The Business Movement - Billy Polson

We also try and teach them a little bit about doing some research about their competitors. That's a huge ball drop, in my opinion. I think most trainers, gym owners, who just don't know enough about our competitors, one, to know where to put ourselves in the market. Two, how to feel confident with our pricing structures and what we're really doing in business. But then three, how to differentiate.

Hey fitness fans, welcome back to the Future Fitness Podcast and Interview Series. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and this is episode number 71. And uh this is awesome. So if you're in the fitness industry, this is Billy Poulson. Uh he is owner and co-founder of Diacati Life, which is a gym and fitness facility in San Francisco, California. Uh one of my old stomping grounds, an amazing city, one of my favorites. And what's really interesting about this, you know, I think he has a very, very obviously Billy's a great guy. You know, put this up in an interview, just a great philosophy on life, on business, on training, uh health, all these things. He has a great message, which I think permeates um from the top down in his organization all the way to clients. But what's unique about Billy, at least it's unique to me, and I talk to a lot of fitness professionals, especially gym facility owners, is that um he focuses so much time on the development of the trainer, um, which is really a missing piece in a lot of gyms. Now I'm just not talking about how to um actually train people, but how to manage their finances, how to market themselves, how to build systems, how to retain clients, all these things so they can build a business within his business. And now, after 12 years, I believe it's 12 plus years of ownership of the gym, um, he has a lot of freedom. So now he's starting a whole uh online business coaching um segment for personal trainers. And uh yeah, all of it's awesome. There's so much actionable information in here that I hope you take away, maybe listen to this episode twice because it's worth it. So um before we get into that, our July offer is chatbots. So if you go to fitnessprofessionalonline.com forward slash chatbot, you can pick it up for only $250. And for us, trust me, uh, the amount of time it takes for us to set these up, we're literally giving that away. So, what are chatbots? Well, they're the best leads, best source of lead generation that we have right now, and probably for the next few years. And everything's changing fast. Um, it's only gonna get better. And to have someone go in and set up uh your Facebook with all the questions and answers, um, all the stuff on your business uh website would literally cost $1,000, maybe $2,000, and we're only charging $250 for it for the first 20 in July. It's ridiculous, but we're doing it because we think the fitness industry needs it, and we want you to take uh advantage of it. So go to fitnessprofessionalonline.com forward slash chatbot and pick it up now. That's it. So episode number 71, Billy Pulsan of Diakati Life. Enjoy. Hey fitness fans, welcome back to the Future of Fitness Podcast and interview series. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and today I am talking to Billy Pulson from Diacati. Uh Billy, welcome to the colour. How's it going, Eric?

Uh thanks for your time, sir. I appreciate it.

Yeah, yeah, I'm excited. You're um, you know, I spent a lot of time in San Francisco, and uh you're one of the premier um fitness establishments in that city. Uh and thank you. It's it's true. Like you do leave a little bit of your heart in that city whenever you leave.

It is amazing. So I've I've lived in San Francisco as of this year, half of my life. I've been here 24 years, and I grew up in North Carolina. I was there for 24 years. And uh yeah, when I first moved out here 24 years ago, my mom was like, ah, you'll be there for a year and you'll come back. But no, no, no. It's a great place to live. Like, who where else can you literally like go and surf at sunrise and drive three hours and ski and snowboard on some of the best mountains in the world?

Like it's yeah, yeah. What's your favorite mountain ski at?

Uh North Star. I'm a North Star guy. And totally because of the glades. The glades on the backside and lookout, uh, I can get lost in those trees forever. I love that stuff.

Yeah. I've uh I I've, you know, I'm from the Bay Area, so I grew up skiing in actually in North Star. So I've got a lot of days there. And when they open Lookout Mountain Man, that changed the whole thing. For sure.

For sure.

Yeah. But I don't think people are here, I don't think they want to hear about us skiing. Um let's get into your history. Tell me about your background getting into fitness, then we'll talk about Diakati and then uh the businessmovement.com.

Most definitely. So I actually didn't start at fitness. I uh my degree in college was in statistics, and I headed down the route of computer programming for work and coaching and doing athletics on the side. Uh back in those years, there was a much smaller fitness industry. So it took me a while to actually one, get fed up with computers and sitting behind a desk all day, and two, to gain the courage and the knowledge to really head out into training. So uh I started training exactly 20 years ago this year. Um, and what I did was slowly transition into building an independent training practice and moved from computers four days a week in training one and three days a week in two, and slowly built my independent practice here in San Francisco. Um it was I did that for about five years, and kind of the same thing happened. I got uh in the small independent gym I was working out in uh with my clients, I filled my practice there, but it it was literally there was literally a ceiling in the gym. Like it was a basement gym, you couldn't even jump rope in the gym. So I was like, you know what, we've gotta like come up with something better than this. Uh so about that time I started working with my business coach and started writing a business plan. Took about a year, and uh my partner and I, Mike Clausen, uh, we opened Diakati in uh 2004. And uh honestly, we we opened the gym because we wanted a better place to train our clients. Like I needed a place to run and jump and have turf and have athletes, and and we were just kind of stuck where we were. So it was, like I said, it was totally from the heart that we opened it, and what it's grown into, we would have never in a million years guessed it. Um, but now it's kind of become this hub, as you said, in San Francisco for fitness entrepreneurs. So we have 94 independent trainers who run their practice in some form out of our facility. Uh, and we're so honored with the group of folks we have. I always say we have folks with the highest level of confidence and the lowest level of ego, and an amazing community that is just happy folks that love to share and learn from each other. And uh I'm honored and I look forward to coming in with these little guys every single day. It's good.

Right on, man. Yeah, it's a great story. And it's uh you know, all the time it it keeps resonating true that you know, people who start their own businesses or are successful, it's they're always scratching their own itch to start, and then uh and then it you know it turns into something um that everybody else wants too, you know. Also, tell tell people what Diacati stands for because it's an acronym.

Yeah, so we spent three days on thesource.com trying to come up with a name, and uh we couldn't find anything we felt like would be original and never be able to, someone would come in and duplicate it. So we ended up making up a word. So Diacati is an acronym and it stands for do-it-all, kick-ass, doing it. And uh it's honestly it's a philosophy of our business, but it's really a philosophy of my life. It's like I talked about with the surfing and snowboarding. I am a person who I have to live life at 110%. I have to experience everything, and I want to really be able to master every single thing I try. And that's honestly our goal in here with all of our clients and trainers. It's the same thing. Like have uh the space and have the knowledge and the tools to do anything you want to do and to really kick ass the winning.

Yeah, that's fantastic. So, you know, if I'm listening, uh especially if I'm a gym owner, and which I I was and still am, um let's talk about the structure of your business. Like, how does how does that work from you know, soup to nuts? What is you know, from the the client experience to the trainer experience to the owner experience? You know, that's kind of the trifecto, right? Um client, trainer, owner. Well, how does that how does that all work together?

Most definitely. So I I think ours is a pretty unique model. There are lots of independent training facilities. Most of them are around three, four thousand square feet, maybe five. Um, we have a 14,000 square foot facility, like I said, with 94 independent trainers. So for us, it is very unique to have an independent facility of that size. I don't think there are many, uh honestly, at all, that exist. Um, we view uh our trainers and our clients as kind of a dual layer of client. So the top layer of client that we have are our trainers. So here at DeAcony, what we're trying to do is provide every single benefit and tool and um assistance that we can give to our trainers that they would get on staff at any of the big corporate gyms, uh, but in a facility that they can be independent. So we provide continuing education to them, we provide assistance with uh anything from building their online forms and their website to again learning how to assess and program design. That's actually one really interesting thing. When we opened, we knew we would do it, we wanted to do some education for our trainers. We assumed it would be mostly on assessment and program design and anatomy. We what we discovered is we have this completely separate branch of education that we really didn't realize we would be doing, and it's entrepreneur and fitness entrepreneur training. So over the years, we've developed a kind of a, like I said, a separate branch of education that we call the business movement. And that is 100% to educate our trainers on how to be the best fitness entrepreneur and the best business owner and the most successful business owner they can be. Uh we we want to really teach them how to fish so they can run and be as successful as they possibly want to be with their business. So that's our first level of client, or those trainers. We need to take the best care of them we can possibly can. Uh, the second layer is our R, all of their clients. Um, and those, the same level of five-star service trickles down to them. Uh, everything from reserve parking uh as well as complimentary towels and uh tea and coffee and fruit and almonds, like anything at all that we can give them, that it will feel like almost like a spa kind of spoiled experience when they come in. Um and it will it'll again feel like a five-star level facility, but in a small business. So our customer experience on the trainer and the client side is number one for us. We uh we try and know every single name of every client that walks in that door, greet them every time, tell them thank you as they walk out. Uh, it is a huge, huge part of who we are. Uh, and as I said, it it we wanted to be fun in here. We wanted to be fun with every single trainer. We look forward to seeing each other, and same with our clients, and they feel that. They absorb that enjoyment that we have at work, it trickles right down to them. So, I like I said, I'm honored to get to come in here and have a good time every day.

Yeah, oh, that's awesome. Yeah, how how do you find trainers or do they find you? How does that work?

You know, uh a little bit of both. Uh, I will say over the last year, thanks to one of our team members, his name is John Hackbert, we've really actually, probably for the first time in 14 years, really started recruiting and reaching out to people more for awareness of the facility as opposed to really trying to hook them in, more again, so they can learn about the educational opportunities they have here, or even to help them with knowing, learning the skills and gaining the knowledge for being an entrepreneur. Um, so mostly we have just uh folks have found us through word of mouth and our social media and marketing. Um, but for us, it is something that we really try, especially with the business movement. We try and really put out there that we are open to share any knowledge and education and tools that they would need to again, whether it be to start their own independent practice and to get out of a staff gym, or if they want to open their own facility. 100%. I want to help them, do anything I can. I was so fortunate that folks helped me along the way. So the business movement has really been built to try and help that as well.

Yeah, awesome, man. So has explain again to me on the details on how does that partnership work with with the trainers? Are they paying you a flat monthly? Is it per client? Is there percentage-based? How does how does the how does the money shake out? Excellent question.

Yeah, it's all uh fee-based per per session. So every time they bring a client in, they pay the gym $30. So anything above and beyond that, they uh is all theirs to keep. They choose their own rates. Most of our trainers, I would say the majority of them are still doing the hourly session rates and plans. I would say the a pretty good chunk of our folks are transferring over to that monthly payment plan, which seems to be kind of a new thing. That not only are trainers finding success and having that consistent income every single month because they're getting all their clients' payment plans, but they're actually getting more consistency from their clients coming in. So uh that has actually been a big new thing that our trainers have taken advantage of. On our side, they still pay us 30 bucks a session, but they're doing monthly fees. I actually, on our business movement web, at least like four different trainers who have moved to that monthly business plan, and I highly recommend folks check out that blog. And it's it's uh, like I said, it's on our business movement website, the businessmovement.com, and uh check under the expert insights and look for the four payment line options. It again can be life-changing for passive income as well as consistent income throughout your area. That's good.

Yeah, yeah, that's really interesting. I mean, I um there's so many different models, right? I mean, there's the big box model, you know. I um when I was owner operator, it was um, you know, a mixture of of uh coaches getting paid you know per hour for group sessions, but then they are allowed to, you know, uh essentially promote their own private training services within the group. Um it sounds like you've to have something working like this and having doing it for so long, and then you know, having the freedom to be able to, like we were talking about, just take take off for a trip, your systems must be tight. For sure.

And that's something again, is but when we open the gym, we're like, ah, we'll figure this out. And uh, we have figured out over 14 years, again, the more, as you said, concise your systems are, and they're built and they're done the same way every time. Uh even something as simple, uh, I've been recommending to a lot of our trainers lately using Gmail CAN responses, right? It's one of the most simple tools, but it saved me so much time in all of our interactions that we have with our new trainers coming in. Um, but yes, the systems are in place for sure. We also, this is something that's rare for a small gym as well. We have a team of eight of us that are on staff. Um, and those are our team members, like our referral director and our general manager and our creative director and trainer ops. So we have a group of people who are helping run those systems. That can be a really common fear, I feel like, for a lot of small gym owners that they they feel like, oh, you know, I don't really have the bandwidth to hire anyone, so I'm just gonna keep doing these things on my own. Um, I cannot recommend enough. Anything that you can hire out for, the smallest of tasks to free up your time as a business owner to allow you to do more fitness to business development, creative work, to really network and market, it is invaluable. And it's something that we slowly, I mean, in the beginning, we would just have someone come in the morning during peak time to help run the desk so we could just train, honestly. But slowly we increase the hours that the front desk was here, and slowly we build up to a team. And it has allowed us to really catapult our business because it's freed up my time to do more development, it's freed up Mike's time to do more financial work. So for young business owners, definitely keep that in mind. Do what you can do to help get help. Um, a great friend of mine, Ashley Selman, talks about the idea of a $1, $100, and $1,000 task. So anything that's on the $1 task list that you can pay someone else to do, that it's better use of your time not to do, hire that out. And honestly get to the point that the $100 are getting hired out too. So you can focus on those thousand dollar tasks, right?

Yeah, yeah. Uh it's such a good point. And especially, you know, I I've just started using virtual assistants within the last three to six months, and it's changed my life dramatically. But it's a skill. You have to learn how to use, you know, like that's that's a huge skill. Is how do you interview them? How do you find them right? Because it takes a lot of time investment up front. But once you get things going, once you have this relationship and they start to understand what you're doing, um because you know, I I don't know how fortunate I am, but I I found Carol who's a very uh intelligent, she actually has a marketing degree. You know, she's in another country, she's got, you know, she's got more education than I do, right? And uh I think there's so much out there that people are yet to explore because um, you know, that old I don't I don't know if it's an adage or what it is, but like, you know, it's just faster if I do it. If I just do it, it's faster, right? Versus taking the time to train someone else to take that task off your plate. Uh that's a big part of it. So um, do you guys use virtual assistants or do you use in-person? How do you guys coach coach coaches through that? Good question.

We uh kind of have gone across the board depending on what we're doing. Um, like over the years, we used a great website called 99 Designs to do a lot of our design for uh website and like invites for Christmas cards and whatever. Now we actually have that in-house. So John Hackburg, the guy makes it our creative director, he actually does a lot of that. And even myself, I've taken some Photoshop and picked it up. Um, so we do a big mashup of all those things. It again, the the best advice I have is to think about if it's a better use of your time. If there's something that you could be doing better, and if you're gonna do it more than once, like if you're just gonna do something once, for sure, do it really quick. But if you're gonna consistently do it over and over, take the time, like you said, to stop, write out a list of sit or to systemize it, and actually pass on that information, right?

Yeah, yeah. And if I could pass on some advice to people who are listening, like, yeah, I want a VA, I want a virtual assistant, is writing out the standard operating procedure isn't gonna take you nearly as long as you think it will. No, like I'll do it. I'll like it's something I'll be putting off, like, oh gosh, this is gonna be awful. Sit down and write an SOP and then I just do it, and it's like five minutes. I was like, wow, I just took two to hours off my my plate every week by writing this SOP. So yeah, I don't know what I mean it's like I think it's it's not just me. I know everyone has this resistance internally to do these things, but um, yeah, it's a great experience. It's it's very liberating.

It's one of those things that that that's a perfect example of something I if if that's on my list, I try and schedule one hour a week. Like, all right, for one hour a week for the next two or three months, I'm gonna focus on what can I systematize? Is it systemized or systematize, or is it both? I say both all the time.

I like systematize.

I think it sounds fancier. Let's do that, yeah. So either way, uh setting aside that Alan literally putting it in the calendar that you I'm gonna circle back, I'm gonna create uh some procedures once a week, every Friday morning, whatever. Uh it is worth it. And for a small business owner, the more you do it, the quicker you'll be able to earn money sitting on the beach. That's honestly the answer.

Yeah, that's what everyone wants, right? The beach money. Um cool. Well, what I think it's it's it's um, you know, I'm not gonna say it's entirely unique because you're not the only one who invests as much time in their trainers, but it's something that is most commonly missed is that that component of investing in your trainers as business people, right? Because that is what gives you, Billy, and your business partner the freedom to to elevate and do things that that you really are within your zone of genius or whatever you want to call it, right? So what's how how did that epiphany come to you of like, okay, I need to train my trainers into being better entrepreneurs, business people, um, and then how has that journey evolved into the business movement.com?

Definitely. So, as I mentioned, 14 years ago, we opened shop, we have always been an independent trainer facility, and a lot of our trainers were transitioning from a staff job like at an e-gronce or crunch or something, and they were transitioning to being a new small business owner.

Yeah.

So we were learning how to market the gym. I had learned how to market the independent practice on my own, building it at the smaller facility where I started, but we were learning a lot more and a faster pace when we were learning how to market the gym. So we were constantly just kind of passing data along to folks that were new. The other thing we realized, we we offer referrals to our trainers. So we helped match them up with new clients who contact the Yukati. Um, we realized if we just started feeding our new trainers' clients, we weren't teaching them how to fish, that whole idea. And so they were so reliant on us at all times. So that was another thing that we realized all right, first of all, we're gonna teach them how to fish and let them fish some, and then we can start teaching them or passing referrals on to them. So it was again that learning lesson just over 14 years of all right, what works? What do they need to know? Uh, and honestly, we've now gotten it down to three simple plans. We look at what do they need to learn for their business plan. And the business plan would include everything from mission and vision statements and And really, what direction are they wanting to head so that they have a vision? A lot of small trainers are like, ah, or small uh personal trainer independent practices are just like going day to day. They're like, all right, I'm gonna move here and we'll just see how it goes. So we try and give them a vision. We also try and teach them a little bit about doing some research about their competitors. That's a huge ball drop, in my opinion. I think most trainers, gym owners, who just don't know enough about our competitors. One, to know where to put ourselves in the market, two, how to feel confident with our pricing structures and what we're really doing in business. But then three, how to differentiate, how to really set ourselves apart in our markets. In San Francisco right now, if you go on Yelp, there are 700, over 700 listings for personal trainers in the city. Over 700. So it is a completely saturated market. You have to differentiate. So we're teaching our folks how to do that. That's the business plan. Then there's the financial plan, like everyone's favorite, real, what they love doing. Yeah. So we try and take the fear factor out of that. It's literally, I call it a shark underneath the surface. Like most people are like, ah, I'm good, I'm going month to month. So we try and really help them learn how to do their first profit loss statement, really like walk through the steps of financial planning and forecasting. And then the last thing comes what is usually what they feel like is the most important is that the marketing plan. So we walk through really how to kind of set things up. What I call like a three-step idea. One is the first idea of how do you really catch the eye, what I call the firefly factor. How do you catch the eye of a new client? So really like upping their firefly factor on their website, on their online social media. Second thing, what I call uh blowing their mind. So teaching our trainers how to nail that first impression. So as they're meeting with them for the first time, they have a super clean set of forms that are well documented or well branded, ideally all electronic online. So we really teach them how to blow their mind and make the sale immediately on the first connection with them. And then the last thing is super glue. We talk to them a lot about trainer retention. Like, how do you once it's so much easier to keep a client happy than go and find a new one? It's way harder to fish. So trying to really teach them what I think are the most important things are gratitude and acknowledgement. Um, our clients, they're the folks who are literally putting food on our table, keeping a roof over our head. We should be thanking them at every opportunity we have and in a very creative and original way. So really trying to tune in to how can they best show the gratitude and appreciation for the folks that are giving them the life they have, honestly. So all three of those plans business, financial marketing, we try and really kind of take note of what do they need help with and push that out as much as we can. And it's something, again, we've now built it into what we call Fitness Entrepreneur 101. All of our interns go through the program of all building all three of those plans, and then our team members, our trainers, can actually kind of do ad hoc custom curriculums and kind of pick chapters out of Fitness Entrepreneur 101, spruce up their skills and try and beef up a little bit on their own, like plans on their own. So uh it's it's great. It's been a journey, it's been something we've been grassroots learning for 14 years and me for 20. And now I'm so excited to honestly kind of spread the word outside of Diakati. So this new online guided study program should be extremely helpful for fitness entrepreneurs anywhere or even aspiring fitness entrepreneur. Uh anything again that I can do to pay it forward, push that information out there, that that's my number one goal.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting because the thought the thought that comes to mind there's so many fitness professionals, you know, fitness trainers that get into facility ownership because someone, one of their clients whispered in their ear one day, hey, you're a great trainer, but you should be a gym owner, right? And then and then maybe they'll that person will even say, I'll finance it, right? So they're like, Yeah, I can do this because they see someone like you who's been doing it for fifty, you know, 15, 20 years, you know, a long period, and you make it look easy, right? Because you've just taken the time, you're battle tested, you put in the systems in place. So, like, yeah, I can do what Billy does, right? And then they get in and then they start opening just six months later, they're like, Oh shit. You know, like I so I the the point I'm making this is like having facilities like yours where people can be, you know, whatever you want to call it. Entrepreneur is a sexy term right now, right? It's yeah, like a run. It's a running.

Yeah, when you say that, a trainer's like, I'm not an entrepreneur. Like that's someone who like discovers a self-driving car. Like that is such a weird word, right? So I'm trying to help people feel comfortable with it for sure.

Yeah, well, I'm I'm not comfortable with the word because I can't spell it. I feel like the Rs keep moving, like every time the R moves somewhere else, uh anywhere. But I guess the point is like having facilities like yours where people can still grow their own business and but have, you know, not have to worry about the overhead. Like that's a really attractive option. And I hope people are listening to this, like that's a super, super great option. Like, I can't emphasize that enough. Having people like you where you can go in, you can still have the freedom. It's not a quote unquote nine to five, right? You can still do your own schedule, you can build your business, but you don't have to worry about rent, insurance, parking issues, like all those things that come along with with gym ownership that not too many people talk about, but it's it's you know, battling with the city over whatever, right? You know, it's it's there's a lot to it, and I think the opportunities that you're providing and other gym owners like you are are tremendous. Definitely, thank you.

And I I mean if I had to do it all again, I've said many times in my old and wise age, I have no idea if I would have the guts to do it again. Because like you said, it is it is a lot for sure. I I love every minute of it though, and I'm I feel really fortunate where we are now. But if I had to start it all over, I think it would be really challenging. The one thing I'll say too, so we have a group of maybe we have uh maybe five trainers who, like you just said, they they hit a point where they've maximized their schedule and they were full at capacity here in the in the facility, and they didn't want to open a gym. They saw how I was running like a crazy like chicken with my head cut off, and they're like, absolutely, I do not want that lifestyle. So they've actually started coming up with very creative ways to grow their business outside of their practice underneath the roof of the Akadi. And that there are two things that I'll share with the listeners that I highly recommend. If you're an independent trainer, one, maximize your schedule, like fill it, fill it to the max. Continue to put money into your marketing. The next thing you do is actually start building your own referral network of trainers underneath your umbrella that then fall under your facilities umbrella. So when clients contact you, you're full. You have a list of trainers that then you refer them out to, and the trainer pays you a referral fee, and you spread that referral fee out over honestly, it's however long as you want. It can be a few sessions, it can be a few months. So that, again, passive income. Those trainers who develop those little miniature referral programs are making money on the beach, right? Number one goal. The second thing that they've started to do are building intern programs. So that's something at Diakati built this really wonderful called Diakati Next Intern programs to bring in young trainers and teach them fitness and business skills. So our trainers in-house have also started building their own intern programs. So they're shadowing and then they're having their interns run sessions for them when they're out of town and slowly teaching them their style. And then so they're getting money at that point, and then they extend that intern into being a referral trainer once they're done with the intern program. So then that feeds their referral program too. So those trainers are incredibly smart and above, uh kind of ahead of the curve, in my opinion, that they are doing this all underneath a very protected, they don't have to worry about rent every month if they're out of town and that type of stuff. So be creative. All this is again to those young folks out there. Be creative, or old folks, trying to open a gym. Be creative in terms of don't think it has to be a facility. Just like you just said, Eric, it can you there's so many directions that you can head with growing financially and grow expanding your facility or your business uh without it having to be a facility. Um yeah, that's definitely one of the things I try and pass out when I'm talking at conferences around the uh states because it it is something, again, I think is a missed opportunity for so many folks. They're out of capacity and they just turn people away.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. And there's you know, getting creative with the ways you can make money now and make an income. It's so imperative because there's so you can literally just create something out of your mind and sell it now online. Like you can, you know, a special course specifically for um, you know, 40-year-old recovering gym owners, you know, with a with a bum left ankle. And uh, you know, I'm talking about me. Like you can you can like build a course that's for that person and you'll find thousands of okay across the world. And that's that's the incredible thing. Or you can stay local. You know, there's um uh my friends at OPEX, they they do online coaching specifically within the CrossFit world, but they have coaches that um you know work 30 hours a week, uh they work under the umbrella of the OPEX brand, uh but they travel all over the world, you know, they do their job from wherever they want to do it, you know, and like those those opportunities, if you just kind of if that's what you're looking for and you start looking and start opening your eyes outside of the normal, like, well, I'll just get a job at a gym and then you know, they'll feed me clients, I'll get paid twenty dollars an hour and then I'll burn out in five years and I'm done. You know, that's the sad story for most trainers. But if they if people like you and other people, hopefully people are listening to this, they'll start to get a little bit inspired to maybe take a couple hours out of their week and just be like, where else can I make money? And what is my ideal day? What does that perfect day look like? What's that that beach money? What does that look like? How do I get there and then start asking people for help?

And you said two things. One, taking time out of the week. Literally, take time out of the week. Uh, there's a great coach named Robin Sharma that he had a podcast and he talked about the 9091 idea. And his his way he did went about it was the first 90 minutes of every workday for the next 90 days that you were supposed to focus on your number one priority. You don't have to be, I mean, that's incredibly like that's intense. But the thing is, at least every week, set aside some time to be focusing on that creative business development and growth. The other thing is, with this, like with the podcast archive that you have, as well as many, many others that are out there, there's so much, I there's so much inspirational idea out there on the internet for folks to again just kind of feed off of like the stuff we're talking about today. So just listen and continue you listen to the uh podcasts and the uh anything at all that you can find to help give you inspiration.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's also, and you know, the big thing too is um, you know, everyone has a different circumstance. So, you know, I I think we all fall into a comparison trap of like, you know, we we automatically compare ourselves to someone else. You know, everyone has a unique set of advantages or disadvantages that have led them to where they are today. Like, you know, no, you know, maybe maybe Billy Polson and Diakati, they they found themselves at the right place at the right time in San Francisco. You know, maybe it's not a good time to start another gym like that. You know, it's really expensive in San Francisco, right? So you know, may look for your own way. Look at what advantages you have right now, um, and then turn that into you know what you want to do because that that's a big thing is leveraging, you know, not being like, oh, well, that that guy had all the advantages, he came in at the right time, you know, so-and-so podcasts are started in 20, you know, 2009 when it was super hot, you know. And they're like, no, well, that's great. Good for them. I wish them all the success. You know, they they made the most of it. But what's your point right now? Look at your circumstance right now. What advantages do you have? And then go get it. Like that's the thing, is stop looking at what other people have done, look at what you have in front of you and make it happen, right? Most definitely, right?

And again, it's what you said. A lot of people see the the idea of opening a facility is again, it's like see someone else do it, and they're like, Yeah, I need to do it. Just be creative. Like, yeah, get the inspiration and think like, all right, how can I tweak that to match what's going on in the market today? It's that again, that competitor research. Look and see what's going on out there, what's working really well in your city, outside your city. Yeah, mash that around, kind of massage that in your head a little bit, then start to look at what are the missed opportunities out there, what are the things that are needed that are not in any of those businesses in your city or even in New York or wherever you want to compare to. Try and again, look at what's going on and where you can take advantage of those missed opportunities.

Yeah, yeah, it's a great time for opportunity, man. It's it's so cool. And maybe you listen to Gary Vee, maybe you don't, but I do all the time because he just fires me up. You know, it it talks about how you know everyone's so focused on, okay, what's the future gonna bring? And I'm just as guilty. What's the next technology? What's the next? Is it voice, right? Is it is it content within applications? Like, what is it gonna be? I wanna be there. Meanwhile, we're missing the point that there is so much opportunity right here. Like, if I look to my left, look to my right, there's opportunity everywhere. I mean, you can literally make a living buying things uh on Craigslist and selling them on eBay. 100%. I saw a guy did that. He's a millionaire. Right now, but you know, it's uh it's just a great time to be to be alive. So um But you know what it takes is uh again, create things creatively for sure.

But make a plan and then run at it. Run at it, be a problem solver, but you you gotta hustle. Like I was thinking about when I was coming into work today. I was just thinking about what we're gonna be talking about, and I just thought, you know what? One of the most important things is hustle, like run at something, commit to it and like make a plan and run at it. It's work, but it's that much more rewarding when you're just loving to run at whatever you're running at.

Yeah. Well, if you keep imagining what the end result is gonna be, you know, like I know what my end result looks like. I know exactly what it looks like. It's this part of it is this sweet-looking Mercedes Springer band conversion, right? Like, you know what I'm talking about. It's just gonna be beautiful, it's gonna be the best. And that's part of it. And that's what gets me up every morning and and you know, makes me reach out and build content and and work for my clients and do all these things. And I think um, you know, if you can see the end result down the road, if it's something you really, really, really want, uh, the work comes easy as long as you you get organized. So um that's great. That's great advice.

That vision, it's that it's totally if you every single entrepreneur, every single fitness entrepreneur, they have that vision. Yeah, like where do I want to be going? And sometimes that changes and updates every year, right? They build it and they go to the next thing to build. So yeah, get that vision and then I guess run, run, man, run.

Yeah, I love it. So, Billy, where do people find you? Where do they go online to find you?

Definitely. So, the businessmovement.com. That's uh where our whole fitness or business education for fitness entrepreneurs. Uh, there's great content on there in our expert insights and on the blog. So on branding, on marketing, on building your first website. Definitely recommend check that out. There's also some great podcasts from our previous business movement series and events from our speakers from all types of entrepreneurs from all types of industries. Uh, and then for trainers, if you're looking for some fitness and uh some education on that side, definitely check out diacati.life, www.diacati.life. And uh that'll give you all again some great blog content from many of the trainers who've worked here and their expert knowledge of passing that on.

Yeah, awesome, man. Well, great messaging, and I hope you know fitness professionals are listening. Uh, take this um to heart and run with it, and then share it with other people too, because this is a huge opportunity within our industry to to adapt and change and kind of get out of the old school ways. And uh people like Billy are leading us. So thank you for doing that, Billy. Thank you for coming on the show. It's been a pleasure. Thanks, Eric.

Spread the love, you guys. Thank you so much, man. Have a great day.

See you. 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 Marketing Alliance.com