Personal Fitness Professional - January 2008 - (Page 21) Meeting once a month, either early in the morning or in the evening, with social or business networking groups offers you a chance to meet people, make contacts and exchange ideas. Interacting even on a social basis gives you the opportunity to brainstorm thoughts that often lead to setting up connections you might have not even thought possible! Cross-promotion is fun, creative and exciting; it brings individuals together to share in a project, highlights businesses and showcases what we each do well. THE HEALTH AND ALTERNATIVE CARE CONNECTION It’s all about working together for preventive care. Imagine working with doctors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, energy healers and nutritionists! Because of his or her expertise, each alternative care provider can often suggest other approaches to get and stay healthy. Contact these specialists either by phone or letter — better yet, draft a letter with an invitation for a complimentary training session with you. Put an expiration date on your gift, then, several weeks later, follow up with a phone call. You may find that these specialists have very little time to come see you, since their schedules are often packed with patient care, so ask if you can spend a half hour at their office to do some exercises with the physician, nurse, physician’s assistant ➤ CROSS-PROMOTE What do art galleries, hair salons, clothing stores, florists, outdoor sport stores, bike shops, golf clubs and financial and party planners have in common with gyms and personal training studios? If your answer is “nothing,” then you haven’t looked beyond the obvious. Think cross-promotion. Successful fitness trainers and business owners market themselves with other profitable establishments. The key is to set up a meeting with the owner of an art gallery, hair salon or sport store to discuss ways to work together on a fundraiser or special event for a charity, school or yearly event. One year, I worked with a local art gallery, and we planned an event in October to increase breast cancer awareness. Sometime that summer, we learned that several local female artists were recovering from breast cancer, and one woman had died. After a lengthy discussion with the gallery owner about what we could do to foster cancer awareness and educate the public, we came up with an evening event for the community. Local artists, from painters to sculptors to photographers, produced art that reflected their artistic vision of cancer. We invited an internist, a nutritionist, a chiropractor and myself as the fitness professional to speak and answer questions about prevention. After the talks, refreshments were served as the public took the opportunity to purchase the art pieces, and the money from the sale was donated for breast cancer research. This free event was covered by local newspapers, giving the art gallery, the doctors, the nutritionist and myself publicity. Just recently, I contacted our local Housatonic Valley Association in Kent, Connecticut, whose main purpose is to keep our waters clean, and I inquired if they would like my help with any of the events or charities they sponsor. Together, we organized a community river walk at no charge that took place in July; in November, eight businesses, who I asked to contribute to the HVA’s annual fundraising auction event, donated gift certificates totaling over $1,000. JAN-FEB2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM 21 http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM
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