy Personal Training, we have been in business for more than 30 years and what we've seen is actually that our business does well during recessions. Having g...
Jan 18, 2023•17 min•Ep. 176
In this episode, Rick interviews serial entrepreneur and franchise consultant Meg Schmitz. Meg has a unique background and a great lens on risk tolerance and success. Meg has been nicknamed the franchise guru and the franchise fashionista by, among others, The Wall Street Journal. She helps people looking for franchise opportunities connect with a franchisor that’s the right fit for them. A franchise consultant plays a huge role in preparing candidates and introducing them to the franchisor prof...
Jan 11, 2023•38 min•Ep. 175
In this episode, Rick and Matt discuss the main perks of owning an Alloy Personal Training franchise over other franchises. Alloy offers a ton of perks that very few, if any, franchises offer to help our franchisees have the best chance for success. One of the fears new franchisees have, especially those coming from employment, is losing benefits such as their health insurance or 401k. Here at Alloy, we offer all our franchisees a full suite of benefits so that they don’t worry about that. Anoth...
Jan 04, 2023•26 min•Ep. 174
Today on the podcast, we have one of the foremost experts in nutrition and exercise in the world. Alan Aragon has been a nutritional researcher for more than 3 decades. Most people in the fitness industry must have come across one of his very many science-backed writings. He has been moving the fitness industry towards more of an evidence-based information approach. He has published in popular nutrition and fitness magazines and peer-reviewed scientific journals. In this episode, Rick and Alan d...
Dec 28, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 173
In this episode, Matt and Rick discuss the 3 reasons that make fitness a great business. From the financials to the purpose, fitness is a compelling investment opportunity. More and more people are becoming aware of fitness's impact on their overall health. In fact, muscle mass has been recognized as one of the markers of longevity. And with only about 20% of the population actively working out, there is a great untapped opportunity. Having a business that literally changes people's lives gives ...
Dec 21, 2022•18 min•Ep. 172
Recruiting the best staff for your fitness business is arguably the single most important factor that will determine your success as a business owner. However, as any fitness entrepreneur will tell you, finding, hiring, and retaining the best talent in our industry is a big challenge. In this episode, Rick speaks to Jessie Stackhouse, founder of Just Fitness Staffing, about recruiting for a fitness business. She is Alloy’s one and only vendor for talent acquisition in the fitness space. Jessie s...
Dec 14, 2022•43 min•Ep. 171
Last week we started the tongue-in-cheek conversation of 31 ways to ruin your fitness business to celebrate 31 years of serving customers in the personal training space. In today’s episode, we continue from number 15 to number 31. As much as these are hilarious takes from Rick and Matt, important business lessons can be learned. Running a business requires patience, effort, and great determination, yet many businesses are ruined by silly missteps by their owners. These are some of the things you...
Dec 07, 2022•44 min•Ep. 170
We are officially 31 years in business. That’s no mean achievement for any business, let alone one in the fitness space. But we are just getting started…. With over 80 franchises awarded already and many more coming up, the future looks good. But to celebrate the milestone of 31 years in business, Rick and Matt explain the 31 ways to ruin your fitness business. With more than 3 million customers served, 4 brand iterations, and over 2500 clubs licensed/consulted, Rick has seen it all in the fitne...
Nov 30, 2022•44 min•Ep. 169
In most fitness businesses, there are two main levers you can pull. The first one is sales, where you get a lead in front of you and have a process to convince them that you have the solution to their problem. The second lever, which is KEY to growing your business, is a good retention model to keep the customers IN your business. The fitness industry has always struggled with this lever. If you want to grow and fill up your gym, you're probably not going to get there if you're putting water in ...
Nov 23, 2022•32 min•Ep. 168
Losing some of your customers to local competition can be painful. And when they’re directly stealing customers from you, it can really set the alarm bells ringing. So while sometimes you should pay attention to what they’re doing, it’s always about balance. Sometimes you can lose sight of what you’re trying to do just by focussing on competitors too much. In this episode, Rick and Matt are going to explain how much attention you should pay to your competition, why the scarcity mindset is killin...
Nov 16, 2022•31 min•Ep. 167
When it comes to choosing an exercise program, there are lots of varying options and opinions out there. And most people who put out ideas on what’s “ right ” usually have something to gain financially. That explains the number of people who don’t stick around in the gym that long. Either they’re troubled with specific injuries after doing some gym routines, or they aren’t that motivated at all. Fortunately, real hard data and the latest science are coming in to back up our claim that strength t...
Nov 09, 2022•50 min•Ep. 166
The fitness industry is youth obsessed. Just look at most of the ads and marketing content you see from gyms, and you notice that very few fitness facilities are speaking to the older demographic, those that are over-50 This demographic is underserved in the fitness industry, yet they have more money to spend than the younger people who are still finding their footing in life. In this episode, Rick speaks with Jay Croft of Prime Fit Content to discuss the subcategories of the 50+ demographic. Ja...
Nov 02, 2022•45 min•Ep. 165
One of the superpowers of successful entrepreneurs is the ability to stay focused. You’ve probably heard Rick and Matt talk about it in this podcast. But the key to staying longer in business is to constantly disrupt your own business. If you don’t, your competition will do it for you and put you out of business. However, disruption is not squirreled brain addition of things. It’s not pilling things on that don’t move the needle significantly. Disruption is moving from one thing to another in a ...
Oct 26, 2022•43 min•Ep. 164
A major challenge facing gym owners is finding and keeping a team of top-notch personal trainers on board. In this episode, we discuss the concepts and strategies for dealing with trainer turnover. To illustrate the point of turnover, we will use the River & Ponds analogy, which says that some people will come into your business, and it will be a river for their career. Meaning they will be here today, then the current (the market) will take them somewhere else in a short period of time. The...
Oct 19, 2022•14 min•Ep. 163
An entrepreneur is ultimately a problem solver at heart because to start and run a business, you have to first identify a problem in society and come up with a solution that you can then take to the market. So we can safely assume that problem-solving is inherent to all entrepreneurs. The paradox arises when our entrepreneurial instincts lead us to believe we can solve all problems in our businesses. This is an unrealistic expectation that can lead to lots of frustrations. Some problems can only...
Oct 12, 2022•28 min•Ep. 162
Coming out of the Covid pandemic, fitness has never been more important. More and more people appreciate the need to lead a more active and healthier lifestyle. Helping people in their health and fitness journeys while securing your financial future is noble. The Alloy Personal Training franchise offers franchisees an opportunity to help people in their community while running a proven business concept. The Alloy business model serves a demographic that is underserved and untapped in the industr...
Oct 05, 2022•31 min•Ep. 161
Core values in a business are not just one of those nice things to have. They are very important as they define who you are, your culture and tells the world what sets you apart as a business. The core values communicate what's important to your business, influence behavior and desired action within your team. Ultimately, they bring people on a team together on a mission to succeed. In our case, our franchising business is growing with new franchises coming up, and we are also scaling our corpor...
Sep 28, 2022•27 min•Ep. 160
Last week in part 1 of this conversation, Rick and Rami began the conversation on what makes a successful presale. The first component was defining your why, which feeds into everything else you do. In this episode, we explore the other 2 components, which are organization and effort. Rami also shares his amazing stats from his presale that goes to show the level of organization he had in place and the amount of effort he put in. The thing with a presale in the Alloy model is that you put in the...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 159
You’ve probably heard Rick talk about Rami in the last few episodes. Today, he is on the show to talk about the components of a successful presale. Rami broke all the records amongst our franchisees for a presale and has lots of information to share on how he approaches it to get those numbers. The first component is understanding your why. Why are you doing the presale, and what do you want to get out of it. Just like we do with our clients in the starting point session, we want to peel the oni...
Sep 14, 2022•43 min•Ep. 158
In this episode, Rick speaks with FranChoice franchise consultant Wes Barefoot. Wes describes the attributes of a good franchise candidate, his process for matching the candidate with the right franchise, and the right mindset for success as an entrepreneur. With the many franchise opportunities available today, a franchise consultant guides candidates to the one that is a perfect fit. Wes's process to match the right candidate with the right brand is similar to what we do here at Alloy at a sta...
Sep 07, 2022•54 min•Ep. 157
Table stakes is a term used in poker, meaning the minimum amount you need to get to a table and play a game. When used in business, it means the barrier of entry or the minimum offering you have to provide to be in a particular business. For instance, in a personal training business, it is expected that your facility should be clean, you should offer specificity, great programming, good enough customer service, etc. These are the things that customers expect as a bare minimum from you. You can't...
Aug 31, 2022•26 min•Ep. 156
In order to succeed as an entrepreneur in the fitness industry, you need to get your systems and processes dialed in. This allows you to grow, scale, retain, and repeat. This is the story of Alloy Personal Training Franchise. Having been in business for more than 30 years and licensed thousands of clubs worldwide, Rick Mayo and the Alloy team ventured into the franchising world in 2019. Shortly after, the pandemic struck, and we all know how this affected the fitness industry. But the Alloy Pers...
Aug 24, 2022•30 min•Ep. 155
Before customers can make the decision to buy your product/service, they want to find out what other people are saying about it. 91% of people will look for reviews/success stories before making a purchase. Through the lens of selling personal training memberships, success stories are important because they validate that the product works and others have experienced the results. Here at Alloy, we have success stories built on the studio design to help new customers have trust in our product. Bes...
Aug 17, 2022•26 min•Ep. 154
