Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve most likely heard of Kayla Itsines. She’s one of the most influential fitness figures in the world with an Instagram following of over 10 million and millions of monthly members of her app SWEAT.

In this episode of Industry Change, Richard speaks to Tobi Pearce – the man behind Kayla and also her fiance. Tobi has a wealth of knowledge around how to transition a local PT business to a global brand, online marketing, leadership & scaling businesses.

Transitioning a Local PT Business Online

In 2014 after running bootcamps and doing 1:1 PT Kayla & Tobi launched the Bikini Body Guide ebook. It was an instant HIT. But very quickly they realised that an ebook isn’t interactive and so they started to plan to launch an app. The BBG App launched later that year and was rebranded to SWEAT with Kayla in 2017 and then just to SWEAT in 2018. Now the app has millions of users who pay monthly to have access to the resources.

5 years is a relatively short period of time to go from zero to millions. And their growth is no accident. Tobi shared a few key takeaways of how they were able to scale so successfully.

Build A Produce That Sells Itself

The key to selling out ebooks, gaining over 10 millions followers on Instagram and millions of members of their app is simple for Tobi: create a product that sells itself. When Tobi & Kayla developed the BBG ebook it was massive and nothing like it existed on the market. When you have a product that is exceptional, that gets results – the product sells itself and your users will help you sell it.

Anything less will always be an uphill battle.

Adapt and Pivot to Changes

How do you go from an ebook to an app with millions of members in 5 years? Obviously that doesn’t happen overnight. Tobi & Kayla were quick to listen to their users and read the market. When they launched their ebook they knew that it was not going to be as interactive as they wanted – so they started planning how to transition that to an app. Once they had the app – users asked them to launch in different countries and languages – so they did that. The next big transition was having different workouts and style – because women work out in so many different ways. So the more you LISTEN to your audience the better you will become at finding the right time to move to each next stage of your business.

Do you want to be an influencer or Influential?

Over 10 million followers on Instagram is no small task. But you might be surprised to hear that Kayla doesn’t do any paid posts to promote other brand as other influencers in the space do. Again, that’s an intentional move from Kayla & Tobi. Tobi explains it this way: Do you want to be an influencer or influential? Does promoting that new protein shake or clothing brand REALLY add value to your audience?

Vanity Metrics versus Business Value

It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers on Instagram – but Tobi prefers to look at everything through the lens of the brand – rather than just getting more and more followers. Anyone can put up videos of cats and get more followers – but are they really the audience you are looking for? Lead from brand and then look at your numbers and engagement.

Tobi has some amazing insight on leadership, the fitness/digital space and more – watch the video to get more of that pure gold.