S3 Ep 5: 3 Frameworks For Creating Quick Content That Gets Attention

This is the Marketing Muscle Up Show hosted by Richard Tutungi, where he gives you a peek behind the scenes into the conversations and strategies that can help you grow your fitness business and live the life. You've always dreamed of.

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. Welcome back. If this is your first time listening, so good to have you here. My name is Richard Turtungi, and I started off in the fitness industry just at age of seventeen, working in fitness studios, trying to figure out how to actually get people to come in the door. I had an A-frame sign. And then from there, I just wanted to understand if the A-frame sign wasn't there, how would you generate leads? And so today, 20 years down the line, we're still talking about how to generate leads. And today I've got Ev Chapman, one of our comm marketing coaches and operations manager at comm marketing. How you doing, Ev?

I'm great. How are you?

Yeah, very good. We were in a big conversation before this podcast and then I said, what are we going to talk about? And we're talking about all these different topics of marketing. And it was interesting because this season we wanted to really theme up and go deep in expertise and go deep in how we can make it easy for people, not mainly people who do marketing because, okay, just before we get started, this is what I keep hearing a little bit about, I guess. Okay. Maybe in my circle, it's like, hey guys, you need to run a studio and you need to spend all the time doing sales and doing marketing and be an expert in it and, you know, hire coaches and get out of your business. And I just think it's a lot of rubbish where, you know, you became a fitness pro for a reason, you love helping people out. And we've got a lot of, you know, great business operators that are doing their business every day, but they've simplified the game of sales and marketing a little bit.

Yeah.

And it's all about this thing called frameworks, which I know you're big on systems and frameworks.

My favorite thing. Yes.

Favorite thing. Yes. Where

does

this mentality come from? Like, you know, everything's about a system. I'm the opposite of a system. I like to just do things.

I actually think it came from my dad. So if you, if you think I Like systems a lot. You just wait to meet my dad. He would not survive here, 100%. He's, um, but I think I learned, I learned a lot from him. He's— we're very similar. Um, and he's worked as a— so he worked his way up the ranks of Grace Brothers at the time. Yep. And then Myer and became, uh, logistics manager. And so he led a lot of logistics across Myer in New South Wales. So, and I learned a lot from him about, yeah, just systems and processes and how everything runs better when there's a process. So.

Yeah, totally. I mean, it depends obviously on your job. I've got a friend who, you know, puts, he calls his job like pack, it's like Tetris kind of thing. He puts paint, plans where the containers go on ships and you've got to plan it right with weights and that kind of stuff. Otherwise, you've got big problems. Systems are good. But as fitness professionals, we go into it full out straight away and just get in there and rip it out. And, you know, doing some training, we'll take a picture of somebody, but that only lasts so long. And so, and then what happens is, you know, fitness professionals, they turn to paid ads because they just don't have the time to put into content and marketing, Instagram and We were talking about that, you know, you're growing your Twitter following and we're talking about, you know, likes and vanity metrics and how many likes do we need to get a good business. And it's interesting because we, you mentioned, but we are running, most of us, if you listen to this podcast, we work a lot with brick and mortar businesses who are running a physical location.

Yeah.

And when you're running a physical location, you're not really going big influence. So you're not going like to the world or international. You're staying, you know, in, in that proximity of $5K, $10K, maybe $15K, $20K max.

Yeah.

And so, you know, I guess this whole question about I need to get more followers and more likes to get a return investment, sometimes it's not— well, I wouldn't say sometimes, but it's not the case.

No.

What we want to talk about today is really to get the best content out with the minimum amount of time using the framework so it can go to The people directly in your area.

Yeah, I think so. And I, I think it's a good conversation around, you know, I think especially in the fitness industry, we are surrounded with a lot of influencer accounts, online trainers, and all of that kind of thing. And I think that we have to keep the mindset of the local business. We're in a local area, and there's a lot, there's a lot of actual benefit to that. You know, it like, it's, I can tell you, like we just did at our Ninja program last month, we talked about the $7 money $8 strategy. It works so well when you're, you know, you've got videos happening online, much easier for people to see you online when you're a local business and then offline when they're seeing you in the street or at the local shops or, you know, wherever it is. And so I think the We have a really unique advantage online as local businesses if we remember that we're a local business and not an influencer.

All right, that's a good one. If we remember a local business, not an influencer. That's very interesting, very interesting, very interesting. Yes, because that that that can really take us off a little bit when we're following the Instagram bandwagon, the IG bandwagon, and the influencer bandwagon. And yeah, it's a whole nother world. It's a whole nother world.

Yeah, I think so. And I think like we do, a lot of the questions that I get asked when I'm coaching people is like, okay, but you do this full time as a job, but how do I actually like get this done while I'm trying to do everything else? And I think it's a legitimate question because I don't think any of us are expecting small business owners to go full-time in content marketing and content creation. That's just not who they are.

Yeah. But I also think this industry, and I've only been working, I mean, I've worked in other industries like real estate, finance, reputation, what are the industries? Like horticultural, removalists, funerals. And I mean, okay, I just said funerals there. But when we compare— I mean, can I just go there for a second? Yeah. If we compare ourselves to people dying and removing their house, I mean, then when we compare what we have to market, at ComMarketing, we we went very broad and we narrowed it back into the approach of fitness. A few reasons. One, one of the main reasons is that, first of all, I love this industry and I think it's one of the best industries in the world because you're changing people's lives. Number 2, the content, you know, what we teach in the Ninja Program is how to do organic marketing strategies and how to make that happen. And so when you're talking to a funeral director or you're talking to a removalist, there's very little stuff you can really market well organically unless you're not running a paid lead generation ad. Now remember also too, I always say it's a need versus a want.

Yeah.

Industries and a removalist and a funeral director, who— that's a need industry where you need to do— you need an interstate removalist, you can't do it yourself, and you need a funeral director. And the thing with these 2, you know, businesses example, you need them really fast. Yeah. Super fast. Like it's an— like when someone, if someone's close to you dies, it's such a hard time because you're pushed to do all this really fast and speed is the game. And the other thing is that it's a once, it's generally a once-off experience, you know, not to say, you know, it's a once-off experience in that, you know, their free time. Where you look at fitness, on the flip side, there's a want industry. And I know what everybody's saying out there, but we're a need industry. Yeah, we're a need industry until we have cutthroat, until, you know, doctors and until governments and until everybody's saying you need to, you know, this is part of the mandatory stuff. And it's slowly, slowly reaching out, but we are a want industry. People want to get healthy and fit and they see the benefits of that. And obviously with marketing, we want to make sure that we can push down to say it's a need industry, it's need industry, and tell the benefits and things like that. Yeah. But would you agree with that, Ebony? I mean, how simple is it now to go and market, especially when you're training someone, you just finished training and you got like, oh my gosh, you've got all this content. And I think that's where a lot of people are at. Like I'm seeing a lot of videos with people doing, you know, showing people pushing a sled or inside exercising and things like that. So we can all do that. But I guess if we can make it a bit easier, how do we just take what we see every day and put it in a framework?

Yeah. I think it's a great question. And I think the problem, and I think everyone's come across this, is like, you know, your morning sessions, took a couple of videos, maybe an image, and then, you know, you moved on to your next client and then you had to you know, go to another meeting or do this or do that. And it ends up getting to the end of the day and you forgot to post something.

Yeah.

Like, yeah, it doesn't matter how kind of good you are with time management or anything like that. It's like if you are doing this kind of stuff every day, it's really, you are going to feel the grind of it. And no one wants to feel the grind when it comes to putting content out. You want to feel excited. You want to feel like This because I, you know, I think like you feel the energy of that as well. Like if you're kind of not excited about something and you're just putting it out for the sake of it, people feel that. So I think there's going to be this kind of excitement of like, yeah, I'm really excited. So, and I think Joey might have said this maybe in— there's an episode back about rainbows. Yes. That Joey— yeah. And Joey does it so well.

The rainbow came up and we were talking about, we were talking about, yeah, Joey did a great episode. We're talking about, yes, I don't know, I think it was season 2. We were talking about like, yeah.

I think we were talking about content.

Yeah. Actually, she was actually just, she was, she had this script written for those who hadn't listened to the episode. She had this script written about what I wanted to chat about the podcast. I said, Joey, this is, this is still crap. And I mean that in the nicest way. It wasn't real. And what— yes, it was real. I hate you saying that. Yes, it was real, but it wasn't in the moment. It wasn't— it didn't feel like it was today. It was like, oh, that was yesterday.

Yeah, yeah.

That makes a big difference. That's what you're saying, like, like when it's the context is now working on, um,

yeah,

happened this morning.

Exactly. Yeah. And I think— so yeah, and I think like some— sometimes we get like You know, there's definitely platforms where you have to be in the now. So like Instagram Stories, you kind of want to be posting that today. It's not, you can't really post it next week. It didn't happen next week. So there is like mediums where you're going to have to be in the moment. But I think what you want to be doing, and Joey's really good at this, is she'll just snap. She's snapping all the time. And I think that you should be doing that as well and not feeling like you have to post every single thing. But if you took time, and this is framework number 1.

Framework number 1. Yeah. Okay.

Framework 1 is that as you are going through your days, your weeks, whatever, is just start snapping images, videos, whatever it is. And don't feel like you have to post them exactly on that day, but they are now part of your bank of content. And so then once a week, you can gather all of those things that you did. So whether that's you at a training session with somebody, it could be you at the local cafe, you know, like you're drinking your coffee. So it's not just like all training stuff. I think it's, you know, we just talked about this before, is people love to see the behind the scenes stuff. You know, I follow, actually following a new trainer on Instagram. And the reason that I followed her is she You know, just watching her kind of do her weekend workout. So it's not even like with clients. It's like I just saw her. I was like, oh, that looks really interesting. It's behind the scenes or, you know, stuff like that. So I think like, think about what am I doing and is this interesting? I always say that to you, Rich. Like, will this be interesting to somebody? And you know what? I don't know why, but we're living in a world where everything is interesting at the moment.

You know, I reckon that may be one of the best pieces of advice you've given me.

Yeah.

The word, is this interesting?

Is this interesting?

When I hear that, what happens is, one, you lose comparison to anybody else. Two, you get in going, it's a big plus. So yeah, it actually is interesting. It was interesting to me. I took a picture. It was cool. And then everything is easier after that because You know that interesting stuff gets attention most of the time.

Yes. Yeah. That's it. So start snapping whatever you're doing. Ask yourself, is this interesting? Take a snap of it. Then keep that as a bank. So, you know, wherever you can dump all of those photos. So, or if it's video. So if you use— we use Trello. Everyone can dump a whole lot of stuff in. Or, you know, sometimes I just favorite it on my phone.

And also too, favorite, I've been doing like little albums. So yeah, albums everywhere. It was like a disaster. I mean, for those who don't know, I've got 52,000 photos on my phone. I don't know what you guys— if you count, you just go to your photos and see how many photos you have, but I've got 52,000. And so what I've been doing is I've been actually then, like every activity that I'll do, let's say for example, on the weekend I went bushwalking with my boys and I just put the date, FEB, and I'll put the favorite to put in there. I don't know if I'll post them or not, but I'll put it in there. Um, and you could do that, like you could put albums based on people, like your audience, like females, males training with you, clients, yourself, weekend. Because then when you won't get content, it's all in the photo. Yeah, put that in the shared album on, on, on Apple Cloud if you're using Apple. Um, or whatever that other platform is, I don't use it. And, um, Sorry. And that's a fast way to get your photos.

It's honestly the best. And if you're just a solo operator, you don't even have to worry about sharing it with other people. Just get it into albums and have it there and know that you've got this bank of content. That way, you're not thinking in the day, I don't have a photo to post. or I don't have something to post. You have a bank that you can count on. And if something happens in the day, you can always post that. That's no worries. But I think you have this bank of content. So that's kind of framework number 1. Always have, always be thinking, is this interesting? And keep a bank of photos or videos that you could use.

Right.

I think the next thing is then you have to work out, well, what is it actually that I talk about? Because photos are great and we want to show people what we do. But I think also, there's like this other level of You are an expert and you like an authority in something. And so you have to kind of show that online in some way. So some kind of— I think there's like, you know, like content that gets attention and then there's content that, you know, teaches people something or shows kind of your area of expertise. So this is how we do it here in our Ninja Program. Basically, there's usually about 4 different umbrella large kind of topic areas that people are usually passionate about. So it's kind of easy in the fitness industry. Usually, you're talking about some kind of movement, some kind of mindset, some kind of nutrition, and then maybe have like a spare one. And so we, what we do is we take these big umbrella and I've done this. I just did it last week with some of our newer ninjas, 20 minutes tops. And we ended up with over 40 different topics that somebody could talk about.

Huge.

40. Yeah. So basically, you take your umbrella topics. Let's say it was movement and then you brainstorm a whole lot of like At least minimum 10, I always say. It could be like 10 to 12. The more you have, the better obviously. Brainstorm a whole lot of topics underneath that. The best way to do this is something like 3 ways to something or how to do this. So rather than just like one word, like, you know, let's say we're talking about movement, like talking about like squats, that's a hard one to then Expand on. So it's like, you know, the 3 mistakes somebody makes when they're squatting. Or one of our, one of our new ninjas came up with a great one. She is opening a Pilates studio and she wants to talk about the 3 ways to guarantee you get up for your morning class, for your early morning class. Cool thing. Like cool topic.

Yeah.

So it's all about taking like people love how-tos. They love 3 ways to do this. They love mistakes. Anything like that. And so you want to go and you want to have your 4 umbrella topics and then you want to have at least 10 underneath. At least 10 like really kind of, you know, quite specific topics. And then suddenly, you've got— remember Framework 1, a bank of photos?

Yep.

And now, we have Framework 2, which is a bank of topics. And so when you go to actually plan your content rather than kind of do it every day, you can actually mix and match a whole lot of topics to photos. And you've suddenly got, you know, all of these different things that you can be talking about on your social media.

So good. So good. And so the topics, right? We talk about numbers and things like that. Numbers are great. Just on numbers, numbers are great because it kind of, one, it gets people to read all the way through. So, you know, 1, 2, 3, people generally want to complete items and they want to feel completed. So when they do, they go, yep, I feel complete. That was really good versus just You know, a paragraph. And so too, for the writer, it kind of helps us to stay in some kind of framework as well. Yeah.

There's a rule around— I think it's called the rule of 3s or something where, you know, people expect to have like lists of 3 things or like if you're talking about like, yeah, some kind of rule. That's very interesting. Like 2, not enough. It's not really a list. Like 2 is like if or if this or that, whereas 3 is starting to become like, oh, okay, I feel—

Yeah, the 3s or more numbers are great. Yeah, you talked about mistakes and, and things like that. Is it— are we focusing more on the context of You know, when I say context, it's like what's happening now, or is it always just something that's going to be attention-grabbing? That's what we're trying to get to here, right?

Yeah. And I, you know, I think the best— sometimes the best way I do this is I listen a lot to our clients, like, and I have opportunities to do that. And but so do— so does every fitness person. You are literally talking to your clients Every time they turn up. And so I'm listening for things like what questions are people asking? Or, you know, is somebody struggling with a certain move? Or, you know, anything like that that's happened right there in the moment, those are things that I'm then going and writing down.

Yeah. So—

Like I'm not leaving this to chance. I am writing that thing down in a notes app or wherever I can so that I can bring that up again. And so that's, I think, how you bring context to these, these bank of topics.

Yeah. So basically anything that's been interesting, you've been talking to a client, write it down somewhere really fast, convenient, your phone somewhere, so you can bring the context to like a mindset topic, you know, you might have it. And that's why that when I say context, I love to use opening lines like I was talking to a client the other day, I was saying this to a client this morning, I was outside yesterday.

Yeah.

Versus let's talk about 3 exercises.

Yes.

So you always want to bring context to the time, the flavor, the date, anything like that that brings attention to the topic and brings it to light pretty much.

I think so. And I think it does make kind of maybe a more boring post about like squat techniques a little bit more Energized and exciting because— and I think what it does is it puts us in the mindset of why is this interesting to the person who's reading this. And I think that's really, that's really important is that like squat technique is really important to you as a trainer. And it's also important to somebody who's training with you. But you need to tell them why it's important.

Okay, that's a really big one. So telling them why anything is important and why— so it's basically, this is the problem, this is why it's important. This is your problem, that's why it's important. This is the issues, this is why it's important, right?

Yeah, and I think you give that context by saying, like, for instance, like, yeah, okay, squat technique is important. Why? Well, it depends who you are. you know, I'm, I'm an office worker, I sit down all day, so why is squat technique important for me? So that I can, you know, move freely without pain, all of that. But, you know, why is squat technique important for a new mum? So they can enjoy their kids, you know, that kind of thing. So you start to add these kind of layers of, uh, of context that's like, why, why would somebody care about that? Like, it's important and we know But why is it important to that specific person?

All right. So framework 1, get photos. Framework 2, topics that come up in conversation. I think this is the easiest way to do it. Topics come up in conversation, put it in a notepad. And then obviously, you can sit down and expand if you want. But most likely, the topics that you come up in conversation will be enough anyway and you can go sit down and expand it.

Yeah.

Yeah. And then you're bringing like the fly-on-the-wall sort of scenario there. Like why is it important for your customer your avatar, your potential member that's coming into the studio, why is it important they listen to it for.

Yeah.

Um, it's the old, you know, pain— what's their pain and what's the solution kind of scenario.

It's exactly that. Yeah. So rather than just giving people information, telling them, you know, like bridging that gap between like what you know and your expertise and why that is important to somebody. And then I think like Really, then what you have is you literally have a bank of things that you always talk about. And I think one of the things that people get wrong when it comes to content is they think, I've already said that or I've already posted about that. I'm not going to do it again.

Hmm.

And that is completely wrong. I can tell you like on Facebook, about 10% of people who are following you are reading every, like are seeing that one post. So if you think that that one post going out and everyone's seeing it and they're just going to get bored if you write about that again, it's just not the case. Like just keep— you have to keep hammering it home. If you want to— if you really want people to take notice, you have to be saying it over and over again. So you don't actually need more than these 40 topics. If you just talked about these 40 topics for the next year, people would be like, oh, that person, they know everything about that. I'm going to— I'm gonna go You know, and follow them. So, but I don't think, you're not like, you're not copying and pasting. You're finding different ways to say it. And I think that's where then you can, you know, maybe have a photo with some copy and then maybe you could do an Instagram Live one time and have a bit of a longer video and kind of expand that out. Maybe you jump on the Reels. I've been jumping on the Reels lately. And you know, so you find different ways and you basically have kind of your— these are your pillar topics. They're the pillar things that you talk about. And then whatever is getting attention at that moment, you know, Reels are hot right now. They are getting thousands and thousands of views. But maybe in 6 months' time, Instagram comes out with some new thing. And so you jump on that with the topics that you talk about and the pillar things that you talk about.

Yeah, good point.

You start to develop this being known for something.

Yeah, and that's a great point to finish on, guys, is that the content is more important than where you're executing it. Where you're executing it is your short tactics. Your content, the framework for that, is your long-term play with blogs or videos or Instagram Reels or TikTok, anything like that. These are just, these are just platforms we're going to find you on.

Yeah. And that's it. That's how you do content and you do it easily. As you're in the game, you take the photos and you get, you know, kind of content stuff. Spend some time really thinking about what are the topics that I want to talk about on social media and then do that over and over again. Keep

it going, guys. And this is the thing. Keep You don't have we don't have to recreate a lot of new stuff. We just got to put the new context in it. Why is important? And there's always new clients, different results. And what we want to do is is you know and this kind of sums up what we're talking at the start is that stay being an amazing fitness professional.

Yep.

And use what happens in the day to put into your plan on socials. And one of our clients, Riz, he's been on this podcast before. You know, he's down now to, I think, around a total of 30 minutes a week to get all his content sorted now. Yeah, got the framework in place. And sometimes you don't need a whole day to do the framework. You just— it happens all day long, every day.

Yeah, I call it like, it's like the light touch. So if all day you're kind of like looking for things, then that way when you get to Doing your content once a week, it's not a heavy lift because you have everything. So you just like light touch everything during the week and then you're just like, yeah, I'm like flowing into this.

It's like, yeah, just don't leave it too long. It's like going to a dentist for a long time. Don't leave the content too long. Do it regularly. Becomes part of the flow. Yeah.

Awesome.

Good stuff, guys. If you enjoyed that, if you want to get more of this stuff, There's a free Facebook group, Ev, we have.

Yep.

Um, it's called Crush Your Fitness Marketing. If you haven't yet joined it, I— and if you're still here at the end of the podcast here, I'd recommend you doing so. We give like really simple, no BS, uh, fast lead generation strategies, and it's free, which is great. Yeah, so jump into there. And, um, we've also got a very cool PDF in that And talking about frameworks, there's a PDF there that really shows you how to generate organic leads following this 30-day process.

Yep.

Um, and so you can try that out as well. That's inside the group Crush Your Fitness Marketing. So check that out if you haven't already, guys.

Yeah, the Lead Gainer Playbook. It's hot at the moment.

Hot topic. Everybody's talking about it, guys. Enjoy this episode. If you found some value in it, just share it out. And so, yep, I want to share it. And if you— for those who do have been listening for a while and it is early in the season and really want to get things sorted 2022, if you listen to this now or any time later, we've got a program called the Marketing Ninjas. And it started off by— it started about 6 years ago now because you found that you have to be a marketing ninja in this day of marketing. So the name just stuck. And so if you do want to be a little marketing ninja, you don't have to rely on agencies and overpriced agencies that give you a report once a month, or you don't have to rely on being a YouTube university and try to figure that out. I mean, that's just a hellhole in itself. Or just try to be in— We've both done that. It doesn't work. Just try to be in like, you know, a lot of different groups, you know, you pay a few dollars here and there if you really want to grow your business and You want a high-touch program that's going to show you exactly, exactly what to do with your business, I would just say jump on our website, ComMarketing, and just book in for a Marketing Muscle Up. And you can check out what Ninjas is about and apply and, you know, see if you're successful for your area.

Yeah, we'd love to have you.

Awesome, guys. Catch you next time on the Marketing Muscle Up podcast show. Bye for now.