The FITSPRO Podcast

How to build you offer pyramid

Today I want talk about something that was a mistake for me in the beginning. And it is a mistake that I see a lot of online coaches make.

I think that they make this mistake because they see everyone else doing it, and they view those people as successful, so they copy what they are doing.

The issue that I’m talking about in today's episode is not paying attention to the order of their product creation, or services that they offer. And more often than not, creating too many products, or products that compete with one another. So, I have heard this referred to as your offer suit but I like to call it a PYRAMID. What does your company offer? What are your services?

I narrowed this issue down to the order in which you create your offers because I think there is a way to roll out and develop offers efficiently and A LOT of ways to do it inefficiently. From my observations in this field, and from my personal experience, the latter seems to be more popular.

Whether you have offers available right now or you are still in the dream phase, this is going to be a valuable podcast episode for you. You will either stop where you are and reevaluate what you’re doing, or you will start in a much better place then you might have otherwise.

Before we dive in I should tell you what the end goal of an offer suite or pyramid is for me and what I think does well in the health and fitness industry, in the online space that is.

When it is all said and done, it would look something like this:

Your offer pyramid

You have an opt-in of some kind. Some way for you to collect emails of potential clients in return for providing them with some sort of value. See episode #29 for how you can start building your email list.

You collect emails via your freebie or incentive to join a waitlist.

Then you have your low ticket offer - this can be used as incentive or a FREEBIE when someone pays in full for your high ticket offers. It can be used in bundles, and is great for sprint sales like Black Friday, or your birthday. This is a great way for cold leads to become warm leads and get a taste of what you have to offer them.

After low ticket, we have mid-ticket. This does not compete with your high ticket offer. That is a mistake I see all too often. It should be clearly different than your high ticket offer.

For example, I have Instagram 101 and Power hours as mid price products that can lead to or be bundled with my high ticket offer that is FitsPRO Foundations.

On the fitness side, I have a freebie which is my 3 Day Mobility and Core - which are pulled directly out of Built By Annie, this gets people on the Built By Annie waitlist.

Then I have my low ticket offer of the Big Lift Audit which can be used on sprint sales or sent out as a freebie when someone enrolls in BBA. 

Next I have my mid-ticket price with lower commitment membership in Built By Annie (this is a highly automated year long membership but is not personalized) and then my high ticket, higher touch offer of 1:1 training.

You see the pyramid?

How I Chose What Mastermind To Invest In

Today’s episode is from my recent experience in choosing between two mastermind options.

I am a pretty intuitive person, and I’m also rather particular. I am a questionnaire, and it’s hard for me to trust people or things or products, but once I trust them I am extremely loyal.

That is just some background on me so you know who is behind this decision making process. You might be completely different, and I think it’s important for you to know what type of decision maker you are so that you can make the best decisions for yourself right?

There are three things I believe you need to consider FOR SURE when you're looking to join a mastermind, enroll in a course or hire a coach.

I go deep into each of these topics and why I chose which mastermind to ultimately invest in in today's episode.

Trust me, you want the full story on each of my options. It will NOT be a waste of your time. Learn from my experience friend, PUH-LEASE.

Here are my suggestions to you.

Non-negotiables

Have your non-negotiables laid out before you even start searching.

What are 2-3 things you NEED to have in this course, mastermind or coach for your business and life RIGHT NOW. Just because you love a coach, or the thought of a certain program, that DOES NOT mean it is a good fit right NOW. You will join many course and hire multiple coaches in your entrepreneurial journey. Be wise in which ones you invest in. Timing matters.

Once you have those laid out, you'll be less wooed by fancy sales pages and promises that don't ACTUALLY apply to what you NEED. You feel me?

is the value clear?

If you can't see the value, understand the promise, or see what it is that you're ACTUALLY getting out of this experience, for the love of all things holy run in the other direction.

In my opinion "value" can be both tactical strategies, workbooks, coaching calls, as well as EMOTIONAL value. Tell me what I will feel like at the end of this six weeks, or six months. Will I be less stressed? Have more space? Feel more aligned? Right? All of that is VALUE. But if those things aren't clearly laid out, PEACE SON. I'm out.

do you like them?

Straight up, you need to like the human running the show. For me personally, if I don't feel like I would willingly sit down and chat over a cup of coffee with the mastermind host, I am not signing up.

And I need to feel that it would be mutual. You should feel like the mastermind host is speaking DIRECTLY TO YOU & YOUR SOUL. If you feel that, then it is probably a good fit.

The key here is that ALL of these have to be in alignment. Investing in a mastermind, a course or a coach is a big deal. Let's be honest.

If you have your non-negotiables clearly laid out, you see the value and the value involves your non-negotiables, and you genuinely like the human, then it's probs a HELL YES.

But if one of those is off, there is likely a different coach, or mastermind or course that is better to suit your needs. Be patient and find your people.

Tune into episode 30 for a fun little story to back up this logic. See you there!

If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to itunes, subscribe, rate and review the show.

In today's episode, we talk about how to build your email list.

You have options here. And here’s the deal, I want to talk about building a mailing list specifically because I see this phenomenon (on Instagram) where entrepreneurs are neglecting their emails lists.

While you are likely going to have success making money from selling your product or service from Instagram and or a social media platform, it is far more important for you to be building an email list.

Email is not dead

And email is almost guaranteed to outlast any social media platform. Marie Forleo is the queen of email marketing, along with Jenna Kutcher and Jules Solomon. All of those ladies teach on the premises of what happens if a Instagram goes away tomorrow? What happens if Facebook disappears tomorrow what happens if during your lunch, one of those platforms is down and you were planning on making thousands of dollars from that platform?

And my answer would be, well all of my scheduled emails are still going to go out to my warmest leads.

I want that to be your answer as well.

You don’t control social media

Which is why people tend to freak out when there is a new algorithm or something of the sort that is out of their control and might affect their exposure or revenue. I don’t want to be in that spot, and I don’t want you to be in that spot. What you do have control over is email.

Now, things can still be out of your control with in the email world. But there are far less variables going on there. 

People choose to give you their email address in exchange for something, which is what we’re going to dive into today. And then that person gets put on some sort of a list. You email that list like you said you would.

It’s really that simple. Which is why if you are not building an email list, it is something that you should be highly considering now.

Email list building can be overwhelming

When I started I was super overwhelmed with building an email list and it is still one of my top goals this year, to really hone in on that.

I mean email marketing is literally someone’s full-time job, right? Like, you could go all in and spend all of your time creating elaborate email drip’s, and opt ins, and pop-up sign-up forms on your site, and while all of that is very effective, today I want to give you some tools to just start.

I was given way too much information in the beginning and it was so overwhelming that I was paralyzed and I couldn’t decide what I needed to do to get people to sign up.

So, I started a blog which is completely unnecessary to build an email list and it’s a lot of work to have a blog. I keep up with that blog now, and I enjoy doing it, but YOU DO NOT NEED A BLOG (likely not anyway).

Do you need a blog? Are you wanting to be a blogger? If not, don’t start a blog. To be good at blogging takes a lot of time and effort, which is not necessary for you to make money if you are wanting to make money. Having a blog is also not necessary for you to build an email list. So let’s dive into what is necessary for you to build an email list and three ways that you can choose from and or play with to start building that email list.

how to start

You need a two thinks to get started. A email marketing platform like:

Mailchimp, convertkit,

Being a female strength coach in a male dominated field - part 2

This is a follow up from episode 27 - being a female strength coach in a male dominated field. And I did a follow up because after that podcast, I had a lot of awesome conversation with some of you via my DMs over the gram. And a few common themes kept surfacing so I thought it was worth it to touch on those today.

This is a much shorter episode than the last one mainly because the ground has been laid.

So if you haven’t, go check out episode #27 and then come back and listen to this one.

Alright - today I want to give you some practical tools + clear the air on and maybe reiterate some things from episode 27.

NUMBER 1

Number one might be seen as a bit ironic, but my first pointer for you is to stop focusing so much on the fact that you’re a freaking female.

Yes you're a female strength coach. But you're also just a strength a coach!

In episode 27 when I mentioned that my certification says, "certified strength and conditioning specialist", it does not say "FEMALE certified strength and conditioning specialist." This is the idea I was getting at.

I think we put too much weight on the “being a female” part of being a female strength coach.

I had a conversation the other day with a male actually. About all of the women strength summits that are coming up. And while the intent behind those is good, and I support those, and I go to those, and I want to go to those; I do think that if women are wanting to be held in the same regard and with the same respect as men in this field that we need more of an integration rather than a segregation. 

And that isn’t to discount any of the women only strength summit‘s that are happening. It was just a conversation that I thought was interesting and I thought I would share that point with you guys.

If we want respect where the men are and we want to be seen as equal, then we need to be where the men are and where the industry leaders are in someway shape or form. Whether that’s with conversing with male colleagues or speaking at “normal” conferences, not women only conferences. It can look a lot of different ways.

So, of course that all depends on where you are at, what impact do you want to have on the industry, and what your personal desires are, but I thought that it was worth bringing up in this conversation.

Moving on,

NUMBER 2

Everyone sees the world through their own set of lenses.

You are not in control of that. You ARE in control of your own. And that should be both freeing and empowering to you. Right?

You get to decide how you see things. If you’re looking for negative, there’s a 100% chance you’ll find it. If you’re looking for opportunity and positivity, there’s 100% chance you’ll EITHER find it or make it for yourself. That’s what I’m getting at with the lens conversation. And that goes for life, as well as the world of strength and conditioning or any male dominated field.

NUMBER 3

Even with accepting that everyone sees the world through their own lenses and that’s not in your control, it is also wise, I think, to expect shit to happen.

I’m a bit of a realist when it comes to this. People are broken, and flawed, and some are just straight assholes right? To expect that everyone is going to play nice is just ignorant in...

Let's talk about how to find success as a female strength coach in an industry dominated by males shall we?

I lay it all out in episode 27 fam.

You might not like some of what I have to say. Maybe you will. Either way, this is JUST MY OPINION and speaking from MY EXPERIENCE. Everyone's perspective will always be skewed by their experiences right? That is part of human nature.

With that said, I do sincerely hope you find the episode enlightening and encouraging.

For all my female strength coaches, I cover scenarios and topics like:

* WHEN I realized this was indeed a male dominated field.* How what you wear DOES MATTER, why it matters, and what attire I suggest in a strength and conditioning setting.* How to not be seen as "one of the guys" rather for your value as a strength and conditioning coach, PERIOD. One who simply happens to be a female.* What to do when an athlete test the boundaries or your authority.* How and why I think a thick skin is something more women need in this field.* And why learning to take things with a grain of salt will serve you well as a female in this industry. AND how that does not mean that you have to take shit from ANYONE. Don't get it twisted.

This might be my longest podcast yet. Partially because it is a controversial and touchy topic. I make clear that everyone's experience is different; and that you are entitled to your opinions.

I just also encourage you take control and own your value in this space. Because you ARE valuable. Your cert doesn't say "FEMALE Strength & Conditioning Specialist." It just says, "Strength & Conditioning Specialist."

I hope you enjoy this one. It was a fun one to record and a slightly terrifying one to put into the world. But here we are.

If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to itunes, subscribe, rate and review the show. It means the world to me when you spread my message to more humans.

Want more podcasts? Click here to skim the archives.

P.S. Save this value packed episode for later over on pinterest!

How to deal with unruly clients

I want to start off by saying that this was a suggested it podcast topic. And at first I rolled my eyes at it. Because I no longer have these or have to deal with them. But then thought back to the time in my business when I did have to deal with this type of client.

Today is where I share what I did in my business in order to weed out unruly clients.

First off, you need to take responsibility for that type of client being attracted to you, and you allowing them to purchase your program or enroll in your course. Because you are ultimately in control, or you can be in control over who you work with as a coach.

So if you were unaware of that until this moment, as a trainer please know that there are ways that you can control who works with you and who you filter out of working with you.

Now in today's episode, we cover two kinds of topics in regards to these unruly clients. And I guess I am defining an unruly client as anyone you don’t want to work with and is a pain in your ass as a trainer. And mind you that doesn’t mean it’s a them thing or a you thing. It just means that you weren’t a good fit for one another but somehow they were still able to sign up for and enroll in your program. Which is what we’re going to fix for you today.

After this podcast there should be no more unruly clients for you. But if someone happens to fake their way into your program, and they shouldn’t be there or it’s not a good fit, I am also going to give you tools and tactics to break that relationship so that it’s a win-win for both of you.

Again, this is not about someone being a BAD client, or you being a BAD trainer. It’s about client and trainer not being a good fit for one another.

Scenario number one is the fact that the person got into training with you and they shouldn’t have.

Scenario number two is how to ensure this doesn't happen.

The solutions we cover in this episode are pulled from FitsPRO foundations, because we want our programming to be a win-win for us and for the client. And having unruly clients is just really not winning for anyone.

And I feel like this is most common with new coaches or people just starting out. You need money and want experience. And to be frank, there may be a level of desperation there as well. So you take anyone and everyone as a client. I did it. Most people I know did it. And all of us will tell you right now, it’s literally not worth it. Trust me, you REALLY don’t need experience working with people you don’t want to work with.

But I encourage those of you coaches early in your careers to be patient. Get clear on your ideal client and the specific niche that you help, get clear on your website or sales page copy, and implement an application process NOW, in the beginning.

Everyone is not a good fit for you, and you are not a good fit for everyone.

Be sure to tune in and listen to this episode. Take notes, and USE the knowledge and experience I am throwing down. Even if you don't have or haven't had "unruly" clients, these tactics and systems will be helpful to you.

Hopefully by implementing what you learn today, you’ll be able to weed out those potentially unruly clients and attract more of your dream clients.

If you don’t know, or haven’t downloaded it already, I have an ideal client avatar creator which we use inside

How to be good at programming part 2

I for one understand how hard and overwhelming it can be write programs.

So, for those of you who feel like you don’t know where to start or you can’t comprehend how easy it is for other trainers, remember that we all likely felt that same way.

We all had a “first” program. We all felt like there were 3 million exercises and 200,000 rep schemes and somehow we were supposed to know which five of the 3 million exercises would work and what rep schemes would get us where we wanted.

I just want you to know that while I consider myself an expert at writing programs, and LOVE doing it now, there was once a time when I stood in my professors office with a blank piece of paper and nothing but questions because I could not for the life of me start my program design.

I said to him, "I just want an equation, axb gives you c results." One way for everything. And he said what he thought would be helpful but just solidified my point of struggle. He said that he could ask 25 of us to write a program to improve his back squat or vertical jump; and all 25 programs would be completely different, but they would get him the same result...

Yeah, NOT HELPFUL. It was supposed to be freeing to me, but it wasn’t. Like I said, it just confirmed to me that there were 3 million combinations. And I was stuck in choosing the RIGHT one. But fam, there isn’t a RIGHT one.

There is however some basics that can help ground you when starting out. And that’s what I’m sharing with you today.

We’ll jump into your program skeleton, exercise selection and some info on sets and reps. I hope to provide a framework in the very least, so you have something to focus on besides a blank slate and endless options.

To keep it simple this episode is for a strength training program, not crossfit where you’re focusing on specific energy systems on a day to day basis, or you should be anyway. This is for those of you who are looking to improve things like strength, hypertrophy, power and mobility. Maybe even correct imbalances and things like that. So if that’s you, If that’s your style of training, let’s do this.

First up, you have your programs skeleton right? These are your plug and chug components. Nearly every workout will have these.

We touch on each of the following inside the episode: warm up, movement prep, power lift, main lift, compound accessory, single joint accessory, cool down or whatever you need.

That’s your skeleton for now.

Then we have sets and reps + exercise selection right? So that’s what we’ll dive into next.

You need to understand movements in categories before we go plucking from the exercise tree.

You have:

Squats (knee dominant movements)

Hinges (hip dominant movements)

Vertical pushes 

Vertical pulls

* strict press, push press, pull ups, lat pull downs, high pulls

Horizontal pushes 

Horizontal pulls

* bench press, push ups, bent over rows, seated rows, inverted rows.

Carries (overhead, single arm, normal etc)

Antirotational core work

Rotational core work

And then within all those squat, hinge pushes and pulls we have single limb work right? But those are the basics and if you grasp that categorization and know how to tell what category and exercise...

How to be good at programming Part 1

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve received DMs on Instagram from coaches asking how to get good at programming or what my favorite go to books are for writing programs.

It’s funny because there isn’t a book that teaches you how to program fam. There are books that include programs, sure. But programming as a whole is so freaking broad and complex, I think it’s darn near impossible to create a book on quote unquote “program design.”

And for the sake of this conversation I am strictly talking about designing programs for weight training & strength training, so barbells, dumbbells machines and body weight exercises are all included in that.

Today I’m going to cover what I think makes me, and other professionals experts at designing programs, and what goes into a writing a program. I think if you can grasp those basics, you’ll be in a good spot as a trainer and coach.

Straight up, if you do not understand these three things, your programming will lack purpose and be subpar forever and always.

Numbers one and two really just have to do with the human body.

How can you possibly develop strength or mobility in a muscle if you don’t know what it does? How are you going to go about exercise selection if you don’t know what the prime mover of an exercise is? What muscles act as protagonists? Antagonists? And stabilizers.

We go DEEP into this inside the episode; but the idea is this - would you hire a freaking plumber that didn’t know the anatomy of a toilet or kitchen sink? Probs not! Quite frankly think it’s dangerous for coaches to not have background knowledge in anatomy. And you don’t need a four year degree for that you guys. You can take classes at anytime or study online for freaking free. The information is out there.

It’s my belief that if you want to be a programming wiz, you need to grasp these things. You don’t need to memorize EVERY muscle, origin and insertion. But it will benefit you to know the big ones, and to understand WHY that matters in program design.

You’re changing human bodies. The least you can do is actually understand the musculature of a human body.

Like I said, number one and two go together, and you'll have to listen to hear what number two is.

And then number three is really a few bunched into one.

You need to understand progressive overload and how to make that happen overtime. If you don't know what I am talking about, tune in NOW.

Understanding this training principle allows you to program in a very simple manner. Because there is no need or pressure to change up everything in a program every month or day or week.

There is so little need for that if you understand how to progressively over load the muscle in order to grow or build strength. The only reason to make alterations is to avoid boredom, and to give a new stimulus from a different angle to a muscle group.

Beyond that, you need to have a general understanding of set and rep ranges and what those can yield in the way of strength, hypertrophy, endurance or power. We cover more of this is part 2 (coming next week).

So when people ask what my favorite programming books are I am hesitant to answer because it’s rarely a program guide that they need. But rather a deeper understanding of the human body itself.

If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to itunes, subscribe,

Calling all entrepreneurs in the online space. If you use instagram for your business, then you can be making more money from this platform than you currently are. Just a guess?

Whether you have a following of 100 or 10,000 people on instagram, this episode is going to improve your revenue. If you follow the steps I lay out for you, that is.

Instagram is changing, it has changed, and will continue to do so. You can't keep doing what USED to work and expect it to work NOW. That's true for all aspects of owning and running a business right? Systems and tactics that got you to one point, might not be the ones that get you to the next one.

Well today, we dive into your instagram feed AND stories in order to make you more money on this platform. Yes, these are specific strategies that work NOW on instagram to build relationships, trust, and income for you.

I give you super specific tasks to follow in order to improve your profits from IG. This is no easy quick fix my friend. You will have to plan, execute, practice, follow through and most importantly, BE CONSISTENT.

If you aren't consistent, this will fail. Nothing I teach you today will stick or have an effect on your audience. You hear me? You have to IMPLEMENT. Not for one week, or one month, but for a long ass time, okay?

You'll leave this podcast with actionable steps straight out of my FitsPRO Foundations course. So, if you own a business and want to make more mula or grow your instagram following, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.

Have at it sister.

Oh and if you don't already have my Ideal Client Avatar Creator you can download it here FOR FREE.

If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to itunes, subscribe, rate and review the show. It means the world to me when you spread my message to more humans.

-Annie

P.S. Save this value packed episode for later over on pinterest!

Today we dive into how the decision to travel the world for a year grew my business. And it might not be what you think.

I’m returning to the states with a much more successful biz than when I left, plus I got to travel the world for a year.

For the back story, I’m sure you’ve heard a million times now, I have only been self employed since we left to travel the world on May 22 2018. So 2019 is actually the first year I’ve been completely self-employed. But before we left, Nate was working, and I was coaching competitive cheer and training in person clients.

Now, the goal was always to work towards and end up being completely online with my biz. But that was a SLOW process up until we made the decision to leave the country.

Don’t get me wrong. I never wanted a fast track to success. I always wanted slow, sustainable growth. Yes, of course I wanted success and to feel free in my biz but I never wanted nor did I have the expectation that that was going to just happen over night.

But my point is that I totally would have continued drawing out that process and not making the jump to being fully self employed had we not made a sink or swim type of life choice. I’d heard of this approach from other entrepreneurs. Take the jump and then make it work. And to be honest. Most of the time it does. Because these scenarios are truly sink or swim. They also tend to be super stressful. Which I was avoiding.

How can I grow online and decrease my load at work? That’s what I did. And I don’t regret that at all.

We’d planned to have me be the provider while we traveled. That was motivating, awesome and terrifying all at the same time.

This is the point where we go deep into the first seven months of travel + business decisions. It's quite the story and I certainly hope it feels raw, and inspires you with your biz.

Leaving meant I was self employed. Great. Now I’ve got to make it work and I really needed to make more than I was at the time.

And to be honest, I quickly realized I had A LOT of extra time on my hands when there was nothing to do besides work on my biz.

Traveling the world gave me an excuse and reason to stop coaching cheer and training people in person. It would have been MUCH harder to just cut those things off. I’d been invested in cheer for 10 years, and in person for seven. So, in all honesty, the whole “we’re living somewhere else” deal made it easier for me to deliver to my humans.

If you’re wanting to make the leap to online or work for yourself, I fully understand the fear and emotional hesitation there. It’s not an easy thing to do, and I didn’t want to brush over that decision like it is.

I read The Big Leap while we were in Santiago, Chile. That made me ask A LOT of questions and honestly put me in kind of an uncomfortable funk.

I quickly realized that I needed to change some things in my business and wanted to reach more people + streamline built by Annie even more. I looked for areas of my biz that I could deliver value in less time while making more. Thaaaatttt is what led to the tiered creation that is the current Built By Annie today.

In Santiago I designed the webpage and outlined the new programs for BBA. I did all the ground work.

No significant growth in biz because nothing changed yet. But I had the space to grow which is the point.

Lot's happens in between Santiago and Rio De Janeiro, and I finally launch the new (current) BBA in Brazil. You'll have to listen for the rest.