Tribefit Review Sara Townsend Talks With Chris About Her Growth And Success As An Online Trainer
Chris Lynton:
Hey guys, Chris Lynton here from Tribe Fit and today we are very, very blessed, very lucky to have Sarah on the other end of the world with us. Sarah, whereabouts in the world are you and where do you live?
Sarah: I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Chris Lynton: Amazing. And what's, what's the time where you at today?
Sarah:
Right now it's about 5:15. So you see I'm sitting in my car and that's because I just finished teaching gymnastics. I do that for fun for my daughter. Yeah.
Chris Lynton:
Ah, cool, Cool. Well thanks very much for your time. I guess today's interview, today's chat is to go through Sarah's journey since launching her online fitness business, online coaching business where she started at, where she's today, the successes she's had. Been able to transition very quickly to replacing her full time income from her previous job and being full time and then now being able to obviously have the flexibility and time to coach gymnastics in her spare time or whatever it might be. So first question I've got for you Sarah, is do you want to maybe give everyone a little bit of an insight into what you do, who you help, and I guess your monthly average income the last couple of months?
Sarah:
Sure. Yeah. So I was a firefighter here in Colorado Springs and I did that for 10 years, and for the last two years I worked 96 hour weeks because we hit COVID, right? So everyone was working a lot. We were understaffed and there came a day where I just talked to my chief and I said, "Hey, when is this going to end for us?" And he said there was no end in sight. And I said, "You know what? I have a husband and a three year old at home and I can't do those hours anymore. And so I decide to retire that week and I've always been really big about working for myself and just working. I knew that I wouldn't be good at staying at home even though I wanted to be home more. I still wanted to contribute something and feel like I was not that stay at home mom still. It's really hard, but that's why. I need my own niche. I needed my own thing.
Chris Lynton: Yeah.
Sarah:
And so I started to do personal training for people that had already been asking for fire and police. So people knew I was already into fitness and prior to being a firefighter, I did personal training, but I did it for a big gym. So I did in person. And so they knew that and they were asking if I could get them ready for fitness assessments, or current fire and police were asking if I could just get them back into shape because they had gotten out of shape being on the line. And so I knew I had a clientele there but I didn't want to do in person again because I didn't want to be held to a place, if that makes sense. I wanted the ability to travel with my daughter and my husband, and not be tied down to the hours. And honestly it really puts a limit on the amount you can make because it's an hourly job then. And I didn't want to do that because you max out very quickly.
Sarah:
And so I knew COVID had created a niche to do online trading programmes, and I had a clientele built in already that knew who I was, and I had made it all the way to lieutenant so people knew... I had a big audience already. And so when I opened, I was joking around with Mike because I was like, I don't have anything built, and I don't understand technology, and I don't very much care for social media, but I have 12 people sitting here wanting me to open something. And so I was like, what am I supposed to do? How do I put this out? And he helped me so much. He helped me, directed me towards Trainerize and talked to me about the employee ID numbers and stuff.
Sarah: So Mike was a great, right from the get go I felt so...
Chris Lynton: He's amazing.
Sarah:
Yes. Yeah, I just felt so validated for the fact that I chose you guys because immediate help happened. He was like, Okay, I know you need to let something out. And that was besides the modules. So it was very helpful. And then I tried to dive into the modules the best I could and they were pretty easy, and so I was able to put up a website and get my stuff set up. And that first month, I think I was the middle of a month, so I was the middle of July and I think I made two or three grand. Which I was surprised in that time that that's what I made. But I was like, okay, because I did what you said, the low hanging fruit people. So people that had talked to me but might have gone different directions and I didn't know if they were still waiting for me. And so I was just like, "Hey, I'm releasing something.: And I low balled myself, I think. So I raised my prices pretty quickly.
Chris Lynton: Good.
Sarah:
And the next month I made six grand, I want to say. And we're hoping now to do 15 a month or greater.
Chris Lynton:
Amazing. Fantastic. And I guess to take a step back, so Mike, anyone listening to this, Mike is our head coach. He's amazing. Big shout out to you Mike. If you're going to watch, you're watching this now. When you decided you wanted to make this happen, you wanted to go online, grow your online, why did you reach out to rather than just have a crack yourself?
Sarah:
Well that wasn't an option for me. I seriously don't understand technology. My husband's jokes that it's funny that I can text people back because that's how bad I am with technology is. So I literally couldn't, I didn't know how. But I knew that I was really good at the personal training side and when you said give guarantees and stuff, I absolutely knew with a hundred percent certainty with my 12 week programme, I can get you to pass a physical fitness assessment. And if I can't because of an injury or something, I wouldn't take you on. And so I could really back up what I was saying. So the nice part when I watched, I watched your webinar, which is what I'm trying to create for myself now, because that's what got me in, right?
Chris Lynton: Yeah. Yep.
Sarah:
Is you guaranteed that we would make our money back, which I did. And so that made me feel safer because you don't want to get scammed. That's a big part of it.
Chris Lynton: For sure.
Sarah:
And you gave us information that we needed to be successful for free. So I could already see that you knew much more than I did to set something up. And the testimonials, that's a big thing. And I do use that as well. I ask all my people to give me testimonials, really, because I have a hundred percent success rate with my clients right now. And I'm like, that's how I get more people and that's how I build my business and they're more than willing to do it because I did a good job by them.
Chris Lynton:
For sure. And people are scared to ask their testimonials, but it's like if you really do what you're supposed to do and do an amazing job and get your clients an amazing result, clients are happy to go above and beyond and do anything to reciprocate the value, the help. And to take a step back to what you were saying before is that, really, if you are a good coach and you can get your client's results, but you just don't know how to connect with those prospects, we've got the tools, we've got the weapons to give you to tap into what Sarah was talking about in terms of the low hanging fruit stuff.
Chris Lynton:
Most people have opportunity around them and we've got these tools we can give you to tap into that gold mine. And then thereafter, once you exhaust that gold mine, you've got to have the mid and long term stuff that take on, which is what Sarah's talking about, as well. So if you're a great coach, then all you need to know is how to connect yourself with the right people and you change their life, you help them with what they want, they're more than happy to give you testimonies, and that helps more in your marketing, and so on and so forth.
Chris Lynton:
So one other thing, you touched on low balling a price. What made you realise that you were charging too low and what made you confident to bump that price up?
Sarah:
When I opened, I started with that guarantee. Like I said, I was very confident that that's what I was going to do. I already had the clientele there and then I was like, I remember the first day you guys called me to have our initial consultation, I forget who I was with, she was a lady, but...
Chris Lynton: Chrissy.
Sarah:
Yeah, yeah, Chrissy. Chrissy. Yeah. And she was like, "What do you think that you're going to offer for your 12 week programme?" And I can't even believe I said this, but I was like 400.
Sarah:
And she was like, "No, no, we are not doing that." And so when she said what I was going to charge, I was like, "Oh my gosh, no one's going to want to be with me because that's a lot of money." Right?
Chris Lynton: Yeah.
Sarah:
And I come from the body building world and it was more like that was what you were training to be with a coach that was very seasoned. But then I thought to myself, I am very seasoned and I'm going to get those people there. And I'm very comfortable with public speaking, which I'm sure is a big obstacle for people. And I make them, I really try and make a connection with all my clients and make them feel like there's no way I'm not going to let you pass. I guarantee you're going to pass it. And so you really can't lose. And I break my stuff down into days. So this is how much it is and this is how much that is a day. And you can spend that on fast food and whatever. So if you're not willing to put that in, to invest that in yourself, then you're just not ready for this field yet.
Chris Lynton: For sure.
Sarah: Because you're obviously coming for a coach because you need it, right?
Chris Lynton: For sure.
Sarah: So they feel confident. And I think I probably have 95% of people say yes.
Chris Lynton:
Amazing. That's an amazing close rate. And really, look, we've got sales scripts where sales trainings, all this sort of stuff, but we're not speak to people. The glue to it all is what you see right there for Sarah, is absolute belief. And ultimately when you're speaking to a prospect, they're like, I want the result. I really want it, but I don't know if I have the confidence to get off the fence and move forward, or whatever. And what they need from you as a coach, it's absolute belief. Like instil that absolute belief into them. Whether that's guaranteed, whether it's saying, "Hey, I won't let you fail." Hey this is from a price perspective, this is real. You could buy a cup of coffee or you could make this happen and change your life. Where do you want to be? And that's breaking their belief to habits and really instilling that confidence and being a true coach, I guess. It's not just the training, the nutrition, whatever, it's also the confidence and the mindset to actually implement it and get your clients as a result.
Chris Lynton:
So look, that rings true with everything you're saying, hence why you're closing it 95%, which is crazy. Cool. All right. Well look, probably the last question I've got for you, cause I know we don't have heaps of time today, is what would be your number one piece of advice to someone who is where you were before you started? Let's just say you've just decided that you've quit your job, and you want to work for yourself, and you're going to go down this personal training route, but you've got no idea how to do it, where to go, what to do, and you're just at the starting blocks. What would be your advice to someone like that or to yourself back then?
Sarah:
I'm a huge person about mindset. And you talk about that in the intro of your classes and I actually talk that about that with every client. We have a weekly conversation with all my clients about mindset because you can't be successful if you don't think you can be successful. And so I quit a job that we weren't being taken care of, I don't feel like, right? And I walked away from them confidently because I was like, I won't work for someone that can't take care of their own people. And so I will only work for myself now. And so when I said that to myself, I said, If I could show up for a job for 96 hours and deal with that for 10 years, I can sure as heck sit here and work my butt off for myself.
Sarah:
And that's what I did. I sat in at your modules and I mean when the paid advertising part came for me, it was so painful because it was pixels and blah blah. Yeah you guys, I didn't even know what a pixel was. I literally didn't know what a pixel was. So it was like I had to do some research on the side too to just educate myself on the basics of what I think regular humans would think the basics are. That's what I did.
Sarah:
But I did it. And a lot of that was, and still a lot of my success is from finding a good niche, like what you guys had said in the beginning, it's something that I really love and enjoy and I do more of the streets work than the ads work. Right? I find my people, I have them like my page, I interact with them, and they know that I'm going to bring them good results because I'm showing it through testimonials and through how passionate I am. And I grew it really quickly. Really quickly. I was surprised. I know I wrote you a message and I was like, I'm sure you won't even read this because he gets them all the time. But I was like, it changed my life. It did. I can be with my daughter all the time, she's not in preschool. My husband and I go on date nights. I sleep now, which is amazing. It was a life changing, I couldn't have done it without the programme.
Chris Lynton:
I appreciate it. I really do appreciate the kind words and really congratulations to yourself and appreciate the kind words but you should be giving yourself a pat on the back as well because you've done the work, you've turned up, you've put in, you've engaged, you've gotten the help when needed, right? Which is there, which we've talked about. But ultimately meeting us at the table, and that's where the success is found is turning up, meeting us at the table. And we're there step of the way, but meeting us at the table and that's what you've done. You've put in the work and you deserve the results, the impact, the lives you're changing, and of course the change of your life and your family's life that has come as a result of that.
Chris Lynton: So huge congratulations to yourself.
Sarah: Thank you.
Chris Lynton:
You deserve everything that you're getting now and everything you're getting in the future as it continues to grow. Thank you so much for your time, Sarah. And look, no doubt we'll be speaking soon in the weeks, months ahead and hearing about record breaking, record breaking, and record breaking. And yeah, once again, it's just amazing, huge congratulations to yourself and a true credit to what you've been able to do. So that's it from us today, guys. Thank you so much for your time again, Sarah. And I guess that's, that's it from us. We'll be speaking soon. Bye for now.
