Getting Raw Ep #20 Brad Sheppard - Create PT Wealth

Hello, welcome to Getting Raw. Today, I've got a special guest, Brad Shepherd. Thanks, Brad. Welcome. Thank you very much. It's good to be here. Getting Raw is all about getting raw, getting the facts, and as a first-time guest on Getting Raw, he just told me he hasn't seen Getting Raw. We want to hear some really good information. So, we're going to get some information from Brad, the really truth behind his success. If you don't know Brad, he's been in the industry for over 20 years, is that right?

Yeah, 17 to be exact.

17 years. He doesn't want to put his age too much. And one thing I do know about Brad, when I hear the stories, and this is a story I really want to get my teeth behind and see how truthful it is and how he actually did this, but from what my understanding is that I've heard that you're the highest paying personal trainer in Australia charging $440 per hour. Is that correct?

Well, it's actually not correct because it's actually $440 per 45 minutes.

45 minutes, okay.

So you can do your maths on that in terms of what that works out to per minute. But yeah, that is the truth.

Okay, so how did you get such a client at $440? I mean, as personal trainers, we're doing back-to-back sessions, we may be charging $80 to $150, but then to go to the $440 mark, one, who paid it, and then was it sustainable? Like, how did you do it?

Sure, yeah, it's a great question. I probably get asked— probably one of the questions I get asked the most by personal trainers across Australia is like, who the hell would pay $400 to do personal training? I'm training with you. And if I had a dollar for every time I got asked that from a trainer—

I'm sure he's a good trainer, but $440, you know what I mean?

Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm a great trainer. However, yeah, it is true. And I get asked that a lot. Now, if you're asking who is the type of person that pays that amount of money, one of the things, one of the principles that I go by is that very long ago, I gave up trying to think for other people. So one thing that I said is that I've got absolutely no right to try and decide what someone's going to pay to train with me or to train with somebody else. It's up to them. Some will, some won't, and it's not going to affect my life in another way. So the reason my rates went up, there's a whole story behind it. It's all about me building a business. So if I'm going to remove myself from areas of my business where I'm not going to be focused on building the business, that's building a team of people, that's out there getting more leads, that's out there doing the marketing, then I need to be adequately and handsomely compensated for that. Right. So there's a process of a number of years when it happened. 17 years ago, I was charging $30 per session. And if you said to me 17 years ago you're going to be charging $440, I would not have believed you because I didn't believe it myself. So it's, you know, there's been a long journey behind it. And it was probably about 10 years ago was the first time I had my first ever rate increase from $30 a session. From there, there's a bit of a journey.

Okay. So quite interesting. So it's, you know, 17 years in the industry. So somebody coming straight out of a personal training college, probably not advisable to smack out $440 for 45 minutes.

Well, I guess we'll probably go back to that thing in going, well, look, if you're just starting out, you probably need to test the waters and get a bit of a feel for it. The only thing that I would say is that I see personal trainers who were out there 10 years ago who were charging $50 a session, and you know what they're charging 10 years down the track? $50 a session.

They haven't taken their rates up because they're too nice.

Yeah, and what sits under there is a whole bunch of stuff going, look, clients are going to think I'm greedy, maybe I'm not worth it, clients might leave if I put my rates up, etc. So when I set I sat down in front of my first business coach. He said to me, look, mate, you are technically a great trainer. You've done the courses, you've done all the modules, all this sort of stuff. He said, you charge way too little. And, you know, back then at $30 a session, that was kind of like the going rate. And he said, what you need to do is put up your rates. And I said, there's no way I'm going to do that because all my clients will leave.

They'll fall off. Yeah, fear of leaving and there's no business and then how am I going to pay things for that?

All the rest of it. And so what was sitting under that was all my stuff. And he said, well, look, can you go from, you know, can you just go from a $5 increase? And I did it and guess what happened?

Still here?

No one left. So it told me, A, that I probably didn't put it up high enough and B, the system worked. So from there, there was a progression for me from going up to $50 to $60 to $70 to $80. There's a whole method in the system. So it's not like you pick up the phone and SMS your clients, by the way, tomorrow it's going to— today it's $60, tomorrow it's going to be $80. There's a whole—

I was going to call some of my old clients and call them up for a Return to Richard session. Okay. Alright, so we won't get into that. There is a method of it, but it's interesting. That's where I guess leads you today because now you actually train trainers to do what you're doing, charging higher rates, getting bigger, better business structures in place. Sure. I've been through a couple of Brad's, I guess, graduates or people you're working with. I've seen firsthand on new trainers starting in the industry under a year going from charging $60 to $150 And that's very achievable. So that's where I sort of want to get into today, some quick systems of how to do that.

Yeah, for sure.

But I think also too, the struggle with personal trainers that are listening to Getting Raw and are on Meet Your Fitness Marketing, they're trainers that have sort of gone from the, should I take my rates up? Should I get a new personal trainer coming and working with me? And it's always like we get one, they're no good, there's bad staff, there's no personal trainers, and then we go back to working ourselves. And it's 2 and This to and from all the time. I sort of want to know, because I know you talk a lot about how to actually get your first trainer under you, your subcontractor, your employer, whatever that person is. And the whole point of that as personal trainers is the time leverage. If that person goes out, we can make some money on that person.

Correct.

But then the problem is, you know, I did it myself for years, is then you've got to look at, are they training properly, have they got methods to do it? And so I want to know what your experience in that is.

Sure. Yeah, I guess if I go back to Back then I was doing 1-hour sessions. So a couple of years ago I changed 1-hour to 45, but I was doing 40 times 1-hour appointments a week.

That's a 9-to-5 job.

Yeah, training a huge amount of people and was at a ceiling. Would start at 5 AM, work till 9 PM. Had no idea on how I could sort of break free of, you know, being in that spot. So went through the change in rates. As my rates started to go up, what I found is even in the sub-$100 mark, there was absolutely no drop-off at all in clients. Yeah. my goal because to hire my first trainer, I had Buckley's to hire my first trainer when I've got no time because I couldn't find anyone, I couldn't interview anyone, I couldn't—

Busy, busy, busy.

Yeah, so I wasn't doing the lead gen. I was great at getting referrals and things like that but I had no business system in place. So as soon as I went on holidays, Christmas time, when I was sick, all that, the income went down. So I realized pretty quickly that, hey, I've got to put a system behind this. So putting up my rates, and I guarantee if we have a look at and dissect anyone's business, there's this thing that we call hidden money in there. Right. So whether you're a solo trainer or you've got a few trainers on board, there's going to be hidden money in there. So what we look for is that hidden money and we go, okay, if we can increase your rates from $60 up to let's say $90, how many clients can you afford to lose or pass on to another trainer without it affecting your income? And for many of the people, you know, just seeing that, seeing the evidence of that in place and going, okay, well, I can sort of earn the same amount of money, however, I can be doing less hours which now enables me to go and work on another area of my business. But back to Exactly this thing of hiring a team member. The biggest concerns I hear trainers speak to me about hiring trainers is going, A, I'm not going to find anyone that's good enough. B, what happens if we get these trainers up with clients and they just leave?

The clients leave?

No, the trainers leave. So they've got a whole bunch of clients and they take off and go and do it down the road. C, I need X number of clients before I hire my first trainer.

It's all seeming too hard already. Let's just go back to doing it myself.

That's right. That's exactly the That's the truth, yeah. And so what we've— what I devised is a method to overcome that and flip that model on its head. So when I hire a new trainer, they have got zero clients. They start on zero clients.

Okay.

And it's a two-way street. So we teach— we have methods in place for generating leads into our business, plus we teach the trainers on how to generate their own leads. So the success of that trainer is A, the strength of them looking after the clients that we provide them with, with our systems and methods and so forth. No doubt many of the trainers are using lead generation sources like Meet Your PT. Secondly, we teach the methods on how to build a client base and the successful ones have the ability to do both of those.

And so then what, for example, if they don't— you know, they do it successfully, what about the fear of them going and running their own business then? Like you've taught them everything, you've done it for 6 months and now they disappear.

Yeah, sure.

What happens there?

So again, surprise, surprise, we've got a system and a method in place for that and all of our trainers go on agreements which basically says, you know, very quite simply looking If you've got a client base with us, you want to go and set up down the road, you can do that. We're not going to stop you. However, all of the clients— and by signing this agreement, you agree that all the clients are property of our business. So that if you want to go and train some of those people, regardless of if you've invited them to train or not, those clients are still property of our business, and therefore they have a value attached to that. Okay. And so what that means is that, you know, if that's the case, you're virtually buying a client base.

That's very good. I like that method. And it's sort of actually from day one, you're treating your personal training business as a business.

Oh, absolutely.

Because, you know, I see it obviously in trainers, see it is that if we just go and get $50 from this person, $100 from this person, it's never a business.

No.

You know, we want a business where we can go on holidays and get paid and that sort of stuff. And so that's— it's sort of like saying, well, if you want to be in this industry, you've got to treat it like any other business. Like if you're opening a restaurant down the road, if you're opening a café, if you're opening a car mechanic, it's the same thing. We're in the same industry. You've got to have these agreements in place. systems in place before you open the doors, or what would your advice be if you don't want to do this, you're just going to run it yourself?

That's right. And look, hey, 12 years ago I learned the hard way because when I hired my first trainer, I had no systems in place, no agreement in place. So after about a year, he was doing 35 clients and he goes to me, well, look, I'm a bit jacked of working for you. I'm going to go and do it down the road. And I had no leg to stand on, you know. So that really forced my hand to go, well, hold on, I need to put a system and a process behind this. Since that time, you know, over the last 10, 11 years, every relationship I've had with staff members and trainers has been outstanding. And I must say, it's probably due to the fact that we've put in the time and energy upfront to be totally transparent about this. We've had a couple of trainers leave and go, look, I can see the value in this. They're buying our business. So more recently, I had a trainer buy his client base for $25,000. And so that's a win-win, you know, because I go, well, hold on, I've got a bunch of clients leaving my business. There's a bunch of income walking out the door. However, I'm getting paid and compensated for that. So, you know, I'm cool with it. That's awesome.

I love that because at the end of the day, I know a lot of people in this industry, a lot of I've talked to a lot of trainers and I don't know a huge amount of people that can actually say, I've just sold a client base for $25,000, or to my trainer that wants to leave, that wants to own this. But at the end of the day, to build up all these clients does require money, time, systems. So yeah, why not sell it to them? That's a great idea.

That's right. Everything has a value behind it. Now that trainer, have a look at it also from his perspective, walked into a business where he was now turning over $100,000 a year because we'd upped his rates as well following our system. So he's bought a $100,000 a year client base for only $25,000. And even better, to his credit, because he's been hanging around me long enough, he said, look, I haven't got the $25,000 now, can I pay you off over 12 months? And he did, you know. Awesome. And so it was like, it was win-win. He was in front from day one. He was earning more by himself than he was from me.

Yeah, just continue to pay you, you know, get the recurring income. That's exciting stuff. And it's, you are really a leader in that. And I know you do Create PT Wealth now, which is educating trainers on that. I want to know, yeah, this is getting real. I'd love to know, I hear the success stuff. I want to know, I guess, your worst failures as a personal trainer. Is there a time that you've actually lost a lot of money? Something really bad happened? Were you kicked out of your house because you couldn't pay your rent or something? I want to hear one of those stories because I think as we progress along in our career, we always hear this guy is doing well. Oh, he's Brad and he's up there. But you've come from, you know, you haven't been given this.

No.

So tell me some, I guess, a scenario where it wasn't as nice as it was I

can, I've got 2 for you. So, because as you were asking me the question, 2 popped into my mind straight away. The first one is more, I'd say, comical. Back in the day, like, you know, into the bodybuilding training and all the rest of it, had the guns hanging out.

You still got the guns hanging out.

Had the big hoop earrings, had the bum bag, you know what I mean? I used to train my clients in like bike pants and bodybuilders wear the stripy bike pants. So I used to strut around like this, mobile phone off the side and all the rest of it. So I got this tip off for the, in Brisbane, a lawyer for, it was like a looking for corporate training, you know. So I'm thinking, oh, beauty, I'm the man.

Free enter.

Yeah, that's me. And so I walked in this day, rocked in, and I'm walking through this office packed full of lawyers and all the rest of it, up on level 35 and all the rest of it. And it wasn't until that point I realized, as I'm walking down the corridor, when I saw everyone staring at me, I realized maybe I should have worn some proper shorts over these bike tights. I'm walking down, I'm thinking, hmm, got the whole package hanging out and all the rest of it. Needless to say, I didn't get that gig. You didn't get that one? No, so learned from that. The other thing is, probably the other thing that I stuffed up majorly is I had no control over money or cash. So when I started to build my business, I come to the end of 2003 where I was then earning $220 per session. I had 9 trainers on board. We were turning over lots of revenue. I finished the year about $30,000 in debt.

In debt?

So I had this mentality at the time of I'm earning a bunch so I can spend a bunch, you know. So I had everything. all the latest personal training equipment, kayaks, mountain bikes, you name it, I bought it. I would take my trainers out to breakfast, pick up the bill. And so basically what that taught me, I got to the end of it and I'm going, hold on, how can I be making this money, turning over all these sessions and all the rest of it, but still be in the red? So that was a huge wake-up call for me. The big lesson for me is to become meticulous about that. And I love the stuff, I love having the toys and all the rest of it, but now I know that, hey, there's got to be that balance in there.

Well, that's a very good That's a really good insight because I think we've all been there at one stage or another where we just— yeah, he's great, let's get in this industry, let's earn $80 cash, $200 cash in our pocket, and then next thing you turn around, there's nothing there.

Sure.

So I think that's a really important tip that if someone can get away and actually get that information and save the years by the mistakes would be ideal. And I think that's really important. Now these days, we have so much knowledge about this. We've got a lot of help. We've got forums, we've got people like yourself out there saying do this, Do this, do this. So I think it's really about time that people take advice and really look into it because it's— they can save a lot of years, I guess, struggles and

hardships. Ah, I agree. If I reflect back to the first 5, 6, 7 years that I was a PT, that's all I was, just a PT. I'd rock up and train anyone, anywhere, anytime. Mornings, nights, weekends. Charge my $30. I'd basically swap time for money. I'd rock up, I'd train you, you'd give me $30, I'd stick it in my pocket, and I'd buzz off to the next person. So I was training people indoors, outdoors, In their homes, wherever. And, you know, I spent a lot of time doing it. I look at, you know, 6 or 7 years, and if you ask me what I did, you know, hey, I'm just a trainer. That's what I do is rock up and train people.

Yeah.

It wasn't until I got the business mindset, the business mentality, and I got the right people around me who could influence me and show me that, hey, it's not just all about just rocking up and training people.

Yeah.

Sure, you can be a great technician. You can be an awesome trainer. Yeah. However, you need to look at the other side of it too. So these days I train around about 8 PT sessions a week.

Okay.

I get to train people at the times I want to train. I'm a big fan in the morning. So I do about 2 or 3 appointments in the morning. Do my own workout. That's me done on the PT side of it.

Great. So you're still keeping that hand in the PT, which is awesome.

Hand in the PT. I get to lead by example, plus I get handsomely compensated for it. You know, and so that's what also juices me. Because if I'm going to have to get out of bed at 5 AM and rock down and train someone for $80 a session, that's probably not going to juice me as much anymore.

That's right.

But, you know, at $400 a session, then I'm definitely going there.

Yeah, I'm coming. Next flight to Brisbane. Alright, we've got to cut it, but I know just before we leave now, I know Mindbreathe is getting a book out. Just quickly tell us about the book and what's in the book, because I think that's a good step forward for you.

Yeah, absolutely. Look, we'll have the book in our hot little hands over the next couple of months. It's a business building book for personal trainers, and it outlines our 10 key teaching areas, which starts right from what we call the mindset of the multi-six-figure personal trainer. So how do you get in the mindset? How do you overcome any of those self-sabotaging beliefs that could stop you from getting what you want? Moving into how do you differentiate yourself from the pack? So with 40,000 trainers out there, how are you going to be different? than everybody else into how do you generate leads. Once you get those leads in there, how do you sell them into your program, your package, right through to how do you hire your first team member. And then we also speak about how do you have your online presence and how do you maximize that.

So the whole process. That's good. Keep your eyes out for that. It's going into bookstores and it will be around the industry, I'm sure. Yep.

It's called A Personal Trainer's Guide to Wealth Creation.

Awesome. We don't have it here because it's still hot in the printer's hands, so we'll have it shortly. But thanks for coming in. Brad's always around. You're on Facebook. You're on fitness marketing. He's always articles and videos going around, so check him out and ask him, you know, if you can be a $440 trainer too, eh? Thanks, mate.

My pleasure. Cheers. Cheers.