Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to William Ernster. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi William , thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

My biggest challenge has been marketing myself and actively getting new clients. When we first started, we were already firmly rooted in our local gym community in Flagstaff, Arizona. When we started the business and began taking on clients, there was immediate interest and we didn’t have to work very hard to get clients. When we left Flagstaff and moved to the Phoenix area we quickly realized how much local connections drive business, as we had very few in the new area. We also, much more slowly, began to realize how different the world of online fitness coaching was to the personal training side of things. Being predominantly online, most of our energy was going to social media. We didn’t run ads, only relying on organic media and the occasional in-person workshop we would host in our garage gym to generate leads and clients. This is when we realized how much more we needed to be doing to get ourselves out there, make connections, and grow our business. We eventually made the pivot to emphasize our in-person training, and joined a networking group called BNI, and started attending more in-person networking events in our area. This dramatically improved our local visibility and allowed us to make the local connections we needed to see the growth we wanted in our business.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Lifting has been the center of my life for 15 years. I have loved being physically active from a young age, got into lifting in high school, did 5 years in the Marine Corps, and went to Northern Arizona University for Fitness and Wellness. I knew post-military that I wanted to do something fitness related, I figured I would get my degree, intern somewhere, and then work for a gym. That abruptly changed when my partner Maddy, unbeknownst to me, signed us up for a business coaching mentorship while I was still in college (she had already graduated) and thus we began our entrepreneurial journey! We both have a background competing in powerlifting and strongman, which will always be a passion of ours, and we excel at getting people strong – whether they want to compete or simply because they enjoy it. We specialize in is bringing our meticulous “powerlifting style” training methods and applying them to all of our clients. This is not to say that we have everyone training for a heavy 1 rep max squat, but we heavily emphasize lifting mechanics, time-tested strength progressions, and intense assistance work to ensure well rounded development for whatever the client’s’ goal may be. Everyone who comes to us says “I want to get stronger”, and that goal is usually accompanied by others like losing some body fat, building muscle, looking better, or wanting to “just feel healthier”. It is our firm belief that strength is the foundation of all these things, so that’s why we approach training our clients the way we do. Something that we have been able to do time and time again, is help people lift pain free. Now, we are not clinicians and we do not treat any symptoms nor diagnose anything. People often come to us and say they avoid certain lifts like squat, bench, or deadlift because they have had bad experiences and feel pain when lifting. What we are able to do is simply observe their lifting mechanics and easily point out what they are doing wrong, and what they can do to make it better. Our experience in strength sports allows us to elevate the level of coaching we provide, so we can serve our clients on a much deeper level and instill lasting strength.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

In-Person networking! In any market, with any service, and now – more than ever – people buy from who they know, like, and trust. The easiest way to build a positive reputation with potential clients and referral partners is face to face. Everything is online now. Online fitness coaches are a dime a dozen, the bar for entry is lower than ever, and they are having to resort to surface level, eye-catching content in hopes of getting leads and making sales. People have understably become wary of this online environment and it is so easy for them to distrust and dismiss what they come across. This makes it incredibly difficult for smaller businesses to stand out because they typically do not have as much experience in front of a camera, as big a following, or as big a budget to produce content that makes them stand out. We were in this struggle for a year and a half. We finally were able to break out of this online meta purgatory by getting uncomfortable and working our social muscles with in-person networking. In this setting, you are in a room with dozens of other people who if they themselves are not a match for your service, they probably know someone who is. If you get into a networking group like BNI that meets weekly and you have the same people there every time, you can continuously build the relationships and trust that lead to new business! At the end of the day, no one cares about what you know or what you can do if you aren’t personable. The sooner you can learn to build meaningful relationships, trust, and community, the sooner your business will grow.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As kids and in young adulthood many of us are taught to hide our quirks, interests, and opinions – the things that make us unique – because we want to fit in. That is the antithesis of being a successful business owner. It is precisely my individuality, my unique interests, my passions, and my fringe opinions that attract the most aligned and lucrative clients. I feel that it is this very personal aspect of entrepreneurship that limits and discourages so many small business owners. We may feel the call to break out of that conditioning, but we may still feel the fear of potential judgement or of being rejected. The reality is that none of us will truly realize our highest potential if we muzzle the most authentic and unorthodox parts of ourselves. In this age of accessibility, limitless options, and market saturation, it is purely your ability to STAND OUT, and be uncopyable that will reward you with success. This has been an incredibly difficult part of my own journey, as a regular person and as a business owner, and it is an ever evolving challenge that I have yet to overcome. I do, however, feel more capable of supporting myself through the process and I hope that sharing this encourages others to do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ratliftz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/will.power.hp/