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Meet Austin Varley of FitClub Advertising in Biltmore

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin Varley.

Austin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I will try my best to be brief. I mean I could go all the way back to when I was nine knocking people’s doors in my neighborhood doing anything to make an extra buck. I’d wash your car, mow your lawn, walk your dogs, I was a small kid so I would crawl into attics to help them get stuff down and a lot more random tasks.

However, I didn’t start dabbling with ‘real’ business until I graduated high school. I joined a company called Melaleuca that is in the ‘Network Marketing’ industry. Instead of buying your home products (deodorant, shampoo, body wash, protein powder, cleaning supplies, etc.) at the store, you would buy them online from Melaleuca that was all-natural, highest quality you could get for the same price and shipped directly to your door.

You would earn residual commissions from the customers you referred to and could build a team to make as much as you want, all from simply showing people how to shop online. It’s honestly a genius business model. I was a great salesman and would refer customers, however, to make the real money, you wanted to build a team. I would people excited to build a team, just couldn’t get the duplication process going and as I look back, I think it could have been a result of my leadership skills.

So after two years of trying to build it, missing birthdays, missing friend’s celebrations, missing family events, losing sleep and lots of failures, I decided to go a different route. In those two years, I made a total of $2,500 as an entrepreneur. That didn’t seem right so I made the choice to pivot to something else.

It was almost three years ago that I started to dabble with ‘Digital Marketing’. I was intrigued because this was a way to make a lot of money from my own work ethic and not anyone else’s. It was all on me, which it always was but with Melaleuca, you make a lot more from duplicating the process, here I had the opportunity to close a deal for as high as I wanted, but they recommended a $1,000/month.

I was sold. I dropped out of Melaleuca and started diving into digital marketing, learning about Facebook ads, Google PPC, building websites, blogging, social media, marketing, advertising, branding, logo design, funnels, and the list goes on. I remember a quote from Jim Rohn that has always stuck with me…

“To make more money, you need to become more valuable in the marketplace.”

I always knew that quote and I was so excited because as I was learning all of this material, I was becoming more valuable. I was learning how to get customers from the internet. That is a HUGE skillset and a very valuable one at that. Now any business is hard to start and digital marketing can be a very difficult business. However, the rewards are amazing.

Again, I failed, I got success, I learned, I kept pushing, I lost relationships, I missed birthdays, family events and wouldn’t go out because I was obsessed with making this happen. The past almost three years have been truly a blessing and a HUGE eye-opener.

The first two years as an entrepreneur, I told you I only made $2,500. The next two years after I made my switch, I made over $200,000. I am very grateful for that number, however, I know that isn’t anything to some of my buddies doing over $1,000,000 but that’s why you ALWAYS stay grateful for what you have and hungry for more.

Now, what got me here? Again I could go on and on but to make it quick, it was a few things. One, it was my relentless attitude, I would do anything and everything to make something work. I have no problem doing the uncomfortable tasks, the hard tasks, or the boring tasks that no one wants to do. You have to have a relentless work ethic and attitude towards your goals.

Next, I would say I am coachable. I will listen to others, I am always learning and most importantly, I will execute what I am learning. In the world of business, we are constantly learning, growing, being coached and again most importantly executing on the material we are learning. I know a lot of smart struggling people out there and it’s because they lack action. Learn then execute.

Then the last thing is I will pivot if I have to. I’ve always been very independent, even when I was a kid, so I have always had to call my own shots. So being able to pivot when I believe I have to, has helped me a lot in business and for my marketing campaigns for my clients. The road is going to be bumpy, things are going to break, you will make mistakes, however, being able to pivot and fast is going to keep you going down the path towards success.

Just remember, you really can do anything you set your mind to, I know some guys making 7-figures that aren’t smarter than the average person, they will just do the required work. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t want to work.

Has it been a smooth road?
Not at all, it has been a crazy journey with successes than failures and I think for anyone reading this, failure doesn’t stop. I fail more every day than the average person, that’s why I will always win. Failure is part of the game.

When you are starting a business, there is only a certain amount of CORRECT information out there. However, there is a lot of information out there, but that does not mean it’s always the best advice. One of the struggles was trying to figure this all out. I paid for courses at the beginning which helped a lot but wouldn’t be able to give me all of the answers. So then I would have to go figure it out and learn from my mistakes. One of the struggles is definitely figuring out how to run a business and be a business person in this crazy world.

Another struggle and I believe any entrepreneur can relate to this, but the biggest struggle was SALES. Sales are the lifeblood of your business, you need customers or you are going out of business. I needed to find a consistent way to get sales and onboard clients. However, there are a few things when it comes to sales. You have your prospecting method to find leads, then booking those appointments, getting them to show up and then closing the deals. These were things I was never taught in school and had to figure it out. It took me a while to find a consistent way to generate new clients but NEVER ignore sales. I see so many new entrepreneurs that love their product, hate sales, so they avoid sales and that is the last thing you want to do. You ignore sales, you will go out of business.

A struggle that I didn’t think I had but it wasn’t until two years ago I completely beat this struggle/mindset. When you are starting a business, you are doing something different than your friends, family, peers, etc. Now some are going to make fun of you, some will say you are dumb for doing it, some will talk down on your goals, some will think you are being weird when you are posting inspiring things, etc. Something I believe every entrepreneur and honestly person needs to overcome is how they value other people’s opinions. If you are always worried about how they perceive you, then you will always limit yourself to them. Break free from that and do you. Now I am not saying be an asshole or mean to anyone, but if you want to post a YouTube video, do it. You want to start a podcast, do it. You want to post that picture, do it. Don’t worry about the likes/comments/listens/views etc, just put yourself out there and only worry about your opinion of yourself.

I just want you to know that it is not going to be a smooth road. It is going to be a bumpy road but hey, they are just small bumps in the road and you will get to your ideal lifestyle. School teaches you to learn, learn, learn, take a test, then you are graded to see how much you understood the lesson that was taught. In life you still learn learn learn, but then life will throw a test at you that you weren’t ready for, it’s after that test, you will learn a lesson.

Struggles, failures, losses are all in the journey to that vision you want. Anytime you are dealing with failure, a loss, a problem, I want you to remember this… Think of every problem, failure, embarrassing moment, all the bad stuff you’ve been through and defeated. You beat all of that to get to here, so any problem/thing you are facing now, you will get through it. Your track record proves it.

Also, another way to look at failure is like this. If I knew I had to fail 100 times to win 1, so, for example, you had to call 100 businesses, fail but then after that 100, you will close one, then wouldn’t you want to fail 100 times as fast as possible because you know you are going to win? That’s life, fail fast, fail often, fail forward and go turn your dreams into reality.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with FitClub Advertising – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I own FitClub Advertising, which is an advertising agency that specializes in the fitness industry. We help gyms, personal trainers, yogis and fitness experts generate new members on demand. Since I have been in the industry for almost three years, I have created my own program to get the end result we want, which is more members, retaining those members and adding more revenue streams for increased profits.

I would say one of our best achievements so far is that we have helped generate over $2 MILLION dollars for our clients in almost three years. Plus one of the reasons why I decided to niche into fitness is not only are we helping businesses stay open but by doing that, we are helping people take control of their health. Win-win.

There are a lot of things that set us apart from the masses of ‘digital marketers’ out there. One of them is we have a proven track record, case studies, reviews and have helped almost 100 businesses. I truly care about your results and your business, so I will do everything I can to make it happen, plus if for some RANDOM reason you are not getting results, I won’t charge you a dime to move forward or I will refund your money.

Everyone else just takes your money, apologies for the lack of results and goes to the next breaks my heart because that is how you make businesses close their doors. Another way that sets us apart is we can generate new members and cash flow in your business with ZERO ads spend. Plus my clients tell me that love talking with me because I am cracking jokes and making it a good time for everyone.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Arizona is honestly pretty badass in a lot of ways. For example, we have basically every ecosystem besides the beach. I’ve traveled around the world and I still believe Arizona beats them all in the sunrise/sunset competition. Arizona is on a grid so it makes it easy to get around once you memorize the street names. We have great food, amazing views, a lot of opportunity, growth, beautiful women, hell I could go on and on why Arizona is the best. Plus we are only 4 hours away from a beach in California, from Rocky Point, two hours from snow in Flagstaff, 4 hours from Vegas, I mean we are in a pretty good spot.

Now, what do I dislike about our city? Not that much but I can’t stand the summers. I love the cold which is why winters are perfect here because it doesn’t get cold, the lowest is like 35 which is fine with me, but now the summer. 120-degree weather? That doesn’t make sense, even though I am born and raised here, I still do not understand. The heat and the traffic, however, the traffic is normal for any big city. Other than that, I love this place. I will always own a house here because I am a desert boy at heart.

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