Consistency Pays: Building a Thriving Fitness Business for Older Adults in Nashville
Feb 27, 2024Season 2Episode 17
Jay Croft
Fitness success is a lot like communications success. Both involve repeating the same steps consistently over time, making incremental progress, and remaining committed to doing the right thing. Even when a shiny new temptation wants to steal your attention or you'd rather just stay on the couch and forget about it.
Aaron Hines, a gym owner from the Nashville area, who has been putting in the work month after month, year after year. communicating steadily with his prospects and clients, running a good business, networking both online and in real life, writing books and promoting them, all while bringing top shelf training services to people over 50 in his location.
And here's the best part. It's paying off.
Aaron had his biggest month ever last December, and 2024 is banging so far.
Fitness success is a lot like communications success. Both involve repeating the same steps consistently over time, making incremental progress, and remaining committed to doing the right thing. Even when a shiny new temptation wants to steal your attention or you'd rather just stay on the couch and forget about it.
Aaron Hines, a gym owner from the Nashville area, who has been putting in the work month after month, year after year. communicating steadily with his prospects and clients, running a good business, networking both online and in real life, writing books and promoting them, all while bringing top shelf training services to people over 50 in his location.
And here's the best part. It's paying off.
Aaron had his biggest month ever last December, and 2024 is banging so far.
Thidness success is a lot like communication's success. Both involve repeating the same steps consistently over time, making incremental progress and remaining committed to doing the right thing, even when a shiny new temptation wants to steal your attention, or you'd rather just stay on the couch and forget about it. Well, that's a theme in my conversation this week on Optimal Aging, the show for fitness professionals trying to grow their businesses with more people over 50. I'm your host, jay Croft of Prime Fit Content. My guest is Aaron Hines, a gym owner from the Nashville area who has been putting in the work, month after month, year after year, communicating steadily with his prospects and clients, running a good business, networking both online and in real life, writing books and promoting them all, while bringing top shelf training services to people over 50 in his location. And here's the best part, it's paying off. Aaron had his biggest month ever last December and 2024 is banging so far, and I asked him why. He kind of shrugged and said he's just been sticking to the fundamentals and doing the things that you're supposed to do and they're coalescing like they're supposed to. No tricks, nothing fancy, no shiny new temptation, just a commitment to doing the work consistently over time, with smart goals and solid communications and no small amount of enthusiasm. It works for your clients trying to get in shape. It works for my clients trying to grow their businesses through better communications and, as Aaron will tell you, it's working for his business.
Jay Croft:
Premier performance training in Brentwood, a prosperous suburb of Nashville Now. Aaron is a former college football player who earned a bachelor's degree in health and human performance from the University of Tennessee and a master's degree in exercise physiology at Florida State. He completed his internship at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, working with patients at risk for cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. Here's my recent chat with Aaron. You mentioned that you've had the last time we talked, that you had your best month ever in December and you wrote your book and now you're trying to do some social media influencing. So you've got some momentum. I'd like to focus on that and maybe talk about the idea of growing your business that focuses on people over 50 right now, like what it's like right now, where we're at kind of the state of the union, sort of you know that the presidents always have to do.
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, I can talk about that.
Aaron Hines:
I got asked last week one of my ladies. She's like why do you train old people? I was like, well, let me tell you, this is kind of like what I like to do, like these are the people who like coming in, they like to show up, they like to get some movement in, they like to get stronger. My clients are my parents age. My parents are 65, pushing 70. So it's kind of giving back to the people that have helped me right, so they can move better, feel better and, you know, do the things they want to without being in pain all the time.
Jay Croft:
That's wonderful. Do you also find that they're better customers or that it's? I mean, that's a really nice feeling, but ultimately you're in business, you're trying to make money, so tell me why it's good for that.
Aaron Hines:
It's the lifeblood of my business. I mean it's 90% of what I do. It's the make or break of my small group training business. They're consistent, they enjoy it, they keep coming back, they refer to their friends because they like to work out with other people just like them, and nothing better than working out with your friend. Friend you go to church with friend. You go to the salon with you know. Friend you go out to eat with you know. I even had clients go on a two week trip to France this year who never knew anybody and then they didn't know each other right. So it's just finding those like minded people who appreciate exercise but also are there for the same reason to get healthier.
Jay Croft:
So did you transition to this market, or were they always the focus for you?
Aaron Hines:
No, I transitioned five years ago when Fred Zoller looked at me and said I'll never make it as a sports performance business. Okay, and it was just being honest, because it's a very churn and burn, very seasonal kind of market. Some make it work, but as far as like having the time away, time freedom, making more money, he told me to push for the 45 and up market.
Jay Croft:
So you were initially going for something else. That wasn't quite working out, and a business coach told you to try this.
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, so I was doing more one-on-ones, two-on-ones private sessions and sports performance With younger people. I basically took anybody, anybody who had a heartbeat, who wanted to work out.
Jay Croft:
Now that's really important because I talk to a lot of people who they'll ask me to help them with their marketing. I'll say, well, who's your gym for? And they'll say, oh, it's for everybody. And I say, no, it's not. Let's think about that again. So tell me that for people who are listening and who are thinking about starting a gym or who want to have a gym for everybody. Talk about how that worked out for you and what realization you reached.
Aaron Hines:
A gym for everybody is a gym for nobody. You're not really specializing in anything, you're just helping everyone. So in order to stand out as far as your business goes, you have to really kind of narrow down that niche market. And mine's 15-older orthopedic injuries. I don't know a lot of people who like working with those people. That's what I've kind of find that they're the ones that need to be the most. I even have clients who are younger than 45, but they read the copy on my website and it's like oh you help old people, I'm beaten down. I'm 28 years old, I need help. I need somebody who's going to be able to help me move better, not crush me in the gym, and also move me forward for what I want to accomplish, and that's where it's really been successful as far as that goes.
Jay Croft:
So you opened the gym nine years ago. You switched to over 55 years ago.
Aaron Hines:
It was more like 40 and up and it's kind of increased the average age of like 50, 50 and older right now.
Jay Croft:
And then, of course, we all got hit by the pandemic. That screwed us all over, right, yep. And then last December, you had your biggest month ever. Tell me about that.
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, I think it was just a matter of all the marketing polls in the water, a lot of follow up with people who haven't been in a while. I ran some reactivation campaigns to get people back in the door. I had clients who haven't been in a while come back in to get back in shape. I even had college kids come back for the break, so that was a kind of an unexpected boost. But I think it's just a matter of putting my head down and continuing to do the things that were working and just I don't say hoping for the best, but I can't give up on what's been working, just consistent action, day in and day out, week by week. I think it just kind of came to a head and it kind of paid off towards the end of the year. It's continued 2024 as well. I mean, it's a little slow in January but it's rocking and rolling in February. So consistent action and having a plan, that's the biggest thing.
Jay Croft:
Well, you know what that sounds like. It sounds like what trainers are always telling their clients.
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, I mean consistency wins right. And then the long run. I mean we call it the shiny epic syndrome, or more, more, more, more more is not better, better is better. So just like, fine tune what you've been doing that's working, and consistently work on that. I think that's the biggest thing.
Jay Croft:
Right. People ask me all the time should I be on TikTok and YouTube and Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook, and, and, and, and? And? I'm like Nope, pick one, you know, pick one and build your audience there. It's this very similar concept, and I love the idea that you had your biggest month ever because you were doing the right things over time and then eventually, it all came together. It wasn't that you did some gimmick or you had some stroke of luck right?
Aaron Hines:
No, not at all.
Aaron Hines:
I mean, it's just the consistent marketing every day, every month, instead of just turning it on, turning it off.
Aaron Hines:
I think that's the biggest thing where sometimes we get where you're not reaping the fruit of your marketing so therefore you just want to quit it and stop. I did that with a few things, but those are the things that weren't really getting any return on the investment. And then, once that cut off, I mean it's like everything else that was invested into that got reinvested into some other aspect to the marketing plan. So therefore it's kind of completely I don't say replenish, but it also buried the fruit of more emails than my email list. Those emails get marketed to on hey, come in and try us out. Hey, we're running $150 off the month of December and this those kind of last minute deals for the holidays, and that's kind of where it it took off, just the whole Overall marketing aspect, and it's like if it's not working, let's figure out why it's not working. And if it's really not working and you're wasting money, then let's ditch that and put all of our money and effort and energy into what's really working.
Jay Croft:
So tell people what you do and what you do that works, what presses the buttons and what you're. Maybe give us like one example of something you tried that didn't quite move the needle for you, so you stopped doing it.
Aaron Hines:
I've tried $100 off. I've tried buy two, get one free, and it just doesn't speak to my market. My market is, I don't say well off. That sounds kind of snobby. But I'm in one of the wealthiest counties in the Southeast and maybe the US, and so giving things away sometimes devives the product in their eyes a little bit. So it'll speak to a couple people, but not everybody. Those are a lot of things that I've done. I even tried it this year, this past year, and it just kind of went dead. It was so bad and I was so disappointed.
Jay Croft:
I was like, well, we'll try it again next year, or not, right, I mean to your point earlier if it doesn't work, don't do it again.
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, or try to revamp it. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing we try and then we quit because it didn't work, instead of like trying to figure out what people want. I think that's the biggest problem I have. It's like well, I tried it this time, Jay, so therefore I'm just going to not do it again.
Aaron Hines:
Well, let's try to reconsider, maybe relook at that and say, okay, why didn't it work and why didn't it speak to my audience? And let's try to reevaluate what I can do better and we'll try it again. And if it doesn't work, then we'll go to something else.
Jay Croft:
That's right. It's constantly trying new things and not making assumptions about what did or didn't work, because I tried that one time and it didn't work.
Jay Croft:
It's like well you don't know that. You don't know that at all. Maybe you did that during Christmas, when you should have done it in June, or maybe you did that during the pandemic, when nobody could come in and it'd be perfect for you now, or who knows? I mean, there's a lot of reasons. You can't just come to quick decisions like that. What do you do steadily? I have, no, you've been using my stuff for a long time. What do you do that's? You said that steady churn of marketing that you do. Tell us what that involves.
Aaron Hines:
Currently, right now and for the last probably two years, I run a lead magnet on Facebook and it's just a super simple core exercise guide. That just kind of gets them into my ecosystem and they can kind of go through a little email sequence strip campaign to hopefully get them in the gym. That's kind of how I build my email list. I run currently like a 28 day jumpstart to get people curious into the gym to try me out for 28 days. That's consistently been a thing for the last seven months. But with the just the content itself, I run emails. I was doing six days a week probably for the last year and a half. That's a lot of different content. I do a Monday, wednesday and Friday kind of health and fitness information, nutrition, lifestyle, whatnot, and then I would use the 15 older content Tuesday, thursday, saturday. I got a lot of good responses from that. A lot of unsubscribes as well. But when I used to get really upset when people unsubscribe because I was like, oh my God, that's my client or that's the person that came in last week, but now I don't even think about it. I think I've got 2,500 emails and I'll send out. Hey, it's getting closer to March, if you want to come in. Just drop the word March and we'll get you some information. You can come in and try us out.
Aaron Hines:
Those are some of the biggest things that I'm currently doing and a lot of organic posting and just reach out. Whether it's former clients, c-stuff or I see them maybe recovering from a surgery. Facebook's one of those where that's the ideal spot for my 15 older crowd If they're recovering from an injury or they're on a trip. I haven't seen them in a while. I'll just say, hey, I hope you have fun, not even trying to get them as a client to say hey, I'm glad you're out having fun, I'm glad you're staying active, this and that and the other. It could lead to a conversation down the road. It's not like I'm trying to reel them back in because I see them sedentary or had a surgery or whatnot.
Jay Croft:
Right, I would love that. I was just telling a client that this week I noticed on his Facebook and Instagram there's no socializing, and social media is supposed to be social. What you just described is what I was telling him. You can just say hello. You can say oh, that's funny If they posted a funny memo, if they post their kid graduating from high school, you can say congratulations. I can't believe she's all grown up. It doesn't have to all be about, come in and join up again.
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, and I think those are just small little things that they probably appreciate and it may just give them a reminder like hey, oh, you're still around. Okay, cool, maybe I'll reach out when things kind of slow down and I'll get back into the gym. Yeah, I see some Kind of out in public, I guess you'd say, around restaurants and whatnot, and the first thing they say is like oh, man, I'm gonna come back. And I'm like man, I'm not even here to. I'm here to say hello, I'm not here to make you feel bad, yeah, I come again. So you know, it's just everybody's response a little bit different.
Jay Croft:
Yeah, exactly. So everything you're doing Sounds like it's working man. You've you've had a good year. You're having another good year. You've Consistently marketed. You wrote a book. You're in your community a lot. You're trying new things. Where are you right now and where do you hope to be as this year progresses?
Aaron Hines:
Right now the biggest thing is just trying to hire a few more trainers as the kind of the biggest Spot where I'm at right now. Growth, growth is good, but you have to have a plan in place. You don't want to grow too fast, too soon, because then you can't handle the load. So I'm looking for like one or two trainers. Currently I'm working on a fourth book, kind of independently. The first one I wrote was Myself. The last two were kind of co-authored with a couple of the fit pros.
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, I saw that this one's a gear to more the athletic mindset. I know it's sounds probably boring, but I like to go back and forth. So it's one was athletic to for the adults. Now back to the athletic and then I'll probably focus more on the kind of longevity Aspects as far as health of Venice, over 50, on my my fifth book, but just as far as that goes, I would say those are lengthy processes to write. The first one took me a Long time of a lot of procrastination but with a little bit of push from some friends I got it done. But it took about two years For the first one and now it's the fourth one. It's a little bit quicker.
Aaron Hines:
I've got you know some I would say. We always have projects in the works and I think for me is Launching nutrition coaching. I do that but I don't offer it as a paid service. I was trying to launch by March. Obviously I only have a week to launch it and I've just had other things going on. So Coaching for not only the aging population but just anybody in general who just literally struggles are so much out there with nutrition that it's kind of hard to believe anything anybody says anymore because the things they tell us that are healthy, I say in five years, they're usually the cancer-causing agents that you know. You always see the commercials about. Or this is healthy and when you look at it it's not really as healthy as you think it is. So just trying to get better understanding.
Jay Croft:
Do you do any marketing referrals with or networking referrals with orthopedics in your Orthopedic specialists in your area?
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, from that I work, I'll say, jointly. It's not a Obviously ever-flowing referral pool but it is out there for a lot of either non-strategic ortho's or some orthopedics who I may have Friends of mine who work there. I do get some referrals from a downtown clinic. Have a friend who works there. He's kind of world-renowned hip surgeon. So I do get some referrals for people in my area who needed trainer, who you know, who were maybe looking for more of a preventative measure, not a surgery per se, but getting stronger, getting more mobile and not having the surgery Outcome.
Aaron Hines:
I work with a lot of people and some people are like they get injured. They want to have surgery first and then treat second. I'm more of a let's try to treat it first and some kind of like maybe holistic way, maybe it's more Homopathic or you know, maybe it's PT, maybe it's something else to see if that's gonna be Better solution for you than then. Surgery is kind of the last resort in my opinion. So orthopedics and then physical therapists I have a pretty good working relationship with a lot of clinics in town. I wouldn't say I get an abundance of referrals, but I'm always Checking in, making sure you know if they need anything like. Or if somebody's being Discharged from physical therapy, they may need somewhere to train.
Aaron Hines:
And I'm kind of the transition point I like to call it. I'm not the last resort, but I'm also something that they can have an extension of physical therapy without having to pay insurance for. You know, insurance only gives you so many visits per injury, per surgery, whatnot. So like if they're on visit 32 and they get 34 for the year in its March, I know they need to do something unless they get an extension, which I think rarely happens with insurance. Insurance is pretty stingy. So I will work kind of hand in hand with the physical therapist, get a plan together and so when the transition is over to my jam it's a little bit more.
Aaron Hines:
It's easier, a little less stressful for that individual because they're coming somewhere. They have no idea who I am, but they've been preferred by the physical therapist who obviously trust me. But you know, sometimes going to a trainer is intimidating for a lot of people. I don't know if it's just a bad experience or what they have in the back of their mind. They feel like they're all going to be doing like box jumps and burpees and heavy lunges and things like that. So I say, I'm not that, jim. I want to, you know, I want to be on the same page with your physical therapist. I want to make sure we have a good plan of action so that way you're not a repeat offender and you're not having to go back to therapy.
Aaron Hines:
So I also have massage therapists too. Massage therapists I try to refer out for that, for just different, like you know, I'll say a client super tight and there's just physically nothing I can do to help them. You know, there's only so much I can do without kind of overstepping my boundaries as far as a trainer and business owner. So I'd just like to refer those out to chiropractor, massage therapist or whoever's going to be acupuncturist, whoever's going to be the best fit for them, just to get them better. That's my whole goal.
Jay Croft:
Yeah, so you've got online marketing emails and you haven't neglected the real in real life networking that you need to do with other professionals who can help your clients.
Aaron Hines:
Yeah, but I take this on a weekly basis. I'm reaching out or trying to connect with those, just for so more people know who I am and how we can help.
Jay Croft:
Okay, Aaron, this has been great. I appreciate this and I'm really I appreciate you for being with Prime Fit content for so long. It's a pleasure having you and I'm delighted that you're having such a great success. It's really heartening to see. Yeah.
Aaron Hines:
I mean it's fun. I'll say it's only the beginning. We'll see what happens from here. Absolutely.
Jay Croft:
Onward man. All right, thank you. Bye. Thank you for listening to Optimal Aging. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll subscribe, tell a friend and write a review. All of that helps me grow my audience. You can learn more about me and my content business at primefitcontentcom. You can send me an email at Jay at primefitcontentcom. That's Jay. Jay-a-y at primefitcontentcom. I'm also on Facebook, linkedin and Instagram so you can find me anywhere you like and be in touch. Again, thanks for listening. See you next time.