To appreciate Jillian Michaels and how she can help you with your sales page, you will need a brief history of women’s fitness videos, and how they made me feel:
(Scroll down to watch these classics.)
1980s:
Jane Fonda. Reassured, with a vague sense of being talked down to. Burning desire for purple tights.
1980s & 90s:
Denise Austin. Guilty for not being happier. Irritation with her shiny, happy, exercise-y ways.
1990s & 2000s:
Kathy Smith. Admiration at her ability to talk and step-hop at the same time. Feeling short.
2005 to present:
Jillian Michaels. Intense. Ha ha ha! I laugh at weakness. No need to measure my target heart rate—I know I’m about to die. (You heard me, Kathy Smith.) I’m kicking, punching, jumping, squatting, lifting weights, and almost certainly going to die. “I want you to feel like you’re going to die,” she actually says. “I want emails if you’re not breathing hard.” She scoffs at my huffing and puffing: “We’re not even halfway there!”
At the end of level 3, we do real sit-ups.
The worlds of weight training and aerobics have finally united.
Jillian doesn’t pretend this is fun.
If I wanted fun, I’d watch a movie. I’d play two hours of tennis. I’d hike up Mt. Tam and go for Mitchell’s Ice Cream afterward.
These things will never happen on a weekday, despite what Tim Ferriss says.
This is why I love Jillian.
She treats me like I’m in significant distress. I am in significant distress.
So, if Jillian was helping you with your sales page, what would she say?
I have a feeling she would start asking about objections.
She wouldn’t just assume people were magnetically drawn to you and start hammering them with benefits.
She’d want them to know she knows there’s a chance they don’t actually want to do this at all.
I don’t need to be talked down to about all my problems. I just want my resistance acknowledged. She isn’t impressed, because she knows it gets easier. We move on.
It’s okay if your business isn’t fun for your clients. (I’m talking to myself here, too.) It doesn’t have to make them feel great to have to work with you.
While competitors are scrambling to make something not fun seem fun, you could just own the pain. And watch your clients grow stronger. That makes them feel good.
Jillian gets me to take action by acknowledging my resistance and turning it into a benefit. “I know this is hard. Stick with it. If you want to go jean shopping—or better yet, bikini shopping! That’ll get you to the gym, right ladies?”
When you realize what she’s done, it’s kind of amazing. She’s designed the entire workout like a sales letter.
The product itself addresses the objections. It’s built-in.
Working with you makes people feel proud because they’re getting happy endings. It doesn’t have to feel fun and easy, too. Not always.
Looking for objections? Here are a few of the most common objections to workouts—and to anything else:
- This is going to take too long and I’m not sure I can stick with it. (Solution: A 30-minute, extremely intense, “Get Shredded” workout. Benefit-oriented, speaks to the objection of no time.)
- It’s too much money to pay up front. (The fitness video is only $8. You can join her membership site for a flat monthly fee. I’d never do this, but I do think more businesses should consider the subscription model.)
- What if this doesn’t help me? (She’s specific about the benefit: Getting shredded. Not just losing weight, but actually getting shredded. She automatically rules out the people who aren’t committed with that wording.)
- Do I already know all this? (It’s about a daily practice, too. It’s about applying what you know.)
- I’m not good enough to benefit from this. (At the end of the first workout, she alludes to people who have been doing this for the past 7 days. She sets up the expectation that you’ll get better. It’s pretty effective.)
- Will this actually get results or will it just make me feel good? (The focus is definitely not on making you feel good. Which means you actually will feel good, because the focus is on results.)
Oddly enough, I notice I have more fun with Jillian. The better the results, the more fun I seem to have.
I’m willing to make that trade of feeling like I’m going to die—just as long as she doesn’t try to make me feel like I’m supposed to be having fun.
Plus, it gets easier.
I’ve learned to steal fun along the way. To grab it when no one is looking. I think Jillian secretly knows. That was her plan all along.
It’s not hard to compete with this:
Or this:
Slightly better:
Jillian doubles as a babysitter!
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17 Comments
I was a weird child – I hated sports but I loved doing aerobics DVDs with my grandmother, or even by myself. I think I was 7 the first time I tried to do Kathy Smith’s Dynamite Legs.
Denise Austin? I had like 3 of her tapes, and would even watch her show (without exercising, I guess I thought I was learning about squats?) on cable at the kids’ house I carpooled with as they got ready to go to school.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane and the food for thought about sales pages.
Megan Lubaszka´s last blog ..I Could Have Been a Dancer: What to Do When You Notice Your Child’s Unique Gifts
Who else could find a sales page lesson in a workout DVD? You’re all kinds of awesome, Kelly!
Josiane´s last blog ..Middle of the night musings
You are brilliant…and hilarious!
That is all.
xo Hiro
Hiro Boga´s last blog ..Life Unfolding
Boy, do I need some Jillian in my life!
She could take care of all those pesky objections and my well-written sales page would magically appear along with some well-toned thighs.
Oh and, Denise Austin lives here in Alexandria and she is just as shiny and happy in real life…
FREAKING genius. Love it, Kelly.
Jacquelyn, do you just want to trip her sometimes?! =)
michelle marlahan´s last blog ..Back to the Mother
I’m totally doing a Denise Austin DVD right now (well, not this *second*, silly).
Being a non-Yank with no TV connection, I had no idea she was so famous.
Nor that I was so retro.
It’s called Boot Camp- that’s hip, right?
(Hmmm… Don’t have to make the hard work fun, eh? Interesting…)
Andrew Lightheart´s last blog ..How to present like Hans Rosling
The best (worst?) thing about this is that I used to work out to Denise Austin videos with my mom.
I love that you describe the video as being a built-in sales page… such a brilliant idea!
Nathalie Lussier´s last blog ..Mindful Monday: Islands Edition
I *heart* Jillian. I love the way she never shies away from how hard this will be, and then lovingly bullies you into doing it.
I do some of that! <— stunning realisation
Oh!
That's so fricking cool, I never thought of that before.
Danke!
Catherine Caine´s last blog ..Consulting? I don’t have any expertise to sell!
Ahh, memory lane with my pretend friends, Jane and Jillian, Kathy and Denise. Laughed at how dated they (and me)were thru all those decades of fitness. LIke you couldn’t stand Denise and her “happy ways” plus anyone who says “tummy” automatically annoys me.
Laughs and brilliance- what we’re all looking for. In my work I so struggle with the truth which is that losing weight is HARD work but it feels incredibly good when you do what you need to do.
Your post was so perfect for me,plus have always been fascinated by Jillian. Kelly, you really got to me with this one!
xox
Lisa
http://www.IntuitiveBody.com
Breaking The Spell of Overeating:
Results You Can Fall In Love With
I love it. Jillian would be pissed off and kicking my butt about my sales letters. Dammit. Now I have her in my head.
Maybe I could work out WHILE writing my sales page? Do you offer that service as a personal trainer/copy writer?
And thanks for pointing out the Tim Ferris phenom of working on 4 hours is kind of lame.
I think you just convinced me to try out Jillian Michaels. I’ve always hesitated because I prefer step DVDs (yes, I know, so very 90s), but the way you describe her reminds me of my favorite aerobics instructor in college. She used to tell us to do one more set of 8 and then when we were done she’d scream “I lied! 8 more!” and then 8 more after that. You just never knew when she was going to stop, even though you were dying from the first set.
She killed me every time and I never missed a class. And it was always packed.
Natalia M. Sylvester´s last blog ..The mark of great editing is no mark at all
Hilarious and genius.
Can I get the kids version? Hee. I like Jillian, and have occasionally been tempted to buy her video, but Bob is more my style.
This is useful to relate to working on your stuff. Because I do think that if you commit to energy work – regular and consistent – you are going to wind up working on your stuff. And truthfully, I would never wish the not-fun of the past year on anyone, even though it’s definitely worth it in the end.
hilarious! and so true! great post. now let me go tweak my sales page.
I love how so many of us have these secret Kathy Smith and Denise Austin stories we’ve been dying to tell, but it just never came up in ordinary conversation.
Andrew, I think you just broke through the cool ceiling with this news of your pre-existing Denise Austin workout DVD. I can see it now, a whole Denise Austin movement starting in Singapore.
Susan: Oh, that would be a fine business, indeed! I actually have been planning a movement-oriented copywriting workshop. Because yes, I have noticed that it’s much easier to write after sustained silliness +/- aerobics.
Natalia, go for it! Jillian has a knack for getting you to do things you hate even as you like her even more. I think that’s her gift.
Elizabeth, It’s so true that the not-fun of working out is parallel to that of working on our stuff.
Ije! Hiro! Lisa! Catherine! Nathalie! Michelle! Josiane! Megan! Jacquelyn! Lisa! Thanks!
Wow, I’m *so* glad we don’t have to wear leotards to the gym these days. Can you imagine?!
lucy´s last blog ..twiggylu: @techherding @pattidigh I hear she has quite a chip on her shoulder about that.
Oh I know, Lucy. Leotards are so unflattering. This is what I wear to the gym: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0002UQIMM/ref=dp_colori_0?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&img=0&color_name=1
Whoa. I just stumbled upon Success Magazine and there’s a feature on Jillian Michaels… wild.