NICOLAS BUENO — Ghostwriter for Fitness Entrepreneurs

I help online fitness trainers double their revenue in under 6 months by taking their followers and turning them into clients.

I have a simple, three-step process:

1. Content → I create social media content—targeted at the person you’re trying to reach—that solves their problems, so they actually want to pay attention to your feed.
2. Lead Magnet → We give those audiences something valuable for free — ideally something that keeps them engaging with you for a few days, like a free 5-day email course.
3. Call-to-Action → Once enough value has been provided and a relationship has been formed, we sell your services and land you clients.

STEP-BY-STEP STRATEGY

1. I look through ALL of my client’s social media content, searching for…

   • Which posts got the most engagement

   • What questions people were asking

2. I’ll research their competitors, focusing on trainers who have bigger audiences and who are targeting the same people. Again, I’ll look at what kinds of posts get big numbers, and I sift through comments to find what questions people are asking.

3. I’ll find the answer to the common questions on platforms like Reddit or YouTube.

4. We turn these answers into scripted reels for Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.

You want people to binge through your feed like it’s Netflix. We’re creating a valuable content library, so people consume a bunch of your stuff and become interested in working with you.

Trainers want to get paid to train, not to sell. I take the selling off their hands and get them qualified clients, so they can focus on training.

I’ve had trainers ask me, “How do I get more potential clients and less gay guys DMing me?”

The solution is to post content about the clients you’re talking to, not your shirtless body. Looking fit is awesome, but we’re trying to help people and make money here — so, let’s act like it.

If you’re a trainer who’s had some success already, all we have to do is focus on your audience and dial in your messaging to show them that you can solve their fitness problems.

So, I ask my client, “What are the biggest problems your people come to you with?”

Then I write some video scripts around these problems, and we make content about that — similar to how successful competitors are styling theirs.

Example:
My client, Cory, told me that a lot of his clients struggle with what to eat for breakfast. So, we did a series of social posts on “Breakfast foods that are keeping you fat.”

ISN’T EVERYONE + THEIR MOM IS DOING SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT TODAY?

Maybe. But you charge based on the value you bring.

If you don’t specialize in one thing, you are hindering your growth. Seriously — pick one niche and become obsessed with it. Then, find where people are looking for your expertise and charge a premium to solve a problem with your knowledge.

Example: if someone told me “I’m a podcast marketer,” that means nothing to me because it’s not clear what result I would get from working with them.

Now, if that person said “I help new podcast hosts get to 1,000+ listens per month, launch five ads for their podcast, get their first 100 reviews, and book appearances on other similar shows — I charge $4,000 for that.”

Sure — some people won’t be able to afford that, but they sure as hell will see the value!

If you’re a general copywriter who writes for anyone and you’re charging per word, that’s garbage.

Instead, pick something that you genuinely like and that you’re good at. Don’t pick something that crushes your soul to work on. I’m passionate about helping people improve their lives and their fitness.

“I’m a social media marketer” = ❌

“I take followers and turn them into clients for fitness trainers” = ✅

HOW TO JUSTIFY YOUR PRICES

My packages range from $2.5 - $7k — depending on the work needed. We plan them out in three-month chunks, so that we have a specified end goal we’re working toward each time.

Some might think that’s a lot of money, but I’ve found that some people just have poor mindsets — in that they have a hard time paying a premium price for the result they really want.

Everything in life is a value exchange. If you don’t provide a high-value service, you can’t sell high prices.
It’s like saying “I expect to date a supermodel, but I live in my mom’s basement eating Cheetos all day.”

Here’s how I see it. I recently set up my three-step email system for Cory by:

1. Making content that addressed people’s fitness problems

2. Offering them a free guide that they’d sign up for via email.

3. Booked sales calls with people who were now interested in working with him.

Cory booked 75 calls from this. Now, let’s assume that only 25 actually turned into paying clients — AND let’s assume they chose his lowest investment package at $1,000.
That’s $25,000 — that’s 5X what I charged him for the email system! And, as this system continues getting more people, it becomes an asset that just keeps printing money for him.

Sure, he could have invested less with someone who got him a lesser result — but if you’re trying to change something about your life, why not just invest in getting the result you want and hire the person who can help you get there?

If you truly believe you can improve peoples’ lives —
why would you NOT sell to them?

TOOLS + COSTS TO RUN THE BIZ

I have a video editor and my brother, who writes a lot of the social post captions. I pay them both per task — not per hour. Ick!
I use simple softwares like…

I don’t have a fancy CRM software — honestly, I don’t even know what that means. I try to be as bare bones as possible, so that whatever my business earns in one month, I keep 70-80% of it.

HOW TO GET CLIENTS

I’ll research people in the online personal trainer space and just direct message them. I hate to DM someone cold, but I do it because it’s a way to connect with people I’m trying to provide value for.

Even if someone isn’t in a place to work with me, they might pass my name on to someone who is — that’s how I get a lot of referrals.

I’m also at the point now where I have proof of the results I can get — so, I’m getting ready to launch ads to promote my business and reach more people.

DAILY ROUTINE HACK FOR PRODUCTIVITY

I used to get up and walk, meditate, check my phone — all that. But now, the first thing I do is get straight to work.

I find that the first thing I do sort of sets my tone for the day.

If I get up and go for a walk, it’s like I’m encouraging my mind to also just wander. I’ll think about how the Toronto Raptors are doing, and then I’m more likely to come home and check what they’re up to.

Today, I had three tasks I wanted to complete, first thing. I got into such a deep flow state that I ended up working for like four hours straight. I think I was more productive today than I have been in the last three weeks.

ONE WEIRD HABIT THAT’S MADE YOU MORE WEALTHY

Honestly, super underrated: staring at the wall. Like, actually just doing nothing. If you’re lacking creativity or you need to decompress, stare at the wall for 30 minutes — seriously.

I asked one of my clients recently, “What keeps you motivated?” and he said “The crippling fear that this’ll all fall apart,” and I was like “ME TOO!”

Sometimes when I’m falling asleep, my mind’s like, ‘What if all your clients leave you?’

Dedicating time to just stare at the wall gives me space to be creative and sort out my thoughts.

THREE TIPS FOR ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS

1. Don’t quit your job right away. It’s better to build on the side, develop your skills, and start taking those steps so that you can leave your job.

2. It’s a lot more simple than you think. Solve a valuable problem for a specific group of people — the more unique you make it, the more you can charge for it. That’s it!

3. Saturation is a myth. Most people are new at something and then they quit. If you solve a specific problem for a specific niche and you commit to it for one year — you will be ahead of like 85% of businesses!

Your business only grows as much as you grow. I know people who grind their business into the dirt by obsessing over technical skills — while it’s actually their limiting beliefs bottlenecking their growth.

Example: a lot of people will look at what a person is promoting and call it “scammy salesy stuff” — but that information that someone discards is the same information someone else uses to become a millionaire.

I’ve invested a lot of my profits back into my business by doing courses and paying for mentorship to help me become more valuable.

I took Dakota Robertson’s ghostwriting course and joined Nicholas Cole’s Premium Ghostwriting Academy program. I hate paying taxes, so I like reinvesting my money back into my professional growth.

Find a mentor that resembles something that you admire and follow how they did it.

10-STEP TIMELINE OF YOUR JOURNEY

1. Graduated high school, wanting to play professional basketball.

2. Spent one year playing at Canadian Mennonite University, then to Toronto on scholarship — where I realized that I wasn’t going to go pro, so I dropped out.

3. Spent some time doing nothing really … just listened to podcasts and wrote.

4. Joined the University of Winnipeg Communications program and completed the first year.

5. 2019 — while reading a Tony Robins book, I had a bit of an epiphany: I realized the no-barriers life I wanted wouldn’t come through a 9-5 job. So, I dropped out again.

6. I pursued stand-up comedy and started a podcast, called “Winnipeg’s Finest,” to connect with entrepreneurs. Eventually interviewed these two ad agency owners, who offered me a job after the episode because they liked my vibe.

7. 2021 — moved to Toronto and was fired from that ad agency for no clear reason.

8. 2022 — I realized that standing in open mic lines for two hours to be paid in chicken fingers wasn’t what I wanted to do.

9. Early 2023, I got fired from a second agency after declining a promotion (increased responsibility for the same pay just didn’t sound that great to me…)

10. Started my own content creation business, with some clients from the previous agencies even choosing to follow me so we could continue working together.