PT Business Builder Interview # 2: Jason Grossman

Today I am bringing you another interview for the PT Business Builder series. After talking to the amazing Scott Williams for our last interview, it was always going to be tough act for someone to follow. That is unless you are Jason Grossman. Jason is the personal training equivalent of Richard Branson – a visionary, fiercely driven and guaranteed to make a massive impact on the fitness industry. This guy lives, breaths and sweats personal training.

To before we stuck get into his interview, let me fill you in on some of the finer details about Jason. He has successfully run his personal training business for 10 years now, completing over 25,000 personal and group sessions (that’s alot of sweaty people). He is a public speaker; giving talks on personal development, health and fitness, NLP, business marketing, management and sales.

Jason is also the Perth Campus Director and National Events Coordinator for the Australia Institute of Personal Trainers, educating the new breed of trainers throughout Australia. Most impressively on top of all this (amongst other things) he also operates a National PT Coaching Business, helping PT’s Australia wide to exponentially expand and grow their business using his 7 steps to a booming business, called Your PT Coach. So as you can see, this dude lives his career with enthusiasm. It is this enthusiasm and his clear and unique vision that makes him one of Australia’s up and coming PT Business minds. Enjoy the interview….

1)  So Jason, tell me how you first got into personal training?

Having started Aussie rules football at the age of 9 and playing until 16years of age then pursuing martial arts until the age of 23, fitness had played a major role in my life. At the age of 21, I was spending several hours daily training and was very curious to learn more about the body and how it worked, I was gaining the practical/neurological experience but was lacking the theoretical/intellectual experience.

Having read my first university level Psychology book at just 13 years of age (which I still have) I was also very fascinated by the most important part of the body… the mind. So off I went at 21, waxed my legs (ha-ha) commenced a Master PT course and started to call myself a PT. little did I know at that stage how little I did know…

2) Then from there, why did you want to go into business for yourself and how did you do it?

As soon as I became fully qualified at age 21 I had this magnificent obsession, I was extremely hungry and my goal was to be the busiest Personal Trainer in WA. So originally I sent out my resume to over 50 Health Clubs in WA I was offered 5 positions in the first week. I chose to work as a contractor (self-employed) at a club called BC (The Body Club) where you where given no leads and where required to sell your own inductions and PT. So I spent 7 days a week there open to close until I broke every state record in just 9 months doing minimum 75 showed PT sessions every week (which I continued for over 5 years) at $50 per half hour session. (A feat they said wasn’t possible).

After achieving the goal of being the busiest PT in WA in just 9 months I was thirsty for a challenge so I with a fellow PT started a business where we had massage therapists working for us, an online supplement super store, health and fitness packages online, membership website, business courses for PTs, group training and seminars for the general public on health and fitness which was very successful.

3) Who were your target market, what service did you provide and how did you market your business when you first started?

When I started my first Group Training business I was blessed to already have a great database so found it fairly easy to focus on 22-32 year old singles looking for more social interaction. We had great welcome packs for all new start ups which included a fit ball and a whole heap of vouchers and discounts to our partners and they where happy to pay $40 per hour with up to 20 people in each group session.

This business built quickly as we had monthly promotions and offers and very open about offering free stuff, info other services and social activities including BBQs, volley ball competitions, beach days, Xmas parties with karaoke and more. The biggest thing was making it the culture to bring friends along; people that didn’t, almost felt left out and everyone received their first session free. We also had an amazing presentation at the end of the free group session which was well planned and scripted with all the correct documentation including direct debit forms to secure them as active and ongoing paying clients.

4)  What was your biggest business challenge back then?

The biggest challenge we faced is that in the words of Michael Gerber (Author of E-myth) we were still in the technician faze and although at just 23 thought we thought we had the best systems. Although we attended seminars, courses and read a plethora of books we werestill quite inexperienced and really would have benefitted from building a stronger team (mastermind) to have experienced people help us implement highly effective and successful systems to allow for our rapid growth and duplication of the business.

5) Thats a really good point. So what does your personal training business look like today?

As I teach PT qualification courses, deliver PT events and operate a national Coaching business for Personal Trainers among other things. I am personally involved with my PT business part time but it still generates a 6 figure income, once you have mastered the systems (after 10 years of sharpening/and still sharpening) it is much easier to work on the business and duplicate your success within the business. Our major focus is Group Training which generates a funnel for new clients and allows for a larger revenue stream. We then promote one on one results training in package form to all GT clients to promote them training with us 4 x each week.

6) Nice one. What are your most successful marketing strategies for your business now?

Social Media, Social Media, Social Media. Between Facebook, YouTube and twitter you can operate and grow whole businesses. I operate one of my businesses purely off Facebook with pretty much no overheads and massive exposure with the ability to really pin point with specificity the desired target market. At present I admin some of the largest health and fitness and PT groups in Australia. You can also link the 3 together to really make a powerful impact with increasing the awareness of your product or service. I have delivered presentations as well as written many articles on this subject in which you can find on Facebook as well as many other sites.

7)   What is your biggest business challenge in your business today?

The biggest challenge today is in the National Coaching Business I am currently training and recruiting coaches around Australia to deliver the 7 step program to a Booming PT Business. It is absolutely vital the training systems, operations systems and delivery systems are very specific and clear so I can duplicate my culture, style, values and strategies with ease.

8)   I can see how the dupliction of that can be hard if not planned correctly.  Taking that challnge into account, where do you and your business want to be in 5 years from now?

The plan is in within the next 3 years to have established a highly organized company with a multitude of coaches Australia wide helping personal trainers to build their business. Imagine the impact and potential of helping 1000s of PTs on society and the ever growing health and obesity problems.

Once the Australian goals and targets of the company have been reached the plan is to within 5 years expand to the US and then UK, operating a successful international PT Coaching Conglomerate.

So there you have it. You can see how Jason’s ability to mix the traditional aspects of systemised business development with social media tools has blown his business through the roof. If you are a personal trainer and you are not a member of Jason’s Facebook group, you are really missing out on a genuinely good resource. Get connected to his Your PT Coach Facebook Group here and get access to bunch of great information and resources to help you build your personal training business.

So to wrap up, I want to say congratulations to Jason for having the vision, desire and ACTION to make his business goals a reality. Lots of people talk about it but not that many actually go out there and put there dreams into action. So if you take something from Jason Grossman – take that.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Rick

P.S:  If you enjoyed this interview, make sure you become a fan of our Facebook page and our friend on Twitter. We use these social media pages to provide you with a daily stream of infromation to help you grow your business (sort of like a daily mini-blog) from a huge range of my most trusted sources – I do the digging and you get the info…simple :-)

Tagged as: Australia Institute, Business Builder, Business Marketing Management, Business Minds, Campus Director, Fitness Industry, Group Sessions, Health And Fitness, Intellectual Experience, Interview 1, Interview 2, Jason Grossman, Massive Impact, Personal Development, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Perth Campus, Public Speaker, Richard Branson, Unique Vision