The Business of Fitness Podcast

In this episode Dan Williams sought out nine of the most successful fitness and health business owners of 2025. He asked each of them to share their one biggest lesson that will carry them to more success in 2026. You'll hear from Emily McPhillips, Jason Lim, Sam Cassells, Jake Morgan, Emily Moore, Jade Webb, Grant Hancock, Scott Hook, and Ben Luckens, as they share the lessons and decisions that shaped their year in business.

In this episode, Dan is a guest on Ben Lucken's podcast, where he sits down for a really wide ranging conversation about business mindset. Benny asks Dan about how he thinks about building a life that aligns with your own definition of success. They also discuss some of the frameworks Dan uses to think about the world, including: Why mindsets are trainable skills. The magic of 3-hour deep work blocks. The 7 words that define business success. The 4 Archetypes of happiness. How to balance journey vs destination. Why experience always beats technology. They dive into Benny's journey with Life's Peachy FIT: The meaning behind the name. His rebrand away from F45. What's next as he launches franchise opportunities built around leadership, member experience, and genuine human connection in an AI treatment future.

Summary: In this episode I explore how a professional photoshoot can transform your fitness business marketing, with practical steps to plan, capture, and use high-quality photos that attract the right clients. 5 things you'll learn: Why professional photos are one of the most effective marketing tools for fitness businesses. How to choose photo subjects that reflect your target clients and build connection. The types of scenes and interactions that create powerful, versatile images. Why staged photos deliver better marketing results than spontaneous action shots. How to plan and run a photoshoot that maximises time, efficiency, and usable photos.   Done well, a photoshoot can be one of the most powerful marketing tools for your gym. The right type of photos can give potential clients a glimpse into your business, and can transform both your website and your social media presence. Great photos are an important part of all the websites I build for fitness businesses. This guide will cover some of the considerations for a photoshoot, including examples of the sort of photos you're looking to acquire from a photo shoot I ran for my business (you can find these at the bottom of the page). Firstly - it's highly recommended that you use the services of a professional photographer with professional equipment. The difference in quality is noticeable, and brings a new layer of professionalism to your business. If you're using a professional photographer, this guide might help to give them some direction on what you're looking for. Photo Subjects: The subjects of your photos should match the types of people you're looking to attract to your business. We're not looking for perfect, airbrushed models here - we want real people. We want your target customers to look at the photos and think 'those people look like me'. Well in advance of the photoshoot, you want to contact some of your current clients to ask them to appear in the shoot. We're looking for at least 12 people. Make sure you've got a broad representation across different ages, nationalities, skin colours, shapes, sizes, genders, sexualities etc. You want to get any staff you have to be available for the shoot. If the shoot is for a website, it's also important to get photos of the people who you'll be featuring in testimonials and client feature stories. Photo Subject Matter: As mentioned, the photos themselves should be of people who match your avatar (target customer). They should be working with your staff (ideally in a one-on-one capacity, like hands on technique corrections etc). They should be smiling, laughing and having a good time - while still working hard. The more interaction the better (between staff and client, and between client and client (if you have multiple clients in each photo). Fist bumps, high fives etc are great. We want photos of all the services you provide. If you offer one-on-one coaching, get photos of that. If you offer small group training, include multiple people in you photos, but there should be one person who is featured in the image - the others are just there for context. If you offer any sit-down consults, make sure you get photos of them. Photo Composition: As tempting as it it to have a photographer roam around during a class, or following a PT around during their session, these 'action shots' never come out as well as staged photos. With this in mind, the best approach is to stage the photos, and take multiple shots of each 'scene' - each being slightly different. This will give plenty of options to choose the best shot.  We want these photos to have as many uses as possible. To help with this, the subjects shouldn't be shot from too close. We don't want them filling the frame. This will allow use to 'cut in' the photo to get both portrait (vertical) and landscape (horizontal) images - based on what we need to use them for. Lighting is really important - we want the photos to be light and bright, with natural lighting being ideal. Be aware of what else is in the scene. We don't want busy, untidy backgrounds. Keep things clean, simple, minimalist. Planning the shoot: To ensure as many uses as possible, plan to have around 12 subjects, with three to four scenes each. For example, one scene might be pushing a prowler, one might be doing a deadlift, one might be doing a dip. Getting 10-20 photos of each scene should result in a choice of 2-3 good shots to choose one great shot from. You'll end up with 36-48 great photos from your entire shoot. Here are some examples of potential scenes that a strength and conditioning facility might use: Air squat Deadlift set-up Deadlift lock out. Barbell front rack position. Bottom of a front squat. Air bike. Rower. Bottom of overhead squat. Ring row Russian KB swing Prowler push. A group of 3 people people training together. Dumbbell bench press. Coach and client fist bumping. A bunch of your members chatting and talking (maybe while sitting around / mobilising etc). Where possible, costume changes between scenes will ensure the photos don't end up looking like they were all taken on the same day (even though they were!). You need to be super organised, with all exercise equipment pre- set up before the photographer arrives. Five minutes for each scene, three scenes, equals 15 minutes per 'model'. 12 models means a total of three hours. You'll probably need to pay the photographer for four hours to allow set-up, pack down time. Your models don't need to be there for the entire shoot, as long as they're there for their allotted time. You should create a run sheet / shot schedule which will look something like: 9am: John with PT prowler push. 9.05am: John with PT deadlift. 9.10am: John with PT dip. 9.15am: Sarah and John rowing. 9.20am: Sarah and PT front squat. 9.25am: Sarah and PT KB swing. etc. A well-planned photoshoot can elevate the way people see your business, creating a professional and approachable first impression. With the right preparation, you'll have a library of images that showcase what you do best and attract the clients you want.   Your action steps: Hire a professional photographer to ensure your fitness business photos look polished and trustworthy. Select a diverse mix of clients and staff who represent your ideal customers. Plan multiple staged scenes that showcase your services, interactions, and client enjoyment. Prepare equipment and create a detailed shot schedule to keep the session efficient. Use the resulting images across your website, social media, and marketing campaigns to strengthen brand presence.

In this episode Dan Williams explores how goal dilution contributes to the identity crisis in Exercise Physiology and shares how defining what EPs don't do can help the profession stand out. 5 things you'll learn in this episode: Why Exercise Physiologists struggle with public recognition and a clear professional identity. How goal dilution weakens the perception of Exercise Physiology for clients, referrers, and allied health partners. Why defining what you don't do creates stronger positioning and clearer boundaries in a crowded industry. How choosing a niche and sticking to it leads to greater credibility, referrals, and brand differentiation. How EPs can shift from the red ocean of competition to the blue ocean of being in a category of one.

Today we bring you an episode of the Kinetic Careers podcast with Jeremiah PEIFFER. Dan Williams was lucky enough to be invited by Jeremiah for the very first episode of his podcast, which helps sport and exercise science students and graduates to develop their career. Jeremiah and Dan had a wide ranging conversation where they covered: Dan's pathway through exercise and sports science How the EP profession and ESSA have evolved The way Dan has designed his businesses around being a present dad and building a lifestyle not just an income The role of failure, networking and lifelong learning in career growth Practical advice for students and new grads on positioning themselves, building business acumen and creating remarkable client experiences in an AI-shaped future.

If you are an online coach, or you program for your clients, this is for you. In this episode, Dan Williams talks about the very real threat that AI is bringing to people who provide programs for their clients.  Dan explores how AI is transforming exercise programming, why online coaches face potentially career ending risks, and how fitness professionals can pivot to protect their careers in the AI-driven future. 5 things you'll learn in this episode: Why AI-powered exercise programming is advancing faster than most fitness professionals realise. How real-time data from wearables, sleep, mood, and recovery can reshape training sessions instantly. The limitations of empathy and human connection as a defence against automation. Why online programming is becoming a commodity and what that means for pricing. How to pivot your business towards unscalable, in-person experiences that AI cannot replicate. If you are in the business of exercise programming, everything is about to change. You may think that empathy and human connection is going to save you, but in this episode Dan shares a story that shows how difficult it will be to compete with AI. Your action steps: Reassess whether online programming is your long-term career plan, given AI's rapid advances. Explore ways to integrate AI tools into your business as a facilitator, not a competitor. Build in-person, non-scalable experiences that prioritise connection and value beyond what AI can deliver. Educate clients on the unique benefits of human-led training and the experiential side of fitness. Begin shifting your offers towards services that are harder to commoditise, such as bespoke coaching or community-driven experiences.    

Summary: In this episode Dan explores why business owners should stop measuring success only by money and start valuing time as their true currency, helping you design a more profitable and balanced business life. 4 things you'll learn in this episode: Why revenue and profit can be misleading measures of business success How tracking hours worked reveals your true hourly rate and workload What it means to switch from 'dollars as currency' to 'minutes as currency' Practical ways to redesign your business to earn time, not just money Need a website? I can help.   Transcription: I think just about every single one of us is measuring the wrong thing in business. I'd like to share something I'm struggling with a bit at the moment. My very first business was selling shells I'd picked up off the beach. My business premises was the top bunk of my bed. My customers were Mum and Dad. I was six. From this moment, the measure of success of my little business was how much money it earned. And from that moment forward, every business I had was measured by the same metric. Money. And it makes sense. We live in a capitalist world. And I'm fine with that. I believe that people should get paid for solving other people's problems. But living in that world makes it really hard to gauge the success of your business by anything other than the size of your bank account. That mindset has been drilled into us since before we could walk. Money is our measure of business success, and for some of us, it's also a measure of life success. Society tells us that dollars are the currency that matter – they're the scoreboard that tells us if we're winning the game. And we know it shouldn't be like this, but it is. So back to the thing I'm struggling with. I'm struggling to break way from a lifetime of 'money as the measure of success'. Within the last couple of years, I've made some major structural changes to the businesses I run. Let me take you back to what business looked like before these changes. I was working around 45 hours a week on multiple businesses, I had a team of 12 staff, brick and mortar premises, and my wife and I owned a home and three investment properties. Revenue was high – I was earning more than I ever thought I would. But the nature of running businesses in that way meant expenditure was high too – but not so high that there wasn't a very tidy profit margin. And it's that profit that was my scoreboard. If I profited more in February than I did in January, I was becoming more successful. Sure, it was pretty stressful, and I was always worrying about something, but that's just a cost of doing business right? But then, I made some very deliberate and intentional changes to how I worked. Fast forward to today. Zero staff, no premises, no investment properties, lower revenue. By most traditional measures, you'd say I'm now less successful than I was. However, expenditures dropped by about 75% and profit (which is the only financial metric that only really matters to me) dropped by only about 10%. And importantly, most importantly by far is something the accountant can't see. I'm achieving this off the back of an average of 22 hours per week of work – that's all types of work – billable work, admin, business development… everything. You'll remember I was working 45 hours a week. And it's now about 22. That means I'm doing HALF the amount of work I was. 50% of the work for 90% of the profit. That's a massive increase in profit per hours worked, and probably a 90% drop in stress too. But you know what, there's a tiny little niggling part of my brain that's still telling me I'm less successful than I used to be. Because of that small drop in profit. Part of me is still a slave to the notion that dollars are the true and only measure of success. I'm working really hard on this, and I think I'm slowly winning. I'm slowly honestly believing that the currency that measures the success of my business is not money, but time. Time is the currency. Time is the resource I'm earning. I'm flipping my thinking. I no longer engineer my work to optimise for financial earnings, but to optimise for temporal earnings – earnings of time. I base business decisions on the time they'll earn me, not the money. The changes I've made are paying me 23 hours a week. That is the value of the business I've built. That's the salary my business pays me. Not money, but time. A traditional approach would see people put that 23 hours back into their business. For my highest financial value tasks, I charge my consulting out at a rate of $300 an hour. That's just under an extra $7000 a week if I was to trade my free time in for money. But you know what, I'd rather have the extra 1,380 minutes per week than the extra $6,900. Bear in mind that I started my business 19 years ago – and I'm not denying the need for hard work and long hours. But I am denying that that mindset needs to continue just out of habit. Just look at the number of depressed, divorced billionaires. I believe there is a better way. How could your life be changed by switching from 'dollars-as-currency' and adopting more of a 'minutes-as-currency' mindset? It's a change that's worked for me, and something I explore in great depth with the business owners I mentor. If you want to start making this change, I recommend you start by introducing some new KPIs to the metrics you track. Start tracking your hours of work across all work types, and then calculating your TRUE hourly rate. How about also implementing a self-administered 'quality of life' scale each month – just as a regular reminder of what's most important. What get's measured get managed, and you can't manage your time without first measuring it. Episode 61 of the podcast is called 'I tracked every minute of work time for a year. Here's what I learned.'. Listen here, or read the article here. I'd recommend you check that one out if you're interested in how I track my time. And all the way back in episode three, I spoke about 'Your REAL Hourly Rate: The True Cost of Running a Fitness Business' (podcast | article) Those two episodes are a great place to start if you want to switch to a minutes-as-currency mindset. If you're interested in the philosophy of money, time, work, and life in general, I've got one more resource for you. This is an article I wrote and released as a podcast, where I break down my general philosophy of how to live a full and good life. In it I attempt to answer questions around: The role of pain and suffering in life. How do I remove them? Should I remove them? How can I balance ambition with contentment? Striving with settling? Journey and destination? How can I balance work, productivity, time and money, to give me a 'good life'. When I strip back the work I do, who am I? Do I use busyness and work as a distraction from the question of what I actually want to do with my life? What are the elements of a 'good life', and how do I get more of them? That episode was published in May of 2025, I hope you check it out (article | podcast). And I hope you can consider a switch to a 'minutes-as-currency' mindset. My life has never been better than since I made that change.   Your action steps: Start recording every hour you spend on all business tasks to calculate your true hourly rate. Add new KPIs that track time, such as weekly hours worked and a monthly quality-of-life score. Analyse which tasks or structures reduce your hours without harming profit and adjust your business model accordingly. Resist reinvesting every freed hour into more work; protect and use reclaimed time for life and health. Revisit your definition of success regularly to ensure it aligns with both profit and lifestyle goals.

In this episode Dan Williams explores the six essential sections every fitness business website needs and the psychological strategies you should include to convert more leads into paying clients. Check out the demo websites Dan has built to accompany this episode. Let Dan help you build a beautiful, one-page website that generates leads for your business: Learn more. 6 things you'll learn in this episode Why your website should be the centre of your fitness business marketing The six must-have sections that guide visitors towards taking action How to write customer-focused website copy that speaks directly to your audience Psychological principles like scarcity and loss aversion that boost conversions Practical examples of how to apply these strategies to your own fitness website Your action steps: Redesign your website around the six core sections to guide visitors from interest to action. Use customer-centric language that speaks directly to your target audience's pain points and goals. Add short, clear testimonials and client stories to build trust and social proof. Apply psychological principles like scarcity, loss aversion, and the endowment effect in your calls to action.

In this 'quick thought' Dan asks us to rethink identity, not as what we do for money, but as how we actually live and spend our time.

Like a lot of poeple, Ben Luckens from Life's Peachy FIT has a great conversion rate when his leads come in for a trial. But the issue is actually getting them in the door. In this episode, Ben asks Dan about his strategies for less ghosting and more conversions. You'll learn: Why adding friction can actually improve lead quality and boost show-up rates. The surprising response time that multiplies your conversions by nearly four times. How to deliver remarkable client experiences before someone even sets foot in your gym. Five psychological triggers that ethically nudge leads from enquiry to committed member.

Dan explains a simple client reactivation system for fitness businesses, show how to track resurrection rate, and share easy steps to win back ex-members. 5 things you'll learn: How to build a list of ex-clients and calculate a monthly resurrection rate for your fitness business. How to improve offboarding with quick exit interviews that record clear reasons for leaving. How to trigger win-back messages the moment a client's original blocker is removed. How to use Fresh Start timing and milestone contacts to lift replies and bookings. How to reach past clients with Meta Custom Audience ads and a direct booking link.   Transcription: If you're looking for a new way to grow your business, generate a list of all your previous clients and members. I've never seen anyone do this and not be shocked  by how long that list is. There's a huge number of people who, at some point, used your service, but are no longer paying customers. People who once needed you, but who, for some reason, got to the point where they didn't need you any more. And this list provides an opportunity for reactivation – converting ex-clients back into current clients. And that's what I want to discuss, a strategy guide to client reactivation. Generally, we spend most of our time on two things, client retention, and lead generation. We build systems and pipelines for lead generation, and we design client journeys to provide valuable experiences to keep people around. But once they leave our business, too many businesses cut them lose, going back to focus on retention and new leads. And sure, these things are important (particularly retention), but reactivation often seems to be forgotten. I want to fix that. But first, there are five things you need to do before even beginning to think about client reactivation. I've spoken a lot about these before (and I'll give you some recommended content if you want to dig deeper), but I'm not going to go into detail, but let me summarise what you need to do BEFORE you start the process of reactivating past clients. 1: Provide a remarkable experience so people don't leave in the first place. Check out my article 'Delivering an Experience: The Strategy of 'Being Different' or listen to episode 69 of the podcast. 2: Build a system to alert you of your three clients who are at highest risk of departure each week and add value to them that week. Read my article 'Increase retention to 98% using this 10 minute strategy' or listen to episode 26 of the podcast. 3: Conduct an exit interview with all departing clients, and identify the reason they're leaving. Keep a table of all the reasons for departure in seperate columns, with the list of all the people who left for that reason under the heading. 4: Identify how long into their client journey each customer is when they leave. Identify the most common time to leave (for example, it might be between four and 6 months, and increase the experience people are receiving for the eight weeks leading up to that point. This will plug your biggest leak. Read: 'The Only Thing Fitness Business Owners Need to Do For Retention'. 5: Make sure memberships on hold (dormant customers) receive weekly contacts of some kind. Ok, so assuming you're doing those five things, we can move onto some ideas to help you reactivate your past clients. If you're not doing those five things, the strategies we're about to discuss won't work as well. It's really common for business owners to bump into ex customers who say to them 'oh, I've been meaning to get back in touch with you guys'. It's definitely something I've experienced. This tells me people are open to working with you again, they just need a bit of a nudge to take that first step. Firstly, what gets measured gets managed. So start measuring what's called your 'resurrection rate'. This is the percentage of past clients who you come back to you each month. We calculate this by dividing the number of returning clients in a month by the number of past clients at the start of the month. For example, if you start March with a list of 200 ex members, and during the month of March three of them restart, that's 3 / 200, or 1.5%. So your resurrection rate is 1.5%. This number will allow you to gauge the success of the reactivation strategies. Ok, so once you've started measuring your resurrection rate, we can start the process of increasing it.   Client departure: And we begin with the client departure. How can you make this a great experience? People expect a great experience to START their journey with you, but it'll really blow their mind if the END of their journey is equally remarkable. How you do this is up to you, but the litmus test is whether your departing client tells a friend about how good the departure experience was. That's the definition of 'remarkable' – able to be remarked about. As part of this departure, you need to have some sort of exit interview or survey which will tell you why they left.   Removing reasons for departure: And this brings us to the next strategy. Contact your ex clients when their reason for departure has been removed. Remember I spoke about keeping a table of all client departures, with each client listed under their reason for departure? This where you can use that. For example, if you launch online programming, contact all ex clients who left because they were moving away from your gym. If you're introducing a new, cheaper option, contact all clients who left for financial reasons. If you've built a new system to help clients exercise around an injury, let all your clients know who left due to injury.   Service updates: Similar to this, you can contact past clients with any announcements about new products or services you're offering, introducing new staff, announcing changes to the facility, or anything else that indicates a change in how you're doing business or the experience people can expect from you. If you're about to launch a service that is limited to a certain number of people, use this scarcity as a tactic to encourage re engagement – maybe you can offer this limited service to ex clients first, giving them 24 hours to register their interest before you open up the opportunity to everyone else.   The fresh start theory: With a bit of knowledge of marketing psychology, we can take advantage of what's called the 'fresh start theory'. This well research phenomenon tells us that people like to start something new or undergo a big behaviour change on a Monday, the first day of the month or the first day of the year etc. So, make sure you're timing your communications with them to be just prior to a new week, month or year. For example, you might contact your database of ex clients at the start of the new year saying something like, 'We know a lot of people are wanted to take back control of their health this year – just wanted to let you know we're here to help and ready when you are.'   Milestone contacts: You should also be contacting people during milestone moments in their life. Again, we're not trying to make a hard sell here – or even a soft sell for that matter. You'll remember I was talking about the number of people who express interest in returning to your business after bumping into you in person. Contacting people during milestone moments in their life just provides a 'virtual bump'. They should receive a handwritten birthday card in the mail for every birthday. You should make a particular effort when people are approaching a major milestone birthday. People who've just turned 29, 39, 49, 59, 69 etc. are more likely to be wanting to get back into exercise. The most common age for people to run their first marathon is 40, with peaks of participation at the start of every new decade of life. Take advantage of this to help them along their milestone journey. You can also contact them on their anniversary of starting with you. Maybe they initially started in the lead up to summer, or when the weather meant they couldn't get outside to run. Whatever their reason for contacting you at a certain time of year – that reason may reemerge on their anniversary of starting every year.   Content Marketing: Staying front of mind is key, and this is where content marketing becomes important. The purpose of content marketing as a general marketing strategy is to position you as an expert to your target client. This becomes doubly important as a reactivation strategy, as a way to remind your previous clients that you're still there, and available to help solve their problems. As part of your regular content marketing, you should be email everyone in your email network fortnightly with your latest articles, videos, podcast episodes, carousels, infographics, or whatever other medium you choose to use. Past clients should definitely remain a part of this email network. Make sure that a percentage of your content is about topics that are specifically relevant to people who you're hoping to attract back to your business. Maybe tips about how to restart exercise after a break, how to rebuild a broken exercise habit, or the psychology of loss aversion and the ease with which a person can maintain a baseline level of strength and fitness.   Paid Advertising: While paid advertising is commonly used for new cold-lead generation, it's not often used for internal marketing (for example upselling your current clients), or to attract old clients back in. For example, within Meta, you can create a 'Custom Audience from a Customer List'. This is where you can have an advert running that is visible only to past clients. You don't need to re-sell them on your service, or educate them about what you do, because they already know that. Instead, you should have a very strong call to action to make it as clear and simple as possible for them to restart. Because this custom audience list size will be very small, you can achieve a lot of success here from a tiny budget (the minimum Meta will allow).   General Engagement: Reg

In this episode Dan shares the one-page marketing plan he recommends to every fitness business he mentors, focusing on 11 proven marketing areas that consistently drive long-term growth without chasing fads. Download a PDF version of the one page marketing checklist here. Four things you'll learn in this episode: How to simplify your marketing by focusing on 11 essential categories that actually work. How to build systems for storytelling, referrals, and reactivating past members to drive growth. The most effective way to run paid social media ads without wasting money. Why consistent, low-glamour marketing actions outperform chasing trends and short-term tactics.   Transcription: I've spent 19 years in business searching for the magic bullet of marketing – first for my own businesses, and then for the hundreds of business owners I've mentored. And believe me when I tell you I've tried everything. Spoiler alert, there is no magic bullet. And the more people search for it, the more they're distracted from the tried and tested basics of marketing… the things that actually work. There's an exercise I've found myself setting for a lot of the business owners I mentor. I tell them to create a list of non negotiable marketing tasks. A one page marketing manifesto. A list of actions they need to regularly take to ensure they're covering all bases of marketing. Then, as long as they're ticking these boxes, I don't have a problem with them running off chasing the shiny objects and short term trends that they hope will be the next big thing that promises to bring them 30 clients in 30 days. Almost always, this thing will be a waste of time and money, but if they're incessantly doing the basics, at least they'll experience the consistent, persistent, regular, steady growth that comes from doing the basics well. So I thought I'd formalise this one page marketing plan, and share it with you guys so that in a world of distractions and broken promises, you've got something simple, tried and tested to come back to. Here's how I'm going to structure this. First, I'll give you a list of the 11 areas of marketing you need to focus on. Second, I'll give you a broad description of each, so you know how and why that marketing strategy works, along with a rough overview of what you need to be doing. Third, for each of the 11 areas I'll give you a very short and succinct, and HIGHLY actionable task list for that area of marketing. I'll tell you what to do, and how often to do it, with no bullshit. And finally, I'll summarise each of the 11 areas into a weekly task lists to give you your one page marketing plan. Two big caveats before we kick this off though. Caveat number one: The single best marketing strategy is to be so good they can't ignore you. Without this, your churn rate will be high, and retention will be low. You can build a solid business with no marketing strategy other than providing a remarkable experience to your clients. By the same token,  even if your marketing plan is absolutely world class, you simply won't be successful if the product and experience you provide isn't up to scratch. You should combine this with a system to identify clients who are at high risk of departure, and a system to minimise the risk of this departure. Caveat number two: If you don't know who you're for, don't waste your time starting the process of marketing. A marketing strategy needs to begin with an intimate awareness of your avatar – your target customer. You need to create highly detailed documentation of the avatars your business serves. This should include demographics, relationships, dwelling, occupation, education, values, personality, spending habits, content consumption, future goals, and roles in purchasing decisions. For each avatar, you should understand their level of awareness and summarise their pain points clearly. These avatars should guide your decisions about your products, services, and customer experience. Your marketing needs to be purposefully designed to speak directly to them. Ok, with those two disclaimers out of the way, and remembering that a red hot customer experience and an understanding of your avatar need to come first, let's jump in, we're going to cover the following categories: Website Documentation and Storytelling Content Marketing Micro-Influencer Marketing Referral Process Email Marketing Customer/Member Reactivation Paid Social Media Advertising Paid Search Engine Advertising Offline Marketing Promotions and Tactics WEBSITE: Your business needs to have a professional, functional website with a strong user experience. It should act as the central hub for both current and potential clients, serving as both a marketing destination and an educational resource. The site needs to be optimised for organic search traffic and include dedicated landing pages with clear, low-friction calls to action for each service. The messaging should focus on who you help and how you help them, not just what you do. It needs to compel visitors to take meaningful action. Actions to take: Build a one page website that has just five sections. A description of who the business is for and how you solve their problems. A brief description of the services offered by your business. Social proof through testimonials and success stories.  A call to action. And then, at the top of the page, a maximum 25 word summary of the entire website, so people can learn everything they need to know without scrolling. DOCUMENTATION AND STORYTELLING: You need to consistently document the life of your business on social media through tools like Instagram and Facebook Stories. These should offer potential clients a window into your business and help build a strong, authentic culture. You should regularly share client success stories using a structured narrative (e.g. a five-act story) to highlight their journey. Your business also needs to share real-time, day-to-day content and repurpose short-term content into longer-form storytelling. These posts should feature clients who match your target avatar and clearly show how your business helps them solve their problems. Actions to take: Every week, post one client story to all social media platforms (post to feed, not stories). Use the five act narrative: The Dream, The Obstacle, The Mentor, The Path, The Arrival. Ideally, this will be a video story, but a series of five carousel images with text is also great. Every day, post to 'social media stories' (Instagram and Facebook) at least five times. Feature videos and photos of clients who match your target avatar, having a good time, using your business to overcome their problems. With the text on the video/image, either tell a story (using the five act narrative), or teach people something. Tag every client who appears to encourage reposting. CONTENT MARKETING: You need to regularly create and distribute high-quality, valuable content across multiple formats — written, video, image, and audio. This content should be repurposed across several platforms including social media, YouTube, Medium, and LinkedIn. It needs to position you as the go-to expert in your niche and directly solve the problems of your target avatar. Actions to take: Every week, solve the problems of your avatar by posting educational material. Choose one topic each week, and leverage this content into as many different media (article, carousels, video, podcast) and platforms (Your website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Podcast Player etc) as possible. MICRO-INFLUENCER MARKETING: You need to have systems in place that encourage your clients to share their experiences with your business. This content should then be featured through your social media channels, helping build social proof and trust with others who match your avatar. Actions to take: Build a program that rewards clients for sharing their experiences at your business – every post gives an entry into the draw to win a prize worth $200-$300 every two months. Every week, distribute something about this micro-influencer marketing program either through online private members groups, in-house signage/announcements, or face-to-face (e.g. before a group class). Complete everything in the 'documentation and storytelling' section. REFERRAL PROCESS: Your business needs a structured and consistent referral process. You should make it easy for clients to refer their friends and provide both incentivised and non-incentivised options. Every client should understand how the referral process works, how to use it, and what their friend's experience will be. You also need to run ongoing messaging that keeps referrals top of mind. Actions to take: Build a referral reward program where you make a donation to a charity on behalf of your referring client for every referral. Every week, distribute something about this referral reward program either through online private members groups, in-house signage/announcements, or face-to-face (e.g. before a group class). EMAIL MARKETING: Your business needs to maintain a well-organised email database of current, past, and potential clients. You should be sending regular newsletters that focus on solving client problems, not just promoting your services. While some sales messages are fine, most of your communication should add value. You also need to use your email list to create targeted social media audiences for social media retargeting. Actions to take: Send an email every fortnight to all clients, and anyone in your wider network. Include any content marketing you've done in the previous fortnight, any client stories, and one mention of both your referral reward program and your micro-influencer incentivisation program. CUSTOMER/MEMBER REACTIVATION: Your business needs a system to track and reconnect with past clients. You should know why they left and be able to reach out with personal, timely, and relevant messages. These reactivation efforts need to be warm, low

Dan spoke with three leading fitness business owners to discuss their top five books for fitness business owners. Jake Morgan, Ben Major and Scott Hook give us their most impactful and business-changing book recommendations. The boys also discuss their reading habits, and why reading (or listening) to books has been instrumental in every level of their success. Add these to your wishlist! Jake Morgan, Habitual Strength and Conditioning. 1. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara 2. The Power of Moments by Chip Heath & Dan Heath 3. 10x is Easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy 4. Atomic Habits by James Clear 5. Happier by Tal Ben Shahar Ben Major, PrimeFit: 1. Man Up by Bedros Keuilian 2. The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle 3. Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne 4. The Power of Moments by Chip Heath & Dan Heath 5. Endless Customers by Marcus Sheridan Scott Hook: VSC 1. Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape 2. Get Different by Mike Michalowicz 3. Cult Status by Tim Duggan 4. Built to Serve by Evan Carmichael 5. Beyond Entreneurship by Jim Collins Dan Williams 1. 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 2. Company of One by Paul Jarvis 3. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara 4. Deep Work by Cal Newport 5. Influence by Robert Cialdini

In this episode Dan breaks down how he'd build a fitness business from scratch in 2025, including the exact model, setup, pricing, and marketing he'd use if he were starting again. What you'll learn in this episode: Why Dan would start by designing his ideal lifestyle before building the business The overlooked role of community in delivering long-term client results How he would structure semi-private sessions to maximise both coaching quality and social connection The type of space he'd choose to operate from, and why less is more Who he would and wouldn't work with, and how he'd attract natural referrers Why he'd charge premium rates and how he'd justify the price How he would keep admin, payments, and scheduling simple and low-cost What he'd do differently when it comes to equipment, technology, and gym setup How he'd market the business without spending anything on advertising

This is part two of a conversation between Tim Karajas and Dan on the Extension Fitness podcast.  Tim and Dan we explore how to improve retention by helping our clients and members build long-term exercise habits within your business. They talk about practical strategies and mindset shifts you can use to turn your customers into life-time exercisers. We work so hard to increase retention rates in our business, but if you're not building habits in your clients, you're fighting a losing battle against human psychology. Today, Dan explores how to win that fight. 5 things you'll learn in this episode Why making exercise laughably easy at the start is essential for building lasting habits. How identity-based motivation increases adherence to exercise and turns actions into lifelong behaviours. Why loss aversion is a powerful psychological driver—and how to use it to help clients stay consistent. How to apply the minimum effective dose to avoid burnout and ensure sustainability over decades. What mindset traits, like growth mindset and life-structure alignment, are common in people who succeed with long-term exercise. Your action steps: Help clients design a starting exercise habit that feels so easy it's impossible to fail. Ask clients to picture their worst possible week and build habits they can still stick to even then. Reinforce identity-based language by helping clients move from "I exercise" to "I am an exerciser." Use loss aversion by tracking progress and helping clients see what they risk losing by stopping. Check for alignment between a client's stated values and their calendar—then help them close the gap.

Dan was recently interviewed by Tim Karajas on the Extension Fitness podcast. This is part one of a two part conversation between Tim and Dan. Today, you'll hear Tim ask Dan about whether there are clues he can pick up on when first speaking with a business owner that let him predict whether a fitness business will be successful. Dan talks about the importance of being unique, how to test new ideas quickly, and the importance of designing your business around the life you want to have. Tim finishes by asking Dan to distil what it takes to be successful in business down to three points. 6 things you'll learn in this episode Why being different is more achievable (and more effective) than being better than your competition. How niching down—sometimes to an extreme—can unlock loyal client bases and long-term business success. What a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is and how to use it to test ideas with minimal risk and effort. Why quitting fast can sometimes be smarter than persisting with the wrong business idea. How Dan reverse-engineered his business to support the lifestyle he wanted as a dad. A simple 3-step framework for building a successful business through value creation, marketing, and value delivery. Your action steps: Define a unique problem your fitness business solves and make that the centre of your offering. Build a minimum viable product that looks complete from the outside but takes minimal time and cost to test. Use feedback and traction (or lack of it) to decide quickly whether to evolve or abandon your business idea. Focus your marketing on making your uniqueness obvious, not just your qualifications or features. Deliver an experience so good that clients can't help but talk about it—make referrals effortless.

Dan Williams explores nine powerful ways fitness business owners can stand out by being truly different, because in today's crowded market, being better isn't enough. For each area of differentiation we'll look at a well known business case study, and Dan will brainstorm some unique fitness business ideas. 5 things you'll learn in this episode: Why competing by being 'better' traps you in a red ocean, and how to escape it. How to define your unique selling proposition (USP) with one sentence. The nine key areas where your fitness business can stand out from the crowd. Creative, real-world examples of differentiation across gyms, PTs, EPs, yoga and martial arts studios. Why living your USP through repeatable actions is more effective than generic claims.   Episode Transcription: The single most important thing that people need to get right when they're in the early stages of building a successful fitness business is also the most difficult thing. It's one of the very first things I work on with the business owners I mentor, and is without a doubt, the thing they struggle with most. This incredibly important, yet incredibly difficult task, is how to make your business different. So today, I want to make it easier for you, by giving you the nine ways you can be unique. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of businesses either fail, or just as bad, slowly fade away into obscurity while paying their owners a fraction of what they deserve based on the work they put in. It's hard to be different. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and if everyone was doing it, you wouldn't be different any more. And yet, if you're not different, you have no advantage over your competition. Why would people choose your 24 hour gym over the one on another street corner? Why would they choose you as a PT over the ten other options they've got in the same gym? Why would they come to your semi private classes, when there are five other businesses offering the same service within 2km of your door? You might have heard me talk about this before. It's a topic I often explore when I'm giving live, in person talks and keynotes to business owners, and I recently covered the need to be unignorably different in episode 69 of The Business of Fitness Podcast, "Delivering an Experience: The Strategy of 'Being Different'". If you haven't listened to that one, I recommend you check it out, because it's a great accompaniment to this episode. But basically, I spoke about a blue ocean strategy. Most business owners are in a red ocean, where they're fighting with their competitors to try and be the best. There's blood in the water – hence the 'red' ocean. Everyone looks the same, competes on the same points, and fights to be slightly better. But being 'good' isn't good enough. The goal isn't to be ten times better than your competitors, it's to step out of the fight completely. The goal is to be different. To build something so unique, and so remarkable, that you create your own blue ocean, a space with no competition. In that episode, I gave two action steps. The first is to define your USP – your unique selling proposition, and the second was to make of list of the actions you take in your business to make that USP true. To define your USP, the exercise is simple. Complete this sentence. 'The thing that we do that is different from everyone else is…'. But as I've said, finding the thing that makes you different is really hard. When I ask people what makes them different, I'm met with boringly predictable answers. Boutique gyms tell me they have the best community. Personal Trainers tell me they're empathetic, offer an individualised approach and meet people where they are. Again and again, I hear words and phrases like 'individualised care', 'going the extra mile', 'building relationships', 'a science-based approach', 'world class programming', 'professional coaches', 'a non intimidating environment', 'amazing communication', and the list goes on and on. But this is what everyone is saying, so it's not different. It's brainstorming your unique selling proposition that is the challenging part. Working out what it is that makes you stand alone. And in that previous episode about being unignorably different I teased at nine different areas you could be different in. They were: Your target market, price point or revenue model. The problem you solve, the tools you use to solve that problem. Your location, the experience you provide, your area of specialisation, your use of technology, or your support of a cause. People told me these were a great starting point, but that they were still struggling. So I thought now we could go a bit deeper, and have a look at some case studies of these nine areas. I wanted to get your creative juices flowing by looking at some very well known global brands that are a great example of each of the nine areas of differentiation. Then, after each case study, I'll give you a couple of examples of how I might use that area of differentiation for a few different types of fitness business. Some of the ideas I've come up with are pretty out there – but that's the whole point. Unique Target Market: Let's start with a unique target market, where you stand out by choosing a specific group of people to serve. A good example is Barbie by Mattel, which stands out because of who they chose to serve. While most toy brands try to appeal to kids broadly, Barbie focused deeply on young girls' aspirations and identity play, and more recently, expanded that target market to adult collectors, feminists, and even critics. Mattel's USP might be: 'The thing we do that is different to everyone else is… we sell dolls that reflect cultural identity and ambition.' In the fitness and health industry some examples might be Personal Trainer: Coaches only postnatal mums with twins, offering dual-pram-friendly outdoor sessions. Martial Arts: Teaches self-defence exclusively to FIFO women in remote Western Australia. Pilates/Yoga: Runs men's-only yoga retreats for FIFO workers with stress and sleep challenges. Unique Price Point or Revenue Model: Our second potential area of differentiation is a unique price point or revenue model where you stand out by charging or earning money in a different way. One company that took a different approach to how it makes money is Spotify. Where most music platforms sold tracks or albums, Spotify used a freemium model, offering unlimited music streaming for free, monetised by ads, with optional upgrades to premium. Spotify's USP might be: 'The thing we do that is different to everyone else is… free music access, anytime, anywhere, on any device.' Fitness examples could be: Group Fitness Gym: Pay-as-you-go model, no memberships, priced per visit with tap-and-go access. Exercise Physiologist: Subscription model includes unlimited consults, plus remote health tracking via app. Online Coach: Offers $5 weekly challenges with leaderboard prizes, instead of long-term coaching packages. Unique Problem: Let's move on to the next area of difference – the problem you solve, where you stand out by helping people fix a problem others ignore. During the pandemic, the video call platform Zoom took a different route by solving a problem others overlooked. While competitors focused on corporate-grade video conferencing, Zoom simplified remote connection for everyday people, solving the problem of 'video calling that just works.' Zoom's USP might be: 'The thing we do that is different to everyone else is… make video meetings effortless for anyone, anywhere.' I came up with three examples of this for the fitness industry. Pilates/Yoga: Focuses only on helping women with endometriosis manage pain through movement. Online Coach: Solves the "I hate exercise" problem with gamified home workouts requiring zero equipment. Martial Arts: Designed specifically to help neurodivergent teens improve focus and emotional regulation. Unique Tools: Our next area is the set of tools you use to solve a problem. This is where you can stand out by using unique tools or methods to help your clients. Tesla shows what it looks like to solve a problem using entirely different tools. Instead of relying on existing automotive supply chains, Tesla vertically integrated everything from battery production to software, using proprietary tools to change how cars are built and upgraded. Tesla's USP might be: 'The thing we do that is different to everyone else is… we build cars like software, not hardware.' In fitness: Exercise Physiologist: Uses AI gait analysis to assess and optimise walking patterns for injury rehab. Group Fitness Gym: All programming built using heart rate zone tracking via wrist sensors. Semi Private Coaching: Coaches use VR visualisation tools to teach Olympic lifting mechanics. Unique Location: The next way you can make your business different is through a unique location – being based somewhere unexpected or delivering your service in a creative place. The Burning Man festival is a great example. Few brands have made location part of their identity the way Burning Man has. Held in the middle of a Nevada desert, its remote location is not a limitation, but a feature, enabling an environment where radical creativity and community are pushed to the extreme. Burning Man's USP might be: 'The thing we do that is different to everyone else is… create a city in the desert that disappears.' If we apply that to the world of fitness: Martial Arts: A dojo on a restored train carriage in rural WA. Personal Trainer: Offers mobile training from a fully kitted-out fitness van that parks at beaches. Pilates/Yoga: Hosts sunrise sessions on remote clifftops only accessible by kayak. Unique Experience: Our next area of differentiation is one of my personal favourites – the experience you provide. You stand out by making the experience feel special or different. When it comes to creating an unforgettable experience, Disneyland takes a different path. They

In this episode, Dan explores how successful fitness professionals are building multiple income streams. He covers real-world examples, lessons from failed ideas, and a repeatable framework to help you test your own. Dan is joined by Bodie Webster from Intent Strength and Fitness, Jake Morgan from Habitual Strength and Conditioning, Aidan Dawson from CrossFit Access, Lucia Tennant from Formotion Physio, Scott Hook from Vasse Strength and Conditioning, John Quinn - an online course creator, Jade Webb from Sixty7Six Strength and Conditioning, Rob Dicey from the Chasing Better Group and Ben Luckens from Life's Peachy Fit. 9 things you'll learn in this episode: Why building extra income streams early in your career is crucial for long-term success. How to test ideas quickly using a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach without risking time or capital. A simple way to rank ideas based on effort vs. return using a 2x2 matrix. The most common mistake fitness professionals make when adding a new revenue stream. How to avoid cannibalising your core business when launching something new. Real examples of income streams fitness professionals are using, like retreats, apparel, online coaching, retail, and courses. The benefits of 'psychic income' and why non-financial returns also matter. Why personal connections often outperform paid ads when growing a new venture. How to use Google's '20% time' concept to build new streams without hurting your main business. Your action steps: Start a list of all the income stream ideas you've had and add to it every week. Choose one idea that excites you and solves a real problem your clients have. Build an MVP in under six hours - no polish, just enough to test if it works. Allocate a weekly time block to your MVP project and protect it from distractions. Use early feedback to double down on what works, or cross it off and move on.

Today we're talking about how to create better videos for your fitness business.  In the first half of the episode, you'll hear Dan talking to professional videographer, Bruce Garrod from Gingerbeard Media. This was part of a webinar he ran for the business owners he mentors. Bruce teaches us how to create better video content with our phones. He covers the fundamentals of filming, lighting, audio, framing, composition, camera techniques, editing tips and the tech needed to get the most out of your phone. Then, in the second half of this episode, Bruce analyses your Instagram feed, as well as those of other fitness business owners and shares his advice for how to improve them.

Here's something very different from my usual stuff. Here's something I wrote for myself to help me 'work out life'. It helped me. Maybe it can help you too. I cover: The role of pain and suffering in life. How do I remove them? Should I remove them? How can I balance ambition with contentment? Striving with settling? Journey and destination? How can I balance work, productivity, time and money, to give me a 'good life'. When I strip back the work I do, who am I? Do I use busyness and work as a distraction from the question of what I actually want to do with my life? What are the elements of a 'good life', and how do I get more of them?