First of all…THANK YOU!

We are celebrating our 4th birthday this month and along with it comes our 4th annual FREEDOM SALE.

But this year it’s BIGGER and BETTER than ever before.

And that’s because of you and all our loyal, dedicated Members and customers.

Sean, Camelia, Dick and I…and our entire staff are grateful for your trust and your business.

We work hard every day to bring you the best fitness marketing, sales and management systems, tools and coaching to explode your fitness business now.

And, as they say, the ‘proof is in the pudding.’

Nobody in the fitness industry has helped create more fitness business success stories than we have here at NPE.

That’s because our products and services work, and because you work them!

So, again…THANK YOU!

But we don’t just want to ‘say’ Thank You – we want to demonstrate our gratitude with our biggest and best sale ever.

ALL OUR “BEST IN CLASS” PRODUCTS ARE HALF OFF!!!

But only until this Thursday, July 29th.

So grab as many products as you want, right now, and save 50% OFF here:

http://www.NPEFreedomSale.com

To your fitness business success,
Eric

P.S. You can see the full listing of products, the discounts, and buy now right here:

http://www.NPEFreedomSale.com

P.P.S. If you have any questions, or need help, call our office at 1-888-866-4998

Why?

Well, I’ve consolidated some of the results and lessons learned about ‘what’s working now’ for you here:

1. Raising the Rates Campaigns- Several of our members have just achieved their ‘best month’ ever in sales (and cash collected payments) from running a “raise the rates” campaign.

While some may be shy or ‘timid’ about raising rates in a sluggish economy, every one of our clients who’s gotten rid of that ‘head trash’ and just executed the tested and proven strategy and campaign in our CASH FLOW SURGE system product has increased their business with minimal or zero loss of clients.

Raising the rates should be an annual campaign in every business, because it not only gives more margin in your service to invest in continued growth. But it also gives existing clients one of the best ‘reason’s why’ to renew and recommit for another 6-12 months of staying on top of their workouts.

They don’t want to ‘lose out’ on the savings opportunity to renew with you NOW. This is a very powerful motivation for client renewal, and a heck of a way to get renewals rather than simply letting good clients get to the point where they have to ‘think it over’ if they really should renew or not.

A special congrats goes out to NPE Member of the Year and VIP Client Tony Maslan who just achieved his first $100,000+ month (in cash collected, not just gross sales) with this campaign in June. Well done Tony!

2. Public speaking Campaigns- continue to be major low-cost, high impact lead generators for all who apply the strategies and our famous Foot-In-The-Door campaign as shared in the Public Speaking Power Pak Product.

The system is very straight forward for booking speaking gigs with NEW groups if you simply block the time for executing it every week and month.

VIP Member Mike Stare has been regularly booking 2-4 speaking gigs/month like clockwork, and steadily adding fresh leads and clients into his business every week.

3. Low-Cost Front-End Offers- We’ve also had many clients continuing to test and tweak various front-end offers in the $29-$297 price range. These are offers for various services like assessments, program design, discounted first month enrollment, etc. that folks have given special names to and marketed  with a tight deadline for response.

Urgency and scarcity of limited spots available is also a key component to driving response of the offer.

Leveraging online media, we’ve had about 11 VIP clients bring in anywhere from 100-450 leads within a 72 hour period from this strategy.

Of course not all these leads are pre-qualified and theerfore must be sifted and sorted through… but with that volume you can afford to be picky and choosy and STILL come out on top. Typically anywhere from 20-40% (or more) of the respondents end up being very high quality clients when all is said and done.

You can see examples of how many of these offers are structured and presented in our Fitness Advertising Systems Module.

4. Charity Events and Tie-Ins- Event marketing has always been a winner, but by combining events with charity donations gives folks another big ‘reason why’ to respond and jump on board with participation. It just leaves everyone with a good feeling they’re not only investing and participating in something that helps themselves, but also something that helps others with a worthy cause. And that’s a major reason why it works anytime, anywhere.

We’ve had several members running Pushups For Charity and GOLD RUSH events over the last several months, getting great publicity, fresh leads, and a rush of new clients from these types of events.

VIP Members Jeff & Vern Gauthier I believe ended up with over 25 new clients from their GOLD RUSH event they ran in May. You really don’t have to wait for the New Year for running an event like this, it can work any month you choose to run it as long as you invest enough time in driving the promotion.

A big key to success is leveraging local media and strategic alliance partners. Within other businesses that have clients meeting your ideal ‘prospect profile’ there is gold. These are often the best ‘untapped’ pools with big fish swimming around in them… just waiting to be attracted to your business with the right ‘bait’.

5. Referral Marketing- continues to be a great driver of pre-qualified, pre-sold clients. Especially when you’ve got a great service and community your clients love being a part of.

A lot of people think referral marketing just ‘happens’ if you deliver a great service.

What they miss is that while a good service IS a pre-requisite for your existing clients to want to refer to you, you’ve also got to implement multiple systems and programming into ALL your marketing efforts if you really want to drive significant response.

We share a ton of the best step-by-step systems with over 50 case studies included from our top clients our our Single Sheet of Paper Referral System Product.

VIP Member Vaughn Bethell has cultivated such a unique ‘inner circle’ community within his client base of athletes, that his facility is becoming the ‘secret spot’ for athletes, ex-athletes, and coaches to gather for both workouts and meetings in is community of Greenville, SC.

6. Multiple Poles in the Water- Most of all, all our top clients are not relying on ONE marketing strategy to drive business this summer.

They are all implementing multiple campaigns and strategies simultaneously to drive growth.

How do they keep it all organized and going at the same time?

Well, that’s certainly a key component of not only success but sustainability.

They’re all following an integrated systems approach as revealed in our DEEP CORE Fitness Marketing System and they’re managing their priorities to make good decisions about what gets their focused attention with tools shared in our Project Manager Pro system.

Conclusion

If summer business has slowed down for you, then I encourage you put some of these strategies into practice fast!

Key word in that last sentence being FAST.

You must shorten the time from idea to implementation. Time is money.

You can always get more money, but the time you can’t get back.

Once you burn it… it’s gone for good.

SPEED is often the difference between those who do and those who just sit around and ‘think about it’… always ‘waiting’ for something to drive them into action.

My advice is put your head down and go.

You can always think about it later.

As one of my old coaches used to say “thinking is a dangerous pastime” to get me out of my head and into feeling the movement of a new skill.

And he was right.

Turning off your mind and just jumping in is great advice.

Even if you’ve never done any of this stuff before, you’ll figure it out.

You don’t have to be a genius and it doesn’t require a whole lot of thought to implement step-by-step workplans and tools.

Find your mark, then put your head down and go.

To your success,
Sean

P.S. Also, a special announcement. We’re running a week or two later than usual, but this coming week we’ll be hosting our 4th annual FREEDOM SALE
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday online in our webstore. NPE is turning 4 and we’re celebrating with the largest sale we’ve ever had to date. Stay tuned for more details coming tomorrow from Eric.

Pavel and John Du Cane created the kettlebell explosion here in the US... and now continue to drive expansion worldwide in several international markets. If you're gonna be a student, you might as well go to the source.

If you didn’t get to review Eric’s email yesterday, make sure you check it out on the blog.

Some GREAT marketing being done by John Du Cane and our friends at Dragon Door.

These guys are awesome and I’m proud to call them a partner of ours.

The week before MEGA TRAINING, they’re going to be down here in Orlando holding an RKC certification at the Disney Wide World of Sports.

I’m going to be in attendance, along with some friends and top clients who’ve already signed up.

Today is the last day to register for the certification with a discount.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, I encourage you to do so here.

Kettlebells are a great tool you can and should be using with both your private training and boot camp/group training clients.

In fact, I don’t know anybody they’re NOT safe for.

And these guys are incredible coaches and instructors you will learn a TON from.

Not to mention the fact that it’s going to be a whole lot of fun!

To your success,
Sean

P.S. Fair warning: Don’t come to this out of shape. You need to get in your butt in gear and come ready to hit it.

Be sure to read the requirements listing and watch the “Grad Workout” video on this page to see what I mean.

This weekend I’m unpacking after a crazy move into a new condo I purchased.

The condo is great… but the closing process with the ‘preferred lender’ they offered me incentives to use… promising it would be the ‘fastest and easiest’ option to use…

… not so much.

But if I start ranting about that here, I’ll never get to the good news with you today which is…

We’re ready to announce details for MEGA TRAINING 2010!

This year’s event is taking things to a whole new level including…

• Thursday night awards banquet with multiple categories and achievements being recognized this year
• Friday night movie night… and the ‘big reveal’ on a top secret project over 6 months in production
• BONUS day: The Ultimate Differentiator for making a big name, growing a big list, and charging BIG fees for your services (more margin = more profit)
• SPECIAL celebrity guest speakers in attendance including a top internet marketing ‘guru’ I called in a favor to share all the big secrets on Facebook advertising, list building, and community building
• And a whole lot more…

Read all the details at the MEGA TRAINING website here.

We also now have an AWESOME keynote speaker coming in that I’m really excited about.

More on him later.

For now get on over to read all about the event and grab your seat with the early bird savings.

NOTE: As a thank you to all attendees who preregistered for the event this year (at significant savings) will receive the BONUS day at no charge.

We appreciate your business and we’re gonna hook you up.

ALSO: Special event for VIPs at MEGA TRAINING this year to be announced as we finalize details over the next few weeks. But what I can tell you now is… it’s going to rock.

Read all the details at the MEGA TRAINING website here.

To your success,
Sean

P.S. When you head over to the site you’ll see a video right at the top with all the details… but we’re adding more to MEGA TRAINING each week so stay tuned for more updates, additions, and bonuses for early registration coming soon!

Read all the details at the MEGA TRAINING website here.

Here's me and my grandfather at his 100th birthday party last weekend. What do you think? This guy certainly doesn't look 100 does he? I'm thankful for some good genes in my family...

The last month or two has kinda been a blur.

I’ve been doing a ton of travel.

Some personal travel and some business travel for a project you’ll hear about later this year at MEGA TRAINING.

But over the July 4th holiday weekend I got to go up to New Hampshire and join my family to celebrate my grandfather turning 100.

This is my grandfather on my mom’s side of the family, and there were about 45 immediate family members in attendance.

My grandmother passed away about 15 years ago, and a lot of other relatives have all passed away now too… but my grandfather keeps going strong.

The guy is a champ.

And he’s lived quite an amazing life.

You know when you’re a kid and you hear stories about your family members I think it kinda passes through one ear and out the other.

But as you get older and become an adult, the meaning and significance of the stories seem to take on a whole new level.

Now I have a whole new level of appreciation for the things my grandfather went through and accomplished in his life.

One of my cousins took the time to assemble a bunch of old photos from his life and they’re really cool so I thought I’d share them with you.

The first one below is from my grandfather’s senior year in high school.

Here's my grandfather with his basketball team- the 1928 NH state champs. My grandfather is the one front and center above the plaque. At his birthday party everyone said that he and I looked most alike in this photo. What do you think? Kinda hard to tell in this 1928 photos, but I guess so.

His basketball team were the New Hampshire state champs in 1928.

My grandfather is the one in the middle front and center above the plaque.

Several folks said that we looked just alike in this photo.

Wild when you see they actually had some kind of belt things as part of their uniforms back then.

After they won the state championships, they headed to Chicago by train to compete it what was I guess the first “semi-official” national championships at the time.

And my grandfather remembers that as being a great trip and honor to gather with some of the best athletes in the country.

He also played baseball and he’s another cool photo of him on the end, his older brother Raymond who was on the team with him, and his father who helped coach the team.

Here's another cool picture of my grandfather (he's Andrew on the far right), and his baseball team which included his brother Raymond and his Dad who helped coach the team. I love this photo cause it really shows back when baseball WAS the great American past time.

My grandfather, or ‘gramps’ as we call him, also served in WWII.

He was stationed over in New Zealand with the Yale medical unit and took care of wounded soldiers until his father passed away and he was sent home for the funeral.

Another photo of my grandfather stationed over in New Zealand during WWII. Back when men were men. These guys were all studs and we can be thankful for the freedom we enjoy today and the world we live in because of the sacrafices all these guys made. If it wasn't for them, we might all be speaking German.

While my my grandfather was home on leave the war was almost ending, so his commanding officer told him just to hand his papers back to the local guy and stay home.

At that point my grandfather met my grandmother, who’s 1st husband had died in the war, and they ended up getting married and having my mom.

My grandfather then went to work for the postal service and spent 32 years working as a civil servant…  back when they walked and delivered mail by hand.

My grandfather's service award for his 32 years working for the US postal service after returning from WWII.

When he reached the over 50 year member mark of the US Postal Service union they came out and held a special celebration for him several years ago.

They’re is another really cool picture from that event, but can’t seem to locate it in the photos right now.

But what I know my grandfather was most proud of… out of all his life accomplishments… is his family.

He raised my aunt and my mom, was there for his 6 grandkids, and 11 great-grandkids, brother, sisters, friends, and more.

Several years ago before my grandmother passed away, we celebrated my grandparents 40th wedding anniversary with a surprise party. It was something special.

Here’s a photo of both my grandparents around that time period.

My grandparents were happily married for over 45 years and my grandfather always has looked at his family as his greatest accomplishment of all.

Anyway, I can’t help but do some self-reflection when I get together with family I haven’t seen in a long time and spend time with my Grandfather celebrating his 100th.

I consider myself a successful guy and so far have been able to do all the things have worked at in my life.

But I’m also guilty of getting pretty narrow focused on goal achievement and accomplishment at times. Frankly, I think it’s hard not to if you’re driven and competitive.

But that’s why it’s great to balance things out and take some down time to reconnect with family on a regular basis. I try to remember… just as my grandfather taught me… to not just wait until sometime dies or somebody gets married.

I don’t have kids yet, but I think it’s important to be there for all the graduations, birthday’s, and more that you can be… just as my grandfather has done in his life.

When I think about all that my grandfather has done and seen in his life including:

- WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I, Iraq II

- The invention of the model-T Ford automobile, the telephone, the radio, the Internet

- The great depression, the god-damn hippies and crazy 70′s

- The space shuttle, landing on the moon

And all the other amazing accomplishments and evolution of mankind since 1910 it totally boggles my mind.

What will life be like for us over the next 50-60 years?

What will we see in our lifetimes?

What things will change?

What things will stay the same?

I don’t know.. but one thing’s for certain…it’s an amazing, fun, wild, and crazy ride for us all.

I know that if I live to 100 and have a party with about 50 immediate family members in attendance that I’ve been able to support and make a difference in their lives that I’ll take that as a job well done.

My grandfather has set the bar pretty high.

I’m going to work like hell to keep up and try to have as much fun as I can along the way.

Sean

Click Here To Vote For Coach Berry!

Coach Berry is one of the classiest gentlemen I know.

He gives so much to all our NPE Members, never asking anything in return.

And he did NOT ask me to contact you about this. He just sent me an email asking for my vote.

So I gladly voted for him.

But then I thought it would be cool if we could get a few thousand fit-pros to vote for him as well.

And that’s why I’m making this fitness marketing blog post.

You may have heard Coach Berry on an audio success CD of the month, or read some of his posts to the forum, or talked to him on one of our conference calls, or seen one of his videos on our site, or read about him in FML.

But even if you’ve never personally been touched by this man, I hope you’ll show your solidarity with a fellow fitness professional whose stated goal, for as long as I’ve known him (over a decade) is to get on Oprah…somehow, some way.

And he’s never lost sight of that goal.

Now Oprah is launching her own TV network called “MyOwn” – and she’s virtually auditioning folks for hosting jobs.

Coach Berry submitted his outstanding video.

You can watch it (and vote for him) here.

Be sure to check out what Coach says at the 1:45 minute mark – “I got you on speed dial!”

That’s classic Coach Berry, and shows his dedication to his clients (the biggest reason for his success).

Even if you don’t have 3 minutes to watch his video, at least please click here and hit the green “vote” button for him.

It won’t take more than 10 seconds.

And you’d be helping a very deserving man move one step closer to his goal.

I believe in doing the right thing as a matter of principle. But I also know, from my life experience, that doing the right thing builds up karma points.  And somehow, some way, it always comes back to you.

So please show a little love for Coach Berry (and earn some karma points) by clicking here and casting your vote for him.

Make it a great day,
Eric

P.S. You can also leave a comment on Coach’s video if you like.

I’ll get back to Ben in a moment (and show you a couple clips from the movie below).

First, you need to do a quick exercise.

It involves numbers, and a little mathematics.

It’ll take you about 60 seconds to spit out a particular number, following a particular formula that I’ll give you.

And that number, if respected (and ‘positioned’ the way Affleck says to) can dramatically change your life.

I’m talking about rapid and radical improvement.

In fact, the process I’m about to walk you through – in about 60 seconds – is the same process responsible for many (if not all) of the biggest breakthroughs achieved and biggest fortunes created.

So it’s worth paying attention to.

Okay, here we go…

The first thing I want you to do is to think of an ‘ambitiously realistic’ per year income you want to earn. Not gross revenue for your fitness business, or even net. I’m talking about your personal, in-your-pocket take home.

Don’t get carried away here – just be ambitiously realistic.

If you’re taking home in the neighborhood of $50K/year now, then a good ambitiously realistic number might be $150K/year.

You can always increase this later (and you certainly will increase this later if you DO what I’m going to tell you to do – actually, what Ben tells you to do).

For right now, let’s just focus on tripling your take home. hmm-kay?

So for the purposes of my example, let’s say your target number is $150K.

Here comes the math.

Divide $150,000 by 12 = $12,500 (month)

Divide $12,500 by 4 = $3125 (week)

Divide $3125 by 5 = $625 (day)

Divide $625 by 8 = $78 (hour)

Now, here comes the raw power of this principle…

If you want to make $150K/year over the next 12 months, you must immediately, RIGHT NOW…

“act as if”

If you saw the movie Boiler Room, then you probably remember the classic scene with Ben Affleck telling the new sales recruits to “act as if!” (If you haven’t seen this movie, rent it now and watch this scene modeled after Alec Baldwin’s “coffee’s for closers” scene from Glenngary Glen Ross).

WARNING: LANGUAGE ALERT
If you’re offended by strong, spicy language, don’t watch these clips (the language in “act as if” clip is too strong to post on this site, search youtube)

“We Make Millionaires”

“Always Be Closing”

WAIT.

Right now you may be thinking this sounds like metaphysical “law of attraction” mumbo jumbo.

If so, you’re wrong.

The KEY distinction is the verb…ACT.

I don’t want you to think about stuff…I want you to ACT.

ACT AS IF.

Because when you start acting as if every working hour of every working day is worth $78 to you…

When you start acting as if every working day is worth $625 to you…

Every working week is worth $3,125…

And every month is worth $12,500…

Then, and only then, do you start PRODUCING the NECESSARY ‘work product’ to justify…and to earn that kind of income.

Basically, it creates URGENCY and FOCUS in your work day.

Why?

Because now you have a tangible goal.

Rather than going through each day just getting ‘stuff’ done, now you focus on the RIGHT stuff. Because only doing the right stuff will earn you what you want.

Remember the story about the Harvard graduating class study?

The top 5% of the graduating class was earning more than the rest of the 95% combined.

And what did each person in that top 5% have in common?

They set goals – and works towards achieving them.

This is how to set your money goal, and how to leverage that goal – every hour of every working day – to create urgency and focus in your work as a fitness business owner.

And that urgency and focus MAKES you a top producing fitness business owner.

It is almost an inevitability, as long as you respect the goal, and as long as you position yourself accordingly, just as Ben Affleck says…

ACT AS IF.

Stop doing the penny-ante administrative and other ‘operation moneysuck’ stuff.

DELEGATE THAT.

Focus on the core activities – and ONLY the core activities – that produce revenue.

And those activities ALL fall into one category.

Can you guess what it is?

Yes, you are correct. Fitness Marketing.

Focus all YOUR work on the activities necessary to get more clients, and impress the hell out of the ones you’ve already got.

Delegate everything else.

This may seem overly simplistic to you now. And that’s okay, because it really IS that simple.

It starts with a mental adjustment…that translates into a behavioral adjustment.

And when you apply this new behavior consistently…hour to hour, day to day, week to week, month to month…

You end up with a record-breaking annual income.

Then you adjust the numbers for the new year and do it again. Each year you see how high is high.

That’s the secret.

Be a fitness marketing maniac,
Eric

P.S. Unfortunately, at least 80% of the folks who read this will do nothing with it. They may think it sounds cool, but never ACT on it. Never implement. And that’s the difference between the winners and losers in life.

Only YOU can decide which one you are.

One trip I made this spring to Phoenix was VERY eye opening about how to fix clients who are broken and in pain, help athletes make small changes that are essential to elite performance, and basically rebuild yourself into a super-human.

I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw (and experienced it) for myself.

But check out these videos and you’ll see what I mean.

These guys are hosting seminars around the country the next few months and I encourage you to sign up and attend one in your area.

This is good stuff I’ve incorporated into my own personal fitness program.

To your success,
Sean

P.S. After getting to learn more about what’s shared in video #2, I went out that night and threw away my New Balance 992′s (which I’ve always worn for years) and bought a pair of Nike Free’s 5.0. Has since bought 2 more pairs of Nike Free’s and have never felt better. They rock. Everybody needs to get more educated on this stuff.

P.P.S. I gotta say congratulations to the LA Lakers today. Love em’ or hate em’… they know how to win and get it done.

I can’t imagine Phil Jackson NOT coming back for another shot at a three-peat… but we’ll see what happens.

What is the BEST month you’ve ever had in your business?

What would if feel like if you DOUBLED it?

These guys and gals are doing just that… and then some.

Hear their stories and how they’re consistently having their best months ever… month-after-month-after-month… in these 6 new case study videos here.

This is where the big boys and girls come to play and compete. It’s not for everyone, but if you’ve got the courage to step into the ring… and you have the will to win… you’ll find yourself transformed into more than you ever thought possible.

Get all the details here.

To your success,

Sean

P.S. Worldwide our members are CRUSHING it right now. USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand are ALL represented. Make sure you watch these videos… they are power-packed with content.. and a whole lot of fun.

Get all the details here.

So I just got off the phone with Sean, Camelia and the rest of our NPE team (except for Dick, who’s out playing golf).

The first part of the meeting, we go around the horn and everybody gives a quick update on ‘the good news’ both personally and professionally, from the past week.

Hana and Heather Herndon (with dad). Tang Su Doo Regional Champions!

Camelia reported that her two daughters, Hana and Heather, BOTH took home GOLD MEDALS over the weekend in Tang Su Doo (a form of Karate) – they are now Regional Champions.

Both girls are black belts (not sure why they’re belts are red in this pic – but they have black stripes)…and neither of them is even in high school yet (in fact, they’re just 11 and 9 years old!)

Camelia (literally) breeds champions.

Which is no surprise, really, because she’s no stranger to high achievement.  Camelia sets and achieves ambitious goals herself, and is an expert at teaching others how to do the same.

Particularly fitness business owners.

All of our VIPs who work directly with her attest to that fact.

Which is one of the reasons why I call her “The Accountability Queen.”

She is an extra-ordinary coach, an extra-ordinary parent and an extra-ordinary person.

We’re lucky to have her on our team, and any fitness business owner lucky enough to get coached by her need only follow her lead – and execute – to see results fast.

One of the KEY areas where Camelia, Sean, Dick and I coach our VIPs, is on the numbers…

The 17 Numbers That Drive Your Fitness Business

If you don’t know what they are, then read Sean’s blog post here.

We’ve recently implemented a new level of accountability to these numbers within VIP. And it’s got a lot of folks really fired up – their competitive juices flowing.

And I can assure you that the impressive (often shocking) results our VIPs are getting to date, will be far surpassed in the coming months because of this new level of accountability.

That’s the thing about VIP – you just embrace the accountability and execute the game plan – and measurable, significant results are a foregone conclusion.

What kind of results?

Take a look here to see for yourself.

Make it a great week,
Eric

P.S. CONGRATULATIONS TO HANA AND HEATHER HERNDON.  REGIONAL TANG SU DOO CHAMPIONS!