Tribefit Review | Multiple 6 Figure Online Trainer Matt Explains Why He’s Online & How He’s Been Able To Grow So Rapidly This Year
Chris Lynton: Hey guys, Chris Lynton here from Tribefit. And today we have a very special guest with us, Matt Wolfs. How you doing, buddy?
Matt Wolfs: Good, how you going?
Chris Lynton: Yeah, really good, Matt. And you're down a little bit further south of me, how's the weather in, is it Melbourne?
Matt Wolfs: No, and yep, it's quite nice, actually, a monarch autumn morning.
Chris Lynton: Fantastic, Matt. Fantastic.
And we were just talking about before, guys, about what Matt's got planned for the week, for the weekend, and all that sort of stuff. But we'll dive right into it. So I guess, first and foremost, Matt, can you tell us a little bit about your background, and why anyone should even bother, you know, taking the time to listen to this? And actually absorbing what we're going to be going through in the next five, ten, fifteen minutes.
Matt Wolfs: Yeah, sure. I've been a PT now for eight and a half years. So have gone through pretty much every phase of evolution that you can, as a trainer. So I started working in the commercial gym scene, cut my teeth there. Built up a successful, one-to-one, face-to-face PT business out of the commercial gym. And as often as the case, when you're ambitious, you'll hit the ceiling. And when you hit the ceiling, you've got to do something different to continue the growth. Opened up my own gym, and went into group training, and had the gym for five and a half years, or so. Very, very successful, tremendously successful. Same thing again, you hit the ceiling of, well, the gym's fantastic, but we're just in this small pocket of this small area of Melbourne. And I'm a very much a big picture thinker, and so now we have closed the gym, and I'm 100% online.
Chris Lynton: Beautiful, mate. And so how long has it been since you started online?
Matt Wolfs: Started online. We first got into it, probably 2014, I would say, but didn't really take it seriously and really started to sort of realise, shit, this is big, and this can be big, until around probably 2016, 2017, when that's first, like, Okay, this looks like it's where not just the industry could be going, but where our business is starting to shift towards. So we just noticed that more and more of our clients were signing up with us from places that weren't local. So, other side of Melbourne, interstate, overseas. And that's when we realised we've got to really take this seriously because the business is tracking in this direction, and I'm not a fan of resisting change. If that's where the water's flowing, go with it.
Chris Lynton: Yeah, mate, I love that analogy. And there's always little clues and signs of the way you should flow. And a lot of people don't listen to those, and as a result, they end up, you know, thinking, Oh, why isn't it this easy as it should be?
Matt Wolfs: Yeah.
Chris Lynton: Or you kind of try to swim against the current ...
Matt Wolfs: And I've done it myself. And it leads to a lot of frustration and stagnation. So I prefer to embrace the change, if it's there, just go with it, because I'm not gonna say it's seamless, but it's more doable. You know, faster pace of time, because you're embracing what's actually happening rather than pushing back against it.
Chris Lynton: Yeah, good call. Cool. So, in terms of whose your ideal client, what clients do you help? And who do you generally help?
Matt Wolfs: Well, my wife and I have very successful weight loss transformation backgrounds ourselves. So, wife and I have lost and kept off a lot of weight together. So we, I could say "generally" we work with people on weight loss, but it's more a case of we specialise with people that have a certain set of problems. So I can't say that our ideal client is a certain gender.
Chris Lynton: Yes.
Matt Wolfs: Because we have lots of males and females. I can't even say it's a certain age, because our age tends to range from early 20's through to 60's. It's more a case of the problems that we solve with people, so people that have gone through the diet treadmill. The people that work with tend to think that they've tried everything. And they still struggle with emotional eating, binge eating, comparing themselves to others. Distractions, in terms of, you know, shiny objects that appear in our industry, the latest gimmicks and things.
Chris Lynton: Yeah.
Matt Wolfs: They're usually intimidated by gyms. And most of the intimidation comes from the fact that they just don't know what they're doing. And a lot of the feedback that we get from the people we work with these, they just don't know where to start anymore. Because they've tried all these different things, they've had no success. And it's like, well, shit, this doesn't work, because I've tried everything.
Chris Lynton: Yeah.
Matt Wolfs: And our people tend to think that they're the only people on Earth that can't actually get in shape.
Chris Lynton: Yeah, mate. And I guess that anyone's listening in on this is targeting, or finding who your ideal client is, your niche, or whatever. Matt, Matt's been phenomenally successfully, and we're gonna talk about it in a sec. And part of what creates that success is truly understanding the real problems, the big problems, truly understanding, you know, the people you're wanting to help, and how to help them in a massive way.
And, you know, if you're trying to sell a Shake Diet to one of these people that obviously Matt is talking to, or whatever, they might, you know, if back in the day they might have spent $20, $50, $100, whatever it might be, but that is not solving their core problem, it's not listening to, to what their issue is, and actually trying to help those core reasons. And as a result, it doesn't get them to where they want to be, and it doesn't keep them to where they want to be. So Matt truly understands that, and dives down into the surface level problem, but the true problems. And as I always say, if you help big problems, you can, you know, you can be rewarded in a big way, both from a financial perspective but also from an emotional perspective in truly helping people.
Matt Wolfs: Yeah, it's very fulfilling.
Chris Lynton: Very good, Matt.
Matt Wolfs: When you go sort of below the surface to the actual root of where the pain's coming from. 'Cause most people, like the people we work with, they look at something, say the scales, they look at a number on the scales and think that's a problem, when it's not the problem, the problem is what got them there in the first place.
Chris Lynton: Yep.
Matt Wolfs: And that's what we sort of work to flesh out.
Chris Lynton: Of course, of course. And that's the difference, I was just doing a session, just before this, on low ticket sales versus high ticket sales. And, Matt, so, can you tell everybody what your average package, you know time frame wise is? And I guess cost wise would be for a client.
Matt Wolfs: 12 months, minimum signup, four and a half thousand dollars for the 12 months.
Chris Lynton: Four and a half thousand dollars, guys. He did not stutter, that is not something that you heard from the audio screwing up, whatever it might be. 12 months minimum, four and a half thousand dollars, per client. Now we're talking, low-end is like Shake Diets, and whatever, that is more than likely more than they've spent with one solution for some time. Maybe in their life they spent 50, 100, whatever it might be, trying to solve this one problem. But by Matt not scratching the surface and getting into the deeper level big problems, as you can see, he's not, he doesn't want to sell four week, get shredded things, 'cause that doesn't help.
Chris Lynton: So, I guess, how do you find when you speak to someone, how do you find the conversation when you're cut off, it's like, "Oh, it's going to take 12 months? And it's got going to cost this?"
Matt Wolfs: Well, we have a very thorough screening process. We ask the people to come to us to jump through a few hoops.
Chris Lynton: Great.
Matt Wolfs: Before we can consider talking to them. So it's a more case of, we're not applying to be their coaches; they're applying to be our clients. We associate it as a big difference between those two. And all of our sort of external marketing in terms of our blogs, our podcasts, any videos that we do, we're constantly beating the same drum.
So the people who tend to come to us and go through those hoops, they know, in advance, that, Okay, these guys only work long term. So they've usually already gone through that hurdle to begin with. And when we put the price in front of them, that's another way in my mind of, I was supposing to say that we try to scare them off, and if we can't scare them off, they're worth keeping. So the ones that are deadly serious, and they trust us, and there's that sort of rapport thing established, they don't care because they think these guys can help us. And all of a sudden, they're not thinking to themselves, well, I'm now paying for money for "training" or "nutrition" because no one pays for that; they're thinking I'm gonna work with these people that I trust, and they're going to help me solve these problems.
Chris Lynton: Yeah. Matt, that's awesome. And I guess anyone's listening in on this, if you've ever done, you know, if you've ever tried to close a client and they said, Oh, yeah, maybe, and then you've gone, "Oh, I'll train you for a week, for free, before, and you can see how it goes." Or, you know, "I'll give you two weeks for free," or, "The first session's only gonna cost you a dollar," or whatever it might be, that's the exact opposite to what Matt's talking about. And you've probably, if you've done that before, you've probably seen the lack of commitment, the lack of actually, you know, people listening and taking in your information 'cause you devalue yourself so massively.
And as a result, you don't actually help the person because you might give them a free week of training, but they don't listen, they don't turn up, they don't value it, and then they're back where they want to be. So, by doing that, by doing what Matt's doing is truly helping them commit to what they want to achieve, and helping do that.
And Matt, I've seen some of your testimonials, your before and afters, phenomenal.
Matt Wolfs: That's what it's about because I know, in my mind, if we bring people in the business aren't going to give us a transformation in the testimonial, like we just wasted time, and they've wasted money, and those things aren't coming back. You know? So, we've got to make sure that as much as our clients are betting on us, we're kind of betting on them.
Chris Lynton: Beautiful, beautiful, mate. And I guess in terms of, once again, from the credibility side of why you should be listening to what Matt's saying, he doesn't just have two, three clients. Matt, what would you say, since just in the last year or two, financially, just to help people get a picture of it, what would have your online business done last year and then I guess in the last 12 months?
Matt Wolfs: It was being growing considerably, where it's now multiple six figures.
Chris Lynton: Matt, that's good.
Matt Wolfs: And it started at zero.
Chris Lynton: Yeah, that's pretty awesome, pretty awesome.
I remember you mentioned that in essence the online has more or less replaced, in a big way, everything that you're doing face-to-face, and with the gym, without all of the overheads, and all that stuff.
Matt Wolfs: It has, it has. So we're currently projecting to have our second biggest ever year in business, but it's not second only to the year when our gym was fully packed out, as well as our online programme growing. So it has been just replacement, so we've been replacing the income with online, except the overheads are dropping dramatically. And also the time consideration is changing, so it's no longer, you know, running 25 or so hours worth of training sessions at the gym, it's all here in the office, on the computer, and then you go and live your life at the same time.
Chris Lynton: Yeah, Matt, that's beautiful, that's fantastic. And obviously being able to help people around Australia, and the world, rather than just people in your local area.
Matt Wolfs: Yeah, that's really important to me because I know, for me, I'm not really interested in being the biggest fish in the fish bowl; I want to be the biggest shark in the ocean.
Chris Lynton: Matt, well said, well said. So, I guess in terms of tips, so, I know we've talked about this in the past and how you approach. I know you've talked about, so people have to come through a filtering process, jump through a couple of hoops before they get to you, so they're primed and ready for a good conversation. I know that you've told me about this in the past in regards to the 12 month commitment, and all that sort of stuff. So, if you could give anyone listening to this, if they're struggling, you know, selling small packages for low price points. Other than the filtering process, is there one or two tips that you could give them that could them kind of move forward in that journey?
Matt Wolfs: Yeah, you've got to really know the people you're working with. And have a realistic timeframe attached to how long they need. So part of that process is if someone isn't prepared, like this, "Why a 12 month screening process is so important for us?" If someone thinks their goals, and they've got a background like us, and they're like, say heavily overweight. They've been dieting on and off for years, and they think they're going to fix that in six months, they're not ready for us.
So it's a case of knowing specifically the people you're working with, and the time frames involved in actual permanent change. And then you've gotta draw your line in the sand and go, righto, these are my minimum standards, and I'm not backing off from that. And that does take a bit of courage, in order to be able to say to people, you know what? This is the not the right fit, and that's Okay. Because not everyone's ready for what you do, and there ain't nothing wrong with that.
Chris Lynton: Yeah.
Matt Wolfs: So you've gotta have those minimum standards and not back off that. And then if you are building credibility within that market, the right people will actually start to come to you.
Chris Lynton: Yeah, mate. And it's a lot of people in the early stages that I find, a lot of the younger guys, and all that sort of stuff, is that they believe, you know, let's just say they're going for the same market as you, they believe that, Oh, you know, if I sell a full 30 day shred e-book for $20, or whatever it might be, and tell 'em that they're gonna lose all the weight and keep it off their life, that's going to be easy to sell.
But in actual fact, it kind of, as you get to really helping people in high ticket sales, it flips on its head. If they smell a bit of BS, if you're telling them that they can lose 50 kilos and keep it off for life from an e-book, and do that in 30 days, all of a sudden their BS radar just clicks. Everything else could have been aligned, and as soon as you tell them something unrealistic, they're, "Hmm, hang on a sec, you just lost credibility with me." And as Matt said there is, telling the truth, being upfront, takes courage, but it's counterintuitive, you think that by low prices, low commitment, and all that sort of stuff, you're going to help convert. In actual fact, it's the other way around. Have you found the same thing?
Matt Wolfs: Yeah, absolutely. That's a short term approach, and also, that approach tends to attract people who aren't actually ready to change. Because the good ones will see through that very quickly, but the ones who aren't quite ready, who are just looking for the easy way out, they're the ones that will come and buy a solution like that, but it's not going to solve any problems. And then long term, it's not going to grow your business, because you're actually not getting any proof of your work. Ultimately, the business that we work in, and all of us, as trainers and coaches, it's a "What can you do for me?" business.
And if you can't show what you can do for people, like you're on the treadmill selling these cheap things, and you're constantly looking for new clients, and looking for the next dollar. From where my wife and I are at, we tend to keep our clients long-term, which is the way I prefer it. Because you have a better chance of having those really impressive results that come from it, that you just can't get in short term periods of time. Even our clients, we told them 12 months is the minimum signup, but you probably will need longer.
Chris Lynton: Yeah. Matt, it's powerful. And it's just the credibility bank, you just keep doing that, you just keep doing that.
Matt Wolfs: Yeah.
Chris Lynton: Because you're telling them the truth when they've probably spoken to a hundred other trainers in the last five, ten years that are telling them, "Oh, yeah, I can get it off in this weekend." Or "We can do a detox," blah, blah, blah. Yeah, mate, you're kind of actually going against the grain, mate, which is, it'd be a breath of fresh air for them, and I can understand why you're doing so well.
Obviously the money thing, guys, is not what it's all about. You know, charging high ticket is not just to go, "Oh, great, I've got a bigger bank account." But as Matt said, is that, it is a commitment from them that they're going to listen, be motivated, implement. And if Matt was to do the exact same thing and sell for $20, he wouldn't be helping them, because they wouldn't commit.
Matt Wolfs: They dissect the value.
Chris Lynton: Yeah, yeah. Exactly right, mate. So, this is awesome. So I guess from your side of things, mate, if anyone else is listening to this, and we've got a couple of online clients there, they're not feeling as though they're able to attract great clients, charge the right prices, do you have I guess words of wisdom for them to kind of finish up for today?
Matt Wolfs: Yeah, you would need to look in the mirror and sort of objectively look at what you're doing, in terms of am I representing the market I wish to attract? In terms of personally. So, you know, my wife and I work with people that have certain weight loss problems, but we can demonstrate that we've worked past their problems ourselves, personally.
Chris Lynton: Yeah.
Matt Wolfs: And we can demonstrate the results with that. So you've got to have, you've got to have results that speak to these people that you wanna work with, to begin with. Then you'll be looking at your, Okay, what am I saying to build trust with these people? And how am I connecting with them? And now with the way the Internet and social media has set up, there's so many different ways to connect with people. It could be blogs, podcasting, videos, take a pic, you know? What are you doing to connect with these people that you wish to attract, and I do have the credibility to actually get their attention. Because there's so many online trainers and coaches now, and that number is not down anytime soon. So the market is getting noisier, what are you doing to be I suppose disruptive, and actually, as you said, you saw Chris be that breath of fresh air, but you go against the grain and people are like, "That makes sense."
Chris Lynton: Yeah, it's crazy, when you put it that way. It's just so obvious. But so few people do it. Matt, I appreciate your time today.
Matt Wolfs: Pleasure.
Chris Lynton: Matt, if people, if there's trainers that wanna check out what you're doing, or there's people listening to us who want a transformation themselves.
Matt Wolfs: Yeah.
Chris Lynton: And like what you're saying. How can they reach out to you? How can they find out more about you?
Matt Wolfs: I'm easily found on Facebook. I'm always, always online, with the work that we do. Or you can find us through our awesome podcast.
Chris Lynton: And what's the podcast called? And how do you spell your last name in case anyone doesn't know how to do it?
Matt Wolfs: Ah, yes. The surname is "Wolfs," that's Wolf with an "S," W-o-l-f-s. And search for "The Weight Loss Podcast" on Spotify or iTunes, we're easily found that way.
Chris Lynton: Beautiful. Guys, check, if you wanna reach out to Matt, reach out to Matt, he's phenomenal.
Matt Wolfs: Have a chat.
Chris Lynton: Have a chat, he's had great success, as you can tell. And guys, it's just about doing the basics right, staying true to your path, and, you know, having that credibility in being truthful all the way through. So, Matt, thanks for your time.
Matt Wolfs: Pleasure.
Chris Lynton: Loads of gold nuggets from that. And buddy, I'll let you get back to your day.
Matt Wolfs: Thank you.
Chris Lynton: And no doubt we'll speak soon.
Matt Wolfs: Thanks, chief. Appreciate it.
Chris Lynton: See you mate, bye.
Matt Wolfs: Bye.
