[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: Today's topic is what hardworking coaches need to learn from influences in 2024. Um, it could be a subtitle, a rant about social media influences, maybe. Um, it goes without saying that James and I, we've never been the biggest fans of social media, have we, James?
[00:00:25] But we know it is a necessary evil, I think, because in the past. We have done it for us and it leads to burnout quite quickly. Um, sort of a bit can be a bit demoralizing, et cetera, et cetera. But you want to talk on what you've seen from influencers recently.
[00:00:44] James Breese: Yeah, absolutely. And this is one of those things, this goes, this is a message to all the hardworking coaches out there.
[00:00:50] I'm talking about the real coaches who. Put a lot of work in who aren't seen on social media for every one influencer. There's probably a hundred really top quality [00:01:00] coaches out there who are working hard, who haven't got time to post on social media and do anything like that. However, the sad reality is a lot of them are starting to get left behind a little bit at the moment.
[00:01:12] And that's what we're trying to talk about today is like. I'll give you a full insight into what I've seen, and I'm like, I'm not going to drop any names of the specific people I've seen or I've met in the last few weeks, but it's incredible. It is incredible. So it's a bit of a rant for you guys to, like, hear what our thoughts are about this whole matter and the idea of the influencer, what they're doing, but also for us to learn about it.
[00:01:35] And put it back to our clients to try and not counteract what they're doing, but try and connect with more people who really need our help moving forwards. So again, shout out to Ben Davis, a fitness marketing agency, who I went skiing and snowboarding with over the New Year's. It was a last minute trip and we thought, yes, have a great time.
[00:01:52] Let's go out and do it. So I got to see Ben and got to see, see their like agency. They work a lot with a gym owner and stuff behind the scenes. But he introduced me [00:02:00] to a lot of online influencers at the moment. And he showcased a lot of them. I met a few of them and I was like blown away by what they're doing.
[00:02:09] Now, in terms of their influencer status, they only have between five and 10, 000 followers, which isn't big in the grand scheme of things. But they have highly engaged followers. Now, the formula that they do and what people are teaching them is this. They have to post content twice a day, every day to connect and engage with their audience.
[00:02:28] That's it. Can post twice a day, both on feeds and on stories to connect with their audience, to try and resonate and empathize with them at every step of the way. What I'm seeing with these guys who are doing this. They're making between 10, 000 and 20, 000, that's about 20, 000 to 25, 000 a month from connecting with people online.
[00:02:51] Now, here's the rant bit. The calibre of these coaches, I'm really sorry, is extremely poor. Extremely poor. Because the mindset of trainers coming [00:03:00] into the industry now is this. They don't want to do split shifts. They don't want to work on the gym floor. They see the lucrative offer of online coaching and they want to do that instead.
[00:03:11] So they're missing the whole graduation process and learning and development on the gym floor of working with people before they go online. So what they're doing is this, it's very simple. Their formula is this, it's very simple. They get them to track their calories. They get them to walk 10, 000 steps a day, and it makes no difference what workout they give them, because that's what they're giving them anyway.
[00:03:34] They just create a plan, they give the same thing to pretty much everybody, and away you go. And they're charging about 150, 200, that's 250 a month, just for that, using TrainerEye as a white labelled app. That is what they're doing. But they're getting these clients in because they're posting daily on social media to try and connect with their audience and showcase what they're doing.
[00:03:55] Are they,
[00:03:56] Josh Kennedy: sorry, James, just to interrupt one second. Are they making any money from social [00:04:00] media itself as well? From my advert, anything like that? Is it monetized
[00:04:04] James Breese: at all? No, not, not, not from in terms of endorsements I'm seeing, but they reach a seeding at a certain level of where they're trying to get to without, you know, for the local network and marketing.
[00:04:13] So they're making money from online coaching. They're pulling people in into their programs, but they're doing it by this daily social media posting type of a lot, but the caliber of coaching is awful. It is God awful. It is booty workouts. It is. You know, whatever you want to do. It's no thought process behind it.
[00:04:33] And if I'm being honest, it's no care for the clients, no personalization behind it. And that's the difference between the influencers and these younger generation guys coming through. They're seeing a quick fix. They're seeing a quick way to help people. And yes, to some degree, they're helping people and their followers will say they're helping people.
[00:04:50] But to all the hardworking coaches out there, you guys know, and you've put a lot of work in your education, your certifications, training on the floor, on the shop floor, you know, there's way more to it. [00:05:00] All right, you know, there's way more to this going on about it. But the problem is the end consumer doesn't know what you're doing because you're not visible to the outside world.
[00:05:09] And that's the thing we've got to try and understand is like, if we want to be seen moving in in 2024 and be known for all the great stuff that you do, you have to have this visible presence because it's a starting point to lure them in. To everything else that you're doing in your world of training and coaching.
[00:05:26] Now, what the influencers don't do is they don't have a robust system of professionalization. Okay. They just do everything by online, Instagram, online, Facebook, online, TikTok. They don't have a website. They don't have an email address. List they don't have a robust system because if any of these social media platforms decide to ban them They've lost all their entire business in one to start fresh again, right?
[00:05:51] Josh Kennedy: So there's no there's no foundations essentially That's what we're talking about. No foundations underneath. No,
[00:05:56] James Breese: no foundations of business and growing So the thing that we've got to think [00:06:00] about as real coaches Who work on the floor with with real people and want to help make a real difference to their training their lives You've got to focus on the idea of creating a foundation, the system where people are seeing you as a professional, not some Instagram influencer.
[00:06:15] However, you need to learn from the Instagram influencers on some of the stuff that they're posting so you can start to resonate and empathize and connect with your audience to try and engage them. So you can play the game a little bit. However, be more professional, be more professional in everything else that you do because you will stand out above the crowd.
[00:06:33] And that's kind of my mini rant to saying, look. We can't just hate on influencers. Like I see with all the coaches saying, Oh my God, he's crap. He's shit. He's whatever you can't hate on them because they're playing the game. What we have to do is start to play the game a bit more savvy, be a bit more savvy, and that is one of the reasons why we're starting to post more on social media, on the strength matters, Instagram and TikTok accounts.
[00:06:54] So we can resonate and share what we're doing and learning to share and empathize with you guys and the struggles that you're going through. [00:07:00] Here's a special
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[00:07:39] Josh Kennedy: say what got to learn from them and see what they're doing. But as we know, you know, social media, it can, it's hard to do.
[00:07:45] It can lead to burnout. So if you're saying to people, real coaches, we're talking to here in an ideal world working forward in the next few months, next quarter, they need to start working towards posting twice a day. Any [00:08:00] tips? How do, how do they do that without
[00:08:01] James Breese: hitting burnout? Yeah, that's a good question.
[00:08:04] But if you're hearing this going, Oh my God, I don't want to post on social media twice a day. I totally understand it. I totally get it. And there's a strategy and hierarchy for you to get to there first. Right? There's other ways to get clients without posting twice a day on social media. We're posting once a day because we're building up our systems and our infrastructure as an example.
[00:08:22] So if you want to post that often. You've got to have a content plan, an idea, and a strategy, and in an ideal world, a team behind you to help you do it. We have our team, Sophia, and the team at Novus Creative. They did a wonderful job helping us create our content and get it out there. We create the content, they edit it, they post it.
[00:08:39] But we can afford to do that because that's the business we're setting up at the moment. So if you guys want to post twice a day, don't think about that yet. Think about more once, twice or three times a week at the moment. But some form of consistency to get you in the mindset and get you in the frame of mind to start posting or creating content.
[00:08:59] Okay, don't go too [00:09:00] much, too big, too far, too soon. But get a good website, get a good grounding and information people can search for you locally. I think that's the best thing you can do for us to get clients. And then we start to layer maybe some Google ads because it's less work. Then we go to the social media and then we start to scale it with paid advertising there.
[00:09:18] So it's, there's different ways to think about this, but don't try and get over, don't think you have to post twice a day now straight away. And also if you start posting, don't be afraid to get no results straight away because it's all about consistency in posting.
[00:09:31] Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. It will take time. And as you say.
[00:09:34] posting consistently over, over a long period and you will get there in the end. So don't worry if you post and you get absolutely no hits whatsoever. I think we should probably do a podcast about a website and building the whole strategy. Do you not think James? Yeah,
[00:09:48] James Breese: that'll be coming soon. I think.
[00:09:50] Excellent.
[00:09:50] Josh Kennedy: Excellent. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate review and subscribe. And if you want to find out more about our system of training, go to strengthmatters. com forward slash system.