Hey,

In this blog I’m going to fully lift the lid on the Lean Body Challenge project I ran in 2012.

Let me be clear, this is not about ‘Lean Body’ or any specific subject. This is about how you can use a challenge format to help you grow your business and if you follow the steps below you can literally build an entire brand into a multi 6-figure revenue stream for yourself.

The Story – Where it began.
Back in 2011 I was p***ed off with the BS in the world of dieting and healthy eating. I thought I could do better. It wasn’t my space though. I was known as a strength and conditioning coach for performance athletes. The question I asked myself was ‘how do I get a ton of proof to show people my methods worked’? And this is exactly where the Lean Body Challenge (LBC) was born.

From a free 28 day challenge in January 2012 I grew a brand encompassing online coaching, product sales, licensing to coaches, coach education, and high ticket coaching. All done online which generated serious revenue, well over 6 figures.

What I’m going to share with you now you can literally swipe and deploy in your own business.

This is perfect for you if you’re wanting to get lots of testimonials from people, or you want to move into a new space or niche and you want a flying start.

I’m going to show you how to set up, run and then monetise your own challenge and how to get hundreds of people registered for it.

But I need to say this. You have to deliver an outcome for people. You have to do the hard work to get it up and running.

If you’re prepared to do that, then let’s make it happen!

Don’t be the coach that reads this and does nothing. You will get nothing as a result so you might as well not read it!

Step 1: Create a Challenge. Get Proof, Get Content, Get Testimonials.
The reason you’re creating a challenge is to get proof, get testimonials, and create content you can leverage in future projects. You’re using the challenge to show people what you can do and build trust.
Here are the steps to go through when you’re creating your first challenge:

 

1. 1. What problem am I solving and for who?
      This is critical. With the LBC I was helping people to lose body fat. You could be helping people add 6 inches to their vertical jump, to lose their ‘dad bod’ to set a strength PB, to make more money, get more leads. The list is endless. But you need to be able to have a person in mind and then an outcome for them.

1. 1. What is the outcome of the challenge and how long will it take.
      The sweet spot for a challenge is a month or less. I’ve done 5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 day challenges. All of them work well.
      You have to consider what is the outcome you want to deliver, and how long will it take to get that outcome.

When I first ran the LBC I didn’t know what the results were going to be so I promised people body fat reduction in 28 days.
After I’d run the challenge once I realised I could do it in 21 days so I changed it. I also had proof. The average fat loss for the LBC to this day is 3-5kg in 21 days.

So now I can promise 3-5kg of body fat loss in 21 days, based on over 1000 people going through the challenge.

What can you promise and deliver, and how long will it take?

Remember people aren’t expecting the world here. It’s worthwhile for someone to do this with you if they get closer to their goals. People know they can’t get everything in less than a month.

Step 2: Promote The Challenge.
My advice to you is run at least the first one for free. You’ll get way more people registered, tons more proof of concept, and feedback to help you moving forwards.
You can promote to anyone and everyone.

Go into social media groups, get your friends and family involved, approach sports team and clubs.

Literally leave no stone unturned. Your goal is to get 50-100 people registered, that will make for a really good engagement and hugely build your profile.

When I ran the Lean Body Challenge I didn’t change anything, but I partnered with the British Heart Foundation and the National Obesity Forum. I asked people to make a donation to these charities at the end of the challenge if they got value.

What happened then was both charities shared the promotion on their social media channels, I got quotes from key people from each charity to use in my marketing, and we raised some money for them both at the end. A win win for everyone! I managed to get over 500 people on my first free challenge as a result.

You can do the same.

Step 3: Deliver Your Challenge.
So now you’re ready to deliver the challenge. Remember the game is to get proof, testimonials and content. So you tell your people that they must give you photos/stats to support the project, and a review or testimonial at the end. They will be very happy to do that if you really help them along the way.

The most straight forward way to deliver the challenge is by getting everyone into a Facebook group and posting the training in there every day.
I did this and also sent a daily email to people who’d registered because I wanted them to join my newsletter list. If you can manage both I would certainly recommend that.

When you deliver the challenge you are the leader. I would suggest you do the training if you can, or at least be visible getting involved every day. If there are people local to you doing it you might even say you’ll train with them as part of the process. It will build more engagement, but you don’t have to.

Be the leader.

Step 4: Monetise Your Challenge.
As you get to the half way point in your first challenge you need to be thinking about what comes next. What you will have in that community now is a bunch of people that are enjoying what you’ve put in front of them, are liking you as their coach, and trust will be building quickly. Don’t lose that momentum.

Here’s a list of ways you can monetise that community:

 

1. 1. Charge for the next challenge.

This is simple. A lot of people will want to simply repeat the process. You can tell them that the next challenge is £49/79/99/129 and they can sign up for it.

 

2. 2. Create services around that core outcome.

For example if you are running a fat loss challenge you can offer online coaching, 121 training, membership to your community, high ticket retreats, the list is endless.
You can also respond to people’s problems with solutions. For example I had people with no gym access so I created the Lean Bodyweight Programme. In the first challenge people shared their recipes and food photos so I created a cookbook from this content and later added smoothies, treats and other elements.

With the LBC I offered online coaching for people. I did some weekends in my gym in Leeds where people came from across the UK to do a full weekend at a high ticket price. I did more challenges where people paid next time around.

 

3. 3. Create Products.

You’ve created the training, so now you can create products. I created the Lean Body Challenge book and sold that for £80. I then added the recipe books and sold the Lean Body System for £149.
Products are amazing because you create it once and sell it forever. You just need to occasionally revamp it to make it current.

You’re only limited by your desire to do the work, lead your community and help solve their problems.

By month two of my project I had over 50 people do the next challenge, had 13 online coaching clients at £250 per month and a waiting list for a 2 day retreat at £1000. In total over £5k per month in recurring revenue plus an engaged audience worth way more than that.

You can do the same.

Step 5: Train the Trainers.
Once you’ve established your challenge and offering, you’ve run it a few times and have proof it works, you can then begin to do coach education and introduce another revenue stream. I ran the Lean Body Trainer workshop 2-3 times per year which taught people the methods behind the LBC. Of course then this was recorded and became another product that I could sell to people and it still sells to this day.

Step 6: License The System.
The final step in the process is licensing or franchising. When you know the system works, you’ve built a following, there will be people who started out as participants and coaches or trainers who will license the system from you. I worked out that by running the LBC system coaches could make an additional £1500 per month minimum for themselves. So I introduced a license model for them where they paid me a monthly fee for use of the materials, mentorship from me and away they went. I had coaches from all over the UK running their own versions and integrating within their own businesses.

You can do the same.

In Summary
Challenges are a simple and effective way to build engagement, get proof, and build an engaged audience.

You just have to decide to do one, and you can do that right now!

What will your challenge be?

When will you launch it?

That’s all for this week. But if you’ve read this and you want me to help you build your business maybe through this challenge format reply to this email with the word HELP and I will brainstorm some ideas with you.

Here’s 4 ways I can help you move forwards:

 

1. 1. Follow me on instagram for video content, I did a video version of ‘the meeting’ over there for you to check out.

1. 1. Follow me on Linkedin for business content that will help you.

1. 1. Join my entrepreneur coaches group for free support.

1. 1. Book a Vision to Action Session with me.

If you like this newsletter please forward it to someone who would benefit.

I’ll be back soon,

Much love,

Brenda