Getting Raw Episode #35 Summer Nelson- My Trainer

Welcome to Getting Raw. It's Richard Mark Toutounji, and today I've got Summer Nelson from My Trainer, who's been around for a while in the industry with mobile training. Is that right?

That's right, yep.

Welcome aboard anyway.

Thank you.

So tell me, you don't— you're not dressed in your runners and your joggers. Yeah. And there's a reason for that.

Yeah.

And this is why I wanted to really bring you on the show, because you don't— you're not a personal trainer, but you're sales or marketing, and you run a very successful outdoor personal training in Melbourne.

That's right.

And I want to know, why would somebody come into an industry where— this industry, you know, you think about it, this industry, fitness industry, when you were talking to business owners in the fitness industry, Everybody generally has come from a personal trainer and they go, you know what, I want some more staff under me. Yep. I want to do— I want to expand. But you did it the other way around.

That's right.

So I want to sort of interest in your journey and how you got here.

Okay, well, I started off in the fitness industry to pay the rent, pretty much. Took a job working on front desk at a health club in Melbourne and quickly moved into membership sales. As in most clubs, there's high demand for people who have some desire to be involved in sales, so I got moved into that. I think I was 19 when I started in the fitness industry and just straight away found that I really loved the atmosphere that I was around. Previously I'd been trained as a dancer before that, so the whole idea of kind of, you know, dancing, aerobics, it was sort of similar. I felt like, okay, yeah, this is kind of my territory, I can handle this.

Yep.

And then so when I moved into sales, I had some really good training from a number of different organizations and just really loved that side of it and was lucky enough to be okay at it, to be pretty good at it, and moved around a number of different health clubs. And then I ended up working with the team at Impact Training, the strategic sales and consulting company, and really took what I knew to a new level by learning how to teach sales to other membership consultants. So

you're working for Sales and Marketing with Impact?

That's right.

And then instead of, I guess, you know, doing something— you basically provide everything sales and marketing but Also provide the clients as well.

That's right. So the main difference, I suppose, is that when I wanted to go into my own business— I'm a third-generation entrepreneur, so I always had that desire to go into business for myself. But, you know, I had no desire to go into business in competition with my former employer. They were very well established. You know, they do it pretty much better than anybody else. So I thought, well, I don't want to go and do that. What do I want to do? And we thought, well, who needs the most help when it comes to sales and marketing? And the answer back then, certainly, and still today, is personal training.

So you still haven't been tempted to be a personal trainer? No. You're still staying down the path of sales Yeah. And do

you

think that's a key to your business success doing that?

I do think so. And the reason being is because unlike virtually every other personal training business out there that's been set up by someone who is a personal trainer, our journey was totally different. We put 2 years into our business systems, all of our sales processes, our website, all of our templates and things like that before we took on any clients or any staff. So it gave us the opportunity to really test to the marketplace really well. Yep. And it also meant from a business model point of view, we were able to price point ourselves to be profitable right from day one, having one client and one trainer, rather than having to sell ourselves at an hourly rate that we thought we deserved. And that seems to be the biggest thing as to why I see that trainers don't succeed, is because their sales ability is below their value as a trainer. Yep. And so they sell themselves too cheaply, hoping that one day they'll be able to put their prices up, and they just never do. And so eventually they end up Working themselves out of the business.

Working on that treadmill. Absolutely, yeah.

So I spend all my time working heads up in the business because I'm not ever on the tools. And I did, you know, kind of fleet with the idea about 12 months ago of perhaps going and doing my qualification to kind of add some credibility with my staff. And all my colleagues on the roundtable said, no, never do it. Go and do something else entirely because you don't ever want to be in the position where you can get back on the tools. your business will suffer for it. It's dangerous.

I remember I had a corporate wellness company a couple years ago and there was, um, a massage therapist short one day. And, um, they were short and then I thought, you know what, I, I know massage. I haven't got a certificate, but I'm sure I can get in there for the day and do 15 massages. But it is a danger, so it's like I don't want to ever do that.

No, that's it. I mean, I do a little bit of presenting from time to time, or if we have corporate clients that want, you know, different bits and pieces, I can get in there and do that. And it's a bit of a buzz for me to do that. I still do sales every week in my business, so I'm involved in the Day-to-day running of things, but I don't have to go out and train clients, and I don't think I'd be very good at it anyway.

You mentioned Roundtable. Yes. I'm assuming, is that Justin Sims' Roundtable? Yes, it is. Now, I know a few— I mean, when I sit at the Roundtable, there's a few business owners on it which are not personally training but actually running their business. That's right. Do you think that's been a part of success for you?

Yeah, definitely. Look, I think I started on the Roundtable in its first one. I missed my first meeting, but I've been to every one since then. Good for you. So I've been involved for 5 years. I'm doing pretty well. And look, all of the businesses— we've had some people that have come in for a period of time while they've needed it and left again, but I just see it as absolutely intrinsic to the success of our business. Every business goes through ups and downs for all sorts of various reasons. I've got a young family, so my energy in the business has varied at different times, and I've had to rely more on my staff and less on myself to do different things. The Roundtable has really kept me really honest all the way through. Because as a business owner, apart from your bank balance or maybe your husband and wife who's saying, you know, come on honey, the bills need to be paid, we really have very little accountability. And so if you don't have a good accountant that is actually saying to you, alright, well this is what you should be making, this is your profit percentages you should be hitting after your tax, after your super, everything else.

Most accountants don't do that.

No, that's right.

They're about saving dollars and just do the quarterly stuff.

And paying their bills and that's it. So the Roundtable really does that for us. It says this is the benchmark. benchmarks that you should be aiming for. This is best practice as far as not just the fitness industry but business. And we all have to fess up every month and put in our KPIs, our profitability, conversion rates. So it's just like being a membership consultant again and having to say, this is what I did, you know, tell me if it was any good.

Yeah, but everybody needs accountability.

Absolutely.

And a lot of business owners don't have accountability. Not at all. Especially in this industry.

Sometimes that's why we go into business for ourselves, because we don't like working for someone else.

We want to get out and do our own thing. But it is important to have that accountability. So, you've been— how long has MyTrainer been up for now? 5 years?

No, we just had our 9-year birthday. So 2004, we took on our first client.

So 9-year birthday, and I do remember 2004 you started, okay. Yes. So I do remember you in that, you know, I guess the core businesses, and what I see about your business is that it hasn't actually changed the model, okay. A lot of trainers are changing the model, they'll introduce boot camps, then they'll go to CrossFit, bit, then they'll go to ladies only, and then they'll go to gyms, and then they'll go back to outdoors. Yours has really kept the same model.

Yeah.

What's the secret to keeping the same model, especially— well, I think I found out the secret. You're not a trainer, which is probably the first thing.

That helps. I'm a lazy marketer, so I don't get sucked into all of the other bits and pieces. That's a really good question, actually. Somebody asked me that yesterday, and the answer to me is our core values. I've been lucky enough to do quite a bit of professional development before coming into the fitness industry, and I'm still have that as a passion of mine to today, although I don't get to read as much as I would like. But one of the things that really stuck with me in those days, I think it was Tom Hopkins said, you know, if you want to be successful in business or in fact as an individual, you need to be really certain about what your core values are. So as part of our business planning that we did during that 2 years, we determined what are the core values that we're going to have in business.

Yep.

And so now once we set those in place, they were in absolute Granite. There was no concrete that could have eroded over time. Okay. It was, these are not changing in our business. Perhaps as the marketplace changes, we'll find new ways to approach those core values, but that is what it is. And so when a new trend comes along, whether it be CrossFit or Zumba or a new product or a new marketing stream like Groupon or, you know, those sorts of high-volume, low-price things, every single one of those opportunities that comes my way gets measured against our core values, and I hold it up against that. And if it doesn't meet all 5 of my core values, we just don't do it. And so fundamentally, that means that there's not a lot that kind of passes the test in terms of new fads, so we don't get distracted and drawn in other directions. Look, every business can benefit from having—

But do you think that, you know, is that a negative? For example, if marketing has changed and you're staying one path, is that— is it a bad thing or not?

Well, it could be. I'll give you an example. Our number one core value is honesty.

Right.

So what that means is that all of our clients pay exactly the same. We charge a joining fee to every single client. We don't discount whether you live in, you know, the outskirts of town or you live in the inner city and you live in a multi-million dollar house. Everybody pays exactly the same. Everyone has the same opportunity and policies and procedures. So if a marketing campaign like ScoopOn comes along, for instance, that says you need to sell 20 personal training sessions at $20 each, and that's, you know, 20% of the price of what we normally charge for personal training. Then we will look at that and we go, well, how can we in all honesty have our regular clients that pay a certain amount and then offer this super discount to these new people? Does it fit? No, it doesn't. So we let it pass us by. And that was a good example of one that probably was a good one to let us pass by. Yeah. Because I'm sure we've both had plenty of people we've known in the industry that are no longer in the industry because they couldn't meet the demand that was created through those things. Other things, I suppose, another one of our core values is giving back to the community. And this is something that I see as really fundamental, that as a business person is important to me. Yeah. And, you know, even just from a business point of view, it's what business people do. If you're a self-employed personal trainer, you're working out of your garage or the boot of your car, you're turning up at a park with some equipment, you've got no real identity. You don't necessarily see yourself as a business owner. You see yourself as someone who's, oh, you know, just a personal trainer. So you don't give yourself a lot of status to go in and meet with your local MP or the Chamber of Commerce or the local, you know, district of general practitioners or whatever it might be and say, you know what, I'm a local health and fitness professional, I'm a business owner, I'm contributing to the community, these are the organisations I'm supporting. Yep. And so that's where we like to put our focus. on the things that are, you know, making a difference in our community and making a difference in our clients' lives. And the other stuff that kind of, you know, comes in and then goes out again, like, if it sticks around for about 2 years, then I'll probably have a look at it and go, yeah, we'll do that.

Good, good. It's a good strategy to go along

with. Yeah, and because I'm lazy.

Lazy marketer.

Very.

Lazy marketer. So what's the next direction? For MyTrainer, where's it heading to now? Because I mean, personal training is, I mean, it's changing. A lot of it's going to groups. Do you see that's a— is that a fad coming through, or are you still ready to continue to stick? Because you've been so successful doing that.

I don't know. Look, we probably do mostly one-on-one. Our core business is one-on-one and two-on-one training in people's homes or in their backyards or outdoors, which is fine. And for us, that gives us a lot of stability. I kind of learnt this lesson, I suppose, many, many years ago. I had a friend of mine who was working for a large chartered accounting firm, and she was involved in the Ansett carve-up, if you will. And so through that, I got to learn some stories about businesses where Ansett was their only client. So consequently, when Ansett went down, of course, they went down. They went down, yep. So my attitude has always been, rather than putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, speak, to have a large amount of stability through having a very large client base all doing something that they can consistently do on a regular basis. Yep. So for instance, we have clients that might see our trainer once a month for half an hour. Okay. And people would say, is that enough to get anything? Well, damn straight it is. It's better than sitting on the couch doing nothing. Yeah. Listening to your own stories about why you can't exercise. So having a large pool of clients with a variety of commitments something they can stick to forever, to me is a much more viable business model. Now, I've got colleagues who run group training amazingly. In fact, if you want to talk to someone about, you know, talk to Heidi Denning about group fitness, she's the guru as far as that goes, and she swears by it and tells me that it's a massively profitable business. I just can't get it to work.

Yeah.

And I think for the most part, the reason is because I've got a commitment to pay my staff really, really well at a high level. And that in Melbourne certainly, what the customers are prepared to pay for group fitness is well below what I want to charge them for it to be able to pay my staff at that high level.

Well, if it's not broken, don't fix it.

That's it, that's it. But to answer your question as far as where the business is going next, I suppose I've had staff members that have been with me for 6 or 7 years. I've got a trainer who's 65 years old. You know, I've got to create opportunities for these people so I can keep them in the business. You know, he's been getting up at 4:30 in the morning for the last 15 years. Someday he's going to get sick of that.

Yeah.

So I need to create opportunities for him and all the rest of my team. So the next level for us that we've committed to is moving to a model where our team can have a team of their own. So going from just being an independent business owner within my brand to actually being an independent business owner in my brand with their own team of people that they get to mentor.

Trainers can have their own team under them?

That's right.

Okay, so what does that actually cost?

What does it cost?

Is it an affiliate sort of model?

Oh, at the moment we refer to it as a license model, if you will. We decided not to do a franchise because we maintain a vested interest in the clients and we want to make sure that when our trainers are busy and they're making good money and they're successful, that we're busy and we're making good money and we're successful, rather than having it just paying out in franchise fees, those sorts of things. Just not my style. So, yeah, the next model I suppose will be to kind of engage the trainers who have that desire to mentor other people. And again, I suppose this comes down to one of my learnings in business. When we started out, we kind of thought we'd need to go national, you know, to have a massive business. We thought we want trainers in every state, we're going to need general managers everywhere, we'll have, you know, a dozen trainers in every state. And what I realized really quickly— But in particular, probably from meeting some of the people on the roundtable, is that you don't need to be everywhere to have a really successful business. With the internet these days, there's technology that enables you to help people everywhere, but to have a great profitable business, you can keep a low profile. You know, we could have a dozen trainers just within our municipality in Melbourne, and we'd have enough demand to service that. Yes. We currently service most of Melbourne, but as it is, You don't need to be the biggest to be profitable and to be successful. You can keep it— there's a great book that Justin advocates called Small Giants that I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who's thinking about going into business and expanding. You don't need to be massive and have your name up in lights to be able to have a good, successful, stable business. Sometimes it's better to keep a little bit of a low profile. It stays more within your personality.

Great. So there must have been some struggles along the way. Yeah. I'd love to know, I love hearing success stories, but I also love hearing about struggles. What's been, I guess, the biggest waste of money that you've ever spent in your business?

I don't want to name any names.

No name names.

Okay, so like most people, I've been carried away by a good sales presentation from time to time, and I think perhaps the thing in one go that I've signed away the biggest amount of money that I probably shouldn't have was a telemarketing campaign, and I think largely that was because I had a certain expectation of how that was going to play out and what happened in it, how it was going to work for our business, and what they could deliver was not a match to what I wanted.

Sure.

But I kept trying to make it a match and saying, well, let's do this and let's do that and try and make it a match. But really, I think it comes back down to that underlying laziness I have of being a marketer, of trying to outsource something that I should have done in-house myself. That doesn't mean telemarketing is bad. It's been very successful for us at different times, but that one campaign still stings. I got one client out of that campaign which cost me about $5,000, and luckily they stayed with me for about 5 years, so it did cover the cost.

It did cover the cost eventually.

But I did everything to keep that one client so that I could Bottom line that at the end of the day—

I think it's important. I mean, as business, you need to, to grow. Sometimes you need to make those mistakes to realize what really is the core value, which obviously you keep consistently on. So the biggest thing, just to wrap up, I can always see you guys advertising for more trainers. Yes, always. So you're always advertising more trainers. How do you always have a surplus of people wanting to train with you? What's the, I guess, the one secret? Well,

I can't give away all my secrets, but I think you will probably attest to this, is that if you have a good, strong, stable internet presence, you will always have a good source of quality leads. That's right. And that is something that mostly because, you know, back in 2004, we put in the effort to building a website, and over the years we've continued to evolve it, and we use directories and some of your services and some other ones as well. To drive traffic to the website, but fundamentally we've kind of, I suppose, been lucky to a large extent and consistent in the sense that we always have a good stream of leads coming through there. And look, I suppose I consider that I've had a very good retention of my staff. The minimum amount of time I'll ever work with someone is a year, so compared to the industry average of 6 weeks, that's not too bad.

Very good.

I've had people with me for 5 or 6 years.

I think it's all about consistency. Yeah, that's probably the message. You can always see the leaders that pop up and continue to stay up. So very good. So if trainers want to get in contact with you, just go to your site, mytrainer.com.au.

Yeah, they can go to mytrainer.com.au. There's a career section there, or you can send me an email. Look, one of my big pushes in the last probably year or so has— I've taken a bit of a back seat in terms of my presenting and other bits and pieces since I've had my family and haven't been giving as much to the industry as I would have liked. But certainly one of the things that I'm doing is really just trying to support people as much as I possibly can. So if you've got any questions about business, if you're starting off, if you're not sure where to go in your career, feel free to drop me an email. I'll do my best to help you out, send you in the right direction.

And you're on Facebook as well? I'm always on Facebook. You're on Facebook, so you can contact her that way. Alright, thank you so much.

Thanks, Richard. It was a pleasure.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks very much.

Thanks, guys.