By Mike Mahler

10 Common Mistakes That Fitness Professionals Make With Training DVD’s

• Spending way too much money. You do not need to spend $50,000 and have four cameras on site. No MTV video productions are necessary and are often counter-productive.
• Not spending enough money. A $300.00 camcorder in your living room is way too unprofessional. Get a high quality camera and find an appealing location to film. Get a solid mic to ensure that the sound quality is good. If you do not want to spend money on a camera and do everything in house, then find a professional and a reasonable price. My brother for example films and edits my DVD’s and his fees start at only $7500.00
• Too scripted. DVD’s are a chance to show your personality and unique abilities to thousands of people. Forget memorizing lines. Memorize concepts and have some spontaneity with your DVD’s.
• Not scripted enough. Be coherent and articulate or do not bother making any DVD’s. Nothing more irritating than rambling on and “uh, um, eh, um” every two seconds. You do not have to know word for word what you are going to say but you should have a clear idea what you are getting across and where you are going.
• Not instructive enough. People buy fitness DVD’s for two reasons: One, to learn how to do exercises and two for follow along workouts. Don’t just demonstrate exercises. Work clients through the technical aspects of each exercise. If you do a follow along workout DVD, have several workouts for customers to choose from.
• No focus. Pick one theme and stick with it. Trying to get everyone to buy your DVD is a great way to get no one to buy it. People should know if it is a fit for them from the title alone. For example, my DVD titles are:
  • The Kettlebell Solution For Size And Strength
  • Kettlebell Solutions For Speed And Explosive Strength
  • The Kettlebell Solution For Fat Loss And Mental Toughness
• No Bonus files. Every DVD you make should have a bonus e-book or e-report that customers have to email you for. This is critical if you have distributors that sell your DVD as this allows you to collect customer information to add to your newsletter lists.
• Not learning how to market information products before making one. No DVD will sell itself. You have to know how to sell it. Read a few books on writing ad copy or at least analyze ad copy that others have written such as myself.
• Putting a DVD out before you have a following. If you have two visitors to your site and no emailing list, do not bother putting out a DVD. You should have at least ten articles on your site or some other form of content such as audio files, video files etc. Moreover, you should have an email list of at least 500 people. When your customers recommend that you make a DVD, then you know it is time to do so.
• Thinking that you need to be in a studio to film a DVD. You can film DVD’s outdoors and you can even film a class or workshop and make that a DVD. Many people are better with people in front of them. Go with your strengths instead of against them. Finally, if you are simply not good in front of a camera, work on getting good or pick other information products such as e-books, books, or audio information products.

Benefits Of Information Products

• Creates an additional passive income stream. You make money while you are doing other things.
• One day or a few days of hard work can pay you for a lifetime or at least several years.
• Positions you as an expert. People assume you know more if you have products.
• No geographical boundaries. You can have orders from all over the world
• Sells you for other income sources that you may have such as private lessons, bootcamps, classes, personalized programs, phone consulting, and workshops. People see your DVD and now they want to work with you further.
• Very effective promotional tool. You can send copies to people that you want to network with or acquire as customers fairly inexpensively.
• You no longer have to be a slave to billable hours and can fire irritating customers.
• Can allow you to have more free time to live your life.

Action Steps For Creating Information Products

1. Choose your route. Do you want to make e-books, books, DVD’s, CD’s or a combination of all of the above? Start with one, do a good job and then move to another project. Do not try to do several products at one time such as writing a book and making a DVD.
2. Once you decide what you want to do, do some research to see if your idea is viable. What may sound good in theory may have no traction in the marketplace. Is anyone else selling similar products to what you want to do?
3. Some obvious topics to focus on are:
   • Fat loss
   • Size and strength
   • Speed
   • Joint mobility and flexibility
   • Bodyweight exercises
   • Whatever style of training that you do personally, are excited about, and have the skill set to instruct.
4. Once you have a concept, write down everything you want to cover on the DVD. Visualize going through the DVD in your head and see if it flows well. Never just get in front of the camera and wing it. You need to know exactly what you want to cover.
5. Decide if you want an outdoor location (potentially free) or if a studio is more appropriate. Rather then renting out a studio, look for cheaper rental options such as a high school gym, a room at a community center, a martial arts dojo. See if you can film at off hours to minimize noise.
6. Once you have a DVD filmed and edited, send it off to a duplication company to mass produce. I recommend Vervante.com and you can contact Cindy Tyler at ctyler@vervante.com
7. I also recommend you have a fufillment company stock your DVD and take care of orders. The last thing you need are 1000 DVD’s in your living room and going to the post office daily is a big time waster and a nuisance. Vervante.com only charges $2.00 to process an order plus whatever the shipping fee is for your product. These fees can easily be passed to the consumer with a shipping and handling charge or factor the fees in when you price your DVD. Vervante also stocks your products in their warehouse for free. No monthly charges or hidden fees.
8. Write effective ad copy for your DVD. Study others that have done it successfully. Review the following sites:
   • www.tftgroup.com
   • www.mattfurey.com
   • www.mikemahler.com

Use the rules and principles of effective ad copy and stay true to your own personality. If you are not comfortable with over the top ad copy then do not use it.

Offer an affiliate program to allow others to sell your DVD. I use http://www.1shoppingcart.com for my online store and they have an affiliate program option that is part of the service. Offer 15-25% to others for selling your DVD’s and give them at least five articles that they can place on their sites to help sell the DVD’s. This will also increase traffic to your site a great deal.

Writing Effective Ad Copy

• Always have an effective header at the top to engage the reader such as:

“The Key to winning the battle against fat and keeping it off is to build as much muscle as possible. Yes ladies this means you as well! Learn why with The Kettlebell Solution For Fat Loss And Mental Toughness.”

• The more customer testimonials you have the better. The best customer testimonials are ones that explain why they liked the DVD rather than just general comments such as “Your DVD is awesome” Here is a good example:

“With SO many DVD’s on the market, especially exercise DVD’s it is hard to distinguish yourself from the pack. Flash and Sizzle only go so far and CONTENT remains the unique characteristic that separates the average from the superior.

Mike Mahler can stand high on the mountain of success for a simple reason. It is not his physical power, although it is impressive, it is not his marketing, which is slick but not over the top, but his ability to communicate. Mike Mahler could be the Zig Ziglar or Anthony Robbins of the fitness world. He simply has his act together when the camera turns on. He has no need to pretend to be something he isn’t. He has a sincere quality to turn you on to good information through demonstration, vocalization, and dissemination. You never turn off the DVD and say to yourself, “Now what the hell did he say?” The boldness and clarity brand a perpetual stamp on the learning portions of the brain.”

The DVD itself reflects Mike’s philosophy on Fat Loss. The breakdown is the Five Pillars of Kettlebell Training. That is just for starters. Mike then gives you his breakdown of nutrition by being factual and conveying ideas through example and metaphor. He makes it very clear what the BIG picture is and does not get into analysis paralysis.

The last part of the tape is Mike’s introduction into Hormones. Once again, Mike does not try to be a Doctor or Endocrinologist. He simply opens the door of knowledge to another aspect of training and leads you towards resources like your physician who can help you on your pathway to good health.

Mike’s ability to make use of simple tools, ideas, and program design and communicate them to the masses remains supreme in an industry of flash in the pan fitness jesters. Mike gets a big thumbs up from this critic.”
– Tom Furman, author of “Concrete Conflict & Conditioning” www.physicalstrategies.com

• Have a variety of customer testimonials. Men, women, everyday people, professionals etc
• Have bullet points, which explain every single instruction point that is on your DVD. Every benefit to the customer should be in the ad copy.
• Always focus on what is in it for the customer rather than how qualified you are. It is not about who you are, it is about what is in it for the customer.
• Always end with an action step and an incentive to place an order right away. Example, the price will go from $99.95 to $199.95 on Feb 1. Order now before it does.
• Always have a “PS” at the bottom of the ad copy page that summarizes what the benefits of the DVD are in a few sentences and uses strong words to push the visitor to place an order. Example:

“This DVD is only for serious trainees that want to get as strong, powerful, and build a great physique. If you enjoy lifting light kettlebells and have no desire to be strong with a powerful physique then this DVD is not for you. If you do not have a goal to work up to training with heavy kettlebells then this DVD is not for you. However, if you are ready for a new challenge with kettlebells and have always wanted to train with the heavy kettlebells then this DVD is a must have for you. Make sure that you place your order today.”

• Write tons of articles that are related to your DVD topic and get them on as many sites as possible.

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