Hope your week is off to a good start.

I’ve just returned from a nice holiday, and have that ‘refreshed and recharged’ feeling this morning.

Ready for an awesome week ahead.

You know we talk a lot about growing your business, and working hard.

But one of the other most important things you can do for yourself (and therefore your biz) is to schedule regular downtime to relax and recharge.

Over the years I’ve learned that if you’re going to ‘give it your all’ in growing your biz you’ve got to be at your best. And that means scheduling regular downtime in advance so that breaks don’t get missed…

…and you don’t get run down and feeling like your out of gas.

Last spring I scheduled out all my holidays for the remained of 2008. My goal was at least one good holiday a quarter. Might be a 3 or 4 day weekend, might be a week long trip, but it will be something great to get away and unwind.

So far I’ve stuck to that schedule, and it’s been working great.

We’ll be busy-as-all-heck over here, working long hours, but then before you know it, I look up, and it’s time for a break again.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Because I’m sure someone reading this needs to hear it.

Work hard, but then make sure you take time to play hard too.

Your business, and your family, will thank you for it.

I promise that when you’re old and grey, living out your last years you will NOT say “I wished I’d put in more hours at the office!”

Ok, on another note…

I want to share with you that tomorrow I’ll be conducting a very special webinar on “Understanding The Numbers In Your Fitness Business” to our Gold Plus members.

And having just ‘tuned up’ the powerpoint and tools for my presentation on the return flight last night, I’ll tell you this is gonna be a VERY good call.

We’re gonna cover key numbers every fitness business owner needs to know more about including:

- How to track key numbers around money, sales, marketing, people, and time in your fitness business

- What you need to know about reviewing and analyzing monthly reports to avoid “major problems” that can cost you thousands of dollars in wasted revenue and lost time each month

- How to update your marketing plan, based on reports and the review process each month… ensuring you ALWAYS have more leads than you need to ‘fill the pipeline’ every single month

- What numbers you need to review monthly, weekly, and daily in your business to stay sharp and hit your goals FASTER than ever before

- And much more..

- PLUS, I’ve got 7 done-for-you tools and templates that you can download and use right now to get control of your fit biz and kiss the ‘roller coaster’ months of uncertainty goodbye.

When you take control, you GET control.

It’s just that simple.

If you’re already a Gold Plus member (or higher), then get ready because this is gonna be one doozy of a call tomorrow.

We’ll be covering the hardcore management you MUST be following right now to take control of your fit biz.

If you’re NOT yet a Gold Plus member, then get on over to the website and sign up today so we can get you registered to join us on this webinar tomorrow at:

http://www.NPEGoldPlus.com

To your success,
Sean

P.S. It’s not as sexy as making big sales, or rolling out a new marketing campaign, but NOT knowing how to track, review, and analyze numbers in your biz is the single biggest reason we see good businesses go south. It’s your responsibility as the biz owner to get educated and stay on top of these things… no one is going to do it for you. If you want a crash course in how to do it right then register for NPE Gold Plus and join us on tomorrow’s webinar at:

http://www.NPEGoldPlus.com

P.P.S. After returning from vacation I’ve got a ton of e-mails sitting in my inbox to get through, but I can see one of them at the top of the inbox here is from our video guy who’s just edited all 5 presentations made in Boston last weekend for the “NPE Member of the Year” contest. We’ll start posting these up in the next couple days, and wait til you get a load of them. As anyone who was there to see it live will tell you, they’re unbelievable stories of personal triumph, success, and victory. Just the ’shot in the arm’ of inspiration anyone can use right now to stay focused and motivated on your goals ahead!

I have shocking news to share with you, but first…

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LAST CHANCE - EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT ENDS TODAY

The deadline to take advantage of the Early Bird Discount for NPE Mega-Training Fitness Business Blueprint Workshop is TODAY (Thursday, July 31). Save 100 bucks and get the single most important and valuable tool for exploding your fit-biz profits in 2009 by registering now:

http://www.NPEMegaTraining.com

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You Will Be Shocked By This

The easy, tried and true path for a big-profit payday is for a ‘guru’ to sell a bunch of people on his or her list into attending a seminar with lots of speakers with products they want to peddle. The speakers get up on stage, give you a couple tips, get you excited about the “secrets” in their products, and then offer you a special, one-time-only opportunity to get their product at “rock-bottom” price during the seminar.

It’s worked for decades, and it will continue to work…to enrich the guru (because he or she gets 50% or more of all sales at the seminar)…and generate new customers for the speakers.

But that’s not the shocking news.

In fact, if you’ve ever attended one of those seminars, you’ve seen how they work already. You probably remember how pumped up you were by all the great “ideas” you heard, how motivated you were to try and duplicate the “success” the speakers seem to be having, and how eager you were to get your hands on their “secrets.”

You probably also remember how much “lighter” you were after dropping hundreds or more on a bunch of products at the event. And how frustrated you felt a few weeks later when you realized just how difficult it is to implement everything they told you to do.

Those seminars are like a night out with wild friends doing Tequila shooters: you catch a great buzz, inhibitions dissolve away, and everything - for the moment - is positive and fun.

Then you wake up the next day with a pounding hangover, a dry mouth and feeling emotionally spent and alone.

Because now you’re on your own. The party’s over. The alcohol or adrenaline metabolized, the reality of real life smacking you in the face.

And you’re confronted with the same problem you had before the seminar…”what now?”

I’ve been to dozens of these seminars and experienced this first hand. I know the drill. I’ve felt the adrenaline rush…and the crash.

And I spent YEARS of my life trying to piece everything together into a step-by-step plan I could follow that would finally give me the results I was desperate for.

Years of my life.

From 1989 to 1998, to be exact. Almost a decade.

Maybe I’m slower than most - maybe I’m a little thick - I really don’t know.

All I know is I really wish just ONE of those seminars lived up to the promises it made.

If I’d gotten the PLAN I needed way back when, I’d probably be retired in Tahiti right now.

So here’s the shocking news…

Sean and I are doing something completely different.

We’re going against the grain.

It would be easy for us to follow the proven model of filling a room with our Members and subscribers…and then selling a bunch of stuff.

But that wouldn’t be true to our Mission Statement. It wouldn’t be congruent. Because it wouldn’t help you get the results you want.

It would make us bookoo bucks, but it wouldn’t serve you.

So instead, we’re giving you the exact, step-by-step PLAN you need to make 2009 your most explosively profitable and fulfilling year ever when you attend the NPE Mega-Training Workshop in October.

We’re putting at risk over 65K to give you what you need more than anything else…

The Proven Blueprint for a Mega-Profitable Fitness Business.

The plan - the roadmap - step-by-step - soup to nuts.

And we’ve developed a PROCESS for doing so.  Unlike an “event” where you show up, sit down, listen and then buy more stuff - two or three days of wham-bam-thank-you-maam, then you’re outtie and on your own…

…we’ve developed a SYSTEM for teaching you the SYSTEM.

You’ll be provided pre-workshop grounding materials, exercises, interaction, coaching and training that prepares you to take full advantage of the time we have together before, during and after the Workshop in Boston October 11 and 12.

You’ll arrive already warmed up, with a nice sweat going, ready to get into action and MAXIMIZE every minute - wringing every bit of value from this workshop.

Then you’ll go home knowing precisely what to do next.  Let me say that again…you’ll go home knowing PRECISELY what to do next.  No confusion, no hangover, no “seminar blues.”

And we even follow-up the workshop with TWO webinar-conference calls to address any unanswered questions and to provide on-going coaching, training and direction.

We don’t leave you hanging…alone…and confused.

So this is NOT an ‘event’ - it’s a process.  And that’s how plans are developed, habits are formed, systems are implemented. And it’s this process that guarantees 2009 will be your best, most profitable year ever in the fitness business.

   ***********************
    More shocking news…
   ***********************

There’s one thing every fitness business MUST have in order to prosper, and it’s this:

  ==> Marketing collateral <==

You must have tools for delivering your message to your market. And for most, if not all, that is the primary stumbling block - the biggest obstacle. 

Until now, it’s been almost impossible for all but a handful of fit-pros to determine which tools they need, let alone create them all.  But that problem goes away now.  Because all attendees of the NPE Mega-Training Workshop are going to be handed the ULTIMATE MARKETING TOOL CHEAT SHEET.

This makes producing top-notch, response-inducing, client-generating marketing tools a simple, step-by-step process anyone can follow.

And it’ll blow you away.

   ********************
    Let’s Wrap This Up
   ********************

I know this has been a long note, and I appreciate you reading it all the way through. And the fact that you’ve read this far tells me something: you get it. You understand the value of what we do here at NPE. You realize and appreciate that “ideas and a nickel will get you a stick of gum” - but systems, tools and coaching will explode your fit-biz profits.

The fact that you’re reading this tells me you don’t want to go through the 9 year trial and error phase I went through trying to piece everything together and figure it all out on my own. You want the shortcut, the proven path, the plan, the blueprint.

  ==> THE MISSING LINK! <==

And that’s exactly what you get when you register now for the NPE Mega-Training Workshop.

And when you register today you save 100 bucks with the Early Bird Discount.

You can even take advantage of the EZ-pay monthly equalizer payment plan. 

If you’re a serious fitness professional, this really is a simple decision. And a decision you will look back on as one of the wisest of your career.

Go here to register now and save with the early bird discount:

http://www.NPEMegaTraining.com

And let us show you the money.

Respectfully,

Eric Ruth
NPE, LLC

P.S. You can have the complete fitness marketing blueprint and 52-week marketing calendar, plus the pre-workshop training, post-workshop training, the ULTIMATE MARKETING TOOL CHEAT SHEET (which is stunningly powerful), and more that I can’t even tell you about now…plus the opportunity to spend two days networking with some of the most successful fit-biz owners in America and world-wide. This is how breakthroughs are made, my friend. We look forward to seeing you there. Register now at:

http://www.NPEMegaTraining.com

My wife, Brandy is in Chicago today attending a conference on persuasion and influence based on the teachings of Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

She was there yesterday, too. Spent the day in the conference and the evening shopping on the Magnificent Mile (gulp!)  Not looking forward to the MasterCard bill.

Brandy’s recently launched her own biz, after ten years in sales for a Fortune 500 company.

And she’s doing almost everything right.  she’s already in action…already marketing to drive leads and build a list.

And she’s getting LOTS of information and instruction, learning best practices and getting coached. She and I meet every Sunday for a strategic planning session so I can help her flesh out her marketplace domination plan!

But I’m far from her only resource (I just happen to be the cheapest).

In fact, she’s on a bunch of local ‘gurus’ newsletter lists (she’s doing biz locally). One of them is a woman who is apparently a pretty sharp marketer.  A few weeks ago, this woman made an offer to her list to provide a 2-hr “marketing plan” session for a couple hundred bucks.

Brandy showed me the info, and we agreed it would be a good move to make in order to get feedback from a local expert. So she bought.

Last Thursday she met with the woman.  When Brandy got home I asked her how it went.

“Great,” she said. “Carol’s full of ideas.”

Red flag goes up for me immediately.

“Ideas?” I asked, “I thought this was a marketing planning session?”

“Well, we didn’t really get around to that because Carol was just throwing out one great marketing idea after the next,” Brandy explained.

I’ve talked to Brandy about this before. And I tell her the same thing I’ve been telling fitness professionals since 1998…

“Ideas…and a nickel…will get a stick of gum.”

Marketing ideas (tactics) are important, for sure.

But they are ONLY *valuable* when they’re integrated into a STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN.

The kiss of death for new biz owners, and veterans alike, is getting caught up in tactical thinking and marketing.

Because then you confuse activity with accomplishment.  You don’t gain any ground.  There’s no coherence and congruence from one activity to the next.  You jump from this tactic to that, from press releases to public speaking, from ebooks to ebay, from magazine ads to postcards, etc., etc.

And none of those activities - those tactics - are integrated into a STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN (do you have this tool in your fit biz?)

So you spin your wheels.  You don’t get traction.  You don’t get MOMENTUM. And you start every day thinking…

“What am I going to do NEXT to get more clients?”

Being tactical - always looking for the next big idea or next cool marketing activity - is like being a dog chasing his tail.

You go round and round, get dizzy, tired and frustrated, and then take a nap.

Look, until and unless you get a ROCK-SOLID comprehensive, integrated, congruent and complete STRATEGIC fitness marketing action plan in place, you will keep chasing your tail.

It’s just that simple.

And you already know it. You’re probably experiencing that in your biz right now.

Which is precisely why Sean, Dick and I are doing our NPE Mega-Training Workshop in October.

It’s ALL about putting into your hands a complete 52-week strategic fitness marketing BLUEPRINT action plan you can follow to make sure 2009 is your best, most profitable year ever.

This Workshop is how to get the single most important and valuable tool you will EVER have in your fit biz.  If you don’t have one - a fully formed and complete strategic action plan - then you’re at a severe disadvantage.

Because this tool is the bridge across the gaping pit between where you are now and where you want to be.

There’s a hundred buck early bird discount when you register for the Workshop before the end of this month (by July 31st).  Here’s how to get the tool you want:

http://www.NPEMegaTraining.com

Of course, the reality is you have a choice:

You can either work hard *IN* your fitness business and earn a living, or you can work hard *ON* your fitness business and earn a fortune.

You’re going to do one or the other, so the only question is - which would you prefer?

If the second option is more appealing to you, then register for the Workshop now (and save 100 bucks):

http://www.NPEMegaTraining.com

All the best,
Eric Ruth

P.S. Want to get a jump-start on some of the strategies we’ll be covering in detail at the Workshop? Then watch this 5-lesson video training series here:

http://www.FitBizBlueprint.com

The P-Factor:

Proper planning prevents poor performance.

You’ve probably heard that a few times.

And you know from your own life experiences just how true it is.

But I’ll tell you what - one of the biggest, if not THE biggest mistake we see fitness professionals making consistently, is failing to create and implement an effective marketing plan.

For many, probably including you, creating a marketing plan is like asking you to write Chinese. You just don’t know how to do it right.

And most books and software out there only help you create ‘corporate’ style business plans, not hard-core, nuts-n-bolts, direct response marketing plans.

But there is one book - the best available on this topic - I urge you to study.

It’s Dan Kennedy’s Ultimate Marketing Plan.

And now you can have the Executive Summary ‘cliffs notes’ on this book.

You don’t have to read the entire 187 page book to get all the ‘juicy bits’ and pin-point direction you need to sit down and whip off a rock-solid fitness marketing plan this weekend.

Because everything that’s essential is included in the Ultimate Marketing Plan executive summary we’re giving you free (along with four others) just for taking 3 minutes to complete our NPE survey here:

http://www.NPEMembersurvey.com

(you don’t have to be a Member to participate and get all five Executive Summaries).

Here’s the sub-title to Dan’s book:

“Find Your Most Promotable Competitive Edge, Turn It Into A Powerful Marketing Message, And Deliver It To The Right Prospects”

That, my friend, is the name of the marketing game. And Dan shows you how to play like a pro in this 8-page Executive Summary of his book.

Get it now, nothin to buy:

http://www.NPEMemberSurvey.com

Have a great weekend,
Eric Ruth

P.S. Speaking of your fitness marketing plan, Sean and I have some VERY big news on that front coming next week. Now is the time for you to get ‘grounded’ in the principles of proper planning, because you know that’s what prevents poor performance. And soon we’ll be showing you how to take that to a whole other level.

As Robert Ringer says, “ACTION: Nothing happens until something moves!” And that’s absolutely true, but the difference between just making things happen…and making the RIGHT things happen…lies in the planning.  As all real business strategists know - the real money is made in the planning.

Keep your eyes peeled for BIG announcements next week.  Until then, complete the survey and get Dan’s Ultimate Marketing Plan executive summary here:

http://www.NPEMemberSurvey.com