Matt Sturgeon

Just over one year ago with some of the best lads to walk this journey 🤝🙏

My shoulders are still pretty busted from footy 😆 shoutout to my man for getting it done with me late on a Friday night 💪

-
-
-
-
-
💪
-
-
-

Pink glasses + party shirt kind of Christmas Party 😆🎄🤙 (not my glasses)

Cheers to another year of working with some great people in the fitness space .dean.pt 👏

Let’s go Bullets 💙 🔫

Becoming great at your craft is one of these things that takes time.

After 12 years in business building on my skills every single day I have learnt a lot.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes and I’ve made plenty of wins.

I see some things regularly in new business owners and I’d consider new someone that has run a business for less than 5 years.

1. Impatience

You’re not going to become the biggest, the best and the CEO in 12 months and likely not in 3 years. Be patient.

2. Lack of great talent/ expertise.

There is a huge lack of talent in every industry I encounter. Expertise is another one that I see lacking. Both of these are from working hard and improving your craft.

* Example- The amount of life coaches I see giving life advice that are too young to have learned experience is astonishing.

3. A “me” mentality

Trainers, coaches, therapists, you name it. I see a me mentality. Your product or service is their to deliver results to people. Get away from the what’s in it for me thinking and start giving.

The more you give, the more success you will get.

4. Money over everything

This one is a huge error in business. I’ve seen people cut deals and ruin relationships to make a bit more money.

Remember the money will come once you build your skill to a level of great and you take care of your relationships.

Be smart. Work on your talent.

Consistency will grow your business.

Doing the right things every day for a long period of time will get you results.

The same goes for getting into shape.

Eat well and exercise every day for a long time and you will get results.

Do the right actions every day in business.

A lot of clients I’ve worked with want to grow their business but can’t be consistent.

They think that building a business is different to getting results in other areas of life.

They think it takes one week or two weeks to make $20,000.

I’m telling you that consistency is the key to growing a great business.

If you do great things every single day for a long period of time you will have a great business.

Remember that being busy isn’t doing great things.

Be smart. Be consistent.

I spoke with a client today and this is what he said.

“I want to make about $120 grand with this and I want to look like this and I want a really good relationship with my mrs”

I said to him:

“You do understand that each of these 3 things takes A LOT of time, effort and sacrifice?”

He didn’t understand. He wanted me to give him some shortcut for all 3 of these.

This kind of thinking frustrates me.

Go and speak to the person running a business making $120 grand and ask how much time, effort and sacrifice that took.

Speak to the person that looks in shape with a great body and is glowing and ask them how much time, effort and sacrifice that took.

Go and speak to the couple with an outstanding, loving relationship and ask them how much time, effort and sacrifice it took.

There’s no shortcut to any of these.

BUT.

There are things that work BETTER that will help you get there faster.

I’ll keep sharing insights of how to grow your business and these will help you get there faster.

But understand that these principles flow into every aspect of your life.

If you want success in any part of your life put in the time, effort and sacrifice.

Be smart. Become exceptional.

Creating your offer sets your business apart.

If a customer has 5 people just like you to choose from, why would they choose you?

A relationship with you helps to influence their decision.

The results you can get them helps to influence their decision.

Your offer helps to influence their decision… a lot!

The example I’ve given here is for a personal trainer but no matter the business you’re running the principles stay the same.

Write down everything your business can do for a customer and package a few of these things together in a promotion.

A Personal Trainer can package multiple skills together plus an affiliation with a nutritionist and supplement store to boost an offer.

Give the offer a trendy name and show the customer how much value they’re getting by going with you.

If there’s 5 trainers and you offer something that gets results, is unique and provides 10x the value as the other 4 trainers you win.

Business isn’t hard. Knowing how to structure the key components is.

Be smart. Create an outstanding offer.

I’m happy to help any of you out for free with crafting your offer.

Here’s my transparent experience with closing leads into paying customers.

Build a relationship and show them your results.

This post could stop here.

But let’s continue. Think like you’re on a date with the prospect.

You’re showing them your best possible side on the first date, asking questions to find out more and accomodating them.

Why do you treat business any different?

The amount of times I’ve watched a business owner try to close someone by pushing something down the prospects throat is unreal.

Build a relationship by asking good questions. Good questions allow you to build a closing framework.

What’s a closing framework? Good question.

It’s what you want to build to find out exactly how your product or service can solve this prospects problem and pain.

Here’s why you ask these 4 questions.

What made you decide to come and see me today?
* you can discover the prospects drive or pain point as to why they decided to put time and effort into coming to see you

How long have you been thinking about x?
* tells you how long they’ve been pondering this decision, it also gives you an idea of how long they haven’t been happy with how their current situation is.

Why is doing this important to you?
* you’ll find their true driver, their true why that made them decide to come and see you

What have you tried in the past?
* you can discover what hasn’t worked for them and why

Each of these questions allows you to position yourself with the solution that will help them.

Back this up with results and show them the results.

Be smart. Close with relationships and results.

Relationships are massive in business.

Don’t believe me?

60% of my income last year came from ONE single relationship.

Not from one person but one single relationship.

How and why?

Because a person liked me, liked my story and liked what I was about.

That’s the power of relationships.

During covid lockdowns I had clients offering to carry me through financially if I needed the help.

I didn’t need the help but you know what?

These people had my back through tough times. Why?

Because I give a damn about them and they give a damn about me.

Want to close leads easily?

Simple. Learn the art to forming relationships where a prospect likes you, trusts you and believes you can deliver the result.

Like anything this takes practice.

It’s achievable.

You can do it. Be smart. Form relationships and get results.

Starting a business can be exciting and daunting.

Use the beginning growth stages to figure out who your ideal avatar is.

This doesn’t mean who you would look “cool” working with.

It doesn’t mean who your friend told you the best clients are.

It’s who will be an asset to your business growth.

When k first began in business I had a grand vision of working with a particular clientele.

I soon realised I couldn’t have been more mistaken of who the best fit for my business would be.

I adapted and found the best fit. This means the best fit financially, results wise and effort required.

Stay away from energy vampires.

Lean into those that are easy to work with and grateful for your help.

Then find more of them.

And continue marketing to them.

Be smart. Adapt while small.

Listen to your current customer or client base.

Really listen to what they’re saying and what they’re asking for.

I’ve had clients directly say “you should offer x”

I’ve had some clients say “I’d be able to if I had x”

They will give you the answers to unlocking the true potential of your business.

Solve this problem for them and they’ll get results. They’ll share their results with friends. They’ll become loyal customers.

You win by tuning your product and service for results.

Then turn your results into an offer.

If you know you can get results and you back yourself, create a guarantee that appeals to your customer.

Dominos knew they could deliver pizzas quick and it was “pizza in 30 minutes or it’s free”

When people order takeaway they’re hungry and want their food, they don’t want to wait.

Dominos nailed the offer.

Be smart. If you haven’t done the tuning get to it and once you tune- come up with your own offer that appeals to customers.

The two ways to get leads for your business.

1. Organic outreach
2. Paid advertising

From my experience organic outreach works extremely well, especially talking to people in person.

You get to know a lot about your prospects.

Things like what they’re actually looking for.

Their pains, pleasures and what they will spend money on.

Most of the time they will tell you this without you asking.

You need to listen. Stop speaking and listen.

If you run a business and you don’t like speaking to people I’m person.

Do your best to practice and get good at it.

It’s a skill that will propel you forward both personally and in business.

Paid advertising also works well.

BUT it is a skill that takes time to master.

Some think you can spend your first $100 on ads and make $1,000.

You can’t.

This is extremely difficult and takes time and perseverance fine tuning your copywriting and messaging.

If you’re new to paid advertising I’d recommend getting excellent at organic outreach first.

Excellent means you do it everyday until you’re very, very good.

Go and get excellent.

One of the largest shifts I made in life was choosing to become a Sole Trader, a business owner.

I had to get after a life of work on my terms.

But I can tell you that journey isn’t all rainbows.

Here’s 4 of my main learnings from over the years, simplified.

1. Get constant leads into your business if you want to be around for a while
2. Convert these leads into paying customers. Go do a course if you don’t know how to
3. Cleverly package your services and create an offer that gives you the advantage in business
4. Customer lifetime value (LTV, repeat business etc) can make or break your business

If your business is struggling go and get some leads.

Then figure out what they need and position yourself to service this.

Unless you know your market, building a product and hoping it will work isn’t clever.

Know your market and then build a product/ service.

Do this and it’s easier to win in business.

I want you to win.

Simplify your business into these 4 key areas.

Make sure you have these nailed.

Win 🏆