The most important purpose for delivering exceptional service is to build trust and develop a reputation for trust, with customers and clients, fellow businesses in your space and even sometimes competitors. Mo Akins, owner of LYBL Fitness in Toronto, Canada is the proof-of-concept. She's crushing it in her business as a result of passion and appreciation fueling an incredible level of service.
For detailed show notes, Justin Varuzzo's after thoughts on each episode, and lists you can use to take immediate action in your business, check out the website at http://www.marketingandservice.com.
The most important purpose for delivering exceptional service is to build trust and develop a reputation for trust, with customers and clients, fellow businesses in your space and even sometimes competitors. Mo Akins, owner of LYBL Fitness in Toronto, Canada is the proof-of-concept. She's crushing it in her business as a result of passion and appreciation fueling an incredible level of service.
For detailed show notes, Justin Varuzzo's after thoughts on each episode, and lists you can use to take immediate action in your business, check out the website at http://www.marketingandservice.com.
Great. Long-term relationships with customers and clients by building trust. And we have an incredible guest today who is sharing her insights as to how she built her amazing company by making her focus, customer service, that and more coming right up on the marketing and service.com podcast.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:Hey Justin, Bruzzo here from marketing and service.com podcast. Thanks for listening today. We are going to talk about trust. Trust is so important. We've talked about it before, but it's worth repeating and it's worth putting, in some context in today's show, we have an amazing interview with a woman who has built a great business around building trust and building long-term relationships. Trust is something that you have to earn from clients and customers, and this is achieved by delivering an outstanding value and outstanding service over and over again, and always giving it your a hundred percent effort, but it's not just customers. You should focus on building trust with you. Also want to build trust with suppliers vendors, and we'll explore a little bit about building trust with other businesses in your industry or in your space, and even in some cases, building trust with your competitors. And with that, we are going to jump over to our first interview here on the marketing and service.com podcast. I hope you enjoy it. All right. I am very excited to introduce our next guest Mo Atkins. She runs living your best life fitness in Toronto, Canada. She's been a certified trainer for over 10 years and she's trained countless clients to success in their health in their own way. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Well thank you for having me. I'm sincerely. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to be part of your platform today. Nope.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you. I guess my first question is how did you get started with all of this
Speaker 3:Great question? Um, I think for me, a lot of people just said, well, you should start your own business. You should start, um, training people because I've been very passionate about fitness for a long period of time. I'm an athlete. I've always been, um, about wellness and your health. So I was like, you know what? Take the leap because sometimes you're afraid to take the leap and start, and I am very happy that I did take the leap. I've been blessed to meet some great people and even have the opportunity. Like if I didn't take a take the leap, I wouldn't be talking to you right now. Right.
Speaker 1:How did you decide to take that? Like how did you decide you wanted to transition into being a business owner?
Speaker 3:Great question. I think I just got tired of just not taking a chance on myself. I think that's it because, you know, you were for other people and you just like, what, what am I doing for myself? Long-term that can help me grow as a person. So I was like, okay, now what try this, it doesn't hurt. You might be scared. You need to grow and you have to come out of your comfort zone basically.
Speaker 1:When you decided to make that transition. I obviously there's endless tremendous challenges to getting a business off the ground. Uh, any, any particular challenge that was kind of a big deal that you had to overcome or any hurdles getting started or even ongoing that, uh, that you could talk about it a little bit
Speaker 3:Fear under percent fear. Um, I can remember we, at one point it was when I was advertising, I was just putting a post out. I remember I was in my car, I was on Facebook and I said, put the ad up. I was going like, Oh my God, am I gonna do this? Do this, like just, I was terrified. I was shaking. And I, and you think, you know, just putting yourself out there, you never know what someone's going to say. You have to understand that you might not be for everybody. But, uh, I remember thinking I listened to podcasts and that list of a motivational podcasts. And I remember one woman in a comment. She said, you know, what, if you're scared, do it while you're scared. So I was like, okay, well let's do this. Okay, let's do it. And I was just started screaming and I was like, okay. And then I got feedback that was generally, the people were interested in wanting to be trained by me and what's is, do you get that fear? And you're just like, do I really want to do this? I don't want to do this. Well, we gotta do this. Okay, let's do this.
Speaker 1:Do you ever, do you ever think and go back and say, wow, I can't believe I got that worked up over something after you die. I find that that happens to me a lot. You get really nervous to do something and then when you do it and you do it a bunch of times, it's like, Oh, I don't know why I got so worked up about it. It's not that big of a deal.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent. I think I look back and I'm the person I was when I first started, would be generally surprised about who I am now.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's awesome. That's great to have that shift. What are, uh, what are some of the things, uh, you know, obviously we, on this podcast, we talk a lot about customer service and how, you know, the customer is really the heart of every business and, and you have to build a really strong relationship with customers. If you want to have them keep coming back and you want them to be happy. Uh, so what, how does customer service kind of fit into your marketing plan in growing your business?
Speaker 3:For me, it's more of, because this is a passion of mine, so I put my a hundred percent into it. So you have to care about the results you have to care about the person. So what I mean by that is M so, and within the fitness industry, a lot of people are there to give you a program. It was just your cookie cutter cookie cutter, right. They're not really understanding your needs. So I'm very selective of who I choose. So I would have an interview, like, just talk to make sure we're the right fit. And I made sure that I understand what your goals are and try and take the time to listen. So if you don't understand what the goals of that of your client is, or if you don't care about what the root cause of some of the issues they have, then you're not going to grow a relationship. Right.
Speaker 1:That's great. Yeah. I know that, uh, you know, I go to, I go to the gym and it's usually eat less and push harder And it hasn't been working out too great for me,
Speaker 3:Or it's just like, you want that for most women and be like, you know, do that booty workouts. Right. Okay. That's nice. But what were the other aspects? Or they give you a meal plan and just like, okay. But you haven't learned anything. Right.
Speaker 1:Right. So how, how do you, how do you develop and, and build trust with your clients over time?
Speaker 3:I think the first step is when it's more of knowledge. So I'm thinking of one individual. I remember when we first met, it was just having conversation. Wasn't really about what I can do. Like just having a conversation about who you are and what I'm I am and what I believe in making sure that you understand my, my, the way I structure and programs and what I'm offering. Right. And I asked him some of the challenges, what their backgrounds, if they have ever had a personal trainers. And what was your good experience of what you buy experience? You want to basically understand who they are. So I do an assessment. Like you basically do an assessment and your are free and free assessment just to show that, you know what, this is not about money. Like I want to understand and make sure that I'm looking at all aspects of your life. That's how you build you build trust by basically listening and understanding what they want, what their goals on, what the past, what their past history is to ensure that you don't make this, you don't trigger anything that may make them feel like you were never listening initially, or that you actually cared to understand what they want. And that's what I really that's how I do it differently from most people out there. I'm just going to take it personally. That's me.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure. Yeah. Yeah. I, I glad you mentioned that because I know I'm someone who, uh, I need to be pushed at the gym a little bit. Uh, like I, you know, if, if I'm on my own, I always give up much sooner than if there's someone watching me. Uh, even if they're not a coach, it's just someone watching me. And especially if I'm like next to someone on a rowing machine or something I do not want to give up. And it helps me get me over the, uh, over the finish line. Uh, my wife though, she's completely the opposite. She likes to be left alone. She loves like doing the treadmill and stuff. She'll turn off all the lights, turn on the TV, make it movie night and get a great workout in at the same time. Uh, if she gets pushed, she just shuts down and she's like, I'm done with this. I'm not, I don't want to do this. Uh, so it's, it's cool to have that, that upfront expectations and foresight into what's going to happen and how that's going to play out. That's cool. One of the things I noticed that I thought was cool in, in your, your, your business here is you do offer a private Facebook group for your clients. Uh, and, and of course, in, in building trust, there's also, uh, it's really important if you have a, a local business, which what you do, you, you do stuff locally as well. Uh, but, uh, you know, it's, it's, I guess I'll say it's a little easier if you've lived someplace for a long time, like I've lived in New York, my whole life, you have a network that grows over time with people, you know, your friends, your neighbors, your family, but it's harder to that community when you're online and community is what makes it so great when you have lived in a place for a long time and, you know, you know, Oh, this is the person I'll go to for this. This is the person I rely on for this. Uh, as soon as you open it up to the whole world, it gets a lot harder. So I really dig the idea of having those private Facebook groups. So tell me a little bit about that and how that's working out for you.
Speaker 3:So I started off as it came off as a challenge, um, an eight week challenge, you can get access to the Facebook group, but I wanted to expand it. And one of the reasons why I found that a lot of people, especially during the current climate, a lot of people from being motivated, people were just sitting there doing nothing. Nobody would like, it was just a lot of information out there, but there's no direct access to maybe somebody that can help you. So with the Facebook group, I actually offer free service. I offered to group sessions, workouts. I don't, I don't charge them. I also offer, um, you know, food guidance tips, and just basically even challenges. And just to create a community that where there's a lot of support people are doing and challenges people, you try it, you can see somebody that looks like you doing the impossible. So what I mean by that is right now, we have a 30 day challenge and M just movement challenge. And my ladies have to do four liters of water a day, and they have to do 11,000 steps. Whoever wins this most consistent gets a hundred dollars. I've motivated myself that if I don't do it with them, I have to pay each person to participate$25. Nice, nice. Yeah. So it's just, it's, it's a safe place where nobody judges you. Yeah. And you see the ladies doing 20,000 steps, you see the others, their dream drinking, four liters of water, and they would, ladies are joining in or looking at, you know, what she could do it, she's a mum, like is just somewhere where, you know, you have access to someone that knows what they're talking about.
Speaker 1:That that's super important. Yeah. And that's super important. You know, obviously we've all been on Facebook groups that have a million people in them and, and, uh, you, you, it's hard to get value when you have a lot of people with a lot of different opinions and voices shouting at you or, uh, putting it down or whatever it is. It's not always a happy place on, on some of the big Facebook groups. So having that private thing I think is really cool, keeping it small and keeping it niche down to the, the, the people you work with every day. One of the things we had discussed briefly was how you collaborate with other fitness organizations. Uh, and I think I just did a podcast about, uh, how the travel industry and the hospitality industry. They always really work together to promote brands. There's always a lot of cross branding. Uh, if you get a jet blue flight, you're going to get asked to rent a car from Avis, uh, and they're going to send you to a Hilton hotel and on and on, and it goes, uh, and you better use your American express card, or you won't get the points. Uh, you don't often see that too much in, in small businesses. I think a lot of times, especially in the same space or even similar spaces, uh, it's easy to be threatened by a competitor, uh, where there may be opportunities to work together. So tell a little bit about how you have been collaborating,
Speaker 3:Done podcasts with and wellness individuals as well. It's not only fitness experts. So like, am you looking at chiropractors, massage therapists and natural path doctors, Wiki, masters, alternative health medicine. So even nutritionists work, right? So there's aspects of the wellness or health industry that I don't, I don't, I don't have expertise in. So for a chiropractor, they work on your structural alignment, things like that. But if somebody came in and said, you know, do you know a good personal trainer that can get me and fit, but understands my challenges. They will refer me. And if I have a client, and one of the things I do is I do a structural alignment. If I see something that I'm like, okay, you're, you're having issues because of this is too tight or, or, you know, you look like your spine is, you know, are you, movements are a little off, you may need to see a physiotherapist or a chiropractor, or you may just need a massage therapist. Right. I've had massage therapists refer personal trainers to me, natural pot doctors that refer clients to me, vice versa. So there's, and then with the podcast itself is just more of getting education on what they do and get building that relationship so that when you talk to somebody and they'd mentioned maybe hormones or issues like that, like I remember having that conversation with somebody recently and you know what, maybe I can refer you to them. And so it's been really good in respect to that for even fitness experts. Um, I've actually had fitness experts on my podcast talking about, you know, some of them are there. The demographic is a little older, she's 60. So it's just more of building that relationship. And sometimes you may not be able to take a client, but they'll ask you, do, you know, a client that works does lives closer to me that I can work out with. Right. Right. So building that community and that relationship and that network key, you're able to collaborate, but you collaborate, people have sense. Right. That was someone that I'm just saying, you need to, that you can do this, but just, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, right. Sure. That, that's so awesome. Yeah. That's really cool to see, you know, as I, and I encourage anyone listening, if you're, if you're in a small business or you're in a sales or a marketing thing, think about how, how can you really collaborate, uh, with the people around you or even your competitors, or, you know, a lot of times you have companies where they do similar things, but one company might do one thing a lot better than the other company does it. And vice versa. They might do something a lot better than, you know, company a a, and if you can find ways to work together and, and, you know, I think again, it helps build that community. Uh, and, and it's, it's good for everybody. It keeps, you know, we shouldn't be afraid of our competitors. We should kind of embrace our industries and, uh, and, and be successful with it. I always believe that we learned from our mistakes. What's a mistake. That is a learning lesson
Speaker 3:Undervalued by my worth. I've undervalued my worth. Um, a few times, I think I have to understand that you can't be everything for everybody. So you can't reduce your price to meet somebody else. And when I say is, a lot of people are out for themselves. Sometimes I'm just saying, they just want the best value. But if you underprice yourself, they're not going to risk. They're not going to value the work that you put in. Cause I, I feel like I know I put in a lot of work in my, in my business, you know, trying to get I'm very, very hands-on when I say I'm hands-on, I have clients that send me messages everyday telling me what they eat, what they do, the guidance I'm on constant, almost what, 24 seven, just talking to them. If you I'm invested to one of the biggest things, undervaluing my worth. And by doing that, you, you let in people or clients that may not serve you and vice versa, you're not can be able to serve them because you've been overwhelmed. And you don't feel like you're giving your a hundred points.
Speaker 1:It's extremely common. When someone gets into a new business, the first thing they think is I have to be less than everyone else. I have no experience if I charge too much, no, one's going to want to want to come to me. And I know that is just so, so, so common. At what point did you realize, Hey, this is, this is silly. There's so many other things I can do to offer value, as opposed to lowering my price. This kind of almost goes back to how you promote yourself and the trust in your businesses, promoting the value of what you provide. Because a lot of times, people, you know, you compare prices on things and you might say, Oh, you know, I'm trying to find this car, this perfect car. And two dealerships have exactly the same car. And the one dealership is a it's$18,000. The other dealership is$20,000. But if the$20,000 dealership let's say included oil changes for life free car washes every week, uh, free tires. It's three years in when you're in you, you would quickly say like, Oh, okay, that that's a, that's a much, much better value. Uh, and even though it seems like 18,000, I'm saving the two grand. I'm really gonna end up losing money in the long run. At what point did you decide like, Hey, I'm offering really good value. I am engaging. I have these Facebook groups. I'm giving this my all I'm Sarah and I, I want to be, I want to be appreciated and paid accordingly.
Speaker 3:I think that it was when I was getting feedbacks from clients. And they were like Mo because I'm very big on forum. I'm very big on, you know, making sure you're you do it correctly. But some of the feedback I was getting was this client, this training never did that with me, this and that. I used to, I used to pay this person this much. I'm like, you pay that person that much. I don't pay this much. And then you look at other, other, um, fitness experts and you've gotten feedback saying you charged too little, or you see other people doing the same thing you're doing. They're charging more. And you're like, why are you devaluing yourself? Don't get me wrong. Um, and I remember talking to somebody and they mentioned you don't want a lot of clients. You want quality clients. And if you price yourself at the price point that you believe you value that you're going to clients that value you, that will put in the work, because you're going to put in the work, they're going to know that they're spending the money for that. They're going to put in the work, not someone who's just, okay, I'm getting good deal or sorry, that didn't cost me that much. Right. And it's just a waste of energy and time on you.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I, I, you know, I'm so happy. You mentioned that because, uh, one of the big things I also believe in, uh, that, that I try to promote in this podcast is so many companies spend so much time and so much money trying to acquire new customers, that they completely neglect their core customers that they already have that are happy to pay them and give them more money and want to be part of it. Uh, but for some reason, especially less than small business, but more, I think we've all experienced that with corporations where it's like, they will do anything to get you in the door. And then the second year in there, it's like, you're just another number. We could care less.
Speaker 3:It's true. They get the promotions to come in and I'm just like, where's my promotion. Right? Where's my promotion.
Speaker 1:We all know the cell phone companies are the worst with that.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:It's uh, so that, that is cool that you brought that up because that, that is a, that's one of my pet peeves in, in, uh, in corporate America is that kind of, uh, you know, not, not fostering a relationship with your existing clients and customers.
Speaker 3:I have a great story about that when you, if you get too, let's hear it. So I have a client and she, we met on Kijiji. And I remember, I first talked to her. She was a little shy. She didn't want to go to the gym around at all. She always, she wanted to go with me. And then our goal was, you know, once a week you have to go to the gym. So that was a goal with like once a week, just to try and get her out of her comfort zone. When you say customer service, I knew what she needed to do. Um, I knew how to push her. And I liked her. Like we connected so well, he's opened up a new opportunity for me in my business to do corporate wellness. So she spent, she enjoyed, like, I didn't, like I charged her. It was a decent price. There's no issues, but I, I cared. Like, I really want it. Like every time she got something, I was like, Oh my God. I was like, you just see me. I do dances. They're like, really? I'm like, Oh, you look sexy. I'm really okay. But anyways, I never thought I could do corporate wellness to get into corporations to do that. It's very hard. And he went to her and she's part of HR. She went to HR manager. It's like, wow, I know this fitness person. She worked me, this not an investment. She she's like, can you do it? I'm like, I can do it. Okay. And this, I was like, okay, I had to cook. And she's like, she helped me, gave me examples of what other people do. I was like, okay, I'll do the red drink. And I did my first one. I was nervous. And they booked. And I remember I was asking friends of mine. So how much you charge? How much do you charge? You're like, okay. Maybe we charge one 20. I went to her. She's like, can we talk? She's like, we don't, we charge a minimum, double what I initially said, wow. I was like, Oh, okay. If you weren't paying me that, and she's brought me back again and I'm going back again. And then by doing her, like having the opportunity, it gave me the confidence to know that I could do this. I remember applying for another corporate wellness workshop. They booked me twice. And I'm going back again in
Speaker 1:March. Oh, that's fantastic. So when you said
Speaker 3:Customer service, like you have to care, you have to ask questions and like, it's a passion of mine. So I get joy of seeing my clients and realize that they can do something that they couldn't do before, right in front of my eyes. And they can tell that you're passionately and bought, like, you're happy, like, sound like that. And they open doors to you that didn't even know existed. I was like, okay, I can do this. I created events. And now I'm doing events, wellness events. Now
Speaker 1:That is really cool. What's that? What's an example of like a wellness event. What type of a event is it?
Speaker 3:So the first one I did with her was more of mobility, like, because it was at home. So a lot of people were in front of the computer. So just teaching stretchy I had, and my partner helped me. The second was meal planning. So I'm showing them how to properly meal plan. I took that to my third workshop and actually did it a cooking example. Like I did a cooking with them. Yes. And then they brought me back to do another cooking one. Then I, I was like, okay, you know what? I can do this. So I actually, now I launched a six days health summit. Okay. Wow. I had 36 guest speakers back in August. Oh,
Speaker 1:Wow. That's amazing. I
Speaker 3:Am coming back in March and I'm doing two for more mental health. Yep. So for me, when you asked me at one point, like, you know, the fitness, your fitness, your own way, it's not only physical to me is more of, you know, wellness, understanding, um, your mental health and your like, there's different aspects of your health. I, if you can address that, then the physical aspects, isn't common. So my business from when I first started just him telling me when I first started to now is three 60. So when you said customer service, like just, you know, connecting with people, giving them 150%, you know, going the extra mile, making sure they get they're challenging them, like being passionate with them and helping them succeed and tell you, like, just let, letting, watching them grow in your eyes. And just knowing that date, they can tell that you are happy that they're yeah.
Speaker 1:A genuine happiness. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:When you said that, I was like that story, I just told you about her. Give her, helping me expand my business that even know was even possible. Great example of how you need to give a hundred unique customer service has to be part of your business.
Speaker 1:That's yeah. That's, that's like the ultimate endorsement. And having someone say, let me take this to my job and, and, and see what they'll do with it. That really is awesome. I guess my, uh, my last question is what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten
Speaker 3:A few, but I think this one more applies to what I've done in my life for the past few years is whatever you do give 150%, like whatever you do put in, like either put in the work, like you give your all or just don't bother doing it. And I say this because even with customer service, if you're trying to, if you're working with somebody or you not giving them your full benefit, your service, you're a hundred percent to make sure they get the, they get the results that they're looking for. Then what's the point. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they'll feel it. They'll probably recognize it.
Speaker 3:Cause you see like, uh, honesty as a I've met clients. Um, and they look, so they've been beat up, even saw the lie and I'm just like, what, what can you use? One of them? I was talking she's like, what's would your face I'm like, but did you hear what you said to me? You mean this magic pill won't make me thin and beautiful. I got duped again. One of the things I did was to get myself out there to get credibility. I did offer free service. Yep. I whined women. She didn't want me a year. She's referred me to four different people. And then another one was, she joined my group and she people, she referred me to three or four different people. Wow. Like it's just, my business grows on referrals as a business owner. Like I'm very selective of who I work with. I have to be for my mental state. And I think if you are selective of who you work with, I think you see more success because most people think as a customer, you know, customers are always right. Like you're interviewing me, but as a, as a potential customer, like client, I'm intervening you back. Cause I'm making sure, okay. Whether I fit, we understand how we can work together. And I've told people like, I'm not the right fit for you. Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's, that's, you know, I'm glad you brought that up too, because that's a, I think it kind of goes back to determining your value and making sure you're not undervalued. I think a lot of people are afraid to get rid of a bad client or to say no to a client. Uh, just because they're there again, they're there they've, they've already undervalued themselves now. They think, well, I can't say no, because if I say no, they'll, they'll go somewhere else or, you know, and then I won't be able to button, you know, pay for food anymore. Uh, but yeah, I think that's also another really common issue with, with small businesses is, you know, not maintaining their own ability to say no, like I don't want to do that. Or that's not, I'm not the right fit. Uh, if you want that, you should go to someone else or X, Y, or Z, or my competitor. They were really good at that.
Speaker 3:Right. I've done that because it's, it's okay to say I can't do that for you. It's really okay. Because when it comes down to your name, we'll use your brand. So if you pretend that you can do something that you can't do and you do a horrible job at it that affects you, that affects, you know, they can talk bad about you somewhere else. And you don't want that. So anybody I talked to even like talking to you, Justin, like how I am in a sense, you're, I'm reflecting my brand. Like I, my community, I talked to you the way we connect, you know, at any point, you know, you'd be like more kind of sucked. She was miserable. She gets the clients, right. Passion shines through C.
Speaker 1:Yes. And it it's, it's uh, you're a rock star. You're you're really crushed. And I, you know, I don't know if I mentioned here, but your, your website is incredible. Uh, I would definitely check that out. What's the website.
Speaker 3:LYB L fitness.com.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah. Definitely check out LYB L fitness.com because, uh, Mo did a great, great job with the website, uh, both from a content viewpoint and just from a general marketing
Speaker 3:Last year, Justin, it's great where I am and how I relate to my clients is customer service. Like you care. And if you don't, if you don't give 150% to your customers, and you're not selective, you can't open doors. That door, you can't open doors that you never even thought was possible. Like I'm telling you, Justin, I didn't know. I could do corporate events. I was like, okay, train one or two people do the low workouts, but it's allowed me to realize, okay, this is a possibility I can do. And I've been given that experience. And Oh, I asked for referrals. I got, I asked for reviews. Yes, Justin. I asked her her views and like, okay. We view please, because nobody's going to, it's nicely safe, but you have to back it up with something. Okay. I'm done packing Justin. I feel like I talked to
Speaker 1:No, no, you're I thank you so much for doing this. It's been an absolute honor having you here and I'm so happy we were able to make this happen. Uh, thank you. I really
Speaker 3:Appreciate it. Oh,
Speaker 1:What's the name of your podcast?
Speaker 3:Um, health, your own way. So as you can see, there's a lot of theme here, your own way, or they find a healthier and way pockets.
Speaker 1:All right. Definitely check out health, your own way podcast. I assume that's available on iTunes and Spotify.
Speaker 3:I even do video, Justin. Sorry. I even did
Speaker 1:Check out YouTube. Do it all. Awesome. You are rocking and rolling. It's been such a pleasure. Thank you so much.[inaudible].