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Mondays with Matt is a weekly short-form podcast from Barbell Logic founder Matt Reynolds, delivering practical lessons on strength training, coaching, and business you can apply immediately. Each episode blends real stories, clear takeaways, and simple actions you can take this week to move forward with confidence.
New episodes every Monday.
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Person of Integrity: Be One, Always
Integrity underpins business success. Yes, you may think of business that have seemingly grown despite scummy business practices.
Don't worry about them. Life is not fair. Still, you will create loyal customers, have great reviews, and gain word-of-mouth marketing if you show up and do what you say you're going to do and the price you quoted. Be a person of integrity.
Close loops you say you will close. Do things you say you will do. Be reliable, be honest, do the work to ensure you fulfill your promises.
Integrity involves many values. It includes honesty. It includes work ethic.
Person of Integrity: One Bad Action Can Destroy Trust
One failure, even an honest failure, can demolish trust and destroy a relationship.
Matt shares an example of where, in his business running a gym, he was finally able to go on a vacation.
He had been coaching someone who was preparing for a powerlifting meet and failed to send her programming. During her workout, two weeks before the meet, she injured her shoulder.
Not only did that client fire Matt as his coach, but he lost a friend. Matt and his wife had developed a friendship with the couple. That relationship has not healed, even to this day.
So, be a person of integrity, today, tomorrow, and every day until you die.
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Stop Being Cheap: Value per Unit Time
Too many in the fitness industry value their time too little.
Comparing options for online coaching platforms, you see one option is $1 cheaper per client per month.
The other option prioritizes efficiency, helping you coach more clients in less time.
Which to you go with?
Too many go with the first option.
Start thinking about the value of your time.
As a coach, think not only about the value you're providing to your clients, but the value per unit time. Eliminate things that don't provide value, focus on things that do, and become more efficient in delivering those things.
Spend more time on the important, not the urgent.
This means you can coach more clients, you can spend more time finding more clients, you can spend more time working on your business, not in your business.
Stop Being Cheap: Consider the Value of Your Time
How much money can you make during the time you perform menial tasks (e.g. grocery shopping, mowing the lawn)?
Consider the value of your time and stop being cheap.
If you can make $200 per hour, why would you mow your lawn?
Instead, do the things that make you money.
Think of this as buying "back" your time. Of course, you're actually buying it up front, not buying past time back.
So, stop being cheap: consider the value of your time.
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Pricing: Fewer Options is Better
It's easy, especially as a small business, to bend over backwards for each customer. You develop a different price for each customer, and before you know it every customer is paying a different price.
Knock this off.
Don't have a scarcity mindset. Develop few pricing options for your customers. This forces your customers to make a decision and simplifies your billing.
Pricing: Less is More
When it comes to revenue, you want monthly recurring revenue (MRR).
This means that each month, the revenue recurs. The client pays the same amount, each month, automatically.
Do not force your client to opt-in each month and decide whether they want to pay you each month. This must be automatic, whether it be through ACH or Stripe or through a credit card.
This allows you to predict revenue each month.
Furthermore, contracts are unnecessary. If clients cancel, they cancel, but make the signup process simple and painless, make payments automatic, have few options, but then work to retain your clients.
Relatedly, charge the same each month. This might mean that certain months, your clients receive more service, other months they receive less.
Even starting with good intentions of few options and automatic payments, you can exception your way into infinite payment amounts. Even in December, when clients may train less and you may have fewer options, the price remains the same.
Ultimately, this is convenient for you AND your client. Both you and your client have the same expectations.
Now, it's your time to deliver more value than the price they're paying each month.
Pricing: less is more.
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Customer Service is King
Customer service standards have fallen since 2020 and COVID-19.
You notice it at nice restaurants and hotels, at airlines and in public bathrooms.
Employees seem bothered to help customers. Companies don't answer phone calls or respond to texts or emails.
The expectation to tip has spread to everything, with a reduced level of service and an increased rate of tipping.
You buy a cup of coffee, fill it up yourself, and clean up after yourself, and when you pay and the employee flips the tablet around, you see recommended tips for 20, 25, or 30%.
Workers should get paid good wages. You should tip well for employees whose wages rely on tips. But what has happened to customer service?
Customer Service is King for Your Business' Success
If you're a customer, this has seemingly nothing but downside. Have lower expectations and reward businesses that provide good customer service.
You see, though, the opportunity for existing or potential business owners. Have good customer service!
If you take care of your customers, you will tower above other companies. Good customer service will set you apart and lead to your business' success.
Control what you can in this economy and this world, and have great customer service.
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
PRs Measure Progress Toward Your Clients' Goals
PRs matter.
Consistency underlies success. PRs pave the road to your clients accomplishing their goals.
Why?
They provide dopamine hits that encourage continued work toward building habits that move lifters toward their goals.
Early on, PRs tend to be easy – easy to track, celebrate, and establish.
The lifter's squat increases, the athlete can do more push-ups, the runner can run their mile faster, or the client's waist has shrunk.
Over time, establishing PRs becomes more difficult, as the PRs are not so clear.
Ensure PRs Connect to Your Clients' Goals
PRs measure progress toward your clients' goals.
Your clients' goals change over time, so you must ensure the PRs you're tracking and celebrating actually matter to your client.
If you continue to push the client's deadlift 1RM, but she wants to lose weight, you're missing the point.
PRs may track:
You should know your clients' goals. PRs measure progress toward your clients' goals, so you should know your clients' PRs that matter and help assess movement toward their goals.
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Online Coaching is Better for Coaches
Online coaching is the best coaching for coaches.
In-person coaching ties coaches to the tyranny of the schedule and the gym. This leads to long days, much of which may not be paid for but certainly counts in your calculus for quality of life.
You can travel – or even go on vacation – and coach. You can coach when it works for your schedule, asynchronously with your clients.
Online coaching enables you to gain clients from around the world – as long as you can communicate – which is especially great if you have a niche that you struggle to fill in your local area.
Lastly – but not least importantly – you can provide more value to your clients in less time earning more dollar-per hour. Really – in less time than you spent with in-person clients you can make far more per hour, where and when you want to coach, with clients better suited toward your particular strengths.
Online Coaching is Better for Clients
Online coaching is the best coaching for clients.
Clients can finally find the coaches they want – great coaches – not simply the coaches in the local gyms. Whether it's your preferences or certain challenges most coaches cannot address, you can find a coach that can help you.
Lifters pay less monthly than they do for in-person coaching. It costs more money to meet someone for an hour multiple times a week at the same time and place. With asynchronous coaching, you pay less, and still get programming and technique feedback.
Lastly, you can still train if you're on vacation or travel for business. This leads to consistency, and consistency leads to more gains (define gains how you want – we mean you move closer to your goal or crush your goal sooner and set new goals).
Online coaching is the best coaching for lifters and coaches.
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The Important and the Urgent
When conceptualizing and prioritizing tasks, use the Eisenhower Matrix. This is a quad chart President Eisenhower created that organizes tasks into
Urgent tasks are urgent because of other people and have time constraints. Important tasks are important because they are important to you – they serve your goals and align with your values.
Ironically, you can often find yourself ignoring those things most important to you because they're not important to others (not urgent but important).
Because urgent tasks are important to others, you can find yourself struggling to overthrow the tyranny of the urgency and actually accomplish (or even work toward) those things that are important to you.
Prioritize the Important – Urgency as Enemy
Matt has some advice all the four categories above and how you can approach them.
Reduce or eliminate tasks that are neither urgent nor important. These are things no one is telling you to do and you don't find valuable. This might be scrolling social media or binge-watching movies.
Delegate or automate urgent but non-important tasks. These tasks must get done, but they're not important to you. Maximize efficiency so that someone else can do them or you do them efficiently.
It may seem like urgent and important tasks – because they're BOTH urgent and important – should fill your time, but that's not the case. Why!? Because you can still completely ignore the important but non-urgent. Schedule and pomodoro these tasks or delegate them to someone who can do them better.
Lastly, schedule, prioritize, and defend the important but non-urgent. Try to create some false urgency by putting them in your schedule and now allowing distractions. If you don't prioritize the important, no one will.
When you do the above, you order the chaos. Things you never could accomplish will suddenly be doable (and eventually done).
Remember, this is Barbell Logic, and health and fitness is important but not urgent (until, for some, they have a serious illness or limitation that seems to bring an urgency to the important).
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Online Coaching vs Online Programming – the Difference
Most "online coaching" is online programming. Regardless of the level of personalization – whether it be selling templates or making an individual program for a client – this is online programming.
We don't program online, we coach online. You should too.
Online coaching includes technique coaching. Consistency and form matter far more than programming. Follow a mediocre program with good form, and you will progress.
Coaching online also builds a relationship. You get to know your clients and your clients to know you. At some point, the client has good technique and has some familiarity with programming and your past programs. The relationship, more than anything else, keeps clients for years.
Online Coaching vs Online Programming – the Importance
Why does this matter? For a couple reasons.
First, you provide your client more value with online coaching. This means, instead of placing the low price game selling dollar hamburgers, you're selling a high-value, higher price service.
Second, consistency and form matter more than the program, so help people where they need it with technique feedback and by encouraging consistency.
Third, AI can deliver good programs already and in about a year anyone will be able to create their own programs using AI. While no one knows exactly what AI means for society and the economy, you need to become more resistant to AI by providing not simply programming but technique feedback and connection.
You care about your training more than anyone else in the client's life. That's a big deal.
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Lean Theory
Lean manufacturing theory and seeking to improve efficiency comes with misunderstandings and misconceptions. Often, ideas of decrease customers service and employee satisfaction arise.
These things may have occurred in the name of lean theory, but do not follow the true spirit of its origins.
Lean Theory originates from Toyota's manufacturing processes and how Toyota strove to constantly improve them. The idea is to improve value. In order to improve value, you have to understand what delivers value to customers – what the customers actually want to pay for.
Lean six sigma has 5 principles:
Many companies may have misconceptions about how things they do provide value. The amount of work or time spent does not necessarily equate to more value. Time and money spent on tasks that do not produce value need to be eliminated or reduced.
Lean Theory – Application
You may be asking, what does this have to do with online coaching?
As discussed in recent Coaching Success episodes, you are providing value to your clients. You spend a certain amount of time and have processes around delivering that value, whether you have created these deliberately or by happenstance.
If you're doing things that don't provide value, then you're wasting your time. This time could be spent providing more value to your clients, having more clients, or doing something else.
In order to improve your processes, you need to observe them. This could be having a peer or superior observe you. For online coaching, you can observe yourself by recording yourself coaching.
Also consider your pace. If you want to work an hour a day and have 19 reviews to do, each should take 3.15 minutes. If you take longer, than you have to consider if you want to reduce your client load, spend more time, or improve your efficiency.
Similar to budgeting money, it can feel icky to discuss these things, but it shouldn't. Your goal isn't simply to spend less time on your clients, but to stop doing doing that does not provide them value. That increase time can allow you to provide more value.
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Pricing - it's a too often undiscussed, underexamined aspect of running a successful business and becoming a successful coach. Matt discusses how to set prices intelligently and intentionally.
Andrew Jackson gave a talk on the business value equation, which you can watch here and learn more about here.
This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE.
Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.
Pricing in Your Market
Matt mentions the book Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around Price, which helped Barbell Logic think about, test, set, and change prices for its services.
Price is crucial, but before there is a price there is someone who is paying that price (spending that amount of money) for the product or service. Who are those people are what problem of theirs are you solving? Who are your competitors in the market, already attempting to solve this product (if any)?
As a coach, you may initially grab clients with a big net (i.e. whoever walks in your gym doors) but over time you will likely and should find that you have a niche.
This niche may be a group you particularly like to coach, a demographic that for whatever reason seems drawn to your product or service, or one which you have an aptitude for. Own that niche, but be prepared to expand beyond it (while never forgetting it or continuing to serve it).
Consider also the total addressable market (TAM). This is the entirety of the market you're addressing. For example, TurnKey Coach's niche is burnt out coaches, though it can also greatly aid burgeoning coaches. It's TAM, however, is anyone who coaches to any degree online.
Pricing - Conceptualizing and Testing
Remember, you're running a business. Discussing money and price can make people uncomfortable, but it's important.
You need to provide more perceived value to your customers than the price. You need to dig down into the perceived value of your service and how people perceive the price. Your business needs to make money as well.
You will likely want to test your service and pricing with alpha or beta testers. This might initially mean your family.
Provide the service you plan to provide. Talk to these early clients about competitors they are or have used. Ask them the following questions (first about the competitor, then - once they've received your service - the same questions for your service).
Then, ask them how likely they are to buy the product, on a scale from 1-5. Only about 30% of the 5s will buy the service. Only about 10% of the 4s. 3s and belows will almost certainly not buy the service.
Ask they why they would buy the service (or why not)? Ask the awkward conversations. You have likely charged these people nothing or a very low price, so just be honest that you're trying to improve your service and really want to hear what they valued (and what they did not).
Lastly, when it comes to pricing, 1-2 prices is probably too few and 5-6 is probably too many (so 3-4 is probably right).
PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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