How to Earn an Extra $17,497/month Working Only 4 Days a Week [Client Case Study]

“I’m feel like I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I just can’t keep this pace up.”

My new client Wayne Sutherland heaved a heavy sigh from the other end of the phone. The burnout and anxiety in his voice was palpable. He knew it was only amount of time before the work load he was under crushed him like a ton of bricks.

Like a rattle snake waiting to strike, it was only a matter of time before it happened. 

Wayne had been in business with his girlfriend (and business partner) since they launched Elite Fitness Team Inc. back in 2010.

After achieving some success working at corporate gyms in Toronto, they decided to foray into the world of entrepreneurship by opening up their own “garage gym” personal training studio. 

After all, most fitness entrepreneurs have more time and financial freedom than corporate warriors, right? … Right? 

As most entrepreneurs discover early on, this wasn’t quite the case.

Although their business was BOOMING and they quickly became the premier physique transformation coaches in the Toronto area, Wayne and his girlfriend were both slowly sliding into the trap of entrepreneurial burnout like a hiker caught in quicksand. 

He knew he needed help but he didn’t know where to look. So he turned to another trainer in the area Vince Del Monte (also a client of mine) for help.

Vince introduced Wayne and his girlfriend to me and we hit it off instantly. 

Wayne hired me to help coach him in his business (something he’d never done before) and we set to work creating a plan to help him own his days, control his schedule, and reduce his work load… While earning more.

After some serious leg work, Wayne hit a breakthrough and realized that the way he was running his business was no longer aligned with his vision.

The personal training studio was eating too much of his time and attention and distracting from the area of growth he really wanted to pursue… Online coaching.

After mapping out his battle plan with me and executing on his new vision, Wayne decided to scrap his personal training studio and go all in on his online business.

It was a scary transition…

At the time, his online income didn’t even come close to the money he was making with his studio, however, after a few tactical shifts in his approach he earned $17,500 in less than three months.

And today, he generates that same amount every month from his online business without having to leave the home, sacrifice family or personal time, or manage a team of employees.

Here’s how he did it, what he learned, and how you can replicate his success.

1. Raise The Roof! (And Your Rates)

“You charge HOW much?”, I asked Wayne in disbelief.

“$950 for a 12-week program”, he responded.

“Wayne” I fired back, “What you’re offering is far more valuable than that. You’ve got to increase those rates. From now on, don’t charge less than $2,000 for your program.”

“Are you serious?”, he asked me.

“Wayne,” I responded, “Even if you lose half of your client base by increasing your rates, you’ll still come out earning the same amount of money and working less.”

“Ok, I’ll trust you”, he said.

And he hasn’t looked back since.

Most entrepreneurs that I coach are grossly undercharging for their services. They mistakenly believe that they are somehow doing themselves and their clients a favor by offering their services at a low ball price.  

But nothing could be further from the truth. .

Let me ask you something…

Have you ever given or received free coaching?

How did that go for you?

If your experience was anything like mine, your client likely showed up late, sounded distracted throughout the entire call, and took little to no action after you hung up.

The reason is simple.

Humans don’t value things that come easily.

When something is too inexpensive or too easy to acquire, it’s in our nature to view it as a disposable resource.

We only value that which we invest in. The more we invest, the more we value it.

This is why I no longer offer free coaching.

If you truly want to serve your clients at the highest level, then you must increase your rates.

They will never value your time or services unless they are heavily invested in them.

Just ask yourself, “What is the value I’m offering here?”

If you’re a coach or consultant, how much do you think it’s worth for one of your clients to:

• Build the body of their dreams
• Add an extra 10 hours of free time to their week
• Increase their income by 20%
• Double the number of conversions their social ads generate
• Save a dying marriage

Probably a LOT more than you’re charging (and realistically more than you ever could charge).

Until YOU value what you’re offering your clients at the highest possible level, THEY will not value the product or service you provide.

So if you want to serve your clients (not just your bank account) you need to increase your rates and you need to do it today.

Does this mean you will lose some potential clients to the price objection? Of course.

Does it also mean that you will have better clients, more success stories, and earn more money per hour? Absolutely.

Raise your rates now! Your clients deserve it.

2. Tap Into Existing Revenue Sources in Your Business

Whenever a client comes to me asking how they can increase the number of leads and clients flowing into their business, I always ask them the same questions.

“How many referrals have you asked for in the past 90 days?”

More often than not, their answer is a resounding “Zero”. It was no different for Wayne.

Despite a healthy rolodex of happy and successful clients (individuals who’d won physique awards, been featured in major magazines, and even launched careers as professional fitness trainers or models), Wayne was focusing all of his attention on generating leads through cold traffic – people who didn’t know, like, or trust him.

After hearing this, the first thing I had Wayne do was to reach out to his existing clients and ask for referrals.

And guess what?

Within a week, he’d generated more new clients than he had in the previous month of cold outreach.

If you aren’t asking for referrals from existing clients, then you are literally leaving thousands (in some cases hundreds of thousands) of dollars on the table.

Your existing clients – if you’ve done your job well – will always be your biggest fans and #1 source of new revenue.

Human beings are more likely to take action on an offer that came from someone they know, like, and trust than they are an offer from a stranger on the internet.

One happy client is worth infinitely more to your business than $10,000 worth of Facebook ads.

So if you don’t already have a bulletproof referral program get started on this today! You’ll be amazed at the speed and efficiency with which you’ll be able to generate new business

3. Control Your Days to Control Your Business

As is often the case with my new coaching clients, one of the biggest problems facing Wayne was that his days were controlling him instead of him controlling his days.

When we started working together, he was overwhelmed and completely frustrated by his schedule.

He had no time for his partner, his daughter, or himself.

He was drowning in work and struggling to carve out even 15 minutes for himself or his loved ones.

After sitting down together, I had him go through his perfect week formula.

We started by scheduling his personal and family time first.

Then I taught him how to get the most out of his deep work slots by following the “Stress and Rest” model of scheduling important work after periods of recovery.

Within weeks, he felt like a new man.

He no longer felt like he was fighting for time. Instead, he woke up every single day with a plan. Date night, time with his daughter, and his personal time were all scheduled ahead of time and he was able to accomplish 5x more during his deep work slots than he previously thought possible.

If you want to increase the revenue that your business generates, then you must protect your personal and family time with your life.

You must wake up every morning with a plan and a schedule. You must allow yourself adequate time to recover from strenuous activities and always remember that your business is only as strong as your schedule.

When you feel overwhelmed, anxious, and burned out, your performance and family life suffers, creating a vicious cycle of underperformance that can literally kill you and your business.

Commit right now to controlling your days and weeks. Prioritize personal and family time first. If you need to hire an assistant or new team member so that you can reduce your workload and free up your precious mental bandwidth, then do it.

Protect your time and energy like your life depends on it.

Because it very well may.

4. Find a Coach

Despite being a fitness coach himself, Wayne had never worked with a business coach before we met.

He told me, “I’ve always known having a coach was important, but I just didn’t see the need in business”.

Like many hard charging entrepreneurs, Wayne thought he could do everything himself.

He took the concept of self reliance to the ultimate extreme and his personal life and business were paying the price.

Hiring a coach doesn’t mean that you’re weak or incapable of achieving success on your own.

It means that you’re smart enough to accept that you don’t have all the answers and other people have the information and resources you need to get to the next level.

If you don’t have a coach right now, I’d argue this is the single most important thing you can do to accelerate your success and achieve your biggest goals.

Think of a coach as your personal GPS system.

If you had to make a road trip from New York to California, you could probably do it alone.

You’d have to stop and ask for directions dozens of time, feebly attempt to read a map, and likely spew copious amounts of profanity every time that you missed an exit.

You’d get to your final destination. But it would take longer than necessary and cost you valuable time and energy that could have been better spent.

However, with the right GPS system (e.g. the right coach) you will have directions and guidance every step of the way ensuring that you always take the right exits and avoid dead ends.

That is what a coach can do for your business and life.

They will help you identify the areas where you are underperforming and give you the tools and tactics you need to bring yourself and your business up to speed.

Michael Jordan, Hugh Jackman, Oprah Winfrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Eric Schmidt (the former CEO of Google) all used coaches to go from good to great.

And if you’re serious about success… So will you.

5. Embrace the Grind and Be Patient

Success rarely happens as quickly as we want it to.

Whether it’s in our body, our bank account, our business, or our relationships, lasting change takes time.

One of Wayne’s greatest strengths is that he is an incredibly patient client.

He understands the process of success.

When we first started working together, his results didn’t happen overnight. He wasn’t achieving his target income as quickly as he wanted.

But he was commited to the process and decided to continue working until he achieved his goals.

And it paid off big time.

Today, Wayne makes multiple six-figures working less and enjoying more time with his family.

But it took time and it took patience.

On your own journey, you must commit to the process. Don’t quit just because you don’t see results today.

In the same way that one day of overeating won’t make you fat, one cigarette won’t give you lung cancer, and one investment in an IRA won’t make you a millionaire, one day, week, or month of high performance won’t magically double your income.

Lasting success takes time.

So commit to the process. Decide right now that you will continue pursuing your goals until. Whether it takes you 12 months or 12 years, stick it out and trust the process.

Success will happen.

But it will rarely happen as quickly as you want it to.

Conclusion

Over to you.

In this article, I’ve shown you the exact steps that helped one of my clients replace his personal training income with online coaching while reducing his workload and making more time for what matters most.

So my challenge to you today is to TAKE ACTION!

Right now, pick one thing that you learned from this article and commit to executing on it.

Let me know what you chose and when you’re going to take action below.

Success is just around the corner.

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