Fired From David Lloyd to 6-Figures: The Fitness Business Built on Ads

The fitness coaching space is saturated — which means you either niche down or you disappear.

In this episode, Matt Haycox sits down with Chris Wright, an online transformation coach best known for helping men over 30 lose the dad bod, get a six-pack, and stay lean without living like a monk. Chris breaks down the real business behind the results: how getting fired pushed him online, why mentors accelerated his growth, how he hires and scales, and why his client acquisition is now driven mainly by paid ads and Instagram.

They also get into the unsexy truth most coaches avoid: how long clients actually stay (Chris says around 7 months on average), what happens after the first transformation, and why retention depends on giving people a new goal once they’ve “arrived.”

Timestamps:
0:00 - Coming Up
0:16 - Intro
0:47 - Dubai vs Bali: where’s better for business?
7:32 - Getting fired → going online
10:59 - Using mentors to grow faster
13:45 - Hiring, scaling & paid ads (what actually works) 
18:34 - Going all in on Instagram
25:05 - Why niching down is non-negotiable
27:54 - How long clients really stay (7 months average) 
29:59 - What happens after 7 months (maintenance vs new goals) 
32:01 - The future of the business
33:16 - Final thoughts + where to find Chris

If you’re a coach, founder, or anyone building a personal brand business, this is a practical breakdown of niching, marketing, ads, retention, and scaling.

Follow Chris:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris_fitlab/
Website: https://fitlabcoaching.co.uk/lean365-programme/

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Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur.

I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I think even with personal training, like again, you hit a bit of a wall. Like you're charging time for money. There's only so many hours in the day. You haven't got the freedom of been able to go away. Like you got if you go on holiday, you potentially don't get paid. So that was always going to be a bit of a limiting factor.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Guys, welcome back to No Bollocks with me, Matt Haycox. Even though I've just noticed I've got a stripping off t-shirt, but this is actually the the No Bollocks podcast today. And Chris Wright is in the house. Friend of mine from uh from well, Dubai originally, Dubai, Bali, but he's leaving us behind to go to Thailand. Bit of a bit of a traitor, but he still he still likes it here.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I am pleasure to be on, mate. Yeah, I'm uh here for a few more days, Hong Kong, back to Thailand. I'll be back around Bali in about six weeks. So uh like yourself, travelling quite a lot.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I want to talk about business and uh particularly the uh let's say the business of coaching, the business of fitness coaching, but before we do, we were just talking before we started recording about Dubai versus Bali. And uh I say barley could be Dubai versus Thailand, those you know, those two places. You've lived both. If you look at the you know, some of the very in-your-face influences on on the gram, they're always giving it, oh you know, anyone who doesn't live in Dubai, you only don't live in Dubai because you can't afford to live here, you know. Bali's for the fake business people, the skint business people. And I think it's an owner bollocks. Listen, I've I've I've uh I've lived in both, I've had a I've had a good run in Dubai, but I just feel over it right now. But what what would what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I'm exactly the same as you, mate. Yeah. I think that like originally when I moved to Dubai, I probably did feel like I needed to be in this like whole Dubai grind, and that was what I needed, but I quite quickly felt like I got a little bit miserable in Dubai. I just felt that sometimes I was getting a bit lonely, I just felt like I was working all the time, didn't get much balance. I it's different for everyone, not everyone's gonna agree with that. But when I came over to here, that was like a big change in my life. Because the first time I came to Bali was about nine, about 18 months ago. That's when I realized that there's just a lot more to life in terms of just working all the time and just being in that kind of Dubai grind. It hasn't affected my business one bit. Then I came over here a lot more and I stayed here for about I think it was about two or three months, maybe longer than that. And again, like my business actually grew whilst I was out here because I was having more balance, I was meeting more like-minded people and stuff like that, which again people don't associate with Bali, but there's loads of people here like that as well. So I've had a really good time, and for me now I think that I'll base myself more out here and switch between places like here in Thailand rather than going back to Dubai.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

I mean, I think that you know that that's the perception that um that everyone in Bali is is here to be a hippie, you know, is is is not making any money. I've met some great business people here, some great minds, and I think the way I would describe it is it's not that people aren't hungry here, it's it's almost like a different kind of hunger. I I describe Dubai as success at all costs. And I would say barley is people still want to be successful, but they want to be successful in all the areas as as opposed to just financially. You know, they want to be fit, they want to be healthy, they want to be happy, yeah, they don't want to be skint, um, but you know, they they they want that rounded thing, whereas Dubai's you know is just a lot more cutthroat, uh, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

I think so. I I think in Dubai as well, like there's a lot of successful people there, but I just didn't find it was a very social place. Like I didn't find that networking personally for me as an online coach was very good. I had my own kind of friends and stuff out there that were other coaches, but coming out here, like going to the body factory, obviously that's where I met you. You you meet people more, like you're out, you're in recovery, you're speaking to people. I find that like the social aspect of being in Bali is way more. So there is probably a lot of successful people in Dubai, but I just found it was quite closed off. I didn't find the conversations were as easy. I just didn't find it was the sort of place where you could socialise, like being here. I speak to people new every day here.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

I mean, I to be fair, I didn't find it difficult to network at all in Dubai. I think I think you know, um, I mean I built a good friend job there. I think yeah, yeah, maybe maybe it's that different spaces because, like you say, you know, I I'm in the kind of wealth management capital type space where uh there's vast amounts of that. I guess I guess when you're an online coach, you're probably more introverted's the wrong word, but but but but it's a more it's a more let's say single single you s you kind of stick to your sector a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

I feel like I've met a lot of other coaches and there was a bit of a kind of like a friendship group around that, but I wasn't able to meet that many other people. Whereas out here I've just had a lot more conversations and kind of just getting a bit of an idea of other other areas other than just coaching.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

I think the uh the big difference I was gonna finish that off with to say of networking in Dubai versus networking in in Bali will be that it's it's probably a hundred X more expensive to do it to do it in Dubai. I mean, you know, like uh like you say here, meeting people in the in the recovery room. I mean, like you know, so so much of my hangout time, so much of my networking time, like yourself, is in the gym, it's talking to people in the sauna, you know, chilling, having a coffee. You know, a mate of mine the other day rang me, he said, Oh, do you want to meet for some lunch? Uh I'm just gonna I'm going to the gym, meet me in the gym cafe, which is you know completely normal here. Whereas you know, in Dubai it's like, well, I'm gonna entertain these ten people, so right, I've got to go and drop 5,000 quid in fucking nobu, or you know, if you want to get someone's attention, uh it's a night in billionaire, or you know, you you're taking a bird out, you know, you're not getting a not getting a kiss without a cartier bracelet.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

I just found that like in Dubai as well. Like, I feel like it's very everything's very planned and structured. Like, if I was gonna go and do something with friends, it would have to be kind of organised. I wouldn't just be able to like sporadically go to body factory, you know, have a conversation with you or speak to people in recovery. And that's what I like about being here. I think that like in Dubai I would have to get a taxi or drive or like get somewhere to arrange something. I just felt like everything was a lot more planned. I didn't like that element of things. Where things are a bit more spread out, you've got like the different parts of Dubai. There's not like a central hub, which is like, you know, in Bali, it's just easy to just kind of be amongst things. So there's just that element as well, which I like. It's like sporadic, you can meet random people each day, you have more conversations. I prefer that, like I am a people person, and I just felt like in Dubai I just didn't feel like I was there'd be days sometimes where I'd go throughout my schedule and my routine, I wouldn't even end up really speaking to many people. Like I'd go to welfare. I felt like the people there were a little bit unsociable, I didn't really like talk as much, especially when I left Bali. I kind of was like still in that very like going out talking to people mindset, and then I went back to Dubai and you almost like carry that over, like you sort of like say alright to people. I just felt sometimes I was getting blanked and ghosted, and it just felt like it was a bit cold in certain areas, which that's what I saw a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

And I like being on my scooter here, whereas if I took on my scooter in Dubai, everyone would think I was dropping off a donut for I've I always hated driving in Dubai to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

I've had so many problems with that issues, so yeah, out here I find that I'm a lot more.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

I was back for three weeks um at the end of March, beginning of April, so it was in the kind of back end of let's call it the war. And I've never driven in Dubai because I'm not a huge fan of driving anyway. I certainly don't want to drive on busy, busy roads where I'm just sat there, I can't work, and it's just boring. But uh I ended up driving for the three weeks I was there because there was not a car on the road, and it was such a peaceful experience.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

I've heard the road's already full again now, though, so I I won't be doing it again.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

It's just like if you make like one mistake, you're like add 20 minutes on to it. So you know you might try and make an appointment, like I'll get to this podcast at 11 o'clock or whatever, and then like I might make one mistake and then that's 20 minutes added on because you've got to go all the way back around again. Whereas like in Vali, it's like if you miss a road, you just quickly switch around, get a couple of beeps on the horns, and then you're just gonna jump jump on the pavement, spin your screws. Exactly, yeah, that's the thing. So yeah, I wouldn't be where I am without going to the by. So I've I've got like so much with me, so glad I went there, I have my businesses up there. Like I grew as a person from going there, but I just think you evolve over time and you start to realise what you want in life, and I think what makes you happy. And I've gone back to the bike quite a few times and I've tried to settle there. Like I've really been like, right, I'm gonna make it work. And each time I've gone after like a month or two months, there's just been this like itching feeling of actually just I feel like I need to get out, I'm a little bit bored, come over this way, and then I feel like I'm enjoying things so much more, whether that's here, Thailand, and these type of places.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

So let's let's let's talk about the business, the business side of fitness, because I I guess obviously uh you know the lifestyle you've got now is is A, down to the financial standing that you've got from what you do, and B down to the flexibility of what you know being an online worker or an online coach has afforded you. But from memory, it wasn't always like that. Are you working at David Lloyd or something?

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yeah, so I started I started at David Lloyd, yeah, that was where I my first job was. I think that's the only time I've actually been employed. Well, the last time I was employed. Um I was there as a fitness coach. You're never gonna make much money working in a job like that, even if you're the best fitness coach in the world there, you're still gonna be salaried.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

But did did you know when you started were you always entrepreneurial? Did you know when you started you wanted out?

SPEAKER_01 8:05

I I don't I think my entrepreneurial side came out when I left David Lloyd, because that's when I went into personal training, but it wasn't you know, I wasn't employed at that point, I was running my own business. But like what initially it's it's interesting because when I look back now, I actually got fired from David Lloyd, so it's like you know, what seemed to be something that was bad at the time obviously then led me into doing what I'm doing now. Um, I was gonna get asked that. I wish I could say it was something really cool, but uh no, essentially at David Lloyd's, you have to do pool tests as part of being a on the fitness team, like in the morning when the lifeguards aren't working. Um, all the fitness coaches used to just go in and like write whatever the lifeguard had put in the day before. Um, gross misconduct, so that I got caught on camera doing that. Obviously, it's in camera, you can't say you didn't do it. And then my bit my um boss hated me, she really had it in for me. I was a bit of a dick though when I was at David Lloyd, I was at uni. So she just said, Yeah, you know, you're you're fired, and that was it.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Um but anyway so I I I used to go to David Lloyd when I was in England, and when it f first opened, uh I mean I I was I was a lifetime member of my well, my dad bought me a lifetime membership of David Lloyd in 1996. So literally it was like the third David Lloyd in the country or something. And I remember at the time everyone was saying to him, You're fucking crazy, you know, what a what a flash waste of money, blah blah blah. You know, look at looking back, it's it's probably the best. I've been a yeah, I've been a member for 30 years.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I spoke to a I literally had a conversation with a client recently, he told me that, like a someone I've been to, and they said the same. And he said that he said to me that David Lloyd were trying to open like a lawsuit to try and stop take away the membership, and they couldn't because it was like he said that his granddad had it and passed it down.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Oh no, that these were these weren't pass honorables. Oh I see. But but uh so he bought it for the family, one for him, one for my mum, right, one for me, and one for my sister. So it's only mine, but you know, I I've never paid for my own gym membership. But the the reason I say was back in those early days there was a mass load of David Lloyd staff, both gym instructors and uh and normal ones, uh not normal as in uh non non-gym staff, fired because it they they'd had a party, they had a party there. Right, uh and everyone had ended up shagging in the shrimp pool at like you know, midnight, one o'clock.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

So that would have been a better reason to have got fired. That's what I was hoping for, something like that. It's a bit tame, isn't it, like getting fired for you know not doing a test for a pool. But but yeah, that that was what initially got me. I I think that's when my entrepreneurial side came out because then I started getting into even though I wasn't doing what I'm doing now as personal training, you know, you're managing your own schedule, you're not getting paid by a gym. Um, and then at that point I did that for a bit. But I think even with personal training, like my opinion is you just again you hit a bit of a wall. Like you're charging time for money, there's only so many hours in the day, you haven't got the freedom of been able to go away. Like you got if you go on holiday, you potentially don't get paid. So that was always going to be a bit of a limiting factor. But then COVID came around, which for me was one of the best things that ever happened because I couldn't work, I couldn't do my face-to-face, and then obviously at that point remote work became the thing, and then that gave me time to pursue online, and then then it just kind of grew from there essentially.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

So, how how did you first pursue the online side of things? Because I mean, obviously, I I know now you've got you've got very clear frameworks, you know, you you learn from other coaches, you know. We like we originally met through through through a mastermind, you know, from from another trainer, you know, that there's a very let's say defined structure and educational path of what to do. But I mean, you're back back then, were you were you just I I've always used mentors.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

So like I I mean I had an idea at the time, but I was working with a mentor at that point who actually was working with me for free. It was one of the the type of thing where like if you get me you know good testimonial, I'll help build your business essentially. So um, yeah, I worked with him and he he initially gave me like the framework around this is what I would do, this is kind of like how you initially build it, this is like you know, the payment system, so use all this kind of stuff. I just had the time to do it properly, so I understood it. I think there was like other people that were doing similar things, so I had a bit of an idea. But yeah, I mean I've just always invested in myself. I've never not, I can't remember a period more than a month or so where I haven't had a business coach. Like I've always just been like, right, who do I need to work with next? It's gonna get me to the next level. So that mentor helped me a lot. He initially got me online, got me my first like five to ten clients, and then it just evolved over time. I think then I joined another mentorship, which was probably the first big investment I've made. I think it was like four grand for the year, which obviously it's not, you know, not a lot, think about now, but like for me at the time it was. Did that that then help me progress even more? That took me from being on the gym floor to just fully online, and then it's just it's just step by step, it's just grown and grown and grown and grown, really. Like as I say, I worked with um with Charlie, obviously, who you know for for quite a long time, and it's just progressed from then since then.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

When you've moved on from mentor to mentor, has that has that been because you you you feel you've hit a ceiling with that one and it was time for the next one, or or a bit of boring?

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Yeah, it's a good question. It's a bit of that. I think that like there's there's been some reasons where like there's maybe been changes in the mentorship that haven't necessarily worked out. Like I've been maybe put with you know, you might join and you might work with the the main guy at the start, and then sometimes I've been passed over to someone that you always get passed over to the state.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

This is the problem, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:52

And I I've I've been passed over and I I I guess I haven't had that same level of respect for that person because they've not done what I've done. And I get it, because like I run a business where I'm not working with all of my clients one-to-one, but there's just been a bit of an element, maybe it's my ego a little bit, but it's almost just I've not taken instructions as well from people that necessarily aren't you know doing better than me. So there's been a bit of that. There's also just been times where that I just feel like the mentor's just checked out a little bit, I've not really felt like it's been moving forward, and then I guess I've just been caught by like another mentor who's got me at the right time with a good big good piece of marketing or a good like testimonial from another coach, got on a call a few times, and then I've been actually, you know what, it makes sense. But each mentor I've worked with, I've I've taken like a piece of all of them now, and like they've all helped me develop where I am. So I each one I'm grateful for. I think it's just you just get like a small bit from each one sometimes, which makes a big difference.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

And any particular bits that that stick out to you over over the years that have really made that shift from what from one to the next?

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah, I think one was probably hiring. Like, I mean, I've always at the start it was all myself, and then I hit a ceiling on well, I can't work with any more clients. I can't keep doing sales because I can't keep doing all the content and work with a hundred clients, it's just not possible. So hiring and getting my time back was massive because there was, you know, when there's like a framework or where to hire people from or what you should be looking for, that saves me loads of time obviously trying to figure that myself. That was one thing, and then the ads is the other thing. Like for me now, like our acquisition is all ads. It's like if I wasn't running ads, I wouldn't have clients, we wouldn't have clients. I mean, it's different in terms of what people do. But understanding that and knowing what you're looking for, what KPIs you're looking for, that's the massive thing for me now in terms of not burning cash.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Are you l are you literally a hundred percent ad-led?

SPEAKER_01 14:29

It's not, it's probably like 80-90% ads acquisition. Like we'll get referrals, um, we'll get some people that will come not from ads, like I will also track or see us that maybe they've been following me for a really long time. So there is some, but most of the time it's it is ads, it's like you know, follower on the page, they get messaged, turn to a call, hopefully, you know, we get them into this per into the programme.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

So but but by it, because because what I was about to say was uh maybe sound silly. I was gonna say, well, if you get all your acquisition from ads, why do you need to bother with the organic content? But the ads that you do, yeah, you you're you're not ad to funnel to call, you're ad to follower. Follower stage where you then get at some point during that follower's life cycle, you get them to book a call. So you need the organic.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Right now, it's just that and that next stage of ad is where I'm moving to now. So like VSL and then landing page, book a call, go from there. But at the moment it's just all top of funnel. We've just been smashing top of funnel for the last like six, well, probably like 12 months. So it's literally just right, how much do I want to pay for a follower? How much do I want to pay for a call? And then from there you can just literally work out like what am I, you know, is this about right in terms of where how the ads performing each month? And it's very it's such a simple ads framework, but it's scalable.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Um and what are the metrics? I mean what you put what you pay for an ad, what you paying for a call.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Followers you want to get like under a pound, roughly. Like it sometimes it can it can it can go a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

I wouldn't really generally 130 isn't have you maintained that for the for the for the entirety of your 12 months of they do sometimes drop, and that's probably one of that's been like the one of the biggest bottlenecks, I think.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Like they will just very randomly kind of drop, and like that KPI might start to fall, like the the ad fatigues, um, and then obviously that just comes down to a new creative. So yeah, around one pound is roughly where we want it to be. Calls are probably around like 70 to 80 pounds would be like for a call. Um they've gone up.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

You you're tracking that by basically saying 70 followers equals one call.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Uh yeah, essentially, like it can come down to that. Like, I mean, it depends on like we'll aim to get about 25% of people to respond to the initial message. 6% should then hopefully book a call or be scheduled for a call, and then you kind of just work from from there in terms of the numbers. Um, and then yeah, if we can get a call from that, but like last month uh my calls, I think we were booking calls at about £130, and I was like, that's quite high. But sale uh close rate and um short rate was much higher, so like actual cash was still high. So it it kind of depends. Like the most important thing is probably looking at the overall like return on the ad spend there, like the that's the biggest area that I'm looking at new cash. So it depends. But I'd like to have those in place to get a bit of an idea of the whether something's not performing, but that initial is is the follower, that's the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

How much do you find that the metrics go as the uh go down as you start to increase a spend? Because I mean again, you're obviously it's very simple for someone to look at it and go, Well, you know, you pay a pound for a follower, you pay 70 quid for a call, you I don't know, whatever, convert three three three out of uh well one out of every three calls. So a new customer's 210 quid, whatever making the numbers up, and you charge two and a half grand for a package.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yeah, therefore about 350 is a kind of acquisition, uh roughly like cost of acquisition. Again, it can sometimes rise about 350 pounds, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

But then you you some someone will say, well, then why not just spend a million pounds a month on ads bigger?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

This is the thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

But do you for do you do you find everything?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

I think that's the bottleneck, exactly. As soon as you when you keep spending more, like this is where things can start to break. So like there's probably a certain point on like so it's simply it's just a boosted post, right? But there becomes a point where it's almost like a diminishing returns, like you keep boosting it more to the point, and then it kind of means that the cost perfolio will start to drop, and then the ad can start to fatigue, and then that's when you would want to start maybe bringing up another post, which can then obviously start to like replace it instead. So it's just constant testing. Like that that's why this funnel can be a bit unpredictable sometimes. And I feel like with probably where I'm at now in terms of revenue and having spoken to my business coach, the next step is to start looking at something that is a bit more predictable around like a VSL, straight to cool funnel kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

We had dinner last year and we we spoke about LinkedIn. Did you did you ever do anything on LinkedIn?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

I've just never really managed to hack it. Um I I did use it for a bit. I mean, actually, when I worked with Charlie, like we were kind of got into LinkedIn there and built the page up. It was just very slow. I just felt like it was taking quite a lot of time to really use LinkedIn and like to get my setters trained on it. I thought it was, I think I thought it was kind of like just taking away my focus a little bit. Um, because we might put one or two calls a month. Like it just didn't feel like it was as good funnel. Whereas I think with me, like until Instagram is, you know, I don't know, we're at like 100k a month, which I know clients, I know people that are literally all in on Instagram that are doing that. I don't want to like dilute my focus too much.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

I mean I stopped emailing grand a month or something.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

No, no, no, like the revenue is taking a hundredk a month, literally from Instagram. Like, so I mean I've stopped I stopped emailing as well. Like I think that from a fitness client, like from a fitness coaching perspective, didn't used to get much from email marketing. Like it was alright, like some people claim it to be better than what it was, but I might like book a couple of calls from it, and I just felt like again, like the time it was taken. I know obviously with AI and stuff, you could probably systemize it a bit more now, but since just being like all in Instagram, this is the only funnel, this is it, I guess you've got a bit of vulnerability, but that's a lot of vulnerability. You have, I guess. That's the problem. You can't get shut down, you're a bit screwed. I've got I've obviously I have another account, I've got my coaching account as well, which I could easily transition to. Like we could just move ads to that. I don't think that would be a massive issue. But for me right now, I've just I've just gone all in on that. This is my particular.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

So have you ever tried running ads simultaneously on both accounts? I haven't done that yet.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

No, that's again, that's probably something I'd look at. It just means I'd then get another setter on my FitLab account or like on the other account essentially, and then start running it from there. I guess there's like there's a there's a slightly less followers on my other on my coaching page, but it's just full of transformations, so like they do convert really well. Um we have done that before actually.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Like there was But the lesser number of followers shouldn't matter, should they? Because you're you're pulling them out. Kind of.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

It's just like whether it drops the level of authority or like also it's the personal brand element of like they, you know, they it's like a coaching page, like they just see FitLab with a logo. Like it it could still convert, but a lot of the time, like people follow my page, I guess they're kind of looking at me as an individual, like, oh, this guy looks quite cool. They look at maybe like the story that's like highlighted that's pinned in my um in my page and they think, oh, this guy's quite relatable. Whereas if it's just a brand, it's just a FitLab page, it might mean that there's less chance.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

No, I'm I mean, I guess I was I wasn't saying what I was saying from a perspective that one may convert better than the other. I'm just I'm just paranoid about single points of failure. Yeah. I mean, I see it so much. I mean, I've one of the another podcasts I'm recording later today with a guy called Will Brown. Yeah, I do know very, very successful coach. But he his his main funnel as well, I mean he's had some different ones, but lately he's been smashing it through YouTube. Uh in the last I want to say in the last six months, I think I've been aware of him losing I think two YouTube channels as in the same channel twice, and his Instagram, I mean I've seen it get shut down three, four, five times. He's typically I think he's he's always got it back apart from one time he's had to change it over. But it's just you know, I I mean I know how annoying it is for people when they lose access to their Instagram when it's just what they do for what they do for their social life, but you know, but when that's your business and that goes off, and I mean a meta are a fucking nightmare deal with them.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

I mean, I've had it before. Yeah, I'm I um when I actually the first time I came to Bali, it was literally I got it sorted just before I got here, but I got my account, it wasn't shut down, I think it was hacked, but I couldn't get into it because Instagram were trying to verify who it was. It was just absolute palaver, but yeah, that was quite stressful. It was luckily it was only For a very short period of time in the end. It didn't really affect things that much, to be completely honest. I think there's, yeah, there's always a risk of that, of obviously something happening. Luckily, I have got my other page, I've got my coaches' pages. Matt, my brother, who's like one of, you know, he's my head coach. You know, if if shit hit the fan, could just move the ads to his. You can set up a new ads account very easily. So I think it would maybe there'll be a temporary issue, but I hope I'd be able to get it back. I I do have like some contacts that can GM really get accounts back quite quickly. Obviously, you might it might cost you a grand or two, but like if you're losing business, it doesn't really matter. Absolutely. There is always a bit of a risk. I think in the end, the only real, I guess, like funnel you've got, which is truly yours, is the referral and email list, right? Because YouTube can get shut down, LinkedIn can get shut down, like they're not necessarily your assets. Um but yeah, I mean I back to YouTube, but that's another that is another acquisitional uh channel that's probably working quite well at the moment. Oh you're you're yeah, I was thinking when you said that, so like it's not something that necessarily is like predictable, but I yeah, I just post on YouTube. I'm quite like I'm not a strategic on YouTube, I just post very like you know, kind of like content I think is gonna help my audience normally once a week, and I'll put you know a funnel in there to maybe book a call. Um, and that has worked. Like sometimes I don't know for what reason, but certain videos have just done incredibly well. It's you know the thumbnail, it's the title, and then it's just obviously a hit bit of an algorithm, and then I've had a few clients that have booked in. Like we had a month last, I think it was last month, or maybe the month before, but I think I had about three people booking from the US just you know, just after seeing a video about how to get to 10% body fat, something like that. All signed up, all paid in full. Like literally, it was because they were so warm from watching the video, 10 minutes of me, you know, scrutinizing like all the mistakes that people make, and this is what you need to do. By the time they got to the end of it, they were like, Oh, this guy sounds like really cool. So I think that YouTube is a good converter because it's it's long form. It's like Instagram is quite quick, like you can watch a few people's reels, but you're not getting much watch time really. You sit and watch three three YouTube videos of one person. It's like what 30-40 minutes of of engaging with their content or admiring it, like you're gonna probably be more warm to be on to do something.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

How planned and scripted are your YouTube videos?

SPEAKER_01 24:02

They're not that, they're not that planned and scripted. It depends on the ones. I never literally sit here and like read from a teleprompter. What I've done sometimes is get like use-up prompts, so that have like some areas that I'll just talk about. Normally with long form, I'm I am pretty good now. Like I've just always spoken pretty well. Like I've got I've got a podcast now, which is like you know yourself, I've got a lot of episodes on that. So I'm actually pretty good. I probably prefer long form and recording long form than short form. Like short form is my my reels are very much scripted, most of them.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Like well, I think they need to be there. They need to be because you need to be concise.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

100%. So I find that I'm I don't really enjoy the recording for reels and stuff. I find it a bit of effort and I make more mistakes on it. But for YouTube, generally, if you just give me a good topic, someone I'm passionate about, and then a few key areas I want to address, I could just talk about it quite easily. Um, and then if I get a little bit lost, then I'll use some areas and stuff like some prompts that I've got. But yeah, generally my YouTube is just very much just like me raw talking and then a little bit of editing goes into it.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

But you said a minute ago, you know, I just make content for my audience, and I guess you know, people's audiences is is an interesting topic to pick up on because I would say that the the fitness coaching space, you know, it looks and maybe it's just my algorithm, but you know, it looks like probably the most saturated coaching space. I mean there's an unlimited supply of fitness coaches, but it's also an area where you know the top coaches have done a very good job of of niching down who their ICP is, you know. Uh whatever I I train uh entrepreneurs over over 40 to you know to get back the body they lost 20 years ago. I I help postnatal women, you know, get get back the pre-pregnancy bikini body, you know, whatever it may be, but it's a it's a sector where people seem to have been very good at nailing down their ICP. You know, did you did you do that from the beginning?

SPEAKER_01 25:47

I didn't from the beginning, no. I think like to start off with, I think when like going right to the beginning, when you're a personal trainer, you can't do that. Like your audience is you know the uh anyone will pay the same. Anyone will pay, yeah. Anyone who's a member of that gym, whatever. I I trained people when I was a PT that I didn't particularly enjoy, you know, like you know, elderly women and stuff, it was just like, yeah, whatever. But I think when you go online and you are literally like, you know, you're marketing to anybody, you have to be specific with who you want to work with. To begin with, again, I was probably a little bit unsure. Like it was kind of I I've always worked with more, I'd say, more intermediate people. I haven't worked with I don't work with that many beginners, but I think over time, when we started to see right who are we actually getting results with, like what people are doing really well on the program, then we started to niche down a lot more. Um, I I still wouldn't say I'm super specific. I think if you're too specific, and this is what one of my mentors taught me, like, if you like zone in so much around like I help, you know, 40-year-old Muslim woman who like, do you know what I mean? Like, you're not gonna get you're not gonna get anyone.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

But if you're just like maybe in Dubai, maybe, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:43

It depends. But I think if you if you create like a bit of a niche, um, you yeah, you generally need to do that to better stand out. Like we're pretty much men over 30, um, you know, that want to lose the dad bod, that have you know got busy lives, kids, families, don't want to use a super extreme approach, so to generally want to enjoy their life at the same time, but want to get a six pack. And you know, we're we're quite specific with the goal. The goal is the outcome is to try and get the six pack is what most men want. So we go down that niche, but if we get women that come on board, we have women that sign up all the time. So it's not that we're we're scaring people off.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

So you do get women that go actively looking for women.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

We don't we don't run ads to women, but we've had I mean we still have probably at least a couple of women that sign up a month, if not more. Referrals come from women, so like um you know, like one of my coaches works face to face as well, so like he's got a bit of a community of women that he trains, you know, they sign up. So and I occasionally I get the question of like, oh, you know, do you just coach men? And obviously we're like, no, but was we've got enough testimonials to prove that we can coach women as well. So like client base is probably like 75% men, but 25% women. But without being super specific on you know the the men's side of things, I don't think it'll be as easy to be able to pick up clients.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

What's the life span of a client for you?

SPEAKER_01 27:51

For us it's about seven months, which is for fitness, I've I think is good from what I've done. Yeah, it's very dependent, but like fitness is I think that's good. Like generally, you know, like I know some coaches that have got like 12 weeks or eight weeks, it's just it's just but why is that?

SPEAKER_00 28:04

What happens in month seven? Have they got the six back or have they? Mostly I get it.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Yeah, it's probably an element of both. Like most our program length we aim for six and twelve months. Obviously, there are people that don't stay for that, like you know, it's not it's not contracted to the point where like if they don't we're gonna send someone around their house and hit man or whatever. Like it's not like that, they can leave. But generally, yeah, we try and make out of the start six or twelve months is the goal.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

How do how do they pay? Is it's like a six-month programme paid?

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Yeah, generally. So like I'll always, again, I'll always try and you know get the six months or twelve months up front, and I will explain why that's much more important.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

But you get a discount for that as opposed to paying a monthly.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

No, we we don't really just we just don't offer monthly. Like if they do want to pay monthly, then it would go down to monthly. Generally, I try and come away from that. Like, even if they're like, well, I can't do you know two grand or three grand up front, I'll just say, okay, well, what can you do today? And then we'll just break the rest down. Because the thing is with fitness, is like you have to really commit and be all in with it with it to I think to get the result. If you go in and you just start on a monthly payment, right? It doesn't really give you the same mindset and mentality as well, I'm gonna put this much down. It's just you know, the more money you put in, the more likelihood you're gonna take it a lot more seriously. So that's the line I would always try and sell it down, and that generally works pretty well. So we might get some people that put down a grand and then they've got a grand to pay over six months. So that's like a nice easy 200 pound a month. Two grand for six and then like a three grand for twelve months. So the second twelve the second six months actually becomes a 50% discount if they sign up for 12 months.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

So where does the seven months then come from then?

SPEAKER_01 29:32

It's because they can go into re-occurring, so like they can do six months, and then they might go into like a re-occurring payment and then essentially decide when they want to drop off. So it's interesting, like that that seven month point, this is something we're looking at, but that point is generally where people start to fall. Um, but you know, we might get someone that says they're gonna do six months or twelve months and stops at three or four. So they this is where like the lifetime value generally changes a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

And have you thought much about uh you know what what you could do either in terms of different verticals or cross-sells or just I guess just di different different ways to you know to take that client that that is someone who has trusted you with the money, has spent seven months of their life with you, and therefore, you know, should be easy to sell something to if that something was right. And I guess the answer just is uh after seven months your current offer just is not the right offer for them. You know, have you have you have you thought about what other things you could move into?

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Yeah, generally, like we'll we'll normally do like I I normally say to people like you know, six months is enough time to get an amazing result, change your life, get in amazing shape. Generally, the second six months is the time that you really learn how to maintain it. You go through full calendar year, you learn every single skill that I think is necessary. We so we have it like that, and then we we generally give people options at that point, so it it can fall into just like a sort of monthly basis where they can continue. We'll always try and figure out something that's gonna at that point allow them to stay. Realistically, if they're just not a good client and they're not getting good results, my coaches aren't happy with them. We will just let them go. Like, we're not in a position where we have to keep these type of people on. But we always I think it's important to always have a goal or like know what they're working to all at every single point. For some people, they'll get to six months and you know they might still have 10 kilos to lose. Like if they're if they're big at the start, it's gonna take a while. So it depends on the person and how we want to map their journey out. People know there's something they're working towards and there's a journey ahead. They will most of the time they'll stay if they're getting results. We kind of know when people are gonna start to drop off. It's like if they stop doing their workouts, they stop checking in. This is where we have like a you know alarm bells of like, right, this person's probably gonna drop off if we don't do something. So, but some people just aren't coachable. This is the realization I've come to now. You know, we'll get people that come on board that just are never gonna get a result. It's hard to look at it from a coaching perspective, like you want to help everyone, but just the world that we live in now, people are lazy, people just aren't willing to do the work essentially.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Well, it's uh a far cry from the the the days of uh being a wage slave in David Lloyd to living living between Thailand, Bali, Dubai, and and and uh and other places. But what's what what what's the current end goal as you see it now? How how how big do you want to take this to?

SPEAKER_01 32:01

I really want to push it. I think that like I'm not I don't want to say I've been slacking because I work hard, but I say there's been uh more of a plateau in this last few months. But when I look about what I've been doing, I've been traveling, been enjoying myself like we were speaking about before. Like, there's been a lot of enjoyment, but I know where this is capable of being, and I feel like I do want to really push this into you know seven-figure business if not beyond. So I think this is one of my main reasons why I've decided that I love it out here, but I'm gonna go to Pukat and I'm gonna sell that. I'm gonna like I've got a 12-month agreement that I've got, and I'm just gonna very much try and lock in a little bit more, not get as distracted like I have been, and yeah, just take it to the moon. I feel like we've just taken on another coach recently, so he's gonna come on board, you know, he'll start taking on clients. The model is very scalable because it's just bring on a new coach, fill them up with clients, and then just keep pushing. Um, Matt, who's who's my brother, like he's stepped into like a is a really good role in terms of the head coach, so he's like really good at being able to train and just make sure that the coaches are doing their jobs and stuff. So I feel like the the system is there to just keep scaling it. So yeah, for me now, like there's not really anything that will hopefully stop me from taking it a lot further. Like it should, we should get to you know 100k, if not beyond, in terms of monthly revenue.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Awesome. Well, Chris, thanks a lot for being here, buddy. Uh, if if any of my chubby audience want to uh want to get in touch and find that six pack in the next seven months, how do we get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Instagram. So if you go Chris underscroll Fitlab, FitLab is my business, um, you'll find me on there. And then there's like links. As long as it's not been shut down. As long as it's not been shut down, yeah. Hopefully. After this podcast, I'm hoping it's still there. I think all my YouTube links and stuff here and there as well, so you can jump on one of those.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

We'll we'll we'll put everything in the show notes anyway, but thanks a lot for being here, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me on. Cheers.