Are your coaches posting on social media? If not, you're missing a massive growth opportunity.

In this episode, Dan and Nick discuss why creating a culture of social media engagement among coaches is essential for your gym’s success. From enhancing personal brands to building trust, your staff’s online activity can generate exponential impact for your business.

They cover everything from overcoming common concerns (what if a coach leaves and takes members?) to leveraging the power of authentic storytelling to connect with your audience. You’ll also learn actionable tips to empower your team to share content that grows your gym and deepens your community’s bond.

If you’ve been struggling to leverage social media as a free, powerful marketing tool, this episode is for you.

Have a coach who’s already killing it with content? Send their profile to podcast@pushpress.com — we’d love to feature them in a future episode!

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[01:34] The cons you're probably already thinking about

[02:45] Create a culture of storytelling in your gym

[03:02] Personal brands are winning

[04:54] Leverage social media to scale

[07:23] Personal stories are relatable

[13:04] Gyms using social media effectively

[15:05] Authenticity drives brand trust

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Dan Uyemura: [00:00:00] They're going to end up opening their own gym and take half my members, blah, blah, blah. Uh, I still think I'm in favor of it as well, but I think that's a con that should be addressed. Welcome to the PushPress Podcast, where gym owners learn to dodge bad advice, crush the competition, and actually make money doing what they love.

Dan Uyemura: Let's get after it. 

Nick Reyes: Dan, who's this episode sponsored by? 

Dan Uyemura: Um, this statuette, we're saying deuces to all of the previous sponsors because the statuette is the new sponsor. Uh, sponsored by China, not sponsored by China. 

Nick Reyes: All right. So I was thinking back the other day when, when I was still operating at Kansas Athletic Club, I think we were at our peak when, The vast majority of the coaching staff was very active on social media, as in, uh, posting pictures at competitions, going live.

Nick Reyes: We [00:01:00] went live from the Granite Games. It came up in my feed, and it was like an old blurry, grainy video. And it, and it really got this going through my head of like, God, coaches posting on social media is so critical, like to the livelihood of the business, to the business's growth, to its future. And so, yeah, that's what I want to noodle on today.

Nick Reyes: I want to talk about why I strongly believe every staff member, every coach should have a very prominent and active social media presence. 

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. Um, I mean, I will start by saying I wholeheartedly agree, but let me address some con points to the set. People will be thinking about first. Right. Uh, the first one.

Dan Uyemura: Um, if, if coaches are. Are posting on social media. They probably have their phones out on the floor. Um, and you, you probably want to figure out how to make it, uh, so they're still coaching and recording things. I'll tell you from my gym, my members loved it when they ended up on our social media feed. And when people were recording, like people, all this form got better all of a sudden or whatnot.

Dan Uyemura: Um, it's also controversial that you're making [00:02:00] your coaches a little bit front and center. So I know some gym owners, uh, who are kind of like, Hmm, don't really want my coaches to be prominent because they're going to end up opening their own gym and take half my members, blah, blah, blah. Uh, I still think I'm in favor of it as well, but I think that's a con that should be addressed.

Dan Uyemura: Um, and then there's the obvious fact that you need to get media releases and some of these, you know, you need to make sure the culture of your gym and the legalities of this are understood in your gym, that we print media, we showcase our clients, we tell stories. 

Nick Reyes: Yep. And then there's the whole, uh, do you pay a coach to do it?

Nick Reyes: Uh, like there's a bunch of other things to unravel here for sure. And we, maybe we'll get into some of this today. Maybe we won't. Right. But like. It's not as black and white as like, everyone should just do it and bam, it happens, right? 

Dan Uyemura: Yeah, I will say, if you create the culture around this, people will just, your members will do it.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. Like, there is no paying people to be on, this is the beauty of social media. It's like, it is free and it's accessible and available. Uh, so if you make it a culture and you make it known. Nobody should be asking, get [00:03:00] paid to do this. 

Nick Reyes: Right. Right. So, All right. So let's, let's jump in. Uh, I mean, first point, personal brands, you know, really feels like since take talk, but I'm sure it's been before this, like personal brands have really been winning over the course of the last several years, if not the last decade.

Nick Reyes: And when we say personal brands are winning, it's, uh, before we jumped on the show, I said, like, if Dan, if you work for Samsung. I may not buy a Samsung TV or sorry, I won't buy a Samsung TV just for, cause Samsung advertises it, but if you're an engineer for Samsung and I'm like, dang, Dan's a good dude, I'm more likely to buy it because.

Nick Reyes: It's you, it's your brand, it's you, you know, you represent it, right? So, 

Dan Uyemura: uh, yeah, I think this is really an aspect of the, the inventive social media where people became, I don't want to use the word influencers, but people were able to express their feelings and that attracted or detracted people from their audience and, and those types of feelings and opinions and things they bought and [00:04:00] ways they, they lived their life became impactful to others.

Dan Uyemura: And that, that is now modern media, personal branding or personal reputation online matters. Uh, so yeah, I agree. In fact, like I think studies have shown there's a 561% increase in reach when employees or people in a brand share reshare their brand’s posts versus just the brand posting alone, like brand messages fall on deaf ears.

Nick Reyes: I mean, there's a reason why you and I share this podcast. Yeah. And why a lot of the reels and the stuff come from you and I. So 

Dan Uyemura: on that note, note to the marketing department, we should rename this away from the PushPress Podcast. Dan and Nick podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not personal anyway. We do. We, I digress, but, um, yeah, so totally.

Dan Uyemura: I mean, in, in today's day and age, personal brands are winning. You see it left and right. This is not something that's debatable in my opinion, move on. Okay, cool. The second one, uh, you know, if you, if you watch anything that I talk about, uh, running a business is about a few things, creating mechanisms that create [00:05:00] leverage, leverage equals scale.

Dan Uyemura: Um, scale allows you to do more things. Much easier, right? That's the type of efficiency that drives a business that wins and social media is leverage your, you, you being able to post on social media as leverage your coaches posting on social media is like 10 X leverage. And Lord forbid, if you can get your members posting on social media, that's 150 X leverage.

Nick Reyes: Yes. 

Dan Uyemura: Right. Uh, and so. You do want to build mechanisms intentfully and intentionally that create leverage and positivity about your business. And kind of going back to what I was saying a minute or two ago, if you create the culture around telling stories via social media, and you can get it all the way down to your members, the amount of leverage you can create is astronomical.

Nick Reyes: Yeah, absolutely. And especially in group fitness, right? So I'll give you an example of what Dan's talking about and leverage, uh, which is like this, I'll use the people in this room right here, right? There's only three of us. And so if [00:06:00] media, Nick, who's behind the cameras right here takes a picture and it's you and me, you know, 

Dan Uyemura: you mean when media Nick, when media Nick takes 

Nick Reyes: a picture, right?

Nick Reyes: And then we share that. It's like, My network, because I'm tagged in the picture, your network, because you're tagged in the picture. And everyone always sees this and probably doesn't even think of it. It's the little like, photo cred emoji, at Media Nick or whatever. Now his entire network gets in there.

Nick Reyes: That's the leverage you're talking about. And that's just three people in a room, with three networks overlapping. Now imagine you've got seven people after a class, with a photo with the coach, because it's coach's birthday, right? And all of a sudden that's eight networks, seven plus the coach, right? It's like.

Nick Reyes: Plus the gym account, of course, right? I'm not saying don't post on gym accounts, but just the network sprawl becomes so significant that that's the scale. 

Dan Uyemura: Do you know? So in business in general, like what we're always seeing the Holy grail. Is, uh, this is where we can overlay like a nice chart right here, but an exponential chart is the [00:07:00] beauty of what we're trying to find a business where like every motion exponentially, not linearly stacks on each other.

Dan Uyemura: And this is a pure representation of exponential chart. Like two people might be able to reach four people, but three people can reach eight and, and four people can reach 16. And that's like a logarithm of gross scale. And that's what we want to see. 

Nick Reyes: Yep, absolutely. And so, yeah, you know, at the end of the day, I think.

Nick Reyes: I don't just think I know firsthand, I buy from other people, you know, people buy from people and so if I am considering, uh, where I'm going to advance my fitness journey at, there's these flashy logos with bright lights and orange lights or red lights, depending on the brand, the big brand that you follow, or there is the coach.

Nick Reyes: Down the street that has a good reputation that's out there that shows up that people are in smiling and photos with I can connect with that [00:08:00] individual more than I can the, the red berries light right now, I'm not saying that they don't create brands for their coaches. But point is, is like that just a logo isn't going to pull me in.

Nick Reyes: It doesn't warm my heart, right? So 

Dan Uyemura: yeah. And on top of that, I mean, there's a, there's a few things where you're fighting against if you're trying to Uh, first of all, people inherently don't trust brands and that's because we've gone through, I don't know, probably through the eighties and nineties was this huge marketing revolution where brands were pushing that, like, think back to all the jingles you heard on TV as a child, the McDonald's ads and the, you know, all the department store ads is like, you can probably replace some of those from your childhood in your brain right now.

Dan Uyemura: Hopefully I haven't put some of you in an infinite loop on that, but I got grimace. Yes. And the McDonald's ads in my head, you know, I always think of, I always think of the, uh, the McBurglar or whatever, the Hamburglar, the Hamburglar. There it is. I forgot his name, but I can picture him anyway. Um, so I think like realistically when we play it back to the eighties and nineties, it's like, there were these [00:09:00] huge think tanks, manufacturing, manipulative.

Dan Uyemura: Jingles and slogans and advertising campaigns that trick kids to buy French fries and do whatever. So like us as adults, we don't trust brands. Like we, we knew we were the recipients of that. So, so there's, there's that right? Like brand messaging is really difficult to win. And secondly. Well, there, there's a, there's a lack of trust in brands first.

Dan Uyemura: And second of all, nowadays to get a brand market out, you have to be massive. Like you have to sponsor the Olympics or put your name on a Lakers stadium, or you don't have to do something massive to start winning brand recognition in today's day and age. So it's really not feasible for a gym, at least in the starting phases.

Dan Uyemura: You can probably build a local brand around the quality, but usually that's on the heels of every personal story that's being told. 

Nick Reyes: Right, right. God, that is such a great point. All right. Dude, I'm still, I'm still on your, on your 90s. I think of all the brands that just A lot of them have, have died off now, right?

Nick Reyes: Like the Kmart's of the world. I [00:10:00] just, all the old commercials, you're right. They were really so like manipulative. And I think that that was probably the era that did it in for, for big brand or brand marketing, so to say. 

Dan Uyemura: Marketing in general, this is my, my take on marketing is, um, marketers figure out what works, they hit the gas pedal and then people get wise to it and then it doesn't work anymore.

Dan Uyemura: And then that cycle continues. In today's day and age that is compressed so tight because of the internet. But back in the day, it was like when it took six months to film an ad and release it and whatnot, like those loops were longer, but nowadays like to be a marketer, you have to cycle quick, right? So I think that's why learning how to work on social media is important because you see on social media, the means, the trends, everything's switch month to month, 

Nick Reyes: right?

Nick Reyes: Real quick. Right. Uh, so yeah. And then, you know, stories, people can connect with stories are what people. Like, they capture their attention, [00:11:00] stories sell. And you see this, uh, maybe not in, uh, this might be a bad example, but, uh, in a previous episode we referenced, like, Full Swing and, and some of the, um, uh, Netflix series.

Nick Reyes: You're just watching the stories of a golfer or the stories of an F1 driver. Next thing you know, you're watching F1. That's what got me into F1. Like, it was legit the story. Of Max Verta and the story of Lewis Hamilton. Next thing you know, I'm there every Sunday at 8:00 AM The story sold me on watching that sport.

Dan Uyemura: You are making my point for why I think the CrossFit Games is an important asset to CrossFit as an organization, and it's also why UFC is important to Juujitsu and MMA. You know, it's important why kids start playing flag football. Because they want to be Pat Mahomes or whoever. Anyway, you're right.

Dan Uyemura: Stories sell because we're wired to understand stories, [00:12:00] right? Right. And usually if you're crafting your stories correctly, there's some type of humor, education, or emotion. You know, a person overcoming, uh, uh, a challenge, a personal challenge, you know, somebody who's learned something new, these things actually attract us because like, we all want to learn something new.

Dan Uyemura: We all have that same challenge. That's very relatable that we want to overcome too. And we can see that some other human being did it and we're gonna do it too. Right. So, um, you know, a Harvard business study. Harvard business review actually published a study saying that people's purchase intent goes up by 23%, like the second that they can relate to the story that they're telling you.

Dan Uyemura: So it's like, you want to get a 25 percent boost in your business. Tell a story that really someone, the beauty is with social media. You can tell seven stories a week, right? Right. So you're just like 25 percent uptick, uptick, uptick, uptick, uptick. That's pretty big when you like compound that 

Nick Reyes: over over a week.

Nick Reyes: And I want to maybe clarify here, like I think storytelling obviously super critical, but [00:13:00] even still, I think there's ways to just to get yourself out there. And we have a few examples. Um, uh, Liam from Wicklow strength and conditioning does a phenomenal job at this. Uh, he's always in front of a camera.

Nick Reyes: His staff is always in front of a camera. Uh, and a lot of their stuff is pretty educational. They'll drop in some humor, right? Uh, and I think humor is great for like building awareness. The, the, the, uh, like insightful tips or like wellness tricks or hacks or nutrition stuff. That's great for, uh, if I'm gonna Move on to the consideration phase.

Nick Reyes: So I'm looking at your social media account. I'm wondering what gym I should go to. Humor will draw me in. I think Matt, uh, what gym does Matt own? 

Dan Uyemura: That's Red Wolf, 

Nick Reyes: Red Wolf CrossFit. Matt does an amazing job at the humor. Everything he posts I sit here and watch. So great for awareness. And then it's like, what's the, how do you move them from awareness into consideration?

Nick Reyes: Now that's where you start dropping in like the tips and the tricks and the, the recipes and things like that. And now we're, you're [00:14:00] moving someone down a funnel, right? So that's kind of the importance. It doesn't have to be like, Oh, I just followed Dan all day with a camera all the time. So you don't have to make it this big thing, right?

Nick Reyes: Yep. Yeah. 

Dan Uyemura: Um, one thing I will say about Matt's stuff that I think is, is this is like next Matt's a little bit next level because he wraps. Education or awareness into humor. He does. Right. And that's kind of next level, but the easiest starting point is just. Here's facts, facts and knowledge. Here's a recipe you can use.

Dan Uyemura: Here's how, here's how weight loss works. You know, can you target body fat? Here's you know, what a calorie deficit, you know, means. Here's what sleep means. Like there's just factual things you can talk about. It's easier. 

Nick Reyes: Yep. Yeah. And before we move on to the last point here, one little hack is like, just grab your phone and record yourself.

Nick Reyes: Even if you don't post it to the world. Oh yeah. I told you I started doing this. Like every day I just record my, you know, my routine and I'm just talking to my camera after I'm done. I'm like, yeah, that's reason. That's decent. Delete. Yeah. It doesn't even have to see the world if you just need a stepping off point.

Nick Reyes: [00:15:00] Right? Just the reps. 

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. And I would say the last point that I think we can drive, put a nail on this topic about is about authenticity. And then one of the first things I learned in this new, well, I've never been a marketer, but when, once he started trying to market, PushPress was the ads that always overperformed was just a screenshot of our product or a screenshot of a customer testimonial, customer testimonial.

Dan Uyemura: It was never some highly produced video we tried to make that was fancy, fancy, fancy. And what, um, what, what, where I connect this to is kind of going back to that 1990s ad campaign stuff. It's like the more produced things look nowadays, the more people are tuned out of it because when you're scrolling a feed.

Dan Uyemura: You want to see someone's real stuff, and the more you produce it and make it look like a production, the less it looks real. 

Nick Reyes: So, you're real big on this, uh, for anyone that's listening, if you've never got one of Dan's emails that goes out like after an event or anything like that, like, Dan writes these, you write these yourself.

Nick Reyes: I 

Dan Uyemura: write them. 

Nick Reyes: Uh, and so, [00:16:00] Oftentimes, there'll be a typo, there'll be a hiccup, and Dan is, has, you have been steadfast, and like, no, leave it, like, I don't care, I wrote it, busy, on a plane, mobile, while walking through security. This is me. Leave it. And we do. We drives the marketers crazy. It drives them crazy.

Nick Reyes: But I think that's what, that's the point. And so this isn't like, I don't think we're sitting up here saying like, this is what you should do. And then we do something different. This is exactly how we build PushPress. Yeah. Right. And so that authenticity really does matter. Absolutely. 

Dan Uyemura: Um, so let's wrap it up there.

Dan Uyemura: I mean, I think most people here hopefully understand by now that. That social media is important and I think the key takeaway is like, let's try to work on cultures that leverage social media posting with your coaches and ideally with your members as well. Share their stories, you know, tell their tales, you know, get people smiling, high fiving, sweat flying, you know, people just looking happy and funnier in your gym.

Dan Uyemura: And I think it will do [00:17:00] wonders for your gym and marketing and it will cost you zero to be honest, a little bit of time. I'll go ahead. 

Nick Reyes: Yeah, I was gonna say, if you have a coach on your team that's capturing amazing and helpful content, I want to see it. Yeah. Yeah. Send it to us. Uh, let us follow it. Let us follow it.

Nick Reyes: Send us their social media profiles. Brag about them a little bit. If you want to tell us how they do it and what their approach is, I think that'd be great. Uh, podcast. Oh, we can do a follow up episode on that. Oh, we should. Yeah, yeah. Podcast@puspress.com. 

Dan Uyemura: Podcast. PushPress. com. Send that in so we can do a follow up episode, highlight your coaches, and let them get some lift, too.

Dan Uyemura: See ya. Thanks, guys. Thanks for listening to another episode of the PushPress Podcast. Where we help gym owners, entrepreneurs, and fitness enthusiasts thrive with actionable insights, inspiring stories, and strategies for growth. 

Nick Reyes: Don't forget to follow the show to stay updated on new episodes. And if you're ready for more, join our free Facebook community for gym owners.

Nick Reyes: Check the show notes for the link, and we'll see you next time. Keep raising the bar for your business and community.

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