First Steps to Corporate Wellness - Greg Justice

That's the frustrating thing to me about our industry, we have become a manipulation-based industry. Let's manipulate them to get them in because we can make them lose 30 pounds in 30 days. Such an artificial, superficial, nonsensical way to think long-term. If we can change habits, then we can make real progress.

Hey Fitness fans, welcome back to the Future of Fitness Podcast and Interview Series. This is your host, Eric Melzone, and this is episode number 79. I talked to the man, the legend, Greg Justice. So not only has Greg been in the fitness industry for over 40 years, he has seen it all. He has accomplished quite a bit, but he's also one of the leaders in corporate wellness. And he's literally written a book on corporate wellness. He has a book on it. And, you know, I think we talked about it in here, and you can forgive me if my numbers are off, but I just researched it not too many days ago. Over $12 billion are in the corporate wellness industry to grow. It's such a huge opportunity for fitness professionals to truly make a great living and help a lot of people. All the fitness professionals I talked to, over 300 of them interviewed, they all want to help people. That's it, right? We get into the industry because we really, really want to help people. And what a better way to help people than get into the areas where you don't have access normally in a gym to many of these people. But in the corporate setting, you do. And the money is there, the opportunity is there, it's just a win-win-win. And Greg gives us the really the how-to steps on how to get started with corporate wellness. This is an invaluable episode. So please listen to it, take it to heart, take some action today, and go after it because this is uh this is a huge opportunity, guys. It's only going to get bigger and bigger. So, yeah, number 79. This is Greg Justice. Uh, before I get to that, um, the fitness blitz. Interested in being on a podcast, never been on one before. Maybe you want to get it to our audience. Um, this thing is growing fast. It's crazy. Um, just like this podcast as well, the numbers are growing. Um, the audience is growing, and we just want to give the fitness profession a good voice for people to talk about what they do and what they're passionate about. So hit me up if you were interested in being on that show, 10 to 15 minute pre-step questions, audio only. Um, anybody, whether you've been in the industry for 40 years or four months, uh, this is a great opportunity. We're looking to meet people. So uh you can contact me at Eric Malzone at fitnessprofessionalonline.com, and I'll send you the calendar and application um to get it set up. So that's it. Number 79, Greg Justice on corporate wellness. Get after it. Greg Justice, welcome to the show, man.

Thank you, Eric. It's a pleasure to be here talking today about corporate wellness with you.

Yeah, yeah, this is a big topic. And if you can, let's start it off with a bang. You just gave me, uh, before we started talking, you gave me some really, really amazing uh statistics from an Inc. uh magazine, I believe, or something that you could from. Give us give us that that insight real quick.

Absolutely. In a recent Inc. magazine, corporate wellness was listed as the number one industry to get involved in these days. And I'm talking about uh industries like robotics, uh uh like um cybersecurity, things like that. And corporate wellness was listed higher than those industries from the standpoint of opportunity, listed to be an estimated $10.5 billion industry over the course of the next five years. So if you think about a piece of pie that is ten point five billion dollars worth, even a real small piece of that ten point five billion dollar pie can be pretty substantial to a uh trainer.

Yeah, yeah, and to give you a small example is um, you know, someone I work with, uh Ken Andrew Cow. Um he owns a CrossFit Reback Ramsey up in Calgary. And uh I won't go into specifics of the deal, but he's he's working on um a corporate wellness program that the numbers baffle me. Like, okay, that's that is that is like breakthrough to freedom type numbers, own your own island type numbers. And uh, you know, it's just really exciting that um you know the fitness profession now has that opportunity, like we're we're um uniquely qualified, right? Uh to get in there and make some some significant change and and therefore uh get a lot of value um both you know from a status and monetarily um to do this. So um I'm so excited for this this interview. Uh so Greg, uh before we get into uh the corporate wellness, because we'll talk extensively because I have so many questions, but give us give us your story, man. Give us your story in the fitness industry because I know you've been doing it for about, I think about 40 years, if I recommend.

Yeah, I've been I've been in the industry about four decades and uh have been a club owner. In fact, I'm still currently a club owner. I've been a corporate wellness supervisor. That was how I got accidentally uh involved in the corporate wellness industry, and and the story behind that is when I got out of graduate school, um, I was opening up Kansas City's original personal fitness training center. And uh that goes back to the mid-1980s. So, you know, I was not only challenged with introducing a new business to a community, but I was uh challenged with introducing an entirely new industry because people didn't understand the idea of paying somebody for a personal one-on-one session. Now, obviously, these days people kind of look around and go, well, personal training, that's everywhere. But trust me, back in the uh early to mid-1980s, it was not. It was not even an industry. Uh, exercise science as a degree didn't exist at the time. Exercise physiology, you know, all those degrees didn't exist. So basically, if you wanted to get in the exercise-related world, you had to be uh a PE major uh or a kinesiology major. Uh, and now, of course, we have all the expanded uh opportunities in the industry, but but back then it didn't exist. So as I was uh navigating those early days, the waters uh in the early days, I had to take on a real job to pay the bills as I was starting um AYC Health and Fitness, which stands for at your convenience. And so uh I found this job opportunity with our local parks and recreation district. And it was a the title of the job was Corporate Wellness Supervisor. So I thought, well, you know, I did some corporate wellness through graduate school, uh, and I thought this would be a good way to pay the bills early on. And so I applied for the job, got the job, and what it consisted of was right out of the gate working with 64 area corporations that were really ahead of their time back in the you know early to mid-1980s, corporate wellness wasn't quite what it is today either. So, you know, right out of the gate, right out of graduate school, I was working with 64 area corporations uh on elements of their corporate wellness department. And um I spent two full years doing that, and then over the course of that, those two years, uh, I had built my personal training business to the point where I basically had two full-time jobs. Yeah, and um, and my wife, you know, the voice of reason, she came to me and said, you know, if you want to be part of this family, choose one of the jobs. Yeah, and she even said, I don't, she said, I don't even care which one it is. Um and of course, my entrepreneurial spirit made me, of course, take the um AYC Health and Fitness because I'd worked so hard to build it to the point where it was now a real business. So I uh gave my two weeks' notice in the corporate wellness to the corporate wellness job, and actually the transition ended up being closer to six months to a year because I was, you know, I wanted to make sure it was left in good hands, that we had a smooth transition, and that it was, you know, everything was just perfectly uh transitioned with the new person. Uh and then so after I was completely uh away from that job, I started getting calls back from a lot of those people that I had worked with, a lot of the HR directors, a lot of the um CEOs or or C CFOs, COOs that I had worked with. And they were wanting me to come back and do some specialty type programs, and and you know, so the light bulb went on over my head, and I thought, well, I'll just create a corporate division of my personal training business. And so there it was. Accidentally got involved in corporate wellness uh you know about three and a half decades ago, and it has served my business uh so well over the course of three and a half decades, and I've just been blessed to be able to be a part of the industry, to see it evolve and grow and um and benefit from it as each of the listeners of this podcast will certainly be able to do as well.

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So, you know, I right um right when I sold my gym, like the previous uh six months. So I sold I sold my facility back uh in June of last year of 2017. For that, that for the six to nine months that um before I sold, I was really starting to focus on corporate wellness, and I come up with a program. It was a six-week program where I go in and you know, I teach people um, you know, it's a game, it's it's all a game, right? So it's like you get points for eating right, you get points for doing these things, and we taught people how to meditate, we taught people how to stream, we taught people how to cook, uh, we taught people all these things. And pulling this was, you know, I thought it was a good program. Um, but the numbers, like I came in and I completely undersold the value.

Most most trainers do.

Yeah. I came a $10,000 mark. And when they said, yeah, easy, I was like, oh man, I just probably left so much money on the table, right? Which gives people an idea, like $10,000 for six weeks like that. I was like, oh wow. I it's it takes me you know it takes a while for me to accumulate as a facility owner that much money and the potential out there for it, and that was just one way to do it. So um, so let's let's get into the nitty-dit nitty-gritty. You know, if if I'm if I'm uh Joe Fit Pro, right, and I'm like, wow, this sounds really interesting. Hopefully they are. I can't imagine they aren't, right? Um, what what steps do I start taking?

Um actually we'll we'll walk through kind of the step-by-step process. Um and now the key here is um so many trainers get into a sector of the industry because it sounds you know like it's an easy money grab, right? And I I uh and while there is some amazing opportunity in corporate wellness, I don't want trainers to do it unless they're committed to the process and willing to go through the necessary steps that it takes to do it right. Uh and actually we'll we'll kind of cover some of the biggest mistakes that trainers make. Um if you want to, we could do that first. Yeah, I think that might be a better way to do it because some of the biggest mistakes that trainers make, and uh and and I speak from experience because I've made some of these mistakes. Um the probably the biggest mistake that trainers make is they go in and they take their existing business model into the corporate setting. It's basically you know just trying to replicate exactly what they do in their boot camp or fitness business into the uh corporate environment. And what you have to understand is you have to first and foremost understand that the corporate environment is totally different than your if you have a boot camp or a training environment, whatever it is, it's totally different. And you have to be responsive and respectful of that environment. And I'll give you a classic example of the that I learned very early on in our very first corporate contract. Uh, this goes back more than two decades ago now. Um, we were brought in to uh do two weekly classes on-site training programs and uh a week, which quickly turned into four, four turned into eight, eight to sixteen. And as we sit here doing this interview today, that one company, we do 30 on-site corporate fitness classes a week, morning, afternoon, and evening. So, you know, you see the potential going from two classes a week where we are today at 30 classes a week in just that one uh uh uh corporate setting. But um, the first day that we went in there to do this program, um, I was there with my uh uh general manager who was actually going to run the program, and uh he had the gym all set up and all the stations ready to go, and the people came in and he was you know rocking and rolling and had the music cranked up and was ready to make this you know the best day of their lives. And a couple of minutes later, after the session began, a gentleman came around the corner and was looking through the glass into the gym with his eyes about that wide open and going, What are you doing? And we didn't realize it, but right next door to the gym was a computer programmer's office. Right. And that loud thumping bass was not conducive to him getting his job done well. And so, you know, it it was one of those light bulb moments again that made me realize oh, you know, this is not our gym. This is their gym that they have invited us into, and we need to be respectful of this gym in their environment. So what we did right there, it helped us create the systems of creating the volume level at a certain, you know, level. It could only be this loud to affect the others around the environment. So the first mistake not to make uh is being respectful of the environment. You need to be respectful of it, know, do a side evaluation, look at the areas around you to know how loud you can be, and um and you know what kind of uh um if you're throwing medicine balls against the wall, it better be a wall that's not next door to a computer programmer's office, it better be a stable wall. Um, and just understand that this isn't your gym, it's their gym that you've been invited to. So that would be the first mistake not to make. Um the second mistake that a lot of trainers make is not fully understanding who their client is. Now, what I mean by that is when a company comes in and sponsors this program for their employees, it's not the individual employees that are your clients. It is the corporation that is paying the bill. Right? So the motivation may be different from those individuals that come in for the workouts. If if a uh client comes into your business and and purchases your services, your boot camp camp program or whatever it is, that is their individual decision, their motivation, it may be to lower the cholesterol, to lower uh, you know, to just get in better shape for a camping tour or whatever. But in the corporate setting, it may be a little bit of pressure, you know, a little bit of um uh pressure from the company that they want them in there to have a healthier employer, right? And employee, I should say. So, you know, just remember the motivation may be different, and ultimately you are accountable to the company who's paying the bill, not those individuals. Now, I'm not saying you ignore those individuals, but just understand who your customer is and what those motivations are and how they can differ from your individual gym and the corporate uh environment. So just you know, those are a couple of little things just off the bat to think about and be aware of as you go into it.

Yeah.

And then now we'll kind of backtrack and go into those steps that we had talked about earlier. If you want to, we can kind of start that process.

So yeah, it's it's really interesting too, Greg, if I if I can, and just from you know, personal anecdotes is that um, you know, when I did uh get that corporate wellness program going, uh, number one, it wasn't just a one-shot, it was it was a relationship that was nurtured over a year. Yes. Number one.

We're gonna talk about that exactly.

Yeah, and number two, um, one of the feedback I got was because I came from the corporate world, I spent about 10 years in in corporate environments and I understood the corporate environment. Um, and he said, you know, it's what's different about you is when you came and presented, you had a nice colored shirt, you had shiny shoes, you know, you have these things where most trainers will show up with a muscle T, right?

And uh that's um that's exactly, exactly wrong.

Yeah. So that that was two realizations that I had. And it was only because of the feedback that I had gotten. And uh I think that's a really I think the mind, I think you're right. And it's it's now people are going from most most coaches, trainers, facility owners are going from B2C, so business to consumer to B2B. Uh and it's it's a it's a really different shift. So um, yeah, man, let's let's get into it.

How how and you have to you have to shift you have to shift that pers you know that mindset as well, going from B2C to B2B.

Yeah.

Um and and and actually, and we'll kind of come full circle to this, what you said about being professional, because that's one of the absolute bottom line things that you have to do. But first of all, first and foremost, before you decide to get into it, it's important to define your objectives about what you want to attain from going into the corporate uh world. What I mean by that is if you currently own a fitness facility, whether it be a personal training gym, uh small club or studio, whatever it is, that is the existing model. Understand that this will support that, but it's totally different. So what I always suggest is to create a vision board. Whether it's be, you know, whether it's when you're writing a new book, whether it's when you're starting a new business, think about this as a new business and create a vision board. So clearly define the objectives of what you want to achieve from adding this into your business. And I'm talking numbers, um, you know, have visual pictures of what it looks like in your mind, have quotes, have dollar amounts, budget thing, I mean everything on that vision board. And walk by it, see it, and actively participate in that vision every single day. Because, you know, if you make it deliberate and if you're intentional about something, things will happen. Otherwise, they kind of get lost in the shuffle. So, you know, that that's so critical to the overall process is to make sure that you're clear about the objectives you're trying to accomplish from doing this or adding this into your into your business. The second step would be the preparation step. And this is about doing you know simple research about corporate wellness. Knowing some of the basic terminologies. You need to understand the difference between absenteeism and presenteeism, and you need to know what a health risk assessment is, um, employee-assisted programs, things like that. Just know some of those basics, which are actually, um, as we have talked about a little earlier, I'm going to offer your the anyone listening to this the opportunity to download a corporate fitness toolkit that will have all of these basics in there for them to follow, and we'll give them a blueprint walking them step by step through the process. So that will all be part of this um bonus that we offered them. Um so the preparation stage is so critical uh to the to the big picture, and part of that is creating a sales presentation, and we'll talk about that here in just a minute, kind of what you were talking about when you went in, you know, dressed in a collared shirt, not a not a tank top, um, and you know, looking professional because the corporate world is different than our gyms where we flex our biceps and scream. You know, it's it's different. So the next step, and you mentioned a little bit of this when you talked about the lead generation. A lot of trainers come to me through the National Corporate Fitness Institute, and they want a magic pill to start their corporate wellness business from a lead generation standpoint. And I said, believe it or not, that magic pill is already right in front of you. And they're kind of looking at me, it's like, what do you mean? If you have a training business, if it's let's kind of break it down into like a personal training business, is a lot of small personal training businesses will have anywhere between 50 and let's say 200 clients at any given time. And personal training is unique in that those are really highly qualified leads for the corporate market because most personal, not most, but a lot of personal training clients are either decision makers in the corporate world or they're influencers of the decision makers. What I mean by that, they're wives, family members, friends of the decision makers. Right there is your magic. Pill of lead generation. And that's the first thing that we teach in the process through our coaching program is do a spreadsheet of decision makers, influencers, and then everyone else. We'll get to the everyone else later. We always start with those decision makers, the ones that own the businesses, because they are the ones that can look you in the eye when you ask them a question and say yes or no. It's done or it's not done. I'm going to give some specific um stories about that case studies that I experienced. The next level are what I think are equally as powerful as the decision makers, and those are the influencers. And the reason I say that is I have actually had more success from the influencers who put me in direct contact with the decision makers than I have with the decision makers. And here's the reason: the decision makers, they're the ones that are they own the company, they're somewhere in the C-suite, and their focus is not on corporate wellness. I'm not saying it's not somewhere in their sphere of thinking, but their focus, and I'm going to give you a perfect example of that. One of my long, longtime clients, who is the CEO of a major international computer software company, uh I was visiting him in Chicago at one of his offices there, they're headquartered here in Kansas City. But um his wife, the influencer, set up a meeting with me with him in his Chicago office. So I sat down and and you know, he got right to the point. He said, Tell me exactly what you want to achieve from this meeting. I mean, just right out of the gate. Didn't even give me a chance to say much of anything. And I said, Well, um, honestly, what I wanted to get from you is information on how I can get in front of more people like you. And he said, to be honest with you, your biggest challenge is that my focus is on this $200 million deal that I'm working on in Hong Kong, not corporate wellness.

Right.

My focus is on this $60 million I'm working on a deal I'm working on in Los Angeles, not corporate wellness. He said, that's going to be your biggest challenge is getting them to hear your message. And it was like, wow, that's you know, that was pretty powerful for me to hear. He was basically saying, it's not that your message isn't important, it's just my focus as the leader of this company, as a CEO, is that $200 million deal, that $60 million deal, you know, not your corporate wellness program. Right. So he said, now, now I'm I'm interested in doing what's right for my associates. So I understand the value of your program and we're gonna do it. But it wasn't until I got in front of him through the influencer, his wife, that got me in front of his HR person. And when I got in front of his HR person, it was not a matter of if we were gonna do the program, it was a matter of when we were gonna start the program. So that's the top-down approach that we preach through those relationships that you talked about. He was a longtime client of my personal training business. His wife is a longtime client of my personal training business. We had established that trust, you know, the old no like and trust, that had already been established a long time ago. So, like I said, it wasn't a matter of if, but when we were going to start that program. And that's the one that we started with two classes a week, which quickly doubled the four to eight to sixteen, and now 30 classes a week, because the influencer put me in front of the decision maker and he said yes. Yeah, yeah. Pretty pretty simple example of the relationship.

Yeah, it's really powerful. I mean, um, you know, I did uh, you know, I did corporate sales for for 10 years. So I was always, and one of the books that I had to read, uh, I chose to read it, actually, I didn't have to read it, was selling to veto, um, which veto stands for very important top officer. Um and it's how to get into the mindset of of that person and really understand. It smells a lot like empathy, really, you know, of like, okay, here's understanding what motivates them, what's going through their days, how you can be important and add value to them and take something uh away from them. And you're right. If you go, most people like they start the other way. Like, well, I'll start with the HR system, maybe she can introduce one exact manager, and it's all wrong because that that has no that has no power. If you start up top and they say, Hey, talk to my HR manager, and they even if it's as simple as connecting you on an email, that person is now bound to you by blood.

Again, and it's that top-down approach. Yeah. Because, like you said, when the CEO makes the introduction, it's it's pretty much a done deal. And let me give you one more quick example of the direct response from the uh CEO. Um, this is uh he was the CEO of North America's largest pasta manufacturer. They're based here in Kansas City and they have offices around the world. Um, but they're, like I said, based right here in Kansas City. I worked with his wife uh and him. He'd actually retired now, but um uh back in the day, we would talk about corporate wellness, and I could tell it was never a conversation that he was fully engaged in. You know, it would just be kind of talked about a little bit and then kind of dismissed. Well, one day I thought, well, I'm going to give him a copy of my book called Lies and Myths About Corporate Wellness. Nice. I wrote this book as a platform book telling how I go into corporations and develop corporate wellness programs. And the reason I did that is because in our industry, we as trainers are perceived as trainers. And unfortunately, that has a negative connotation in the corporate world a lot of times. Right? And and the classic example of that was when I gave that book to him, he kind of looked at it and put it away from his eyes and said, Is this your book? He had no idea that I'd even written this book. I said, Yeah, see, my name's right there on top. And I was kind of joking. He said, I had no idea, and he kind of looked on the back where my bio and everything is and said, I had no idea you'd written a book. So he went on about his way, and that was on a Monday morning. Wednesday morning, he came back with the book in hand and said, Greg, I read the first three chapters of your book and loved it. He said, I always knew you were good at the physical stuff, but I had no idea you were smart, too. And that's that sums up the fitness industry and like what's that that's my point, is that I had to elevate myself in his eyes. Not that he didn't know, like, and trust me already, but he knew, liked, and trusted me as his personal fitness trainer. Right. That's what I was in his eyes. Because again, in the bigger, broader scope of things, he was focused on that multimillion dollar deal in Rome, that deal in South Carolina. He wasn't focused on his personal training being an expert in corporate wellness. But I changed that thinking by giving him my platform book showing how I did what I did.

Yeah.

In that conversation on Wednesday as he was working out, he said, I'm going to set up a meeting with our HR department, and we're going to implement this program into the company. It was, it was, I mean, his perception of me, of my business, of my professional stature changed just like that. That's awesome. Because I was not only good at the physical stuff, but I was smart too.

Yeah, yeah.

And and that turned into a into about a $40,000 a year contract um almost overnight.

Yeah. Oh, so good. So uh and maybe you'll get into this, and if you do, just tell me we'll we'll get into it. Um But when I'm when you're selling to a CEO, what what are what's what do they care about? Like what are those pain points that a CEO, like what's the language, what's the things that you're really going after, you know, that that'll be like they actually care about that versus because you know, not you know, if you come in, like I've tried, you know, we always think that we know what everybody wants, right? Right. Um like we think, oh, we're gonna just decrease everyone's body fat percentage, we'll do this. But really, what they're they're mostly worried about probably is insurance costs, uh loss of of um work time due to people being sick or ill or just you know, injuries, uh things like that. So what what are the what are the nuggets if if you're arming someone to go into a meeting, what are the things that you you should be talking about?

Well, what's interesting, if you're in a meeting and you have the CEO, the CFO, and the COO, you're really talking to three totally different mindsets about what's important and what they're focused on. Because I can promise you, every time I'm in front of the CFO, the chief financial officer, his number one concern is bottom line. He wants me to tell him and quantify exactly how much money am I going to save by bringing your program into my business. You know, so his focus is bottom line. So if I'm talking to him, I reframe the context of the conversation. Instead of talking about return on investment or our OI, we talk more about the OI, which is value on investment. So, in other words, I can't give him an exact dollar amount. If he spends $50,000 a year on this program, I can't tell him that he's going to make $713,000 and 22 cents because he brought me in. I can't give him those exact numbers. Now I can give him some meta-evaluations that come as a result of studying corporate wellness. I can give him those general uh tools, but I can't give him an exact dollar amount. So we talk about the value on the investment that he makes, what value this program brings to his business, the value of retaining employees because of a benefit like this, the value of perhaps that controller who is making $100,000 a year and has a stroke or a heart attack because he is in poor health. How much does that cost you, not only paying his salary, but paying the salary of the person that you have to bring in to replace him? What is the value of keeping him healthy? So a lot of times this is just about reframing the context of the conversation. And when you do that and start asking open-ended questions, in other words, I don't want to ask a question of that CEO, CFO, or COO that he can say yes or no to. I want to be able to have what we call our thoughtfully worded questions, open-ended questions, where you can start to peel back those layers of the onion and get to the real heart of the matter, like you're talking about, those pain points. It's different for the different, you know, um in the C-suite, they have different pain points. So I want to hear each of those pain points, but I also want to make sure I'm talking to the right person because I don't want to waste their time and I don't want to waste my time if it's not the right person to have this conversation with. And here's an example. If you're talking, if you're starting on that bottom-up approach where you get to the HR person and you explain exactly how you work through that process from A to Z, then you're relying on them to take that message to the C-suite. Right. Right? And it's like that game that you that we used to play in junior high school or high school called Telephone, where you'd have 10 people around in a circle. Do you know, do you remember this game?

Yeah.

Yeah. Where you you would tell the story into the ear of the first person and let the story get around to the 10 people, and then by the tenth person who relays that story, it's a totally different story than what it began at. It's the same process that occurs when you're expecting the HR team to take your message to the cease route. I want to take that message to the people. I don't want to rely on someone else doing it. That's why it's so important to do the top-down approach.

Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. So what's next? Is there more steps here? Because I have a million questions, but I want to.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Then once you get from that lead generation of knowing who to go to, which we start with the decision makers and influencers, then it's time to really think about meeting with those prospects, with those decision makers, with those influencers, right? And this is where, and you mentioned it earlier, talking about going in, looking the part, looking professional. Do not go in flip-flops, a tank top, and workout shorts. And trust me, there are so many trainers that do exactly that because they think that relationship that they have with that CEO is the same outside as it is in their gym environment. And it's not. When you are on their turf, you are now playing by their rules. Right. And that means at the very least, wear a collared shirt like this, right? And then if you want to, you know, wear the nice button-down or a suit jacket or whatever. But look corporate, look professional, and be everything that they expect you to be, because I promise you, they have expectations of you coming into that meeting and presenting to their team or to them. Yeah. And you need to do your homework in this in that preparation stage of that company. Know the history of that company, know how many employees they have in that company, know the demographics of that company. Because when I go into a company that is high-tech and has a lot of 20 to 30-year-old computer gurus, versus going into a legal office that has a lot of 50 to 60, maybe even 70-year-old employees, that's a totally different environment, totally different program that you're going to present to them. So before you go into that meeting, make sure that you have done all of your homework on that particular corporation. So that you know, it's kind of like being a good attorney when you put somebody on the stand. A lot of the times you're gonna know the answers before you ask the question. But again, you want to ask the question in an open-ended way so that you can get as much information from them as possible. Awesome. So do your homework, make sure of that, make sure you have an organized sales presentation. And and again, that will be one of the things that I that I will put in that uh bonus material that I that I'll offer is what should go in that sales uh uh presentation. And I won't read them all off here, but there's about a dozen things systematically that you want in that sales presentation, and um uh look the part, be the part, and then this is where most trainers fail. Once you have left the meeting, it is not over. That is when the process of follow-up begins. Too many trainers, once they have had that meeting, and they may get a lukewarm reception to the process, they may get a maybe, you know, but more than likely on that first go round, you're not gonna get the yes. I mean, I've been fortunate to get a few yeses right out of the gate, but again, this is because the relationship has been so developed over the course of years before that. Um this is the process of the follow-up, which too many trainers leave out. But once you do all your due diligence, you've had the meeting, follow up with them shortly thereafter with a nice formal handwritten note, phone call, week or two later, email, whatever, but stay in touch with them and follow up, follow up, follow up, follow up.

Yeah. And can I emphasize too the power nowadays, especially of a nice handwritten thank you note? Like it is overwhelming. It's so rare, and uh it's but it's so easy, right? It is.

It's it's the differentiator. I mean, it separates you from everyone else. So, no question about it. A handwritten note is always the first thing that I recommend in that process after the fact.

Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it. So, what's next?

Um, okay, so once the follow-up process began, it's in it's important also that we coach this is to have a spreadsheet of all of those decision makers and influencers and the process and the point of the process that you are with each of those individuals. Because what'll happen is you'll get kind of lost in the shuffle. It's like, okay, I'm working on three different ones now, but you're I'm in a different stage with each of those prospects. You need to make sure that you have a very organized system in place to know where you are, what stage you are, who you've talked to, when you've talked to them, have you done the note, you know, the handwritten note. So date and label everything that you've done in the process so that you'll know with each of those prospects where you are. So make sure you have an organization system set in place before you do that. And then, you know, once you're fortunate enough to get the contract, that's when the real work begins. Because you've got to, I'm telling you, these contracts on the low end many times, like you said, that $10,000 contract, that's on the low end.

Yeah.

One of our coaching student clients, right out of the gate, his very first contract was a hundred and twenty thousand dollar a year contract.

Boom.

His very first one right out of the gate. And he was like a deer in the headlights. He's like, okay, I've got this meeting. I'm terrified. I have no idea what to do. I have never been involved in corporate wellness. I don't even know what to say.

Yeah.

We did a little bit of an accelerated process through the coaching program. But he went into that light. He said, I went in as confident as could be and came out with a $120,000 a year contract. Now, that's that's the exception. That's not the norm. That's not going to happen every time. And again, on the on the low. But Greg promised I would get $120,000 a year. Exactly. Um, but again, that's not, you know, companies have big budgets for their employee benefits and gyms, corporate gyms, I've been hired multiple times to come in and just consult or build an on-site facility. Um, one time one of our uh corporate um contracts was to come in and build a corporate gym. We did, it was a state-of-the-art Cybex equipment. I mean, laid out beautifully. It was a a Mecca of corporate fitness facilities. And about three months later, the um CEO called me and said, Greg, you know, the gym looks terrific. He said, I'm very pleased with everything you did. He said, but it is the cleanest, most spectacularly underused room in my entire corporate facility. He said, No one uses it. I said, Well, that's because you used the field of dreams mentality. And he's like, What do you mean? Do you remember that movie Field of Dreams? Build it and they will come?

Yep. Yeah.

You can't. You have to build it, program it, and then they will come. Because in the corporate environment, you've got a lot of people that have never stepped foot in a gym. They're intimidated by the process. But if you hold their hand and guide them through the process, then you've got a client for life. Because so many of these, um, you know, so many of these corporate people, they set at a desk for one-third of their entire life, eight hours a day at least, every day. And the people that you really want to go after aren't the people that are going to work out anyways. You want to go after the people that would never consider working out, except for you've made it so convenient. The most common objections to not working out in the corporate setting are time, location, and money. Okay, our programs are 30-minute sessions, so we have eliminated that that time element, right? The convenience, we've eliminated that because now we are coming to you.

Yeah.

The money objection, we've got rid of that because the company is now sponsoring it. So right off the bat, with a company-sponsored on-site fitness program, you've just eliminated three most common objections you get to why people don't work out.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right there.

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Um. So so what uh how about is there any steps after that? I mean, once you've installed the program, the program's running. Um, is there like are you are you are you monitoring like KPI, again, you know, key performance indicators? Like, how does that how do you Yeah, yeah.

The important thing then is to stay accountable to the client and remember who the client is. Right. And you do that in the macro through the micro. Right? Or vice versa. Um, so you're taking care of the the pieces of the puzzle, which are the individual clients. You're making sure that they are achieving the goals that they wanted to achieve, which ultimately fall in line with the bigger scope or the uh of the greater uh client, which is the the corporation. Now, what you cannot do is report individual successes to the employer, right? Because there are HIPAA violations. You can't tell an employer that someone or that one of their employees has dropped the cholesterol by 30% or dropped the X number of pounds, unless there's some kind of a weight loss program that they're doing, and it's you know common knowledge or uh general knowledge. Um, and to be honest with you, I'm not a fan of the biggest loser kind of programs. I think those are absolutely the worst thing a company can do. Um, in fact, um when we have whenever we do any kind of challenges, and you talked about this earlier, and I was thrilled to hear the way you had laid out your challenges. It's about changing habits. It's about getting points for taking a walk, for walking your dog, for drinking water, for eating vegetables. Changing your habits are what create long-term changes in your life, not losing 30 pounds in 30 days. Right. You know, that's the frustrating thing to me about our industry, is we have become a manipulation-based industry. Let's manipulate them to get them in because we can make them lose 30 pounds in 30 days.

Yeah.

You know, it's such a such an artificial, um, superficial, nonsensical way to think long term.

Yeah.

You know, so if we can change habits, then we can make real progress. So, you know, think long term, not short term. Um when you do those challenges, make sure that it's about changing their daily habits, not about making them lose 30 pounds in 30 days. And uh, and then ultimately you will see the respect you gain not only from those individual employees, but from the corporation, the C-suite as a whole.

Yeah, awesome. Yeah, it's it makes so much sense. And I think this goes into like, like, this is such an amazing opportunity for the fitness profession to rise, right? Get out of that, you know, that kind of that gutter feeling of like we just do 30-day challenges and all that, but really establishing habits that actually change lives. And so many times, you know, I've I've told so many different stories about you know working with a very uh, you know, what would be considered from our side of things as a fitness professional as a challenging client, you know. Um, but really all it takes is like, hey, just have them show up to the gym.

Showing up in 90 days. Right.

That's it. That's it. Just get them to the gym, right? You can just show up, pick up a piece of paper, walk back out, and then have them drink two glasses of water in the morning. That's enough. That's enough. That's the start. Right. Right.

And that's that's and you're so right. You know, and it kind of goes back to my um, and I stole this, and I have to give credit where credit is due from my friend Brian Grasso. I don't know if you know who Brian is, but um Brian once said that simplicity plus consistency equals success.

Yes.

And and I have lived that message throughout my life of almost six complete decades on this planet.

Yeah.

And if you just show up, that's so much a part of the battle. Um, you know, it's like you can talk a good game, but doggone it, show up, do the work, be consistent, and you'll see change. Yeah, yeah.

And I can tell you from uh speaking as a a uh a chronic complicator um that you know it's I always recenter myself um, you know, with with those those great words. So Greg, you know, um I think we've given people more than enough to get started. And I hope this is something that, you know, uh we can start creating a movement um within it to really get people looking at corporate wellness because it's it's also our opportunity to make the biggest impact, right? I mean, like you said, would people spend one third of their life at a company? At least. Yeah. What's a is there a better place to start? I argue not, right? No. Um if you want to make a truly want to make an impact. And I think, you know, out of all the people that I've interviewed um, you know, on this podcast and the fitness blitz, is generally uh, you know, I tell this all the time, is you know, out of all these interviews, I've come across 200, as of today, 220 interviews. I've come across one jerk, and that's it. And he wasn't even in the industry. I deleted his his uh you know his podcast and it'll never air. Um but everyone else has a genuine desire to help. And I think this is you know the most the biggest amplification of that. So um yeah, thank you for coming on and sharing all this great pleasure. Obviously, in the intro to this, I will give uh the website link to get your your toolkit, which I think is step one, right? Understanding the language is gonna be really, yeah.

And and and that will be through the website, the NCFI website. And actually, there's also a six-week complementary uh masterclass, which I would suggest to anyone. It'll give you a great insight into the industry and let you know if it's something that you want to pursue, because it is a goal mine of untapped potential uh for fitness professionals, and you mentioned it earlier that we are uniquely qualified and positioned to step right into that role.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it, fitness pros. Let's do it. So, Greg, thank you so much for coming on the show, man. It's been an absolute pleasure as always. And uh yeah, let's let's go get them, guys. Make this actual action today. Thanks for having me, Eric. I appreciate it. Hey FitnessFans, don't leave yet. It's your host, Eric Malzone, and I have a quick favor to ask. Actually, three favors. So, number one, if you're a fan of our show, I ask you to do something that takes under three minutes. Go to iTunes, please, and subscribe to our show. Please, please, please. It means so much to us. It's so important. And then give us a favorable review. We would really, really appreciate it. And uh, I can't tell you how much it means and helps us out. So I know it takes two minutes of your day, and uh, it means a lot to us. So please do that. Number two, go to our YouTube channel or Fitness Marketing Alliance, and uh please subscribe to our YouTube channel there. Number three, if you like this episode or any of the episodes that we've released, share it on social. That's huge, that's a big deal for us. And we put a lot of work into these episodes uh trying to give you great actionable content uh for the fitness industry. So that would mean a lot. And that's it. So we have some big plans coming up for this show. I'll be talking about that in the next couple episodes. But thank you so much for listening. It means so much. And uh, if you have any questions, please reach out to me. I'd love to hear from everybody. Eric, ERIC at fitness marketing alliance dot com.