KARL GOODMAN

FOUNDER ATHLETES AUTHORITY

BUSINESS STRATEGIST

MARKETER

NEWSLETTER PUBLISHER

  • Founder of Athletes Authority
  • Marketing Maverick
  • Business Strategist
  • Newsletter Publisher

soul in the game

a gym owner’s manifesto

 

Those with Soul in The Game know they have it.

They are the visionaries, experts, entrepreneurs, misfits, innovators, community-creators and culture-makers who are brave enough to own a gym in the age of the internet. We are those who build and create for the betterment and enjoyment of others… and we do so with soul – not just skin – in the game. We aren’t simply invested in the outcome of a business like a shareholder waiting for his dividend, we are invested in the heart and soul of the industry itself.

By having Soul In The Game, we carry not just the risk of our own business failing and our own doors closing, but we bear the risks of everyone else who are not yet brave enough to play the Game. Until that time, we will employ them, mentor them, and inspire them.


We are independent thinkers that are brave enough to lead – however flawed we feel we may be – and we do so selflessly.  


We are the: “Captains of our ship; and the masters of our soul.” 


We make our living by:


1. Building something from the ground up that we’re proud of through blood, sweat and tears (not shortcutting the meaningful work by buying whatever franchise is in vogue at the time),

2. Creating something that transcends ‘just a gym’. We build something special and it solves meaningful problems for those we serve;

3. And we do so in the hope that it is valuable enough that people will pay a premium for it; sticky enough that they never want to leave, and loveable enough so they shout our name from the rooftops.

Those with Soul In The Game believe in the natural law of symbiosis (even if they don’t call it that). 


If we serve passionately and unconditionally, we believe the market will reciprocate.

In the same way that hungry birds need flowers for nectar and flowers need hungry birds for pollination… we need our people, and they need us.


This natural symbiosis creates a win-win relationship:


1. Serve passionately,
2. Get paid generously.

By serving first, we’re in perfect harmony with our customer’s needs because our success is their success. We better connect with their problems, better understand their pain, and in turn, create deeper, more meaningful solutions. For that, they pay us generously, because we’re giving them something they need and desire. We share their struggles and we feel their pain, but we also celebrate their wins and embrace their joy. We take the good with the bad, and everything in between.


This is the contract that comes with Soul In The Game.


And this is the value formula.

Four factors interplay to dictate the value we provide. It is our job to maximise the upside (the transformational outcome and % of success), while minimising the downside (time delay and perceived effort & sacrifice).

We spend our lives fine-tuning, optimising and tweaking our offer to put the customer first.

If you see yourself as an expert whose asset is their knowledge and passion, and if you want to use those assets to serve and lead your people, then you’re in the right place.

Welcome.

I help gym owners with Soul In The Game create a business that matters, for a market worth fighting for.

I do this by:

1. Helping you attract the right people into your business who have a problem you can solve & that care about making change.



(ATTRACTION: Market -> Prospect)
 

2. Welcoming them into your ecosystem so they can feel at home and understood.



(ENGAGEMENT: Prospect -> Lead)
 

3. Enrolling them into your solution (at a healthy profit) so you can facilitate transformational change and create fans

.

(CONVERSION & CASH FLOW: Lead -> Customer  -> Fan)
 

This is at the soul of what we do.

On the surface, this looks like any old marketing strategy.

So how is it different?

Well, most business advice is dished out by ‘consultants’. By definition, they are without Soul In The Game because they don’t own their own gyms, and they don’t take on any downside risk.  Most of the time, these ‘consultants’ are rookies dressed up in Guru’s clothing (like Wolves, dressed in sheep’s…).

Taking on this advice typically results in you failing to:

1. Attract your ideal customers without coming across like an obnoxious twat, or, 

2. Convert them into customers without pressured sales tactics that put your stomach in a knot, or 

3. Create an “Oh-My-God-It’s-You” experience because you’re so focused on pumping clients through the assembly line that you miss the main point — . 

We’ll pass on that advice, thanks.

We’re in it to make meaningful change; create worthwhile legacies, and be remembered as someone who cared.

Because we’ve found out that you don’t need to cater to everyone in order to be well looked after by the market.

You don’t even need to cater to many at all.

You only need to find a market big enough that will serve you as much as you can serve it.

This is what we call the ‘Minimum Viable Market’ and it is at the heart of the symbiotic energy exchange between you and those that you serve.

For those with Soul In The Game, we damned well know the industry doesn’t need another commodity. It doesn’t need another F-45, another Orange Theory or another B-Fit.

The industry doesn’t need another mediocre, commoditized product for the attention-deprived mass market of “fitness zombies” mindlessly wandering from novel stimulus to novel stimulus, switching gyms every 12-weeks in search of their next dopamine hit.

The fitness industry’s go-to business model treats the customer like an addict in need of their next high… and its marketing feeds the addiction.

But we’re not about that because our business has Soul.

We’re in the relationship business. The human-to-human business of serving and mattering to a tight-knit community that will thrive under our care.

We have Soul in the Game, just like you. We work to serve the gym and practice owners crazy enough to actually think they can make a mark on the world.
We’ve been earning a full-time independent living since 2015 running our own gym. We’ve been helping other gym owners do the same since 2018.

The tally is well into the hundreds now.

We believe a tight-knit community of 50 – <400 customers is key to serving and mattering in a world of noise and distractions.

Our goal is to help you create such an incredible community experience, that there is so much leftover value (profit) that the business gives you everything you need to live the life you want… without the unnecessary complexity

OUR MISSION:

We serve those who serve others. We help gym-owners bridge the gap between creating a facility they’re proud of, while making enough money to thrive in life.

If you have Soul In The Game, then we think you’ll love what we have for you here.

We create incredible, industry-specific business training that’s not just another copy-paste of what’s already out there getting repurposed hundreds of times over.

Our mentees love what we do for them and they love to tell others, too.

We help gym-owners like you become clearer on your messaging and more effective at marketing… so you can attract customers more consistently and deliver incredible outcomes so they become fans.

If this resonates with you, then you will love it here.

Look around. 

Subscribe to my email newsletter – we send emails almost every day.

See if what we have is for you.  Reach out and say “G’day” anytime.

We read all our emails and typically respond in 48 hours or less.