Boosting Engagement: How To Feel Excited About Your Classes (Again)

Hello, and welcome back to the group fitness experience. My name is Kyle Wood and this is the podcast for group fitness trainers and personal trainers. Who are looking to have more autonomy, more freedom. And looking to have more impact on their local community. And that's really what we're going to talk. About today.

Wow. Um, What a couple of weeks. Uh, if you're not on my email list, which by the way, you should jump on it. If you are, if you're not on the email list and you're listening to this because someone sent it to you or you found me. Through the internet. Um, had the bootcamp ideas.com. Sign up for the 21 days of bootcamp, email series. Uh, and then you'll get added to my newsletter. I like everyone to go through that 21 days series because.

It helps fill you in, on some of the lingo and concepts that I talk about so that you can just jump straight in and you, you know, you you'll. The newsletters will make more sense and you'll get more out of them from going through that. So anyway. That's an aside. Today. Uh, gave, okay, so I need to go back. So let's take a step back and I apologize if I cough or clear my throat today. I've been sick. I actually wanted to record this last week and I've got the flu.

And it really just kicked my butt. I thought. Tomorrow I'll be better tomorrow. I'll be better. Uh, maybe tomorrow I'll be better. And, and H day, like for a while there, I got worse. And, um, and then I got a date eventually get better, but I do still have a bit of a cough. A bit of an upper respiratory thing going on. So I apologize. But, um, I digress. So the week before I got sick. I sent an email out to. To most of my newsletter list. I didn't. My, um, email software has a feature that.

Allows you to filter people by when they signed up. So anyone who hadn't, who had only been on my list for. Like less than three months. I didn't include them in this email series because I was like, Uh, they don't really know me yet. And, and this is a lot.

But basically I shared about my struggles with my business, with bootcamp ideas and just like what was going on and that. Mental health wise. I was, I was really struggling as well. And it's one of the things I miss the most. About. Training people face-to-face. And I often think of this when trainers come to me and they say, Hey, I want to. Wanting to transition online and I'm like, I don't. No. If you fully. Understand.

What that means, you know, you're going from a business where you're predominantly interacting with people. Face to face on a regular basis, building relationships with them. And now you want to go online. Where are you going to be dealing with algorithms and people's email inboxes. It's very different and it can be very isolating. And that was one of the reasons that I even created bootcamp. It is in the first place. Was that.

Even as a train, even though you've got your clients, I felt isolated from other trainers and I wanted to. Reach out to them. And make those connections. And, um, so I've got actually. Uh, an announcement about that, that. At all. We'll share later in. Um, towards the end of the podcast episode. Um, But anyway, so I sent an email just saying like what was going on and the responses I'm S I apologize. I've, haven't read your email.

I didn't do any emails last week because I just couldn't look at a computer screen and, um, Still catching up this week. W the email responses I got from. The Raiders was amazing. Just people. Just really sharing with me their own struggles. And what they were going through. And it seems like at the moment, The fitness industry is, is had it tough. Like we had COVID we got. Really restricted. During COVID. And then we came back for a little bit.

And then we had this sort of like semi global financial crisis. That's not quite a global financial crisis, but definitely has people like tightening their belts. And. Um, You know, my business's feeling that because you're feeling that because you are noticing that. People aren't showing up to classes as much that. You know, perhaps the usual burst you got we'd get during spring or autumn. Wasn't there. That normally was.

Um, and I just think in general, like, My train is a tired, like, I can definitely identify with that because. I've been putting a lot into this thing and. Not getting a lot out of it. And you you're feeling. Worn out. Uh, and, and I know this is not everyone's case. I know there's trainers listening to this who things are going really well. And, um, I don't want you to feel bad about that. Uh, but I do just want to acknowledge for the trainers out there who. Um, our struggling. Or perhaps.

Perhaps, you know, things are going well client-wise but like mentally you are struggling your. You feel like you're just not able to show up. In the same way or that. Your clients are, and it's a bit harder on you. So I want to address that. Cause I think. COBie did this weird thing with us where. It became normal to say, all right, let's just soldier on. Let's just get through this. And, and that was a defense mechanism. That a lot of us had. That helped helped us get through.

Uh, a challenging period. But I think. Now we're having, we were approaching. This problem of the financial stuff is in the same way. I just need to get through this. And instead what I'd like to invite you to do and what I'm. Trying to do more of is.

To see this as a chance to come up with creative solutions. Because. The reason that there's some fitness businesses out there that are doing well. And there's some that aren't doing well, is that. The clients who is still attending sessions are the ones who see the value in it. So they're like, even though I might be canceling my Netflix subscription and getting less coffees out, I'm going to spend money. On. Exercise. Because I see the value. In it. And I think if you're feeling. Burnt out.

And washed up. It's going to be hard for you. Right now. Or I would say, I, you. I use still showing clients the value that they get from your sessions. And are you doing it? With like, A dancer. Like big. So I used to do musical theater. So I'm thinking of like that big, cheesy show grin. That you that's permanently fixed to your face, or you're doing it with that big fake, a grin on your face. Um, Pretending everything is fine. While actually. You're not.

So. Well, we're getting heavy into it here. I don't want to, and I don't want to leave you there. So I want to talk a little bit about. What my theme is for this month and how I think. Uh, it can help you. Um, And I will say this. I say, I heard this thing. I was listening to another podcast. Recently, and they're talking about how, like a lot of marketing out there these days is really. Disempowering. And it's really like. Oh, everything's terrible, but you know, you just buy my thing in.

And everything will be fine. Um, and I've hate that marketing. And I apologize if you've ever gotten an email from me that. Felt that way. Um, Whereas it got me reflecting about how I feel like. When I started online and certainly in the fitness industry, the people I really looked up to where the people who were empowering people and are even remember someone saying to me once. What. If your goal. Was to get your. Like to have your clients fire you because they didn't need you anymore.

Like what. If, when you were training with someone, instead of like always keeping a little bit back, keeping a little bit back, not educating them about how to move their bodies, how to get fitter. What if your goal was for them after like three or four years to be like, you know what. I'm fine. And, and, and off they go into the sunset. You know, exercising regularly, looking after themselves and, and living a healthier lifestyle than they did before they met you.

And I always thought I was such a cool concept. Because it goes against our nature and atria is like, oh, well I want to hold on to that client. But really like, when you think about like that, it shifts you into a mindset of like, oh, I'm actually going to empower my clients. And I'm not going to empower them in a way where, like I become a drug for them and they need me to always be empowering them, but I'm going to genuinely empower them.

And the funny thing is that like, When you have that attitude comment stick around because they see the value, uh, because you're giving them so much value. So. That was a little Assad. I keep getting distracted. Before I start talking about who I'm going to talk about. So we're about 10 minutes in. So I'm going to maybe share with you. We're going to talk about next. So, you know, whether you want to keep listening or not. So.

Um, I'm going to, I want to tell you guys back right now and share with you a bit about my first bootcamp. Um, because I did something with that. That didn't quite work. Um, and I think maybe that's that. You might be able to identify with that with, with what's happening with you right now. If you're struggling for. Class sizes. And then I want to talk to you a bit about like, A simple way that you could fix that. Um, so, and then that'll wrap up the podcast and then I'll mention.

Um, that thing that I was going to talk about as well. So, um, So it might at first boot camp. Um, I never thought I'd be a group fitness trainer. Like I don't, I still don't attend group fitness classes. I actually. I hate. Being at participant, um, in group fitness classes. And now, since I've learned about human design, I looked at my human design. It makes a lot of sense because I'm definitely someone who like. Would rather lead. Then be led. Um, And, and I'm very like competitive.

And not in a healthy way. It's probably so I could work on. Yeah. Um, You know, As I like always preferred, like I liked team sports. I like sort of sharing. The load with everyone, but, um, yeah, having an instructor at the front. So, so I always thought I would be a personal trainer. Yeah in gyms. Doing sessions, getting people jacked. That was like, that was my dream. And then. As I studied to be on personal trainer and sort of learnt about especially bootcamps.

I was like, wow, this is such a great way. To like leverage my time and make some money because the overheads are very low. If you're running bootcamps in a park, you don't need. Uh, you know, you didn't have the overheads of, of a facility either way you're paying someone rent or where you're having to like lease a space yourself. Um, And. Like it's, it's, it's fairly cost-effective.

So instead of someone, you know, only be able to afford to see you once a week for personal training, they can come see you like. Multiple times a week. For group fitness. Um, or if there's someone who wouldn't normally be able to afford personal training, now they can, they can come along. So I got really excited about this idea of. Of group fitness and running group fitness classes. Um, but. Maybe to my advantage. I had really never participated in a group fitness class before.

So I had no idea. Um, how. Like had to structure one or create one. So I would, my original structures were, um, Like we do like a warmup, you know, with like a bow. Like, like, uh, cones out with like a square and kind of doing the old, like run across joke across jug. You know, back and then do like, but kicks across and then back kicks back and then do high knees across and then high knees back. And just very like generic do some side sidesteps, sidestep back the other way.

Um, just that very like generic kind of warmup. Uh, and then we would go into. Uh, some kind of drill that would usually involve like, Exercises in one spot and then they've got to like run somewhere and run back. And then we would do like a circle, like a six station circuit with like different exercises. And that would, that would be the workout. And basically the workout was the same. I would just change the exercises each week. And, um, I like. Read a lot of blogs about marketing and stuff.

And the thing that worked for me actually really well back then, Was, um, I've made flyers that had the, you know, the little tear tags at the bottom of them where you could like tear off the person's information. And I, I. Gorilla. You know, went out at night and stuck them to the posts. Of the shops near where I lived and yeah, like random people call me and sign up for my bootcamp. Um, And it was great. Uh, good. See. How this could work to start with. I just ran two sessions a week.

And I could see. That this could be viable for me. And it was, it was easier to get. Group fitness clients. And it was PT clients like PT clients where we're tough. I don't know if it was the higher price point or what, but it was much easier. So, um, so I ran this in the park. I did like a Saturday morning and a Wednesday afternoon. Um, Weird random. I was just like, this seems good. So I'll do these times, but there was, there was like no strategy to N to any of that.

It was, this was really, I was just working out as I went along. Uh, and the good thing was, I like a lit. A ton from it. Um, But it wasn't sustainable. I couldn't. Um, I couldn't keep, I wasn't keeping in and getting enough new people coming into the sessions. To counteract the attrition that naturally started happening. And I've spoken about this before and eventually. We had a little break over Christmas and I lost those clients. And I just couldn't build them back. Build it back up again.

And. Uh, yeah, it's talked about this many times over the years and there are lots of factors. That went into why those people didn't come back. And yeah, if you follow me for a while, you've probably heard me harp on about it. But with this month theme, I want to focus just on. On one thing. So I want to share with you something that I did different later when I started my head, another crack at starting a bootcamp.

Um, And it's something you can do at the moment, and it will help you boost engagement. So like get people really buying into your sessions. So they're not just turning up. And exercising, but they really like, ah, I can't wait. It's going to help you add a ton of variety to your session. So that's important too. I know that's something that I still get emails from trainers who are like, ah, just feeling a bit stale with my sessions. Dude, if you are feeling stale with your sessions.

That's going to come through. In the way that you run your sessions. Your clients are going to pick up on that. And. Like that's going to impact new people coming or their attendance or their like, just desire to spend. More time exercising with you. People in general, don't enjoy. Cause I don't, I've been sick and I knew I had to do a workout today and I was dreading it. I was just like, ah, I just do not. Want to exercise today. Um, like, um, I'm still tired from being sick.

I, you know, and guess what I did the workout and I feel awesome afterwards. Okay. So. We need to make sure that our clients are feeling awesome. And the other thing that this is going to do. Is, it's going to encourage word of mouth referrals of people are enjoying what you're doing. If it's feeling fresh and new and exciting. They're going to want to talk about it and they're going to wonder. Involve the people. So, what am I talking about? I'm talking about.

The very first part of your workout and talking about the warmup. That's what we're focusing on. That's this whole month of June. It's going to be focusing on. Warmups. Uh, I put this out to. One of our Facebook groups recently. And I said, Hey, this is what I'm thinking of doing for June. It seems like this would be a good place to start. And the feedback was, yes. I'm really struggling to come with good warmup ideas at the moment. Any help would be appreciated. And. Over the years.

Like. Having fun warmups. Yes. We had our fallback warmups, but having fun warmups. I was one of the things. If you think about the 80 20 rule, which is like, 80% of your results comes from 20% of your effort. The, or. 80% of your client's enjoyment comes from 20% of the workout is something that, that. That shows up. So the Walmart is really that place where you can get people like in the mood. And, um, actually Netflix found this funny thing.

Uh, when they, when they were back researching their algorithms. And this is back when you could write. Movies, which have now gotten rid of. And what they found is that. The person people would write a movie, not based on the movie, they just watched. But based on how much they enjoyed the movie that they watched. Before that. So by that, I mean, it's like say they've watched Rocky two. And they give it five stars. They're not actually really giving five stars, Rocky too.

They're giving five stars. To Rocky one, which they watch beforehand. It's this weird thing they noticed. And that's when they started really pushing like recommendations. When you get to the end. Of the thing and the recommendations. Are really high. Uh, sorry. They, you know, they're pushing on you like the next thing. Uh, and that's when they really realize are. What we recommend people next is important, but it's also just important to get them watching something.

Again, it's if they've had a good experience or they've had a good experience watching something, we want to get them watching something as quickly as possible. Because they're more likely to enjoy it. Having just enjoyed the thing before. And I don't know, maybe it's like having a good, you know, good. When you go to see a comedian and you have a good, like, um, opener. And that's the, that's the purpose of the fee that the person who's opened, the opening act is to come out on stage.

Sort of like get everyone laughing and then the actual comedian comes out and everyone's already warmed up and having a good time and everything's already funnier. Uh, your warmups the same. It's that? Leading the more people enjoy and engage your warmup with your warmup, the more they will enjoy and engage with the rest of your workout. So if you are having issues at the moment with clients, engaging with your sessions, One of the simplest things you can do is.

Spend some more time on your wants and that's why we're spending. Like I said a whole month on this. So next week, I'm going to be, we're going to like deconstruct warmups and I'm going to share with you. Some of the biggest, like mistakes that I see and then like how to fix them. And then the following week, we're going to start a challenge. I'm going to actually share with you some warm up ideas. And I want you all listening to this, to go out.

I use these wipes in your session and then like report back on how they went and I'm going to have to work out like some giveaways or some prizes or something. So if you actually show up and participate in that, Um, you'll have a chance to win something, which is, which is a bit of fun. So he, you went on both ends because your sessions get better. Attract more clients and you're having more fun running your sessions. And you have a chance to win something. So that's pretty cool. Isn't it?

Uh, Last oh, yes. So earlier I mentioned that. So one of the big things that came out of my aim emails last week, When I was talking about mental health. And where I was at and trainers was sharing where they were at. Uh, was that we needed something that's in between. Like. E if you're struggling. And part of that is financial struggling. And you can't afford to pay for help. You need some way of getting support, so you can get to that point. Where you can then pay for, for help and support.

So that's why I've put together. Um, I've opened back up. Our old Facebook group. BCI ask. So I'll include in. Linked in the show notes below. If you're not a member. Go jumping on that Facebook group. And when we do this challenge later in the month, the Walmart challenge. Um, that's where sort of the participation. Aspect is going to be, so that's where you'll be able to like, report back. On how things went in and have a chance to win stuff. But anyway, it's a great group.

It's been around for years already. So there's like. Um, Tons of help and support in there. There's already trainers back in there posting again, um, asking questions, sharing ideas, things like that. Uh, so I think, especially if you enjoy this joining, listening to the podcast, That's sort of a great place to continue the conversation and interact with each other, um, while you're getting ready for that next stage. Um, in your business. And that's it for today's episode.

Uh, I'm going to wrap it up there. I have a great week. Thank you. If you are one of the people who emailed me. A couple of weeks ago with very kind supportive, encouraging words. Thank you very much. Um, I cannot tell you how much that meant to me and how much it really just like lit a fire in my belly. Around wanting to continue. To support. This group of people and. Really create tools and resources for you.

Two. Just. Help you get out of your own way and find the success that you desire in this industry. So we'll leave it there and I'm looking forward to coming back next week to talk all that warmups. And, until then have a great week. Bye.