The 10-Minute Workout Gym

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

What's up, what's up, welcome back. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. Maybe you like to exercise, or maybe you don't. Well, personally, I like to run. Running is my primary exercise.

And from time to time, I do yoga. At least I say I do yoga. I don't always go to class. And once in a while, I'll do something different. But for me, I always go back to running.

As my main activity for both fitness and mental wellbeing. Now, you might prefer a different form of exercise. You might do a lot of things. Or you might be in that category of no exercise is the best exercise. But either way, you might like today's story.

It's all about how a national insurance executive who hates exercising opens a gym modeled on working out for only 10 minutes at a time. [Music]

Today's story comes from Josh Jarrett in Nashville, Tennessee. Josh works as a product VP in the auto insurance industry. And he's also started what he calls a smart gym called Quantify Fitness. The smart gym offers weekly 10 minute workouts that he says are more effective than spending hours in a more traditional routine.

Now, a lot of people say that the biggest obstacle to exercise is time. You could argue that it's more of a question of priorities. I have to remind myself of that sometimes. [Music]

But the point is there's often a gap between how much exercise people get and how much they would like to get. Well, Josh was in that group of people who really didn't like to work out at all.

He saw it as a means to an end. He wanted to be healthy. He knew it was important. He had three young children and needed to keep up with them. But in his quest to find the most optimal workout, he adapted a model focused on high intensity, short duration exercises.

Since Josh knew that people said they'd exercise more if they had more time, he decided to give them time by shortening the workout, like really shortening it to just 10 minutes. He thought this approach would be a sustainable way to help people stick with a workout routine that will improve their health. And even though he was busy at work and at home, he decided to go for it. After scouting the area, Josh and his wife rented a 1300 square foot space. They noticed that the space had good visibility and a heavy walking area.

So they felt good about the location being able to bring in new clients. They also bought or leased all the equipment they needed, a climber, a hydraulic trainer, as well as gear for recovery, like an infrared sauna. To cover expenses and make investments in the equipment, Josh withdrew money from his savings account. For marketing, he initially relied on social media, primarily targeting people who lived or worked near the gym with relevant interests on Facebook. Then once they opened, the local ABC News affiliate did a story on them, which helped drive in new clients.

They also experimented with print advertising, but they didn't see great results from it. What worked better was a referral program that gives the referr incentives like a free sauna session, a free workout, $100 off health and supplement purchases, and so on, all for referring their friends. It was so successful that most of their clients actually come in through word of mouth referrals. The Smart Gym's most successful campaign so far was when a former NFL player, Derek Mason, from the Tennessee Titans, came in and allowed them to film him. That video received more than 14,000 views and created even more interest for the gym.

To make that happen, Josh contacted an advertising rep he knew for the local ESPN radio station where Mason did a show. He knew that people were skeptical, but he thought if he could get a former professional football player, who was widely known and popular, to try it and walk away impressed, it could help build credibility. Derek agreed to visit, and after being pleasantly surprised, agreed to do a radio endorsement. So how is the Smart Gym working out? Well, for the first six months, Josh and his wife ran the gym themselves.

He puts in a lot of hours there, but since it's open by appointment only, he doesn't have to be on site unless someone schedules. So he's able to work it in with his day job, and they recently brought on their first employee to also help out. Clients pay anywhere from $169 all the way up to $600 a month, depending on what they sign up for. The Smart Gym needs 30 to 40 clients to cover their fixed costs, and they currently have 50. Based on these numbers, Josh projects that the gym will do over $100,000 in revenue this year, and they just started to pull ahead on the profit side.

His goal is to get to 150 to 200 clients, and once that happens, they plan to stop taking new clients and begin a waiting list for them to make sure that service doesn't suffer. Then at that point, they can decide whether to open more locations, get investors to do something larger, or keep it as a side hustle, and just enjoy the results of making money while helping people accomplish their goal of exercising more in less time. [Music]

Okay, so let's talk about this. The 10-Minute Workout, you might very well be skeptical of that. I think a lot of people probably are, and that's the main objection or the main concern that Josh needs to overcome.

But to me, this is an example of making an ultimate promise. Like who wouldn't want to get all the exercise they need in just 10 minutes? So an ultimate promise is kind of the most extreme benefit you can think of for any particular topic or field or desire or need. So you could say a few other examples might be, eat whatever you want and still lose weight. Earn a 10% return on your investments, no matter what the stock market does.

Never pay for household supplies again, or never pay for something else again, whatever it happens to be. So as I said, these are kind of extreme examples, but an ultimate promise is something that creates curiosity, gets people in the door, makes them think, what is that? And in fact, a bit of skepticism isn't necessarily a bad thing for these offers because people say, well, that sounds crazy, but maybe I'd like to hear more. So obviously you have to be able to back it up. You can't just say, oh, here's my 10 minute workout, but actually it's an hour.

So it can't just come out of nowhere. But if you do have something you can back up and it can be tied to an ultimate benefit or the biggest promise you can think of, it can definitely help you stand out and go a long way in building intrigue. And as a bonus, it very quickly communicates to potential customers what it's all about. Like if you hear that phrase, 10 minute workout, you might have questions about it, you might have skepticism, but you know exactly what it promises to be. So the next time I get down to Nashville, I'll try to check out the smart gym, if I can spare 10 minutes.

Until then, I might lace up my shoes today and go for a run. As always, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. If you'd like to find the show notes for today's episode, just come over to the website, aside of social school.com/112. The weekly recap is coming up next. I'm excited to bring you that tomorrow.

I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]