S2 Ep 3: The Perfect Time To Open Your Own Fitness Studio

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. I'm Richard Deterngi, and today I want to talk about— well, today I'm talking to anybody. specifically, who is a personal trainer who's had a dream of opening up a studio, yet that dream has been floating around your head for quite some time. Not sure where to open up, not sure how much to pay, not sure if you can even do it. How do you get a rental property? How much does equipment cost? And do I have the burning desire and the hunger to get that thing open, or should I just stick as a personal trainer inside a gym? What is going to be best for my future career? And so I thought, what a better way to answer all these questions than ask, uh, one of my friends, uh, ex-personal trainer of mine and also one of our marketing ninjas and overall really great bloke, Adriano Rizz. Welcome to the podcast. How are you?

I'm well, thanks to you, Richard. Thanks for having me.

So good. Now let me just kind of do a quick backstory so kind of people understand who you are, what you do. Um, and maybe I'll ask you the question, Riz, and then I'll— I want to talk about some, maybe something that people don't know about our relationship. So stick around for that one. So Riz, tell me about yourself. Uh, how long you've been in the fitness industry and, um, where do you train out of, or where did you train out of?

Um, so I've been in the fitness industry for about 8 years, give or take, maybe, maybe not coming up 9 now. Um, I've been training in the gym since I was 16, so I used to weigh about 110 kilos when I was 16. So I was a fairly, fairly big young man and, uh, really wanted a way to, um, lose all that weight and get in shape. But mostly it was just to feel better about myself because I went to a school, Newtown High School, performing arts, and there was a lot of really good-looking dancer girls around me. And, uh, it didn't really help me being super chubby and not feeling good about myself and then sort of outlining the fact that I wasn't really in shape a lot of the time as high school kids can, can be super polite at the best of times, right? Um, so it kind of inbuilt this, I guess, desire for me to get fit and get in shape, um, which just took its own shape into something completely different. And by the time I'd stepped foot in a gym at 16, um, I was going 3 or 4 times a week by myself. I absolutely loved it, and, and I knew I wanted to open up my own gym, um, as soon as I, as soon as I walked in.

So the burning desire initially to get fit was the girls? Is

that 100%. Yeah. What else do you want at 16?

So you, you, you went straight into the gym, you went full into the, to the gym scene. Um, I've seen some past, uh, photos of yours and, you know, you've got some great physiques. Yeah. Um, and I want to talk about, you know, really going deep into something. Uh, you're a kind of person that I've seen that goes really deep, headfirst into a direction. In those early stages of you being 16, 17, 18, 19, tell me about the obsession of, um, getting into shape.

I think it was— look, I mean, I was, I was walking half an hour there, half an hour back. I was in country Taree, so it's 20,000 people population. I was there for about 2 years, um, when I finished, went through year 10 to year 12 and did my HSC. And, and I, I don't know what, what it was. It was just this Yeah, I suppose an insatiable desire to keep losing weight and keep getting stronger and keep feeling better about myself. And the gym was the only place where in my whole entire life— I had a fairly rough, um, unsupportive upbringing, and my entire life I didn't have any control. And so the gym was a place where I could control, you know, my protect— like, I guess what I thought was my future back then when I was 16, you know. And obviously there's— it's multifaceted, your future, but physically I thought that's what you did, you know. If you looked good, the rest of your life would, uh, would work out. We all know that's not the truth, um, but at least it does help in a lot of factors. And that's sort of, I guess, that drew the obsession for me to want to just keep going and going and going because I just saw, well, if I do 10 reps one day, well, I can be able to do 10 reps, uh, 20 reps though, 12 reps the next day, and, and so on and so forth. So I had control for the first time that I felt in my life. And so that's, I think that's what drew me through the obsession because I had, I had complete control over my environment. And that was, um, Hmm.

So, so tough upbringing you mentioned, and now you're getting into a gym and you're saying, okay, I've got control of how many reps and how many sets and how much I can lift and not lift and what I can eat. Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it— for me, it was— I was moved around a lot as a kid, you know, abusive upbringing, that sort of stuff. And so when you're— when you feel like you've been downtrodden, uh, in your life, I suppose when you can get some sort of glimmer of hope or some— there was a couple of guys that, um, me under their wing as well in the gym. Some older blokes, maybe 30, 40. And, um, as soon as you felt that camaraderie and that, and that, uh, positivity, um, in your life, I didn't want to let go of it. There was not a chance where I was, I was gonna let go of it. I don't think I've trained— I don't think I've missed any more than 2 weeks worth of gym in my life, you know, since, since I've been 16. So, you know, it's, it, it's everything for me. It's all I know now.

And, and fast forward the This story up and maybe about two years ago, I first came in contact with you when I recently moved to Cronulla in New South Wales. Okay, I was in like I was a western. I moved to eastern suburbs, and I moved to Cronulla. And we we had a client, a client that had a gym. We were doing some work with income marketing, and you're one of the trainers in that gym. And I was kind of looking for a trainer. I said, "Okay, I want to put on some size." I've never really. I've been always more triathlon, water running. I want to put on some size. I want to find somebody I don't know that's not in our program so I can have like a one-way relationship to say, okay, tell me what to do to bulk up. I know how to run, I know how to CrossFit, I want to know how to bulk up. So anyway, I came across, maybe it was a flyer of yours inside the gym, it had a cartoon on. I went to your website and I said, this guy looks Like he knows what he's doing. And I made the call and we started doing some training together. And so we initially, uh, started doing some training in, and I specifically remember you were all about, um, counting the reps, um, being very adhesive to the numbers. And, uh, you're a guy that liked calf machines as well.

Yes, yes I am.

And I hadn't done the calf machine since I was 15, probably with one of my first coaches who was a bodybuilder. I go, what the hell? Calf machines are back?

Yeah, man. Yeah, it's like I always say, a good calf is like an introduction to a good book. You need, you know, you need a solid calf to introduce the rest of your body, just like you need a good introduction to a good book.

And so that's, that was our relationship, uh, how it kicked off. But then, um, we, we moved into, uh, training in your nana's garage.

Yes, we did.

Uh, it was through one of the early lockdowns in Sydney. And it was that it was kind of that period there where I discovered quite a lot around your your obsession of wanting a fitness studio, and that's what I want to talk about today. And and that that thought of getting that fitness studio, and I guess I'll ask you the question: that point there, you kind of didn't really know what we did or what I did. I tried to keep myself maybe under the radar. I don't know if that was the way, but as soon as I bought Joey to train with you as well, it was all over. She's a And we hit it off. Can you just kind of like take me through that stage where you got out of the gym and then you started to feel the difference of you running your own place in your own garage?

Yeah, look, there was— I mean, we, we've trained together for a significant amount of time, and so we've gone through our own lockdowns, no lockdowns together, which is a fairly unique time period, I like to think. Um, and, and a lot of change happened in that time period too. Um, and so yeah, I did know at all what you did. I was working with an online coaching business. They were doing coaching on how to be an online personal trainer, high-ticket sales, you know, the pipe dream. And it was working to some degree, but I just didn't like the slimy sort of approach that they had, which go into Facebook groups and essentially kind of offer support and for lack of a better term, poach clients from other groups. Right. I personally don't like that approach. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with giving people help if they need it, but that's just not me. And, uh, I kept sort of spitballing ideas to you and, you know, what would you do here and what would you do there? And by the sounds of things, you work with bigger yoga studios, PT studios, gyms. And I was like, ah, it's not really— it's out of my depth for now. And then you're like, well, but wait, maybe if I try this and try this. And I've actually helped some personal trainers before you, and you kind of gave me a little bit more rope and more rope every session because I just kept trying to pick your brains because I saw that, uh, You knew what you were doing, and I was like, this guy, I can weasel out some free information from this, 100%. And then it started to work. Brand awareness ads, you know, eye-grabbing images, and just understanding the basic principles of marketing led to some really good results and some good feedback. And then it was from there, I just really started to dive into the work with you and the ninjas. And then from that point, Look, let's just say skip forward. Uh, we had another chat at the start of this year because I wanted to open the studio. Lockdown happened, and then I moved into a gym. We moved into a gym together. And then me and you were always spitballing about opening up a studio, and, and I kind of put it on the back burner. I was like, wait till COVID's done for 2 years, and this is just too much. And, and then, um, and then what happened was we were like— me and you had a conversation. We're like, dude, you really did well with— in, in your grandma's garage. You loved it. That was your space. And I was like, Yeah, man, creatively I felt you know free and able to do what I wanted to do, and I want to taste that again. I want to try that. Let's let's go. And and then so we started putting in the work. You told me the things that I needed to do to go from zero to one hundred with the studio in terms of marketing, in terms of my procedures, damn near everything because you'd been working with me for almost for a year at that stage. And and the the word of the year for me was patience. And and we set some things in in line, and so far from the start of the year to now, we've we've moved into a whole studio, and obviously there's been. Times before that. But I mean, it was, it was that setting, trusting in you and trusting in the process, and then just following the steps and, and waiting for it to all work out. And sure enough, it has worked out better than I could have ever anticipated. You know, the stars have well and truly aligned for the moving into the studio, the timing, the ending of lockdown, all sorts of stuff. I don't know what you'd call it, but it really feels like the stars aligned for us.

Well, there's a couple things here I want to dig on. One, uh, patience. Uh, a lot of personal trainers don't have patience, me included, you included as well. Patience is that we don't, you know, use too much. But just a quick backstory there that you kind of moved into a revenue gap of, I think it was something like $1,000 to $4,000-ish a week as personal training, moving into small groups. And then from there, you held that, you dropped a little bit, and then COVID came. Yep. my thoughts is you, you know, dropped a little bit in the motivation like we all do.

Yeah.

Then all of a sudden through this last Sydney lockdown, I've seen some trainers, especially yourself, really give it a go and start to build up clients in the period of lockdown, which you did. You built up a big client base in the period of lockdown and then said, right, I'm going to get a studio and went for it. And that's what I want to talk about today. Just before we do this, the conversation about the studio, tell me about the mindset process around lockdown. You know, we in Sydney, there was a 4-month, I think it was 106-day lockdown, and it was a time where some rose, some kind of just waited. I think you were waiting, but then all of a sudden something happened and you said, right, let's rip in, as one of the words you used. What, what was the mental shift and barriers that you had to take yourself through here?

There's so much. So much. So, so I, I've got diagnosed anxiety and depression. I've had it for a long time. Um, that's a massive barrier for, for doing anything in your life, right? I don't use it as an excuse, but it, it's, it's like having a— you have a mental disadvantage, let's say. Um, but even with that, um, I just knew the things that I had to do. And I went— I thought to myself, well, look, if I quit my job, if I quit personal training, what else am I going to do?

Nothing.

I don't want it. I've done retail, I've done hospitality, I've done landscaping, and I could do those to get the bills paid.

Yep.

But is it my passion? Is it my dream? No, it's not. Um, so what other options do I have left? None. The only option I have left is to go after my dream. And, and that's— that was really the shift for me. I've gone, well, Adriano, You can either crumple up in a ball and wither away and do a job that you hate, and the pain of that would be way too much for me to endure, to be honest, versus the pain and the discomfort of having to work my ass off to get clients and essentially push shit uphill to get the results that I needed to get. And I went with the option of pushing shit uphill to get the results that I needed to get, and so far so good. And I think that was more or less it. I was backed up against the wall, Richard. You know, and I— and, and, and maybe I let myself get backed up against the wall. Um, you know, but, but out of that, I, I— due to being backed up, I realized like, okay, there's, there's, there's no other option for you, man. There's not another— there's not a career path that I want to do.

And this is a great story because for anybody who's listening who's, who's tried the opening the studio up before or tried to develop a new business Failed once or twice. I mean, this is the story we're talking about here. I remember when you were in Nan's garage, you found a spot, they rejected you from a lease. And I remember that. I don't mean to pick it up on that, but it was like the worst thing in the world back then.

Look, man, it sucked. I had some money put aside. I had like $25 grand put aside for a small fit out. I was just going to essentially do what I did in my Nan's garage and slowly build it out. And then the guy didn't accept my lease terms and it was taking weeks to get back to me and it just kind of fell apart. And there was sort of no rent-free periods. There was nothing really given. And I just, I had to call it. I was like, okay, I either have to move all my clients because lockdown had ended at that stage so we could freely go into gyms.

That was lockdown 1 in Sydney. Yep.

Yes. Lockdown 1.0 in Sydney. So from like April to July or the April to August period. And so we came out of that and I was like, okay, well then my clients, then my members need to be somewhere. Let's put them into a gym for a year. And I did that. And then, yeah, again, that wave, right? I had the Christmas period and I was working really, really hard over that November, December period and then came out of that and, you know, had the lulls. And obviously that impacts your mentality as well. If you have a lull period, you can, as a business owner, you can, it is always your fault. But you can beat up on yourself quite heavily if, you know, for things that are out of your control per se.

Hmm.

You know, clients moving. I had maybe 5 or 6 clients move, which is just such a weird thing. You know, all these things happen that I would blame myself for. And I think I just put myself down. And then out of the back end of that sort of came through and again, realized exactly what I had to do. And I found that motivation again. I was like, well, look, you're here again.

And the reason why I asked you that question and brought that up is because I'm talking to anybody who's really in that position where the first time didn't work and you hear the story, try, try again. My mom used to tell me that and I thought that's just rubbish, but it really is a way where when you do understand the big picture of it, and now you recently opened up last week, so when Sydney

Monday.

Came out of lockdown October, whatever, 9th or 10th, Monday. You're 4 days into the studio at the moment. And I would say the stars have aligned. However, it's all about patience. And that was your word at the start of the year. And so it is about patience and it's about knowing when to hit the trigger and when not to hit the trigger. And you look back and you go, wow, okay, I had that time to build up. And so the patience game, I think, is very underutilized. In business. I think we always want something now because that's the gratification that we think we all can get because we know that we can get an Uber Eats straight away. Why can't we get a studio straight away? Why can't we book our clients straight away? And then that's the frustration. But it sounds to me that that's just part of the process to know that you want something really, really bad enough.

Yeah. I want it like air to breathe. There's nothing, and I say that and I'm not exaggerating. Like, I, like, I say that and I'm not exactly— every single action that I take is geared up towards the studio and the benefit of the studio. And it's going to be up to the benefit of studio 2, 3, 4, 5, and beyond. However many I decide I want the headache of, um, you know, on— that's where I'm gonna go and that's what it's gonna— that's what it's gonna do. Because that's the level of, of dedication you need. And yeah, you might not be 110% every day dedicated. Yep. You might have some days where you go to the beach and screw around and when I was growing up reading a lot of self-help books, you were always told you needed to hustle and grind every day and no days off and whatever else. And it gave me a good work ethic, but, but also, um, it gave me a lot of guilt when I did want to have fun. So I think there's— I think the patience game allows for that. I think the patience game allows for hard work and a day off whenever you need it, you know, because if you understand the patience game, which I've understood this year, changes everything because you can give yourself that space. Yeah. don't always have to be— the pressure valve doesn't have to always be turned on, you know. You can release some of that steam and you can release some of that thing, and that's going to keep you pushing forward and, and land you a studio like it's landed here.

Well, let's, uh, change gears and let's go through some real specific things for anybody who's wanting to open up a studio, um, but there's a lot of questions in their mind. These are the questions that you had over probably the last year, 2 years, especially opening up a studio, and it all kind of like Boom, boom, boom, all fit into place. And you pretty much opened up a studio, got the keys, one week studio's open, people are in there, it's all set up. And the speed that you did that was quite incredible. So let's just— I'm going to ask you a few quickfire questions, Riz, and let's get going on that. So number one is, how do you find a space when you don't have any contacts of an agent or nobody's saying, here's the space? How do you actually initially go and find— That first step of how do I find a location?

Google commercial real estate in your local area. And that's about it. commercialrealestate.com or whatever ones I browse through, essentially the top 3.

Yep. Cool. How do you know how much you can afford in rent? What went through your mind when you decided that?

Well, there may or may not be an individual living inside the studio that I have. So that factors into the rental cost because I was paying for a unit, an apartment in Cronulla essentially, and that was about $550 a week. And then I was paying for my BodyFit rent from the old gym that I was at, and that was $250 a week. So I was paying already, was it $800 a week? Yeah. And so I knew I could afford it even during lockdown. I knew I could kind of get by even at the lowest of lows that I had during the start of lockdown and the start of the year financially. Okay, well, that was shit, but it wasn't— I wasn't broke.

Okay, so you're, you're, you're looking at numbers, worst-case scenario kind of thing, best case.

Always, always. I think that's where I always have gone. Okay, so if I need to exist off rice and tuna, like, and when— and wipe my bum with leaves, you know, what, what are the costs, real costs that I have to pay, and what can I afford? Sure enough, I was, I was good by maybe $300 or $400, you know. I was just paying for everything I needed, food and that sort of stuff. And that's where I built it out from because I don't think you're ever going to get the perfect number. And I was looking for that through you, Rich. I was like, what's the right— no, no, no. You've just got to go ahead and if it sounds all right, jump in because you'll make it work because this is your home now. And the more time that you spend focused in this place, the more work you're going to generate for yourself. No question.

So good. Let's talk about fit-outs then, Riz. It's a question that keeps coming up in our Ninja group and always a fun question. I mean, you had a bit of equipment at the start. I want to touch on that. But I mean, the big question is, what does it cost to fit out a studio? And I know that question is very broad, but let's look at your example. If you can take us through how big is your space and what did you have and what didn't you have and maybe some numbers for anybody to kind of start to work on.

140 square meters is the 138 square.

Yep,

is the property. 2 levels. Um, I had bought some secondhand equipment from a friend of mine, 2 big power cells, power rack cells, um, a few other bits and bobs. And I, and I, and I kind of accrued equipment as I, as I went for the last 2 years. I knew that I wanted to open a studio, so then if I found something for cheap, I'd buy it, put it aside. $300, $400, that might save me $1,000 down the line, right? So if I, if I, if I invest in this stuff and don't sell it And in 2 or 3 years, when I maybe decide and have the motivation to open a studio, which was my end goal, I have everything that I needed. And sure enough, I did. And so I had all that money, I had some money aside. Luckily, I thought I was gonna have to pay more tax than I did this financial year. But even if I did have to pay tax, I was just going to put it into the business anyway. Yeah. So I had about $30 grand, $33 grand or something put aside for tax. Um, only had to pay like 10. And so, um, I just poured all that into the studio. And then I had some other money held up in other places, um, took all that out. And so about 40 or 50 grand, thereabouts. And as I earned money, I spent it, right? So I'm still making income, um, so I was spending that as well. Uh, so probably about 45 grand so far, maybe 46.

So tell me about the equipment then. What kind of— for 45 grand, what did that get you? Pretty

much. 3 months bond.

3 months bond.

3 months bond, 1 month rent upfront. And I also negotiated for a 1 month rent-free period. And so that's again given me an awesome leg up in terms of getting my battle chest ready. So 3 months of rent in advance.

And what was that approximate price, Riz?

What's that?

Sorry. What was the cost of 3 months upfront?

$9,000.

$9,000. Okay.

$9,000 and then the extra month and then the extra first month rent upfront. So $12,000 total. So out of that $45,000, there's $32,000.

Yep.

Okay. And then those racks, power racks, about 60 square meters of flooring, another 30 square meters of flooring, all that sort of stuff was probably in the realm of, I want to say, $2,000 there. I've got some secondhand mats. You can get some secondhand mats and they do the job just fine. They're about $10 a mat. Your brand new mats are about $30 a mat. So if you want to save costs, They can save you $60.

1-meter square mats?

Yes, correct. If you get the used ones, you'll save a lot of money, and you can replace them when you have money down the line, and you can resell them for $10 or $5 a square mat anyway. So it's a decent little, you know, it's not going to diminish too much in value, um, beyond what it's already diminished to. And then I had those racks, I had some kettlebells, some dumbbells, um, and then I spent about $17,000 on the delivery and installation of about 6 key machines. So for me, the biggest thing was having multi-purpose machines to save space, but also reduced cost. So if I bought a chest incline chest press, a shoulder press, and a flat bench press, that would cost me about— oh, I want to say about $10,000. Yeah. All of those separately. But I paid $2,200 for a multi-purpose machine, and a decent one. Um, so saving— that saved me $8,000 there. So little things like that, just being a bit smarter with my approach and my purchases along the way, um, meant that I could get absolutely everything I needed All the angles that I wanted my clients to be able to build and the variety that I wanted my clients to build their body with, but for significantly less cost. And yeah, that's sort of how I built it out.

And the big question is, do you have a calf raise machine?

Yes.

Out of the 6-piece, you got the calf raise machine.

Yeah, 1450, baby. So good.

So we're talking about around $40,000, which includes 3 months of rent, 1 month in advance, the 3-month bond, 1 month in advance, 6 key pieces of machinery, secondhand flooring, racks. How many racks you said? 2 racks. And signage as well, is in that or not?

Look, if you are getting signage, I'd recommend not getting it painted. I got a quote for painting and that was about $3,000 just for the bottom levels. So I'm going to go with a vinyl. thing. They'll do a top— they'll do a top to bottom vinyl printout if you are in the indoors. If you've got an outdoors, I'd recommend— maybe depends on where you're at, but you can get vinyl for outdoors too. But I just think it's a better cost-saving thing at the start, at least.

Very good. Thanks for sharing all those numbers. I hope that's helped, guys. I like the concept that you go with, Riz, is that you bought a bit and you knew you were opening up. So you bought in lockdowns when things are cheap and going on Gumtree. I know you drove hours to get a dumbbell rack and things like that. You hustled hard to get the equipment. Definitely.

And

I think this is a really good lesson in this is that you don't— when people look at, okay, I'm going to get a gym or a studio, I think, oh my gosh, it's going to cost me $200,000, $100,000. You are doing it You know, you're doing what you can do with what you have, and that's a really good mentality to have. Yeah, where you don't have to expect to have— okay, you've got new flooring, $30, you get it for $10. I mean, there's a saving there, right?

Yeah, right. And so I think that's, that's been how I've operated my entire life, doing the best with what I got. You know, if I get an opportunity to do something, I'm going to make the best with it if that's what I want to do. You know, if I have a mentor like yourself, man, you tell me to jump, I'm like, how high, Rich? You know, because it's, it's because I'm doing the best with what I got. I'm giving it a red-hot crack. And what's, what's the point if you're not going to have it, have a try with, with the best you've got? I know I can't afford, um, it's just me. I know I can't afford, you know, $100 grand worth of equipment. But what are the key pieces that my clients are going to need to get the most bang for buck? And then I can buy some along the way which will keep them interested and excited anyway, because I go, oh, new piece of a new machine, great, let me try that out. Riz, can we use that in our workouts? Absolutely. And every month get a new piece, talk to them as well. Hey guys, you know, I want to add a new piece of machinery to the community. What do you guys want? And they'll go, oh, Riz, I want to row. I've not been able to row. I've not been able to row. All right, sweet. I'll get you a rower, brand new. Yeah, Concept 2. How about that? Thanks, Riz. You're the best. Awesome. Right? And so things like that make a massive difference to your community, keep people interested and fresh, and it pays off if you're smart with it. You know, I think that's just a better approach than all out going the full-blown corporate and going, we're going to get brand new absolutely everything, because it's more humble beginnings. I'm a very humble person in that way, I like to think as well. I just, I like that. I think people want to support that as well. They want to see you rise up.

And let's touch on, before we leave, let's just touch on a little bit of marketing, Riz. So first of all, I don't think I even announced your business or brand. But let's give you a shout out, Riz. Just talk about your— where can people find you and sort of see your magic, what you do?

Yeah, so they can find me on rizfitness.com.au, Riz Fitness on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. So any appropriate— Yep.

Let's talk about 1 or 2 or 3 marketing tactics that you've learned in the Ninja program that are working with you on autopilot. The key kind of pieces that you use to grow your business, what are they?

Yeah, right. So I think having a firm idea of what my brand is was super important for me personally. And then having some low-level paid ads has been great because I do post a lot on Instagram. Yep. But something that you taught me that was really good was finding the right bit of content, the right copy, and then paying for $5 to probably $10 a day For that, and just keeping that on repeat year round. Because it awares. I have. I had a guy who dropped off the bin to me right for this studio. He goes, "Hey bro." I'm like, "Hey man, how are you?" Oh, just your just your new joiner. And I'm like, "Yeah." Like I didn't know him. And he goes, "I've seen you online, bro. You've got some good stuff." And I'm like, "Cheers, man." I'm like, "Where do you lift weights?" And da da. But like people, I saw a guy in a in a. I was in a corner shop. He's like, "Mate, I've seen your ads. Nice work." You know, and, and people see that stuff. They see it and it's working. And so when they— when the time comes for them to need a PT or refer a PT, well, they're going to have you front of mind, chances are, or at least closer to the line. So, so definitely that brand awareness stuff that I had no concept of. I didn't know what brand awareness was. What is it like that?

But I mean, let's talk about brand awareness for a second. I mean, brand awareness for a PT is like, well, that, that just seems like I don't need to use that.

Yeah.

Can we talk Talk on that for a second, like as a PT, a single-based PT.

Yeah,

you know, because that's something you did struggle with at the start, but you had— but you kind of didn't understand how to use it. What, what would you say to PTs in that boat?

You've got to look at yourself like a business from the outset. I looked at myself as a business inside a business. If you look at yourself as a personal trainer of a business, you're going to be— you're going to end up with some pretty short-sighted results, short-term results. If you look at yourself as a business inside a business, you're going to walk and talk like a business inside a business. You're going to, you're going to explain your point of differences. You're going to, you know, your USPs, as we put in comms, right? And so I think that's super important, understanding who you are, what you offer, and how you can help your audience. And then boiling that all down and then being able to shoot that off in a photo, you know, or shoot that off in something. So when people see that photo, they know exactly, it's very clear what you offer. who you are. And I think that's a very special thing that I didn't understand about brand because my Instagram used to just be like vomit, you know, it was just helping people with whatever tips and tricks I could give, right? And that's great and that established me as someone that's educated, but it's not the same. I started getting so many more leads and so much more interest in my business when I got clearer on my brand. It wasn't like that before. I was helping everybody and I was doing a great job, but but I wasn't clear on my brand. And the minute I got clarity on that through you guys and obviously doing the programs and doing the steps that we have to follow in the sort of, I guess, the first 4 months of the Ninjas, it got very clear for me and that translated directly into leads and then sales.

So good. So using brand, that was number 1. Number 2, running the consistent ad, the $5 theory we call it. You put $10 on, people know, like, and trust you. And what's the third point that has really helped you to continue to run consistency of your marketing?

I think, I think, I don't know what consistency of my marketing. I think something that you just taught me though was, was, was I think a better sales system. I think that really helped. You know, I think that was understanding how to talk to my clients to prep them for a sale. So it's how to market them to then prep them for a sale, you know, how to educate them to prep them for a sale. All my wording was talking about the brand and that sort of stuff would prep them for a sale. So I don't know if that's a third point at all, but that's something that definitely helped was understanding that these leads don't just sit there as leads, they need to be converted.

Yeah.

It's nice to have leads and have people want you, but you need to be able to to move them into the right spot. So you need to talk to them and prep them through your Instagram posts and through your stories for them to just easily be pushed into if they want to buy your services. That might be the fast leads formula that we do. And that sort of stuff can definitely, definitely help prep the clients. So then when they do want to jump in and you've hit them with a lot of brand awareness stuff and they know what you are, and you give them an awesome invitation an awesome offer to jump into your business.

And I remember, um, I was at— I was finishing training with you at, um, BodyFit, and you had a, a kind of consultation on the phone directly after. You went and you put yourself in a room, I think it was the back office there, and you focused. Um, I was having a protein shake, which I usually did after the sessions, and you came out 10 minutes later and you said, hey, it's, it's all closed up. And, um, that was one of the first ways that you, you moved the new style of sales for you. And to me, I just, one thing that really resonated was that the focused energy of when you're doing a task of sales or marketing or training, that's probably my final kind of question here. How do you keep the focus in all the different elements, but you focus deep and you get it done? You're not, you don't have it, like it's almost like it's, you go deep in a subject, then you move to the next thing and you can power through that.

Yep.

Is there something you can talk on that? Like, what, what is the formula around that risk to be able to go deep into something and move to the next, like sales call?

I think, I think I have a high standard of expectation on myself, and I don't think I— I don't— these days I don't bully myself if I don't nail it because I know I'm not perfect. But I think, um, I do have high standards of what I expect from myself, and I think that just really, that in itself drives me to do a better job every single time I'm doing something. So that, that, that makes me want to go deep, you know. I, if I watch some bodybuilders and they're, you know, they look amazing on stage and whatever else, and I see how they need to, they approach something mentally, how they approach a set, or how they— I go, okay, I can do that. So then I adopt that. Or if I see you making sales, or I see somebody making sales that I know, or whatever it may be, talking, I go, okay, as long as I can understand the psychology behind it I can— I like to think I can adopt it. So if another man can do it, there's something in my head that just means I need to make some small minor adjustments to understand the psychology, the why.

Yep.

And they're doing it to perfect it, and then I can do it. And I think that's just— that's what happens for me. So whether it be hopping into sales, I'll go, okay, what hat do I need to wear? Uh, the sales hat. And I just go into sales mode. Okay, how do I need to present myself? What are the questions I need to ask? What's the energy I need to bring? When I'm doing a set, I want to get bigger, my chest needs to get bigger. What's the attitude that I need to take into this set to absolutely nail it? What's the mindset shift? And I think that is what allows me to go deep and succeed because I've got high standards, but I also adopt the mindset that I need to adopt to get the job done. And that can take a complete shift, um, in, in how you're thinking and behaving.

So good. Love those strategies. This has been amazing, Riz. Uh, I love learning more about how your mind works. And well done on the studio, on the speed of the studio getting it up. And, um, it's always good When, you know, you, you have a dream and you get it done, even though it can take many years to that endpoint, that you get it done. And that's a, that's a sweet feeling there. So, so good.

Well, it's no thanks to you, my man. Uh, literally, um, I said to you a lot of times in private communications, like, you're the number one reason. You and Joey and Com overarching, but obviously I've worked very intimately with you and Joey because I trained you both. Um, You know, you guys were the catalyst for these things being able to develop and grow in such a short period of time because I implement something and then ask you questions about it, you'd answer them, and then I go implement again. And I could move frictionless and just keep getting more and more done and learn more and more about business to the point now where I have my own studio. But not only that, I've got a sales conversion system to where I know that I input $100, I get $2,000 back out. You know, I've got these systems in place that are actual numbers that I can go, okay, well, if I need more clients, all I need to do is Facebook ads and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I'll have, you know, 200 clients by the end of however long, provided I just nail these things, I'll be okay. And so you guys have single-handedly taught me and built that stuff for me. And I think that when you can get to a point where you're printing money in your business, I think you're in a very, very strong position, especially in a climate like this where we are in lockdown and Sydney are coming out of it. We are still in a pandemic. I think that's definitely a tip of the hat to you guys to come, and obviously to myself. But you know, can't have one without the other, right?

Really? Well, thank you. Appreciate that, guys. If you have enjoyed this episode, I always love to learn more of anybody. So go and check out Riz Fitness and you know wave him down and give him a shout out. And he's doing some amazing things in that. And if you've liked. This specific episode. You can also view this on YouTube if you're viewing this, listening to this on a podcast. And if you have liked this, give it a share or send it to somebody that's really going to help them. If you know someone who's opening up a studio, you can say, hey, check this out, listen to this 30 or 35-minute mark. And that's really going to help someone to, to take that next step and to take that next leap of faith. I've really enjoyed this episode, one of our first episodes of interviews, and you'll be seeing more of my kind of network coming on here and conversations that we've had with people, and I want to bring them into light with you guys so you can really get an understanding of what it takes to run a successful fitness and wellness studio or personal training business or gym. It's, it's the little details that I want you to pick up on these podcasts that will be able to transform you and your dreams of where you want to go. Thanks so much for listening in. And thank you, Riz, for sharing all your knowledge and helping other people grow.

Yeah, mate. Look, it was an awesome little interview and it's really nice to speak openly and talk about numbers and that sort of stuff, because that's what people need. That's what I would've appreciated to hear if I started, because it just gives you that little 5%, that 5% more confidence that you can do it. I think the number one thing though, as well, I forgot before we sign off, was I saw Andrew, who owns— Andrew Simmons, who owns Vision Personal Training. We had the immersion, the 2-day immersion that you guys run at COM. And what was so amazing about that was Simo brought on a photo for how— when he first started. And I finished that 2-day immersion and I realized he just had a couple of machines in a room. And I saw it. And so I could take my mind there and I've gone, if he can do that, that's what he built Vision from. 60 bloody franchises or 60 businesses in Australia. If he can do that, I can bloody do that. He didn't start with all the bells and whistles, and within a year, within six months, I did it. You know, obviously there was time preceding that, but I think having someone like you in the corner and someone that wants to help is just so invaluable. So if anyone is listening, make sure you go back on Richard's podcast and that sort of stuff and tune in to any relevant episodes because there is so many little nuggets that you can learn from. I'm in my dream now. It's taken me thirteen years to get here, but I'm here, and I will be having multiple studios across. the Sydney, New South Wales area in many years to come. So hopefully when I open my second studio, Rich, I'll be back on.

Awesome. Thanks, Riz. We'll have you back on. Thanks, team, for listening in. And, um, we'll see you next time on the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. Bye for now.

Bye.