“The difference in Extraordinary and Ordinary is just that little Extra.”

Rob King (@robkingfitness) and I were apparently at the same Perform Better 1 day workshop several months back.  Today, while strolling through the internet jungle I came across a blog post from Rob where he mentions one of the highlights of that day.

I gladly reference you over to Rob’s blog to have a look and grab a little extraordinary enthusiasm originally delivered to both of us via Martin Rooney (martinrooney1).

Fit Beach, Negril Jamaica

With Fit Beach just a couple months out, I’m scrambling hard to finalize details and of course keep up on the always present last minute changes.  Today I need to keep you up to date with detailed information that will save and maybe even make you money.

Referrals to Fit Beach =>

For the second year in a row, Fit Bodies is offering a commission for the referral of participants to this one of a kind conference.  This year though, we make it even easier for you to find referrals as we additionally offer a parallel Wellness Retreat.

That means you can refer to fitness professionals, clients, students, family…. pretty much anyone with a fitness and health interest.

==>>Details on Referral Commissions<<==

Also, don’t forget that the premium account holders at Fitness Pro Travel are offered significant discounts simply for holding that account type status.  Save up to $150 off your own Fit Beach registration… Act early and save $50 more

==>>Details on FPT Premium Account Pricing Benefit<<==

Are you in?????

What they all have in common is that they were posted to a targeted community of over 12,000 fitness professionals.  The business education program above is offering a free webinar and they are one of our “Premium Account Holders” so I’ve added their event information below once again.  Take a look as the program designers have been providing free business content to the Fit Pro Community for a couple years.  I’m sure they’ll have some quality insights for you!

If you are looking for continuing education programs or are offering educational programming, be sure to login and check the calendar.  Content providers, post your programs to the Fit Pro Community calendar and share them directly with a large targeted audience.

Entrepreneurs bringing business education to health and wellness practitioners

Arlington, MA— July 12, 2011 — You are an integrative health practitioner, an acupuncturist, a yoga instructor, a massage therapist, naturopath, or health coach. You help others, and are an expert in your field, having studied and worked hard to develop your practice.  However, a practice involves business know-how.  Entrepreneurs, Cynthia Pasciuto  of True North Business Consulting and Laura Greer of Mandala Services have formed the Institute of Integrative Business Studies to provide online business education to health and wellness practitioners.

Cynthia and Laura are not newcomers to the health and wellness field.  Cynthia has taught at the local acupuncture school along with teaching at the undergraduate level.  Laura has helped practitioners start, grow and manage thriving health and wellness practices, has worked for yoga studios and has been a yoga instructor for over ten years. They both noticed there was a need for business knowledge often being asked for advice on social media, marketing, management and legal assistance. They wanted the health and wellness practitioners to succeed.

The Institute of Integrative Business Studies? is launching The Integrative Business Program?, a series of online seminars aimed at helping integrative health practitioners learn what it takes to start, maintain and grow a successful practice.  The objective of the Integrative Business Program? is to educate integrative health practitioners in order to improve their chances for success and to increase the accessibility of qualified practitioners available to the consumer. The program teaches participants crucial business and practice management principles in the areas of Patient & Clinical Management, Marketing & Public Relations, Accounting, Insurance and Finance, and Business Law.

The Integrative Business Program? consists of a number of courses that run for a length of -6 weeks each.  Weekly online sessions are 1 hour in length and each course is taught by an expert in the topic.

Courses start in September. Sign up today for a free introductory webinar on Tuesday, August 30^th- Jumpstart Your Business: Top Ten Things You Need to Know!  Sign up for the free webinar at http://www.integrativebusinessstudies.com/jumpstart

The Institute of Integrative Business Studies?, where holistic health and business practices meet, is sponsored by the Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Association of Massachusetts and The National Institute of Whole Health.

More information at http://www.integrativebusinessstudies.com or
Contact: inquire@integrativebusinessstudies.com

For the vast majority, that motivation should not be solely monetary gain… at least not directly.

If payment for fitness education presentation is not a likely benefit for you, then why do it?…

Because secondary benefits of product or service sales, exposure of your expertise to the masses, and authoritative positioning that comes with presenting, provide you plenty of lead opportunities that will pay off down the road.

“Duct Tape Marketing” provides us 5 tips for your free presentations pay off big time.
**These tips are appropriate whether you are presenting at the largest of conferences or at a local church.

1) Get referred

You can create your own workshop events, but one of my favorite strategies is to approach two potential groups and offer to present great information to their clients and networks. The key here is that you have a topic that is very hot and seen as very valuable. This is not a sales presentation, it’s an education and value add tool. Approach your two partners with the idea that you’ll present a great topic, they offer it to their customers, and they get to cross promote to each others attendees as part of the deal. You simply get referred in as the expert. (Every time you do this you will get asked to speak at an event one of the attendees is involved with as well.)

2) Make a deal with the sponsor

You are a highly sought after speaker willing to waive your fee only if they permit your to elegantly reveal that there is a way for attendees to acquire your products and services and that you will also be offering some free stuff in exchange for contact information of those interested in the free stuff. Make it known that you have no intention of selling, merely informing. This approach raises the value of your presentation and gets you what you need as a lead generation opportunity. This can be a deal breaker for you or the sponsor. If you over promote, don’t expect to get asked back, if they won’t allow you to acquire leads, don’t bother.

3) Educate like crazy

Don’t be afraid to give away all of your secrets. Some folks suggest you should just tell them what they need, but not how to get it done. I don’t agree. If you tell them how, some may think they can do it themselves, but those who really want what you have will realize through your specific details, how tos, and examples that you do indeed possess the knowledge and tools to help them get what they want. Educate and you won’t have to sell!

4) Collect those addresses

In some cases people will rush up to you after a thought provoking presentation and ask how they can buy, but, in case they don’t, make sure you give all attendees a valuable reason to share their contact information for the purpose of follow-up. You can offer them the slides to your presentation, a free resource guide related to your topic, or a more detailed report based on the topic, in exchange for business cards. If you don’t have this preplanned you’ll find you won’t get a second chance to wow these folks. Of course, I hope it goes without saying that you should also have a follow-up process. Write a hand-written note, add them into a pre-written drip email campaign on the topic, or call them up after the event to measure their engagement.

5) Simple call to action

When I first starting speaking in the manner I’ve described here, I would pour my heart out, mindful of not selling, and then come to the end and there would be this awkward moment when I knew people wanted to buy something, but I didn’t have an offer. Well, I quickly learned that didn’t serve either of us very well. If you provide great information and a clear road map to solve someone’s problems, you’ll often find them wanting you to reveal how they could take the next step. But here’s the key – in that environment, they want a deal for acting right now. Not every audience or speaking engagement will present this opportunity, but I’ve found that in a straight free speaking gig, where I’ve been given permission to introduce my products and services, this 3-step approach is well received.

a)tell your audience right up front you’re going to give them great information and tell them at the end about what you do

b) about half way through, after you’ve built some trust, take a quick minute to reveal, for instance, a paid workshop or program you have coming up, tell them the price and go on

c) at the end answer questions, make free offers, and, almost as an afterthought, agree to let them also bring a friend to the event you mentioned at the same price if they sign-up today. (You’ve just made the event half price in their mind, turned them into a recruiter, and given your potential attendee a valuable tool to offer to a friend or colleague) So, all of a sudden, anyone considering the offer is now highly motivated by this compelling change of events. Don’t hard sell this, simply put it out there and let people do the math. Don’t risk tainting your wonderful information with a sales pitch, but don’t leave those who want to buy without an option either.

As a Fitness Education Presenter you have many opportunities beyond being paid for each hour spent educating.  Presentation rewards should be far greater and last far longer than a single paycheck…. Be the authority.

Be sure to sign up for the mailing list on the right to keep up on many different niches, each of which may be great for serving as a fitness education presenter.

Event based promotions may be just the added boost you need to stand out.

When piggy backing on a known event you can greatly benefit by running your promotion in conjunction with it.  You do not have to be partnered or attached to an event. You don’t want to suggest that you are a sponsor, creater or affiliated directly with the event if you are not.  But, by running your event parallel to a known event based on the event topic, location, or time you have an excellent chance of bringing attention to your offering.

The most obvious example can be found through the actions of retailers over the years. Christmas, Valentine’s, Halloween, you name it and they are all over attaching their special offer to the event.

In the fitness industry the most common event that most attempt to tie themselves to is the New Years. It is a great theme of new beginnings that bring in many motivated new clients, students, and members, but if you look a bit harder you may see that these same principles can be used on more than just the holidays.

Consider ways to incorporate some of these “Events” into your promotions:

• Birthdays – yours, a presidents, a member’s
• Charity happenings
• Contest (yours or theirs)
• Superbowl or other sporting event
• TV show
• Visiting Conference
• Taxes due date (yes, I’ve seen this in another industry)

The list can go on.  There are many niche events that exist and you can tie the launch of a new product/service, a fitness camp, or a wellness lecture to. Keep your eyes and mind open and you’ll find some great opportunities to encourage and increase the effectiveness of your promotions with “event based marketing.”

They provide a great blog and I encourage you to take a look at some great ideas for utilizing inbound marketing.

Mile Run Fitness Event

As a fitness professional nearly everything we do can be broken down into a fitness event of some type. It may be large or small, recurring or a single occurrence. Even if you wouldn’t think of a particular activity as a “fitness event”, if you can find a way to position it as such, you will find added power in your promotional efforts.

The below 8 points will assist you in promoting your next fitness event.

I would like to point out how the HubSpot promotion ideas relate specifically to the majority of you who follow this blog and participate in the Fitness Pro Travel community.

1. Event website or event page either way it is important to have a location to point to as you begin promotions.
   Especially if it is a new website for the event get it up and establish a link or two pointing to it.  This is important for your natural search potential in allowing the search engines to find you.  This item alone can go on for optimization, but essentially, anything is much better than nothing.
2. Utilizing your network to spread event news is relatively simple. Hopefully you have an established presence with a blog or social media connections, but for the fitness professional you should be leveraging to the offline world as well. Think clients, students, athletes, coaches, running groups, etc. that you work with. They are part of your network and you should ensure they are aware.
   You don’t have any of that, start with family and friends.
3. Each of those mentioned in item 2 above has a network of their own.  Do not miss the opportunity to encourage them to share your event with their networks.
   Take it a step further and find ideal champions for your cause.  People with influence or huge networks warrant greater effort and possibly even partnering compensation. The same is true for persons of stature within your industry. With their assistance to your event you can gain a great deal of authority to the cause.
4. Looking to related groups who may find interest in your event can be very beneficial.  HubSport offers some great on-line suggestions as groups are easy to find, but offline this same philosophy holds true. Seek out these community groups in both locations to continue to build event interest.
5. Everything about creating a community feeling around your event is a good thing, offline and online.  You have fans that have interest and will attend your event. Providing a community around the event may just be what is needed to turn them into Raving Fans.  Get a few of these and you will find your event being promoted far and wide for you.
6. Creating content is an awesome natural manner to generate interest in your event.  Getting others who are involved in the event to do the same compounds the effect. Search engines love it and potential interested parties may be coming to you pre-sold after they witnessed a good piece of content.
   Use multiple formats (articles, video, audio, blog, bulletins, forums, etc.) to reach folks in different places.
   In the offline world this could be articles to publications, speaking engagements, or healthy tidbits added to a company newsletter.
7. HubSpot suggests adding event tags to all online content created. This is becoming more common with the advent of Twitter. There is merritt in it, but you’ll want to educate yourself up on how these are best utilized.
8. Finally, one of the most simple not mentioned is the simple use of event calendars.  There are thousands on various topics you can find online. Many are related to health and fitness. Some do and some do not require payment to be listed.  Ultimately you want to look at those who utilize the calendar. Is that community related and interested in your event. You then may want to evaluate the traffic to that page or the size of the community. Alexa.com is probably the easiest way to get a rough estimate on internet activity.
   Offline you will find community event sections in local news publications, your event may also be allowed in local group newsletters, as well as some event calendars exist in community meeting spots. If your event is specific to a locality, don’t miss these options.

The above points are excellent and I hope you will utilize them with your next event promotion. To tie this to the Fitness Pro Travel community and how this community you are involved in assists with these principles, let me do a quick line by line tie in.

1. Once your event page is created, utilize the FPT blog, articles, bulletins to point people back to it.
2. Be active at FPT and build a network (friendships) with other members of the community.
3. Because of the ‘live web’ platform at FPT, those you network with are also building networks. Ask for their help in spreading word of event.
4. Search through groups at FPT to find communities that are established who may be interested in event.
5. Create your own group around the event. Use your network to drive other FPT members to it and grow an internal community within the larger community.
6. Write blog posts, bulletin updates, articles, and talk in forums at FPT to generate knowledge and enthusiasm for your event.  Very powerful options for spreading the message inside and outside FPT
7. And finally, do what you probably could have or should have done first and post your event to the events calendar. Simple to do and directed to the appropriate audience. The calendar is search-able and is viewed by hundreds of community members daily.

As you’ve read through this post you have seen obvious and not so obvious means to promoting your event.  These principles hold true for your business as well.

Promotion of anytype will be enhanced when it can be wrapped around or tied to an event. The event doesn’t have to be your own creation, it may be a simple sale event that is tied to a national holiday. Promoting around that larger event can provide you added bang for your buck and extend your reach.