Got a great video to share with you today.

It was sent in to us by VIP Member Coach R.B. Berry, from Dare To Be Fit Studio, in Oceanside, CA.

You may have heard me talk a couple weeks ago about Coach Berry being the KING of social proof.

Well, would you like to see how Coach Berry combines social proof marketing with powerful public speaking for a 1-2 fitness marketing punch?

Watch some video of Coach making a presentation live on stage during a community wide seminar and you’ll see how it’s done.

There is some GREAT stuff you can model and use in your upcoming New Year’s marketing campaigns here.

Use it!

To your success,
Sean

P.S. With the social proof and public speaking marketing combo, Coach Berry has become a true ‘local celebrity’. And not only is his business extremely successful, but he is loved and respected by all. Coach absolutely ‘makes a difference’ in the lives others, and you’ll see how his audience reacts and responds to that in his presentation.

P.P.S. As everyone gears up for 2009, we’ve had a ton of requests for info-packs on our done-for-you area-exclusive fitness marketing tools. If you haven’t requested yours yet, then get on over and do so at:

http://www.NPEvip.com

Colm, Brandy, Eric, Wes, and Christina at Thanksgiving Dinner

Wes, Eric, Sean, Colm, Christina celebrating Thanksgiving at Eric & Brandy

Hope you’ve had a great Thanksgiving holiday.

We all enjoyed a good day off yesterday, and Christina and I celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with Eric & Brandy at their house.

Unfortunately Eric’s Mom got sick, so his parents couldn’t make the trip, but Eric’s 95-years-young grandfather came out all the way from Charlotte to join us.

Wes Ruth (Eric’s grandad) is a former Navy pilot and is by FAR the sharpest 95 year old I’ve ever met.

My grandad is 98 and still going strong, but I think if they were to wrestle, I would have to give the advantage to Wes no contest!

Anyway, there are several things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday…

I am thankful that in this economy I have put in the time and effort to learn marketing, sales, and management skills that will help our companies and our members clients not only survive this economy but THRIVE in it!

I’m thankful that we’ve been able to share tremendous fitness business development systems, tools, and coaching with all our members and while others are struggling right now… our members continue to have their BEST MONTHS EVER!

And I’m thankful that as we continue to grow as a company over here, we’ve attracted even more great people to join our programs and “RISE UP” to new levels of achievement and success in their businesses (and therefore their lives).

Over the past month, we’ve welcomed 24 new VIP members into our AREA-EXCLUSIVE membership program. And over the next 3, 6, and 12 months these folks will all make massive LEAPS in their personal and professional growth, breaking through barriers they never thought possible.

In just the next few weeks, we now have 11 interviews lined up with more folks that want to make the leap into our top VIP program.

If you’re not on that list yet, then I encourage you to request an no-obligation info-pack and get all the details at:

http://www.NPEvip.com

Then get back to enjoying some more time off this wonderful holiday weekend with those you care about.

Best Regards,
Sean

P.S. Congrats go out to Platinum member Tony Maslan, who sent me this quick e-mail yesterday:

“Hey guys.  Just wanted to send you a quick note to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for all your help this year.  Something I would like to share with you is with today’s deposit we broke the $500K mark for gross sales for the year so far! Thanks again for all your support in reaching my BHAG goal for the year and have a great holiday!”

Tony Maslan
Custom Fit Personal Training
Evansville, IN

Learn how Tony’s reaching his BHAG goals with our VIP area-exclusive tools at:

http://www.NPEvip.com

This video shows you one of the most tried and true marketing tactics of all time. It flat out works. (You’ll see how it worked on Brandy.)

And this particular variation of this reliable tactic is absolutely perfect for your holiday marketing. You can roll it out inexpensively and generate some hot leads immediately.

You’ll like this and be able to use it right now to get more clients.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Eric Ruth

P.S. Also want to say a BIG THANK YOU for being part of NPE and inviting us into your world. Sean and I are tremendously appreciative of you and work hard every day to provide you with all the systems, tools and coaching to, as we say…”explode your fitness business now!”

And we want to publicly thank the men and women of our Armed Services who sacrifice so much for all of us. Many of you contributed to our Wounded Warrior fund raising drive by investing in the NPE Member of the Year “swipe file”. And we raised thousands. Sean and I are going to match, dollar for dollar, what you guys contributed, and we’ll be sending a big, fat check to Wounded Warrior right around the holidays. It’s the least we can do. Freedom isn’t free.

P.P.S. Do you qualify for V.I.P.? Take a look at the map to see if your area is still available, and then request an info-pak if you’re interested in either fitness, nutrition or bootcamp done-for-you systems. Each system is more complete than anyting you can find anywhere else, at any price (including a franchise). And we work with you personally to get you rockin’ and rollin’ in no time flat.

http://www.NPEVIP.com

Back in 1996 I was selling men’s suits. I hated it. Few things are worse than retail.

After one particularly crappy day at work dealing with demanding customers and a moron boss, I came home, sat down at my desk, took out a blank sheet of paper and a black sharpie and wrote a message to myself in big block letters…

REMEMBER THE PAIN!

Then I taped it up above my computer so I would see it every single day.

I was in tremendous pain. Not physical, psychological.

I hated what I was doing, wasn’t making much money, worked every weekend and most holidays and had to put up with so much B.S.

It was smothering me.

I way dieing, painfully and slowly, and I knew it.

But sometimes when you’re in so much pain, all you want to do is escape it. Have a beer or three, see a movie, work out, be with friends, curl up in fetal position with the covers over your head and sleep. Anything to temporarily escape and not have to confront the reality of your life.

I know - I was there - and I’ll never forget it.

Some people go through their entire lives like that. In fact, a lot of people do.  Unhappy with their situation and looking for ways to dull the pain, to anesthetize it, to escape it.

Because they don’t think there is any other option.

I knew there were options. I intuitively understood that I’m the creator of my own life and if I wanted to permanently escape the pain, not just temporarily mask it, I had to get my ass into action. I had to make sh&% happen.

So I put a gun to my head.

Not literally, but metaphorically.

I forced myself to confront the pain and DO SOMETHING to make it go away.

I’d go to my job because I had to, but then I’d come home and do the real work that would soon allow me to permanently escape the hell I was in.

By most standards, I wasn’t doing too bad. I had a job, I could sell, I made a living, had a roof over my head and my basic needs were met.

But my deepest need to achieve more, be more, do more, earn more and ultimately have the freedom and lifestyle I wanted haunted me every day.

So I made damn sure I wouldn’t forget the pain or temporarily try to escape it when I got home from work. That’s why I wrote that note to myself. 

And that note was my gun.

It made me desperate. Desperation has a way of focusing the mind. And a focused mind is possibly the most powerful thing on earth.

With that gun to my head I worked, hard.

But things didn’t change right away, like I wanted them to.  And there were dozens, maybe hundreds of times when I came this close to tearing down that note and giving up.

Today, the thing that gives me more pride than anything else is that I didn’t do that. I didn’t quit. I kept that gun pointed right at my head.

And because of that, I’ve created a life that most people envy.

If your fitness business isn’t where you want it to be, if you’re in pain right now, then put a metaphorical gun to your head. FOCUS. List out everything you know you need to do to change. Realize you are the creator of your life, that you do have complete control and all the power you need to have anything and be anything you really, truly want. Take responsibility. 100% responsibility.

It’s not the economy. It’s not circumstance. It’s you. It’s the decisions you make.

If you’re pissed at me for saying that, there’s not much I can do to help you. But if this makes sense to you, and you want to do more and be more, like…now, then the fastest and most certain path for you is here:

http://www.NPEVIP.com

Eric Ruth

P.S. “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” - Tony Robbins

Testing Blubrry

Podcast: Play in new window

With the economy in the toilet, it’s urgent you have a comprehensive referral generation system running in your fit-biz.

Referrals are the lowest cost clients to get, they come to you predisposed and ready to buy because of the trust projected onto you by the referring client, they tend to buy larger packages with less price resistance, and maybe best of all, they’re already conditioned to refer others to you, since they came to you by way of referral.

There’s a lot to like about referrals.

But very, very few fit-biz ownwers are doing even 10% of what needs to be done to generate referrals consistently and systematically.

Right now, our Gold Plus, VIP and Platinum Members are working with us to create a comprehensive checklist of every possible way to generate referrals. We’re collectively putting together the ‘ultimate’ referral marketing checklist, allowing our Members to systemize referral programming.

Do you have a referral system in place? If so, how many ways are you programming for referrals right now?

I’d be surprised if you can list more than 3-4 that you’re *actively* doing. If you’re like most fit-biz owneres, it’s probably more like 0-2.

Truth is, there’s dozens and dozens of ways. And you should be doing most, if not all of them, particularly now.

Here’s one way that’s working particularly well to generate lots of referred leads fast…

============================
Anatomy of a 152-Lead Referral Campaign
============================

How it works:

You incentivize active and inactive clients to send you referral leads in return for small gifts (referral rewards).  There’s also a contest component with a big gift. Everyone who sends in leads above a certain threshhold gets entered into the contest to win the big gift.

Our VIP Members are running this campaign and it’s producing as many as 152 leads for one Member, with almost everyone receiving in the 30-80 range.

That’s pretty productive, wouldn’t you say?

Here are the tools you need to run a campaign like this (these are the actual tools we provide to our VIP Members):

1. Website landing page with offer
2. Website success/thank You page
3. Multiple emails driving to landing page
4. Referral rewards offer letter #1
5. Referral rewards offer letter #2
6. Referral rewards final notice postcard
7. Autoresponder emails for those who enroll in referral rewards
8. Fulfillment letter/package sequence to convert referred leads
9. Thank you letter to clients who refer

That’s a lot of stuff.  And reality is, you need all of it to make your campaign work as productively as possible. You need an integrated, multi-media approach with a strong hook/offer.

And it needs to be online AND offline marketing.

Email/website alone won’t do the trick. That’s not speculation, it’s fact. 80% of the referred leads this campaign produced came from OFFLINE (direct mail) marketing. But the online component supports and reinforces the offline, keeps the message/offer in front of prospects with multiple touches, and compounds the results. So you have to do both.

And that’s the problem with most of the marketing I see fit-pros doing - it’s simply not complete.  All the bases haven’t been covered, and the campaign either pulls poorly or not at all.

I commend anyone who’s doing stuff - who’s in action. And I understand there’s only so much time in the day, and creating complete campaigns like this takes lots of work. But that doesn’t diminish the importance - the necessity - of being thorough.

Remember, as the business owner, your PRIMARY responsibility is to be the “rainmaker.”  That’s JOB #1. And nothing else is even a close second.  Because without leads and clients, there’s no business.

But you’ve got 101 other things that need your attention, too. Which is a good reason to see if you qualify to “hand off” your marketing tool creation to us.

Just think about the value of even one referred client.

And then consider how that referred client is already conditioned to refer more clients.

And don’t forget that your original client, who gave you the referral, can become an almost un-ending source of more referrals (a ‘champion’ of your biz - THE highest value relationship). Because once someone refers to you, as long as the ‘transaction’ is handled correctly, they become even MORE inclined to continue referring.

It’s like a snowball rolling down hill. With every referral your business gains more momentum, more speed, more mass.

And growing your biz becomes easier, more cost-effective and more automatic.

If having done-for-you tools like this powerful referral rewards campaign interests you, then go see if you qualify for our VIP ‘area exclusive’ program. That’s where you get all the best marketing tools we have - and you lock-out your competitors from getting them first.

See if your area is still available by looking at the map here:

http://www.NPEVIP.com

To more referrals,
Eric Ruth

P.S. Having the right marketing collateral, stuff that actually works consistently, is absolutely key to your business survival and success. But creating tools is one of the most complicated and high risk things you do in business. You just can’t afford too many losing campaigns. Plus, it’s emotionally draining and a real confidence-killer when your stuff doesn’t work.

http://www.NPEVIP.com

Have you ever seen my famous “Icing the Cake” letter sequence that brings in new fitness clients like nothing else ever created??

If so, you know the first letter in the sequence gets a picture of you at the top icing a cake.

It represents the theme or the “hook” of the letter. And it gets attention.

Getting attention is the first and most important step in marketing.

When I first wrote that sequence for Forrest Walden and his (then) partner, Aaron Crocker, they thought I was nuts.

Aaron told me (in his Alabama drawl), “You gotta be yankin’ my chain. I’m supposed to send people a picture of ME icing a cake?!!!”

Yup.

And to his credit, Aaron wanted new clients more than he wanted to protect his ego.  He mailed the letter to 750 upscale homes near his studio and brought in 19 new clients worth over $30K on the front, many, many thousands more on the back. A staggering ROI.

To the best of my knowledge, Icing has been mailed over three million times since I wrote it in late 2002.  That makes it one of the most successful direct mail letters…ever.

There’s a BIG lesson in that for you:

==> Be willing to do what’s necessary to get attention.

Interesting pictures representing the hook in your marketing piece are one of the best ways.

Recently, I created a new campaign for our NPE V.I.P. Members that uses a picture of the fit biz owner standing on one leg, holding the other foot in his hand and grimacing, as if a bowling ball had just been dropped on his foot.

In another piece I’m working on, the fit biz owner will be splayed out on the street curb. The hook of the piece is “kick me to the curb.”

How often do you see stuff like that in YOUR mail?

Like I said, this kind of marketing gets attention, and that’s one of the main reasons it works.

How do I come up with these ideas, themes and hooks?

I read a lot. I look at other marketing pieces with a critical eye. I take ideas I like from a variety of sources and see how I can massage them into effective marketing pieces.

Another one I’ve done is a marketing sequence to men called “the gunfight” campaign.

It features a picture of Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) pointing a gun at the reader. The theme is “if you don’t do something about your fitness, you’re staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.”

It pushes a lot of emotional buttons.

So this should give you some ideas of your own. And once you have an idea, a theme, a hook, then all you have to do is write the letter, then a second and third letter (you always want to sequence), and then test the campaign by renting a list and mailing.

Maybe it will work.  If it doesn’t, then you look at how you can tweak the campaign and re-test it. Or just trash it altogether and write another one. Rinse and repeat.

If you don’t have time (or the desire) to do all that stuff, then you can hand it off to me, a proven producer, and I’ll give you all the marketing tools you need, already done for you, ready to go, ready to bring you more clients.

Including the famous “Icing the Cake” letter sequence.

But I’m not just talking about letters.  I’ll give you free standing inserts (FSI), space advertisements, postcards, press releases, web site landing pages, autoresponder sequences, reports and guides you can use as lead gen “bait” and a lot more. Basically, everything you need to keep your marketing machine running on high octane fuel, bringing you more clients.

And I’ll do that for you in three different categories:

1. Regular fitness training (1-on-1, small group)
2. Nutrition (the sexiest front end)
3. Bootcamp (all the tools you need to fill your camp starting now)

But I’ll only give you those tools if your “area” is not already taken. Because we provide these tools and the coaching and strategy on how to use them just to our “area-exclusive” V.I.P. Members.

That way you get a marketing “monopoly” in your area - a “competition-free zone” so to speak.

And that’s how you dominate your local marketplace.

We’re opening up V.I.P. for a limited time and accepting a limited number of applications right now.

If you’re interested in exploring this further, first take a look to see if your area is already taken by going here:

http://www.NPEVIP.com

Sincerely,
Eric Ruth

P.S. Go take a look at the map to see if your area is already taken:

http://www.NPEVIP.com

Hope you’re having a great Friday.

I’m writing to let you know that today is your LAST CHANCE to register for this year’s GOLD RUSH class.

We’re shutting things down at 5pm EST today at:

http://www.GetGoldRush.com

After having taught this system to hundreds of fitness professionals, studio, and health club owners the past couple years I’ll tell you that there is no greater opportunity to capitalize on the New Year’s fitness rush then by running the GOLD RUSH health & fitness seminar marketing system.

Last year we had folks generating anywhere from $8-35K+ from their events. A few even much, much more.

And what’s even more impressive than the number of new clients they were able to generate, and the revenue they were able to bring in, is the PERSONAL GROWTH they achieved by being pushed outside their ‘comfort zone’.

You know not enough people address this, and you won’t find it talked about in any big marketing “get ‘rich’ tomorrow” circles, but the truth is that massive growth in your business is ALWAYS reflective of the personal growth you make.

If you’ve watched any of the videos we’ve shared over the past couple weeks from our Member of the Year contest finalists, you heard it mentioned throughout every single presentation that was made.

Taking steps, outside your comfort zone, and putting yourself into a group, program, and environment where you will be PUSHED and held ACCOUNTABLE for your actions is how you make success happen.

And when you make a commitment and investment in your growth like that, watch out because the results will be impressive to say the least.

You see it all the time with your fitness clients.

We see it all the time with our business clients.

It’s the FORUMLA that works.

SYSTEMS + TOOLS + COACHING = SUCCESS

Always has. Always will.

Eric and I would love to help you start off 2009 with a big bang, and we invite you to join us (and all the other top fit biz owners we work with) in joining this years GOLD RUSH class at:

http://www.GetGoldRush.com

Just make sure you complete registration by end of day today. We’re shutting things down at 5pm EST today. Class starts next week.

To your success,
Sean

P.S. The past couple years we’ve taught this class we’ve started mid-December. Things are beginning MUCH earlier this year, because based on feedback from our previous groups we wanted to give everyone more type to pull everything together and do it just right (no last minute rushing). We’re gonna walk through this thing step-by-step, giving you just what you need to focus on next, to have the most successful event possible. We’ve also upgraded the tools SIGNIFICANTLY for this year. All in all, it will be the best GOLD RUSH class we’ve ever done. And I hope you make the decision to join us. Read all the details at:

http://www.GetGoldRush.com