Last week, I ended our group coaching program, ‘The Ripped Body Cut Club.’
This may come as a surprise. It was during a week I announced to my email list that I was accepting applications for the second cohort of members.
But it was the right thing to do for everyone involved. I have no regrets and appreciate what we’ve learned. Here’s a quick post-mortem and explanation of what it means for our coaching.
How Things Went Wrong
Engagement in the Facebook group dropped off after the first six weeks. I was told to expect this, but I wasn’t expecting it to fall so sharply.
This left a clique of hard-core members who would attend all calls. And while it was nice to see the same faces, there wasn’t enough interaction for the “thriving and supportive community” vibe we aimed to deliver.
As the applications came in for the second cohort, it was clear that we weren’t going to get enough people to fix this. So I decided to pull the plug rather than sell people on false promises.
But how could I end the group in a way that did right by everyone? 🤔
Making it right
Reputation is hard-earned and easy to lose. It’s critical to do right by people, but the “right” thing required some thought.
The applications to join read no differently than the 7000 or so I’ve read over the last decade. They applied because they were excited to work with us. Not because they were particularly enthusiastic about the group.
So, I decided to offer all current members a swap to 1:1 coaching with one of the Ripped Body coaches at no extra charge. I offered the second cohort applicants the same deal.
👉🏻 The take-up rate on the offer was 75%.
A few people expressed disappointment (completely understandable). Still, there were floods of lovely emails which flipped my feelings of shame into gratitude for the opportunity to work with such positive people.
The right idea, the wrong demographic?
In hindsight, I’m confident we nailed the execution, but we had the wrong demographic.
We work with busy men with demanding jobs, family obligations, and very limited time.
👉🏻 Do these guys want yet another app to check? — No.
👉🏻 Do they like sharing their feelings with strangers? — Nope.
👉🏻 Do they have time to add a few calls each week to their schedules? On top of the 3–4 gym training sessions and food prep? No.
👉🏻 Do they have time to figure out what they should do based on our instructions? No. They want to be told what to do (which is not possible with group coaching unless you make compromises).
We built a good model, but it was for the wrong demographic. This should have been obvious to me at the outset. 🤦🏻♂️
Moving forward…
Moving forward, we’ll focus on 1:1 coaching.
This is what we’re known for and excel at. The more focused attention gives better results and the type of clients that we coach value it more. The only difference now is that I now have coaches Matt, James, and Reid on the team.
The site became famous for a combination of two things:
- Client results (more coming next week)
- Detailed guides explaining exactly how we got those results.
We’re going to refocus on this as it’s where we can be of most value to you.
Thank you for reading. Have a great weekend! 💪🏻
PS: I haven’t gotten around to updating the coaching page yet, but if you’re interested in hiring one of my guys, fill out the form and I’d love to see how we can help.
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