Meet Dianna Falzarano, the founder and owner of Dynamic Fitness. After a lifetime of playing sports, training, and being active, she moved on from her career in corporate America and worked her way up the fitness chain, starting as a front desk girl and eventually becoming an instructor. Based in Long Island, she teaches clients how to train smarter at home with space and time-saving workouts through a combination of private sessions (both online and in-person), personalized workout programs, private virtual classes, and a subscription membership.
The pandemic forced Dianna to pivot to online classes faster than expected, allowing her to reach more clients looking to get fit and have fun. Many of her established clients were also happy to go virtual, enabling them to continue their fitness journeys at home. Her clientele, partnerships, subscribers, and classes are growing month to month, and she plans to start beach classes again in the summer. With so much future potential for the business, we talk to Dianna to find out more.
Who are you and what brand did you start?
My name is Dianna Falzarano and I’ve been working in the fitness industry for over 6 years and I am the proud founder of Dynamic Fitness. I’m a certified Personal Trainer through the National Council of Strength and Fitness (NCSF), a Certified Functional Strength Coach (CFSC), a Pre and Postnatal Performance Training Specialist, as well as certified in TRX, Pilates, Barre and Lagree. Growing up as an athlete playing field hockey, softball & swimming, being active has always been a part of my DNA. I believe that we’re training for life. In what I consider my past life, I worked in corporate America as a social media manager. It was an amazing experience, but I realized that sitting at a desk could no longer suit the energy and the constant movement I craved day after day. It was then that I knew I had to switch lanes.
I started in the fitness industry as a front desk girl and quickly moved up to be an instructor, managed some studios, and then started studying for certifications and building my training business. Dynamic Fitness LI, LLC, based on Long Island and now also virtual, offers private training, in-home & virtually, personalized workout programs, private virtual classes, and an on demand subscription membership.
My goal is to teach my clients how to train smarter at home with time and space efficient workouts. My training style is a combination of functional strength training, pilates principles, and dynamic movements in every workout. I strive for clients to move better, understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, and become stronger and more confident along the way.
BRAND IDEA - how did you come up with the idea for Dynamic Fitness?
When I was choosing the name of my business I knew I wanted the term dynamic to be involved somehow. It started with a D, just like my first name, and the definition really matched what I wanted to convey. By definition dynamic means we’re characterized by constant change, activity, or progress. It also means you’re positive in attitude and full of energy and new ideas. In fitness, and in life, we’re constantly changing and growing. After that I knew Dynamic Fitness was the right way to go. It also matched my initials, DF.
Dynamic Fitness has been consistently building for the last two years, but during the pandemic was really when it took off. I created an LLC, had a website made, trusted myself, and launched everything in July 2020. Before I started in fitness I had a trainer of my own. I was a big gym rat. After that, when I started working in fitness, I would take classes more and mesh them in with my training program. This combo of classes, lifting, running, and resting was worked best for me. At the studios more and more people started to ask me what else I do outside of classes and I started to share my story. After I passed my CPT exam I started to take on client and from word of mouth my clientele and portfolio grew.
BRAND LAUNCH - take us through how you launched Dynamic Fitness.
Once I knew Dynamic Fitness was the name I got in touch with my friend Nicole to help me design my logo and business card. I sent her the name, the colors I liked, and she sent me a few options. I absolutely love the logo we decided on. It’s clean, strong, and simple.
Around this time I also created my website using SquareSpace. The process to build the site was very simple however I quickly learnt its limitations as clients couldn’t book or buy. As a result, in June 2020, I got in touch with a web developer I knew from a friend in town and he built the website of my dreams... in 1 week!
There were drop downs to purchase everything, descriptions of what I offered, information about my journey, and my most favorite the launch of the Dynamic Fitness On Demand subscription. I launched everything in July 2020 and waited for the magic to happen. I posted on Instagram, sent an email blast through Mail-chimp and started to team up with brands and businesses to introduce Dynamic Fitness to the masses.
ONLINE STORE SETUP - what are your top 2 tips for successful Ecommerce store setup.
- Make sure your website is optimized and has great UX - I was lucky because my website developer was from a referral. I liked the way her website looked and worked, so immediately I knew I would like his work. The website has been one of my biggest investments to date, but it was well worth every penny. I knew I couldn’t design what I wanted, and I also knew it would take me way more time than it needed to. I would suggest looking at websites of local businesses or other entrepreneurs you admire and see if they can refer their website developer. Have specific must haves, like to haves, colors, and inspiration for the website, so it saves time for you and for the developer/creator.
- Know where you sit price wise in your market - before launching my website, I realized I was charging way below my industry rate. Pricing can be an uncomfortable topic to talk about, but you just need to ask! If the discussion isn’t happening then it isn’t helping anyone. I took different training within my industry that discussed topics like these and asked fellow instructors and trainers what they were charging. From there I was able to comfortably price my virtual and in person offerings. For the subscription I didn’t want it to be too high, but I also didn’t want people to think lower meant less. At first I launched with $10 for your first month, and $20 after that, but after 6 months of being launched I decided to increase the monthly charge to $30.
CUSTOMER RETENTION - what has worked best to attract and retain customers?
- Behind the scenes content - before I launched I would post behind the scenes videos and photos to amp up the launch. This was usually done on Instagram. From there people could give me their email, so they could be the first to know about the launch, classes, and also get a free workout on me. People needed to know what Dynamic Fitness was about, before deciding to invest in it, so I thought a free workout was a good idea. It worked!
- Referral programs - for my subscribers I started a referral program. The more people subscribers refer, the more money they get towards their next subscription payment. The person they refer also gets $5 towards their subscription as well. Once people are subscribed they get access to my emails, discount codes for virtual classes, and sometimes access to free classes if I teamed up with a brand. I constantly ask my community for feedback and what workouts they want to see.
- Engage with your community authentically - for my personal clients I have made such a connection with them beyond our training session. I know their families, we discuss what’s going on in their life, with work through hard moments, and show up for each other each session. I work around their schedules and can adjust the training program based on equipment they have or if an injury happened. Clients know they can personally email, text, or DM me and I will be there to help them out.
- Ask for feedback - recently, if someone does cancel the subscription I personally email them to ask what I can improve on and why they cancelled. It has taken time, but I learned you can’t take it personally if someone does decide to cancel or go another route. Learn from their feedback, fix what you can, and keep progressing from there.
SOCIAL - what are your top 2 tips for successful use of social media to engage with customers.
- Utilise Groups On Social - Instagram and Facebook are my main two social media platforms. I connect my Instagram to my business Facebook page. On Facebook I also am part of fitness/active groups. I will post classes I’m teaching and codes for my subscription. This has been an easy way to gain more clients and visits to my website. These are two easy tasks to do from the start. Connect your business Instagram account and Facebook pages and join groups within your community to build clientele and awareness about your brand.
- Engage With Your Community Daily - I show up on my Instagram everyday, but I don’t post everyday. I’ll share stories of my classes, my day and my workouts and then post about 4-5 a week. I believe this is a good consistency. When you’re posting think of it from the consumer side. When people think of your Instagram what do you want them to know will be there? That’s the type of content you should be creating. Is it at home workouts, band exercises, dumbbells exercises, progressions and modifications, etc. Think of that and go from there. That will get you the customer you want!
BUSINESS GROWTH INSIGHTS - how has Dynamic Fitness changed and evolved?
When I first launched Dynamic Fitness the OnDemand subscription was a completely new concept. From the first month it launched, July 2020, to today, April 2021, the number of subscribers has tripled. My clientele, as a trainer, has also tripled within that time. I still have a lot of my original clients, but during the pandemic I gained a lot of inquiries about virtual training and personalized programs.
MANAGING CHANGE - what are the top 2 tips you’d suggest others adopt to safeguard their business.
- The pandemic made me bring my business to a virtual space faster than I expected to and I’m grateful for that this past year. I would suggest having a virtual presence in some aspects for your business. That can be teaching a virtual class, offering training virtually, or going live on Instagram. You can reach much more people this way and build your business beyond in person one on one.
- The day after everything closed I spoke with my clients and saw who wanted to go virtual. Most did, and those that didn’t were interested in programs. With my classes I right away invested in equipment to teach from home and teach it well. Don’t be afraid to invest in products up front that may be costly at the time, but will build your business in the long run. Think of the amount of times you’re using an “x” product instead of that one time payment. My mic, mixer, speaker, lights, camera were an investment at first, but now I’ve been using them for over a year, so they were worth every penny!
FUTURE BUSINESS PLANS - how is Dynamic Fitness doing today and what does the future look like?
Dynamic Fitness has been doing amazing. My clientele, partnerships, subscribers, and classes are growing from month to month. In the summer I’m starting my beach classes up again, which I’m very excited about. So far there has been a lot of interest in them and last summer I got to meet so many people in Long Beach from doing them. My goals for Dynamic Fitness are to teach more corporate classes and team up with brands and publications I admire. I recently hired an assistant to help with outreach, so that is a big goal going forward.
ENTREPRENEUR INSIGHTS - what has been your biggest learning experience since starting Dynamic Fitness?
Nothing will be perfect. I remember when I was making my first workout videos for the subscription, I would redo it so many times because I didn’t like how I said this word, or did this exercises, or there was a shadow etc. I kept delaying things instead of just putting them out there and making them better along the way.
Trust yourself and throw away the ego!
ONLINE BUSINESS TOOLS - what are the business software tools you couldn't live without?
My must haves are Zoom, Spotify, iMovie, Vimeo, WordPress, Stripe, and Mailchimp.
See what tools other founders use here.
SELF DEVELOPMENT - what are the educational resources you’d recommend?
I am a big podcast listener. My favourites are
- How I Built This with Guy Raz,
- Hurdle with Emily Abbate, and
- The Friday Society Podcast with Alexa Cawley.
INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE ‘shout-out’ - who have been the most influential people for you during your brand journey?
There’s a lot of people who have supported me!
For sure my friends, my family, my boyfriend Brian, and Erika of Inkale-Exkale.
When I wanted to launch I called her to ask her questions about the virtual space because she was already crushing it on her own and I admired that. She referred me to my website developer and I’m really grateful for that.
FINAL WORDS OF INSPO - for other aspiring entrepreneurs.
A quote I once saw that always stuck with me was; “Be bold, be brave, let yourself go”
Don’t be afraid of what others might think, leave your ego at the door and just go for it!
If you work hard and believe in what you’re creating it will happen, it will succeed.
Keep good energy around you and see how you then attract the right people around you which in turn will help your business grow.
Latest offers & promotions - where can we go to learn more about your latest offers and promotions?
You can find me on Instagram @difalzarano and also check out my website at https://www.dynamic-fitness.org. To try out my subscription you can head to, https://www.dynamic-fitness.org/product/online-fitness-membership/, and use the code “brandjourney” to get your first month free.
