WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.480 I'm not everyone happy Wednesday. Hope you guys are having a phenomenal week. I'm coming to you from 2 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:11.840 downtown, actually not downtown. We're actually like in a suburb of Austin Club BK. It's very nice. 3 00:00:11.840 --> 00:00:17.680 Anyways, I have not been making as much content recently. That's because we have a lot of huge 4 00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:21.520 things that are going on the line of the scenes. And usually when my attention is occupied by that, 5 00:00:21.520 --> 00:00:26.320 I don't think as creatively. That being said, I also have this big rule where I'm not going to 6 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:33.600 talk to you if I don't have anything that I think is worth your attention. So with that being 7 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:38.080 said, today I wanted to bring up something that I think will provide massive value for you. 8 00:00:38.080 --> 00:00:43.440 And it's one of the hardest habits that I've ever had to break. And I still struggle with it. 9 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:48.400 And it's, which is why I called this why talking to your customers is losing your money. 10 00:00:48.400 --> 00:00:53.760 So a lot of people and the people and like this is like the hardest thing in the entire 11 00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:58.640 role is that whenever I have a huge to-do list, I look at my to-do list and part of me just 12 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:02.400 wants to reach out to people who are in our group and just say like, hey, how's everything going? 13 00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:07.280 Just checking in. Hope, you know, hope everything's going well, right? And I know that you probably 14 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:12.240 have this have it too, right? I mean, maybe, maybe you don't, maybe you're like screw them all. But 15 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:18.160 I have this huge, huge is that like I love talking to your homeowners like I am a gym owner. 16 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:23.360 Like they're like y'all are my people, you know what I mean? And so it is the single 17 00:01:23.360 --> 00:01:30.080 biggest attention and time suck that I have. And I would posit that if you do this, 18 00:01:30.960 --> 00:01:35.280 it's probably the biggest time suck that you have or productivity killer. Like if you have 19 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:39.280 stuff that you need to do, then you're like, you know what? This is like, and like the thing is 20 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:42.640 is we tell ourselves we're like, yeah, this is super productive. Like I'm checking in, I'm providing 21 00:01:42.720 --> 00:01:47.520 wool class service. Like I'm showing that I'm the owner who cares who reaches out individually. 22 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:52.720 Yeah, it's retarded. That's just not true. I mean, it's true that you care. But if you really 23 00:01:52.720 --> 00:01:57.440 cared, then you'd be taking your time to to scale yourself and be productive and help on a much larger 24 00:01:57.440 --> 00:02:03.680 scale. And so the reason I said that why talking to your customers is losing money rather than 25 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:08.320 why listening to your customers is losing money is because most of us do that. We talk to our 26 00:02:08.320 --> 00:02:12.080 customers and then they're like, yeah, everything's going great. Thanks so much. And so we get this 27 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:16.400 little dopamine hit. We're like, yeah, we're good. This person's happy. I feel great. You know, 28 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:19.680 we only talk to our favorite customers because we know it's going to be good, right? You don't 29 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:24.720 reach out to the crappy customers, right? It's like, you just focus on the ones who you know are 30 00:02:24.720 --> 00:02:29.040 totally drinking the Kool-Aid. I do this. All right. Like it is literally the hardest thing that I've 31 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:33.280 had to break. Because when I have a huge list of stuff to do, I'd so much rather just message Josh 32 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:38.160 Ponte and be like, hey man, how's life? It's like, it's awesome. You know, Chris Brennan has 33 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:41.680 life. He's like, it's great. We just did an extra 30 grand this month. Like on top of 34 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:46.560 our normal revenue. Like awesome. Like I love hearing it. The thing is that it does not make me 35 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:50.800 more money and it doesn't help me help more gyms. And so if you were doing this, you were hurting 36 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:54.880 yourself. So don't do it. Now you're like, well, don't do that. Well, thanks Alex. Appreciate that. 37 00:02:54.880 --> 00:02:59.040 So here's some of the things that I did. I have done to actively try and protect myself against 38 00:02:59.040 --> 00:03:04.320 this habit that is totally self sabotage. So if you have trainers and they do this, 39 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:10.320 like unless it is part of their role, they're doing the same thing. And so I want to be clear here, 40 00:03:10.320 --> 00:03:14.000 having amazing customer services is incredibly important. But having structure around that service 41 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.240 and having structure on those communication cycles is what will make it scalable, systemizable, 42 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:22.880 trackable and actually make it a business. Whereas if you're just randomly reaching out when you're 43 00:03:22.880 --> 00:03:27.600 when you have a to-do list that you don't feel like doing, right? You're opening up a communication 44 00:03:27.600 --> 00:03:31.200 line that really shouldn't be there. Now these people will reach out to you and they really shouldn't. 45 00:03:32.160 --> 00:03:35.520 And then that's why you messaged that person one day and then two days later, they messaged 46 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:38.880 you back about something that's really a customer service issue and you should be like, well, 47 00:03:38.880 --> 00:03:42.800 go talk to someone. So but now you're a dick, right? And so now you've opened up this communication 48 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:46.880 cycle that really shouldn't be there. So here's some of the things that I've done that massively 49 00:03:46.880 --> 00:03:51.440 ob me out. So here's three things. First thing is that before I had an assistant, 50 00:03:52.320 --> 00:03:57.840 I told my head trainer, I'd say, hey, listen, when people message me, I'm going to say that you're on 51 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:06.640 my Facebook and we say, hey, you know, it's it's you know, it's Anthony, whatever. Alex, Alex 52 00:04:06.640 --> 00:04:10.720 actually doesn't check his social, you know, stuff anymore because he decided it was like a really 53 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:15.520 big time-sack for him so you could focus on the business work, right? And I started saying this 54 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:20.160 before I had the set and I let's say it actually does manage my social accounts and so she really 55 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:23.920 does. So if you guys have message me and it's like, hey, thanks so much for messaging. This is 56 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:28.080 the set. I will definitely pass this on to Alex or we're more realistic. She says, that's really a 57 00:04:28.080 --> 00:04:31.360 customer service issue or that's really a billing issue or that's a really attack issue. Let me 58 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:35.200 route you to the correct person. That's what she does. And the same thing is if you have leads or 59 00:04:35.200 --> 00:04:39.440 things like that, that message, I have gym owners that message me all the time for friends of friends 60 00:04:39.440 --> 00:04:43.760 who are like, hey, you know, like, or I have a gym owner who will route me route me into a three-way 61 00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:47.680 conversation. I can't that's like, we have a process in place for that. You know, I'm going to, 62 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:51.440 I can't like, hey, can I have 10 minutes of your time so I can talk to you, like, no, I don't leave 63 00:04:51.520 --> 00:04:54.320 eight persons in a state and like, you can talk to them because if I, if I hopped on the phone 64 00:04:54.320 --> 00:04:58.240 for every person interested, then we wouldn't have a business, right? And so you have to discipline 65 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:01.600 yourself because like, part of you's like, man, sure, like, let me hop on the phone. I love talking 66 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:06.000 to like, you know, potentially new customers. This is great. But it's a waste of your time, right? 67 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.920 It's going to lose you money in the long run. So break that habit. So first one is have a fake 68 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:15.680 assistant. And so you have a real assistant. Real quick, guys, you guys already know that I don't 69 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.920 run any ads on this and I don't sell anything. And so the only ask that I can ever have 70 00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:23.600 you guys that you help me spread the words we can out more entrepreneurs, make more money, 71 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:27.680 feed their families, make better products, and have better experiences for their employees 72 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:33.040 and customers. And the only way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast. 73 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:36.800 So the single thing that I have to do is you can just leave a review, but take 10 seconds or one 74 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:40.880 type of the thumb. It means the absolute will to me and more importantly, it may change the world 75 00:05:40.880 --> 00:05:46.800 for someone else. And when you have the real assistant, they can do that. But in the meanwhile, 76 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:50.880 you can wrap them correctly and you can give amazing world class service through the guys of 77 00:05:50.880 --> 00:05:55.120 someone else. So you can be like, absolutely, what else can I take care of for you today? 78 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:59.120 Like you can just have like amazing people like, wow, Lesette is amazing, right? 79 00:06:00.400 --> 00:06:06.320 So use that. It will really help you. All right. The second thing is I would 100% 80 00:06:06.320 --> 00:06:10.960 I don't have the Facebook app on my phone. Okay. So you're like, hold on Alex, like because 81 00:06:10.960 --> 00:06:15.120 everyone here has tried to down to uninstall the Facebook app and then they reinstall it. 82 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:19.040 All right. Like who's done that? Everyone has, right? So this is the work around that I have 83 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:22.560 figured out because we obviously have a ton of people who engage with us on Facebook, 84 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:27.920 that's where our groups are, et cetera. So what I have done is I take the app off my phone, 85 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:32.560 but I allow myself to do it through like Safari because I have an iPhone. So like just through the 86 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:37.040 internet app. And what you will find is that if you go to Facebook through the internet app, 87 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:42.320 it sucks. And so you won't stay there. Like it's literally miserable. Like you have to refresh it 88 00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:46.800 costs like it doesn't suffer a fresh. So you have to go to the top, hit refresh and then it refreshes 89 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:51.680 it. And then like half the time when you hit reply on messages, it doesn't work. And they do this 90 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:55.760 on purpose as they watch you in the app, right? But you can use the fact that it's not as efficient 91 00:06:55.760 --> 00:06:59.680 because what it does is it doesn't have all these dopamine triggers that the app does. If I turn 92 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:03.680 the app on within like literally 24 hours, all I'm doing is freaking refreshing it, right? Because 93 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:08.160 I'm a human and like I respond to dopamine just like everyone else does, right? And so I can 94 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:12.240 either try and like discipline myself to not respond to that, which takes a lot of attention. 95 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:17.120 Or just don't install it and then have the internet just go through the internet to get there. 96 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:21.520 And that way you can go in, get in and out, check your notifications, be done with it. 97 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:27.040 That being said, number one hack on Facebook, never ever look at your newsfeed. Just don't do it. 98 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:31.600 Never look at your newsfeed. There's no point. Just check your notifications and be gone. Like your 99 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:37.680 notifications, just your inbox. Once you've like scanned it, get off of Facebook, okay? So first 100 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:42.560 thing, have your fake admin until you have a real admin. Second thing and give them more class 101 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:47.760 service when some people message you in on that. Second thing, uninstall the Facebook app and 102 00:07:47.760 --> 00:07:51.760 access it through the internet on your phone. That'll get you to not be addicted to it, but it'll 103 00:07:51.760 --> 00:07:57.040 still help you handle your customers. Third, which is really the real first thing is don't reach out 104 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:00.320 to your customers to just talk to them because you have other stuff that you need to be doing. 105 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:03.840 Because you want to feel like you're giving more class service because you are not doing 106 00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:08.160 that. You were just servicing them by not building the business that you should be doing with that 107 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:12.400 time. All right, so do not fool yourself. You are not helping them. You're not helping the 108 00:08:12.400 --> 00:08:16.720 business. All you're doing is opening up communication cycles that shouldn't be there and that 109 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:20.000 they start going straight to the owner for things that really should be handled by your trainer 110 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.240 or by your coaches or by your retention manager or by front desk or billing or whatever, right? 111 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:29.520 So don't do that. And then the last thing, and this is like super, you know, if this is a college 112 00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:34.800 class, this would be like 506W, like the second level or third level. One of the biggest breakthroughs 113 00:08:34.800 --> 00:08:41.680 that I had in business ever was the moment I said, when you hire your first admin, so for some 114 00:08:41.680 --> 00:08:45.520 of you guys, it might be your operations manager who will start as an admin and then ascend up to 115 00:08:45.520 --> 00:08:48.320 an operations manager. And then you'll probably get hired admin just for yourself. 116 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:55.040 Is that I gave them my phone. I literally gave it to them. I was like, you aren't I working for 117 00:08:55.040 --> 00:08:59.280 me. I was like, this is my phone. I mean, I was like, you can look in wherever you want. 118 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:06.960 And they were like, I mean, I didn't give anyone my number, like my parents made appointments to 119 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:11.200 talk to me. Like I'm being very real with you. And it was because I wanted to put a huge wall 120 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:16.240 between me and the world so that I could focus, right? And maybe I'm just more ADD than ever. 121 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:21.840 I have no idea. I'm sure some of you guys are very ADD too. But for me, that was the single greatest 122 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:25.680 leap that I had in productivity and being able to get things done and move the business forward 123 00:09:25.680 --> 00:09:30.240 was the moment that I disconnected myself. And obviously you can't do that tomorrow sometimes. 124 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:35.760 But the moment you can do it, that was the biggest thing that that broke me free from the talking 125 00:09:35.760 --> 00:09:39.840 to customers from having like my cell phone available to everyone, which I know that a lot of 126 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:44.160 you guys have that situation because you started with your OGs and there was only 60 of them. 127 00:09:44.160 --> 00:09:47.200 And you wanted to take care of them all personally, because that was the hard and sold 128 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:52.960 the business. The reality is that like, shit's changed. You know, like you have a business now. 129 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:58.160 Or at least if you want a business, they can all have yourself on them. And so that needs to get 130 00:09:58.160 --> 00:10:02.080 passed on to someone. And then when they're like, wait, this isn't his, you know, Alex is nobody 131 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:08.160 be like, no, unfortunately, like Alex realized he was doing everyone to service because all he was 132 00:10:08.160 --> 00:10:12.240 doing all day was texting people from like morning until evening. And he actually wasn't getting 133 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:17.840 like the real things that you guys need done. And so as a favor to everyone, he's disconnected 134 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:21.520 himself and actually put someone you can give real attention to it and not be distracted. And so 135 00:10:21.520 --> 00:10:25.520 that way you won't sound like a dick, but you are also being truthful, which is that's why you did 136 00:10:25.520 --> 00:10:30.080 it. So anyways, number one time, second, the entire one from our Twitter, don't just talk to your 137 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:34.160 customers. It is a huge waste of your time and you're just doing it because it feels good. 138 00:10:35.280 --> 00:10:39.600 So stop doing that. Uninstall Facebook on your phone. And then if you can, 139 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:45.040 give this to your admin and then get a new phone and don't give the number to people. 140 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:49.920 I mean, look, like don't give the number to people. Like I think it literally it's like maybe nine 141 00:10:49.920 --> 00:10:54.800 months for me to give my mother my phone number. And I know some of you guys are like, wow, that's 142 00:10:54.800 --> 00:11:01.600 really hardless. It's not because my mother texted for a long time who texted me all day long 143 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:08.160 despite what I would say. And so I had to make a clear statement. I was like, you can't do this. 144 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:13.600 Like you have access to me. You can't abuse it. And it took a really long time for her to get that. 145 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:20.240 And she recently understood it and then it's why she has my cell phone number. And she understands 146 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:25.680 that she can't abuse that. Right. So anyways, once you guys know, it is the number one thing the 147 00:11:25.680 --> 00:11:29.760 world that I have struggled with. And I hope that the things that I give you will help make you 148 00:11:29.760 --> 00:11:34.880 some more dollars. And if you have trainers who fall into the same trap, tag them in it. 149 00:11:34.880 --> 00:11:39.200 Shoot your like to the other gym members will see that you're not a bad person if you don't 150 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:43.520 actively Facebook message everyone back in five seconds because they shouldn't be messages. 151 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:47.440 All right. Lots of love. Have an awesome update and I'll catch you guys soon.