0:42 Why humans are drawn to stories and how this impacts marketing

3:56 Finding the "goldmine" of stories already in your gym

5:58 Training your staff to spot and collect member stories

8:18 Why publishing quickly is crucial

12:13 Leveraging technology to scale story creation

15:45 Leveraging stories to supercharge your sales process

Dan Uyemura: [00:00:00] This is the one thing your gym should do to increase your sales rate. Welcome to the PushPress Podcast, where gym owners learn to dodge bad advice, crush their competition, and actually make money doing what they love. Let's get after it. Awesome. So, um, this actually segues right into the next episode, which is we're titling ‘Be a Story Collector.’ Be a story collector.

Um, and the reason this segues right into it is because. The reviews and the topics that you're getting out of like GymHappy type systems is, um, the basis of re of getting story and, uh, a huge. I don't even know if it's a theory at this point, but the way humans are wired is we are attracted to stories.

Nick Reyes: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, there's plenty of psychological proof out there around as humans, like we've craved stories since the donna time. I mean, heck, they're on freaking caveman walls for Christ's sake. Right. Um, and so. I think especially from a marketing lens anymore, [00:01:00] in this day and age, in this day and age, like you see it, you follow characters.

Uh, you don't follow brands, you follow story arcs. Uh, everything, uh, in, in our current media download is about stories. And so as a business, how can you market yourself capture attention when there's all these compelling stories going on that are capturing. You know, your attention if you're not doing the same thing.

Right? So, so in this episode, we really want to dive into all things storytelling and, and how are you actually, uh, transitioning from being just a, uh, you know, maybe the, the, the, I don't wanna say the paid ad, you know, company or whatever, but like how are you transitioning to really capturing consumer attention through stores?

Dan Uyemura: Yep. Yeah, exactly. This is modern day marketing actually. So that's kind of like where this is, is headed. Um. And, you know, when you really deconstruct your experience with social media, your [00:02:00] own personal experience, like, like you said, you lean into the stories that are being told. You learn into, um, proof that's happening in front of your own eyes, which, you know, social proof, these are things that actually you're, you're wired to n not miss.

It's just how we are as human beings. So I think, you know, again, when you talk about architecting and engineering the outcomes you want, you've gotta start to approach your gym business as what stories do we have to tell in here? 

Nick Reyes: Yeah. And I think, I think there might be a little bit of a disconnect of gyms not knowing exactly how much of a gold, goldmine they're sitting on when it comes to telling stories.

Like I know personally, I love the underdog. I love the, the stories of someone of, uh, that persevered through struggle mm-hmm. And came out the other side and was triumphant, uh, even, even the stories of like just the front runner, like the legend. Like, I'm not a Tom Brady fan, I'm a Patrick [00:03:00] Mahomes fan, but I will watch stuff about Tom Brady.

Dan Uyemura: He's the best quarterback to ever do it. Do you know the, the funny thing about that is. There's actually a negative story too, where like so many people watch the Lakers or Tom Brady or the Yankees, or maybe the Dodgers now because they hate them, but they're tuning in and, but Trump 

Nick Reyes: still watching 

Dan Uyemura: Trump, you know what I mean?

Like half of America loves him and is watching the shit out of him. Half America hates him and is watching shit out, but he's knows to master the idea that you're watching me either way. 

Nick Reyes: Yep, yep. Yeah, and and so like if you just think about, okay, who are the, who are the people in my gym? It's like I've got an underdog.

Dan Uyemura: Mm-hmm. 

Nick Reyes: I've got someone that's persevering. I've got the person that just dominates fitness and life. You've got, you've got the characters, 

Dan Uyemura: you've got a mom, you've got a dad, you've got some, some teen. Mm-hmm. Like yeah. All of the stories are there. Right. And I think this, let's roll this right into, into the highlights here.

So I think that the first thing you have to do is start to [00:04:00] understand these stories are in your gym and you've gotta train people, if not yourself, to spot them. That's the biggest unlock is first to just be aware that these stories are happening. And I think we all know because like right now, if I asked any gym owner, it's like, who's the best story in your gym?

You'll have it. Tell it. Right? So you gotta spot the moments that are happening as they're happening and start to record them. 

Nick Reyes: Yep. Yep. And maybe the, the, the next evolution of that is your staff has to as well, because you can't be in all places all the time. Right. So, you know, the, the equivalent would be, you know, Sally got her first muscle up and I wasn't there, but Dan was there.

And then Dan needs to make sure that the entire staff knows. Right. 

Dan Uyemura: You know, and, and so like, again, this is like next level architecture. This is like next level architecture, but. When I did my first fundamentals class, we engineered it. So the last day was a repeat of the first day. And the last day everyone did better and they all felt good about themselves and the coaches pushed on it like, dude, you got 33% better.

We even put it on the whiteboard like we did a quick math, like 33% improvement, blah, blah, blah. [00:05:00] Imagine if you had a coaches meeting once a week and you intentionally program your programming to know like, these 18 members have never done a pull up, but they're really close. We might be able to get four this week.

Imagine if you know you, you know, you're programming a retest and you pull up in a coach's meeting, everyone's old scores and just say like, know who does better this time and talk to 'em about it. Like this all happens by happenstance right now. But this can be engineered so easily. 

Nick Reyes: It can be, it can be.

It just dawned on me that I think this is a hell of a reason to do reservations for classes so that a coach can prepare for Yes. You know, Tom coming into class that got this score on their last time, I need to make sure he can get to this time again, we're That needs to be a whole nother episode. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. We'll go rabbit hole data. 

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. That what you can do for knowing who's coming to class as soon as possible is huge. 

Nick Reyes: Right? Yeah. But it allows you to continue the story. Mm-hmm. 

Dan Uyemura: Yep. Yep. 

Nick Reyes: You wanna take this next one, Dan? Yeah. 

Dan Uyemura: Topic number two. So the concept of ritual is better than [00:06:00] random. And so this has to do with culture.

And so again, if people are used to just popping into your gym, doing their workout and going home and no stories are surfaced or celebrated, uh, it might be, might be really weird if all of a sudden you make a big deal about someone's thing that happened in the gym. But if they're indoctrinated into this concept from the get go, like.

Hey, you're gonna join my gym. Here's a media release. We tell stories here, like, I expect you to have some transformational changes, and I would like to be able to share that with the world. Are you okay with that? Right. Most people will be because that means you're aligned with their progress. Some people won't be, that's fine, but at least they'll know it's happening.

So when you're celebrating someone else's win, they know that this is part of what you do, right? So again, it's all about disconnecting the, the chance of randomness. Like just some random story might happen to your gym or it's something that you've. Process and, and ritually made happen. Right? 

Nick Reyes: I, I, I love that as a concept, uh, because otherwise it does feel forced, right?

And it [00:07:00] doesn't feel, um, it could feel outta place and it could make someone uncomfortable. Where, where my brain is going here, Dan, is like the whole Story-Brand concept. Uh, you know, your bus, you're not the hero. Your business isn't the hero. Mm-hmm. They're the hero. You're Robin or you're Alfred. Right? And so.

If you build this in as the ritual, it really, what you're saying is, I'm, my goal here is to make you the hero and to be your Alfred on your journey. Right? And we're going to publish these stories and I'm gonna ask some questions about it from time to time. Is that okay with you? Yeah. You know? 

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. And, and one other quick thing that we do at PushPress a ton is we leverage things like Slack for real time information when things happen.

So like in PushPress, we have a customer love channel, and anytime anyone writes in a message that says somebody went over the top, someone really helped me. I really appreciate this, this, and this, because this is what you've done for my business. We have trained our [00:08:00] team to share that with the rest of the team because it creates the snowball, right?

Where you realize that like there's someone in another corner of the company that's doing some work for our customers. So that helps me understand that I need to get up and do my part of the job on this side of the company. 

Nick Reyes: Yep. It's infectious. Yep. So this next one, uh, public publish fast or it didn't happen.

And so, you know, I think the, the big piece here that we want to unpack is that, uh, we need everyone to capture the moments as quickly as they can. Uh, and we need to share them out in a quick period of time, right? Because you're coming off of the, the, if you're, if you're Batman and you just saved the day, why would you wait a week to.

To, to let the world know like the high comes down, all of a sudden the story doesn't have as much impact. So time does matter here. 

Dan Uyemura: Absolutely. Like I think it's easy to not understand the importance of this because again, if you are telling the story of your heroes, it loses every [00:09:00] minute. That ticks by, it loses relevance.

Like if I got my first pull up and you celebrate it that night, I'm still on the high from it happening. But if you publish it six months from now. It actually might feel like, why are you even telling this story now? Like, I do so much more. Yeah. 

Nick Reyes: Like, oh, now you're thinking about me. Yeah. You know, you made in marketing, 

Dan Uyemura: it can turn what Yeah.

What it was exactly. It can turn a really, really good thing and do something that feels icky. 

Nick Reyes: Yep. 

Dan Uyemura: So it needs to be done timely. 

Nick Reyes: And I do think there's kind of like this idea, maybe a mental block in, in some. Some people, and I, I maybe have a tendency to have this too, of like, the Nike commercial was an amazing story.

Mm-hmm. I need to make sure I get the perfect photo. You know, just like that Nike commercial. But the reality is, is like, just get it out there. It's better than sitting on it or trying to recapture a moment and manufacture it in a way so that it looks polished. Like people will connect to it. Yeah. Even if it's.

[00:10:00] Not the perfect angle, in the perfect lighting and so forth. Yeah. Here's 

Dan Uyemura: actually, I have, um, a slightly counterpoint to that. Okay. Um, I used to be very big on the fact that in social media, the more raw it looked, the better it is. I think we're moving past that as a society. Ooh. I think like now when I see some things that are too raw, it's an instant skip versus like, okay, they have different camera angles and they put some thought and they have good audio and lighting, you know, blah, blah, blah.

So. I, I pause to think that like raw speed beats publish a little bit of polish, but we do live in a world where like for seven bucks a month, there's an app on your phone that you can like throw 18 clips of videos into and it will make it like dramatically lit. Well audio, like it will do all of it for seven bucks a month.

So I think, like for me, there's this weird hurdle of like. Man, seven bucks a month for an app. That's so dumb. And I've started buying these things. 'cause now I look at it like, well, it just [00:11:00] saved me an hour to, to put together a video that I couldn't have done myself. So now I've got like 14, $7 a month subscriptions.

Nick Reyes: Yeah. I, I, I'm, of course you do. Uh, you know, that's a pretty big statement from the, from the man who's openly left typos in his emails for years. Right. So, I, I, I know that you're serious about that. I, um. I would tend to agree. If it looks too rough, it probably won't capture the eyeballs. However, it doesn't need to be Nike if it's the only shot.

You know? It's like you're gonna get up there on the rings and I'm gonna get a video and then I stumble, but I got it. It's like, oh, do I wanna publish that? It may not get the eyeballs from everyone else, but you as the person who accomplished it, will be like, that's true. He published it. 

Dan Uyemura: Yeah, that's true.

Nick Reyes: So, 

Dan Uyemura: and, and, and even in saying that it doesn't have to be high studio quality. Like, like Pat, pat Chandler has been posting videos, reading reviews, and it's like he's, he has a good, decent mic on him. I think he probably has a lab or [00:12:00] something. And you know, it's not a total amateur shoot, but it's also not like studio lit and like super polished.

Right. So, and that's good enough. 

Nick Reyes: Yep. You know? Yep. A hundred percent. 

Dan Uyemura: Cool. Uh, next topic I would say is like, we need to leverage technology. Right. Uh, and the reason for this is story building takes time. So this is why like your coaches being bought into this creates the leverage you need. Um, and then you need to be able to like, let technology help also, because ultimately you're looking to create stories at a, at a speed and a level that you probably never done before.

So you need to leverage everything you can to get those stories. Recorded and produced and published as possible. 

Nick Reyes: Yeah. And I'll, I'll give a really good example just by me piggybacking off of what, uh, what you talked about with, uh, with Patrick Chandler at Kansas Athletic Club, which was, we had GymHappy reviews that we came in and we wanted to experiment with whether or not putting a review on [00:13:00] video would get more views and engagement than a screenshot of a review, you know, posted from a brand account.

And so. When we say Let the robots help or leverage technology, it really is like GymHappy captured the review. That review went into, you know, a custom GPT that just was super easy to build. You could just stop, drop the chat GPT, and it's like right witty response to this. And we did that for five reviews.

Sat there with a phone in front of him in a little road laugh mic, and then, you know, I have my daughter edit the video and took no time at all. Gave him five pieces of content. I, I think from, from beginning to finish, not counting Mila's, time to edit the video was all of 20 minutes, 30 minutes. So we're, we're talking about ways that you can really scale if you just maybe open up the laptop and just focus on getting it done.

Dan Uyemura: Mm-hmm. Do you have any stats on that yet? 

Nick Reyes: Uh, the interesting thing here is when [00:14:00] you compare. The non follower engagement to follower engagement. Mm-hmm. 

Dan Uyemura: Who, who's he posting this as? 

Nick Reyes: The gym? He's posting this as himself. Okay. And then on Instagram, he's inviting the gym as a collaborator. 

Dan Uyemura: Okay, cool. Perfect.

Nick Reyes: And, and so, uh, we're seeing the difference between about 60% non follower engagement on a normal post and on these review posts closer to 90% non follower engagement. Oh, wow. So. As it appears right now, and again, we're about a week or so into the experiment, uh, it's a significant uptick in reading a review video, not only in volume of engagement, but specifically non follower engagement.

Dan Uyemura: And you know, the thing I actually wanna double click on here, that's probably the most meta thing to think about is you guys just decide to take a test. We'll just record five and just compare that to the numbers that we already know are, 'cause he publishes fairly frequently. 

Nick Reyes: Yeah, he's, they've made, or he, they've made 30 posts in the last, uh, [00:15:00] since March one.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. And here's another thing too, like I'll say anecdotally, and this is somewhat on topic and somewhat off topic because I, I follow him, their gym. Their gym makes a lot of posts that are like, they take memes, they do witty stuff, they like make fun of their, their coaches, you know, they do serious ones.

They have a whole mix of the content. I don't know if it's strategized or not, or just random. 

Nick Reyes: It is. 

Dan Uyemura: Okay. And so mixing in a review. Feels very natural and organic and Right. Whereas if all they did was reviews, it would feel weird. You know what I mean? Right. So it's just like they're peppering it into the meme stitch and you know, the, this is, this is what we're doing this week.

Like all of it as a whole really works well together. 

Nick Reyes: Yeah. Yeah. We've, uh, maybe we'll dive into that in a future marketing episode. Yeah. 

Dan Uyemura: Okay. Cool. Um, last topic for this episode. Proof sells so. This is another big miss. It's like you're, you have all these stories in your gym that you're failing to collect, and if you did collect them, um, I, I [00:16:00] do see some gyms collect them.

Like, I don't even know this KSAC does this. KSAC I know is collecting, uh, stories and reviews and testimonials. When I bring you into, have a sales conversation and we're talking about what I can do for you, I should have a wall or a book full of these stories that I'm like, oh. You wanna be able to run a marathon?

Hold up. Turn to page 32. That's John. John came in 32 pounds, overweight, wanted to run a marathon. In nine months, we got him to run a two hour and 42 minute marathon. How does that sound? Mm-hmm. Right. Like the stories sell your product. 

Nick Reyes: Oh man. We could go on this one for a bit. Uh, I think stories can, sometimes that word can come across as being pretty vague.

Where your, what you, what you just the thought trail you just put me down is like, if I'm sitting in a room and I see a, a, a story of someone going from, you know, lo losing 50 pounds, like that is a story in the CrossFit space with which we know so [00:17:00] well. There's tib, there's also stories of like, couldn't do a movement.

Mm-hmm. Couldn't do a box jump. Now they can. Mm-hmm. Couldn't do, um, couldn't squat over so much weight. Now they can. Patrick Chandler and I saying, you know, talking around the same length of like, we have custom benchmarks at Ken's athletic club. What are the stories of the people who have achieved, who did it scaled and then finally did it RX put those on the wall.

Mm-hmm. You know, who had the biggest physical accomplishments from a weight standpoint, or, sorry, from like a, a performance standpoint. Tell those stories on the wall. Tell the weight loss stories on the wall. Tell the, the, the medication, getting off blood pressure medication stories as well. So there's the different angles of all of them.

Yep. Because when you're in that sales room, you do want to be able to connect that person's objective to some story somewhere. 

Dan Uyemura: I mean, they have to see that it's happened. 

Nick Reyes: Right? So don't just think [00:18:00] of it as, I need to lose 10 pounds, I need to do the 10 pound loss stories only. 

Dan Uyemura: Oh no. There's a, and here's the thing, once you start talking to your customers about their story.

You're gonna get a hundred different stories. You didn't assume, like you assume everyone's value in your gym is the fitness you're selling or losing weight or getting stronger. But someone's gonna tell you like, oh, I, my parents just passed away from this heart condition that I realized through 23 and me that I have, and now I'm just worried about that.

Like, there's gonna be some story that's so deep you can't even, you can't even surmise it. 

Nick Reyes: Uh, there was a gentleman, uh, at, at 9 1 3 and he left to move out to LA and go work for SpaceX. And when I did an exit interview with him, he was a great member. Um, his name's Sean Herald, um, amazing guy. Uh, the story that he told me that we empo, empowered him to do was he was always kinda shy and reserved and finding fitness is what gave him the confidence to apply, move across the country for his dream job.

See, 

Dan Uyemura: like, 

Nick Reyes: [00:19:00] and I was like. Holy cr. Like I was amazed that we had done that. 

Dan Uyemura: Yeah, 

Nick Reyes: we But I had not intend until you, until you asked Yeah. Pulled that out prior to that, you know, 

Dan Uyemura: that this should be like a whole tactic and another show on like how to ask the right questions to pull these out. Put that in the, in the book.

Um, but lemme give you one more, um, sales tactic and I'm not a salesperson and so for me to give this one, I don't know. It feels. Semi sleazy, but also it's like, this is how you, this is how you should be looking at sales, right? So if you're in my sales room and I'm selling, if I, you know, going back to the last, last episode, if I was starting a new gym, I would have this book built.

Hopefully it's like you're a trainer before you can still build this. Like, oh, here's another thing. These stories are evergreen and they're yours. Meaning like, you shut this gym down and you go do private training. You go work for Gold's Gym. I don't care. Whatever else you do with your fitness life, like those stories are still real and they're still valid.

Anyways, I would have my book, I would, uh, have a reason to leave, right? Like, Hey, you know what? Let me go print this thing [00:20:00] for you, or let me go ask somebody this question. I'll be back in two minutes. And leave you with the stories. Mm-hmm. And I guarantee you, like if you had a camera on them, they will start looking right and they will find the stories on their own.

If it's on the wall, they're gonna get up and start reading them. If it's in a book, they're gonna start flipping through it, and you're giving them the space and time to find the story that attracts them most. Right? Yep. And I mean, you know, the next level of this will be like, understand which story they read and lean into that.

But it doesn't matter. Like you just let them give them the space and time to read the stories. Because in the book in front of you, they're not gonna be focused on it, but you gotta give 'em the time. 

Nick Reyes: Yep, yep. And, and, and maybe to, to double click on that, the reason why consuming the stories works, it all goes back to.

Uh, I believe that this is the place that can do what I need. Mm-hmm. Done in order to accomplish what I wanna accomplish. Yeah. It is the social proof, it is the trust. It is the entire buy-in. And if you can't tell that story, you have no concept of social proof, so no [00:21:00] one will buy from you. 

Dan Uyemura: It, it'll be much harder.

Nick Reyes: The, 

Dan Uyemura: the, the bottom line is this. Yeah. Like if, if, if you're sitting in a gym and you're thinking about joining. Either a sales person's telling you that they can do it for you, or you're reading the stories that showed that someone else got what you wanted done. Which one is makes it so much easier to buy into what's happening here.

Absolutely. You know? 

Nick Reyes: Yep. Oh, that's wrap this. I guess what I would wanna know from any of our audience would be, uh, if you're a gym and you have absolutely changed someone's life and documented it, I would love to see. The links, the story arc, uh, the Facebook video. Tell 

Dan Uyemura: us your fucking best story. 

Nick Reyes: I wanna absolutely see the, the cream of the crop here.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. 'cause you know what, lemme tell you one last thing before we really sign off for real, for real, for real, is the stories that get published in our customer love channel attached to my why so deeply. Every time I see that Slack channel light up, I'm in there. I'm like, let me read this. Let me see what happened.

And so you're gonna find this like when you start, like when you share your story with us, it's gonna resonate with us so much because this is our why too. [00:22:00] The magic of that feeling is something you actually want to unlock amongst your team as well. 

Nick Reyes: A hundred percent. We want to hear your story podcast@pushpress.com.

Thank you. Thanks guys. 

Dan Uyemura: Thanks for listening to another episode of the PushPress Podcast, where we help gym owners, entrepreneurs and fitness enthusiasts thrive with actionable insights and inspiring stories and strategies for growth. 

Nick Reyes: Don't forget to follow the show to stay updated on new episodes. And if you're ready for more, join our free Facebook community for gym owners.

Check the show notes for the link and we'll see you next time. Keep raising the bar for your business and community.

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