Jun 22, 2022
By getting back to the basics, your business will experience explosive growth.
It’s easy to get “shiny object syndrome” when it comes to growing our businesses - that is, the belief that we have to be chasing new and expensive marketing tactics all the time.
But Mike Doehla has proven that sometimes, the simplest things will create major opportunities!
Mike founded Stronger U Nutrition to create an innovative online nutrition coaching company. In 2020 Stronger U was named one of America's fastest-growing private companies by Inc 5000, landing at #567. Before they were acquired by Anytime Fitness, the company helped tens of thousands of individuals in more than 50 countries through personalized nutrition support. Now, Anytime Fitness is expanding on Mike’s vision.
Stronger U is a story of brand loyalty through consistency: And how Mike stuck to the basics to create massive business success.
Decide that your vision is worth fighting for.
By his own admission, Mike Doehla used to be an “underachiever”. A graduate of his local Community College, Mike realized that he wanted to help people feel better-so committed himself to seeing it through, despite the many discouraging comments he received.
Casting aside the unsolicited advice and criticism of others, Mike tuned into his own capability as an entrepreneur and decided to show up for his clients. This decision would ultimately change the course of his life.
Be a problem-solver.
Mike’s secret is super simple: Meet the clients where they are! Abandoning fancy ad strategies and expensive branding assets, Mike knew that the key to connecting with people was to show up for them…so that’s what he did!
By making his nutrition program personalized and attentive, his customers began trusting him wholeheartedly and spreading the word. He soon began the process of scaling his business to meet the demands of his growing fanbase and support more clients.
Connect first, market later.
Mike Doehla recognized something important in marketing: Before you invest in branding and advertising, you have to understand your clients’ problems.
By investing in personal relationships and being generous, Mike grew his business through the type of genuine brand loyalty advertising money cannot buy.
Quotes
“People are turned off by traditional marketing. People always have their guard up. I want to buy a product because it solves a problem, and because someone I like told me about it.”
“We just had to multiply what I did. When I could serve our customers very well, I needed people on the staff that could serve them as well or better. We looked for people who aligned with our nutritional philosophies, people with high emotional intelligence who are available to be customer-centric.”
“I mostly thought of the challenges people were facing around food. Then, we crafted posts and content for those people.”
“I would solve problems people didn’t even know they had. Then, they would start following me and eventually become customers. I would just give, give, give.”
“I would go where the people were. People have questions. I would go and give advice, not really to sell stuff. Think about where the customer is! They’re not excited to follow a business that talks about the business.”
“Stop worrying about the numbers. Just do the things that will influence the direction of those numbers.”
“I had a lot of feelings of being an imposter. I didn’t go to school for this stuff…I had to prove myself. But once the customers were getting great results, I worked to put that out there. I always knew, all I need to do was help people and they’ll put that out into the world.”
“I almost didn’t do this because of what people on the internet said…people I don’t even know.”
Links mentioned in this episode:
Explore Stronger U Nutrition on their website https://strongeru.com/who-we-are/
Follow Stronger U on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/strongeru/
Follow Mike’s personal and entrepreneurial journey on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mikedoehla/