Making the Leap Online - Ru Anderson

That's where I'm looking at is just um what kind of promises are people making me? And are they realistic? Come on. Because if people are not making legitimate, truthful promises to you in their marketing, it's a big breakdown of trust. And I find it very hard then to believe people's programs are actually going to deliver or their coaching and their promises on the other side are going to be there as well.

Hey fitness fans, welcome back to the future fitness podcast and interview series. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and this is episode number 117. I talked to Rue Anderson. And Rue, uh, I believe is originally from the UK, but he's also a fellow nomad. So as I record this introduction, I believe he is cruising around Australia in a BW bus. And then I think his plan was to go to Barcelona. We talk a little bit about his plan uh in here, but I love it. And I I bring it up because it's part of the allure of the online business lifestyle, right? And during this interview, Rue and I go in depth about um, you know, the advantages, the disadvantages, uh, the real life struggles of building an online business. And uh by all means, we we love it. Both of us do, right? I mean, I'm sitting here in Whitefish, Montana, because I want to be here. And then in three months, I don't know where I'll be uh with my wife and my dog, but we'll be somewhere where we want to be. And that's that's the cool thing about it. And it's just a lot of, you know, obviously there's a lot of freedom that comes with that lifestyle. Um, but there's a whole different bucket of, you know, problems and stress and challenges and all that. So uh yeah, very, very authentic, very open, and uh really talks about how to get started and be successful in the online space and what to look for as far as don't get taken advantage of, right? And there's a lot of people out there promising things that they probably shouldn't be promising, and uh it's easy to fall in those traps at all times. But if you have a little bit of common sense and listen to some of the advice within this podcast, uh you'll be all right. So, yeah, really exciting. Rue's a really great guy. And before we get into it, I do want to read a review because uh that's what I say I do. So if you do take time to go to iTunes and subscribe to our podcast as well as uh write a nice review, I'll read it. So that's it's simple. It's gonna take you two minutes. Two minutes, right? Just stop right now and go to iTunes and hopefully leave us a review. A good one. I mean, a good review would be great. So this one comes from the speed guy. I think I know who that is. I really appreciate Eric's line of questions. He's a pro at leading a great interview. I enjoyed sharing ideas in fitness, future, and past. I really liked having open conversation and not just answering pre-programmed questions. It was an honor. I hope to get the chance once again. And if that's who I think it is, Lee, Lee Taft, man, anytime, you're welcome back on the show anytime, and thank you for leaving me such a wonderful review. So, without further ado, let's get into this. Uh, this is, and by the way, this show is brought to you by Certified Course Creation. If you have a great idea, right, if you have the expertise that you built up over the years and you're ready to stop trading your time for money, perhaps it's time to build out an accredited online certification. The education field is ripe for disruption, and you want to be there right at the forefront to share your knowledge and make a good amount of money while you do it. So go to certifiedcoursecreation.com, check out what they offer, maybe start with a free discovery call to start pulling out and teasing out the ideas that you have for a certification and uh check it out. It's well worth your time. So, episode number 117, Rue Anderson. Enjoy the show. I know I did. And we're live. All right, Rue Anderson, my friend. Welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me, buddy. It's great to be here.

Yeah, yeah. And you know, once again, I'm gonna say the most annoying thing uh to all my listeners is we just had a great conversation pre-recording. And uh I'm excited. I hope we can get it right the second time uh as we reiterate it all. But let's do this, Rue. Um, give us give us a quick, you know, a bio on yourself and then we'll we'll get into some of the topics that we want to cover today. Quick bio, super quick bio. Oh, what as long as you want, man. We got an hour at least. So uh yeah. I always like to clear that up because there's a long story and the short story.

Yeah, give us give us the good stuff, man. Give us the good stuff. All right, let's rewind about because I haven't always been in the fitness industry or fitness professional, and uh really I didn't like many of the guys and girls as well. I didn't really plan to become a fitness professional and to uh get into the industry really. Rewind uh around about 10 years ago, I was uh just coming out of university. I got myself an engineering degree. I thought, yeah, this is okay, doing the typical sort of get the degree, get a get a job. I'm I'm yeah, air quoting here, get a job, get a career, a career. And uh yeah, I became a survey engineer, and everyone was like, that's a great job, man. Well done, you've made it. Yeah. A couple of years later, I was depressed, completely depressed. Um, I just was not happy with the way my life was going. Really wasn't. I wasn't happy with my career, fed up working for a boss, and I had started to grow this big interest, okay, a passion for health and fitness. I'd been training a lot earlier than this, um, but I got reached a stage in my own sort of training that I started to compete. I was doing competitive bodybuilding, I was doing competitive power lifting. So I was taking this stuff serious. And with that, to get to that sort of level, I was also studying, you know, consuming all this information, reading every night, doing some courses, certifications. And uh I thought, you know what? How about I ditch this survey engineering career and get into the fitness industry? So I did my level three personal trainer qualification, uh, which is the absolute bare minimum we need, um, certainly in the UK and within Europe, to be able to uh train people in a in a commercial gym. And uh I got that so that I could start my own business, really. But I'd always had this inkling of going online because when I was doing the research and studying, I wasn't convinced that the the traditional PT model, you know, go to the gym, get some clients, show up every day, was really that great compared to my survey engineering job. Yeah, it was my passion. It was going to interest me a lot more, but I just didn't feel it was quite cutting it in terms of that's worth quitting my job over with my career here. Yeah. So I then came across the online stuff. It wasn't as popular around about seven years ago when I first started. It wasn't as popular as it is now. It's a big buzzword, as I say, in the fitness industry, but I found a few people who were doing it, and I thought, okay, this looks like you know, they're they're they're at home, they're blogging from home and just spending some time doing some videos and social media updates each day. That looks much better. Yeah, so uh I did a little bit of research, nowhere near the might of research I should have done. Quit my full-time job, sold my car, sold my flat, and really cut ties with all of my overheads. And uh I started my online business. I literally got a laptop, bought my domain name, set up the website as we all do, those typical steps, and started exceednutrition.com. And without going too into the long story here, I started, I just started creating, yeah, creating content for my online business. That's what I could see others doing. They were blogging, podcasting, all of this fun stuff, social media. And I started to do this as well. And what I find is that uh with my my my content started to resonate a lot with the fitness professional health and fitness coaches. And I find then that they were reading my blog posts, they were joining my newsletter, uh, they were following them on the social platforms. And that's when I started to cater more for those guys when I realized that my message, um, the impact I was having online was actually helping those guys more than the general public, believe it or not. Yeah, and what kind of year was this, roughly, when you got it? Oh, this was when I got it started was 2012. Okay. Yeah, 2012. And um yeah, that's when I started then saying, okay, well, what what do you guys need from me? I'm here for you, I'm here to help people. Um, what can I create for you? And that's when I started then really starting to tailor our um our business to the fitness professional, which now in uh you know, seven years later, that's that's really the focus right now. I created a nice little suite of products and services to help the fitness professionals improve their businesses and get better client results.

Yeah, awesome. And what I like about too is you know, I'm curious the feeling when you sold your flat, your car, um, all of those things, was it because you minimalized how did that feel? Was it scary? Was it like, you could breathe better? Well, you know, what how did that feel in that moment in time?

Uh going back, if I'm truly honest, Eric, um, it it it was one of the hardest points that I've had so far in my uh 31 years on this planet. Um, I had reached a pretty low point, as I'd said, with with my life, really the career, the relationships, uh, where I was living and stuff. And I was I was I was a bit depressed. I was unhappy. Sure. So it was difficult, it was hard. Um, and and fundamentally that that was what pushed me over the ledge to go all in. Because that's not what I recommend to people. I'm not saying like just go all in with online coaching or anything like that. It's not my advice to people. Um, I was very lucky to make it work. I'm very grateful that it was successful. But uh yeah, it was a difficult time for me. Very, very scary, very nervous, and quite a few sleepless nights at the time.

Yeah. Yeah. How did you make that decision? I mean, uh, you know, you when you go back, you know, now you we talk about it because it was seven, eight years ago. And it sounds so easy and so obvious, yeah, right. But back then, like, what what was is how did you like how did you make the decision? What were the factors? Did you did you progress yourself forward and be like, I don't like the path I'm on? Um, did you do any risk analysis to yourself, or was it just purely an emotional, like, I gotta change and this is this is where I'm going? Like, how did you make that call?

Well, I was always building up to this happening. As I've said, my own interest and it grew uh around health and fitness and passion. And it was something that I started to gain some qualifications in, certifications in during my during my full-time job with the notion of I'm gonna quit this at some point. Yeah, but it wasn't until I really hit that sort of low point that I go all in. I actually wanted to open a gym, which is really common, right? Everyone gets this stage as a fitness pro working with uh and yeah, we're like, I'm gonna open a gym, I'm gonna open a studio. That always seems like the first logical step forward. And I did all this business plan, I got a partnership, I went to the banks to get financing, and it all fell through at the last minute. And that's when I thought, okay, this sort of offline stuff, it's risky. Yeah, opening a studio is risky, it's expensive, it can go wrong. The online stuff just seemed like a no-brainer at that point. It felt so much easier to get going with that. I wasn't waiting for my partner, I wasn't waiting for a bank to say yes, I could do all of this with a very small budget and on my own.

Yeah. That is a huge point. So, you know, having owned a facility for almost a decade, many times uh you know, the gym always did well. You know, I did well, but there was always this thing in my head that was like, okay, you know, if you lose 20% of your customers in a matter of a month, right? Or you know, it was in California, earthquake, roof caves in, right? Um, all kinds of things. I'm like, I'm stuck with a nut, I need a crack every month. That's you know, upwards of $20,000 per month, right? So, you know, high capital um every month. But you know, now that I'm I'm focusing online, it's all it's almost all profit. You know, you take time to reinvest into your systems and reinvest into your marketing and things like that, of course, but it's not just this huge chunk that's gone, right? Every month. And it's uh it's it's quite liberating because also it gives you a little bit freedom. Like, okay, let's say, you know, I take a little money off my marketing and advertising and I cut back and I I lose a few clients and maybe I take a dip and profit. It's not gonna kill you. You know, it's not total devastation. And I think that's the attractiveness of you know online versus um you know the brick and mortar model. Uh, you know, I just wonder, yeah, the future of what gyms look like compared to what the future of online looks like. It's it's a curious thing, right? I mean, I have a million million thoughts of what's gonna happen with the gym setting, who's gonna take it on. Is it gonna go a race to the bottom where it just becomes a commodity and everyone just needs, you know, access, really? Or is it gonna go high-end experience, which I think it will go? Um, I think things in the middle probably aren't gonna do so well. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on on before we get more into the online stuff. What do you think is gonna take place with the brick and mortar?

Brick and mortar is difficult to say. Um, it's not really my my sort of niche, yeah, so to speak. But I do uh speak, and we have a lot of customers ourselves who are running brick and mortar businesses. To I I it's it's difficult. There's gonna be a demand for it. People like that personal connection with a trainer, with a coach. That's that's like that's a given. So I I'm not going to say that that's going to, I don't think that's just going to fizzle out entirely. Right. But I think the biggest competition to the offline, the brick and mortar stuff, maybe with the the the growth of the online scene in particular. But I don't know about, you know, as as you're traveling around the world, I'm seeing a huge increase in these budget gyms opening up and dominating these towns and cities with thousands and thousands and thousands of members. Like you say, I think people want that access. And then I think on the you wanna, you wanna, you don't want to be in the middle of that. You don't want to be trying to compete with those guys. No, I think there you say they particularly for the small business owner in the brick and mortar industry, you want to be going high-end, as you say. I would agree with that.

Yeah. Well, it's it's interesting because right now I'm on a you know a little island um off the coast of Vancouver, and there's no really gym. There is one gym here. I pay for access, right? It's like 20 bucks a month, and I have a little key card. And I'm oftentimes I'm the only person in there. In fact, only once have I had anybody in. So I have my own gym, right? I pay 20 bucks a month for it. And then also there's an interview, you know, and I think those will pop up everywhere, and it's just become more economically feasible for people who know what they're doing. And for me, you know, it depends on what your training is. For some people, they need that social outlet. For me, I just need to go put my headphones on, listen to a good audio book, grunt it out, and get my work done, right? Um, but there is also a guy who's gonna his podcast is gonna be released before this uh of Air Gym, right? So it's Airbnb for home gyms. So it's like now you're starting to see technology connect, um, finding places where people can get access more easily. So it's yeah, it's just gonna be really interesting. And I I the ones I know that are gyms that are thriving and I believe will be around for the longest time, uh, is those who are really focusing on amazing client experience from top to bottom, right? Just unique, um, full service, relationship-based, you know, thing that that people crave more and more now. I think that's that's the beauty of it. So anyway, I I know we're not here to talk about gyms. Let's talk about online because uh it's so attractive, right? You know, I had Jonathan Goodman on the show not too long ago. I know you guys chat as well, and you know, you two are both leaders in that particular area. Everybody wants to get online. It's just so sexy, right? Like you and I are we're traveling all around, right? Uh, we have that freedom. You know, you're you know, you're moving to Barcelona, possibly, right? Talk to us about that really quick because that's exciting.

Yeah, it's one of those things that uh, you know, you you're saying about the online stuff being really exciting, and it is, and it's something that um I've really been able to tap into over the last couple of years, myself in particular. It wasn't what got me into the online scene. Um, but yeah, last few years, when was it? Maybe in 2015, I left uh the UK where I was living my whole life, really up to then and Ireland. And I started doing a bit of traveling lounge Europe. I lived in uh the Netherlands, in France, in Italy, in Spain. Um, yeah, I think that was about it there for on that little tour. Had a little run around Europe basically, yeah, which was amazing. Came back to Amsterdam because it was just freaking awesome. And then it started this year. I've been out to Bali and I've just been to Barcelona, and then I'm going to Australia to do a tour of Australia again uh in a month's time. So that's really, really fun and definitely one of the the the whys now of driving me forward with my own, my own sort of online fitness business.

Yeah, yeah, that's cool, man. I I love to hear that stuff. Uh so you started in the online world in 2012, right? Um, I would say early adopter, right? I think so, yeah. Yeah. What what's changed over the last six years? You know, I I know, like I said, a lot of people are find it sexy, seductive, the online training, but it's actually, you know, there's a lot of people out there doing it now. You know, what what do you think? Um, how how have you seen it change? And then especially, I guess maybe even over the last two years specifically, what do you think's been the biggest challenge um for online fitness professionals?

Yeah, there's a couple of things that I've really seen radically change over the last couple of years. One's a pro and one's a con, so to speak, to the whole to the whole thing. I'll start with the pro. Pros are always nice. Yeah. Um the pros is is that the the software that's available to us is at this all-time high. The innovation with it, the options, the uh the sort of the automation, the the real intelligence, like the AI as well, that's now becoming available to us, to everyone, you and I, you know, tiny little business owners or uh one-man bands, potentially even for a lot of the trainers getting started these days, can access the same software that huge companies are also using, right through to Facebook ads, right through to something like Infusion Soft or Active Campaign for email marketing, right? These are the big players, and we can all access them now. And we're seeing then people creating even more easier-to-use software is like, okay, WordPress is too complicated. All right, try click funnels, right? It's nuts. It's nuts. So we are getting the ability more and more to be able to take ourselves online and to share our message online and to ultimately create businesses online, profit from it as well, which is massive. Yeah, but it's definitely becoming easier and easier. The second one is the con, so to speak. And we were touching on this before we hit record. And that's certainly a message that I try and get across to the trainers and coaches interested in online is that just as it's easy for us as trainers to become online trainers and coaches online, it's also easy for other people to get online and to start marketing to us and to start saying uh, you know, they can promise to become six-figure coaches and seven-figure online trainers, which I'm sure we've all seen the ads in our news feed for these days. Yeah. And I, you know, I I receive countless messages, I literally do, from trainers that say, Rue, I'm I'm interested in your program, or I've just you know connected with your stuff, but I've done this program in the past, I've been with this mentor, and I've been burnt. I didn't get everything that I was promised. And that's that's damaging the industry. It's damaging our industry, it's damaging the online scene in general. And uh that's that just seems to be increasing constantly, more and more. Every week I'm hearing of more people, more people flooding this sort of online space within the health and fitness industry.

Yeah. That's interesting. And someone comes to mind because I just got added to his email list somehow, and I believe he just scraped LinkedIn, um, pulled all the emails, which is it's a big gray area, people, you know. I wouldn't do that. It's a big black hat. Yeah, it is. I didn't like it. And uh, you know, but I'm staying on the list because I just want to see what this guy's saying because he's that person, you know, like hey, you know, makes his videos, you know, driving around in a Bentley, right? People probably already know who I'm talking about and uh I won't say any names, but I'm like, you know, man, that's just nah, I don't like it doesn't sit right with me because I don't care what the conduit is that you work with people. Um let's focus on the craft, being a great coach, right? Being a great fitness professional. Ultimately, that's what we need more of, and that's what's going to establish success on the long haul. And you know, there's all these short, sure, yeah, you know, you know, you need to get your first 10 clients, right? You need pay the bills. That's absolutely correct. But everyone's in such a mad rush to get to these, you know, these numbers that I just don't think it's it's sustainable. And it does bother me. So how do you okay if I'm a fitness professional and I'm looking for someone to, you know, show me the way, right? I want to start getting there faster, but I'm willing to do the work. Right. What what what am I on the lookout for? What's what are the signs that maybe uh a guru or a mentor um may be full of it?

Truthfully, we, you know, we get we it's very I find it very, very similar, Eric, to changing your body, right? Building a business, in my opinion, runs very parallel from my experiences anyway, to building a body. I didn't I didn't get to my to my strength goals, to my physique goals in a month, two months, nor did I do it in a year or two. And I haven't been able to get my business to where I wanted to in a month or two. Not even a year or two if I'm totally honest with you. It's taken me yeah it's taken me years of graft. Yes. Right? So it's exactly like the fitness industry those people promising the quick fix solutions, the quick results, the the you know the six-figure incomes in 90 days or complete my course and you can have a a Bentley like me, whatever. Yeah. Like to me that's ringing alarm bells. And it should for other people. But I know we are attracted just like the general public are attracted to the quick fix solutions. Yeah. Oh there's a 30-day program for abs or this 90-day program. Hmm I'm gonna go for the 30-day program. Yeah we are hardwired that way as humans. That's just the way we are for the most part. So for me you've just got to change your mindset put up those barriers a little bit around the marketing that's going on. So typically if I'm seeing big huge lofty goals or or claims by by people online I'm very very skeptical because even myself I'm looking for people to to for me I'm looking for mentors I'm looking for advice even seven years later. So I'm still having to filter through all of this and you know what's really funny and you're probably similar is that when you're at a level uh starting out you've got all of these become a six figure uh coach or trainer people advertising to you when you become the six figure guy you've got the seven figure yeah guys and girls so I've got all these people now saying become a seven figure guy I'm like whoa when does it end I bet when you get to seven figures it's like uh you know come and uh come and do eight figures with me it it it's really difficult to filter through all of that noise but to me that's where I'm looking at is just um what kind of promises are people making me and are they realistic? Come on because if people are not making legitimate truthful promises to you in their marketing it's a big breakdown of trust and I find it very hard then to believe people's programs are actually going to deliver or their coaching and their promises on the other side are going to be there as well.

Yeah yeah extremely powerful and you know I've been doing this online thing for about 14 months now and it's taken um it's taken about a year to get traction well it's taken a year to figure out where what direction I want to head in right like when I see I now I see my vertical right I see where I can go. Now it's a matter of you know and I've coached people through this process because I understand the struggle you know yeah I sold my gym I have some runway right where I can have that luxury to kind of look around and figure out where I want to go. Um but building a gym wasn't easy either and uh you know ultimately once you find that that spot right that kind of blue ocean your niche whatever you want to call it right and then you start going then you have to figure out what are you going to do every day on a daily basis that will get you there in a year. Right. And people are like that's a year and I have to do these things all the time like yeah it's usually something like create content, coach right and escalate people through your funnel. Like if you do those things every day right you'll probably be successful in the long run. That and adjust your relationship with failure you know I think that's the biggest thing. And I'm curious you know if if how do you coach people through this process man? If you're saying hey you know success will come in not three months but maybe three years you know how how do you how do you address this with people? How do you get people through that mindset of like this isn't a 90 day game right this is a nine year plan.

Well a big part of it is through my own marketing. Yeah it's very similar to how I did it and I I kind of learned this and that when I was doing uh exceed nutrition and I was trying to appeal to the general public, I was taking a very similar approach that now I do with fitness professionals in that I wasn't selling the quick fixes etc etc and through my marketing there I learned that the message that you put out to people on your social, in your email newsletters, in your content, that's what people are consuming before they become customers predominantly and in your sales funnel. So if you can put that message into your marketing messages that this isn't a 90 day fix or uh yeah yeah a quick fix money making scheme then you you you attract the right people and you repel the wrong people for you. Those wrong people are going to go off to the to the quick fix guys guys driving the Bentleys but for me there's still that tribe there's still that audience out there that's going to appeal to your unique message as well. So yeah all of those touch points online they've got to be congruent to your overall message your overall vibe and that's how I tend to differentiate myself as well.

Yeah I love that man. So you have let's talk about your products a little bit because I know you spend a lot of time on them and they're great. You know you you kind of you have I was looking at your website this morning again and so you essentially have like a beginner set of information like hey here's what you need to kind of get an idea of what to do. Right. And if I'm completely wrong just stop me. And then you have you know kind of like okay now is the meat of it and then you have like your master class which seems to be okay now you've you've reached a certain level of success let's let's really go for it now. Is that kind of correct or am I off? A little off. Okay well explain what it is that you do.

Yeah it's okay it's all right I hold nothing against you. Yeah look a creative the exceed masterclass for fitness professionals who want to plan they want to create they want to grow online so it is covering a lot of the different stages of that whether you're at the beginner planning stages we've got the the roadmap literally the roadmap step by step guidance on getting through that stage but look also if you're growing you're ready online the XIV masterclass is also got the the training got the materials it's got its own dedicated roadmap taking you through the growth stages as well so really I've tried to build a real all-encompassing uh membership site which is really what it is at the heart of it a membership site for anyone at any stage there as well so ticks a lot of boxes this uh the membership site yeah well let's let's pick an avatar and I want I want to get you know just like an example of I'm just gonna kind of create somebody in my head I would love to hear you know um I'm gonna use a colleague of mine um he's out of the UK James Dilley uh he works with martial artists right so he's kind of he's he's found his niche um he's got online trainers or he's got online clients but now he's looking to essentially you know really really build a customer experience for that particular clientele you know that that niche and then grow right like whoa for someone like that you know they've they've found it they're doing the work but now they just need to grow like where where what advice do you offer to those people because I think there's a lot of people out there um you know like that who have gotten past that big point of finding their niche hmm yeah I get that definitely and uh that's a great place to be I know the name I was a little bit lost your question there because I was thinking James Diley I know that name um but anyway where where'd you go when you when it was well it's difficult because really when you get to that level it's worth having someone like myself or yourself which we're probably doing look at your business assess your business have a a bit more of a a dig inside of it in terms of usually it's a couple of key things that you may need to just change up or or implement that will take you to that next level of growth if that makes sense. So you know like I could say it could be team so if James is doing all the work right now in his in his business but he's got a bit of budget that he could put towards hiring a full-time overseas virtual assistant that could be a huge game changer for him because he could free up 40 hours of tasks himself and what can he do? Well he can go into the higher level tasks he's not operating the business at a higher level right does that make sense yeah or if you say to me James is also so that's one of them team is definitely one of them. For me I doubled my team this year and we doubled the business it's not the only thing we did but it's a big thing. Yeah. So I brought a big team on board and it's definitely something I recommend ASAP to trainers to do. Like can you outsource some of these tasks that you got to do every day because successful businesses are not one man bands which very typically in the fitness industry we're just led to believe that that's okay right you're the you're the coach you're the trainer you're the business owner so that's a big one for me as well I would definitely look at uh the actual business model that someone has so what are they what is the products what is the services they are running right now is it a is it a are they running a you know selling a 999 ebook is that where their profit's coming right now from from their online okay how about we add in a coaching service here for 300 bucks per month boom you take the you take the business to the next level so the business model what's what's what's going on there maybe carving out more of a product suite like you said I agree pick something for a year I always say like you know get one product that's solving one person's pain point and do it for the year. Awesome but maybe in James's case he's ready for another product another service in there as well so that can that can help a lot I don't know about you Eric but I'm a big automation guy. People comment a lot on my stuff about being automated. They get a personal reply from me they're like wow this is amazing. Yeah yeah yeah I've really really harnessed automation I think that came back from when I was a much smaller team trying to to to you know leverage myself and the tools out there allow us to do that. So I definitely look at the automation that's in there. What I'm talking about specifically is say for example a lot of people get started online and they use like MailChimp, a Weber as their email marketing service provider. It's okay it does what it says on the tin. It lets you send emails but when you upgrade to something like ActiveCampaign which I use uh it's it's next level for your automation it's it's insane what we can do in things like Active Campaign and some of the software out there that's that's that's really behavioral based. So different touch points people are having with your emails in your funnels on your website they're all interlinking connecting triggering different um sections of your funnel and getting the right message to the right people at right time so the automation side of things is is huge. Yeah so team product suite slash business model and automation would be scaling that is gold that is gold brew so you know when you're building up a team you know especially virtual assistants I know a lot I talk to a lot of people who should have virtual assistants uh maybe they're intimidated by the process of hiring one um creating the SOPs things like that is there any how do people get okay let's start with this someone says someone recognizes the fact they need a VA what do they do first the first thing that you want to do is you want to spend one two or three days writing down the tasks that you're doing each day in your business everything checking in the email putting that blog post on recording that podcast etc etc you want to write all of those down then you want to grab a highlighter and you want to highlight the ones that somebody else could do i.e your VA so can someone else schedule that blog post to go out yeah I think they can yeah can someone edit that podcast or uh you know create that image in Canva for your for your social media updates they can so I would go through there and then you're you're you're left with a list of these highlighted tasks that you can outsource. And that would be the first step in saying all right okay so I can clearly see that these tasks that I'm doing I need some help with and then that's what you would take the next step in advertising for. So it's a VA but you also want to make sure that they can do these tasks and you know what they're expecting to do and vice versa. And then you can go out and take the next step and getting one.

Yeah what's do you use upwork? Do you recommend them or what do you what do you use for finding or posting jobs?

Well upwork is more of a freelancer type gig so hey I need some I need a podcast editor can you do this once a week okay personally on my my team when I'm talking about my team the full time staff for me so I actually use uh onlinejobs.ph okay yeah so onlinejobs.ph which is a really really cool site you can then put your uh your your your requirements up on there and people apply like a typical job you can interview them you can offer example tasks hey can you do this you can check the quality of the work and then you can decide upon who might be best fit for your role so upwork no it's great if you just need something done on a one-off basis in my opinion if you can and your budget stretches bring someone full time on board bring them on board pay them a full-time salary like we're hinting at here we're using overseas guys so it's not like paying someone in the states or in the UK the same monthly salary but you're getting just a good job I can guarantee it and uh you know overseas workers are really fun to work with really nice people my whole team is in the Philippines and they're some of the nicest friendliest people that I know and uh I go and visit them I bring them over to Bali and uh yeah they are remarkable.

Yeah yeah it's I I have uh a virtual assistant we do everything actually through upwork um and uh Carol's amazing you know she I'd be if like if she just all of a sudden was that the available for me I a lot of things would come screeching to a halt and I'd have to go back and do a lot of work. Like this podcast would never take place ever if if she wasn't helping me with all the the things and um that I do for it. And then I have a gentleman out of Ireland uh so Carol's out of the Philippines. Carol uh Brenn, my editor is out of Ireland um and he does a great job you know with the podcast and you know it's it's really opens up a world I think you know that that fear of well I I can just get it done faster if I do it myself. Right? That's that's the thing that most people say. It's like well I don't have time right now to do this this whole you know seemingly intimidating process of of finding a person, hiring a person, figuring out what I can have them do. But man it's it pays back a hundredfold once once you do the work.

For sure. I mean this uh this is the final quarter of this year and I work in 12 12 week years so to speak as in quarterly focus essentially and I wrote down um team that was it what's what's my focus the last quarter of this year team so I think if you can prioritize it and you know if people like myself and you are focusing on growing our team and putting that energy in as a priority you know like you say it does come back it does back you know we doubled the team doubled the business this year things work slower there's definitely a a shift there in and and things things work slower but the output is higher.

Yeah awesome so let's let's talk about next year because as of today is what December 5th we're recording 2018 um so by the time this releases it will be 2019. The market for online fitness professionals right close to saturated saturated huge opportunity what how how do you see it?

I mean there's a lot of people going out there and trying it you know it's kind of like podcasters I I read this interesting statistic that you know in 2018 uh there were 600 000 podcasters um 43% uh had not released an episode all year wow like it's so it's like there's a lot of here's the point people start and then they don't they don't continue right getting started's easy yeah I mean I mean that's that is my advice in that everyone can go and add online trainer to their Instagram profile right in 2019 right I think they have right so people people are messaging me similar to you and saying is this saturated Rue it's not saturated everyone's just added online trainer and hoping they can pick up a client or two through their Instagram profile that's not that's not an online fitness business right that's that's that's wishful thinking right so for me if you're prepared to stick at it it's there for the taking you could go and do what I've done a lot quicker now over the last seven years and achieve that still no it's it's it's yes there's more people doing it there's more people trying it yeah is what we're saying at so I think it's there for the taking no question about it and you know like I said the tools are better than they were seven years ago when I started the education the know-how is better than seven years ago when I first started so it's really there for the taking in 2019 no question about it.

Yeah what do you think as far as technology in 2019 you know and this is it's the future of fitness that's what we call this show right and uh so I I gotta bring up technology because that's such a big part but is there any and you you touched on like you know AI is I'm obviously in it more than we know more than we recognize right it's in our Facebook ads right it's in it's in our freaking phone right I mean our phone is AI um but what what technology do you think in the in the upcoming year in 2019 is really going to be beneficial to the online trainer maybe something that's gonna be slightly competition for the online trainer like where how do you see technology playing into it all where what are you watching right now?

Okay well I I think there's definitely scope for the sort of the coaching options there online in 2019. What I'm seeing right now is definitely a general increase in health and fitness apps coming through they're just like the online trainers people are now getting easier access to app creation and these sort of real done systems, real complete systems and some of them are looking pretty sexy as well right like you know we're gonna we've got healthy recipes in this app, get meal plans in here, access our programs. I think that is that's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. Is it going to nudge out the fitness professionals online offering ebooks and offering coaching and consulting no I don't think so again I think some people like I said with the offline stuff still prefer that little bit of human interaction a little bit of connection some support guidance a little bit along the way there. So that's where I think I think if you did have a big idea for a health and fitness app, now's the time to get in on it. Definitely what what am I also watching? I'm also watching Facebook very closely as well I think personally they are the number one online marketing platform and they have been for many years. It's no surprise there but they're constantly evolving every month they are bringing out some new feature that improves our marketing as Online business owners. And something that I caught wind of the other day is that they are looking very soon, maybe in 2019, to introduce advertising into the WhatsApp platform. So think about that. How big is that? We forget that how many billions of users are on this WhatsApp platform. Yeah. We haven't monetized it yet, whatsoever. Right. And they may be branching out into the WhatsApp platform, which is kind of an cool, pretty exciting stuff. So that's kind of what I'm keeping an eye out. I know if they did start WhatsApp messaging and advertising, I may be in an early adopter in on that. And I'm an early adopter with most of what Facebook are doing these days as well. I'm pretty keen to test on that platform and experiment myself.

You know, that's interesting because I talk to a lot of people who are like, Facebook's on the decline, right? You know, uh, it's too crowded. Um, I it's it's my I use primarily two things uh to get my my voice out there, and it's Facebook and LinkedIn. Uh I'm just a fan of LinkedIn because that's my that's a lot of my audience is there. Um and I just like it. You know, it's not it's not as fluffy, it's more businesslike, uh, more professional. Um cat videos. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I talk about it all the time. Yeah, that's why we have a Slack community, right? It's why we build a Slack community. I don't want to get distracted. It's for me, really. I don't want to get distracted by cat videos every time I go into business. Uh yeah, a lot of people are always saying, you know, well, Facebook, the algorithm's changed. It's it's you know screwed over, especially the fitness professionals over the last two years, but you don't feel that way. You think it's still the biggest opportunity out there. I don't feel that way.

I haven't seen my costs rise. Okay. I'm happy. I think people maybe need to get a bit smarter with their marketing. Um, I think that what we're seeing changing is marketing, not so much the logarithm and blaming Facebook. Oh, I created this uh really shitty squeeze page and I just posted an ad saying, you know, opt in for my shitty free thing, and nobody's banging, nobody's opting in anymore. Oh, there's a surprise because everyone's cottoned on to shit marketing online. Yeah, yeah. So nobody wants to put their email in no more. Right, right. So, how do we do that? We have to improve our marketing, we have to get smarter, we have to adapt and evolve. And I've been able to work around that now. And uh, you know, you touched on it earlier on that uh you think, you know, with the the brick and mortar stuff, the key to success is gonna be building relationships. I feel that's exactly the same online. We gotta build relationships. We can build a relationship with someone first and then say, hey, I've got this uh downloadable thing, it's gonna help even more. It's it's it's met with a completely different mindset. Yeah, yeah, you've built up that no, like, and trust. So that's the way I'm working around it and building relationships primarily. It's gonna be a huge thing for me in 2019. It has in 2018 already. Put the relationship first. It's not just about opt-in pages, squeeze pages, sales pages, and funnels. It's about relationships. How can we build that relationship first?

Yeah, yeah, I love that. And here's here's the rub. Relationships take time, right? It takes time investment, right? Um that's just the way humans work, you know. But it still takes nine months to make a baby, right? It takes still takes a long time to build a relationship. And uh, you know, I I think a big thing that people miss, and I'm gonna say this because I'm more guilty than anybody, especially during my gym owner days, is I would get I would lose sight sometimes with my passion for marketing and new sales acquisitions, and not pay nearly enough attention to my current clientele. You know, I think that's a big part of it, is people are missing like, well, just over yes, marketing is extremely important. People don't come out of nowhere, right? You still have to go out and attain new clients, but really, really focus on how you're doing with your clients, create an amazing experience for them. Um and then you get referrals. And referrals are are the try the no-like trust is done, right? And you get a referral, someone did it for you, right? And that's that's uh that's the most powerful thing. So maybe if we focused on one additional thing in 2019 as a fitness profession, as an industry, is what if we start focusing a little bit less on lead generation and a little bit more on referral generation, right? And uh wouldn't that be great? Yeah, it's got to save you a lot of bucks as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of advertising bucks. No, I I I totally agree. I agree. And uh Facebook is also a great platform for building relationships. That's why I still see it as a as a key marketing platform. Um, so yeah, for sure.

Yeah. So how give us, you know, because we're we're starting to run a little thin on a time. What what when you're building relationships online on Facebook, how how do how do you how do you do that? Like what are some tactics maybe you use to to do that?

Well, a lot of it is using content, like understanding what your ideal customers need and what they want. Right. Very simple, right? We're taught this right back at the start, but that doesn't really change. So for me, I want to be creating stuff that's valuable to the people I want to serve. And for me on the Facebook platform, that's all the various different types of the content that we can do on there. I'm loving video um and I'm loving, you know, just even normal post updates. I'm loving just creating blog posts and posting them, sponsoring them on the Facebook platform, all of these different things that we can do on there, do them. Facebook groups. There we go, build relationships there, all of that stuff. Uh, messenger, chat bots, kind of close in there with the Facebook stuff. Again, that's allowing us to provide value, reach our audience. So that's where I start with as well on the Facebook platform. Show that content, show that value. If you can do that before you ask for the seal and even an opt-in, now you can start to make some traction there. Yeah, awesome.

Awesome. Well, Rue, um anything else you'd like to tell the fitness community out there before we before we let you go. This has been rigged, this has been great. It's been so much value. And uh, you know, I've I've written down copious notes, even though I have the recording of things I want to do right after. You know, I'm gonna see what's going on in WhatsApp, get reacquainted with that. Uh, you know, I that's uh I communicate a lot on it because you know I have a lot of international people that I talk to. Um yeah, that's fascinating, man. What what else what else can you can you drop us before we let you go? Oh, that's a tough one.

That's a tough one. Um what can I drop on you before we go?

How about a mindset thing? You know, when you when you face a Monday morning, right? And maybe you see all of the potential work that you can do, how do you select the most valuable thing for your week that you're gonna focus on and accomplish?

That's a good question. I've definitely worked on my productivity over the years. One of my favorite quotes that gets me um pretty fired up is um there's a myth that time is money. In fact, time is more precious than money. It's a non-renewable resource because once you've spent it and you've spent it badly, it's gone forever. So, kind of coming back to you know, thinking about the productivity side of things, I'm always conscious of the time that I'm putting into the things that I'm doing each week. And I mentioned that I like to work in those 12-week blocks, 12-week years. You need to read that book if you haven't read that book, 12-week year. And basically, that forces you to set one real overarching goal, one focus point for that 12 weeks, and you're breaking it down into all the subweeks and the days. And really, when it comes to Monday morning, it's like, okay, what can I do today? What can I do this week that's bringing me closer to that 12-week goal? So I set one for the last 12 weeks, which is my team. So it's like Monday, what can I do today to improve my team? All right, I'm gonna have one-to-one calls with them. Oh, I'm going to enroll them on some training. You get the idea.

Yeah. Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, Rue, uh, where do people find more about you uh online? Where do you send them now?

Look, you guys are podcast listeners, which I think is awesome. I really uh respect podcast listeners because I have listened to podcasts nonstop for the last seven years. I have learned staggering amounts from people. And it's kind of my way of giving back as well. And with that, I run my own podcast. It's called the uh Fit Pro Masterclass podcast. Just search that into iTunes, into Stitcher, into what other signclide, whatever you like to listen on, give it a search, type my name, Rue Anderson. It's also on there as the as the the personal trainer podcast. I think I put it in there as well. Just have a little search for me on there, you'll see the icon. I've got over a hundred shows, I think, on there. I don't know how many you're up to with your show.

A lot.

Yeah, a lot. Yeah, I got between my two, I'm at like 400. Oh, well, if I combine my both, I'm I'm I'm up there. Uh too. But the the this one, yeah, this one's dedicated to the fitness professional. And really, if you like listening to podcasts, you're trying to gather as much information, particularly around online coaching, online fitness business, that is the show for you. If you're looking to really dig deep, you want to find out more about um what I offer, head over to the exceedmasterclass.com and uh you'll find more about our online coaching. We've got free toolkits, we've got free workshops on there, and of course, our signature membership site for those very serious.

Awesome, man. Well, Rue, thank you for coming on. I think you and I both want the same thing for the fitness industry. You know, we want uh, you know, to elevate it through solid principles and fundamentals and and um good philosophy too. So yeah, man, it's been awesome. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, for sure. I enjoyed it. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. Hey fitness fans, 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 when 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, E R I C at Fitness MarketingAliance.com