Brad with his twin daughters, Jadyn and Jordyn. Brad says he works so hard to not only provide for his daughters, but to be a good example of working hard to follow your dreams.
Ben: Hi. This is Ben, the UK/European Director, here with Brad Bearden from Elite Fitness in Birmingham, Alabama. Can you tell everyone your business model?
Brad: It’s a blend of semi-private and private training. Basically, what we’ve done is we’ve tried to bridge the gap between traditional one-on-one personal training and CrossFit where all of our semi-private training sessions have to be preregistered for and they have a cross fit style
to them but each session is specifically designed for the individuals who are preregistered for that group. Likewise, our one-on-one sessions still have more of a functional training CrossFit style, but obviously personalized for that individual.
Ben: How many clients do you currently serve? And how long have you been in the fitness industry?
Brad: Right now we are at 61 clients. And I’ve been in the industry about five years.
Ben: Tell me first how you came into contact with NPE.
Brad: Through NPE’s marketing. I don’t remember how, initially, but somewhere along the way, a few years ago, I came across the MEGA TRAININGTM advertisements and looked into it. It sounded all great, but I was a struggling subcontracted trainer trying to make it on my own, and I didn’t have a lot of money.
Eventually, came out the opportunity for scholarships, so we submitted the essay and then the videos and everything that went along with it. I made my submission at the very last minute and, I won. I got the e-mail and got the full scholarship.
Obviously, I didn’t tell anybody this, but when I went to MEGA TRAININGTM my bank account was in the negative. I was maybe $120 overdrawn in my bank account. It was a tough time, but I went, made a lot of great connections, and got a lot of amazing information. I knew from that point on this was a company I wanted to associate myself with and learn from. It was just a matter of time of getting into a position where I could do so.
Ben: After MEGA TRAININGTM, what were your next actions?
Brad: I was trying to make it happen to find a payment plan and get into EA. I started a process, but at the time, my mother-in-law was dying of cancer. I wasn’t able to pour any more time into my business model at that point. A host of other things were going array in my life, and so it went to the back burner.
The only thing that I did was take the information I had gained, and started to apply it as I could. I held on to the relationships as much as I could that I had developed there, or started to, specifically with Clint, NPE’s Global Coaching Manager. Clint and I really hit it off at MEGA TRAININGTM. I could tell he was very genuine and a great guy. Him being from Mississippi, and me from Alabama, we had a little bit in common, so I stayed in contact with him until I got to the point where it was financially feasible to invest.
Ben: I understand. So you were going through some hard times in your personal life as well. Can you just touch on that a little bit? Don’t feel you have to tell us everything.
Brad: I’ll be completely candid because I know other people have been through some tough times, and they think those things take precedence over their dreams, and that’s not realistic.
Basically, I found out a year after attending MEGA TRAININGTM, in December 2013, and a month and a half after my mother in law passed away, that my wife, who is the mother of my twins girls, who were nine months at the time, was having multiple affairs.
I was devastated, but my primary concern became my children, and I started trying to prepare a way to win full custody of my children. From taking care of my mother in law, and then the emotional trauma of finding out about my marriage, and then everything that came after that, I didn’t have a lot of time to pour into the business.
I was sole proprietor of my personal training company that I had subcontracted out of a gym.
The way I was doing it, I was trying my best to position myself as my own company. I found a new startup gym and I had developed an agreement with them where I could be the only subcontracted personal trainer out of their gym. At first it was a great partnership, but then, they started realizing that they were hurting for cash. I was taking a lot of clients with me, and then jealousy set in.
They didn’t know the full realm of my financial circumstance because the people I was partnered with had no idea about business. They thought I was making a whole lot of money so they wanted their piece of the pie.
The truth is, I had absolutely no money in the bank. The morning I confronted my now ex-wife about the divorce, to me it was more of an emotional thing than it was a strategic. I confronted her about 5:00 in the morning and at 9:00 that morning I went to work and she went to the banks and cleaned out every single last dime I had, and maxed out every credit card I had.
My credit score was destroyed because I had almost $10,000 in debt over night and no money to pay it. My credit score went from an 805 to 514. It was financially devastating, but I had my baby girls. I basically just hit the reset button on my life. I had to learn how to become a single dad. Going back, it just so happened that the owners of the gym I was partnered with, approached me and said they wanted to increase the amount of rent I was paying by five times. Not double or triple, but by five times.
I gave them my 60-day notice to cancel our partnership and our agreement. I had no idea where I was going to go from there. I believe in the power of prayer. I believe in the power of God. And I also believe in the power of hard work.
I prayed a lot and I started going from different commercial real estate agencies to different listings. I was trying to find office space that I could sublease. I was trying to be as savvy as I could to find a place just to train out of. The apartment that I moved into from our home had a piece of crap facility. It at least had a few dumbbells in it and a treadmill, so I made the best of it as my 60-day notice came up.
I trained there for a little while. A real estate agent called me back and said he had property that was formally a personal training studio. It was a fitness franchise that had been foreclosed upon, and it still had some equipment in it.
Now, I know I have no money and I have no credit but I believe in authenticity. I went and looked at it; it was in a prime location in a great demographic. I just broke it down for him, and told the real estate agent exactly everything that was going on in my life.
I told him my business had basically fallen on space because I didn’t have the time to do it because I was now a full-time dad. I said, “If you can give me this opportunity, I guarantee I’ll make it work. I don’t have any money for the deposit,” which was thousands of dollars. “I would need some free months upfront just to get my feet underneath me, but if you give me a chance I guarantee you, I promise you, I’ll make it work.”
The man had been through a divorce himself and he talked to me about it. I guess he appreciated my candidness. He said, “All right.” He was the owner of the management company that manages all the property. He called the guy who owns the entire strip mall and said, “Look, we want to take a chance on this guy.”
He knew my credit was nothing. I didn’t have a guarantor. I didn’t have any money for a deposit, but still, he said, “That’s fine.” He replied with “I’m going to give you three months free and after those three months we’re going to step your rent up starting at $1,000 a month and then we’re going to go to $1,500, and then to $1,800, and then we’re going to go up to $2,100”, which is what the rent is now.
This is Brad’s 1200 sq. foot studio before he personally put in the rubber flooring.
I was even able to negotiate a clause. I said I would sign this five-year lease, but after a year, if I haven’t been proven if I can sustain, I would like an exit clause. I couldn’t believe it. He signed that into the agreement. All the equipment that was in there, out of the kindness of his heart, he leased everything.
They had acquired it from the foreclosing process, and he leased every bit of it to me for $1.00. Just an amazing blessing. Then, I had to make it happen. He had blessed me immensely, but still there were a lot of things that had to take place. For the training that I wanted to do, the space didn’t work, so I had to basically recruit a bunch of friends.
I didn’t have any money for any work permits, so I got some friends together and we pulled an extreme home makeover. We knocked a bunch of walls out and changed the flooring as best we could; painted some walls and rearranged some equipment. I was able to get the gentlemen to allow me to interchange some of the equipment I had with a local fitness equipment sales dealership.
Just putting up the sign outside, it had to be a certain size. It had to be lit up a certain way. It would cost about $6,000. I met with a guy and was able to wheel and deal and trade out a year of free training for it.
God just put these people in my life, and I just wheeled and dealed every way I could, and I got everything we needed. I serviced the absolute crap out of the people who came through the door. I provided the best customer service I possibly could. I had some great people step up and help me take care of the girls when needed.
Literally, it’s been the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life. I can’t tell you how many nights and how many times I’ve worked two or three days straight without a single wink of sleep. I would be up all night long until 5:00 in the morning. I have one bathroom that has a shower in it. I’d go in there and take a quick shower and clients start coming in at 5:20. I still provided the best customer service I possibly could. And from there, it just started growing organically.
Ben: How many clients did you have when you were training at that gym that tried to put the rates up by five times?
Brad: I don’t remember, maybe seven. Then, when that lease ended, that 60-day notice I gave, I only had two I was training at my apartment complex. I was down to two clients. That’s what I opened up with here, two clients.
Ben: What did you do to get the 62 you have right now?
Brad: I don’t recommend this at all. I will never do it again, but this is what I did. I had to do something. I had no money for anything. As part of my scholarship to the MEGA TRAININGTM, I was given the 21-Day Challenge. I was given the slides and everything to go along with it. That was part of the scholarship I won. I had never used it up until now, never really even dug too far into it.
I knew it would work because I had heard a bunch of the success stories so I said, “All right, here we go.” I got in touch with Living Social and I ran a Living Social deal. Again, I will never recommend anybody doing it unless they have to. I amped up the value. I took the 21-Day plan, and Fitness Builder, which I used to track my client’s measurements, and I used that to make at-home workouts. I used the Nutrition Plan that came with the 21-Day Challenge. I gave three workouts a week for 21 days and then I put a big discount on the backend of it when people came in. I don’t remember exactly what the price value was, but it was somewhere close to $500, and I sold it on Living Social for $39.
I had about 70-something people purchase this. My whole objective there was to flip them into 12-month contracts. If they invested in a 12-month contract, I said I would double the value of the Living Social voucher, and then give that to them again and take it off their first month. I also said I’d add an extra month to the end of their program and give out six free sessions. It was an amazing value I added to it if they would sign up.
So, for a lot of people, it was a no brainer. What it meant is I was still going to starve for a little while, but at least I got people in door, and I got people to service. I got people in and I serviced their socks off. They got service 100 times more than what they had purchased. I was servicing them the best I knew how.
They signed up, they were happy, and they referred. Right now, at least 65% of my clientele are from referrals.
Ben: Did you have a referral system in place?
Brad: Heck no, I just asked them. I’m starving. I was a lot more professional about it, but at the time, I knew nothing about a referral system.
I would just ask, “Do you have any friends that you think would enjoy this as well, as much as you do? I’d love for you to bring them in for a free session, or if they would want to come in for a free week.” I guess this was my referral process. I said, “If they sign up, I will give you $50 off your next month” They came in, I would service their socks off, and they’d sign up. Rinse and repeat.
Ben: Can you go into a little bit more detail, Brad, about what you did to service these clients so well that they would happily pass you referrals?
Brad: I think that’s been a developed skill set of making it a point to learn stuff on a personal level about everybody. Even now, now that I have trainers, after every session I write personal notes about their life, about their kids, are they getting a promotion at work, are they going on a family vacation, is somebody in their family sick.
Still to this day, and forever in my company, after every single session, my trainers are required to write down something personal about each client; any update we can possible have. If it is date related, then we put it into our system so we have a reminder so we can send out a card, give a call, or send an e-mail or text.
I just did that; anything I could to connect to them on a personal level. I made it genuine. People really appreciated that. I would take the time. Although I always carry myself with a professional appearance, people knew I was working my ass off. People really appreciated the fact that if they had a question I would stop, not in the middle of the session, but I would stop whatever else I was doing, go into my office, sit down and hammer it out.
I would tell people, “You’re not coming to me for a great workout. You’re coming to me for results, and I’m going to do whatever’s necessary to get them.”
Brad runs many different classes. He molds each class to individually fit the participants in it. He is able to do this by having his clients sign up for the class ahead of time.
Ben: Awesome, Brad. Can you tell me at what stage did you then invest in EA? Was it in the transition between the gym where you were a contractor into the new building, or was it before that?
Brad: When I got into the new building, again, I had no money at that time. I did the 21-Day promotion off of the material I got from NPE from MEGA TRAININGTM years before. I didn’t invest in EA until a little bit after. I was still in touch with Clint from time to time and he would give me as much information as he could.
He knows I’m a man of integrity. I would ask him, “Can you tell me what I need to do now? Can you tell me what I need to do next?” He would be honest. He said, “You need to do something like this.” He knew he couldn’t give me proprietary information because I hadn’t invested in the system.
He would tell me that. He knew I wasn’t asking for that. I was needing guidance and Clint gave it to me. Clint knew that I had no money. I couldn’t pay my bills. I couldn’t pay my personal rent on the apartment. I couldn’t pay my electric bill.
The only money that was a necessity was to make sure my girls had clothes on their back and food in their mouth. Lights were optional. Rent was optional. Everything at this point in my life was optional, except NPE because I knew this investment would give me what I needed.
I just knew it. At this point, for almost a year and a half, I knew for a fact, the proof was in the pudding. It was in the people. This wasn’t just a bunch of marketing gimmicks that were put out there to make it sound good. These were people who I’ve seen, who are living their dreams. I knew for a fact that I needed that material.
So, I invested in NPE. I took what money I had, and I put it into NPE.
Ben: Let’s talk about that. The first step of EVOLUTION ACCELERATORTM is AUTO-CLOSERTM. Can you tell me, Brad, your first response to learning that information and then how did you go about applying it?
Brad: For me, one of my problems is I am a perfectionist. Throughout this process, I’ve heard many people say, and I’ve even heard Sean say at times, “Don’t worry about perfecting it. Just get it up and running and then fix the problems as they are. Just get something out there.” That’s been a struggle for me because I’m such a perfectionist. I want everything laid out.
That was my biggest struggle with AUTO-CLOSERTM. I wanted to memorize everything. I wanted everything perfect. Then I realized after having it about a week, screw this. I have to make some money. I just started winging it for what I didn’t memorize, but I followed the steps. That’s why I appreciate the simplicity of the damn instructions. I sat there, and after every single consultation I would write out what I did really well, what I did poorly, and what I need to work on. I used that as a template to better myself.
That systematically got me better and better. It became like clockwork. Now I can use AUTO-CLOSERTM in Wal-Mart. It doesn’t matter where I am. It just happens.
Ben: What was your first big sale from AUTO-CLOSERTM? What was your first sale?
Brad: That’s a good question. My very first sale was a private, one-on-one consultation. It was for private training and it was $4,680 paid in installments of $780 per month for six months.
Ben: What did that do for your confidence, and did you feel the stress come off your shoulders?
Brad: I got my swagger back, baby. AUTO-CLOSERTM worked. I knew it would work the whole time.
I had a fundamental understanding of sales. Sometimes I sold big packages, and sometimes I had sold really small packages. The thing is, I never knew what I did right or wrong. I never knew the system.
Sometimes I would hit the nail on the head, and sometimes I would miss it by a mile, but I never knew why. I never knew how to fix it. There was never a system in place to know what was step one, step two, step three—a workable plan of action. Now, I have one. I know what to do. I know how to do it. I know what order to do it in. It just became methodical.
When I messed up, I knew how I messed up and I fixed it. It’s simple to me. That was the paradigm shift for me. I know how to sell, I know how to relate to people, I know the fundamentals of it, but I had no systemized way of knowing if I was doing it right or wrong, why I’m getting it right or wrong, or how to fix it or get better.
Now, I never have to worry about that. The beautiful part about it is I can easily teach it to my staff. Literally, just follow the instructions and you’re good to go.
Ben: Perfect. The facility is open, you have clients coming in off the Living Social deal, you’ve invested in EVOLUTION ACCELERATORTM and you’ve just made your first sale. What sort of money were you generating at this point?
Brad: I think I was maybe $4,000 a month, something like that, total.
Ben: Talk me through the next steps, what did you press on?
Brad: First, I raised the rates of my group training. Before I really even got to AUTO-CLOSERTM, I went through the margins and worked the margins. That’s why some people irritate me on the forum. They ask, “What should my pricing be?” Just do the material. Nobody can tell you that. You have to figure out your margins.
That’s what I did. I followed the instructions and I learned what my margin needed to be, and I saw how far off they were, so I raised my rates. I’m only two or three months old and I’m raising my rates. I knew I needed to raise them more, but I was a little intimidated to make that big of a jump. I couldn’t afford to lose anybody at that time.
I raised about 50% of what I needed to, and then about a month later, I raised them again and got them exactly where they needed to be.
Ben: How did that go down with your clients?
Brad: When I said I raised my rates, I didn’t follow the Raise the Rates campaign that you all did. The people who had signed up through Living Social, I let them stay where they were. I needed money to pay the bills and that gave me that baseline just to pay the rent here at the facility. Anybody coming in the door, I raised their rates. They didn’t know any different.
Ben: At this point, had you gotten stuck into any more marketing, apart from the referrals and 21-Day? What was your next step?
Brad: I pretty much just serviced people. I bought some cheap gift cards from a company in Korea. I paid some people at Fiverrr.com to design them for me. I gave those to clients each valued at $100. That was a little bit of marketing I did.
I put together a letter and sent those gift cards out to clients. I used a regular postage stamp and did a little bit as I could to generate more referrals. I got a lot of referrals from the gift cards. I’ll be honest with you, Ben. Most of the referrals, it wasn’t because of the gift cards. That definitely helped because it gave them something to give to their friends. But it was because of the relationship I had with them.
In mid December, I ran a billboard ad, which I would not recommend as well.
Ben: Talk me through the billboard. Why did you do it? How did you get the money to do it? What were the results?
Brad: Again, I’m a man of principle. So, when I first started, if any money came in the door, 10% of it I tithed and then 10% went to savings. That was 20% off the gross coming in the door, and it hurt, but I felt like it was the right thing.
Because of the savings money I had, that was where I had the money for the billboard. They were running a special at that time.
It was close to Christmas, and a lot of people were investing in it. It was an electronic billboard, so it had different slides that changed. I signed up for two months on the billboard. It just worked for me for what I needed. I would never recommend a billboard though.
Where I sit, I’m right on what is called John Hopkins Parkway. It’s a four-lane highway. Within a one and a half mile radius, the average home value is about $350,000 to $400,000 and plenty in the multimillions. There are thousands of them, so I sit in a very good demographic. To drive to all of those neighborhoods, they have to drive, literally, right past my facility on John Hopkins Parkway.
Well, there are only two billboards on John Hopkins Parkway, and one of them was this one. So, the demographic that I’m trying to reach, they have to drive down this road to get home or get to work every day so they have to pass the billboard. I had a client who you see featured in it.
It blew up, and she got national media attention because people said she was body shaming. She had a picture taken with her kids in a sports bra and workout shorts and said, “What’s your excuse?” A lot of people loved it and some people hated it, and it got national attention.
This is the billboard of Brandy and her kids that Brad is referring to.
It just so happened that I had another mom at my facility, who had just begun training, who was friends with this young lady who had some media contacts. I put the billboard up and asked her if she could contact some of her media contacts and see if they would be interested. She got in touch with them and they said, “Yes, we would love to.”
They came out. They did a five-minute piece on it. We just got amazing publicity off of it. The TV station that did the special posted a little snippet about it on their Facebook page. There were some people who jumped on there and said, “Oh, this is body shaming.” The reporters went out in the community and interviewed people that we didn’t even know about.
They went to parks and all over the community asking people what they thought about the billboard. It gave us amazing publicity. The cool part about that, and this is what I probably gained most out of it, we’ve done such a good job of developing a community atmosphere here inside our facility that those people who went on that Facebook page and posted those negative comments, our clientele went to bat.
It was amazing. I think right now there are 200 comments and 95% of them are all positive and backing up Brandy. Brandy was the lady we featured. It helped to solidify the community feel and put a lot of good publicity out there for us. It was cool to see so many of our clients coming to bat and developing that community and doing it in a way where everybody else can see.
Now people wanted to become a part of it. We had people coming just because they wanted to be a part of this family, this group that was going to bat for each other. That’s really one of the major things it did for us.
I also did the text thing. Text “Get fit” to whatever the number was. I did the 21-Day Challenge again off this. I launched a 21-Day Program the right way. This was where, I guess, I made a quantum leap in my company. I priced it at $197 for the 21-Day Program and then tried to flip them to a six or 12-month program. I think I flipped 55% of the leads that came in.
I didn’t have a lot of leads because I jacked the price up a little bit. When they texted “Get fit” to that number, it took them straight to the squeeze page, the 21-Day Program, and put them right into our funnel. Then we started marketing that way.
Ben: Nice. You really mastered social proof with that one billboard ad. How much did it cost you?
Brad: It was $500 for the first month and $1,500 for the second month. Honestly, it was a mistake on my part to do it for two months. They were doing the $500 a month special for the first month. The billboard typically runs $1,800 a month. I felt like if I get it for two months for $2,000 then I would go for it because I could pay for it in payments.
Everything I needed out of it, I got the first month. Really, the second month of $1,500 was a waste. I live and learn. I signed a contract, so I fulfilled it and I paid that $1,500. I won’t do it again unless a unique opportunity like this happens to come up.
Ben: What was the return of your investment? How much did you make off the back of that? Did you track it?
Brad: Twenty four thousand one hundred fifty dollars.
Ben: So, you put $500 down and you made $24,150 from that one billboard? I would be running that billboard every month. So, bringing in $24,000, that was your next massive breakthrough. Tell me what happened after that. Obviously, you’re sky high, right?
Brad: Obviously! I brought on staff. I have a trainer. I have an administrative assistant. Let me back up. When I give my pitch for Member of the Year at MEGA TRAININGTM, this is one thing I will tell people to do. The very first thing I did was hire an administrative assistant. This was only maybe four months into the company being birthed.
Pictured is Brad with his team members. He has two trainers and one administrative assistant. Brad is in the process of hiring more staff members.
She would watch my kids. I would tell her, “I need you to come in at 5:00 in the morning and watch my girls in my office while I train,” and she would do it. You don’t find too many like that. I didn’t have any money to pay her, so what I did was tell her I was going to pay her two weeks in the hole. Whatever her start date was, and let’s say she started July 1st, she didn’t get that check until August 1st. So for July 1st through the 15th, she got paid on August 1st for that.
I didn’t really give my staff the option. I just said, “This is how I pay.” I’ve had people ask me since then, “How did you convince your employees that you’re not going to pretty much pay them for a month?” I just did. I just told them this is how it’s going to be. It gave me a month to make that money back.
It helped me with cash flow. I could leverage her skill set for a month before I had to actually pay her. And I did. I’ll tell you I could not have done it without my administrative assistant. She’s awesome. I’m bringing her to SPRING TRAININGTM with me, so you’ll get to meet her.
She’s a phenomenal asset to the company. So, I started bringing on more staff, and now I have a full-time trainer. I’m in the process of hiring right now. I’m in the process of finding an assistant for my administrative assistant as well. That is only because she’s going to become my fitness director.
Ben: Great! Well, let’s talk more financials. What has been your best month to date financially?
Brad: January I finished at $43,773 of new revenue. I would have hit $50,000 but this darn snowstorm. My goal was $50,000. Cash in hand last month was $24,435.06.
Ben: What do you mean by in hand?
Brad: I mean that’s the cash that we got paid, that came in. The $43,773 is new sales that we did last month.
Ben: Okay, so you did $43,000 in new sales, but $24,000 actually came in. Awesome.
Brad: Yes. The $24,000 was the down payments on the programs that we had from those new sales and from the auto recurring payments we have from clients who are already signed up.
Ben: Sweet. Are you able to pay yourself a wage?
Brad: Yes, kind of. I pretty much pay myself a draw. I limit it at $2,800 a month right now. That’s just because I’ve been aggressively paying off what little bit of debt I’ve accumulated.
Ben: What does the future hold for you, your twins and the business?
Brad: Life, baby. Life. As soon as my margins in the company allow it, I’ll be going VIP. That’s just a natural next step. Through what NPE has taught me, my margins will make that decision, not myself. My goal right now, my hard goal, is January of next year I want to do my first six-figure month. That’s it. That’s my goal.
Long term, I want to get through VIP and expand my facility. We have 900 square feet to work out of. It’s a 1,200 square foot facility but we have a little reception area in the front and an office and bathroom in the back. We literally have 900 square feet and we’re outgrowing it.
I want to expand this facility eventually, get all the systems in place, rubber stamp it. I want to duplicate it one time to prove that it’s possible and then I want to franchise. That’s three to five years down the road. That’s where I’m headed.
Ben: What would you say to any fitness business owners out there right now who are struggling, or to EVOLUTION ACCELERATORTM members who have signed up for the program and who are distracted and are struggling? What would your words of advice be?
Brad: You are a product of your choices. Too many people allow the circumstances that they live in affect the quality of life that they live. The truth of the matter is the life that you live solely begins and ends with the choices you make.
That’s a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow. If you have the audacity and the courage to swallow it, then you have the potential to become great regardless of whatever is happening in your life. It doesn’t matter what’s happened to you. Don’t become a victim, become a victor! Realize that you create your own destiny.
Be willing to work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life. Stop counting hours. If you work 80 or 100 hours a week, so what.
Do it until it’s done. It does not matter what’s happening to you. It doesn’t matter what people have said. It doesn’t matter if it’s possible or plausible or what society deems is okay. What matters is do you believe in yourself and are you willing to put in the work to make it happen. If you are, follow the damn instructions. It’s just that simple. Follow the instructions and I promise you’ll succeed. It’s that simple.
Ben: Awesome, Brad. Thank you.
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