#841- Running A Private Facebook Group For Your Coaching Clients

What is going on? I'm like fitness coaches welcome to another episode of the change lives make money on the train of podcast This is the number one pull for online coaches who are trying to grow successful online business in today's episode I'm joined by one of my head coaches inside of the change jobs Academy This is the guy that you get to meet once you're making $5,000 a month. What's up Caleb? Best day ever dude. I'm having a great day. How are you? I'm doing fucking amazing So listen we're here in the post event week and I know that you wanted to chat about the event But I actually want to give value Yeah, he vetoed my idea guys recently. I've like had this like inkling like I feel like being around Natasha and being around Cole has just inspired me more intentional with my content. So my intention with my content is to make it extremely fucking valuable to the place where like you want to come back and you want to consume more So today we're gonna be talking about running a private Facebook group for your clients now Yeah, if you want to do a little bit of like an intro what your experience is running groups your clients that people know kind of like what your background is Yeah, so okay, so where do you even start? So two or three years of experience of failures of trying to figure it out and I finally got it. So I've been doing this for you guys if you don't know who I am I've been doing the whole online things since 2018 didn't have I had a different mentor than Brian right away poor choice on my part I didn't I didn't know Brian at the time so that I was He wasn't giving you enough value on social media So I know he was I forgive you for making the wrong choice and finally I finally found Brian and honestly guys creating a Facebook group was very difficult in the very beginning because like I think for the heart longest time it felt like I was trying to pull people into the group or push people into the group as in like I'm posting Why is no one else posting I have 25 clients? Why is only three people coming into my life and honestly just felt as though like I said I was trying to push and pull them into the group and there are a few things that I think that my team because I'm not going to take full credit If you guys listen to our podcast about content I gave a lot of credit to Alina so I'll always give credit to my team But there are definitely a few things that we've done differently to get to where we are today and like I started off with zero clients guys and now our Facebook group Brian This week we passed 300 clients. That's amazing. Fuck yes. I was pretty fun. The crazy thing is I don't even know if I told you this yet Brian The crazy thing is is 10 weeks ago. I lost my best trainer. You knew this Brian Yeah, our group we just passed 200 10 weeks ago and we dropped down to 170 And in that 10 week period we're back up to 300 Sometimes the setbacks perfect like opportunity for a comeback. Yeah, it's perfect. I'm the rise. That's cool. I love that from the ashes. Yeah So do you want me to go into specific details and kind of like what was the biggest thing that we kind of made the shift? Yeah, so before we get into this like I want to talk about why Facebook communities are so fucking important because I think that a lot of people sleep on creating a Facebook group for the clients. What are my clients like OG clients name is Maverick Willett. He was in my elite mastermind program for almost a year And so every week we'd meet and we talk about his business, etc And one of the things that Maverick never did is he never had a Facebook group So at first like three six months He was having a lot of clients that were dropping off dropping off dropping off couldn't figure out exactly why or like what was happening What the drop-offs and so I asked him like do you have a group? And he said no, and I said why he's like well, you know It's a lot of work and it's a waste of time and blah blah blah and like listen Unless your clients have a touch point other than you when they feel resistance to you They'll feel resistance to the program and you're the only touch point That your clients have and they feel resistance to you because they're not doing their workouts They're not doing their real puns or whatever and that's the only opportunity that they have to connect with you Then like the likelihood of your clients dropping off is significantly higher Not only that but like we're social creatures like human beings love social interaction and even if it's only in an online platform Like having a private community where you guys feel supported is so fucking important And for those people that are in the change-lives academy you know because the people that are in the change-lives academy support you They have your back. They want you to win So that same effect happens with your own client group So do not sleep on Facebook groups We got Maverick to implement a Facebook group after a bunch of client drop-offs And since then like Maverick's crossed a hundred thousand dollars per month as an online fitness coach So Facebook groups was one of the reasons that he was able to fix his retention So, okay, let's go into it and let's talk about how you're running your Facebook group I love that and before we I know we're at time crunch here today But like with it for I want to comment on that real quick is the fact that I think Terrence said it best your Facebook group is your defense in your business and And like your marketing is your offense. So you get points as in clients by marketing But your defense helps retain and keep people inside your business And that's what your Facebook group is for. I just wanted to throw that out there. I like that Yeah, so going into it guys It's crazy because I actually think Brian the very first training. I did for PT Dom like Caleb if you do this training in your sleigh you can be a coach. I think I talked about this If I remember correctly and Something that I Discussed in that training or podcast episode whichever you want to call or refer it to was the fact that We often create things based off what we want and not what others need and you talk about this with content And it's so important because and I see this guy. I want to talk about nutrition I want to talk about mindset and something that like with content. This could be another podcast episode that we could do next Friday Is what's on the forefront of your weight loss clients mind? It's they're not thinking okay Brian you need to go start your fitness journey. What do you need to work on? Their first thought isn't I need to go eat more protein. It's I need to go be more consistent in the gym And that's why like if our clients aren't putting out gym content you guys are screwed So we need to put out what they need it to bring them into your page And it's the same thing with our Facebook group. We need to put out what they need inside the group So like if you guys and for example, and we can go and more into this in a second Like a lot of people run challenges in their group to get engagement And I'm not saying hey go run a challenge But like if you're running a challenge of hey, I just want them to post a sweaty selfie for fun But instead they need to work on their mindset. So doing a challenge around a morning routine Could make the group better because you're making the group for them Rather for yourself does that make sense Brian? Yeah, I it does make sense This is a big shift that I had in the mastermind too was like giving the group what they need not what I wanted to give them You know like what does a group actually like what do they need like what kind of trainings do they need like in order to get results Like that's that was a big shift that we've gone through recently in the mastermind as well 100% so not just our Facebook group guys, but our entire program is not just like our avatars technically Like when you break down our statement or you go look at our pages. It's it's months But our whole entire program is built around versediting And I really think that's one of the reasons why our clients stay Because okay, we know in reverse dieting in week three or week four like yeah actually week three or week four They're gonna hit overwhelm because they're not seeing as much progress So what do you think we have in their calendar a week three to week four of how to handle overwhelm when you're not seeing as much progress But it's the same thing with our Facebook group so because we know our avatar so well and we know that I don't know about you Brian But I honestly feel like 80 to 90% of North America or the world needs to reverse diet before they start Their own weight loss journey and so like we created it for them and because of that They're getting more from the group So they actually want to be active in the group and that's one of the reasons why I think a lot of our students don't have clients in the group Going back to they're posting whatever they want they're going live on whatever they want rather serving their audience and their avatar with what they need So let's say I'm not my fitness coach I'm trying to design a group and give the group exactly what they need and not what I want like Would be some like ways that I could break down exactly what the group needs ask them what is your client struggle with so for example Like let's think about like and this is something that we recommend all of our students do is have some kind of live structure for your clients Because like you can post in there all you want but the lives are what's going to allow you to build a relationship with your clients And that's one of their favorite parts of FTA as we actually go live nine times a week inside of our client group And they love it they tune in we have 300 people and we have 20 to 40 people that tune in live And we have about 30 to 40 people that watch on replay every single time now when you ask yourself Okay, what kind of lives do I want to do you know what I could do a Q&A every single time or Like for example with moms a lot of women in today's society that are overweight They need a little bit of self-love but they also need tough love so can you provide a self-love training for your clients? Can you combination a self-love and tough love provide them with a mindset training to help them improve both and to make them here what they need to hear without upsetting them and making them realize that they need to make this change on the road when I say on their own with your program But I think we can all agree if someone's not ready to make the change even if they're in your program. They're not going to do the work Mm-hmm. Does that make sense? Yeah, so figuring identifying what they're struggling with and then designing trainings around that love Let's talk about like the posting schedule So let's say I'm a on my coach that has 15 clients that wants to design a schedule for my group and the idea of going live nine times Overwhelms me like what would be a good starting point for online fitness coaches that are looking to get their groups started Star with two to three times a week and like that's it and build your way up And once again when I say that guys I personally only I go live five times a week myself inside the Venus group I run the mindset calls. I actually I pretty much replicated what Ryan did with rise And I told it morning madness and I did that inside my client group So I addressed their mindset because once again, I know that my weight loss clients They're gonna hit overwhelm. They're gonna get fearful But I also have a team so all of those trainings that in the evening That's my team that they do So what I would start off is like what is your bandwidth? What are you capable of providing? What's gonna overwhelm you? If five's gonna overwhelm you start with two or three and ask yourself what do my clients need? I actually have another example of what you want to provide what you first what they need if it's cool if you Brian. Yeah, you can go ahead, bro. So for example, we were doing something called a lunch with Alina. Alina is my better half. I talk about her on like every podcast I do with Roy and Brian. And not that many people would tune in. But we just asked the group, what would you guys like to see more of in your lives? And this was us doing a bad job of what I'm telling you guys to do. We were doing lunch with Alina, but they don't need help with lunch. They want more dinner lives on friendly macro meals so they can create meals that fit their macros that their families actually like at the exact same time. So because we were free around noon, we were giving them a lie that we wanted to give them because it worked into our schedule versus doing dinner in the evening when it was a little less convenient for us. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And it's just asking yourself. And the best thing that you guys can do and like our programs pretty rock solid like our clients love us. But yesterday I just made a post in our group and I was like, how can we make this group less overwhelming because we have 300 people and we're growing quickly. And what trainings can we provide more of to help you guys grow? And that's where we just got a lot of feedback. A lot of positive feedback, but there are also those small things of like instead of lunch, what about dinner? Instead of this, what if you put it inside the guide section? So there's not a lot of things less since being constantly repeated. That makes sense. I like that. Okay. So two to three times a week if I'm a new on that coach, what about scheduling time? So like, so you kind of just touched on that, but I'd like to hear kind of your thoughts on that. So in terms of the time you go live, did you guys just decide on, you know, dinner or just do sat a month or like, what's your opinion on the ideal time for online fitness coaches to go live in their groups? I think the first answer should be what time does your clients best have the ability to tune in? But second, respect your boundaries. And if you are a leader that has trainers, respect your team's boundaries. And the reason that I say that is because we used to always do six PM mountain standard time in the evening. That's five PM PST. However, that I realized that once I started bringing trainers on my team, I had three trainers in Eastern time zone. And that's eight PM there time. So it wasn't respecting their space and their boundaries. So I was being a bad leader. So I asked the group and I was like, Hey, we want to move it to this time because the trainers I teach and I have our trainers set boundaries and by having it this late, we're not respecting their boundaries. And of course, everyone was like, Oh my gosh, yes, move it forward. That's totally okay. So now we do it at the same time, six PM Eastern time, which is three PM PST every single day across the board. But that's also still a time where it's after dinner for a lot of our clients in the Eastern time zone. Their kids are in bed, so they're able to tune it. I love it. And I agree. I think that the figuring out the ideal time for your prospects to go live is super, super important. Yeah, I really, really, really like that advice. And also knowing like what you can handle, like what your band with this is what you're capable of, because if you are like, I'm going to go live five times a week and then you end up like, it just goes beyond your bandwidth. You're stretching yourself to thin and you'll catch yourself burning out, which is what I did with rise. I ended up committing to five rises and five podcasts, plus all my mastermind trainings. And by the end, I was like, I'm fucking burnt out. So I think it's important to like find the pace that you can run at. Okay, so let's say Caleb, I've like tried to run a Facebook group before and I struggled to get people to actually engage. Like it's only three people watching my fucking lives. I've got 15 clients, only three people tuned into my lives, maybe two, sometimes there's a couple people that are engaging in the group, but most of people don't like, what are some strategies to revive my group if it's dead? Can I be kind of tough love to start? Yeah, of course. If that's your mindset, stop being a personal trainer and go get a nine to five job. Because like when you think about it, like let's look at Alex Sundar. Let's look at Alex Sundar, one of our coaches in the academy. He posted for two years on social media, and he got less than 100 views on every single video. Some of them were five views, guys. Like, I remember seeing it. And then two and a half years later after starting, now he's popping off. But he didn't give up. And that's the thing. And what's frustrating is I see so many people sleeping on a free group. That's not even what we're here to talk about today. But people sleep on it because they lack discipline and self-responsibility to keep it going. And that's my tough love is that if the group wasn't working, we need to take extreme ownership. And it's the fact that we didn't, we weren't responsible enough and we didn't have the discipline to keep going. Damn. Okay. So just give me a bitch lap. Now you can fact it. Tactics. Tactics. If you guys are struggling, tell them why, like my biggest advice, tactic, step number one, tell your audience why you're guys, you're restarting the Facebook group, or why you're re-kicking it. Because and the thing is, and the best I did this once, I remember this, but I didn't stop. I didn't quit. I kept going, create it into a movement. That's step number two. Because if you can create it and have some kind of movement behind it, as in if it's Caleb's fitness, that's hard to create a movement. But from the ashes fitness alone, we fall together, we rise. The whole idea is that so many people in today's society look for a light at the end of the tunnel and they look at the gym, they look at a mentor and they want that light from them, but the light is within us and it is our job at FCA to ignite the fire within. Because just like a fire, your dreams only need to get us sparked to get started and that spark starts with yourself. But that's a movement. That's something that people can get behind. So if you share messages of that movement inside of your community and you tell them that they're a part of this, like look at Change Life's Academy. Brian, you do a fantastic job of creating culture. You do a very good job of talking about what Change Life's Academy is and what it stands for. Are you raising your hand or are you just saluting me? I'm saluting myself. That's probably the biggest reasons that people go to the event. Like multiple times. It's the culture. It's the community. It's the family aspect. So if you can create that and that starts with being consistent. That starts with having a message behind your brand and your business that people actually want to be a part of versus just Caleb's disc fitness. Does that make sense, Brian? Yeah, it does. It's like guys like if first of all I agree with Caleb, if your group is dead, you do have to accept responsibility to understand that like having a private Facebook group for your clients, if you have over 10 clients is non-negotiable period. And if you have under 10 clients, have a group chat in Messenger and then once you get over 10, start a Facebook group. But like having a Facebook group for your clients in my opinion is a non-negotiable. I think it's a fucking must have. And it's funny because when we talk about like private communities, like having my private community not being engaged isn't an option for me. Like I'm like that's like that is just doesn't that option doesn't even register in my reality. So if your group is dead and it's not active and it's not engaged, you literally need to fucking pull people there if necessary in order to get that group back engaged. Another thing that I would recommend is if you have a group that is like currently dead, ask yourself the question like how often do you spend in that group? How much time do you spend in that group? How much energy do you spend in that group? Like if the change of the academy you guys we literally have 10 coaches that are working with the change of academy and all of them have 30 to 60 minutes in the group. So the amount of energy that group gets is a fucking lot. And it's the same thing with the Millinar Mastermind. Like that Facebook group gets seen by all of the coaches every single day. There's a certain amount of fucking time that every single mastermind coach spends in the group. And so we as a collective as coaches are putting all of our energy and effort into the group and you better believe like when I was an online fitness coach like it was me in the fucking group pouring the energy the intention and the passion into it because like you're going to get out what you put in. And again like I think that you guys are like truly lucky when it comes to online coaching because when I was in on that coach, I didn't even know that you could set up recurring invoices like I didn't know that was a thing. And so every month I would have to get my clients to actually e-trans for me 250 to 300 dollars for their monthly installment. And think about the like the amount of resistance that you would feel to sending an e-transfer to a coach you didn't like or a coach you didn't respect or a coach you didn't like value on a monthly basis because I just didn't know that you could fucking set up automatic transfers. And I didn't learn that until like 2017. I've been till 2017 and my service was so good that my clients would literally go on their fucking phone and send me an e-transfer 250 to 300 to 300 for cash every month because my program was that valuable. And a big part of that was the community. A big part of that was the Facebook group. A big part of that was like the collective. And it's like your group and your business has to be about more than just you. I love that. I want to say I got something big like you asked for tactical steps. I got something mindset wise. Personally that I think we all have to have to be able to to make the community as a whole. Okay so here's what I was going to bring up guys. I there's and this is where it comes down to like if you guys watch the virtual event or you guys were at the actual event and you heard my speech about perspective and how it's a choice like you could make the choice to go into the group and love commenting and supporting, love going live or you could make the choice to be like I have to do this versus I get to do this. Like I genuinely mean this. There's a lot of mastermind students out of their business. I refuse to get out of my Facebook group. I love it. There's 60 posts today. I love commenting on them. I love seeing their homework from my morning trainings every single morning. I love going inside the Change Lives Academy and giving value. Sometimes I'm tough on you guys. I'll give you some tough love and I'll give you a hard time sometimes. Like if you just don't, if you have an accountability post and you got a red check on it, I'm not going to bump slap you for all the green marks. I'm going to be like why do you have an axe? Why'd you knock at this done? So like, but I actually genuinely enjoy it. And to me, like you guys have the opportunity to make a choice of that. And I actually wanted to highlight my team because like I believe that I had someone on my team not making that choice every single day before the event. And at the event, she made it a commitment to provide more value. I'm not going to say what she calls herself because Brian 12 and not to but since then I've noticed a shift in inside the group just based off her responses and the response of the clients to when she comments in the amount of Gagement in there like this isn't something that we have to do guys This is something that we get to do every single day and I think that's what a lot of people forget and that's why they took their Foot off the pedal when it comes to their client group Have to do versus get to do that reminds that shift yeah 100% and I'm not making that up like I love it like I don't miss commenting in the academy like I'm in three groups for P.T. Dom guys sometimes for when there's a mindset group mindset mastermind 5k group Academy Ryan you see me in all right I love it. I get to I love it. It's fun. Yeah, that is fucking cool Okay, so give me a cliff note summary running a private Facebook group Me give me the rules expectations guidelines and what would you do to get mine started if I was like just getting started What would you do to get it started if you were doing getting it started what I would do is I would create a of quick Two-minute video of why you're starting the group and send it to all of your clients and tell them that you want to create a Movement so they can feel as though that they are part of a family not just part of the of Facebook group Not just a part of a program and then Incorporate that movement that community that family inside that Facebook group. So that's step one step two Ask yourself. What does your avatar need not what you want to provide and then come up with a schedule that you can commit to Based off your own band width and commit to it and don't frickin miss if you're part of P.T. Dom We never miss a training for you guys if you're part of P.T. Dom in the Facebook group We never miss your post. Yeah, it might be a half hour an hour till we get back to you guys sometimes because that's just how life is But at the end of the day we make it happen every single time once you have that schedule and I said once again I said don't miss it's pretty much just Continuously providing value Continuously showing up and as you grow expand from there so for example as you grow you could add and work out videos into your Guide section as you grow you could provide recipes inside your guide section so they continue to provide more value And it's a continuous add-on I love it and what if I have like a group right now and I'm running it, but it's dead as fuck Look internally, but seriously seriously look internally ask yourself what you're not doing based off this conversation right here Ask yourself like same thing applies. Are you giving them what they need versus what you want? Are you continuously showing up yourself? What it says like if you commit to three lives? Are you consistent with those three lives at the same time? Are you continuously posting when you say that you're posting? And like at the end of the day guys, I'm gonna say for a year and a half when we went to the gym I took a sweaty selfie and we posted every day because if we wanted our clients to do it We need to do it first so we don't have to do that anymore because our groups are self-run without that But if you really want it if you want them to post sweaty selfies don't miss a sweaty selfie If you want them to post your their macros because that's how you run your business then post your macros every single day Lead by example and it'll run off on them Boom I bro, that's it. That's all that brings us to the end of the podcast episode bro Where do they find you? You guys can follow me on Instagram at FTA Fits or if you guys are part of the Academy I'm actually gonna talk to Cole and I'm oh you guys can see my cat I'm gonna talk to Cole and try and do a couple more lives each month inside the academy But you guys can mainly find me in the 5k group once you make 5k a month at least one month and have a good month before that We get you in we help teach you better systems help you improve and grow so you can scale and do whatever the heck you want with your business Boom also if you're listening to this who thinks I should bring on Caleb more me Hi guys, that's it. That's all I hope you guys have the best of your entire life and Caleb What is your Instagram handle so they can find you? FTA outfits. I have another one, but I'm not very active on it. I'm focused on the brand cool Peace love protein have the best of your entire life chasing mother fucking dreams. Let's go