Libsyn Directory

Episode 317: How to Succeed Without a Consultant: Leveling Up Using Free & Low-Cost Tools

Release Date: 11/27/2025

Episode 317: How to Succeed Without a Consultant: Leveling Up Using Free & Low-Cost Tools

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: Where you can find sources for high-quality, trustworthy, and low-cost business education [6:20] How to use self-coaching methods for better self-assessment and self-correction [6:55] What you can do to cultivate an essential mindset of curiosity, experimentation, and resourcefulness for growth [7:36] Tips for strategically building your self-education stack through focused content curation, not just consumption [8:43] Ways to leverage industry organizations and local chambers that provide accessible training and teaching [11:00] The power finding or...

Episode 316: The Price of Perception: Why Free Isn’t a Strategy and Discounts Aren’t Loyalty

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: How research confirms that offering experiences for free often creates lower perceived long-term value for your clients [4:20] Why perceived value drives conversion far more effectively than merely lowering the actual price of your service or product [6:15] The “Discount Dilemma” and the need to be cautious when using deep discounts [8:28] The key reasons that effective introductory offers should be treated as a strategic client on-boarding system designed to build habits [10:00] A reminder that scarcity and urgency still matter and can...

Episode 315: When to Cancel vs When to Keep a Class

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: Why knowing the financial baseline, and “break-even point” when evaluating class profitability and fixed costs is crucial for studio owners [5:08] How to approach evaluating attendance trends and what to track [6:09] The way that balancing instructor versus owner-led classes will indicate financial risk [7:24] A reminder to always consider the ripple effect of cancellations and the full impact doing this can have [7:59] How to communicate class changes proactively by presenting them as a strategy to better serve members [9:09] What you...

Episode 314: Decision Fatigue Is Real: How to Keep Making Smart Choices When You’re Tapped Out

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: Why it’s so important that business leaders and owners learn to recognize the subtle signs of decision fatigue now, before it’s too late [5:04] How to audit your decision load by identifying and offloading low-impact, repetitive choices [6:27] The magic that happens once you implement default settings for your life and business [7:45] Tips and strategies for designing a system that protects creative energy [10:05] The way to begin mastering the critical business strategy of finding your 'good enough' point [11:22] What the...

Episode 313: The Features You Didn’t Know You Needed (and Already Have)

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: Why Spot Booking is now free for all studios and how it can be used for safety, accessibility, and improving the client experience [3:27] The way to offer a premium experience to your top-tier clients by using Spot Booking early access for priority class registration [10:55] A new functionality that helps studio owners save on credit card processing fees [12:52] How to restrict classes based on experience level (using tag-based restrictions [24:11] Quotes: “Any report that is technically a client facing list, so your sales report, client...

Episode 312: New Year, New Vibes — Prepping Your Studio for a Fresh Start

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: Tips for maximizing the end of the year by strategically treating December like an “off-season” [5:15] How to create maximum impact with minimal effort during this time [5:45] Why it's essential view your business as a marathon, and reset expectations before the January rush hits [6:20] What you can do to visually revitalize your space and the reasons this is such an important process [9:46] How to retain staff and optimize performance as you approach a brand-new year [10:19] Why you must test your funnels and ensure the client...

Episode 311: Manager or Master Multitasker

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: The key indicators that signal your business is ready for a manager, moving you from being the bottleneck to stepping back and focusing on growth [3:36] Some of the red flags that will indicate it is not the right time for you to hire a manager [10:36] Actionable advice on finding the right leader who will multiply your impact, not just manage your current chaos [14:16] The way that listing specific daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities prevents confusion and ensures you hire a manager who manages, not a co-owner who creates [16:10] How to...

Episode 310: Small Core Staff vs. Large Staff — Which Is Right for Your Studio?

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: How to assess your financials by analyzing what percentage of your monthly revenue is dedicated to payroll [3:16] What clients really value and prefer in the studio in terms of staffing [4:07] What happens when you define your ideal allocation for teaching, managing staff, and business growth [6:08] How to approach growth and what you need to be evaluation and questioning as an owner [14:36] The main reasons why owners prefer small core staff over a larger one and the things to watch out for with this sort of model [17:32] Why owners...

Episode 309: Studio Safety Basics

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: Why you must ensure every studio has the core safety tools on site [3:17] The key reasons that your staff should be equipped with basic emergency training [3:32] What to consider when building a culture of awareness and prevention [4:09] How to identify the non-negotiables that every studio should keep in its space [7:42] The importance of providing baseline training for all staff [8:01] The way to create clear protocols so safety becomes second nature, not an afterthought [9:11] A reminder to make sure to have the must-have tools on-site, such as a...

Episode 308: Holiday Marketing Campaigns That Actually Work

fitSpot Guru

What We Cover In This Episode: What you can do to make gifting easy for your members [4:45] How launching campaigns by late October can help you avoid the "holiday noise" that starts around Thanksgiving [5:33] The key reasons why campaigns should be designed with tight retention dates [7:24] What to consider when doing a gift card push around the holidays [15:20] How creating a referral challenge can boost engagement and get you new clients [15:40] Things studio owners can do to leverage Black Friday and Small Business Saturday [16:00] Why pre-selling January memberships can be a...

More Episodes

What We Cover In This Episode:

Where you can find sources for high-quality, trustworthy, and low-cost business education [6:20]
How to use self-coaching methods for better self-assessment and self-correction [6:55]
What you can do to cultivate an essential mindset of curiosity, experimentation, and resourcefulness for growth [7:36]
Tips for strategically building your self-education stack through focused content curation, not just consumption [8:43]
Ways to leverage industry organizations and local chambers that provide accessible training and teaching [11:00]
The power finding or establishing a peer accountability group for consistent, mutual entrepreneurial support [13:52]
How to master the skill of asking more specific questions to unlock better, relevant free resources [15:26]
The way to implement a dedicated weekly learning routine to ensure consistent self-improvement [16:37]
Insights on creating your own studio owner toolkit with templates to eliminate the need for costly external resources [18:51] 
Why it’s a good idea to curate a short, focused list of go-to free education sources like podcasts and books for maximum impact [20:22]
What it looks like to set up and utilize an AI support system to generate content, outlines, and role-play difficult scenarios [22:22]

Quotes:

“If you show up every day with curiosity and truly caring about getting better, over time, three months will go by, 6 months will go by, all of a sudden, a couple years go by and you just kind of laugh at where you were, just because you showed up every day” [Nick, 2:21]

“Really audio your calendar and look at your week…how many hours are you teaching? How many hours are you doing admin work? How many hours are you developing instructors? How many hours are you putting towards marketing? Just kind of break down that week of where your hours are going. How do you make sure you dedicate one to three hours to just trying to get better?” [Nick, 17:02]

“If you’re willing to dig in, experiment and keep learning, you can build the same systems and strategies that a consultant would walk you through, at a fraction of the cost.” [Nick, 27:30]

LINKS:

Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

The E-Myth Revisited: A Guide to Starting a Business in a Productive and Successful Way by Michael E. Gerber

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller

The Gym Owners Podcast (Apple Podcasts & Spotify)

Marketing Made Simple Podcast (Apple Podcasts & Spotify)

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