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Zach Forrest, PushPress: seems to be our most popular webinar to date, with the amount of people that have registered for it. So, I am, again, super stoked to be talking about this, because I think…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: if there's one system that determines whether or not your gym grows or struggles, it's got to be onboarding. I think everything…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: onboarding supports almost every aspect, or touches almost every aspect of your gym business. And so, it's… it can't be spoken about or refined enough. Today, I'm going to be joined by, like I said earlier, JP Levesque from Grow Jitsu. JP, thanks for joining us.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Kilo, stop. The dog's growling at the Amazon guy.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: We're gonna break down what actually needs to happen in the first 30, 60, 90 days, depending on your timeline for your business.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: what actually needs to happen in those days to turn a brand new signup into a long-term, successful member. We're not going to go over a whole bunch of fluff. We are going to talk about some strategy that you need to have in the back of your head when designing your onboarding system, but what we really want to spend time doing is digging into the specific tactics, the actual things you need to do, the actions that need to take place in order to onboard a
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: And then, hopefully, we have a good amount of time left at the end, so that you guys can ask any questions that are relevant to maybe your specific or unique business that we can answer live.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, if you want better retention without constantly changing new leads.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: you're in the right place, because that's what we're gonna talk about. Alright, so I'm gonna share…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: My slideshow, let's see…
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Rudy Trevino: Zach, are we releasing a recording of this, or no?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Oh, absolutely, yeah. So, immediately following the webinar, I get to work on editing the recording, not really editing, just trimming out all the stuff at the beginning and to the end that people want to listen to, and the email
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: should go out at the end of this with two things. A link to the recording, that'll be on our YouTube channel, and a link to the PDF playbooks that you guys are gonna get that outlines all the steps that we're gonna talk about.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, with that being said, did I answer that question well, Rudy?
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Rudy Trevino: Perfect.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Alright, awesome.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, let's get into… Sharing.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: First thing we need to discuss and be all on the same page about is… What is onboarding?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Like, how do we actually define onboarding? When we say the word onboarding, what do we mean? It is the intentional, the deliberate process of taking a new sign-up
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: and turning them into a confident, integrated, long-term member. One word that I do want to talk about is that word, integrated. Integrated means they understand what should happen, and they know what to expect when
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: patronizing, like, being a part of your business, or being your customer. When they sign up, you have not onboarded them, that's just a transaction of payment. So that is… that is not a complete picture. What I want to talk about is a 30-90 day period after they sign up, and what you are doing to build clarity, competence.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Connection and commitment. I like the four C's. I like alliteration. I don't know about you guys, but I learn better with alliteration.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Just speaking… anybody else? No. One of the things that I do want to touch on
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: The build competence piece.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Dan, our CEO, said something a few months back, and I was so impressed by his delivery of it. I was like, you know what, I want to mention this in the
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: In the webinar, because the way he said it, onboarding… the golden rule of onboarding is don't ever make someone feel stupid.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So if you… if your onboarding can prevent your new members from ever feeling stupid.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: you've probably done a good job. So that competence piece is a big piece.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: This, I'm not gonna take credit for. I believe JP, threw this at me, and when I saw it, I was… you know me, I'm a big fan of pyramids, right? I love pyramids. I love the theoretical hierarchy of athletic development, and when I saw this, I was like, ugh, JP, this is organized really, really well. So I don't want to steal your thunder, I would love you to talk about
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: This, and what you introduced to me.
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JP Levesque: Yeah, man, the basic idea here is that
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JP Levesque: Everybody coming through starts at the bottom, and we want to, through the process of onboarding and all the various
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JP Levesque: touch points, which we'll get into later, tactically, we start to elevate them up from a place of just, they're kind of little baby birds, and then they become these, these superfans, these, these zealots, for your business. So, at the very bottom, it starts with safety and help, and, you know, I come from a CrossFit background, affiliate owner, all that, but I've been in the jiu-jitsu world for, you know, a number of years, training for 10 years.
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JP Levesque: And so, it's really, like, it's pretty obvious in CrossFit, like, squat snatches, handstand push-ups, like, there's some stuff that can sketch people out, but in jiu-jitsu, like, you're literally getting beaten up. So, safety and help become even more obvious and even more paramount. So I always want people to feel safe
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JP Levesque: And they know it's okay to ask for help, it's expected that they ask for help, and how to get that help. Like, I don't have a limitation on how much I'm willing to help you.
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JP Levesque: really, really important. Clarity and expectations, you know, one of the reasons people wash out early in programs is their expectations are a mismatch of their experience, and it only takes one bad class, or one bad training session. So, again.
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JP Levesque: setting that foundation, moving them up to, you know, what they can expect to experience during that first 90 days, those first classes. We're gonna put parameters on all those things, but that their expectations match up with reality, quite important. And then community and belonging, we want them to integrate as fast as possible, be part of the team, the clan, the tribe. We're gonna show them how to do that, we're gonna give them opportunities to do that.
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JP Levesque: And we're gonna make it really easy. Then we get them into the cycle of improvement, which is, you know, functionally, how do I continue to see the results or the benefit of this thing? What do I need to do in terms of inputs?
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JP Levesque: So that I can see continued results and progress. And then, of course, at the top, we are turning them into a superfan where they attend all your events, they like and share your posts, they buy every t-shirt, they put the bumper sticker on their car. Every, you know, every person they meet, they're telling about your product or service. So, the idea, of course, is to give people that foundation and to send them up the hierarchy of onboarding,
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JP Levesque: Through this 90-day process.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yeah, I love this thing because just by looking at this, visually, a business owner should be able to go through each
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: tier.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: and write out the deliberate things they do for every single one of their customers that addresses these issues. So, right now, as an exercise, if you're watching, if you're paying attention, if you're listening to this.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: For safety and help, you guys, and if you want to listen in chat, everybody would benefit from it, what do gym owners, what do you do in your business that deliberately, that you can guarantee happens with every single customer, deliberately addresses their need to feel safe and understand where they should go for help?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Like, a step should be taken every time you sign someone up to ensure that is addressed. Because someone…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: JB, am I… am I correct in this assumption?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: It's hard for someone to feel like they belong to a community if they don't feel safe, or if they don't know where to ask for help.
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JP Levesque: Correct.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Right, so anybody… any… nobody's gonna become a superfan if they're not seeing improvements, if they don't feel part of the community. They're not gonna see improvements very easily if they're not part of the community, because they're probably not gonna come consistent enough.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: And then clarity and expectations help them to have a social safety net to where they feel like they can be part of the community. I love how these tiers interact. So, like I said.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Every gym owner should be able to go through each tier and make sure that they are listing out deliberate things that they do with every single sign-up to address these issues.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: That's exercise number one, if you guys want to do it.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: It should be…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: It should be apparent at this point, but what onboarding is not is a bunch of assumptions.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: that, like, oh, my coaches, they're solid staff members, and they're phenomenal coaches, they'll take care of it without me giving them any explicit direction. Or the members will just figure it out. Onboarding is definitely not a single touchpoint, but it's also not a…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: an automated drip campaign or email messaging sequence. That… those are all individual tools, but none of them by themselves will be able to provide a complete, effective onboarding experience for most businesses.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I like this line here at the end. If your churn is high in the first 90 days.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: It's an onboarding problem. And that 90-day mark, we've harped on it in other webinars in the past, and we'll continue to harp on it until data shows otherwise. That 90-day mark is paramount for all new customers.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, when is the start and finish position? Onboarding…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: starts… the minute that transaction happens, the minute they commit to being a customer or a client of yours, onboarding processes have started. Some savvy gym owners would actually probably argue that onboarding can start even before they commit to making, the purchase, because education starts before. However, it's gonna start no later than when
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: They're like, yes, sign me up.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: It's gonna usually last between 30 and 90 days, and I put the range there. It's a very simple timeline because it is dependent on your business. What I want you to do, here's exercise number 2. You went through each of those rungs on the pyramid.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: and you listed out all the things that you do deliberately to address those tiers for each individual client. Cool.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Now.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Write them out in chronological order. How long would it take you to effectively teach or enact each of those tactics?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: For an individual client, considering their attendance rate of 2-3 times a week at the very minimum.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Now, depending on your business, how much you're trying to teach someone, how much you need to expose them to, that can take anywhere from 30 to 90 days.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But, we will understand whether or not
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: our onboarding system worked by the 90-day retention mark.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I should… JP called me out. I used
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: AI to make this slideshow, guys. I'm trying to get better at AI. So these graphics were not explicitly my choice.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: However, they fit the bill. I just can't get past her pants, the one leg. Like, that's the thing that freaks me out, but whatever. So, how do we know if our onboarding system worked?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: First, are people consistently attending?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: And I'm not just saying within the first 3 or 4 weeks, I'm saying, have they built a habit? Because one of the main reasons you have an onboarding system is to build a behavior in your new members.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, most people will be, content with 2-3 times a week, and I do know some gym owners that are really driving for the 3 to 4 times minimum. We have tools for that, like the community club that kind of gamifies it and other stuff that we'll talk about.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But the gold standard for your onboarding system is the 90-day retention mark. So, you're gonna have to run attendance reports.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Is this member
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: hitting the threshold that I deem successful at the 90-day mark when it comes to attendance. And then pull back and look at your business as a whole. What is your 90-day retention mark
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: In the big scheme of things. If one member is good, cool, your onboarding was probably successful there, but if…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: on average, all your new members have a low retention rate at that mark. That means your onboarding system, while designed well, is probably being implemented or executed poorly or inconsistently.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Community engagement and confidence, these are, subjective qualifiers that you're gonna get, through observation and through interacting with your members. Community engagement is seen and felt. Like, when new members engage on social media, when they talk in the social app, the members app, when they're involved, at events, community events outside the gym, those are things that you can observe and see, and you can kind of get a feel for whether or not
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: This person has integrated.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: And also the confidence that they have, or the competence that they have when you talk to them
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: while they're at your business, in the class. Does this person feel comfortable? Are they talking to me like they're comfortable? Do you see them interacting and having confidence in their discussions with the staff members, with coaches, and with other members?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But again, the gold standard is going to be their attendance and that 90-day retention mark.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, specific tactics and tools that we can use. I want to place emphasis on these things, because
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I want gym owners to not downplay them.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I think it's obvious that one-on-one conversations are… Important, and they are potent.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But I don't want gym owners to think that we can out-technology these, or or… what's the word that I'm looking for, JP?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Delegate? What's the word that I'm looking for?
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JP Levesque: We can outsource them.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yeah, we can't outsource this to technology. One-on-one conversations… thanks, JP. You're so much smarter than me. That's exactly what I was looking for. We will never be able to outsource one-on-one conversations. They are the most personal and impactful way to educate and build
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: rapport. So, you should… you may want to use them less often as you scale, and you may want to train your staff members on how to have these one-on-one conversations.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But every onboarding system should have very specific one-on-one conversations that are tactically implemented. In-house signage, I think, is also undervalued by a lot of people.
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Rudy Trevino: Yeah, can I speak to that real quick?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Absolutely.
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Rudy Trevino: I just wanted to add that
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Rudy Trevino: So, Grow, for example, automations are great, and something is better than nothing. It's kind of like the…
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Rudy Trevino: I don't know why my brain goes here, but people poo-poo on frozen vegetables, where frozen vegetables are better than no vegetables.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: no vegetables.
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Rudy Trevino: Right, and so if you have zero bandwidth, and you have to automate everything, perfect. If you do have some bandwidth, you should be using those automations to remind you to go and have that follow-up with that individual. The automation should not be replacing you, the human, it should be assisting you, the human.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: That's a phenomenal point, and yes, bad on me if I alluded to anything other than that. What my point was, and Rudy, thank you for
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: bring focus to what I was trying to say, and clarity. My point was.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: We want to leverage automation where it's appropriate, but no onboarding system is probably going to be complete, and it's going to be less successful if we don't.
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Rudy Trevino: Deliberately use specific one-on-one conversations.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: and we're going to talk about this in the next slide, JP will, we do, like, we want to be able to scale, and we want to be able to work with more people without having to increase our overhead of adding more staff and payroll, and automations grow specifically. We love this tool, right? It helps with that.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: In-house signage is another way that people can learn passively at their own pace. Things like having your schedule posted, announcements.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: In our gym, we have the Movement Hierarchy board that helps our new members learn how they are going to
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: progress through movement scales. So, like, we have the squat snatch, and it's broken down into overhead squat, and high hang squat snatch, and high hang power snatch. Like, it shows all the variations that people will need to learn.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: before they can expect to master a full movement. And we have that on a board, plastered right in the middle of the training floor, so people can be on the same page with the coach when the coach is like, hey, you know what? Instead of doing this movement, let's get better at this modification.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: And they see it on the wall, and they're like, oh yeah, I read that. And this is a way to educate people on the practices at your specific gym. So a cool exercise, walk through your space and see what do you have for signage that educates people on not…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: training methodology, necessarily. Like, it's cool to see the 10 general skills and the, you know, elite fitness in 100 words, but what about your business practices and policies? That should also be there. And I know, JP, you want to talk about these specific tools, right?
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JP Levesque: I very much do, yes. Do you want to get into the, share the doc, or just talk about these at a high level first?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Talk about them at a high level first, and then we'll get to the doc. Okay. Yeah.
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JP Levesque: Cool. Last thing I'll say on physical signage is, you know, at my affiliate, I had, you know, the, like, the, the 10… this sounds…
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JP Levesque: it wasn't the Ten Commandments, but it was like, you know, the 10 rules of whatever, like, the 10 pieces of etiquette that we had at the gym, and it was a reminder for people coming in every single time, be it members, or trials, or somebody in their first, you know, 30 days, they would get the vibe, they would see what we were all about when they read down that list. So, really, really, you know, useful piece of,
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JP Levesque: of kit to have around your gym. Other things, like in a jiu-jitsu gym especially, like, no bare feet in the bathroom. Signage, will be very valuable for you so you don't have to repeat yourself ad nauseam with the things that people, quote-unquote, should know.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I would… I would never ex… that's… that is so…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: You just, you just said something that I was like, I would never have thought of that.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I would have probably just walked into the bathroom barefoot, but yeah, that's gross. No. Straight to jail.
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JP Levesque: No, we can't.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Straight to check on.
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JP Levesque: We don't do that. That's a big no-no. Holy cow. Yes. So, as far as the tools that we're using.
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JP Levesque: It's a combination of things, and these are just two, but I think, realistically, they're going to be the most utilized, tools that you're gonna stack in your onboarding process. And so the physical handout
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JP Levesque: is a, is a tool for an in-person discussion. So, you know, I have a, you know, busy, overwhelmed Jiu-jitsu Academy owner that I work with, and his onboarding process, he's stressed about it, and I say, hey man.
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JP Levesque: you're gonna make these 3 handouts, and all you're gonna do is give people one handout every 30 days for the first 90 days, and you're gonna walk them through it. And that's…
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JP Levesque: his onboarding process. And it's way better than nothing, and it's a great way to have these physical touchpoints where you're walking somebody through,
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JP Levesque: the handout with them, and so…
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JP Levesque: that's why I like the handout so much more than just the email, because in truth, you'll probably send it in the email as well, but by saying, you know, hey Dave, I have something for you after class, like, it's gonna take 5 minutes to walk through, so just come see me. You're gonna go through this with Dave in person to make sure that he understands downloads and can actually benefit from the information you're trying to give him in the handout.
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JP Levesque: And then you, as the busy gym owner, you also don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. It's this plug-and-play solution that you've thought out ahead of time, you have a stack of 20 of them in your office, and it's time to have that conversation. So, I think handouts are incredibly underrated, because we assume that when we send somebody a PDF email.
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JP Levesque: They're gonna even open it.
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JP Levesque: Yeah, that's true. Super underrated tool. And then when I think about the text and the email communication.
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JP Levesque: I really think about just prompting conversation. So we are going to use these at certain times in the onboarding series, but for example.
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JP Levesque: Week 3,
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JP Levesque: is a good time, you know, you've ridden this really big high for a couple of weeks of things are new, and they're novel, and they're fun, and I'm, you know, it's… it's… I'm having a great time, but at some point, some of that enthusiasm is going to wane, and I find it's around week three. So, especially if you put people, on an academy nutrition program, the first two weeks usually go well. The third week, they start to suffer. So, week three is a great, like, hey, do you need any help from me? Text.
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JP Levesque: Or, hey, how are things going text. So I'm always just thinking about, you know, when can I prompt a conversation that somebody would want to reply to that feels like a human thing versus just, like.
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JP Levesque: paragraphs of text that feels more like homework. So that's how I think about those two tools that are largely going to comprise, your onboarding sequence.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: That's… that's actually a phenomenal point, and you guys will see that in the PDF playbook that you get. Rudy, I'm curious as to your opinion on it, not necessarily opinion, but if you have anything to add. Texts… because you… I've seen the stuff that you do and grow with the automation, specifically the texts.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: that prompt conversation, they don't replace conversation. Do you have anything to add on that? Like, a tip or trick that you have found works extremely well?
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Rudy Trevino: I mean.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I hate to put you on the spot, I'm sorry for putting you on the spot.
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Rudy Trevino: No, I mean, that's kind of the million dollar question, is how do you get someone to engage with your content? And, you know, specifically what you're referring to is anytime you have an auto… you are using automation, and it's sending them
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Rudy Trevino: a text message always ends with a question, because you're trying to get them to engage, right? You're trying to get them to… to…
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Rudy Trevino: to go back and forth. And so, really, do I have the answer to this particular scenario? No, but I would be watching it and looking at open rates, and if it's not
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Rudy Trevino: you know, where you want it to be, what are you gonna play with? Is it a subject line? Is it the header? Is it, you know, what are you gonna change to continue to test, you know, how often someone is actually opening,
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Rudy Trevino: that document, or maybe if you, again, have the bandwidth, are you going there together? You sign someone up, and you, you know, hey, open this up for me, this is where you're gonna find this, this is super important, don't forget to look at this, you know, those types of, touchpoints.
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Rudy Trevino: are very valuable.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: That makes total sense, yeah. And I know I will touch on this at the end, but both of you guys, JP and Rudy, you've mentioned that this is… onboarding is, as a system, has never really been finalized. You can only keep refining it, and you're gonna have to review the way that you onboard.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I would say at least once a year. If you've established something that works well, you could probably revisit it once a year, but in the beginning, if you guys are setting this up from scratch, or if you don't have a true onboarding system, you're probably going to reiterate and change things about the way that you onboard based off the results that you're getting.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I don't know, what would you guys say? At least 2 or 3 times a year? Maybe even more.
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Rudy Trevino: Probably even more, but also to kind of speak to a couple of the points that you've made, is a nice human touchpoint that we do at our gym is the first few visits when someone is brand new, is at the end of the class, the coach will be like, hey, pull out your phone. When are you coming again? Open your app.
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Rudy Trevino: Let's go to that page together, let's get you reserved, now you're committed, we'll see you on that day.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: We actually… we will talk about that explicitly in the playbook. Yes, that is… we stole that from you, Rudy. Yeah.
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JP Levesque: Quick backtrack, Zach, the last bit I have was on the, writing automations or emails that have good, response rates. Okay. Rudy is correct, we love data. If you look at it, and it's just a dud email, and no one ever opens it, it means your subject line is atrocious, and you should probably try and rewrite it. But…
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JP Levesque: when I write them now, I just use the acronym SPEAR. Short Personal Expecting a Response.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: short, personal, expecting a response. Okay.
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JP Levesque: How has training been lately?
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JP Levesque: Great.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Okay, yep.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, almost like the subject line is the question that is going to beget them opening it to answer.
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JP Levesque: Yes, or just with a straight SMS, there is no subject line, so I will, I will use, I will use both.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I like that.
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JP Levesque: in the campaign.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yep, that sounds like it would be effective. I like that. Very cool. Before we get into the actual playbook, I do want to go over some other places that I have found
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: excellent information when it comes to onboarding. I read this book, about 6 months ago, and I read Never Lose a Customer Again,
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: go to Amazon, buy this book, this $10 book, and I am so upset that it cropped out the author. I have two of his books, Joey's books, Never Lose a Customer Again and Never Lose an Employee Again, and both of them are probably the most well-written books
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: and actionable books that I have ever read when it comes to service-based businesses.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: It has shaped the way that I'm going to change… excuse me, it has shaped the way that I'm going to design and architect the onboarding systems of this new gym that we're opening, and I can't recommend this book enough. The other thing that you guys can go and do some extra reading on is the Business of Fitness blog. This is a push-press blog, but we have a specific onboarding series. It's four parts.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: And if you just go in and you type in onboarding series.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: into the search on the blog, these… these four articles come up, and they walk you through some tried and true tactics, and how to utilize our specific tools, very, very specifically. And I thought it was… they were very well written. So, those are two places that you can also go to glean more information. But with that.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I'd like to hand it over to you, JP, to go over how to leverage the PDF playbook that we are sending out to everybody that's watching.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, I'll stop here. Are you good for that?
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JP Levesque: Yep.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Okay, oh, I have to allow you to… oh, there you go. Yes, yeah. Okay, cool.
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JP Levesque: Cool, everybody got it?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yep, we gotcha.
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JP Levesque: Yep, okay, excellent. Let's see, maybe zoom in a little bit more on that. Okay, so…
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JP Levesque: I want to overview first how each section is broken up. This is where we get into the tactics of the actual things that you're going to do, the breadcrumbs you're going to build out for the 90-day series. So, of course, you have the title of what it is, then you have a what to do.
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JP Levesque: a how to do it, and I think really important is who owns it.
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JP Levesque: very long story short, the first time I made an org chart in my business and realized all the things that I was doing that somebody else could be doing, it was an awakening. So I think the who owns it part is a very underrated, undervalued, idea. So…
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JP Levesque: what I want to look at at a very high level, running through this playbook, is that you don't need to take each of these things, like, as gospel.
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JP Levesque: It's an idea, it's a framework to use, but again, the frozen vegetables are better than no vegetables. So if you literally just copy and paste this in, you're going to be doing better than 9.9 out of 10 gyms out there. So here are some things that I would consider essential.
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JP Levesque: when somebody signs up, just like when somebody books a no-sweat intro or a trial class, there needs to be some kind of confirmation. Like, people are expecting an exchange of goods and services for currency has occurred, like, where's the welcome email in my inbox? Even if it goes to spam, right? Like, that needs to happen. So, making sure that there's something
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JP Levesque: that is significant, that represents the transaction, that reinforces the buying decision that happens at the point of sale, is really important. So yes, some of that stuff kicks off in automation, inside of, you know, Grow and all that stuff.
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JP Levesque: But then there's some other things that are also done in person, like make sure this is SOP'd and everybody knows
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JP Levesque: hey, we're gonna download the members app together right now. We're gonna book your first class together right now. This is where we go for socials. We're gonna take a really cheesy side-by-side picture, and we're gonna post it on socials right now, right? Make sure that people understand that basic lay of the land, and immediately they're brought in to feel like they've made a great decision, and that they're part of the team. So that's what we want to make sure happens
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JP Levesque: On day one. Zach, anything else that you would say, hey, like, this is… this is paramount for, day one point-of-sale experience?
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JP Levesque: Muted. You're muted.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Dang, sorry, I didn't want the dog barking.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: It really comes down to the unique gym. I think this… what you just went over is the bare minimum that could probably apply to any business, but I know some gyms take a Polaroid and put the new member's picture up on… on, like, a community board or a welcome board. I know part of our onboarding process for day one is going to be to offer an in-body scan, so we get a baseline of where people are starting with their health and fitness
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: metrics.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Or an aspect of them. There are plenty of things that you can do on day one. However, with that being said.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Don't overwhelm them.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: You have… you have a good period of time to do these things. The in-body scan might not be appropriate for some people emotionally on the first day. Some people just don't like their picture being taken. So, whatever it is, make it authentic and sincere to your culture.
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Rudy Trevino: One thing we do at our gym is we have a big banner for the year, where everyone writes their goals, and we usually have it out for our members October, like, November, December, and then it goes up. But as the year, starts to progress, you've got all these pain points, right? Because you're a sales ninja, and you've done
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Rudy Trevino: gotten them to open up. Well, now you take them out to that board and say, okay, now put one of those things on this board that you want to work on, and now they've… they're really a part of the team, because
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Rudy Trevino: They've… they've put.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I like that.
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Rudy Trevino: Their annual goal on that, on that banner.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: That's actually… everybody should take note of that. That's actually probably one of the best ways to sell right there. It's like, if they give you a pain point that could… that fits the bill of being put on a goal board, that physical act of writing it out and putting it in public view, that is… I'm stealing that, Rudy. That's super powerful.
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JP Levesque: Yeah, it's kind of like giving them the Remember Why You Started mug. You know, it's one of those things that they'll remember, they'll remember doing every time.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: like that?
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JP Levesque: you just make them, you know, like, I just went online and I made mugs. Anybody can do it, whether they should or shouldn't, it's available.
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JP Levesque: Zach's point is very true to the… Zach's point about not overwhelming them is something that I had forgotten, so thanks for bringing that up. I, especially in my early days, had a tendency to just information vomit on people, but it has to be digestible. So, something to keep in mind as we go through this. Day two, you're gonna give them a welcome call. Just a nice little, hey, welcome, we're stoked to have you with us. Did you have any questions?
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JP Levesque: know you're reconfirming when their next session is going to be. Again, you made a great buying decision. These people really care about me. And there's… there are two playbooks that we're, that we're putting out here. One is for more of a, you know, a high-touch, either a one-on-one.
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JP Levesque: or, you know, like an on-ramp-style onboarding, where, it's… you're not in the general population, it's more of a, you know, curated experience, if you will. This one is for, like, more of a straight-to-class type model, so a lot of the touchpoints in here are making up for the fact that we… we didn't have the time to create those, quote-unquote relationship deposits. So that's one of the things that a welcome call will accomplish.
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JP Levesque: Day 3, this is a massively important touchpoint. This is where you're going to give people their first handout. So, after their first class, that's when you give them the 30-day, hey, what to expect in your first month handout. You're, again, you're at the bottom of the pyramid, we're looking at, you know, safety and help, and then we're looking at expectations and clarity. We're really going to, you know, set the foundation for that with that handout, and we're not just gonna give them a piece of paper
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JP Levesque: We're going to walk them through that, and then again, we're going to book
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JP Levesque: their next class with them. And even, you know, Rudy's bit about booking the next class, as a gym owner, like, my habit was always, when somebody was leaving, like, hey, when are you coming back?
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JP Levesque: when, you know, when's your next class? So something I would just bake in. At the end of week one, you're gonna batch handwritten cards. So anybody who's signed up that week, you're going to, you know, do the Vistaprint thing and design a card, and have a little,
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JP Levesque: have a little thing, like, my card in it from my gym said, you're awesome, keep that shit up, and we would mail that out at the end of every week. Nice little touchpoint. And then through the first month, what you're gonna see is it's, like, it's definitely heavier in the first month. A couple more personalized check-ins, we do a call, and then we do a 3-week text check-in. You're probably looking at this saying, like.
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JP Levesque: This… this seems like a lot.
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JP Levesque: But…
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JP Levesque: what are the odds that you're going to connect with the person on every single touchpoint? It's not 100, so there are definitely some redundancies baked in here, and I want you to think about, if I could only, you know, give people 2 or 3 touchpoints that were received in that first month,
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JP Levesque: what would they be? So, again, we're just kind of erring on the side of caution, where we want to connect with those people in that… in the first 30 days. And then we have, at day 25, a personal event invite and 30-day, check-in on scheduling. So, really important, a general concept here is…
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JP Levesque: If we want to get people over that 90-day hump, we really have the first 3 weeks of every month for that person to decide, in week 4,
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JP Levesque: to pay to keep coming the next month, right? You really only have those first 3 weeks to create that gap in your favor of, this is the price of the membership, and this is the value that they're receiving of their experience. So we always want that gap of value to be higher than price, and you only have 3 weeks of the month to do it, right? By the fourth week, they've already decided. So that's…
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JP Levesque: a factor I think about in the 90-day onboarding, how can we stack value the first 3 weeks of every month so that they continue to stay and continue to go through that process? Zach Rudy, anything that you would say is essential that somebody gets in that first 30 days?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Rudy, you got anything? Did you want me to go first?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, I'll go first. So, in the first 30 days, it's hard to build… I mean, unless you have someone that,
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I will… I'll just say this.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: It's hard to prove in the first 30 days, objectively, that someone is making a tremendous amount of progress towards their goals, unless their goals were really low.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But I would stress that if you have the ability to highlight the progress that they've made physically, because most people sign up at a gym, or jiu-jitsu, or MMA, or some… they sign up at these places in order to change something about themselves physically, typically. Emotionally and mentally, obviously, but those are harder to objectively show, right? If you have the opportunity to show them objectively.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: the progress that they've made, that can reinforce and increase the gap that JP is talking about. So, I would… I would architect or design a way to make sure that that happens.
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JP Levesque: Yeah, I think we've even talked about this before, is, when you have somebody come in and they do a baseline workout.
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JP Levesque: Right? And then… and then on day 30, they do baseline again, and they smash it.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yep, exactly. I don't know how many people still run that baseline workout, but we will definitely be doing something. If we don't do that, we will do something similar, because it is the underpinning of the gyms that we build that results happen.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: So, yeah. And it's objective progress. So, yep, absolutely.
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JP Levesque: Awesome.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Phenomenal idea.
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JP Levesque: Cool. I'm going to go a little bit faster through the rest of these, because everybody will have this, so instead of me reading each and every one, I'm just going to hit kind of the high points. Once we've crossed the threshold and we are into month two, it's really, you know, hey, what's…
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JP Levesque: what's next? What's going to happen in the next 30 days? Again, what can I expect? How can I become, better, better integrated? How can I continue to see results? So we want to make sure they're getting that. And again.
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JP Levesque: Re-evaluating the process is something that's important to do, especially, like.
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JP Levesque: it's… it's iterative, it's never done, but if you create this and you find in the first, 90 days of running it, or more likely in the first 6 months that you're… that you're having a drop-off point here, you're not quite seeing what you would hope, it's time to go back and look at these touchpoints and rejig it. So…
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JP Levesque: that's the idea of, day 30 to 60. Hey, what's next? What can I expect to experience? Midpoint check-in.
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JP Levesque: one of the things that we, want to bake into this group onboarding process is… is some soft sales, right? Like, hey, how are things going? We want to make sure that people are oriented toward their results, and that's
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JP Levesque: you know, another thing for another day, but one of the reasons that a good intro session is so potent is you know somebody's goals and their motivation, so you can always reorient them back toward that as a point of reference. But we want to make sure that people are making progress toward that, and then we can, again, seed in some soft sales for some personal training, nutrition coaching, privates, that kind of stuff. Within this process, we also want to
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JP Levesque: highlight the things that we're doing that they
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JP Levesque: need to become aware of, and that would be things like milestones. So, if you have a program for, you know, a 50-class milestone, or, you know, a one-year, one-year, 2-year, three-year member anniversary type thing, and you have kind of a gift track, and, like, a plaque track, whatever those things are, you want to make them aware of those kind of longer-term things, within this onboarding. So, milestones are great. I always like to pepper
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JP Levesque: Or in a little gift here, like.
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JP Levesque: For example, that Remember Why You Started mug at 10 classes, I think is a great, a great little drop.
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JP Levesque: Day 60, we're doing an attendance check to make sure that we are building that habit of that long-term attendance. Again, if we can keep those people coming 3 or 4 days a week in the first 90 days, the odds that they stay long-term go up much, much higher.
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JP Levesque: Then we have the invite to the 90-day review, and then we have the 90-day chicken itself. So…
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JP Levesque: the reason that this is so important is we are building a cadence, if you will, of that 90-day improvement cycle. How can you… because I think 90 days is a great digestible time period for most folks.
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JP Levesque: how can you continue to set a goal? Maybe you have this higher-end goal, but how can you break it down, and how can you continue to, attack it, or, you know, work towards it piece by piece in 90-day goals? So I think that's, you know, obviously really important, and then I'm a big fan of gifts. I would work it into your marketing budget, but if you have something that they can be working towards, like, I can't…
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JP Levesque: I can't tell you how many gyms give away a free t-shirt, and nobody cares and nobody wants it, but if you make somebody sweat for that t-shirt, it has value. So putting a carrot at the end of that, I think, is something that's really valuable.
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JP Levesque: functionally, that's… that's it for the 90 days. You can get into the details of these things,
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JP Levesque: You know, on your own, but…
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JP Levesque: Zach, Rudy, anything that, that I may have missed, or anything that you want to draw attention to as, hey, if you do this in the first 90 days, you know, your odds of this member sticking around long-term, increase?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Bruni, you're muted.
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Rudy Trevino: I'm muted.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Damn.
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Rudy Trevino: I really, it just comes down to touchpoints, you know?
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Rudy Trevino: Having your finger on the pulse of where someone is at.
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Rudy Trevino: You can… we have stuff that's built, like milestone workflows, but you can also spin something up
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Rudy Trevino: really easily and quickly and grow, where on the front end, like, you're monitoring
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Rudy Trevino: when they hit the first visit, and the third visit, and the fifth visit, and the 10th visit, and the 15th, and, like, how long did it take them to get there? That type of stuff can be spun up really easily, and as they have more tenure, you're checking in less often, you know, those types of things, because again, automation should be assisting you, and you should know
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Rudy Trevino: It, you know, they…
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Rudy Trevino: it's been 4 days since they showed up, and they're only on their second visit, like, where did they go? Like, how did they already drop off? Like, is there something that I should be concerned about?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yep. A couple things. So, everybody, you guys should be putting your questions in chat or in the Q&A, and we will get to them here shortly.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I know we got a few more minutes left, and I don't want to take anybody's time over, but I will say this. The playbook is, not something that I would expect any owner to take
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: verbatim, line by line, and try to implement, because it's gonna come across, watered down and less effective, then you guys look at the principles of what we're trying… of what you're trying to do, and use it as a framework to insert your…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: specific voice, your specific tone, your specific culture, the specific things that make your gyms unique. I know there are… I would love if people put in chat, like, some gift ideas that they have… that they use at their gyms. I know some gyms use, like, specific stickers for Committee Club. I love the coffee mug idea. T-shirt, that seems very… it seems less unique, right? But, I know it can still be effective.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: I think what you guys…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: will find success with is making sure that you do exactly what Rudy and JP have said, in the sense that I'm going to list out all the contact points.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: and then I'm going to list out the purpose of these contact points, and then I'm going to insert my unique voice and spin on how we're doing this.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: A couple things… another thing that I do want to touch on, that we haven't really, actually, now that I think about JP, we probably could have spoken about this, Rudy.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: If you're a one-person show, if you are a single owner gym operator, right, this is going to seem
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Very difficult and very daunting.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But, Rudy, JP, give me your opinion. If I'm… if I'm the only person at my gym, I'm running my gym, and it's just me as the coach, and I do all the classes, and all the marketing and everything, on a scale from 1 to 10, how important is it that I do the onboarding
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: better than… How should I prioritize the onboarding system?
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Rudy Trevino: I…
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Rudy Trevino: it's human interaction. Ultimately, you're trying to make connections, you're trying to get that person to that third or fourth rung on that pyramid that we talked about at the very beginning, right? And to me.
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Rudy Trevino: I've been… so we've had our gym for 12 years. It was a lot easier to onboard when it was just me and my wife running the thing. It was really just her, and it wasn't me, because I had a full-time.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: That's why you think it was easy. Yeah, exactly.
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Rudy Trevino: Well, no, but… but the point is, like, you… you know everyone's names, and you know their stories, and as you start to grow, and you're hitting that 152, 200, 250 members, it becomes a little more challenging, and that's really when you need all those systems. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I do think that it's…
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Rudy Trevino: a little bit easier to get people assimilated into a group when you're a smaller group. And if you are a one-person operator, I would imagine that you're probably still at the beginning stage, or, you know, have a smaller, close-knit group. Maybe not beginning, but you're running a smaller operation where you can
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Rudy Trevino: Keep your finger on the pulse of the gym.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: JP, what's your input on that?
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JP Levesque: I mean, my input is that it's massively underrated, and that there… there just needs to be a system in place, period. So if you're… if you are a solo owner-operator, I would…
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JP Levesque: put the hour or two in your calendar, and I would say, hey, I'm gonna… I'm gonna outline, and I'm going to make a bare-bones version to start with of what I think is the most important touchpoints for month one, month 2, month 3, and then expand outwards. But I… I don't think that it's something that long-term can be ignored if you want to grow, because you're… you're getting all these people through your door, and it's like, jiu-jitsu's a great example.
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JP Levesque: you know, you get 100 people through the door, and only 5 of them are with you 2 years later. Only 5 make it to Blue Belt, and then 2 years later, you only have one of those people who's made it to Purple Belt, and, you know, 10 years down the road, like, it's a numbers game to get to black belt.
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JP Levesque: And so in CrossFit, we don't have that as clear of, like, a target along the road, but if you thought about that, it's like, my goal is to keep as many people for as long as possible. What could I give them in the first 90 days to help them get over that hump?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yep. And so, when it comes to scaling this system, guys.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: One, if you're a solo owner, I would agree, Rudy, that it's probably easier as a solo owner when you're small, because you can do everything by feel and from your head.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But taking the time to systemize it will do one of two things, right? One, it'll ensure that you're consistent with everybody, and everybody gets the same relative onboarding experience, so nobody falls through the cracks.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: And two, if you document and you use a system, as soon as you hire your staff, or as soon as you bring on new coaches, now it's easier to teach them how to onboard people, and you don't have to… now you have 150 people, you don't have to worry about all of them, because your coach can take the next 50.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: And it allows you to scale those touchpoints across more people. So, I do think it is…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: probably something that, even if you were a solo operator, you should, like JP said, spend a few hours front-loading the work and making sure that you write it out and systemize it. I would probably prioritize
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Developing an onboarding system before marketing.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: before, a lot of other stuff, actually, like retail and all this other stuff, right? So, onboarding can't be underplayed. In the 90-day playbook, I know a couple of questions, hey, is this gonna go out? This will go out in two different variations. We're gonna have the 90-day onboarding PDF sent out as a group onboarding PDF, and a high touchpoint 101
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: PDF that JP talked about, in this follow-up email. You guys will get that today. It'll go out if you registered for this webinar. Is that a question in chat that I should answer? Rudy, did I see something fly by?
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Classes are very low. In our group classes, there's very low attendance, so I struggle to build that connection. We're always marketing to get more clients. It's a big struggle. So…
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: if your group classes have low attendance relative to, like, small group training or one-on-one training, and it's hard to build the connection, I would actually argue that it'd probably be easier to build connection in smaller classes. So I guess, Dusty, I'm confused by the question, but.
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Rudy Trevino: I think that maybe they mean more like the energy of the big group, and, like.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Duh.
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Rudy Trevino: feel of… of the group environment. I remember early on, when we first started, we had one 6 a.m. guy
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Rudy Trevino: Like, for, like, 4 months, right? And he was consistent, and he's like, man, like, you're getting personal training, but we're not canceling this class. And you just, you have to kind of bear through that, right? And just, you know, get through it, because eventually 6AM became our biggest class.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yep, exactly. I mean, I remember plenty of classes that felt like one-on-one or one-on-two training for the while, while we built up attendance. Yeah.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: But it was easy for us to build relationships with those people, and they did stick around, obviously, because of that.
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Rudy Trevino: Zach will kill me for saying this, but in that scenario, I'm the coach that's working out with the athlete.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Hey, you know what? I think it depends on the workout, depends on… it depends on context. I would say the majority of the time, no, but there are certain scenarios where if you were to explain to me, I'd be like, I understand that. And if it's what's going to allow that person to keep coming back and be consistent.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: then yes, I get it. Cool. JP, anything you want to add in closing? Or Rudy, closing, final thoughts on onboarding?
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JP Levesque: I had a thought, which I forgot to bring up. Inside your automation, you can also just send reminders to yourself.
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JP Levesque: hey, this person's coming up to day 30, like, make sure to give them the handout in class. So it doesn't always have to be something that goes directly to the new member. You can send reminders to yourself to have those in-person interactions. And the last bit of that is.
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JP Levesque: Your product is not just your classes, it's the totality of all of the experiences that people
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JP Levesque: have, or don't have with your gym. You know, I didn't get an email for, like, the first… I never got an email, and I was of four years at this one gym. And so, like, what does that tell me about
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JP Levesque: this gym.
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JP Levesque: Like, obviously there are a lot of things that they could be doing better, so the absence of contact, or of email, of information, or of help, like, is a negative. So, you know, when you look at this, you're building out your member experience that's not just classes, that's outside of classes. So think about stacking, you know, all these things
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JP Levesque: In your favor to the member experience.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Yep, absolutely. Well, with that, I am going to, close this out. Rudy, I apologize for not having your graphic up here. I know you're a late ad, but you're up there in spirit. So, everyone, thank you for coming out to the,
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: 2026 member onboarding playbook. You will get the two PDFs and a link to this recording in a follow-up email this afternoon. JP, Rudy, thank you guys both for coming out and giving your thoughts and walking us through this entire process. I think it's been tremendously valuable for everybody listening. We have another webinar coming up on the 26th, where we will discuss
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: grassroots marketing efforts with Kovar System, Dave Kovar's from… who is the founder and owner of Kovar System, and it's a little bit more in the… in line with traditional martial arts, jiu-jitsu, but a lot of stuff that I've spoken to him about is directly in line with how we originally marketed CrossFit stuff, so low cost.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: high-impact, high ROI marketing coming to you guys on the 26th of this month. Watch for the registration link on that.
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Zach Forrest, PushPress: Thank you again, everyone. We will see you next time.
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