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Articles by Ben Ludwig
Leading Staff Through AI Change
As an industry consultant, I get asked almost on a daily basis about AI. How do I use it to create efficiency in my business? How do I use it to reduce cost? What is the best way to leverage it for my staff? Here’s the thing, AI is not eliminating positions when it’s done right. It’s actually making our staff more readily available to be face-to-face with customers, which is where you want them to be and not in the back running admin tasks.
What Boutique Fitness Is Teaching Community Rec
In today’s fitness world, there are more options than a consumer has ever experienced. There are more ads coming through social media, more at home options and more of a competitive landscape than has ever existed. Consumers are now more aware of fitness and wellness and are more educated on what they should be doing to extend longevity. This means as leaders of wellness-based facilities, you must be aware of your competition.
5 Questions That Will Tell Everything About Your Membership Revenue
As an operator myself, I never needed a consultant to tell me whether my front desk was struggling to boost membership revenue. I just had to ask five questions. Some weeks the answers were great. Some weeks they let me know I had hours of role play in front of me. But I learned more from those conversations than I ever did from a monthly report. Why? Because the report shows you what already happened. These questions show you what’s about to happen.
Building Your Workforce Without Burning Out Full-Time Leaders
Ben Ludwig shares his strategies for how to best build a workforce at community rec centers while ensuring full-time employees are thriving. We do meaningful work, we make a difference in our communities, and we serve those that are underserved. This feels impactful right? This should draw people to our mission and should keep those who align with passion around for years to come, shouldn’t it?
Ready to Scale Your Fitness Business? Read This First.
Many years ago, I learned a costly and valuable lesson on scaling. Our leadership team sat in an office discussing our membership model, or staff profiles, going back and forth as to whether or not we should change the model, add management, add automation, change our marketing spend. All just to come out of the meeting frustrated and seemingly having more questions than we did answers. We realized that we scaled too fast.
Industry Trends Worth Paying Attention To… And Which Ones You Can Safely Ignore
The real skill today isn’t chasing every new idea; it’s knowing what actually matters, what’s noise and where trainers should invest their limited time, energy and money, so let’s break it down: Pay attention, but don’t panic AI is the real deal. It’s not going away and if we are honest, most of us use it on a daily basis in one way or another. And yes, it will change parts of the industry. But it’s not coming to replace great trainers.
Building Predictable Revenue in Community Recreation
Ben Ludwig details the importance of creating predictable revenue and how to sustain revenue-generating programs. When I look at the recreational landscape, I often compare it to commercial fitness. Not because it’s the same, but because our consumers often look at us through the lens of fitness instead of community. Why does this matter? Because to meet the needs of our consumers, we need to understand how they think and provide them with the experience that makes them want to come back.
How Member Onboarding Drives Growth During the Holidays
Ben Ludwig shares three ways rec centers can fight tough seasons by better embracing member onboarding. In the fitness and wellness industry, we have busy times when we know more than usual will flood in our doors such as January. Then there are times most business owners simply try to survive until the next spike in interest. The main problem with that strategy is it leaves you at the mercy of too many extraneous variables.
The Netflix Effect: What Binge Culture is Teaching Us About Member Engagement
It’s late, way later than you should be up. You’ve already watched four episodes of your newest addiction — a Netflix show about something that allows you to escape your reality and focus on someone else’s problems, which subconsciously makes yours not seem so bad. You think to yourself “should I watch one more or call it a night?’ The problem is the episode you’re on ends with a huge cliffhanger. Now, you have no choice but to watch the next episode.
What Binge Culture is Teaching Us About Member Engagement
It’s late, way later than you should be up. You’ve already watched four episodes of your newest addiction — a Netflix show about something that allows you to escape your reality and focus on someone else’s problems, which subconsciously makes yours not seem so bad. You think to yourself “should I watch one more or call it a night?’ The problem is the episode you’re on ends with a huge cliffhanger. Now, you have no choice but to watch the next episode.
5 Ways to Create Inspiring Community Rec Storytelling
Take a walk with me. you step foot into your rec center and see a new sign about swim lessons starting soon. You think, “In the past I’ve usually seen something like swim lessons start September 1 with a $49 registration fee. But this time it’s different.” There’s a picture of a sweet girl named Mia and her friend smiling from ear to ear, standing in front of the pool with a lifeguard laughing nearby. This is community rec storytelling.
Mentoring Matters: The Power of Mentoring Community Recreation Staff
If you’ve been in community recreation for more than a minute, you already know staff turnover is one of your biggest challenges. From part-time lifeguards to full-time program directors, it seems like someone is always on their way in or out. But what if the goal wasn’t just to fill positions, but to grow people? What if we thought about how to help people become better as a whole through mentoring community recreation staff? What if we raised the level of professionals across our industry?
How to Harness Wellness Within Your Organization
When we look back at what the fitness industry was 20 years ago, it seems like such a simpler time. Those who sought out our services were looking to lose weight or gain muscle mass. Goals were easy, sales strategies were straight forward and mathematically based on how long it would take you to lose a few pounds. Fast forward to today and we see a much different landscape. Studies tell us mental health is now more important than ever before.
Making Data Human: Teaching Your Team to Use Metrics That Motivate
“Ben, this doesn’t motivate me.” After dropping a spreadsheet of data in front of a team member and giving them a motivational speech about how they could make more money, it took me a second to figure out how to respond to the blunt honesty that had just been served to me. Numbers always tell a story and can be a massive growth tool, but more isn’t always better.
Unconventional Ways to Develop Partnerships
Developing partnerships is certainly not a new topic of discussion among gyms, rec centers or nonprofits. I assume you already have some great contacts and relationships in place such as local schools, government engagement and health care facilities. So, before we jump into the partnerships you maybe haven’t thought of, I feel the obligation to ensure you know two or three extremely well developed and nurtured partnerships will always produce more results than 30 weak contacts.
Engaging Seniors at Your Center
When you consider the demographics of your recreation center, we often see a more varied population than any other health and wellness space. From young kids simply seeking activity outside their home, to seniors who likely wouldn’t be joining any commercial gym in your area. The hard part is in my experience, the senior population can often be the hardest to engage and get involved in your programs. So what are the best ways to go about making engaging seniors a priority within your center?
Keep Your Introductory Offer Fresh Without Losing Who You Are
When you are considering how to get people in the front door, you likely have found a few offers that seem to work better than all the others and stick to that. So should you raise your price? Change the length of the offer? Add more value propositions into the offering?
Retention is a Relationship, Not a Strategy
Ben Ludwig, the COO of Traction Group LLC, an F45 Training company, shares four ways to make retention a relationship with your client instead of a strategy. “You’re right Ben, I probably didn’t really give this go around my best shot. I could’ve been more accountable to myself, and now that I am looking back you guys did reach out a lot. Yeah, I will give it another try. 30 days and let’s see what I can get going.” Doesn’t this sound like the perfect ending to saving a cancellation?
Where Growing Numbers and People Meet
Ben Ludwig, the COO of Traction Group LLC, an F45 Training company, shares how to better understand your people and stats within your business. When you think about your current production within your fitness business, are you satisfied with how many leads, trials and new memberships you currently have? Consulting business owners across the globe, the most common answer I hear when I ask, “how many do you need?” The answer I mostly get is, “More.” So what’s the right number of leads?
Grow or Give Back? 3 Ways to do Both This Holiday Season
Ben Ludwig, the COO of Traction Group LLC, an F45 Training company, shares how you can give back to community while still growing your business. “It’s so hard to choose whether we look inward and find ways to focus on our growth or take a break and focus outward because I know our community will appreciate us giving back.” This quote from a fitness business owner I know is on many of our minds, especially going into the holiday season, and for many, the slowest time of the year.
Selling Full-Price Programs During Slow Times
Ben Ludwig, the COO of Traction Group LLC, an F45 Training company, shares four ways to sell full-price programs when traffic is slow. Pressure can get the best of us as business owners and managers. We know we have goals to hit, responsibilities to the bank, payroll to match and bills to pay. Going into historically slow times can be stressful and often when consulting gym owners and managers, “just getting by” is a win for most.
4 Considerations When Reaching Former Members
Ben Ludwig shares four considerations for health club operators when reaching former members. It’s no secret most gym owners and operators would love to have more members. We see creative ways to spend dollars on new ads, referral campaigns, free giveaways, onboarding strategies, and more. All different kinds of efforts get made in the fitness industry to drive new members through our doors.
5 Steps for Onboarding New Members
Ben Ludwig shares five steps for onboarding new members in your gyms and health clubs Often when I consider what things I should be focusing on in my business, I must put myself in the customers’ shoes. How do I do that? I become the customer. I consider myself a student of the fitness industry. Over the course of my career I have joined over 100 gyms, centers, studios and boxes. By doing this I have learned so much more about what onboarding should and shouldn’t look like.
4 Underutilized Lead Tactics for Health Clubs
Referrals, business-to-business and outreach. We have all heard the basics of how to drive additional leads. But what about underutilized lead tactics? When evaluating your business, the first thing you should always assess is your sales process. If you’re getting five or 500 leads every month, with a weak sales process, you’re missing out on opportunity.
Community Partnerships: Getting Past the Surface Level Stalemate
Ben Ludwig shares four ways health clubs can make community partnerships most effective. “We are a purpose driven company that truly cares about our customers and seeking to find ways to benefit our community through the best service and quality experience.” Does this line sound lame? That’s because it is. Every fitness brand knows how important it is to be part of the community, yet most business owners and managers have no idea how to truly find the right partnerships.
The Five Best Referral Marketing Strategies
Christine Schmidt, the director of marketing and community at LoopSpark, shares her five best referral marketing strategies. Referral marketing is one of the best yet hardest ways to boost lead generation. It’s complicated because nobody wants to be too forward, yet a strong referral marketing campaign can strengthen existing customer relationships, bring in new leads and grow business. Before diving into implementation, it helps to explain why referral marketing is important.
Episode 54: Instructor Development Insights with Sean Turner
In a time of seemingly consistent staff turnover, developing and retaining employees is incredibly important to the sustained success of an organization. Rico Francis, the president and co-founder of Club Solutions, recently sat down with Sean Turner, the CEO of Les Mills U.S., to talk about Les Mills and how the company is striving to recruit, cultivate and keep effective instructors. Listen to the full conversation below. Show Notes Can you guess where Turner is from? The answer is at 0:41.
Finding Quality Group Fitness Talent
Staci Alden shares six ways to find quality group fitness talent for your health club. Finding group fitness instructors can be challenging. But finding dedicated, hardworking, and talented instructors can feel nearly impossible. I believe it starts by finding an instructor in the right place, in the right way, and at the right time. After this, you can capitalize on the find through a thorough hiring and onboarding process.
Salt Room: How Fitness Clubs Are Getting Salted
How a salt room can increase profits, build an engaging member experience, and set you up as a fitness destination. Fitness clubs across the country are striving to set themselves apart from the competition. Offering salt therapy will help you create additional value for your members, and when you are ready to add salt therapy, you have multiple options that can be customized to fit your budget and space considerations.
Drive Additional Gym Revenue Without a Huge Spend
Ben Ludwig shares three ideas on how to drive additional gym revenue. In the fitness industry, we have seen both ends of the spectrum when it comes to fees. We have seen those who include everything, and I mean absolutely everything for one low monthly price, and we have seen those that start with a basic fee, but then charge you additional for anything and everything.
Outdated Tech Can’t Touch This
Kara Blaisdell, the director of public relations and communication at Radianse shares the importance of touchless technology. In the 21st century, it’s truly amazing how fast technology moves. Simply think back to June 2007 and the introduction of the very first iPhone. Touch technology had existed for many years up to this point, but in 2007 it became integral to our lives. Just 15 years later, the entire world is accessible with a few taps of a finger. Now, the entire world is changing again.
Foundational Referral Campaign Tactics
Ben Ludwig shares four foundational referral campaign tactics to apply to your fitness business. When teaching franchisees from across the globe about what it takes to run a successful fitness business, I often find myself talking about referrals being my favorite word in the fitness business. It seems every owner and operator I speak to knows the value of referrals and makes attempts to get them at seemingly every opportunity.
Faces Behind the Features: Taylor Brown
You’ve read our stories, seen our bylines and maybe even hung out with us at an event or two, but who are the people behind Club Solutions? Faces Behind the Features is a series to help you better understand the writers who bring you industry news and best practices daily. Taylor Brown is an assistant editor at Peake Media, who mainly focuses on Club Solutions.
4 Mistakes to Avoid When Running a Fitness Business
Kory Angelin shares four mistakes to avoid when running a fitness business. We often talk about best practices and what to do in regard to finding success in the fitness business. However, we often fall short of our goals both from a financial and personal standpoint. Even the most experienced entrepreneurs fall short of expectations in this industry. It is important to recognize some mistakes could be avoided early on in the process.
Creating Change for Teen Fitness and Wellness
Erin Lotta, a strength and wellness coach for young women, shares the opportunity health clubs have to create change for teen fitness and wellness. It’s no secret that being a teenager is difficult, but for teens living through a pandemic, it has become even more challenging for their overall health.
Christine Schmidt, the director of marketing and community at LoopShark, shares three ways to build a sales relationship with clients. Building a sales relationship with clients might sound a little “crazy,” and we get it. Sales itself has stereotypically been seen as an “uncomfortable” thing in just about every business across every industry. Why is that?
Decrease Turnover With Working Interviews
Adam Arnett, the CEO of Element Personal Training, shares how to decrease turnover rates by implementing working interviews. According to recent reports published in IHRSA, the average yearly turnover rate for a personal training (PT) staff is 80%. To put that into perspective, if your organization has 100 trainers, you will have to replace 80 trainers every year.
Preventing Burnout for Gym Owners
Four ways you can start preventing burnout today and get back on track to enjoying your business. The average fitness business owner spends anywhere from 60-80 hours a week working. And the worst part about it is, even when you aren’t at your gym, you’re still thinking about it, checking emails, answering texts and calls, and working on projects you “didn’t have a chance to get to” because you were dealing with clients. If you can relate, I have some news for you: you’re not alone.
Hire Properly to Retain Properly: 4 Strategies for Health Clubs
Ben Ludwig shares four strategies for health club leaders to hire properly and retain valuable team members. It happened again – you finally thought you had a full team built. Some members needed a lot of work, some didn’t even really fit the bill at all, and some drive you crazy, but they produce, right? This leaves you feeling like you have to keep them on your team otherwise you won’t hit your targets for this month. But then another team member puts in their notice, and not even two weeks.
Mercedes Club: An Urban Fitness Oasis
April 2022 Club of the Month, presented by ABC Fitness Solutions: Mercedes Club, est. 2012 Mercedes Club is an 80,000 square foot, urban fitness oasis in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. The club combines sleek, modern design and lavish amenities with great customer service and an inclusive environment.
4 Techniques for Introducing New Tech to Members
Introducing new tech to your health club members? Utilize these four tips for long-lasting success. There seems to be a split in the fitness industry today. On one side, we have more of a traditional approach to fitness in trusting old systems to get our clients results. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, we have those always seeking the most cutting-edge technology, the most enticing programs and doing everything we can to “keep things spicy” for our members.
5 Ways to Inspire a Lifetime of Movement for Kids
Erin Lotta December 1, 2021 Inspiring movement for kids is simply based around getting them to buy in. We all need a reason to be motivated to workout. The key is to teach them to love the process and not just try to reach a goal. The reason to exercise needs to be intrinsic to make it sustainable. We want to inspire a lifetime of movement and health from a young age so it becomes not just a habit but a tool they can use. It’s imperative to make fitness a positive experience children look forward to.
Free or Paid Trial? Which to Offer at Your Health Club
Kory Angelin November 17, 2021 We all know every gym or studio offers one or the other: a free or paid trial. These trials often range from one day to a few weeks in duration and are designed for the consumer to test out the product. I love mystery shopping these trials whenever I get the chance because it is a good way to evaluate the customer experience. Everything from the initial conversation with the sales associate to the workout itself.
Prioritizing Strength Equipment: Don’t Be an Enabler
Ryan O'Toole November 3, 2021 Strategies for prioritizing strength equipment in your health club this season. The core of the fitness industry is results. While some people enjoy the gym and working out for the social aspect, the root of what brings someone there is a desire to obtain an outcome. Facilities should be designed with results in mind, not just flash and sizzle. Space and money should be prioritized towards maximizing results on investment.
Increased Profits: Just Add Dry Salt Therapy
With growing membership numbers and health trends, increase your club’s profits by adding dry salt therapy to your options. Attract Members Interested in Their Physical, Mental and Respiratory Health After almost two years where people spent most of their days cooped up at home getting very little exercise, fitness resolutions have begun to take on a little more weight as we head into 2022. The fitness industry can attest.
Seasonality and Member Onboarding: Drive Growth During the Holidays
Preparing to address seasonality and member onboarding during the holidays. In the fitness industry we often see what most call “seasonality.” We have busy times when we know more members than usual will come through the doors, such as January. And then there are times most business owners simply try to survive until the next spike in interest. The main problem with that strategy is it leaves you at the mercy of too many extraneous variables.
Mental Health: Addressing the Pressure to be Perfect
Addressing the conversation around mental health and the pressure to be perfect. In a recent Forbes article by Paula Davis, the CEO of the Stress and Resilience Institute, and author of “Beating Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being & Resilience,” Davis addressed conversations around Simone Biles, mental health and the pressure to be perfect.
Retention Strategy: The Hunt to Keep Health Club Members
Mark Miller, the COO of Merritt Clubs in Maryland, shares the key to a great retention strategy and how to keep your health club members. What number of cancels can you afford to lose each month? How many new net members do you need to hit your financial objectives? Pick a number and write it down. I’m going to tell you how to get there by sharing what is working for the most successful companies and why.
Summer Membership Strategies: Keeping Members Engaged
Four tips for developing summer membership strategies at your health club. You keep asking yourself the same question: How do I create more revenue in my business? How can I make more sales? How do I yield higher retention in my member base? Now we have to add an additional variable into the mix – summer is here.
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