June 26, 2025 • 44 mins
In this powerful episode from the Functional Aging Summit, Jay Croft—founder of Prime Fit Content—reveals how fitness professionals can use client storytelling to attract, engage, and retain more clients over 50.
You’ll learn how to frame your clients as the heroes of their own fitness journeys (not you), why that subtle shift builds trust and credibility, and how to avoid the most common marketing mistakes that push people away.
Whether you’re a gym owner, studio operator, or coach working with midlife and older adults, this episode is packed with actionable advice on messaging, member profiles, retention, and building community.
🎧 What You’ll Learn:
- The “hero’s journey” and how it applies to your clients
- Why most fitness marketing misses the mark with older adults
- How to tell stories that inspire action (without selling)
- Real-world examples of member profiles that work
- The retention benefits of client-centered content
Purchase recordings for the 2025 Virtual Functional Aging Summit:
https://www.fbasucceed.com/faisummit
📥 Download your free guide:
How to Attract Clients Over 50 with Better Storytelling
📘 Book a strategy call:
https://primefitcontent.com/contact
🧠 Connect with Jay:
Instagram – @primefitcontent
LinkedIn – Jay Croft
⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 – Real-life superhero story
01:30 – The hero’s journey explained
03:15 – Why older clients are overlooked
05:45 – Common marketing mistakes
09:20 – Client-focused storytelling
15:00 – Member profiles that resonate
25:00 – Success metrics for fitness pros
30:00 – Building community & retention
37:00 – Live Q&A on marketing strategies
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You get to actually say that you work with people
who perform superhuman tasksbecause they do, and so what you
need to do is honor that andshow that.
The woman on the left it's hardto tell there, but she's got a
snow shovel in her hand and shelives here in Atlanta where it
doesn't snow very much.
Very often Maybe every threeyears, we get a little, so the
(00:23):
city doesn't come along andremove it because it's not worth
it economically to have theequipment.
So this woman lives in a niceneighborhood in one of the
suburbs and we all woke up to abunch of snow one day and she
went out and shoveled it off.
And she took this video andposted it on the studio's social
media and said look at me.
I cleaned off my driveway, Icleaned off my sidewalk.
(00:44):
Then I went down to the nextdoor neighbors and did it for
them too, and I only was able todo this because I've been
working out with you these lastfew months.
She had a big smile on her face.
She couldn't have been happier.
(01:04):
Who's your favorite superhero Ifyou work in fitness, health and
well-being for people over 50,I hope you said one of your
clients.
I mean sure, I love Supermanand the Avengers as much as
anybody, but when it comes toreal-life strength, courage and
perseverance, you probably don'thave to look much farther than
(01:26):
your own membership roles.
Think about it Anybody who'sshowing up and doing the work
and trying to improve theirhealth later in life is already
performing heroic tasks, and Ihope that you are treating them
that way, because it's not justthe right and respectful thing
to do, it's also smart for yourbusiness.
You know, like everyone else,people over 50, 60, 70 and above
(01:49):
everybody wants to be seen andacknowledged, and too often,
older people are overlooked atgyms, studios, by trainers, by
healthcare providers.
Even so, don't make that samemistake.
I talked about this recentlywith the Functional Aging
Institute at their onlineFunctional Aging Summit, and in
(02:12):
this episode I'm going to sharemy full presentation, courtesy
of FAI.
Thanks, guys, and I encourageyou to check out all the other
presentations atfunctionalagingsummitcom.
You can get them there, thepresentations at
functionalagingsummitcom.
You can get them there.
Now, to answer my own question,who's my favorite superhero?
I have to say it's you gymowners, trainers, studio owners,
(02:33):
anybody in health and fitnessand wellbeing who works every
day to help older people lookbetter, feel better, move better
, enjoy greater health andautonomy, extend their lifespan,
feel better about themselves.
It's so important what you guysdo every day and you have so
many powerful stories to share.
(02:54):
That's where I come in.
I help you do that and it'swhat I get to talk about in this
presentation.
So I hope you enjoy it and letme know what you think.
All right, let's go ahead andget started.
Thank you for joining me todayfor this talk about your clients
and your prospects and how.
I believe, if you put the focusof your content on them, that
(03:19):
it will not only make them feelgood, but it'll also be good for
your business.
So I want to talk about servingsuperheroes that's what I call
your clients who are a littlebit older, and how to present
them as the awesome specimensthat they really are, while also
making your role clear as well.
(03:41):
So just a little bit about meto get started.
I'm Jay Croft.
I'm the creator of Prime FitContent, which helps gyms and
fitness studios and trainers andothers grow their businesses by
reaching and engaging morepeople over 50 to become
prospects, to become members andto stay members longer.
(04:01):
I also host the Optimal AgingPodcast, where we discuss how to
grow our businesses by helpingslightly older people or anyone
over 50 really live a healthierlife and have better habits, and
I'm delighted to be here todayat the Functional Aging Summit.
My business was born out of theFunctional Aging Summit a few
(04:23):
years ago, was born out of theFunctional Aging Summit a few
years ago, and I'm sure a lot offamiliar faces are
participating in this weekend'svirtual summit and a lot of new
people as well.
I think that's just great.
I'm really happy to be here andI want to encourage all of you
to make the most of thisopportunity to learn a lot and
(04:43):
network and meet people and getphone numbers and get email
addresses and check out webpages and all of that because I
met a bunch of great people hereDan, cody, celia and a bunch of
gym owners who convinced me tostart writing content to help
them reach more people, andthat's why I'm here now.
So really dive in, have a greattime.
(05:04):
I got started into the FitnessOver 50 field a little bit
differently maybe than some ofyou.
I don't own a gym and I'm not atrainer.
I come to this as acommunications expert with more
than 35 years in mainstreammedia daily newspapers, your
hometown newspaper that we allused to read every morning.
I wrote and edited those for along time and then I worked in
(05:29):
some Fortune 500 companies andtheir communications and
marketing departments, and I'vefreelanced for CNN and WebMD,
and I want to talk a little bitabout what we're going to cover
today, so that you can have anexpectation of where I'm going
with all this.
I want to talk a little bitabout why I see that a lot of
gym owners and trainers aremissing the mark with their
(05:51):
outreach to people in general,but specifically with people
over 50, how we can easily flipit to put the focus on the
clients where it belongs,keeping you as the position, as
the trusted guide.
I want to give you somepractical examples of how to do
that, how to shift that focusand also to stay consistent in
(06:11):
all of this, and then we'll havetime for questions.
I hope you have lots of them,because I can talk about this
all day.
So before we dive in, I want todo, I guess, a couple of just
sort of housekeeping items.
I'm going to talk a lot aboutfitness over 50.
And don't put too hard a pointon that.
(06:33):
If you focus on people over 40,over 65, whatever Functional
Aging Institute says, 55.
It's all pretty much the samething we mean at this point in
life where our bodies, ourlifestyles, our home situations,
our work situations are allchanging and that to me it seems
about 50, and where people arestarting to look at their, their
(06:58):
future in a different way,because previously they were
looking at a lot of workingyears and raising kids and the
body always being there for itto work, perfectly right.
But now things are a little bitdifferent.
When we get up to around 50.
Our bodies change, our healthneeds change, our fitness needs
change, that kind of thing.
(07:18):
And then, secondly, before weget to the superheroes, I want
to put the broader context ofthat in to the idea of what are
superheroes in?
Well, not just comic books.
They're in everything now, ofcourse, but superheroes are the
main characters in stories, andstories are super important in
how you present your business.
And so I want you to thinkabout stories, your stories and
(07:46):
your businesses stories, but,most importantly, your clients
and prospects stories and howyou are telling who you are, by
which of their stories you telland how have really important
(08:08):
stories to tell.
They can help you reach morepeople help more people live
better lives, and you can movethem to take that action that
maybe they know they should, butsomething's holding them back,
they're not quite sure.
You can make that emotionalconnection with the right kind
of story and the right kind ofcontent to improve those lives
and improve your business.
And as the head of yourbusiness, you're the storyteller
, you're the editor.
(08:28):
You get to decide where thatspotlight goes, who you're going
to focus on and why you'redoing it.
So a problem that I see a lot infitness is that gym owners and
trainers too often think thattheir marketing, that their
storytelling, is supposed to beabout them.
And I get it because we'realways told tell your story,
(08:49):
tell your story.
And so we think, oh, I have totalk about myself.
That's not what I mean, and Ichose this kind of photo to make
a point.
I know they're kind of extremein the presentation and that's
really to get your attention,because we've all seen things
like this and I'm not sayingthat you're all doing it, but we
(09:10):
all see it out there Trainersand gym owners who want to show
how awesome they are, howbeautiful they are, and then
also how many initials they haveafter their names and then also
how many initials they haveafter their names.
Right, we do that a lot becausewe want to show everyone that
we have credibility, that we'vebeen certified by everyone under
the sun, and I guess we thinkthat if we show that we're
(09:33):
really built, that that's goingto prove that we know what we're
talking about.
I think it can have the oppositeeffect, particularly with
people over 50, who generallydon't harbor the illusion that
they're going to look likeeither of these people anytime
soon.
Maybe some of them do, maybesome of them will, maybe some of
them want to, but by and large,you know that their motivations
are different than that, thatthey're much more interesting
(09:56):
and compelling and that you canhelp them travel and play with
their grandchildren and enjoytheir leisure activities and
their sports and keep theirhealth in line and keep their
weight in line and just maintaintheir overall quality of life
and autonomy.
It's my fear that with imageslike this that you put up a hand
(10:19):
, you say to them no, we don'twant you because you don't look
like this.
You're never going to look likethis.
You never did look at this.
People like this used to makefun of you in high school and
now it's past you, you're toolate, so just stay on the couch
and the beautiful people overhere have got it covered.
I know that sounds extreme andkind of ridiculous, but a lot of
(10:39):
the prospects that you'retrying to engage are really
looking for any reason to notcome see you.
So remove those reasonspresented as frail, helpless,
(11:09):
out of touch, that kind of thing, not superheroes, right, and
probably not the people thatyou're really interested in
helping.
We see this not just in thosekinds of, you know, overly
sexualized images, but even insomething as common as member
profiles, which should be aboutthe member, should be an
opportunity to tell a littlestory about how the member's
life improved by coming to yourbusiness and doing what you
(11:31):
advise them to do.
Instead, I think, because we'reafraid to ask people questions
and be nosy and be rude orwhatever, we end up being vague
and just talking about how greatour gym is.
Being vague and just talkingabout how great our gym is, I
see a lot of member profilesthat just say hi, I'm Susie
(11:52):
Jones and I love working at, youknow, acme Fitness, because
everybody here is so nice andwelcoming and I feel good here
and I'm getting results and it'sa great place.
And if you want to feel better,you should come to Acme too,
because Acme is great and Acmeis the best and Acme, acme, Acme
, right.
I don't know anything aboutSusie.
I don't know what her story was.
I don't know if I relate to it.
All I have are these platitudesand cliches about how nice
(12:14):
everything is at the gym.
So when we talk aboutsuperheroes and stories and your
clients, I want to referencesomething that's called the
hero's journey.
Not to get too academic here onyou, I'm sure a lot of you have
heard of this.
It's not like I invented it ordiscovered it.
It's a pretty common idea thatmost stories in Western culture
(12:35):
are based in this thing calledthe hero's journey, and so
central to that is, of course,the hero, and the hero always
has a mentor.
The hero enters a new world,faces challenges, fear,
confusion.
A mentor helps guide the herothrough these series of
challenges until the heroemerges triumphant a new person,
(13:00):
better leader, better skills,better something.
I want to give a couple ofexamples that we're all familiar
with here so that you know whatI'm talking about.
This photo, of course, is fromStar Wars, with Obi-Wan Kenobi
and Luke Skywalker, so the heroof Star Wars, as everyone knows,
is Luke Skywalker.
He's just this boy on someremote planet and he gets sucked
(13:20):
into this adventure and he's inway over his head and he meets
this guy, this mentor, obi-wanKenobi, who helps him become the
hero of the story and save thegalaxy.
So when you think aboutyourself and your members and
your prospects, who are comingto you for help to see if they
want to work with you, which oneare you?
(13:40):
Are you the hero?
Are you the mentor?
Are you Luke Skywalker?
Are you Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Just another example that we'reall familiar with, from a
different era and with adifferent gender.
In the middle of it, dorothylanded in Oz, overwhelmed, had
to go on this journey, had to goon this freaking yellow brick
road to go meet some wizard,just so she could get home to
(14:02):
Kansas, right.
And who helped her?
A lot of people helped her, buther mentor in this was Glinda
the Good Witch.
Glinda's pretty fabulous, Iwill tell you, and she does have
her own backstory, as we'vebeen learning recently from the
Wicked movie and the upcomingsequel.
But the Wizard of Oz is aboutDorothy.
It's not about Glinda.
It's about Dorothy's quest toreturn home, and Glinda knows
(14:25):
her role in that.
So I want you to be aware ofthat Doesn't mean you're
secondary.
Doesn't mean you're boring.
It means that you know who thestar is and what your role is in
helping them.
It also doesn't mean that yourstory is not important and that
you should never talk about yourstory.
That is not what I'm suggesting.
You all have fabulous,interesting, compelling stories
(14:48):
and you need to know what thosestories are and when it's
relevant to talk about them.
If you don't know your story, Iwant you to take some time and
think about it over the comingdays.
Make some notes about it, talkto your people about it.
What's your story as it relatesto your business and your
clients?
Now, when it's relevant, talkabout it.
(15:08):
When it's not relevant, it'sstill baked into your DNA and
it's baked into everything thatyou do.
It might even be a part of yourbusiness plan.
It might be a part of all yourmarketing.
It might underpin your coremessaging that you've come up
with, that you want to make sureis relayed somehow in all of
(15:28):
your communications andmarketing.
So to illustrate that point,I'm going to tell you my story,
which is I don't like to talkabout myself very much.
I'm getting better at it.
It's a little difficult for me,so this won't take long, I
promise.
But I got started in fitnesslargely because of this guy,
bruce Springsteen.
Now, this picture was from thesummer of 1984 when he emerged
(15:54):
with the Born in the USA albumand Muscles, and previously
Springsteen had been a scrawny,runty, scruffy little street
urchin right, who just wanted tobe a good writer and
entertainer.
Well, I was always the scrawny,runty, little street urchin
type too, who wanted to be agood writer.
Not a musician, don't want tobe on stage but I wanted to be a
(16:16):
good writer.
And I had no muscles, nomasculine presence, anything.
And I was 20 that summer.
And when he came out lookinglike this, I thought, hey, it's
not just for meatheads.
You know, here's someone Iadmire.
He's done it.
Maybe I can do it too.
And out of that grew thisobsession with fitness that led
(16:36):
me to be here today.
A few years ago, as I wasmentioning, at the Functional
Aging Summit from 2018 inOrlando, I met Dan and Cody and
Celia and a bunch of folks, andI was looking for a way to get
into the fitness business as awriter, and they gave me the
entree convincing me that therewas this need to help gyms and
(16:59):
trainers and studios reach morepeople in this demographic, and
so that's what I set out to do.
This was right after well gosh,I had turned 50 a few years
before, and when I turned 50, Ihad this epiphany.
I was at the gym when ithappened and I realized that the
(17:19):
fitness industry was no longermarketing to me.
It's difficult to say why orhow I realized that, but the
closest I can come to is whenyou're riding in a car with
teenagers and the radio is onand they're singing along to all
the songs that you've neverheard before and you don't know
who the singers are.
It's because you've aged out ofthe market.
You're no longer that thatnarrow focus that they want to
(17:43):
reach on the radio.
But I felt that's how I feltwith the fitness industry and I
thought you know that'sridiculous, because I'm young
and I'm fit and I've got moneyand everyone I know is young and
active and wants to stay thatway and there's a missed
opportunity here.
So the timing was justserendipitous for me to hook up
with these leaders in fitnessand out of that I developed
(18:06):
Prime Fit content, which theseare a few elements of my
storytelling, for lack of abetter word.
Everything you do, everythingyou put out, every conversation
you have must tie back to yourcore messaging, your
storytelling, your basics, andthese include things like your
tagline.
(18:26):
For mine, it's reach morefitness prospects and clients
over 50.
It shows my customer and mypurpose.
It doesn't say grow your gymwith teenage boys who want
muscles.
It doesn't say help first-timemoms lose the baby weight.
It doesn't say help eliteathletes make that 1%
improvement in their performance.
(18:48):
Right, because that's not whatI'm doing.
You need to think about whatyou're doing and be really clear
about it.
I chose these colors because Ithink they're kind of corporate
and not too stale, and my toneis very deliberate, very
intentionally highly readableand engaging and focused on the
consumer.
And I have to be somewhat broad, because I'm selling my
(19:11):
material to a bunch of gemowners all over the place and
they need to be able to use itto reach their end user, their
consumers.
So think about all of this.
Think about your origin story,your superpower.
You might never talk about itin public, you might never post
about it on Facebook, but youmight.
And even if you don't, it'sreally important to know who and
(19:36):
what you're all about.
At that level need to veryconsciously and deliberately
make the client the hero in yourcontent, and by content we of
(19:58):
course, mean things like socialmedia, email newsletters, my
ebook there, things like thatall of it.
When you put out content on aconsistent basis, you are
revealing who you are by tellingother people's stories, along
with enough about you and yourindustry and your qualifications
and your business.
I'm not suggesting you nevertalk about yourself.
Of course that's gonna enterinto the picture.
(20:18):
But through all of this, peoplesee who you are and what's
important to you and whetherthey fit in, and they get this
clear, emerging picture of whatyou're all about.
They get to know you and likeyou and trust you, and that's
when they want to do businesswith you, because a lot of the
people we're talking about areshy about all of this kind of
thing.
It can be expensive.
(20:38):
To join a gym, can beintimidating.
It can be a very intimate thingbecause you're in space with
people and maybe it involvesbeing touched or whatever.
Who knows what's going on.
But they need to know you andlike you and trust you before
they're just going to walk intoyour gym and if all they see is
stuff about people they can'trelate to, then they're not
(20:58):
going to come in.
Hey, are you a fitnessprofessional trying to grow your
business with people over 50?
If you are, then you need toknow how to communicate with
them, how to market to them andhow to get them to trust you
with their fitness, well-beingand money.
We're talking about millions ofpeople who are a little older
(21:20):
than the typical market that thefitness industry usually
pursues.
They have more money, more timeand better motivation to make
the best long-term fitnessconsumers you'll find anywhere.
If you're not focusing on them,you should be.
Prime.
Fit content is the only contentmarketing company designed
specifically to help you engagepeople in this group and to help
(21:42):
you distinguish yourself fromcompetitors in your community.
It's effective, affordable andsuper easy to use.
Check it out atprimefitcontentcom.
That's prime like prime of yourlife fitcontentcom.
Back to the show.
So again, whether it's podcasts,speeches, your website, it's
(22:04):
all important, and not just thetext, but the photos too.
I do, I talked to, I do a lotof consulting with gyms who want
to learn how to get a hold oftheir image and their, their
communications and their contentIn addition to providing the
content to let them do that.
And I was talking to a gymowner in California a few years
ago and he lived in one of thosetri-state excuse me, tri-county
(22:29):
regions and sort of semi-ruralNorthern California, and he was
frustrated because he said hiswas the only gym in the
tri-county region that focusedon people over 50.
And yet nobody over 50 evercame into his gym.
I said, well, let's take a lookat what you're putting out to
the world.
The first stop was his website,which had precisely zero words
(22:53):
or images of, or related to,people over 50.
In fact, it was very much 20and 30 something active, with
even a lot of content aboutprenatal and postnatal fitness
(23:14):
for women who are thinking aboutbeing pregnant, might be
pregnant or have recently beenpregnant.
It's like, dude, what are youtalking about?
Do you not see that disconnect,that dissonance?
We need to bring it alltogether because you can talk
all you want, but when peoplesee what you're doing and what
you're putting out to the world,that's where they get a sense
of what you're really all about.
(23:35):
So let's talk about how you canshine that spotlight where it's
best used for your business,and this is what we're talking
about.
We're talking about yourbusiness.
We're not just talking aboutbeing nice or giving pats on the
back, although those things areimportant.
We're talking about being clearabout who and what you're all
about, so that you can grow yourbusiness.
(23:55):
Some of the ways that we'regoing to talk about doing that
are testimonials that show thechallenges and victories that
you've helped people achieveMember videos more so than
videos showing your trainersdoing uh exercise.
I, I follow a gym, that a studiothat again says it helps mostly
(24:17):
old people, older people whoare deconditioned and want to
get back in shape, and theyalways post these videos of
their trainer doing prettyadvanced exercises and I guess
they think it's interesting andmaybe it's interesting to the
trainer, but it doesn't speak tothe audience.
If you're 65 years old andretiring after 40 years, as at a
desk job, you don't really wantto know how to do a.
(24:40):
You know I'm blanking on thename the thing where you get up
off the floor with a.
You know with a kettlebellabove your head or some of these
really elaborate moves thatlook kind of scary right.
You just want to know thatyou're going to find a place
where they relate to you andthat they see you and they can
help you and give you safe,positive experience.
And you do this through showingreal clients doing real
(25:06):
activities.
I don't mind a little stockimagery now and then.
I don't mind it, even half ofbeing stocked, because, let's
face it, we don't have thebudgets always for original
photography.
But we can show enough realpeople doing real things that it
all comes out in the wash andwe can speak in plain language
not fitness speak and we canfocus on function and ability to
(25:31):
do stuff and enjoy life morethan before and after.
As you know, before and aftercan be dramatic.
It can be very effective and agreat way to show that working
out and eating right pays off,but it can also lead to this
idea that it just matters howyou look, or the only thing that
matters is your weight.
(25:51):
Of course, it's more involvedin that and and we want to sell
that you're being able to enjoylife.
So show people what they'redoing.
You know your members reallyare everyday superheroes.
I'm going to talk about a few ofthem that are pictured here
right now.
Um, most of these are people Iknow.
No, that's not true about.
Most of these are people I know.
No, that's not true.
About half of them are people Iknow and others are affiliated
(26:13):
with people I work with.
So they're not, you know, justmade up.
And you get to actually saythat you work with people who
perform superhuman tasks,because they do, and so what you
need to do is honor that andshow that.
The woman on the left she's gotit's hard to tell there, but
she's got a snow shovel in herhand and she lives here in
(26:36):
Atlanta where it doesn't snowvery often, very much, very
often.
Maybe every three years we geta little, so the city doesn't
come along and remove it becauseit's not worth it economically
to have the equipment.
So this woman lives in a niceneighborhood in one of the
suburbs and we all woke up to abunch of snow one day and she
went out and shoveled it off.
And she took this video andposted it on the studio's social
(26:58):
media and said look at me.
I cleaned off my driveway, Icleaned off my sidewalk.
Then I went down to the nextdoor neighbors and did it for
them too, and I only was able todo this because I've been
working out with you these lastfew months.
She had a big smile on her face.
She couldn't have been happier.
The two women underneath herare traveling in Europe having a
grand old time.
(27:18):
The woman in the upperright-hand corner is that was
posted on another of my clients'social media pages.
Actually, I might've even takenthat picture because I was at
that event.
It was a charity event and itwas an 80s night.
So there she is, dressed assort of a Madonna wannabe from
back in the day, and thesepictures were posted on the
(27:39):
studio's social media to showthat they're involved in the
community, that they have asense of humor, that they care
about people Great stuff.
And then I guess my favoritehere is the gentleman.
His name is Jerry.
I actually know Jerry prettywell because we go to the same
gym and have for a long time.
He is now, I think, 78 yearsold and this photo was taken one
(28:02):
or two years ago.
Jerry's story is that, inanticipation of his 75th
birthday, he decided he wantedto run his first Spartan race.
So he'd been working with atrainer for a while and he went
to the trainer and told him thisgoal and they did it and they
worked really hard and they gotJerry into shape to be Mr
(28:23):
Spartan.
Spartan man, put a big S on hischest.
Right, there's a superhero foryou.
He didn't just do one and quit,he does them all the time.
Now Sometimes he does three inone weekend because they have 5k
, 10k and marathon level.
He's seven.
I think he's 78.
You know, this is great stuffand it shows the commitment and
(28:44):
dedication and training skill ofhis trainer and the gym where
he trains, without saying, lookhow great we are, without
lifting up your shirt showingyour abs.
Even if you never want to run aSpartan race in your life,
you're going to be moved by him,you're going to like him and
you're going to get somereaction out of hearing his
story.
So we need to ask ourselves thethree-part question over and
(29:05):
over again when we're talkingabout our content and our
marketing what problem do yousolve, how do you solve it and
what does success look like?
I'm going to break it downreally simple with an obvious
basic level kind of example.
But what problem do you solve?
You help people who are afraidof falling.
(29:25):
They're at the age where theirmother fell and broke her hip.
They don't want to do that.
How do you do that?
With strength training, balancetraining, what does success
look like?
They're more confident, they'remore able, they feel like they
can enjoy life now and they'regoing to keep coming back to you
, to keep training with you, tokeep that confidence and that
strength and that functionality.
(29:46):
So for them, they get to be inbetter shape.
For you, you get a long termclient.
So a few other ways that we cankeep the spotlight on the
member and this one is is aboutthose spotlights.
I want to talk a little bitabout how to how to do those
better.
I guess the number one thing isto talk to the person.
(30:08):
A lot of you are just sendingemails, and I can always tell
when a member profile has beendone by an interview or by an
email, because the answers arevery short oftentimes and there
are no follow-ups.
So there's no conversation,there's no juice, there's no
richness to it and you can'ttell a story out of that.
(30:28):
Nothing's going to emerge outof that.
How do you like working out?
I like it.
What's your favorite part topeople?
What's your goal?
Lose weight.
What's your dream vacation?
Mexico, right?
Who cares?
So take the time to speak tothem and tell the people that
you want to tell a story abouttheir fitness journey the
(30:49):
beginning, the middle and wherethey are now.
The beginning is what they werelike before they came to see
you.
The during is the catalyst, asyou know.
There's often a moment wherethey a light bulb moment, where
something happens and they think, oh, I've got to make a change
in my life.
So what was that?
And then how did they feelcoming in?
Were they nervous, were theyconfident, were they excited?
(31:10):
And then what's their life likenow?
They've lost weight, they'vegained muscle mass, their
balance is better, theirdoctor's happier.
They're no longer type two,whatever it is.
Those are the elements of thestory before, during and after.
With you know progression andsomeone in the middle and your
role in it emerges.
(31:30):
It's very clear.
Again, I'm not saying you don'ttalk about yourself, it's just
obvious what we're talking abouthere.
And when you share real clientphotos of people training and
smiling and moving, and when youwrite in common language and
you highlight the functionalwins, show real bodies of
different ages, differentabilities, different shapes,
(31:52):
then that's the kind of memberprofile that's going to connect
with people.
The best member profile I'vedone lately is a woman who I
think she's in her early 60s.
She's overweight, she recentlyretired and she was mortified
and humiliated when she had toleave her toddler
granddaughter's birthdaycelebration because she couldn't
(32:15):
play on the bouncy bounce thing.
She got winded.
That was her moment.
She went to the studio, she gotin shape and at the next family
picnic she was running up anddown the slide with the, with
the toddler doing it so muchthat she's just laughing and
having a great time and and thekicker is, the little girl kept
saying one more time, grandma,one more time, grandma, one more
(32:37):
time.
But you can't.
That woman will never leavethat studio.
She's there for life becausethey gave her that moment.
So move on to another way youcan keep this focus on your
superhero clients, and that'swith your superhero website,
because this is a major way youshow who you're for, superhero
(32:57):
website.
Because this is a major way youshow who you're for.
And I'm going to illustratewhat I mean by showing you this
image, which is the part of thehomepage of Full Circle Fitness
in Orange County, california.
It's owned by my friend, rosaColetto.
She's the third one from theleft.
Rosa's in her thirties, I think.
The other women are her clients, except for the woman on the
right who is one of her trainers.
(33:18):
And so when you are, if you'rein Orange County and you're
looking for a gym for peopleover 50 and you find this one,
you know you're in the rightplace, don't you?
Because she says so in big typeand because those faces look
like you.
So this is a, you know, just areally ideal opportunity to make
it clear what you're talkingabout and who you want.
(33:38):
Don't be shy about it, don't bevague, don't be unclear.
There's nothing wrong withpursuing your business plan,
which your marketing and yourcontent are supporting.
Another way to do this isthrough your neighborhood.
You'd get to know yourneighborhood better.
Get out of the gym, get outfrom behind the computer or out
(33:59):
of the weight room and walk upand down the streets.
Get to know the people in yourneighborhood, as Mr Rogers told
us.
Find out what you can do forthem, how you can help them, or
just make an introduction andget to know them so that this
can become perhaps anin-real-life relationship.
And the commonality there isyour client.
(34:22):
Maybe there's a hair salonwhere some of your clients get
their hair colored.
Maybe there's a nice restaurantthat draws some of your
clientele.
That kind of thing draws someof your clientele, that kind of
thing.
Another way to do this in yourneighborhood is to sponsor
events, participate in thingslike community festivals, 5k
runs, things like this.
You want to see and be seen,because it shows people, it
(34:45):
shows your customers, yourcustomer base, that you're a
part of the community and thatyou care about them and you're
going to learn more about themand their desires and their
fears and what's important tothem, the better you get to know
them.
So get out of the gym and gomeet people and then finally,
after you do all of that andthey come to see you, you got to
(35:06):
deliver.
You got to give greatexperience, great customer
experience, not just results forpeople who stick with you for
three months or six months orlong enough to really get the
fruits of your expertise, butfrom the minute they engage with
you, you've got to bedelivering that top tier
(35:27):
customer experience and it needsto continue pretty intensely
for the first few weeks and thefirst few months.
You need a protocol so that allyour employees know how to
treat newcomers, particularlynewcomers who are a little bit
older, because we want to berespected, we want to be called
our name, we want to be lookedin the eye, these little things
(35:50):
that might not be important to25-year-olds, but they're
important to me and I thinkthey're important to other
people in our demographic.
And they also tell thereluctant newcomer that you see
them, you want them, you careabout them.
You remember that they came inhere because their
granddaughter's getting marriedin six months and they want to
be in good shape for that.
(36:11):
You remember that they've got avacation coming up in six weeks
, whatever it is, and yourpeople do too.
So deliver on that customerexperience by developing one.
And if you don't have one fornewcomers, I want you to meet
with your team and put onetogether.
You can't just lure them in andthen throw them in with the gen
(36:32):
pop, so to speak.
It's okay, they don't all needhandholding.
I don't need handholding.
I'm thoroughly comfortable inany fitness environment.
But for those who are not, youneed to be prepared, because
these people are in need of yourhelp.
They're in need of yourattention so that you can mentor
(36:52):
them, you can guide them justlike Glenda did for old Dorothy
and Obi-Wan Kenobi did for LukeSkywalker so that you can help
them become the person they wantto be, the hero of their story
on their journey, and then youhighlight their stories and your
role in it becomes apparent andit's clear, it's simple, it's
(37:14):
compelling and a story emergesabout you.
Your story emerges that this iswhat you're all about and
that's all I have to say at themoment.
So I want to take yourquestions, curious, to see what
your experiences are.
So let's have them.
Okay, here we go.
Thanks, guys.
Celia says how do we maintainpositivity when the journey and
(37:35):
progress are nonlinear and mayeven have setbacks?
Well, that's a great question,celia, and all of you know that
there are setbacks for any ofyour clients, for any of us,
toward any goal, and the greatthing about working with people
who are a little bit older isthat they've been through life a
little bit.
They've had other goals,they've tried to do other things
(38:00):
and succeeded at them.
Maybe they've tried at otherthings and failed at them or
gave up fitness not necessarilyrelated to fitness, but it could
be.
So we celebrate the littlevictories.
We point out from the beginningthat there will be setbacks, to
expect them.
You know that this is just partof the process, that getting
fit, staying fit, living ahealthy lifestyle isn't
(38:22):
something you, it's not one anddone.
You don't walk in and buysomething or do something one
time or for six weeks or forthree months or whatever, and
then you're done.
That it's a lifestyle thatyou're doing for your health and
that over time, if you'reconsistent, you're going to get
closer to your goals and behealthier and feel better about
(38:45):
yourself, particularly as youage.
The better you get to know yourclient, the more you can
provide feedback that'smeaningful to them.
But I think it's just beingrealistic and I think by the
time you're 50 or 60 years old,you understand that it's not
just always a simple linear step.
If I do this, then this will bethe result.
(39:06):
Wise Moves Fitness says howoften should we be posting on
social media?
Well, I recommend Facebookbeing your main social media
channel.
You can also do Instagram,because very easily, because
Instagram and Facebook are nowpart of meta and it's easy to
post on both of them at the sametime and I recommend that you
post something at least once aday on Facebook.
(39:28):
Now, some of you might thinkthat's excessive.
Maybe for your particularsituation, that is, I'm not an
expert on your business or yourcommunity or your audience, but
I think for most of you, youneed to be getting something out
there once a day on Facebookand then the rest of the social
media channels I really wouldn'tworry about, unless there's
(39:50):
some specific reason why youthink it would be more effective
for your audience.
Eric says how shouldprofessionals effectively
communicate their own value andexpertise without overshadowing
the client narrative or fallinginto self-promotion?
Well, I think if you keep thefocus on the client and not
(40:11):
ignore your role, then thatbecomes clear, particularly over
time when people see these samekind of narratives and same
kinds of stories over and overagain.
What's the commonality?
You right, and that becomesclear.
And then I think also it's okayto promote yourself sometimes.
(40:32):
Just do it in a way that isrespectful of your audience.
And I started with the Mr Absand the girl with the waist like
this, because I don't thinkthat's particularly respectful
of your audience, not because itshows skin, but because it's
not relevant.
It's showing them that youdon't care about what their
motivations are.
You're just going to show whatyou have to say.
(40:53):
So learn what their motivationsare and create promotional
material about yourself thatspeaks to them, and then maybe
do that one out of five.
Maybe you've got some.
People say there's an 80% rule,that 80% of your content should
be about them and 20% can bepromotional.
I'm not sure if I agree withthat directly, but something
(41:16):
like that feels right to me.
Janet says the non-linearelement of life Okay.
Eric says have you foundbuilding community among clients
to be important for those over50?
Super important and a greatopportunity for you, for you gym
owners and trainers and studioowners.
(41:36):
It's not just important forthem that they find it with you,
it's important for you that youmaximize the opportunity
because it's good for yourbusiness.
I don't mean to be cynical byalways saying it's good for your
business, but I think that toooften we think, when we're
talking about working with olderpeople, we tend to think that
we're being altruistic and maybethere's an element of that.
(41:58):
But you're running a businessand there's nothing wrong with
remembering that.
So provide that community,absolutely.
People need it.
We saw it so much in COVID, youknow, because a lot of people
in our demographic live alone orhave you know, have at least
don't get out as much as theyused to when they were going to
a job or when they had kids inthe home or that kind of thing.
(42:19):
So that community is superimportant and I love that you
brought it up.
So yeah, absolutely, it's veryimportant.
Celia says you touched on this,but this is another one that
was on the dashboard how shouldprofessionals Okay, we already
talked about that, thank you,celia Janet says can I use my
(42:40):
tips for getting back on trackby highlighting how a client
used them?
Yeah, I think so.
You know, I recommend when youtell the client stories,
oftentimes they just stand ontheir own, but sometimes they
reflect a specific thing thatyou want to highlight about your
business.
So let's say that you've got anew program that you're
(43:03):
promoting about how to get backon track and Susie Jones went
through your program and nailedit and she's awesome because she
went through your program toget back on track.
Yeah, I think, absolutely.
Use her.
Talk to her first, get herbuy-in, make sure she's cool
with it and if she's not, thendo it with someone else.
I don't think it's worth thefriction to do it if she doesn't
(43:26):
want you to.
If Susie says you know, I don'twant to be out there like that,
don't do that, then don't findsomeone who does, because most
there like that don't do that,and don't find someone who does
because most people won't mind.
Most people will be happy tosee themselves inspiring other
people.
So, yeah, find someone whoexemplifies something you're
proud of.
One of the one of the gym ownerswho got me started in this,
(43:46):
dina Medina of active agefitness in California, started a
nutrition program and she askedme to write four profiles of
clients who had gone through hernutrition program specifically
so she could say look at myclients who went through my
nutrition program.
So absolutely, you bet Smart.
(44:07):
Any more questions y'all?
Well, I would love to hear fromyou.
My email isjjaprimefitcontentcom.
That's prime like prime of yourlife, fitcontentcom.
You can check me out thereabout my content services and
let me know if you're interestedin how I can help you
consulting on yourcommunications or just providing
(44:29):
you the content to use in youremails and social and blog posts
, and I would love to hear fromyou.
Have a great summit.
You get to actually say that you work with people
who perform superhuman tasksbecause they do, and so what you
need to do is honor that andshow that.
The woman on the left it's hardto tell there, but she's got a
snow shovel in her hand and shelives here in Atlanta where it
doesn't snow very much.
Very often Maybe every threeyears, we get a little, so the
(00:23):
city doesn't come along andremove it because it's not worth
it economically to have theequipment.
So this woman lives in a niceneighborhood in one of the
suburbs and we all woke up to abunch of snow one day and she
went out and shoveled it off.
And she took this video andposted it on the studio's social
media and said look at me.
I cleaned off my driveway, Icleaned off my sidewalk.
(00:44):
Then I went down to the nextdoor neighbors and did it for
them too, and I only was able todo this because I've been
working out with you these lastfew months.
She had a big smile on her face.
She couldn't have been happier.
(01:04):
Who's your favorite superhero Ifyou work in fitness, health and
well-being for people over 50,I hope you said one of your
clients.
I mean sure, I love Supermanand the Avengers as much as
anybody, but when it comes toreal-life strength, courage and
perseverance, you probably don'thave to look much farther than
(01:26):
your own membership roles.
Think about it Anybody who'sshowing up and doing the work
and trying to improve theirhealth later in life is already
performing heroic tasks, and Ihope that you are treating them
that way, because it's not justthe right and respectful thing
to do, it's also smart for yourbusiness.
You know, like everyone else,people over 50, 60, 70 and above
(01:49):
everybody wants to be seen andacknowledged, and too often,
older people are overlooked atgyms, studios, by trainers, by
healthcare providers.
Even so, don't make that samemistake.
I talked about this recentlywith the Functional Aging
Institute at their onlineFunctional Aging Summit, and in
(02:12):
this episode I'm going to sharemy full presentation, courtesy
of FAI.
Thanks, guys, and I encourageyou to check out all the other
presentations atfunctionalagingsummitcom.
You can get them there, thepresentations at
functionalagingsummitcom.
You can get them there.
Now, to answer my own question,who's my favorite superhero?
I have to say it's you gymowners, trainers, studio owners,
(02:33):
anybody in health and fitnessand wellbeing who works every
day to help older people lookbetter, feel better, move better
, enjoy greater health andautonomy, extend their lifespan,
feel better about themselves.
It's so important what you guysdo every day and you have so
many powerful stories to share.
(02:54):
That's where I come in.
I help you do that and it'swhat I get to talk about in this
presentation.
So I hope you enjoy it and letme know what you think.
All right, let's go ahead andget started.
Thank you for joining me todayfor this talk about your clients
and your prospects and how.
I believe, if you put the focusof your content on them, that
(03:19):
it will not only make them feelgood, but it'll also be good for
your business.
So I want to talk about servingsuperheroes that's what I call
your clients who are a littlebit older, and how to present
them as the awesome specimensthat they really are, while also
making your role clear as well.
(03:41):
So just a little bit about meto get started.
I'm Jay Croft.
I'm the creator of Prime FitContent, which helps gyms and
fitness studios and trainers andothers grow their businesses by
reaching and engaging morepeople over 50 to become
prospects, to become members andto stay members longer.
(04:01):
I also host the Optimal AgingPodcast, where we discuss how to
grow our businesses by helpingslightly older people or anyone
over 50 really live a healthierlife and have better habits, and
I'm delighted to be here todayat the Functional Aging Summit.
My business was born out of theFunctional Aging Summit a few
(04:23):
years ago, was born out of theFunctional Aging Summit a few
years ago, and I'm sure a lot offamiliar faces are
participating in this weekend'svirtual summit and a lot of new
people as well.
I think that's just great.
I'm really happy to be here andI want to encourage all of you
to make the most of thisopportunity to learn a lot and
(04:43):
network and meet people and getphone numbers and get email
addresses and check out webpages and all of that because I
met a bunch of great people hereDan, cody, celia and a bunch of
gym owners who convinced me tostart writing content to help
them reach more people, andthat's why I'm here now.
So really dive in, have a greattime.
(05:04):
I got started into the FitnessOver 50 field a little bit
differently maybe than some ofyou.
I don't own a gym and I'm not atrainer.
I come to this as acommunications expert with more
than 35 years in mainstreammedia daily newspapers, your
hometown newspaper that we allused to read every morning.
I wrote and edited those for along time and then I worked in
(05:29):
some Fortune 500 companies andtheir communications and
marketing departments, and I'vefreelanced for CNN and WebMD,
and I want to talk a little bitabout what we're going to cover
today, so that you can have anexpectation of where I'm going
with all this.
I want to talk a little bitabout why I see that a lot of
gym owners and trainers aremissing the mark with their
(05:51):
outreach to people in general,but specifically with people
over 50, how we can easily flipit to put the focus on the
clients where it belongs,keeping you as the position, as
the trusted guide.
I want to give you somepractical examples of how to do
that, how to shift that focusand also to stay consistent in
(06:11):
all of this, and then we'll havetime for questions.
I hope you have lots of them,because I can talk about this
all day.
So before we dive in, I want todo, I guess, a couple of just
sort of housekeeping items.
I'm going to talk a lot aboutfitness over 50.
And don't put too hard a pointon that.
(06:33):
If you focus on people over 40,over 65, whatever Functional
Aging Institute says, 55.
It's all pretty much the samething we mean at this point in
life where our bodies, ourlifestyles, our home situations,
our work situations are allchanging and that to me it seems
about 50, and where people arestarting to look at their, their
(06:58):
future in a different way,because previously they were
looking at a lot of workingyears and raising kids and the
body always being there for itto work, perfectly right.
But now things are a little bitdifferent.
When we get up to around 50.
Our bodies change, our healthneeds change, our fitness needs
change, that kind of thing.
(07:18):
And then, secondly, before weget to the superheroes, I want
to put the broader context ofthat in to the idea of what are
superheroes in?
Well, not just comic books.
They're in everything now, ofcourse, but superheroes are the
main characters in stories, andstories are super important in
how you present your business.
And so I want you to thinkabout stories, your stories and
(07:46):
your businesses stories, but,most importantly, your clients
and prospects stories and howyou are telling who you are, by
which of their stories you telland how have really important
(08:08):
stories to tell.
They can help you reach morepeople help more people live
better lives, and you can movethem to take that action that
maybe they know they should, butsomething's holding them back,
they're not quite sure.
You can make that emotionalconnection with the right kind
of story and the right kind ofcontent to improve those lives
and improve your business.
And as the head of yourbusiness, you're the storyteller
, you're the editor.
(08:28):
You get to decide where thatspotlight goes, who you're going
to focus on and why you'redoing it.
So a problem that I see a lot infitness is that gym owners and
trainers too often think thattheir marketing, that their
storytelling, is supposed to beabout them.
And I get it because we'realways told tell your story,
(08:49):
tell your story.
And so we think, oh, I have totalk about myself.
That's not what I mean, and Ichose this kind of photo to make
a point.
I know they're kind of extremein the presentation and that's
really to get your attention,because we've all seen things
like this and I'm not sayingthat you're all doing it, but we
(09:10):
all see it out there Trainersand gym owners who want to show
how awesome they are, howbeautiful they are, and then
also how many initials they haveafter their names and then also
how many initials they haveafter their names.
Right, we do that a lot becausewe want to show everyone that
we have credibility, that we'vebeen certified by everyone under
the sun, and I guess we thinkthat if we show that we're
(09:33):
really built, that that's goingto prove that we know what we're
talking about.
I think it can have the oppositeeffect, particularly with
people over 50, who generallydon't harbor the illusion that
they're going to look likeeither of these people anytime
soon.
Maybe some of them do, maybesome of them will, maybe some of
them want to, but by and large,you know that their motivations
are different than that, thatthey're much more interesting
(09:56):
and compelling and that you canhelp them travel and play with
their grandchildren and enjoytheir leisure activities and
their sports and keep theirhealth in line and keep their
weight in line and just maintaintheir overall quality of life
and autonomy.
It's my fear that with imageslike this that you put up a hand
(10:19):
, you say to them no, we don'twant you because you don't look
like this.
You're never going to look likethis.
You never did look at this.
People like this used to makefun of you in high school and
now it's past you, you're toolate, so just stay on the couch
and the beautiful people overhere have got it covered.
I know that sounds extreme andkind of ridiculous, but a lot of
(10:39):
the prospects that you'retrying to engage are really
looking for any reason to notcome see you.
So remove those reasonspresented as frail, helpless,
(11:09):
out of touch, that kind of thing, not superheroes, right, and
probably not the people thatyou're really interested in
helping.
We see this not just in thosekinds of, you know, overly
sexualized images, but even insomething as common as member
profiles, which should be aboutthe member, should be an
opportunity to tell a littlestory about how the member's
life improved by coming to yourbusiness and doing what you
(11:31):
advise them to do.
Instead, I think, because we'reafraid to ask people questions
and be nosy and be rude orwhatever, we end up being vague
and just talking about how greatour gym is.
Being vague and just talkingabout how great our gym is, I
see a lot of member profilesthat just say hi, I'm Susie
(11:52):
Jones and I love working at, youknow, acme Fitness, because
everybody here is so nice andwelcoming and I feel good here
and I'm getting results and it'sa great place.
And if you want to feel better,you should come to Acme too,
because Acme is great and Acmeis the best and Acme, acme, Acme
, right.
I don't know anything aboutSusie.
I don't know what her story was.
I don't know if I relate to it.
All I have are these platitudesand cliches about how nice
(12:14):
everything is at the gym.
So when we talk aboutsuperheroes and stories and your
clients, I want to referencesomething that's called the
hero's journey.
Not to get too academic here onyou, I'm sure a lot of you have
heard of this.
It's not like I invented it ordiscovered it.
It's a pretty common idea thatmost stories in Western culture
(12:35):
are based in this thing calledthe hero's journey, and so
central to that is, of course,the hero, and the hero always
has a mentor.
The hero enters a new world,faces challenges, fear,
confusion.
A mentor helps guide the herothrough these series of
challenges until the heroemerges triumphant a new person,
(13:00):
better leader, better skills,better something.
I want to give a couple ofexamples that we're all familiar
with here so that you know whatI'm talking about.
This photo, of course, is fromStar Wars, with Obi-Wan Kenobi
and Luke Skywalker, so the heroof Star Wars, as everyone knows,
is Luke Skywalker.
He's just this boy on someremote planet and he gets sucked
(13:20):
into this adventure and he's inway over his head and he meets
this guy, this mentor, obi-wanKenobi, who helps him become the
hero of the story and save thegalaxy.
So when you think aboutyourself and your members and
your prospects, who are comingto you for help to see if they
want to work with you, which oneare you?
(13:40):
Are you the hero?
Are you the mentor?
Are you Luke Skywalker?
Are you Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Just another example that we'reall familiar with, from a
different era and with adifferent gender.
In the middle of it, dorothylanded in Oz, overwhelmed, had
to go on this journey, had to goon this freaking yellow brick
road to go meet some wizard,just so she could get home to
(14:02):
Kansas, right.
And who helped her?
A lot of people helped her, buther mentor in this was Glinda
the Good Witch.
Glinda's pretty fabulous, Iwill tell you, and she does have
her own backstory, as we'vebeen learning recently from the
Wicked movie and the upcomingsequel.
But the Wizard of Oz is aboutDorothy.
It's not about Glinda.
It's about Dorothy's quest toreturn home, and Glinda knows
(14:25):
her role in that.
So I want you to be aware ofthat Doesn't mean you're
secondary.
Doesn't mean you're boring.
It means that you know who thestar is and what your role is in
helping them.
It also doesn't mean that yourstory is not important and that
you should never talk about yourstory.
That is not what I'm suggesting.
You all have fabulous,interesting, compelling stories
(14:48):
and you need to know what thosestories are and when it's
relevant to talk about them.
If you don't know your story, Iwant you to take some time and
think about it over the comingdays.
Make some notes about it, talkto your people about it.
What's your story as it relatesto your business and your
clients?
Now, when it's relevant, talkabout it.
(15:08):
When it's not relevant, it'sstill baked into your DNA and
it's baked into everything thatyou do.
It might even be a part of yourbusiness plan.
It might be a part of all yourmarketing.
It might underpin your coremessaging that you've come up
with, that you want to make sureis relayed somehow in all of
(15:28):
your communications andmarketing.
So to illustrate that point,I'm going to tell you my story,
which is I don't like to talkabout myself very much.
I'm getting better at it.
It's a little difficult for me,so this won't take long, I
promise.
But I got started in fitnesslargely because of this guy,
bruce Springsteen.
Now, this picture was from thesummer of 1984 when he emerged
(15:54):
with the Born in the USA albumand Muscles, and previously
Springsteen had been a scrawny,runty, scruffy little street
urchin right, who just wanted tobe a good writer and
entertainer.
Well, I was always the scrawny,runty, little street urchin
type too, who wanted to be agood writer.
Not a musician, don't want tobe on stage but I wanted to be a
(16:16):
good writer.
And I had no muscles, nomasculine presence, anything.
And I was 20 that summer.
And when he came out lookinglike this, I thought, hey, it's
not just for meatheads.
You know, here's someone Iadmire.
He's done it.
Maybe I can do it too.
And out of that grew thisobsession with fitness that led
(16:36):
me to be here today.
A few years ago, as I wasmentioning, at the Functional
Aging Summit from 2018 inOrlando, I met Dan and Cody and
Celia and a bunch of folks, andI was looking for a way to get
into the fitness business as awriter, and they gave me the
entree convincing me that therewas this need to help gyms and
(16:59):
trainers and studios reach morepeople in this demographic, and
so that's what I set out to do.
This was right after well gosh,I had turned 50 a few years
before, and when I turned 50, Ihad this epiphany.
I was at the gym when ithappened and I realized that the
(17:19):
fitness industry was no longermarketing to me.
It's difficult to say why orhow I realized that, but the
closest I can come to is whenyou're riding in a car with
teenagers and the radio is onand they're singing along to all
the songs that you've neverheard before and you don't know
who the singers are.
It's because you've aged out ofthe market.
You're no longer that thatnarrow focus that they want to
(17:43):
reach on the radio.
But I felt that's how I feltwith the fitness industry and I
thought you know that'sridiculous, because I'm young
and I'm fit and I've got moneyand everyone I know is young and
active and wants to stay thatway and there's a missed
opportunity here.
So the timing was justserendipitous for me to hook up
with these leaders in fitnessand out of that I developed
(18:06):
Prime Fit content, which theseare a few elements of my
storytelling, for lack of abetter word.
Everything you do, everythingyou put out, every conversation
you have must tie back to yourcore messaging, your
storytelling, your basics, andthese include things like your
tagline.
(18:26):
For mine, it's reach morefitness prospects and clients
over 50.
It shows my customer and mypurpose.
It doesn't say grow your gymwith teenage boys who want
muscles.
It doesn't say help first-timemoms lose the baby weight.
It doesn't say help eliteathletes make that 1%
improvement in their performance.
(18:48):
Right, because that's not whatI'm doing.
You need to think about whatyou're doing and be really clear
about it.
I chose these colors because Ithink they're kind of corporate
and not too stale, and my toneis very deliberate, very
intentionally highly readableand engaging and focused on the
consumer.
And I have to be somewhat broad, because I'm selling my
(19:11):
material to a bunch of gemowners all over the place and
they need to be able to use itto reach their end user, their
consumers.
So think about all of this.
Think about your origin story,your superpower.
You might never talk about itin public, you might never post
about it on Facebook, but youmight.
And even if you don't, it'sreally important to know who and
(19:36):
what you're all about.
At that level need to veryconsciously and deliberately
make the client the hero in yourcontent, and by content we of
(19:58):
course, mean things like socialmedia, email newsletters, my
ebook there, things like thatall of it.
When you put out content on aconsistent basis, you are
revealing who you are by tellingother people's stories, along
with enough about you and yourindustry and your qualifications
and your business.
I'm not suggesting you nevertalk about yourself.
Of course that's gonna enterinto the picture.
(20:18):
But through all of this, peoplesee who you are and what's
important to you and whetherthey fit in, and they get this
clear, emerging picture of whatyou're all about.
They get to know you and likeyou and trust you, and that's
when they want to do businesswith you, because a lot of the
people we're talking about areshy about all of this kind of
thing.
It can be expensive.
(20:38):
To join a gym, can beintimidating.
It can be a very intimate thingbecause you're in space with
people and maybe it involvesbeing touched or whatever.
Who knows what's going on.
But they need to know you andlike you and trust you before
they're just going to walk intoyour gym and if all they see is
stuff about people they can'trelate to, then they're not
(20:58):
going to come in.
Hey, are you a fitnessprofessional trying to grow your
business with people over 50?
If you are, then you need toknow how to communicate with
them, how to market to them andhow to get them to trust you
with their fitness, well-beingand money.
We're talking about millions ofpeople who are a little older
(21:20):
than the typical market that thefitness industry usually
pursues.
They have more money, more timeand better motivation to make
the best long-term fitnessconsumers you'll find anywhere.
If you're not focusing on them,you should be.
Prime.
Fit content is the only contentmarketing company designed
specifically to help you engagepeople in this group and to help
(21:42):
you distinguish yourself fromcompetitors in your community.
It's effective, affordable andsuper easy to use.
Check it out atprimefitcontentcom.
That's prime like prime of yourlife fitcontentcom.
Back to the show.
So again, whether it's podcasts,speeches, your website, it's
(22:04):
all important, and not just thetext, but the photos too.
I do, I talked to, I do a lotof consulting with gyms who want
to learn how to get a hold oftheir image and their, their
communications and their contentIn addition to providing the
content to let them do that.
And I was talking to a gymowner in California a few years
ago and he lived in one of thosetri-state excuse me, tri-county
(22:29):
regions and sort of semi-ruralNorthern California, and he was
frustrated because he said hiswas the only gym in the
tri-county region that focusedon people over 50.
And yet nobody over 50 evercame into his gym.
I said, well, let's take a lookat what you're putting out to
the world.
The first stop was his website,which had precisely zero words
(22:53):
or images of, or related to,people over 50.
In fact, it was very much 20and 30 something active, with
even a lot of content aboutprenatal and postnatal fitness
(23:14):
for women who are thinking aboutbeing pregnant, might be
pregnant or have recently beenpregnant.
It's like, dude, what are youtalking about?
Do you not see that disconnect,that dissonance?
We need to bring it alltogether because you can talk
all you want, but when peoplesee what you're doing and what
you're putting out to the world,that's where they get a sense
of what you're really all about.
(23:35):
So let's talk about how you canshine that spotlight where it's
best used for your business,and this is what we're talking
about.
We're talking about yourbusiness.
We're not just talking aboutbeing nice or giving pats on the
back, although those things areimportant.
We're talking about being clearabout who and what you're all
about, so that you can grow yourbusiness.
(23:55):
Some of the ways that we'regoing to talk about doing that
are testimonials that show thechallenges and victories that
you've helped people achieveMember videos more so than
videos showing your trainersdoing uh exercise.
I, I follow a gym, that a studiothat again says it helps mostly
(24:17):
old people, older people whoare deconditioned and want to
get back in shape, and theyalways post these videos of
their trainer doing prettyadvanced exercises and I guess
they think it's interesting andmaybe it's interesting to the
trainer, but it doesn't speak tothe audience.
If you're 65 years old andretiring after 40 years, as at a
desk job, you don't really wantto know how to do a.
(24:40):
You know I'm blanking on thename the thing where you get up
off the floor with a.
You know with a kettlebellabove your head or some of these
really elaborate moves thatlook kind of scary right.
You just want to know thatyou're going to find a place
where they relate to you andthat they see you and they can
help you and give you safe,positive experience.
And you do this through showingreal clients doing real
(25:06):
activities.
I don't mind a little stockimagery now and then.
I don't mind it, even half ofbeing stocked, because, let's
face it, we don't have thebudgets always for original
photography.
But we can show enough realpeople doing real things that it
all comes out in the wash andwe can speak in plain language
not fitness speak and we canfocus on function and ability to
(25:31):
do stuff and enjoy life morethan before and after.
As you know, before and aftercan be dramatic.
It can be very effective and agreat way to show that working
out and eating right pays off,but it can also lead to this
idea that it just matters howyou look, or the only thing that
matters is your weight.
(25:51):
Of course, it's more involvedin that and and we want to sell
that you're being able to enjoylife.
So show people what they'redoing.
You know your members reallyare everyday superheroes.
I'm going to talk about a few ofthem that are pictured here
right now.
Um, most of these are people Iknow.
No, that's not true about.
Most of these are people I know.
No, that's not true.
About half of them are people Iknow and others are affiliated
(26:13):
with people I work with.
So they're not, you know, justmade up.
And you get to actually saythat you work with people who
perform superhuman tasks,because they do, and so what you
need to do is honor that andshow that.
The woman on the left she's gotit's hard to tell there, but
she's got a snow shovel in herhand and she lives here in
(26:36):
Atlanta where it doesn't snowvery often, very much, very
often.
Maybe every three years we geta little, so the city doesn't
come along and remove it becauseit's not worth it economically
to have the equipment.
So this woman lives in a niceneighborhood in one of the
suburbs and we all woke up to abunch of snow one day and she
went out and shoveled it off.
And she took this video andposted it on the studio's social
(26:58):
media and said look at me.
I cleaned off my driveway, Icleaned off my sidewalk.
Then I went down to the nextdoor neighbors and did it for
them too, and I only was able todo this because I've been
working out with you these lastfew months.
She had a big smile on her face.
She couldn't have been happier.
The two women underneath herare traveling in Europe having a
grand old time.
(27:18):
The woman in the upperright-hand corner is that was
posted on another of my clients'social media pages.
Actually, I might've even takenthat picture because I was at
that event.
It was a charity event and itwas an 80s night.
So there she is, dressed assort of a Madonna wannabe from
back in the day, and thesepictures were posted on the
(27:39):
studio's social media to showthat they're involved in the
community, that they have asense of humor, that they care
about people Great stuff.
And then I guess my favoritehere is the gentleman.
His name is Jerry.
I actually know Jerry prettywell because we go to the same
gym and have for a long time.
He is now, I think, 78 yearsold and this photo was taken one
(28:02):
or two years ago.
Jerry's story is that, inanticipation of his 75th
birthday, he decided he wantedto run his first Spartan race.
So he'd been working with atrainer for a while and he went
to the trainer and told him thisgoal and they did it and they
worked really hard and they gotJerry into shape to be Mr
(28:23):
Spartan.
Spartan man, put a big S on hischest.
Right, there's a superhero foryou.
He didn't just do one and quit,he does them all the time.
Now Sometimes he does three inone weekend because they have 5k
, 10k and marathon level.
He's seven.
I think he's 78.
You know, this is great stuffand it shows the commitment and
(28:44):
dedication and training skill ofhis trainer and the gym where
he trains, without saying, lookhow great we are, without
lifting up your shirt showingyour abs.
Even if you never want to run aSpartan race in your life,
you're going to be moved by him,you're going to like him and
you're going to get somereaction out of hearing his
story.
So we need to ask ourselves thethree-part question over and
(29:05):
over again when we're talkingabout our content and our
marketing what problem do yousolve, how do you solve it and
what does success look like?
I'm going to break it downreally simple with an obvious
basic level kind of example.
But what problem do you solve?
You help people who are afraidof falling.
(29:25):
They're at the age where theirmother fell and broke her hip.
They don't want to do that.
How do you do that?
With strength training, balancetraining, what does success
look like?
They're more confident, they'remore able, they feel like they
can enjoy life now and they'regoing to keep coming back to you
, to keep training with you, tokeep that confidence and that
strength and that functionality.
(29:46):
So for them, they get to be inbetter shape.
For you, you get a long termclient.
So a few other ways that we cankeep the spotlight on the
member and this one is is aboutthose spotlights.
I want to talk a little bitabout how to how to do those
better.
I guess the number one thing isto talk to the person.
(30:08):
A lot of you are just sendingemails, and I can always tell
when a member profile has beendone by an interview or by an
email, because the answers arevery short oftentimes and there
are no follow-ups.
So there's no conversation,there's no juice, there's no
richness to it and you can'ttell a story out of that.
(30:28):
Nothing's going to emerge outof that.
How do you like working out?
I like it.
What's your favorite part topeople?
What's your goal?
Lose weight.
What's your dream vacation?
Mexico, right?
Who cares?
So take the time to speak tothem and tell the people that
you want to tell a story abouttheir fitness journey the
(30:49):
beginning, the middle and wherethey are now.
The beginning is what they werelike before they came to see
you.
The during is the catalyst, asyou know.
There's often a moment wherethey a light bulb moment, where
something happens and they think, oh, I've got to make a change
in my life.
So what was that?
And then how did they feelcoming in?
Were they nervous, were theyconfident, were they excited?
(31:10):
And then what's their life likenow?
They've lost weight, they'vegained muscle mass, their
balance is better, theirdoctor's happier.
They're no longer type two,whatever it is.
Those are the elements of thestory before, during and after.
With you know progression andsomeone in the middle and your
role in it emerges.
(31:30):
It's very clear.
Again, I'm not saying you don'ttalk about yourself, it's just
obvious what we're talking abouthere.
And when you share real clientphotos of people training and
smiling and moving, and when youwrite in common language and
you highlight the functionalwins, show real bodies of
different ages, differentabilities, different shapes,
(31:52):
then that's the kind of memberprofile that's going to connect
with people.
The best member profile I'vedone lately is a woman who I
think she's in her early 60s.
She's overweight, she recentlyretired and she was mortified
and humiliated when she had toleave her toddler
granddaughter's birthdaycelebration because she couldn't
(32:15):
play on the bouncy bounce thing.
She got winded.
That was her moment.
She went to the studio, she gotin shape and at the next family
picnic she was running up anddown the slide with the, with
the toddler doing it so muchthat she's just laughing and
having a great time and and thekicker is, the little girl kept
saying one more time, grandma,one more time, grandma, one more
(32:37):
time.
But you can't.
That woman will never leavethat studio.
She's there for life becausethey gave her that moment.
So move on to another way youcan keep this focus on your
superhero clients, and that'swith your superhero website,
because this is a major way youshow who you're for, superhero
(32:57):
website.
Because this is a major way youshow who you're for.
And I'm going to illustratewhat I mean by showing you this
image, which is the part of thehomepage of Full Circle Fitness
in Orange County, california.
It's owned by my friend, rosaColetto.
She's the third one from theleft.
Rosa's in her thirties, I think.
The other women are her clients, except for the woman on the
right who is one of her trainers.
(33:18):
And so when you are, if you'rein Orange County and you're
looking for a gym for peopleover 50 and you find this one,
you know you're in the rightplace, don't you?
Because she says so in big typeand because those faces look
like you.
So this is a, you know, just areally ideal opportunity to make
it clear what you're talkingabout and who you want.
(33:38):
Don't be shy about it, don't bevague, don't be unclear.
There's nothing wrong withpursuing your business plan,
which your marketing and yourcontent are supporting.
Another way to do this isthrough your neighborhood.
You'd get to know yourneighborhood better.
Get out of the gym, get outfrom behind the computer or out
(33:59):
of the weight room and walk upand down the streets.
Get to know the people in yourneighborhood, as Mr Rogers told
us.
Find out what you can do forthem, how you can help them, or
just make an introduction andget to know them so that this
can become perhaps anin-real-life relationship.
And the commonality there isyour client.
(34:22):
Maybe there's a hair salonwhere some of your clients get
their hair colored.
Maybe there's a nice restaurantthat draws some of your
clientele.
That kind of thing draws someof your clientele, that kind of
thing.
Another way to do this in yourneighborhood is to sponsor
events, participate in thingslike community festivals, 5k
runs, things like this.
You want to see and be seen,because it shows people, it
(34:45):
shows your customers, yourcustomer base, that you're a
part of the community and thatyou care about them and you're
going to learn more about themand their desires and their
fears and what's important tothem, the better you get to know
them.
So get out of the gym and gomeet people and then finally,
after you do all of that andthey come to see you, you got to
(35:06):
deliver.
You got to give greatexperience, great customer
experience, not just results forpeople who stick with you for
three months or six months orlong enough to really get the
fruits of your expertise, butfrom the minute they engage with
you, you've got to bedelivering that top tier
(35:27):
customer experience and it needsto continue pretty intensely
for the first few weeks and thefirst few months.
You need a protocol so that allyour employees know how to
treat newcomers, particularlynewcomers who are a little bit
older, because we want to berespected, we want to be called
our name, we want to be lookedin the eye, these little things
(35:50):
that might not be important to25-year-olds, but they're
important to me and I thinkthey're important to other
people in our demographic.
And they also tell thereluctant newcomer that you see
them, you want them, you careabout them.
You remember that they came inhere because their
granddaughter's getting marriedin six months and they want to
be in good shape for that.
(36:11):
You remember that they've got avacation coming up in six weeks
, whatever it is, and yourpeople do too.
So deliver on that customerexperience by developing one.
And if you don't have one fornewcomers, I want you to meet
with your team and put onetogether.
You can't just lure them in andthen throw them in with the gen
(36:32):
pop, so to speak.
It's okay, they don't all needhandholding.
I don't need handholding.
I'm thoroughly comfortable inany fitness environment.
But for those who are not, youneed to be prepared, because
these people are in need of yourhelp.
They're in need of yourattention so that you can mentor
(36:52):
them, you can guide them justlike Glenda did for old Dorothy
and Obi-Wan Kenobi did for LukeSkywalker so that you can help
them become the person they wantto be, the hero of their story
on their journey, and then youhighlight their stories and your
role in it becomes apparent andit's clear, it's simple, it's
(37:14):
compelling and a story emergesabout you.
Your story emerges that this iswhat you're all about and
that's all I have to say at themoment.
So I want to take yourquestions, curious, to see what
your experiences are.
So let's have them.
Okay, here we go.
Thanks, guys.
Celia says how do we maintainpositivity when the journey and
(37:35):
progress are nonlinear and mayeven have setbacks?
Well, that's a great question,celia, and all of you know that
there are setbacks for any ofyour clients, for any of us,
toward any goal, and the greatthing about working with people
who are a little bit older isthat they've been through life a
little bit.
They've had other goals,they've tried to do other things
(38:00):
and succeeded at them.
Maybe they've tried at otherthings and failed at them or
gave up fitness not necessarilyrelated to fitness, but it could
be.
So we celebrate the littlevictories.
We point out from the beginningthat there will be setbacks, to
expect them.
You know that this is just partof the process, that getting
fit, staying fit, living ahealthy lifestyle isn't
(38:22):
something you, it's not one anddone.
You don't walk in and buysomething or do something one
time or for six weeks or forthree months or whatever, and
then you're done.
That it's a lifestyle thatyou're doing for your health and
that over time, if you'reconsistent, you're going to get
closer to your goals and behealthier and feel better about
(38:45):
yourself, particularly as youage.
The better you get to know yourclient, the more you can
provide feedback that'smeaningful to them.
But I think it's just beingrealistic and I think by the
time you're 50 or 60 years old,you understand that it's not
just always a simple linear step.
If I do this, then this will bethe result.
(39:06):
Wise Moves Fitness says howoften should we be posting on
social media?
Well, I recommend Facebookbeing your main social media
channel.
You can also do Instagram,because very easily, because
Instagram and Facebook are nowpart of meta and it's easy to
post on both of them at the sametime and I recommend that you
post something at least once aday on Facebook.
(39:28):
Now, some of you might thinkthat's excessive.
Maybe for your particularsituation, that is, I'm not an
expert on your business or yourcommunity or your audience, but
I think for most of you, youneed to be getting something out
there once a day on Facebookand then the rest of the social
media channels I really wouldn'tworry about, unless there's
(39:50):
some specific reason why youthink it would be more effective
for your audience.
Eric says how shouldprofessionals effectively
communicate their own value andexpertise without overshadowing
the client narrative or fallinginto self-promotion?
Well, I think if you keep thefocus on the client and not
(40:11):
ignore your role, then thatbecomes clear, particularly over
time when people see these samekind of narratives and same
kinds of stories over and overagain.
What's the commonality?
You right, and that becomesclear.
And then I think also it's okayto promote yourself sometimes.
(40:32):
Just do it in a way that isrespectful of your audience.
And I started with the Mr Absand the girl with the waist like
this, because I don't thinkthat's particularly respectful
of your audience, not because itshows skin, but because it's
not relevant.
It's showing them that youdon't care about what their
motivations are.
You're just going to show whatyou have to say.
(40:53):
So learn what their motivationsare and create promotional
material about yourself thatspeaks to them, and then maybe
do that one out of five.
Maybe you've got some.
People say there's an 80% rule,that 80% of your content should
be about them and 20% can bepromotional.
I'm not sure if I agree withthat directly, but something
(41:16):
like that feels right to me.
Janet says the non-linearelement of life Okay.
Eric says have you foundbuilding community among clients
to be important for those over50?
Super important and a greatopportunity for you, for you gym
owners and trainers and studioowners.
(41:36):
It's not just important forthem that they find it with you,
it's important for you that youmaximize the opportunity
because it's good for yourbusiness.
I don't mean to be cynical byalways saying it's good for your
business, but I think that toooften we think, when we're
talking about working with olderpeople, we tend to think that
we're being altruistic and maybethere's an element of that.
(41:58):
But you're running a businessand there's nothing wrong with
remembering that.
So provide that community,absolutely.
People need it.
We saw it so much in COVID, youknow, because a lot of people
in our demographic live alone orhave you know, have at least
don't get out as much as theyused to when they were going to
a job or when they had kids inthe home or that kind of thing.
(42:19):
So that community is superimportant and I love that you
brought it up.
So yeah, absolutely, it's veryimportant.
Celia says you touched on this,but this is another one that
was on the dashboard how shouldprofessionals Okay, we already
talked about that, thank you,celia Janet says can I use my
(42:40):
tips for getting back on trackby highlighting how a client
used them?
Yeah, I think so.
You know, I recommend when youtell the client stories,
oftentimes they just stand ontheir own, but sometimes they
reflect a specific thing thatyou want to highlight about your
business.
So let's say that you've got anew program that you're
(43:03):
promoting about how to get backon track and Susie Jones went
through your program and nailedit and she's awesome because she
went through your program toget back on track.
Yeah, I think, absolutely.
Use her.
Talk to her first, get herbuy-in, make sure she's cool
with it and if she's not, thendo it with someone else.
I don't think it's worth thefriction to do it if she doesn't
(43:26):
want you to.
If Susie says you know, I don'twant to be out there like that,
don't do that, then don't findsomeone who does, because most
there like that don't do that,and don't find someone who does
because most people won't mind.
Most people will be happy tosee themselves inspiring other
people.
So, yeah, find someone whoexemplifies something you're
proud of.
One of the one of the gym ownerswho got me started in this,
(43:46):
dina Medina of active agefitness in California, started a
nutrition program and she askedme to write four profiles of
clients who had gone through hernutrition program specifically
so she could say look at myclients who went through my
nutrition program.
So absolutely, you bet Smart.
(44:07):
Any more questions y'all?
Well, I would love to hear fromyou.
My email isjjaprimefitcontentcom.
That's prime like prime of yourlife, fitcontentcom.
You can check me out thereabout my content services and
let me know if you're interestedin how I can help you
consulting on yourcommunications or just providing
(44:29):
you the content to use in youremails and social and blog posts
, and I would love to hear fromyou.
Have a great summit.
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!