 Welcome to the build my sports big show where we talk about how to create build and scale your own local sports training business It's time to get started with your host Ben neighbors. The show starts right now Right welcome back to the show today's title is pretty self-explanatory and I'm gonna go deep into why hiding behind the computer or Your cell phone with social media is not going to win in 2019 for your business and There's been a lot of changes that have happened especially with social media since I've started my business I mean, I've been doing this for a really long time when I started They had things like WordPress. I know they had Facebook, but advertising on Facebook wasn't a thing yet They didn't really have Instagram I had to do a lot of marketing on like Craigslist through my website social media in my head which just wasn't really a thing yet and now it is a thing and It's massive and there are so many different ways to market what you do but I see a big fundamental problem that Coaches are having is they rely too much on social media and what I see a lot of coaches are doing on social media Frankly is not working and they think that because that's not working that they should give up on their business And I'm gonna give you a couple of free ways. You can advertise yourself. Obviously. These are These are understood, but these are ways that I believe you should be marking yourself. So using Facebook Creating short videos if you follow what I teach any of our consulting clients every coach on there that is successful They're using Facebook to promote themselves and their business They're not using Facebook to go like and go watch a bunch of other people's stuff. They are connecting with parents They are talking to parents directly. They are closing them. They're getting them on the phone. They're getting them into their program You can also do that on an Instagram. I'm gonna talk a little bit later about why doing Instagram like may not work for you There's a service or a website called thumbtack Obviously like with Craigslist, you could still be on there. LinkedIn is also a really good one Some of the coaches that I have helped they've seen some success on LinkedIn and if you're doing anything online YouTube would be a great way to Get free advertising. Okay, and As far as getting a website you can get a website set up for an extremely low cost I'm personally not even recommending the service I use now. It's it's too expensive for most coaches who are just starting off But you could use something like Squarespace Or WordPress, I mean, there's so many different solutions out there that are like $12 a month So the barrier to entry is extremely low not only for you, but for anyone who is thinking about doing anything as far as marketing online Okay, but today's podcast It's a hundred percent about why if you just only Focus online why that's going to fail and here's why because ultimately Even if you have ads going or you have all this free promotional stuff going on with your business You're gonna have to talk to parents over the phone the only way they're gonna buy something from you is if they have to know like and trust you and Using social media can help you do that, but you have to build the skills of speaking to parents Over the phone or in person and I'm talking about selling You have to build your sales skills If you do not build that you could run ads on YouTube or Instagram or Facebook You could be this guru online. That's still not gonna make money And I will say because I can come I mean I've spent a lot of time this year studying Instagram studying what coaches are doing Seeing what coaches are doing on Facebook And I and I can definitely confidently tell you that nine out of ten coaches. I've seen they rely on social media for everything and this works if You are actually getting clients and if you have a reliable system in place So if that is you if you're part of the 1% great, if you're part of the nine out of ten coaches that Are struggling you're not getting clients then you need to rethink your strategy And you need to hopefully take my advice in today's podcast because if you're trying something that's not working and It's consistently not working. You're not going to get better results by doing the same thing You're gonna have to do something different and a lot of coaches in today's age They just start by promoting online and that's again It's a great way to market yourself, but you have to build your own community Offline and what I mean by that is parents in your city need to know who you are They need to know that you are the most sought-after coach They need to know Everything that you're doing all the time and the way you do that is by building real Relationships with parents with people of influence with coaches with Organizations, I mean I could go down the list of all the contacts. I've had to build for my my own business back in 2010 2009 and Those have paid off very well because I was willing to go meet with people. I was willing to talk to parents I was willing to go out to the fields a lot of coaches these days are not willing to do that And so if you're nine part of the nine out of ten coaches who are not getting results You're not getting new clients by just posting online Then you need to rethink your strategy. Okay, and I wouldn't want you just to rely on one thing I think if you just rely on one thing if Instagram is working for you or Facebook is working for you and a Different company comes along and parents start using something else Well, guess what you're gonna have to learn a whole different Social media or a whole different it's gonna be a new ballgame for you And I think building real personalized relationships with parents and people of influence in your city That will never go away because like you just simply talk to people. Okay. No I'm gonna move on a little bit here. So I see a ton of Coaches they ask questions all the time like because I have a daily newsletter If you're not subscribed to that go to build my sports biz calm You'll get my daily newsletter there, but a big question I get is like well You know, what should I be doing on? Instagram I know most coaches now are using Instagram and that's great. That's cool But here's three things that I see coaches that that do they do this they do these three things and I know These three things I can confidently tell you one of them will help the other two will not I'm gonna see if you can guess Okay, so the first thing I see coaches do is they constantly post videos of themselves Playing the sport they coach. So, you know me. I'm a soccer trainer So I can go look at up any soccer trainer on Instagram and you could go do the same today a Lot of these guys are posting like themselves Doing drills or shooting the ball or doing these crazy skills and that's cool Like that's entertaining, but is that getting you customers? You have to answer that question if you are doing that And it's not getting you customers. You need to Reposition how you market yourself the other one I see is coaches will post flyers of camps and clinics on Instagram Again, if I post a flyer of Anything I would expect no one to respond to that unless I have like dialed in Everyone who's following me is parents of kids that I train or parents of kids that you know play soccer in my area And I see a common mistake a lot of coaches who use Instagram They are getting validated by other coaches. So a good example is if you post a drill and Another coach from the other side of the world is like, oh awesome content. I want to use that or great stuff coach and Then that makes that makes you feel good about what you're doing because you're getting validated By someone else who does the same thing you do My take on that is if you have your own drills if you have your own content like I'm all for sharing and giving value, but the only people who care about that the only people who are gonna buy is Parents who live in your city. So who is following you? Is it parents who live in your city or is it other coaches? So you have to really start to figure out who you want to see your message If it's a bunch of other coaches, I can guarantee you those coaches are not paying you to be part of your program So you need to again reposition how you market yourself there, okay? And you need to ask yourself this question is posting videos of yourself Going to attract customers And I'm talking about you performing drills you doing stuff like that if you're selling digital content I'm not talking you if but if you're selling like an actual service of like private training group training Like you got to ask yourself that question is that working for you is is posting flyers online working for you? Yes, or no And then lastly is posting drills of other players you train going to pursue persuade parents to join your program And typically the answer is yes it really depends on how frequent you do that and How you present that on Instagram or Facebook? I like the idea of posting drills of Kids that you train And start tagging other parents or tagging those parents to watch it so they can share it with someone else that they know But if you're just posting content just for the sake of posting content, there's no call to action There's there's no application process There's nothing other than them sending you a DM or kids sending you a DM or other coaches sending you messages Then that's not gonna work. So you need to have a detailed process and this is why I Get so confused sometimes when I see coaches who ask me questions about marketing I'll go look at their stuff and they're just posting Flyers on their Instagram page or they have a bunch of content of just themselves doing Drills and doing skills and shooting and this can be applied to any sport by the way It's not just soccer. It's every sport out there and so My goal here in today's messages. I want you to think about like clearly think about what you're doing is It working? Yes or no if it is working double down on it. If it's not working change what you're doing and I know this is like a completely different topic, but a lot of these coaches I would say many of these coaches have followers who are other coaches that give them props and again, that's cool, but those likes and comments don't turn into customers then honestly you are wasting time and I hate saying that but I mean some of the most successful coaches I'm consulting with right now that are part of my one-on-one consulting program. They don't even have Instagram They don't even have you sorry Facebook. They're simply Just working on sales daily. They're getting their message in front of parents They know how to connect with parents that to me is going to be far more powerful than than posting drills and other people from Other parts of the world see what you're doing Again, if you want to build your business, you need to work on sales and you need to have a system there That's why you know, I wanted to create this podcast today because I know a lot of coaches get misled and they think That other coaches are on Instagram. So those coaches are successful. So they're just going to copy them I can guarantee you what you see online 95% of it is bullcrap Like even guys who have a hundred or five hundred thousand followers. It's it's not what you think It's not what it's cracked up to be I know this because I talked to some of these coaches and some of these coaches are struggling to get clients Okay, so you're hearing it for me and I can speak boldly about that because I have talked to some of these coaches That you've probably seen online Okay. Now again, I want to reiterate this Getting likes and comments can make you feel good and it can make you feel important but likes and comments do not equate to sales and I wouldn't want you to waste your time Trying to feel good all day by checking Instagram saying, oh, this how many people just liked My last post that will not mean anything unless those are dialed in people parents, you know influence in your area that are Wanting to set up a phone call to buy your program. Okay, I want that to be very clear-cut because I know I get a lot of questions about this all the time and even if you follow me on Instagram, I don't have a Massive following and that's okay. I don't need to have a massive following. I am very targeted I'm not talking to kids. I'm not talking to parents. I'm talking to coaches I'm helping coaches with their business. So you should try to get that specific what you're doing, but for parents Okay Now if you've been hiding behind the computer, that means that you're afraid to do something that means that you're afraid to sell and The only way to get better at selling is if you practice and that just means you have to be willing to fail Which is a very difficult thing to do and I know that because when I first started if you know anything about me I hated selling. I Was afraid of it. I hated talking to parents. I would always stutter I didn't even know what I was selling other than I knew I wanted to help their kid get better at soccer There was zero process now. I have a process coaches in our consulting program. They follow that process to a tee That's what helps them close clients You cannot close clients though unless you get on a phone call So you have to be willing to talk to a lot of parents to improve on the process of selling and Really, that's it for today's episode. I want you to think about You know, what are you currently doing to get clients? Is it working or is it not working and try to take the advice in today's episode? If you have any questions about that Holler at me on Instagram. Shoot me a direct message there Hey coach, thanks for listening to our show today. If you enjoyed the content I'd really appreciate it if you would leave us a five-star review here on iTunes If you want to attract more committed clients Generate more income and create more freedom in your life. You'll want to check out our inner circle mastermind This exclusive group is reserved for coaches who want to build and scale a dominant sports training business To learn more about the inner circle program. Simply head over to our website at www.buildmysportsbiz.com Thanks again for listening. I'll catch you later