DAVID GUNTHER: It's really about focusing on what we have and what we can create and protecting that and enhancing that and making that better and making sure that those stories get out there as much as we possibly can as effectively as we can, focusing on our business and what it means to our clientele.

INTRODUCTION: Pilates business owners, welcome to The Pilates Business Podcast, brought to you by the people who own, operate, and instruct in a successful clinical Pilates studio in Australia. 

Our mission is to help you to discover Pilates business assets to build your clinical Pilates business success. And now, here's your host, David Gunther. 

DAVID: What does it take for an independent clinical Pilates studio to succeed in a marketplace where the key word Pilates is increasingly owned by the big fitness Pilates franchises. That's the question we're answering in this David and Goliath series. Real strategies to give you a competitive edge in a crowded Pilates market, and to help you take action on what we're unpacking.

We've created a checklist. It's free, and it's called David's Competitive Edge. You can grab it now at pilatesbusiness.com.au. forward slash David's competitive edge. In our last episode, we tackled the pricing trap. Why your fees. Should reflect your unique value, not your competitors.

We looked at how your brand story drives referrals, builds trust, and helps you confidently charge what you're worth. We even broke down some real world examples to reframe how you think about value and pricing. Today we're shifting focus to one of the most underutilized business assets. Google reviews, not just as social proof, but as strategic story driven tools that attract aligned clients. Reinforce your studio culture and strengthen your visibility in local search. I am joined again by Craig McGinnis as we dig into how client storytelling builds connections, how to handle misaligned reviews without fear, and how this simple but powerful tool can completely transform your sales process.

Let's dive in.

Last year we decided, look, it's important that we tell these stories or we get these stories out because we were hearing all the stories all the time from our clientele, how well they were going and how much they felt that was because of the Pilates studio and what they were doing with their instructor and the environment that we had created.

So we thought. It's so important to get that out there. And we noticed that other businesses didn't necessarily have, that number of stories out there in their Google reviews or the level of connectedness with our particular target group, who has these values that I described it a little bit earlier on. And , the reviews that came out, Craig, from the process that we went through to encourage and make it easy for our clients, and we had a very good process and we have done podcast episodes on this. There's a whole series on that the listeners can go back to and get that valuable information.

The stories were just fantastic. And the value wasn't just in then. I use it all the time. I'm doing the selling in our business at that pointy end a lot of the time. And it's a real pleasure as you described. It's a fantastic experience because I'm speaking to people that are speaking our language.

 They're coming to us because all of our marketing is aligned with their values. Their emotion is already connected to our motion and the reasons why we're in business and the reasons why our current clientele are coming, so we're authentic. We're not just saying we do these things, we do these things and our clients have been telling the stories on the Google reviews.

And the value isn't just in getting the stories out to other people. The value is for me as a business owner, Craig, because I didn't know some of these stories. I didn't know the depth of that connection and that emotion and that value for people. And some of our instructors didn't know the clients might be seeing another instructor, or they might not have really.

said these things previously. They may not have said them out loud. And then when they go to think it, cause it is a bit of a process particularly for some of our older clients to, get onto Google and create a, an account for it. If they need to get a Gmail address and then think about, but that's in the thinking of what have I really gotten out of Pilates can well, and people can go onto our site, or Google us, Pilates Can in Canberra, and you will see these over a hundred five star Google reviews, and you can read the stories. And just that level, that depth of emotion and feeling is fantastic. Other much larger organizations have used this as well. Apple is a great example that people use all the time, isn't it?

 And that's how we feel that we've achieved that. And that's why, when you get to something, that is really challenging like COVID or working in a marketplace where generally the population of the market understands that Pilates are these large franchises and that there's a lot of franchises out there.

And a lot of instructors are working with these larger franchises to do reformer classes with 14 to 30 people smoking cigars on a reformer or whatever they're doing. That's a challenge, and when those challenges arise, you just need to reconnect with own values, reconnect with the values that you've created in your studio, that you've created in your, clientele and in, your staff.

And then it makes it easy also when people come in and they want that 85 cent bottle of water, you can let them know that's across the road. Over there. You go over there because we've got a different culture here. This is what we're doing. Now, if you decide you want that culture, we'll come back and talk to us then.

 Experience the 85 cent one and how you feel about that. and then, come over to the, 4. 50 one or the. 2. 85 or whatever the pricing is, as you say. So I think you've made a terrific point and it's really, you know, encourage me to think more carefully about how we go about delivering those stories.

Now, repetition, repetition, repetition is one thing I think, you know particularly in that unique selling proposition, we're always talking to people about our processes, but we're all the time now I'm, Relating back to our five star Google reviews. Have you seen our five star Google reviews on our website?

I'm saying to the client to the prospective clientele and that Usually they say Craig. Yes. I have. Yeah, they were terrific And if they have and they don't want what we're selling at the price, we're selling it great And if they have, and they do want what we're selling, at the price we're selling it, then great also. Tt makes everything, everything's great. Exactly. 

CRAIG MAGINNESS: for your reflection back on what I was saying was absolutely right on. You now understand when I talk about a value proposition, that's exactly what it is. 

But yes, the fact that it's sort of reflecting back to you for an owner, since you're hearing Your own value that caused you to get in the starting, you're saying, yes, so those are my people, right? yeah, cause that's exactly right. I've worked with a couple different businesses where their entire marketing strategy is nothing but five star Google reviews.

Because reviews are big. People want to see what other people see. But again, yes, very much to this value proposition, if I am reading other people's experience that resonate back to me, this thing I'm looking for, , that's how I know. it's not just the thing. It's not just the description of the thing.

oh, okay, that's clinical pilates. Oh, they have a reformer. It's, I'm listening to people who share that same story. This is my community. These are my peeps. And, you know, it's funny, I also, I gotta tell you, as a business person, people, I'm a big believer that fashionable in many circles to sort of diss business again as being, capitalistic and so on and on and on.

DAVID: If you are a clinical Pilates studio owner, you already know the feeling competing against big brand Pilates franchises with big budgets and slick marketing. Our wonderful team at the Pilates Business Podcast have created a set of tools that we call David's competitive Edge, practical Action steps to compete with Goliath in the Pilates marketplace.

It's free, it's easy to use, and it's action oriented. Whether you are just getting started or looking to scale up. This checklist is your tactical roadmap to thrive in today's competitive Pilates business landscape.

Download it free at www.pilatesbusiness.com.au or via the links in our show notes, and take the first step to owning your advantage. If you are a clinical Pilates

CRAIG: I personally think business is the one thing that's going to save humanity from ourselves. because it's one of the places we make authentic relationships and really build community. I mean, well run businesses are about building community. So that's true. One, one very quick aside on Google Reviews, by the way.

You probably covered this in one of your episodes, but of course, besides the reviews themselves, it's one of the main things that drives Google's algorithm to make you show up in their search results. Right? 

So that's another reason getting Google reviews is helpful for a business beyond just that, but anyway, yeah, It's important.

It's reinforcing and the other thing a lot of people. They're like well You know I'm a little worried about the review thing and part of it's because they're free What do I do when I get a bad one right? That's yeah But I tell them it's you know it's customer feedback, and if you're trying to run a great business man You don't want anything More than good customer feedback.

And of course, if it's coming back good and it's coming back positive, then, you actually are telling an authentic story. You're telling it well. You're, delivering it consistently, because people are actually experiencing the thing you

DAVID: I'll jump in there because, you've just given me, bit of a brain, explosion there, an idea on, what, With the Google reviews getting a bad review is probably a Reflection that you've perhaps let clientele come into your business You've attracted them somehow with what you're doing or how you're selling or over selling You've attracted someone who really wanted the 85 cent bottle of water or they wanted maybe a 10 bottle of water 

So I think it's important to, and as I mentioned, all of our Google reviews, over ,are all five stars, over a hundred of them. but, so we've been relatively successful with that process because Occasionally, we have to talk with a client who's, perhaps not working in with the culture, very occasionally.

Okay, I was talking to a client about this just yesterday, in fact, how we protect our culture. We protect the instructors, the clients, and the business. the holy triangle of business for me. and if there's A client that's come in that's, say, very selfish, they want, and that's probably the best way to put it, selfish, they want more time, they want it to be done a different way for them,that, they want extra customer service.

Now,we're prepared to go the extra mile. We do that. that's helpful, I think, to do. but there comes a time when you need to be able to have a conversation with a client to say, perhaps we can't really cater for your needs. And very occasionally, if all of your marketing and selling is in sync with what You actually offer being that authentic replication of the story.

So if the business replicates the story, then you've got a,very few of these problems will arise, but occasionally that may happen. what are your thoughts on that, Craig?

CRAIG: Yeah, well I think, in terms of getting bad reviews, if you're mostly getting five star reviews and you get a bad review, it's probably because the customer is simply not your customer. Somehow they thought they were, it turned out they weren't, and so they're not experiencing what they wanted to.

And now, yes, you're having the opposite effect, in that you're telling a story that's not their story, and they're like, what the hell, that was bad. If, on the other hand, you're getting several more than one, then I think that says to you as a person that you're actually not delivering the value you promised.

There's a disconnect between Your value proposition, the story you tell, and what you actually deliver, right? Because, the other important thing about understanding your value proposition as the sort of core of all of this, is everything else builds from that, right? Because, I mean, we talked about it, it certainly determines how you can price.

It determines who your customers are and therefore what your marketing strategy ought to be. Because if I know who my customers are, i. e. they're the people who tell themselves this story. Then I can start to ask, where do I find those people, right? What kind of coffee do they drink? What kind of music do they listen to?

what other things do they do? Where might they be showing up so I can get my message out in places where they are likely to be, right? But then it also drives your whole business deliver, value delivery system, which in business generic terms is what the company is, right? It's what kind of space do I need?

How do I decorate the space? Where should the space be located? What kind of parking? What kind of signage do I need? What kind of people do I want to hire? What should their attitude be about customer service? About speed? About efficiency? because they need to be part of the culture, right?

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CRAIG: Your people need to be able to authentically tell and interpret the story every time they interact with a customer, right? Because you can get some really jarring dissonance if I go into a place thinking that this is my story and then , I wind up working with an employee who doesn't get it themselves, It can be how, how do you have your people dress? and there's no some people are like, again, in my acupuncture practice, there's a group of people who are like,you're a medical person now, you should wear a white lab coat. it depends on your customers, right?

You may be selling a value proposition. That, yes, it's acupuncture, yes, it's Chinese medicine, but it's medicine. And it's, it's a different modality, and we don't rely on chemicals and pharmaceuticals and all those things that haven't been working for you. We're actually going to fix your root cause, not just mask symptoms, but it's medicine.

Yeah, then, you're attracting people looking for a scientific result. But if you're more about people looking for spiritual healing, or, lots of other things, you may talk about what this is we do, then You know, I don't know, I think the last thing you want to wear is a white lab coat. because people are going to look in, coming and looking for one thing, they're going to see that, and they're going to, whoa, no, okay, this is not, I'm

DAVID: That's an excellent point, Craig, because recently I've been in the studio more 

 and what it's done is given me the opportunity to talk to our clientele more and talk to them in depth 

about their bodies mostly and engaging with what's happening with their bodies. But in talking with them, I'm having conversations like a client yesterday was telling me about how they really like the place because it's really just comfortable.

The words she used was really comfortable. Her shoulders dropped. She felt good. She felt good about being there because she said,you can just, you can wear whatever you like, that you're comfortable in. you can go to the toilet.

nobody notices, you leave your session, nobody notices, you can have a chat or not have a chat,and everyone's accepting and they're just nice people here. it's just her crowd. It's just people that she loves to be around and she can't get that necessarily somewhere else by going to a cafe or going to some other club or trying to invite people around to her house.

That happens at our studio. It's unique. and so what really, helped me as you were talking there about those stories and like the Prius, purchaser as against the Hummer purchaser , uh, if we have Priuses, if we've got a car lot full of Priuses or Hummers, we don't need to really look at what The Giants are doing in our marketplace.

 We don't focus on the Giants. We're living in that Environment sure and they are there and we don't want to get stepped on or whatever might be the case but it's really about focusing on what we have and what we can create and protecting that and enhancing that and making that better and making sure that those stories get out there as much as we possibly can as effectively as we can, focusing on our business and what it means to our clientele.

And there's some practical ways of doing that as well, Craig, and I'm going to bring a couple up. We're going to run a series on this as well. The sorts of local promotions that you can do, and I'm sure you've got some good examples of this, with our clientele, we give them 100 gift voucher to give to a friend, for an assessment because that's an entry point into our studio.

I find if we get the right people into the studio on the phones, usually enough, but if they certainly, if they come into the studio and experience that whole atmosphere and see the quality of the equipment and the people and what's happening and how it's happening, then they will want to be part of that.

So that's the first thing to have something that. the clientele can use to make that difference in that person's decision to be in contact with us.

 That's it for today, but we're not done yet. The final part of this, David and Goliath series drops next week where we'll wrap it all up and give you the last piece of the puzzle. Make sure you are following the show. So you don't miss it. Until then, stay awesome.

OUTRO: You have been listening to the Pilates business podcast with David Gunther. If you are enjoying the show, let us know by subscribing and leaving a review. For more information or if you have any Pilates business questions, visit www.pilatesbusiness.com.au.