How Rich Thaw Grew EMPWR Fitness 40% Using Referrals and Sell-by-Chat - Gym World Worldwide | Lyssna här

🌎 Rich Thaw , owner of EMPWR Fitness and Sports Performance Training in Montreal, joins Mateo to break down how he grew his gym's membership base by 40% in Q4, largely without paid ads.

They get into his sell-by-chat strategy, why he cuts his schedule to grow faster, how he uses referral automations inside Kilo to turn happy members into a lead machine, and why sometimes discounting your trial offer even further is the right call.

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📱 Socials:

Rich Thaw (Instagram) - https://www.instagram.com/empwr__/

EMPWR (Website) - https://empwrfast.com/

📺 Watch On:

https://www.youtube.com/@GymWorldWorldwide

🔥Show Notes:

(0:38) — Introduction: Rich Thaw, EMPWR Fitness, Montreal
(2:28) — What Empower does: small group personal training for athletic adults
(3:36) — Rich's background: hockey, Mike Boyle, and how he got into coaching
(5:13) — The early days: online training, the garage gym, and getting the cops called
(7:06) — Growing pains: too many sessions, not enough revenue
(8:50) — The conversation with Mark Fisher that changed everything
(10:17) — Cutting the schedule to buy back time (and why it was terrifying)
(11:45) — Run a successful gym with Kilo (visit https://usekilo.com/)
(12:25) — Sell by chat: how Rich turned social media interactions into booked trials
(14:06) — Has the offer changed? Breaking down the 10-day / 3-session trial for $99
(15:12) — Why discounting the trial even further sometimes works better
(17:57) — Positioning small group training vs. personal training vs. group classes
(19:39) — How Rich structures his referral program (and when he makes the ask)
(21:16) — The QR code, the Kilo automation, and what happens 30 minutes after a referral
(21:52) — Other lead gen: promos, reactivation campaigns, and the dollar trial
(23:49) — Onboarding: what the trial experience actually looks like at EMPWR
(25:53) — Converting trial members into long-term memberships
(28:52) — What's next: finding a full-time coach and building the team
(29:53) — Where to follow Rich

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