762% INCREASE in Weekly Membership Revenue

On our first meeting, it was all numbers straight away. Like, it was straight into the numbers, which is great. And it was only a bit like a— almost like a bit of a reality check to think, oh yeah, this is fantastic. I've got a gym with 500 members in a small town, but it actually meant nothing because the revenue didn't justify the members that I had. And in that meeting, probably in the first 10 minutes, he said to me, you have to increase your prices.

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up podcast show. I'm your host, Richard Eternge, and in today's episode, I am going to New Zealand, I'm going to South Africa, and I'm going to be interviewing and talking to an amazing business operator who has had a huge transformation in a lot of different layers. And this particular episode is going to be really, really important to listen to If you're a gym owner and studio owner, and you think you may be not charging enough or you want to make more, I'm going to take you through what happened with this one particular gym owner when she was asked to raise the price. So I, my guest online is Lizelle Pelsar, and she is the owner-operator of Go Girl Physique, South African born, now living in New Zealand for over 18 years, born in the fitness industry for over 13 years. Sorry, in the fitness industry for over 13 years. Group fitness instructor, sports massage therapist, personal trainer, yoga, karate instructor, and not just any old karate instructor, mind you. 6th Dan black belt, JKA Karate Association, first female in New Zealand with this title, and has just won gold medals after gold medals after gold medals at every national championship she's involved in. Welcome to the call.

Thank you, Richard.

Good to have you here. And, um, I wanted to get you on because you've had amazing transformations in a lot of different areas of your life. And it's almost like, um, you know, I'm fascinated with, with some people when they've done something in, in one part and it's transitioned to another part of their world. And, and I think that's happened with you as well. And I forgot to mention that me and you have the same background. We both worked on cruise ships as well. I forgot to read that in your bio as well. Yes. So you've met a lot of fantastic people over the years, and we recently reconnected at our recent summit, and you were telling me about your continued transformation. So give me a little bit of background. I want to hear more, first of all, about the only female in New Zealand with a 6th dan. Tell me about how you got into karate because You know, I don't know, like it's kind of weird. It's like, well, with this sort of skillset, you're not running around karate chopping anybody, are you? But you're like a ninja warrior. I mean, you're a marketing warrior, but you're literally a ninja warrior. Tell me about how you got into this.

Well, I was fortunate or unfortunate, I'm not quite sure yet. At the age of 17, obviously this was all still back in South Africa, lived in a small town and, you know, back then we're going back over 30 years, good old conservative towns, karate and yoga and all those sorts of things were considered not quite the thing to do.

Right.

But I got asked to help in this small gym. They were doing aerobics and they had a karate dojo. So, I just got asked to help in the sort of reception area. And I was like, yeah, sure. So, this started when I was about 14. And when I was 17, one of the parents, karate parents said to me, oh, you know, Lizelle, you should get into karate. And I was like, yeah, nah, maybe not. And probably about 6 months later, he came up with a karate uniform, literally handed it over to me and he said to me, now put it on and get on the floor. So I was like, okay, he's a little bit demanding. So, right, I will do it. So yeah, that's pretty much where my journey started. I put the uniform on and to be quite honest, 30 years later, I never looked back. And in sort of saying that, you know, it's sort of in all— I've carried that with me in my life because sometimes we want to do something, but we don't quite have the confidence or think, oh no, I can't do that. That self-belief. And I think that's sort of stuck with me that, you know, not just me, but sometimes other people in our industry, you know, just need that little bit of a push ahead saying, come on, you know, you can actually do it or just give it a go. So in creating the opportunities for these people. So anyway, that's where my journey started.

So you were like Daniel-san and now you're sort of Mr. Miyagi. Is that correct? Is that how it's shaping?

Probably more Mrs. Miyagi, but totally.

And tell me about that. Is that like when you see those kind of movies, right? Karate Kid and so forth. Is that Is that a fair indication, representation? What are your thoughts on that?

To be quite honest, Cobra Kai seems to be the latest— Cobra Kai is the world. My kids loved watching it. I cannot, unfortunately, I cannot sit and watch that. It's painful.

And you didn't ask to act in that movie at all? No, no,

no, no, no, not at all. And I wasn't approached either.

Well, you, and you recently, congratulations on your recent win too. That was only And what was that last title that you won?

It was our national karate championships in New Zealand. So I still participate at national level and potentially next year we've got our World Cup in October in Japan. So all the preparation and hard work and stuff will be going towards that.

Love it. And in between this, so you've got a dojo center in your gym, Yes. In between this, you also run Go Girl Physique and you got the dojo. Tell me about Go Girl Physique. Give us a bit of an overview of what that is because a lot of people I think are in a situation where they've got a lot of things going on just like you.

Yeah. So obviously I've moved to New Zealand in 2005 and probably a couple of years later got introduced to women's only gyms, which I was not familiar with at all.

Yeah.

Up until that point, my whole career has been mixed gyms, worked all over, worked on cruise ships. So you kind of dealt with, with, with everybody in a gym. So when I got to New Zealand and I got introduced to women's only gym, I was like, oh yeah, this is interesting. So I got the position as manager first and And then sort of, sort of got into it and then realized that there's a huge scope for, um, gym— women's gyms, because it's specialized. And for whatever reasons, women choose to go to women's only gym. So then, um, in 2009, I got the opportunity to become a business partner in, uh, this gym, particular one. So Go Girl Physique used to be formerly just Jude. Now that's a story for a whole nother day. Wow. And so that was 2009. We were 3 business partners. And then by 2012, I managed to solely own Just You at that time and then rebrand it. So in 2012, we rebranded to Go Girl Physique. And at that time, just, it was just a regular or normal gym, should I say, like, like everybody else. Like this gym was particularly doing everything the same as what all the other gyms were doing. So then I decided to do, to go a little bit more into it because I knew women would come here for one reason or majority of them would come here for weight loss.

Right. Sounds practical.

Yeah. So then introduced a program called the Body Blitz Program, which was quite popular. We had probably over 500 women complete the program. But it was, it was really good in one way. The structure worked really well, but then they started, they finished, and then they went back to their old habits.

I just wanna stop that for a second if I can interrupt. I mean, yeah, I'm on the website and you have got a lot of before and after these body blitzes, like a ton of them, like amazing, amazing, amazing results kind of thing. And you've had over 500 that have completed this, is that correct?

Yes.

Amazing. And this was a regular gym, like a regular gym, kind of. They come in and you give them that program and they follow it?

Yes. So we spent the time with them, of course, at the start and taking them through the program. So we were catching up with these people every fortnight, changing their programs, but weekly it was nutrition and it was pretty much one-on-one to show them how to do the exercises and things correctly. So there was a lot of time involved with doing it one-on-one. So it went well, but there was something— But they were—

it was a gym membership though. They were paying for a gym membership, right?

Yes. Yeah. So, or they had their gym membership and then of course they had option if they wanted to do the Body Blitz, they could just top it up. So, and Other people just came for the 12 weeks. They just wanted to do that because I think what the win was here is I just did those photos myself. I did the photos at the start and then at the end I said to the ladies, right, you need to get your hair done, you need to get your makeup done, get your nails done, put a nice dress on, feel good about yourself, take some nice photos. And then of course, because it's such a small town, everybody would see the photos and go, oh, look at Susie. I also want to look like Susie. Call in. And then sign up. So that's kind of how that went. It went well, but there was still something missing. And this is pretty much where we're going with what we are talking about today.

And what was missing, do you think?

Well, there was that continuity. They started, they finished, and then they were gone. I needed something to keep them here. retain them and maintain. So it's like the maintenance part of the program was missing.

So yeah, and that's where I do want to go. And so just paint the picture, 2012, I think we connected in, you came into our Com Marketing Ninja program in—

'17.

It was before COVID Yeah.

Yes. '17 or '18, somewhere in there.

'17 or '18. Okay. '17 or '18. Yep. '17 or '18 and Tell me what your prices were in that kind of, because, and how many members do you have in your gym just to paint the picture for anybody listening to

this? At that time, when just before I joined KOM, I had probably over 500 members. However, in saying that, it was the membership pricing was very low. We're talking anything between $8 and maybe $12 per member.

So

an average of, that was their weekly rate.

An average of $10 a week. Yes. And did you have any, so basically $8 was the cheapest and you had a lot of people on $8, weren't

you?

Per week. And they were pretty much, so it's $32 a month, right? Just to repeat that. And they were getting this, And did you charge extra for the 12-week program?

Yes, we did. So that was pretty much what kept us going because as you get, I'm a numbers person too. So if you look at someone paying $10 a week, they come 3 times a week, it's $3, then they use your showers, all the other expenses. At the end of the day, that $10 is actually a liability when they come for $10 a week. Because you don't even cover your cost.

Well, your facility, your rent, everything.

Yeah. So I looked at that and I was like, we've got something, there's a big gap here. There's something really missing. I'm missing something.

Yeah. And well, I think you're missing money, right?

Well, of course. Yeah.

Let's talk about that. And so when they came to 12 Weeks, what was the fee at that time? You pay, they charge for the extra fee or was there an extra fee at the time?

So it was, it was maybe like $299 maybe for the 12 weeks. So it was, it was really, really cost effective. It was, you know, for the amount of time that you'd spent with them. And at that time, because I was going through, you know, it was just pretty much me running The gym at that time, staff was always a bit of a problem in smaller towns.

So— So basically, you're basically running a 500 facility, right? Approximately around $15,000, $16,000 a month, right? You got all these members and then what you're doing is you're running the 12-week challenge, getting amazing results for everybody. And that's sort of the survival mechanism of the gym. That was the structured gym. How many times a year do you run that?

Well, that was sort of, people could start at any time. That was the beauty, I think, of this.

Yes,

they could start anytime. So if this person starts today, then their week 1, day 1 is today. In 3 weeks' time, someone else starts it, then that's how that sort of was. It wasn't everybody starts on this because I couldn't manage it. There's no way that I could have managed. Um, and particularly if I said, let's start on this day, maybe 50% of the people were not ready on that day. They wanted to maybe start a few weeks later. Yeah. So I felt that instead of making it too structured, make it— give people that flexibility in saying, well, actually, you know what, I'm not ready this week. I can maybe start next week or the following week. And then that way also your program is staggered out instead of having maybe, let's say, 50 people all at once, you have now 50 that are sort of staggered out and you can provide a better service because I've got the time to actually do it with them and not because the last thing you probably want to do is certain things you don't want to do in groups.

Totally. So we met in 2017, 2018. You had a problem of great results, which is not a problem, it's awesome, great results. Amazing results. People come in for 12 weeks, they'd leave, it's almost that same cycle again, or they jump back onto their $8 a week kind of membership and giving this amazing support. Take me through the process because I'm, I am, I am really interested in this. And I think again, if you are, if you, if like to me, you know, we do such a great job with this industry, we, we create amazing results, life-changing results, right? But you had the problem of them disappearing after the 12 weeks. And you'd put all this energy in, way more than the $25 a week though, on, on, they were paying for that. Did that include the gym membership as well or was that on top of the gym membership?

No. So that was on top.

On top. Okay, great.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So take me through that process there. What, what changed? What I remember when you came to me and I was just blown away with the amount of members you had. And the results that you got, but there was definitely something missing. It was the continuity. It was the, obviously revenue source was lacked. But a lot of the time in this industry, and it was a little bit different to you, a lot of the time in the industry people go, if I take my rate up, I think I must have said, take your rate up. Tell me about that process. Did I say take your rate up or?

Well, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna backtrack first and actually talk about how I Please. To reach com. So I went to the Filex convention that year, and you were one of the speakers at the Filex convention. I can't quite recall which year, could be '16, could be '17.

Yeah.

And of course, at those sort of things, you need to provide your email address and your marketing emails came into my inbox. And of course, I started looking a little bit more into that. And I suppose I just got so frustrated with what I had. And, you know, again, you're looking at the amount of members, you look at your revenue, and you look at the amount of time spent. It was just— the equation just wasn't working. So that's when I actually reached out and I was like, right, that's it. It's time for a change. Something needs to give. And that's when I reached out to you and, or to Kom. And on our first meeting, it was all numbers straight away. Like, it was straight into the numbers, which is great. And it was only a bit like a, almost like a bit of a reality check to think, oh yeah, this is fantastic. I've got a, I've got a gym with 500 members in a small town.

Hmm.

But it actually meant nothing because the revenue was, didn't justify the members that I had. And in that meeting, probably in the first 10 minutes, he said to me, you have to increase your prices. And I said, I think my response still was, I need to do what? I need to do what now? Like, I need to increase my prices. I don't know. I don't know whether people will pay that. And it was almost that feeling of anxiety that what if? What if I do increase my prices? Are people still going to come? Because they always talk about, oh, it's so fantastic and, you know, you're doing such a great job. But when it comes to let's pay for the membership, they don't want to pay. That's just how it is, unfortunately. You know, they would, if they can get it for $10, they will take it for $10. So I did not just go and change my membership pricing. I changed my whole business model. I shifted my whole gym around. We closed for a weekend. Pin-loaded machines went to where the group fitness was, um, and free weights went where the classes were. Literally the whole gym got changed. And then we launched So then pretty much the 12-Week Body Blitz program got us spruced up and we launched our Warrior Goddess program, which is also a 12-week program. However, it is an ongoing rollover 12-week program. So instead of saying starting today, finish then, it continues. So that we found worked. I still have people that initially had started back then still on this Warrior Goddess program. And our pricing, obviously in the beginning I was a little bit skeptical and we started in the $40s. $40 per week. $49 per week.

So you went from $8, you had the Body Blitz, they paid $25 a week over the 12 weeks only. And then I think we discussed the price of around that. You said $49.

Yeah.

How'd you feel? You know, $49 from $8 is very different.

Yes. I was quite nervous about that, to be honest, but just like I said, because they were paying $8 already and they've already got this awesome service, like they were coming for classes, they already had us and So why on earth would they go and pay $49 if they can pay $8 to come and do

the

same thing, classes? It was just like, no way. So the whole idea was to get rid of all the pretty much $10 memberships and try and get everybody on a higher rate membership. So pretty much what we've done is we have, the memberships have pretty much come down from 500 and something, now down to 360.

So you lost 140.

I lost 140 members. However, now instead of having 500 people at, um, a minimal rate— and we also know when people don't pay good money for something, They won't stick at it longer,

you know

what I mean? Or the value is different if they pay $10 for something versus $50, the value and the appreciation of the service is completely different.

Totally.

So now we've got more quality than quantity. That's pretty much what it is.

And so you moved everybody to the $49, right? From the $8, right? You dropped 140 in the meantime. Talk about, you know, that first time someone agreed to pay $49 continuous. What was, you know, I don't know if you remember that, but what happened through that process?

I wanted to almost jump through the roof with excitement. Of course, I had kept my calm and I was like, no, you are like the 100th person to sign up. No problem. Do it smooth as, do it in style. But inside I was just like, wow, awesome. It is really good because they know They're really— so they just told me that they, they, they had value in what service they were getting. And then after that first one, it was just getting the first one under the belt. It's like, oh yeah, no, this is becoming— this is it, $49. So I did 20, 20 members at $49. Yep. And then I bumped it up to $59 for the next 20. And now we are on 69.

I remember you called me up sometime in that period.

Yeah.

And you, I think it was, I think we originally talked about 69, but let's just get, get the 49. And I think there was a somewhere you told me that, oh, maybe I should have just gone to the big price straight away. And I was like, oh, damn it. It's almost like they said yes and you built that confidence up with the 20, the first 20 people paying the $49 rate. How important was that for your mind? Like to realize that what you created, people actually paid? And I just want to do some calculations here for anybody listening in just on these first 20, because it's such a great way to do it, right?

Hmm.

So you take 20, let's say times 200, $49. So 49 times, let's just say $200 for the month times 20. So you receive $4,000 off the 20 people alone, right? Just for the 20 people. And I just worked out losing the 140 members, you dropped about $4,500 off 140 members.

Yeah.

It's just phenomenal, isn't it?

It is. It is. And I mean, also if you take about that 140 versus 20, you're giving a better quality service versus the 100

at

a lower price. So it's a win-win. I mean, it can only but work. I still have my gym membership because not everybody can afford the $69 a week. And in saying that, even my gym membership now, if someone just walks off the street and goes, I'm not quite ready to commit to the Warrior Goddess program, but I'd like to join the gym. It's $35 a week.

So, um, so just the gym membership, you've 4x the price just on the gym membership from $8 to $30. Was it $5, $30, $35? $35.

Yeah.

You 4x that price and you've got the Goddess Warrior at $69.

Yes.

Right. Just wanna repeat those numbers out loud because I think fundamentally it sounds like you've got a totally different business, but you've still got a very healthy database clientele, I should say, not database of people. Well, congratulations first of all. It's pretty huge.

Well, I mean, it's really awesome and thank you, but it's also, it's not just me, it's the team and it's the people that help me get there. Again, it's going back to when I was 16 and I had to start karate. It's like someone saying, come on, you know, Here it is. Here are the tools. And this is exactly what you're doing. You're seeing the karate uniform. Here are the tools. This is what you need to do. But you as the business owner have to make that decision and go, am I gonna do this or am I not gonna do

it?

The choice is, you know, at the end of the day, up to you, but you can't go wrong. I cannot see it. Like if you see the demographic in the small teeny tiny town that I'm living in, if I can do it, honestly, anybody— Anybody can, 100%.

I wanna go back just a little bit, give some, give a context. I'm gonna sort of go on forward around some questions around just some mindset questions here going, okay, there's a few things you did just to break this down. You went from $8 to $69, right? $8 to $69, literally. You moved the majority of members over to there and What you said, you've changed the gym around, number one. That was what we did, change the gym around, physically look different, right?

Massive.

Physically look different. Okay. What were the other key attributes? I know you've got your, your My Method, your vision, mission, values on there. What did you have to tell the clients, uh, what you were doing? How did you literally get them to buy into the belief and the process? Was there anything specifically that you did Um, through that process?

Well, it was the, the whole concept was with the Warrior Goddess program is, um, I always say to people, it's one of two things. You need to be really motivated and disciplined if you want to go to the gym, because how is that going to be any different? You've been a member at another gym before and you want to come here and you want to be a member the same way as there. So how is this going to be different? If you're not motivated, there's no way that you can do this. If you're doing the Warrior Goddess Program, it's all about accountability. It's all about consistency. Yeah. And we keep a close eye on you. If you don't come, we call you. If we don't see you, we message you. And that's exactly what women in particular want. They want to be told you need to do this, you need to do that. So that's kind of worked, the accountability and consistency, which you don't always get with your regular gym membership.

No, I don't think you get with regular membership. No, you don't. No, you don't. No, definitely.

They're not motivated enough or to just, you know, discipline. Like if they skip a week or 2 or 3.

Well, in some gyms, that's the The outcome of the gym. Did I say that out loud?

Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, so you sold them and made the belief that what they actually need is accountability, not an $8 membership.

No, that's correct.

Okay. Now what about the ones that weren't sure about paying extra or even from $8 to $35? Tell me about the process. You first got initial 20 people on. Was it like, hey, Let's get the 20 people and then shout from the rooftops the results. How did the non-believers take it? What'd you do with those guys, ladies, I should say?

So pretty much what we did was we moved the gym sort of to almost the back part of the building.

Like the car park, like right in the back.

Yeah, it's almost something. They're still part of the gym and they can sort of just kind of have a sneak peek over the main gym.

Yes.

And of course, when these ladies were working out, it was, you know, it's like a personal training session. And we had good music, good vibes, the ladies were having fun. And people were looking at that with their little programs all by themselves going, well, I want to be part of a group and I want to be motivated and I want to also have what these people are having. So because we also do like social get-togethers and gatherings and things like that, so That the people wanted to be part of that as soon as they were seeing it.

So seeing is believing, eh?

Yes, 100%.

Love it. So you physically showed them quite a lot and then talked them through the process. Did you book people in for like upgrade sessions? How did you physically say, hey, you're gonna pay more money? How did you actually do that process?

So we're very fortunate to have a 3D body composition scanner, which has been a huge It's been a huge tool in our business as well because again, visually, when women see themselves visually, it is like, I will do anything to get the result. And if you can make them see that your, what you offer can get them the result and they can visually see it there. So And especially because they have monthly scans, so they can see the transformations. Uh, so even members on a regular gym membership have the scans. So when they go from one month to the next, they're like, oh, nothing's changed. Okay, well, I've got the right program for you.

Wow. Problem solution. Problem solution. Yep. But you, you physically showed them where they were. And they, you know, they said, they pretty much told you, hey, how do I, how do I get that? How do I get to that point?

Yes. And then also, I didn't commit them for a year or longer. I believe in what we do, but you need to commit for 12 weeks. That's it. If you feel after the 12 weeks you don't get the results, that's okay. Then you can, you can walk away from it.

So just give them what they need. Yes. Body scanners, this sort of reminds me of cruise ships, Liesel. Just a personal joke there. Yes. So, okay. So that was, yeah, if you've been on cruise ships, you'll know the joke. Alright. So you, so you showed them the body scan And then boom, you had that product for them. So take me through what you had to do, like just, just some mindset, because I mean, I want to sort of touch on all your experience in karate. Obviously it's a very, um, what is it? It's a, it's a sport that takes a lot of hours and time, a lot of self-practicing, like a lot of sports, but there's something different about it. Take me through the mindset shifts that That you could probably offer anybody that's in a similar situation that I think you've had a lot of experience on? Because I just want to highlight something to utilize. When someone comes to us, it's not the only tool in the trick. Hey, raise your prices up. It's the oldest book in the trick. But, but, but the factor is that there's one thing saying it, there's another thing changing your entire gym around, entire structure, 3xing, 4xing your price in the normal gym. You decided to do that. You like, you know, we can advise as much as possible. We can say, do this, watch this, but you literally closed the studio down. You went out and did it. You know, when you're in that decision-making process, or some people have decision fatigue or they just put it off and not do it, what are you going through in your head? And I don't know if that comes from your karate background too.

Well, I think, um, going back just to, uh, karate is that it's, it's a way of life. It's not actually— it's not a sport, because sport would be things like rugby, tennis, hockey, netball.

Yeah.

Karate is definitely a way of life, and you learn so much about yourself because it is a bit of a— it's almost like, I want to almost say like bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is a very sort of a selfish sport, and so is karate. You learn a lot about yourself, and you need to discipline yourself in order to do regular training. And it's the same as in the gym, but I suppose that discipline is completely different. Putting yourself out there when you do things like tournaments and examinations and things like that is you— you're putting yourself out there in the sense of testing yourself with confidence. Other people are looking looking at you. What if I fail? That's another, that's a big one. What if I fail? What will happen if I fail? How do you get up from that? So, and in business, I suppose it's the same. What is the worst thing? And I suppose that's the question I ask myself. It cannot get any worse than where I was at that time. I need to do something to change. What's the worst thing that can happen? I can only remain where I am. Surely it can't get any worse. So I took the leap of faith and I just, I made a decision. And that's one of the things that I live by, that once I made that decision to do it, I'm a believer that, you know, you just got to get stuck into it and make it happen. Gotta make it happen. No one else is going to do it for me. No one else was going to come in here and go, oh, that's okay, don't worry, you step aside, I will do it for you. It's not It's not how it works. I had all the tools, I had everything in there. All I had to do was make it happen, and I had all the support around me. I don't think that probably I would have done it— there's no way that I would have done it by myself. No way. No way. And I think I can speak probably on behalf of lots of other people, maybe the people that are more disciplined and, you know, can make more bold— that was a really bold thing to do. But I looked at it and I went, okay, here it is. What is the worst thing that can happen? What's the worst thing that can happen? When we do these things, we want something to change. So you just gotta get stuck into it and just, you have to believe in yourself.

I love it. What is the worst that could happen? And get it, just get it done. Just get it Done.

Yeah. That's my thing.

Get it done. Get it done. Get it done. Love it. Well done. I just love the transformation here. I love the adjustment, the change. And I think either when you're living it, when you're having a higher price, even from taking everybody up to the 35 from the 8, I think business is much easier. without that one stress factor, which is cash flow. Cash flow is, cash flow can kill. It does kill. Cash flow will eat you up inside with stress. Cash flow will take out the best of us when there's not enough, you know, could be a great business. It's just the flow of cash is not there. And yeah, that's something that I really honor about you. You saw the problem and you actioned it and fixed that. Fix that, fix that problem up, which is outstanding. Tell me about what is next for Go Girl. Where's it, what's it at this point here? Where's it, where's, where's the next progression?

So I obviously wanting to have all the women in Tamoru benefit.

Yes.

Of this amazing program that we have. Um, so I'm wanting to, to grow, grow my Warrior Goddess program because I believe there are so many other women out there that can benefit from this program. And taking me back again, it is the hardest thing for these people to do is to make contact or actually step foot into the gym, although they knew or they know they need to do something.

Yeah.

So my thing is, how do I get those people from wherever they are into my door and talk about my program and get them to experience it. So that's my focus and my plan.

Well, it was great to see you at the summit recently and obviously you flew from New Zealand to Sunshine Coast to work on that plan. While we're on that subject, take me through your thoughts on the summit. What was the best thing you got out of it? And again, we can learn all these things, but it's like, I think even just that, like, um, we hadn't been working together a few years and it's like, I'm gonna come, I'm gonna do it. You commit. And is that, is that what you have to do? Like, you put yourself in that situation to commit? Is that like, I'm tweaking that sort of, you put yourself in the deep end pretty much.

Yes. Yes. I think I thrive on, uh, I thrive under pressure. Yeah. I feel if there's no sense of urgency or there's no, then we keep putting it off. And I suppose I'm not the only one, you know, it's like, oh no, it's not, you know, tomorrow's another day. I can do it another day. And my whole focus was by coming to the summit was that I wanted to get my marketing and everything planned and organized for 2024. There are goals and things that I want to achieve next year. And the only way I can do that is being organized and not wait till January. January is too late. Organizing needs to happen now. And when I saw the timing and the date of the summit, I was like, yeah, perfect, this is perfect. So I went there with the mindset that I need to walk away from here with something that can help me kickstart my marketing plan for next year. And I'm quite delighted to tell you that pretty much the first 6 months for next year is in a skeleton process, which, which I'm really excited about. So I kind of feel organized and I feel driven and I feel that I'm wanting to do it. So again, it's just planning, planning. You've got to take that time out and just do it. So that's what I got out of— that was my goal by going. Yeah. But also everybody's sessions were amazing. I mean, it was just It was really good, like all round. We were all like-minded gym owners. And I mean, you guys, the speakers were just amazing. Loved it.

Awesome. Well, so good to have you there. Well, thank you so much, Liselle, for putting yourself in the deep end, being vulnerable today. And I'm sure you helped a lot of people out in this same situation because I'm on a mission at COMM to really highlight the greatness of people. in this industry that, you know, like yourself, you've been in this game for a very long time and you're an expert at it. And at the same time too, I just think we're gonna, you know, get to the goal of, you know, when I worked on cruise ships back in the day, it was like, then I wrote a book and it was all, it was all based on getting people healthier and happier, you know? And it sounds a bit cliché and a bit fluffy, but at the end of the day, we all have a reason what we wanna try and do. And I just think that we are not gonna achieve that level if we can't do the basics of paying ourself, of paying our staff so we can grow or paying our rent. And I think if you're in a position or a business that is like that in the fitness industry, I don't, I think that that should be highlighted and fixed. And I, and I think back in the day, yep, It was, yep, just put a, put a gym up, put some equipment, but it's not like that. You know, there's a lot more expenses. There's, there's, there's a lot more things than it used to be. And so I, I do think that if you are listening to this episode or this episode's, you know, made you, you can pass this on to maybe someone that's in that position. I really think you do because I just don't think we're gonna make the mark that we need to make if you don't have the cash to make it. That's just a fact. There's no, there's, there's a saying, no money, no honey. You know, there's, there's, There's, there's, you need money for the basics. And if we can't pay what we are worth, we are never going to get to our goal. That's just, it's impossible. So thank you for playing what you're worth and upping the game for your community.

Thank you.

And just to repeat your, go girl, Timaran, is that, I'm right? That's all right. Go Timaran. Yeah. Go girl, T-I-M-A-R-U.com. If you want to check Lizelle's workout or just give you a Google and you're all over the internet with your amazing achievements there. Thank you so much. And I look forward to seeing, I look forward to the next challenge of seeing everybody in your community in the Women's Warrior program.

Thanks, Richard, for the opportunity.

Thanks so much, team. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you are a person just like Lizelle that feels that you're probably undercharging yourself and you need to sort of step into your greatness, message us at commarketing.com.au. We'd love to work with you to show you the step-by-step process to bring out what you are worth, to charge what you're worth, which is the most important. And if you have liked this episode and you wanna pass it on, all you do is share it and say, hey, you've listened to this episode. That might change someone's entire landscape business life just by putting this message out. So thanks guys. I'll see you next time on the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. Bye for now. Awesome. Thank you.

No trouble.

That was great. Appreciate it. Very good.

Thanks, Richard. No worries.

Really, really appreciate that. Was that everything okay? Did you want Yeah, it's

fine. No, that's

cool.

It's all good. No dramas. Just go where the conversation goes.

Yeah, I know there was questions and I apologize I didn't use these questions.

Oh no, it's, I, to be honest, I work better than that. I work better this way. You just throw it. I can't look at a question pre-planned. No, me too.

Can I do that little video clip that we missed out on? I'm just gonna ask you a couple questions, right? One bit of bio, like I'm not gonna be talking, so I'm gonna ask you the question. If you can answer the question,

Yeah.

If you can answer it, put my question, question, the answer. Um, I'm just gonna say your background. You can say, um, karate, cruise ship, that kind of world. So gimme a story about you first.

Yeah.

And we'll edit to short. And then,

yeah.

Um, where were you before you came to Com? Um, what were your problems? Main points. Um, I would probably touch on, let's try $8 kind of thing.

Um,

a lot of clients, no money, that kind of world. Um, and then what was the one thing that you did? Like, you can talk about one or two things. What was the one thing you did, uh, and where are you now? Um, and the more you can be specific on any of those things is amazing, um, because it'd be relatively short. So I'd like clip it to that. Yeah. Um, and then, yeah, anything, um, yeah, I think you just did the program well and you did the big part of it. Like, uh, if you got anything designed, done like the MIND Method, any specific strategy you did for marketing, Could have been a fast lead and there was probably different terminology back then, but that'd be great. Alright, cool. Yeah. So you'll, yeah, I don't, yeah, you'll be in the shot anyway. I'll just ask the questions. Alright, cool. Okay. Can I ask your name, your background and who are you?

Okay. So I'm Lizelle Palsa, South African born, moved to New Zealand in 2005. So we've been here Over 18 years. I've been in the fitness industry for over 30. Got introduced at the age of 14. Started in a small town in South Africa, just sort of you know gaining a bit of interest and experience there, and that sort of took me onto the cruise ships some time back, and then settled in the South Island in New Zealand, and currently owning my own.

Awesome. So tell me, when you started with KOM, what was the structure of your gym? Where you were and why you came to KOM for?

So before coming to KOM, we were literally just another gym selling cheap memberships at probably average pricing of about $10 a week. And, um, at that time also doing all the hard work, but at the end of the day the revenue wasn't that fantastic. So there was something huge missing and knew something had to change. So that's when I reached out to ComMarketing and changed the whole business model. So we went from changing $8 to $10 a week. Final price of the membership now is $69 a week on our Worry Goddess program, which is sort of our crème de la crème program. And also our gym memberships have increased from $8 to $10 up to $35 a week.

Wow. I think you answered all my questions.

Because I did it all in one.

Okay, cool. I think that's good. So take me through, what was the one thing that, you know, KOM or Richard or whatever, what was the one thing that we told you to do? And maybe I'm just asking a different way. What's the one, what was the one strategy that the most powerful strategy that you used in the KOM program?

Well, the whole— the first of all, it was back to pretty much basics. Um, just sorted out the vision, the mission, um, and the My Method, what we was— what we believed in and who we are, and pretty much built our community from from that. I think, like I said before, we were just another gym somewhere, and that sort of brought more structure in so women from the outside or in the community could see, oh, yep, Go Girl Physique, this is who they are, this is what they stand for, and this is what they do.

Great. Um, can I ask you again? Because I think we've missed that part. Can you sort of say Yeah, I came at 500 members at $8 membership and I've reduced my members to 360 because I forgot, I think we put the amount and my new rates are $69 or $59, whatever they are.

Cool. So I used to have a massive database of over 500 members. However, the average membership price was probably $10 a week. So it all sounded really fantastic. But it wasn't. We had the numbers but no revenue. So we pretty much changed that whole business model, increased our membership prices. We've dropped our members by about 140 members, so we're on 360 members with a membership, gym membership of $35 a week, and our Warrior Goddess program at $69 a week.

Awesome. Thank you. What was the, what's the, was there any services or particular coaching that you really found valuable? I know it was a while back, but is there anything particularly that, yeah, that you wanna mention?

Well, marketing 100%. I think we kind of get so set in our ways and as as business owners, we didn't get all that marketing training back in the day when we did our training somewhat 30 years ago. There was no marketing studies or anything like that. It was just, oh, this is personal training, this is how you do it and off you go. So it was a huge learning curve for me, learning about Instagram, learning about Facebook and the backend, the fast leads, the sticky content, all that sort that I've never heard before. So that was fantastic.

Yeah, great. Well, thank you so much. That was awesome. That's perfect.

No, thanks, Richard.