Check out this video and find out how Anthony used my Personal Training Business System to:
Pick up 2 new clients in 2 weeks.
Generated an extra $3,600 in the first month.
Make 6 figures for the first time in his life!
And he did it all with only “a few hours a work each week… and it didn’t even feel like work” to quote him directly.
This first part of the video interview talks a little bit about:
the financial aspects of the system.
the relationship management aspects of the system
The second part of the video interview talk about:
how to make good clients great!
the BIGGEST secret to success: PASSION!
is it possible to train only from 12pm-6pm? Yes! How to get the ideal schedule.
This third part of the video interview talk about:
confronting your comfortability zone.
systematic self-promotion.
the system works even during the deadest part of the season!
Watch the video interview now, if you have any questions please leave them in the comments.
What do you need the most help with?
What is the most frustrating part of getting new fitness clients?
Let me know in the comments and I will get right back to you.
Show me you are ALIVE! Thanks.
Until next time, keep your business fit!
Jonathan
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
I love this race because it seems so impossible/painful, yet all different kinds of people from all over the world do it, including:
-a 76 year old women
-a 91 year old man! (did it in 40 minutes! so cool.)
If they can do it, you and your fitness clients can too!
Races and competitions are a great way to:
-challenge yourself & push your limits.
-inspire your personal training clients.
-get more exposure for your fitness business.
As a personal trainer, we are often in great shape and forget how hard it is to confront ones “perceived limitations”. But we can lead by example by confronting our own limits!
So many people say “oh, I could never do that”. That is BS! If a 90 yr old can do it, you and your clients can too.
Watch this video, leave me some comments, let me know what you think.
We are going to create a TEAM for next years Empire State Building Race! We will train together, or if you are not in NYC we will post our workouts on line, and we will raise some money for a great cause.
Join our team and get yourself one of these! (Not to mention a once in a lifetime experience.)
Please contact us if you (and maybe one of your fitness clients too) are interested in being on our team.
Until next time, keep your business fit,
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Part. 1: How to Ensure Success by Empowering Clients
Your client base is the very foundation of your personal training business and fitness career. Without great fitness clients who will listen to you and follow your leadership, you can’t help anyone.
And there are only 2 kinds of fitness clients out there:
1. A+ Super Clients- these clients get results that transform their body AND their life, because they listen and trust you, are consistent, take responsibility for themselves, and workout on their own. These are the clients you are excited to see each day!
2. Everyone Else- clients who get anywhere from pretty good results to absolutely no results. These include everything from clients who get great results and then slack off and gain the weight back, to the client’s who you really do not enjoy working with for one reasons or another. (You know the ones I am talking about; when they walk into the gym, you find yourself taking a DEEP breath.)
The reason that I separate all fitness clients into only these 2 categories is because the only way to build a truly successful fitness career (while avoiding burn out) is to cultivate a client base of super clients.
• Super clients are fun to train, they make you look good!
• Super clients are so impressed with your abilities, they are happy to promote for you and refer friends! (You often don’t even have to ask.)
• Super clients are the most satisfying people to train, because they get results; they provide you with job satisfaction, which is invaluable! You can really make a difference with them.
• Super clients are willing to make fitness a priority, so they show up consistently (providing you with consistent income) and can often schedule in the middle of the day.
As a personal trainer, think of your clients as your product. Do you want to make shiny new BMW’s that attract attention toward your business, or broken down clunkers that are high maintenance? You can’t build a serious fitness career with clunkers!
Jillian is definitely a super client, she works her butt off during our session and refers great clients often.
Follow my advice and you can have super clients like me. Some of my super clients include celebrities, such as Jillian Michaels, to everyday people like my client Keith, who I trained to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro at the age of 63! Keith is one of the nicest, hardest working clients ever, and a truly a pleasure to work with because he inspires me!
So how do you attract super clients?
My client Keith is definitely a super client! He is one of the hardest working and nicest clients I have met in 9 years.
Personal Training Policy NUMERO UNO: Make Empowerment a Corner Stone of Your Business Model
Some people think of trainers as program designers, rep counters, motivators, and fitness instructors, and while that is all true, our most important role is that of an empowering educator. When your clients are empowered, they will work with you to achieve life changing goals. Here is how you empowerment a corner stone of your business:
1. Create an “Accountability Agreement” that you share with all potential fitness clients, and outline what your expectations are for the fitness client and what they can expect from you, something I like to call the client bill of rights. (The agreement should outline you companies personal training policy, I make my clients sign it!) This is a powerful sales tool and a polite way of saying “look, you are going to have to work and follow my lead or else this will not work”. Good prospect will get excited, and think “Wow, this trainer is serious AND professional!” Bad prospects will say to themselves “I don’t want to work hard, I’ll find a trainer that will do it all for me.” Either way, this works to your benefit, assuring the good prospects will buy while avoiding bad clients that will suck your energy dry! By telling people right off the bat what your expectations are, you are setting the tone for the relationship AND avoiding bad habits which are always hard to break.
2. If you would like a copy of the “Accountability Agreement” I use, sign up to the newsletter in the box on the top right part of this page and I will send it to you. Otherwise, here are a few key rules I have in the agreement that will help you develop super clients.
3. Expect your fitness clients to work out on their own! It may as little as just walking on the treadmill for 10 minutes, but the point is to help them take responsibility of their health and fitness. Gradually increase your expectations for their solo workouts as they progress. More advance clients should follow your program exactly, even on their own. Clients who say “I didn’t feel like doing legs so I did arms and chest” are not super clients. Educating them about why legs are important for their goals is critical, while gradually holding them to a higher standard.
4. Don’t let them talk negatively about themselves when working out. Not even a little bit. You can start to change their attitude, and open up their eyes to their true potential, but only if they have the right mind state. This is a very important personal training policy to have in place.
5. Teach them about how to exercise. Don’t impress them with your knowledge of surgical anatomy, it will only confuse them. Give them practical information that they can use on their own when working out, and give it to them bit by bit. Too much info is overwhelming. When they work out on their own, they will be forced to use this information, which means that they will retain that information!
6. Engage them outside of the gym, make it REAL. Introduce them to the PRIMAL aspect of fitness, by setting goals that include public challenges with a social and competitive element such as races, or walks for charity.
Avoiding a Vicious Cycle of Co-dependence
When your clients retain the information, they will have more control over their health and fitness. That is the whole point of a personal training business, right? It’s not satisfying to help someone lose 15lbs, only to have them come back to you 6 months later 20lbs over weight. You don’t want to be a crutch for your clients, they will not get great results, they will not be fun to workout with, and they will hold you back for growing your business.
Yes, educating your fitness clients requires more skills, in particular psychological and leadership skills, but you will get much better results and be able to charge more money for your services. And the more you practice, the better you will get. Each new client is an opportunity to provide an even better service! By continually holding yourself and your clients to a higher standard, you are guaranteed a very successful fitness career.
“But If I Teach My Client Everything They Will Not Need Me!”
Every trainer feels this way when first starting out, but it is completely inaccurate.
1. It should be literally be impossible to teach the client everything you know. If you can teach your client everything you know, you haven’t made a commitment to continuing education. Their amount of knowledge will never catch up to yours if you continue to educate yourself, (clients aren’t going to conference, workshops, seminars, or getting certifications, but you should be doing all of these consistently.)
2. Even trainers get better workouts when being trained by someone else. You just work harder when someone is watching. You still have value when training an educated client. In fact, you have even more value because you want to work hard for them because they work hard for you. You are willing to go the extra mile, research a new program specifically for them, or send follow up emails, because you love training them so much.
You can literally never give to much away to a client if you are well educated! The only time you should not give your all is if they are not making use of your hard work and the resources you provide them. Clients who don’t follow the program you took the time to create and don’t meet you half way should be dumped as fast and professionally as possible! Only train super clients, and give your all.
And here is the big secret. When you train a super client, you can charge more money because you are more valuable. Period. (Also, surprise surprise, the brain, while accounting for only 2-3% of the bodies mass, can account for up to 30% of total calories burned. Get your fitness clients actively engaged and they will have a better workout.)
My new website, www.personaltrainingbusiness.com, will go live soon and is going to be a community and a system (which includes software), that is entirely dedicated to helping personal trainers develop a strong foundation for a successful career by attracting super clients. This is the key to a highly successful personal training business. Sign up to the newsletter (just name and email) so I can send you a copy of my “Accountability Agreement”, which is an important piece of this system.
Show me you are alive, what do you think?
• Do you use some kind of policy agreement? What personal training policy is your favorite?
• What do you think makes a super client?
• What’s the worst story about a bad client?
• What questions do you have about growing your personal training business?
Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear about it.
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
8 Ways the Personal Training Industry Will Change in the Next Decade
The fitness industry, while still in its infancy, is changing at an accelerate rate. The next 10 years will be a crucial period, one where the importance of our industry will become widely accepted and increased pressures and demand for our services will force us out of our infancy and into childhood and greater maturity.
While that maturity will manifest itself in several positive trends, other negative trends will continue and even increase at the same time. Each one of these trends represents MAJOR OPPORTUNITIES for the personal trainer who is ready to meet them head on.
Increased acceptance of the link between exercise & health will create huge demand for exercise professionals.
1. Prevention vs. Treatment- Doctors can heal you when you are sick, but a great personal trainer can prevent you from getting sick in the first place. Personal trainers understand this, and the world will too in the next decade. As much as 75% of our health care costs are due to preventable lifestyle related diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Corporations and small business will continue to invest more and more in the health of their employees, while health insurance companies will continue to increase rewards for people who engage in healthy activities. This will create major opportunities for entrepreneurial trainers. Unfortunately, despite this increased focus on prevention and exercise, the rate of obesity will continue to increase until the commercial food industry is radically transformed.
2. Health & Fitness Professionals Will Integrate- The number of personal trainer, doctors, physical therapist, nutritionists, massage therapists, and chiropractors who work together to provide comprehensive solutions for their clients/patients will increase dramatically. This increase will be driven by the fact that this trend is both good for business and great for the patient/client.
Increased injuries, in particular chornic joint pain, will increase the number of lawsuits, as well as the demand for personal trainers who work with physical therapists and know how to train people post rehab.
3. Dramatic Increase in Exercise Relate Injuries & Lawsuits, Creating Increased Pressure for Regulation- the explosion of group fitness and bootcamps , in particular ones with ineffective screening methods and a “high intensity for everyone” mentality, will result in an exponential increase in injuries caused by personal trainers and increase lawsuits. Coupled with the increased pressure from the public to make exercise take a less time and an increasingly unhealthy/sedentary population, these injuries may reach pandemic proportions, which will increase the pressure on lawmakers to regulate the industry. The increased use of Exercise Games, such as the Wii Fit, will also increase the number of injuries people sustain each year while exercising, but also help some people get in shape while having fun.
4. The Rate of Obesity Will Continue to Increase- while 60% of Americans are already either overweight or obese, this number will creep up towards 80% by the end of the decade. This trend will not turn around until the commercial food industry is changed and proper nutrition, health, and exercise is made a priority in the lessons taugh throughout the education system from Kindergarten through High school. The increased rate of obesity will result in new kinds of “obesity lawsuits” and new tactics by other institutions to curb the trend. These attempts will be, for the most part, ineffective.
5. The Number of Personal Trainers with Small Businesses Will Increase- due to the increased need/demand for our services, the primary role of a leading personal trainer will be that of educator, community exerciser, and consultant. To meet this demand, more trainers will become self-employed and start businesses, allowing them to create new and effective solutions, while making more money, without the constraints and restrictions of the existing corporate fitness powerhouses. More personal training only studios will go into business each year, and more personal trainers will be working full time and making a successful career in the industry (many trainers are part time right now). Most importantly, more personal trainers will team up with others in the technology industry to create effective tools and software to help keep track of their client’s goals, exercise routine, lifestyle, and diet, helping these trainers reach more people.
Major opportunites abound, including the opportunity of making a career out of helping people change their lives for the better.
6. Childhood Obesity & Diabetes Will Continue to Increase Dramatically- children will become a critical population in need; the reduction of physical education programs, combined with the commercial food served in most schools (and everywhere else), will result in epic levels of childhood obesity and diabetes. This trend will be a major opportunity for personal trainers who want to make a difference. The critical role of daily exercise, not sports, for increased self-development, maturation, and health will become an integral part of any school that wishes to buck this trend, and savy personal trainer will help schools integrate these principles into the foundation of their curriculum.
7. New Kinds of Competitions & Challenges- new kinds of races and competitions will increase over the next decade. While the increase in endurance and ultra-endurance races have already increased dramatically, the need for large scale community solutions for the average JOE will create the need for a great number and variety of lower intensity races and competitions. Personal trainers will use these competitions and other kinds of social events that take place outside of a gym to increase the commitment and accountability of their clients. These trainers will achieve great results with their clients.
8. More “Fitness Coaches” Who Are Not Personal Trainers- more non personal trainers will become involved in the personal training industry. Programs like Team Beachbody will increase the number of “fitness coaches” who serve the purpose of increase accountability and motivation, not exercise prescription, technique, or program development. These coaches will provide a great referral network for personal trainers.
I hope you are prepared to harness these trends and make a difference!
One other quick note. ACE (American Council on Exercise) did an annual survey to predict the trends for next year. The biggest trend they found was that people would be looking to spend less money and less time on exercise due to tighter budgets and hectic schedules, and that the most successful trainers would adapt to these trends.
I couldn’t disagree more! They are a great organization, but I definitely beg to differ in this case.
While it is important to meet the demands of the market, it is also important to educate our clients. The simple fact of the matter is that catering to highly impractical demands is negligent. One of our jobs as educators is to diffuse unrealistic expectations immediately. So when a sedentary client who is over worked, over stressed, and undernourished comes in and says “I have 30 minutes to exercise 2x/week, work me out as hard as you”, we say “Hell NO!” not “Yes of course, the client is always right”. If we cater to these impractical demands, we risk a much greater chance of injury and mediocre results, not to mention invalidation.
Our job is to protect our clients from themselves and give them a better understanding of reality. Yes, we need to adapt to market forces, but within reason. The most successful trainers will have the best clients, clients who listen to them and are empowered by them. Successful personal trainers are not bossed around by their clients nor do they adapt to their unrealistic expectations.
As the personal trainer, you are the LEADER!
I do agree that these market forces will increase the number of cost conscious gyms and group exercise offerings.
What do you think? Leave some comments and let us know!
• What are your expectations for the next decade in the fitness industry?
• What trend will you try to take advantage of?
• How will you be helping people achieve their goals 10 years from now?
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
How to Use Business Cards to Get More Fitness Clients
Your client base is the very foundation of your personal training business and fitness career. Without clients who will listen to you and follow your leadership, you can’t help anyone.
99% of personal trainer business cards get thrown out immediately or put in a pile, never to be seen again.
Below are some tips you can use to be sure your business cards does not end up at the bottom of some pile.
Anatomy of a Great Business Card
Here are the biggest tricks to avoiding this fate and using business cards to generate more business:
1. Always Ask for the Prospects Information First- if you don’t feel comfortable enough to ask, you have not built enough rapport which means the person will not call you back anyway. Don’t waste your cards on them.
2. Give Your Card to Hot Prospects- If the prospect does give you their info, giving them a business card anyway is a great idea, so they will remember you, expect your call, and can learn more about you by checking out your website. But always leave the ball in your court, and tell them you will call them. Otherwise, you will be hanging around waiting for the phone to ring. (Asking when to call is a good idea too.)
3. Have Your Website on Your Card- No duh, right? Maybe you can send them directly to your testimonials page. What about putting client pics and testimonials on the back of the card? This one I haven’t tried, but I bet it would work great. Many people have important fitness goals, but are very skeptical of the quality of personal trainers out there. Start to disarm their biggest objection off the bat and you will increase your chances of a sale tremendously.
4. Have a Strong Call to Action- on your business card, a directive statement like telling them what to do, like “Call us now and prepare to get in the best shape of your life” works much better than a non-directive statement like “We are here to help you.” You call to action can be a special offer, a discounted rate, or just ask them to try one of your exercise programs.
5. Create a Sense of Urgency- on your card, put an expiration date next to the call to action. Creating a sense of urgency will help them take action immediately, instead of filling it away in their “I’ll do it later” category, and never getting around to it. Also, having a deadline (the expiration date) will force you to hand your cards out before they expire. One other variation is to write “Deadline:_________” and then write in the deadline date in the blank right before you plan on handing them out.
6. Put Your Face on the Card- in many industries, this would be unprofessional, but we are in a service business; it is your face they will be looking at all session long, get them used to it and help them remember you. Use a professional photo, not your myspace profile PIC camera phone self-portrait! You can use craigslist or your personal network to find a photographer who will barter with you if you don’t already have one in your roster (which you should).
7. Put a Strong Statement of Your Company’s Goals- if you have a specific niche you target, be sure to mention them. Do you target athletes, the elderly, actors, business owners? Having a niche you are passionate about and talking directly to them in all of your marketing, including business cards, is a great way to eliminate the competition and expand your client base fast. You can promote a specific program on your business card too.
8. Make Them Feel Special- put “VIP CODE:______” on the front or back of the card, and write in a code that offers them a special discount. This can be in relation to the special offer/call to action. If you are partnering with a business, you can put the businesses name as the code. (I use this technique with brochures I leave in physical therapists offices. It will say “VIP CODE: Dr. Karmen” for instance.)
9. The Sniper Technique- because you will be using an expiration date and targeting specific niches, you may want to design 2 slightly different cards (one specific to each major program or niche) and only order 50 cards. While this will cost more upfront, you will get way more leads than using a shotgun technique. (See below.) Target specific niches or business with a specialized business card that talks directly to them.
I had this business card made using www.vistaprint.com.
The Biggest Personal Trainer Business Card Mistake
Personal trainer business cards should be one of your LOWEST PRIORITY methods for engaging new clients, but often it is the first one we run to. “If I only had the right business card, then people would know I am a serious business”. This is completely false!
Business cards can be a good tool, as long as they are used the right way. Many trainers are uncomfortable with self-promotion, and use business cards as a crutch to avoid confronting their fears.
It’s human nature.
We want to help people, but don’t like trying to convince them they need our help.
“Oh, I’ll just give them my business card and hope they call”.
We have all been there. And, as we know, it just doesn’t work. You will have to hand out at least a 1,000 cards to get one solid client. This is what we call the “Shotgun” technique, and it takes a lot of time and work for very little results.
But more importantly, the simple fact of the matter is that we are in sales. Ever conversation is a sale; you are either buying or selling at any moment:
•We sell our fitness clients on why a certain exercise or program is important.
• We sell to them when we advise them what to eat.
•We sell them on why they need to work out on their own.
•We sell our clients training sessions.
•And they try and sell us all kinds of crap; why they couldn’t workout last Saturday, why they were late for the session or didn’t show up, why they will never reach their goals, etc.
We are in the persuasion business. And practicing self-promotion, instead of hiding behind a business card, will help you be more confident and persuasive when it comes to managing and leading your clients. If you are desperate to make a sale they will sense your desperation. Most likely they will not buy, and if they do, they will have more leverage than they should in the relationship. You are the leader; being persuasive is a critical leadership skill!
So if we must get good at sales and persuasion, we have to get comfortable with self-promotion.
First, develop the confidence in your skills by developing your exercise knowledge, and then use that knowledge to help people. When you are confident in the value you provide, then go out there and self promote in person. If you rely on business cards only, you will have a very hard time making a name for yourself in this business.
Leave me some comments, SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!
•How do you use your personal training business cards to get more clients?
•Did I forget anything?
•What do you think of my card? Criticism welcome, I can take it!
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
What is the most valuable thing you can provide your fitness client? This is a great question to ponder.
Any good trainer is motivating. We all know that. But to be great, you must empower your fitness client.
What is the difference?
Self-Empowerment = using your skills to unlock the motivation INSIDE the client, so they learn self-motivation and self-accountability.
Making empowerment a corner stone of your business model is critical for your success. The fitness client that follows your leadership proactively, works out on their own, and takes responsibility over their goals ALWAYS gets better results than the one who does not.
And client’s that get great results will refer you to more great clients, which means:
• more money
• more job security
• better results
• less cancellations
• less time marketing yourself
• more fun
The other option is to create a viscous cycle of co-dependence. The client needs you to exercise. You need the client for money. The results are mediocre and neither party is happy.
How to Make Exercise Sticky
So, how do you empower each and every one of your fitness clients so they stick with exercise? Lots of ways! (Please share yours in the comments).
1. Introduce Them to Reality – our bodies are meant to move every single day. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t have survived. This is what Primal Fitness means; move it or die. The same applies today, except a quick death by sabertooth tiger has been replaced by the slow death of disease. Help them face this reality ASAP.
2. Set The Tone – Write out your expectations and present it to them at the end of the very first workout; let them know that this is a partnership and each side has responsibilities. Explain how this will help them get the best results. Yes you may scare off some potential clients, but the chances they would have made a great client are slim. Great clients will react the exact opposite way. “Wow, this trainer is serious, I am going to have to step it up!”
3. Education, Educate, Educational! – Of course our job is to exercise fitness clients, but we must educate them as well. This means giving them small bits of practical information they can use, not trying to impress them with our anatomy vocabulary.
4. Exercise Homework – Oh yeah, about that “small bit of practical information” i.e. exercise knowledge, make sure you ask them to use that information in between each time they see you. Create a program for beginners and have them report back to you, while more advanced clients can submit programs to you for you to edit. Don’t ask too much, but don’t ask too little!
5. Over Deliver/Care – That’s right, when you really care, the client will care too. Finding client’s that you really care about is half the battle. Good examples are sending hand written notes when the reach a milestone, an encouraging email, or looking up some question they had and sending them the answer.
6. Social Fitness – Back to the whole aspect of primal fitness; we survived through evolution by working together. Hunting, gathering, carrying, building, these are all things we did together. Adding a social element to their experience is a great way to keep them motivated and focused. This can mean working out in tandem, at a group exercise class, bootcamp, or running group. Either way, it helps make exercise more fun and less boring, which makes it easier to stick too.
7. Competitions – Providing clients with opportunities to compete is a great way to connect your fitness client with the concept of primal fitness. Weight loss contests, races, and exercise competitions are great ways to keep clients self-motivated and focused.
8. Connect to Their Joy – Yes, most clients want to get in better shape to “look better naked”, but the simple truth of the matter is that they cannot be happy without being healthy and fit. Again, help them understand this simple statement: no exercise equals no happiness. Find out what their life goals are, what hobbies or physical activities they enjoy, and create programs that will help them enjoy life, and these activities, more. This will help them self-motivate and stick to the program.
9. Be Inspirational- Last but not least, we must be inspirational, not only with our words and actions, but our physicality and lifestyle. While this is a major tool to get clients jump-started and keep them motivated, it works best over the long term when combined with the preceding 8 concepts.
You may be saying to yourself “but if I teach the client everything I know, they will have now use for me”.
Yes, this is true, but our job as a personal trainer is to know WAY MORE than the client. No matter how good you are at educating your fitness client, you should always know even more. If this is a concern for you, then that is a red flag that you need to spend more time on continuing education.
The simple fact is that LIFE HAPPENS:
• Clients Move Away
• They Go on Vacation
• They Run Out of Money
No matter what happens, you want to leave your clients with a better ability to exercise themselves. This is exponentially more valuable than training them to reach a goal that they cannot maintain on their own.
And the more value your provide people, the more successful you will be in life and business.
The Power of Primal Fitness
Michael Pollan, in his book bestselling book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, writes that “Under the pressure of the hunt… the human brain grew in size and complexity”.
As well all know, humanity has survived (and thrived) because of it’s intelligence/brain size.
And our brains grew because of hunting.
Therefore…
We survived because our brains grew because of intensely focused group exercise.
Funny, right?
But the truth is the same today; we may live in a civilized society, but our body and brains are 200,000 years old (so says evolution.)
The same rules apply.
Connect your fitness clients to the idea of primal fitness and THEY WILL THRIVE.
Find a way to tap into these emotions and level of intensity, safely, and you will empower all of your clients. Engage their intelligence and focus; the human brain, while representing only 2% of the bodies mass, uses 18% of the calories we consume. Get them actively engage in the workout, and they will burn more calories, retain the information they learn, and the workouts will be more interesting.
So what techniques will you use to empower your clients? Have they worked? What challenges do you face? Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
How to Transform the Fitness Industry One Client at a Time
Our industry, much like our world, is transforming at an accelerated rate.
The fitness industry, as you know, is relatively unregulated, unorganized, and at times even divided. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this dynamic:
• For better or worse, it is relatively easy to become a personal trainer. Standards for personal training and best practices are not well established.
• There are a lot of experts, organizations, and certifications to learn from; this is great, but can make picking the right educational path overwhelming.
• Because of the first 2 facts, the quality, style, integrity, and knowledge of personal trainers vary wildly, affecting our collective credibility and image among the public.
There are signs of more integration and collaboration, which is great, and we can expect to see the whole industry and fitness profession moving in this direction. There is a greater understanding of the preventative power of a healthy lifestyle, and fitness professionals are at the forefront of expanding this awareness. And the world needs preventative health, the fitness profession, and lifestyle information more than ever!
The Association of Elite Fitness Professionals was created to transform the fitness industry. Together, we will hold ourselves and our client’s to higher standards, collaborate and innovate, and help more people take control of their health and fitness.
Our Tribe of Elite Professionals
The Association for Elite Fitness Professionals was created for all fitness professionals (anyone who uses force as a modality to elicit greater health and fitness), including:
• Personal Trainers & Athletic Trainers
• Wellness & Lifestyle Coaches
• Yogis & Massage Therapists
• Group Fitness Instructors & Boot Camp Leaders
As Elite Fitness Professionals, we are committed to the following ideals:
1. Constantly increasing our skills and abilities, to create more value and results for our clients.
2. Holding ourselves and our clients to the highest standard. (Check out the “Client Bill of Rights”).
3. Taking a holistic approach to education that includes consistently increasing our exercise knowledge, interpersonal skills, & business acumen.
4. Comprehensively addressing our client’s health and fitness needs, referring out when necessary, and creating a network of health professionals to support our client’s diverse needs.
5. Utilizing exercise to transform their client’s mind, body and life.
6. Making personal empowerment, self-accountability, and lifestyle change a corner stone of our business model.
1. Collaborate with each other to establish best practices, better integration of knowledge, and push the standards of the fitness industry up.
2. Target specific populations that need our health the most, and work together to find comprehensive solutions (the obese, children, the poor).
3. Create greater communication and integration between fitness professionals and other health professionals (physical therapists, doctors, psychologists, etc.)
4. Transform our cultures understanding of health and disease in relation to fitness and lifestyle, on both a larger scale and one client at a time.
5. Rightfully reclaim (from the medical/pharmaceutical industry) holistic fitness as the best solution for happy, healthy, disease free living.
By committing ourselves to these standards, we know that we can accomplish great things and a higher standard of service for the fitness profession.
Precision, Professionalism, and Skills
In order to overcome the stereotype in the minds of people (the rep counting, skimpy spandex outfit wearing, vane personal trainer), we must uphold ourselves to a high standard and be precise!
When will we be as respected as, say, a surgeon? When we wield our tools (exercise programs and our words) as precisely as a surgeon wields the scalpel.
So how do we become that precise? By increasing our knowledge and skills!
We all know how important education is for our industries credibility, our client’s success, and our career stability. Our client’s come to us looking for leadership; but our job as leaders is to create more leaders, not followers.
The following is an incomplete list of knowledge and skills broken down into 3 categories. Feel free to make some suggestions in the comments and I will add them in. You don’t have to master everything! In fact, that is impossible.
You want to focus on the things you are passionate about and good at, but you need to be aware of and accomplished in the other skills so that you are well rounded. Most gaps in your knowledge can be covered by developing a network of health professionals.
And if we are going to provide the most value to our clients, we must be passionate about learning and dedicate ourselves to the study of many topics.
“Those who love wisdom must investigate many things.” Heraclitus
Many trainers are uncomfortable with the final skill set, developing business skills, self-promotion, and sales. But these are the very tools that will allow us to help more people, and if we don’t reach them, other average or below average trainers will be getting their message in front of them.
• Providing them with misinformation.
• Creating a cycle of dependence.
• Perpetuating those fitness myths that will just not go away!
So we are in the business of not only empowering our clients and getting them in shape, but also in the business of mass education. And by raising the public’s understanding, they will be better able to make decisions about exercise, and be a lot less likely to train with bad trainers. By raising the bar and pushing the standards up, we can redefine what it means to be a fitness professional
If you are having trouble developing your business skills (sales, self-promotion, marketing, etc), you should check out our “Personal Training Business Software” and join the cut the line list so you can be the first to use it when it comes out.
You may not agree with everything above, and that is totally cool. Not ever fitness business should be the same and I would love to hear what you think of these standards, if there is anything you think that is missing, or what you like about the Association of Elite Fitness Professionals and its goals.
Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
What standard do you hold your fitness business to? Do you have a personal training policy? Do you have a personal trainer mission statement you share with your fitness clients?
Defining your own personal trainer mission statement, moral code, and standard of practice will provide the foundation of a successful personal training career and increase your profits! The fitness profession is a very competitive business, so having a statement that you share with clients is a powerful way to differentiate yourself.
Below is “The Client Bill of Rights”, a set of standards I hold myself up to when working with fitness clients. I expect all of my trainers to exceed these standards as well. For my business, this is the minimum standard of professionalism, not the maximum, and must be met consistently.
Please feel free to:
1. copy this statement
2. change it
3. put it in a document with your companies branding element, website, and your photo
4. print it out
5. share it will clients and prospects
6. embody it!
When printed out and provided to fitness clients at the end of an introductory workout, this is a powerful tool that will help you make more sales. (Give it to them to take home .) I recommend putting a nice picture of you on it too, in addition to your website and perhaps your rates; this send a powerful message!
The Client Bill of Right’s states that fitness clients are entitled to a personal trainer who:
• Continually Tracks Your Progress and Goals as They Evolve.
• Helps You Define & Achieve Goals that are S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely).
• Keeps You Engaged With Fun & Interesting Workouts.
• Stays Attentive and Focused Every Session.
• Confirms Every Appointment.
• Has Excellent Communication and Listening Skills.
• Provides Safe and Effective Workouts.
• Effectively Teaches You Exercise Knowledge (so you know how to work out better on your own.)
• Is Always On Time, Prepared, With Good Hygiene and Looking Professional.
• Has Good Availability for Your Schedule, Rarely Cancels, and Provides Advanced Notice When Canceling.
• Responds to all Email, Text, and Voice Mail Communications Promptly.
• Provides Motivation, Inspiration, and Leadership.
• Consistently Provides a Customized Workout Program.
• Challenges You to Work Out on Your Own, Be More Self-reliant with Exercise, and Addresses Lifestyle Habits.
• Comprehensively Addresses Your Health and Fitness by Collaborating with a Network of Health Professionals.
Leave us questions, comments, or success stories in the comments below.
The fitness profession is great, but getting more competitive? What is your personal training policy and personal trainer mission statement? Do you print them out and use them as a sales tool? What have your fitness clients said about it?
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
How to Take Your Personal Training Client’s Game to the Next Level
As you know, setting achievable goals for your fitness clients is a critical part of keeping them motivated, consistently, year round. The clients that workout consistently, and achieve goals, are the ones that make us look great, attain amazing results, and are a pleasure to work with.
One of my client’s, Joe, who has been with me for about 6 years, just ran his first marathon! Not only that, but he finished the NYC 2009 Marathon in 3hours 39 minutes! This is an awesome achievement for someone running a marathon for the first time; he basically ran 26.2 miles with an average pace of 8minutes 21 seconds for each mile.
This is a tremendous achievement for Joe, and I am so happy for him, and honored that I was a part of his success. The NYC Marathon is no joke! You are running all over the city, with thousands of other people, a sea of runners, running through parks, down streets, across bridges, and finally across the finish line.
Client Success!
A critical aspect of being a successful personal trainer is pushing your client’s limits, safely, both inside the gym AND OUTSIDE the gym. It’s that second part that is especially important, and were many trainers fall short. When you get your client to commit to “external goals” that are social (Joe had a running partner and trained hard on his own, in addition to our workouts) and involve some degree of competition, you will see them really kick into high gear.
By tacking it outside of the gym, and introducing a competitive/social element, you reacquaint your client with the primal aspect of fitness. On a very real emotional level (and perhaps somewhat unconscious), the client realizes that being fit is a matter of survival! All of a sudden, they take their training more seriously than ever, and are very committed.
And interestingly, taking the focus off losing weight can be an added advantage as well. Joe is leaner than ever, and we hadn’t even been focused on “weight loss”.
Check out http://www.active.com for local events and races that you can challenge your client to participate in, or create you own!
Running the NYC marathon is a major goal, and it is one that Joe and I discussed for years before we both decided he was ready to do it. It is important not to rush into anything, and to set reasonable goals that do not over extend the client, otherwise you risk injury, frustration, and feelings of being a failure. And it is important that the goal or race resonates with the client, and is something that they are committed to.
Lead by Example
And of course, it is important to lead by example! (I ran my first half marathon this summer and it was an awesome and enlightening experience.) I am also currently training for the Empire State Building Stair Race Up, which is a race to the top of the Empire State building observation deck (86 flights).
How have you challenged your clients? What client success stories do you have? Have any of your clients ran a marathon? What external goals or races have your clients accomplished? Share your success or vent your frustration in the comments! SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
How to Make a Career as a Professional Personal Trainer
Have you ever wondered?
• Can personal training really be a career?
• What is the average salary of a personal trainer?
• How much money can I make as a personal trainer?
• How do I make a career out of personal training?
• Is there a difference between a personal trainer and a fitness professional?
• What is the fastest way to build my fitness career?
From Part-Time to Full-Time to Career
That is the path many of us take.
I overheard my friend, a trainer, talking the other day about how he got into being a personal trainer. Like most of us, he started part-time, after a while he was able to build up to being a full time personal trainer. Now he is making a career as a very successful trainer.
My path was very similar! I didn’t look for a job in a gym because I wanted to make a career out of personal training, I just loved exercise, wanted to have a gym to workout in, didn’t have any money for a gym membership, and needed a job (because of that “didn’t have any money” part.J)
I suspect that most personal trainers are the same. Yes, some of us out there went to college for personal training (and that trend is growing fast), but most of us naturally gravitated towards the industry for similar reasons;
• “I can’t work behind a desk!”
• “I love working with people and helping them reach their goals!”
• “I love working out, being active, and playing sports!”
Where does this passion for health, fitness, and exercise come from?
Often it is based on our own experience with the transformative powers of exercise. I personally went from a scrawny, shy, fearful kid to a successful, happy, fit, and confident personal trainer with an awesome career and celebrity clients.
And you can too!
As long as you have that passion, are committed to investing in yourself with continuing education, and have a sincere desire to help people, then you can have a very successful career in this industry. Recently, I have heard a lot of trainers telling me they are frustrated with their business and need more clients. They are barely working or working part-time and really just want to help more people.
If this sounds like you, I hope you are encouraged by the idea that most trainers started out the same way! I didn’t train full-time until 2 years into my fitness career (I was a full-time student in college at the time).
Focus on Helping Others and the Money Will Follow
If you are just getting started, take it one step at a time. Even if you only have one client, work hard to consistently exceed that client’s expectations, and more clients will come. Our industry is literally exploding right now, right along with our nation’s average belt size, the number of people who need your help is increasing rapidly;
• According to IDEA Health & Fitness, the personal training industry grew 21% from 1996 – 2000, and continues to grow, coincidentally, with the United States obesity rate which has increased every year for the past ten years.
• According to the Center for Disease Control, 67% of Americans are either overweight or obese!
• Not to mention that there are plenty of people with “skinny genes” who are still really unhealthy (although these people are less likely to seek our help until later on when their bodies literally start breaking down.)
There is so much opportunity out there but because our industry is relatively new and unorganized, there are very few examples of successful personal trainers who have already blazed the path. Our job is just coming to the forefront of our national conscience as the obesity epidemic explodes and the limitation of “sick care” (waiting until someone is already sick) is becoming more apparent to the masses.
There are 3 Keys to Building a Successful Career in Personal Training
All you need to build a successful career is to:
1. Continually investing in yourself with education.
2. Believe in & harness the power of exercise to transform people.
3. Be passionate about helping people.
The money, success, and lifestyle will follow if you focus on helping people first.
When I Grow Up, I Want to be A Personal Trainer!
Has anyone ever heard a child say this?!
I know I haven’t (if you have, leave a comment at the bottom, I would love to hear about it). As trainers, we are often mocked by popular media. And our industry is just getting started.
I want future generation of children to say it, as much as they say it about being a fireman, policeman, doctor, astronaut, or pilot.
Why? Because we are just as important, creative, and powerful as anyone of those jobs, if not more so!
But in order for that to happen, we must push our industry forward, hold ourselves and our clients to the highest standards, and redefine what it means to be a professional personal trainer. Even if you are just getting started, it is always a good idea to start with the end in mind and dream big.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of personal trainers out there who give the profession a bad name because they are not passionate about helping people and/or committed to learning. They are stuck in the same pattern and the same way of training, whether it is due to a large ego or imbalanced self-image or who knows. They don’t realize that there is a BIG difference between 15 years experience, and 1 year of experience repeated 15 times!
This is a challenge, because we must overcome people’s preconceived notions of what a personal trainer is, but it is also an opportunity to differentiate ourselves and rise to the top. The best way to do that is to set a high standard for yourself and build a business around that foundation.
What is a Professional Personal Trainer?
Have you ever asked yourself this question? If you have not, now is a great time to do so. Defining your own mission statement, moral code, and standard of practice will provide the foundation of a successful personal training career.
Below is “The Client Bill of Rights”, a set of standards I hold myself up to when working with clients. I expect all of my trainers to exceed these standards as well. For my business, this is the minimum standard of professionalism, not the maximum, and must be met consistently.
The Client’s Bill of Right’s states that the client is entitled to a personal trainer who:
• Continually Tracks Your Progress and Goals as They Evolve.
• Helps You Define & Achieve Goals that are S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely).
• Keeps You Engaged With Fun & Interesting Workouts.
• Stays Attentive and Focused Every Session.
• Confirms Every Appointment.
• Has Excellent Communication and Listening Skills.
• Provides Safe and Effective Workouts.
• Effectively Teaches You Exercise Knowledge (so you know how to work out better on your own.)
• Is Always On Time, Prepared, With Good Hygiene and Looking Professional.
• Has Good Availability for Your Schedule, Rarely Cancels, and Provides Advanced Notice When Canceling.
• Responds to all Email, Text Messages, and Voice Mail Communications Promptly.
• Provides Motivation, Inspiration, and Leadership.
• Consistently Provides a Customized Workout Program.
• Challenges You to Work Out on Your Own, Be More Self-reliant with Exercise, and Addresses Lifestyle Habits.
• Comprehensively Addresses Your Health and Fitness by Collaborating with a Network of Health Professionals.
You may not agree with everything above, and that is totally cool. Not ever fitness business should be the same. But go ahead and take what you like from above, change it, add whatever you feel is necessary for your business, and make a commitment to that standard. (I would love to hear what you are adding or changing in the comments below. Let me know!)
A Professional Sales Tool
Print out your own “Client Bill of Rights”. Share it with potential clients. Write a blog post about it, or put it into your mission statement on your website. I like sharing this “Bill of Rights” with prospects who are about to buy, right before I ask them what size package they would like to invest in.
It is great to have a printed version to give to them, something for them to look at when they go home because it:
• assure them that you are committed to their success.
• different than the average personal trainer.
• leaves them with something to take home and remind them of their experience with you.
I also put my business logo and picture on it; I think it sends a powerful message that I am committed to these standards and their success. By showing them your level of commitment, it will inspire them to step their game up and make the commitment to themselves!
The “Client Bill of Rights” is also a good tool to weed out bad prospects. Ideally, you will have weeded out anyone who is not serious about training before giving them a complimentary session to avoid wasting your time. So before setting up a complimentary session, share it with them, and ask them if they will be able to match your level of commitment! This is a great way to turn the tables on them; they aren’t shopping for a good trainer, you are shopping for a good client
Yes, you will scare off some people, but the people who stick around have great potential, and if you help them realize that potential, more clients will follow naturally. Turning the tables in this way helps not only weed out bad prospects that are a waste of time, but will inspire and attract good prospects.
I hope this is helpful, will inspire anyone who is frustrated out there to stick with it, and provide a path for creating more success in your life.
Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!
• Why did you become a personal trainer?
• Did you/do you plan on making this a career?
• What challenges are you facing?
• What stage are you in your career development?
• What other professionals, personal trainer or otherwise, helped inspire you to become a trainer?
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
How to Master Muscular Anatomy Fast & Avoid the 5 Most Common Anatomy Mistakes
Anatomy = Foundation of Exercise Science
Learning anatomy as a fitness professional is like learning to build a foundation as an architect; it supports everything else!
Everything else is built on top of it!
Personal training is super dynamic and intimate, so I suppose you could make the same claim about personality being foundational; if the client doesn’t want to spend time with you because of your bad attitude or bad communication skills, it really doesn’t matter how much you know!
But that is why we break up personal training skills into categories. Because training is so dynamic, it is helpful to break up the various skill sets into 3 key mega-competencies: interpersonal skills, exercise science, and business acumen.
Anatomy and biomechanics are the very foundation of exercise science, with physiology secondary. (What is physiology anyway, except your anatomies response to forces/mechanics? Feel free to disagree in the comments, I know this isn’t a popular perspective, but I think it is one worth examining.)
It really doesn’t matter how much you know about other areas of exercise science, if you don’t have a strong foundation in biomechanics and anatomy, you will not be able to accurately and safely apply your knowledge.
Types of Anatomy
Within anatomy, there are multiple focuses; neural anatomy, bony anatomy, muscular anatomy. As a trainer, it is VERY important to keep in mind how many other structures there are in the body that affects its performance and health.
Yes, initially we should be focused on muscular anatomy, but as fitness professionals, we have to keep in mind that we tend to be too focused on muscles sometimes. Often, a tight muscle will tighten because of a fascial restriction! Everything is connected to everything through the fascial network. Just keep this in mind when you are problem solving and studying.
As you advance, more time should be spent on learning more advanced anatomy like fascial anatomy, and the anatomy of the tendons, ligaments, and how they attach to bony surfaces.
Practice Makes Perfect
There are a lot of great tools out there to learn anatomy. Use these tools, the first one is free, and practice with other trainers. Make cards, quiz each other, and try to link the specific names to your own exercise routine when you workout.
http://www.getbodysmart.com – This website is AWESOME! It is a digital animation of the muscular system. Click and drag a little slider under each joint, and it will build the muscular support system around it from the most deep to the most superficial. Very cool and definitely worth checking out, you can also click to see each muscles action, which is good but very simplified. (Be sure to read “Most Common Anatomy Mistakes” below). And it’s free! Also, you can take a quiz on the site. Every new fitness professional should know about this site and spend time on it, it is great.
Atlas of Human Anatomy DVD Set -This dvd set is AMAZING! I have watched all but one of the dvds (the 6th one is about the organs). While it is on the pricey side to get all 6 at once, it is a great reference for anyone who wants to take their anatomy to the next level. They basically build a fresh cadaver in front of you, with precise animation to show each origin and insertion. They start with the bony anatomy, and then build the muscles from deep to superficial on top, show the tissues from 360 views. Then they show the vascular and neural anatomy, and have quizzes between each section. You can also start with just one DVD at a time, and watch just 10 minutes a day. It is fascinating! All these intricate structures are the bodies evolutionary reaction to FORCE! DVD 1, 2, and 3 are most important for newer trainers, as they are upper extremity, lower extremity, and trunk/core.
Strength Training Anatomy Book - This is a great book. Detailed, colorful, and just plain fun to look at. The muscles illustrations are very much of a jacked body builder, it is not what you will normally find in a general population client, but it is a cool guide to basic anatomy. There is not as much attention to anatomy of the “passive structures” (bones, ligaments, tendons) and spinal anatomy.
Cadaver Course – One of the best ways to learn is to get your hands dirty! I went to this class and it was AWESOME! We are so used to thinking of these tissues as separate, as they appear in books, but they are all intertwined together! It was eye opening to see the fibers of the rhomboid fan into the fibers of the Serratus! It looked like one muscle! This is a link to the RTS website. They have a cadaver class in Pittsburgh and in Connecticut. If you are in another part of the world, you should be able to find a cadaver class at any university with related courses. The cool thing about the RTS anatomy elective is you can get continuing education credits, and it is a requirement for your Resistance Training Specialist certification. But don’t let it stop you if you are not in CT or Pittsburgh, find a class and get your hands dirty!
Most Common Anatomy Mistakes!
These are the BIGGEST mistakes that fitness professionals AND BOOKS make about anatomy:
1. The action of the muscle tissue is entirely dependent on its position! Yes, your hip adductors move your legs inward toward each other if they are abducted, BUT they will extend the hip if the hip is fully flexed, and flex the hip if the hip is already fully extended. If you are just starting out, don’t get confused, just focus on the most obvious muscular action, but keep in mind that each muscles function is positional, and will change based on the position of the joints.
2. Each muscle has some kind of function in every plane, and it has an eccentric action, concentric action, and isometric action. Oh, and by every plane, I don’t mean all 3 planes because there is an INFINITE # of planes (another major yet common anatomy mistake.) What plane is cutting a diagonal with your arm? If this blows your mind, I recommend taking the RTS certification ASAP!
3. We tend to focus on superficial muscles and anterior muscles because they are easier to see and appease our vanity! Do not make this mistake with your own body or your clients; without balance, symmetry, and the deeper/smaller stabilizers, you WILL become a cripple sooner or later!
4. Do NOT try to impress your clients with your knowledge of anatomy! Naming the deep 6 hip rotators will not impress your prospect! Unless they are a doctor, they will only be confused and maybe intimidated! ALWAYS talk to your client in a language they understand; this is better for communication and sales. Yes, as you build a relationship, you should expand your client’s knowledge so they take control of their fitness, but even then, focus giving them practical knowledge and not Latin names. In the beginning, if they say “I want smaller arms, they look like old lady arms”, you say “Well this program will specifically target those granny arms.” You will sell more packages guaranteed.
5. One other quick note on language. At all costs, avoid using the word “Functional” where ever you want just to sound knowledgeable. Yes people like it, and it is a buzz word, but buzz words are often very ineffective at communication. Instead of “functional” say “exercise or program xyz will help you function better at ABC or perform better at ABC or transfer over to activity ABC”. Major pet peeve of mine! Don’t just sound smart when you can be smart!
I sure hope this is helpful! Please leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!
• How did you learn anatomy?
• What is the hardest part?
• What mistakes have you made?
Leave me some comments and let me know.
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
You show up early, and set up the gym so everything is ready.
And you wait, and wait, and wait…
But your client never shows up, or you get a text/email/voice mail that says they cannot make it and can they reschedule.
Keep Your Cool
Yes it is frustrating, sometimes it is downright rude, but every trainer out there has been through this scenario. The most important thing is to keep your cool and be a professional. Some clients will never be superstar clients, that’s OK. But your time is valuable, and you should make sure that all your client’s respect your time, otherwise it’s time to say goodbye. Don’t jump to conclusions, maybe something bad really happened. (Hopefully not!) Call them, leave them a message, and be positive at least until you find out what exactly is going on.
Avoid Creating Repeat Offenders
The first step in helping your client’s respect you and your time is to create clear expectations for the relationship from the very beginning. Whatever your policy is regarding cancellations (I have a 48 hour policy that goes for both myself and the client, but the industry standard is about 24 hours), you should have it clearly written and presented to the client from the very beginning. This will help the client take you seriously, weed out bad clients, and demonstrate your professionalism. I always make it a two way street, if I don’t show up, they get a free session (in 9 years it has never happened, but it shows them that you are committed to them, so they should be committed to you. Fair is fair.)
Any exceptions to your cancellation policy should be clearly written as well (i.e. life and death emergencies). In particular, you should spell out that work emergencies DO NOT COUNT AND ARE NOT VALID REASONS FOR CANCELING WITHOUT NOTICE! Most of your client’s are going to try and put work before their health, which is ludicrous; this is an imbalanced priority that you do not want to encourage. You don’t have to present them with a contract full of legal language to sign, just write it out or type it up, and have them initial it, so the expectations are clear.
The next step is enforcing your written policy! I will usually let the first cancellation without enough notice slide, especially if it is close to the deadline, but you should do this ONLY IF YOU TELL THEM YOU ARE MAKING AN EXCEPTION THIS ONE TIME. (If they are a no show, I always charge except of course if it was a life and death emergency.) This allows you to reiterate the seriousness of the cancellation policy. And the next time it happens, you MUST charge them for it no matter what. Otherwise, you are at risk at conditioning their behavior in the wrong direction. If you don’t charge them, they will expect you not to charge them when they do not provide notice, and will get upset if you try to charge them for it later on. Set the expectations from the start, actions speak louder than words, don’t just say it, do it!
Behavior Change and Habits
Our client’s come to us to lose weight or look better, but whether we realize it or not, we are in a lifestyle business. That means that every client that comes in to see you needs to change their life in some way, often many ways, or else they wouldn’t need your help.
• They don’t sleep enough.
• They are stressed.
• They don’t know how to work out or don’t work often enough.
• Their back hurts.
• They are lazy and tired all the time.
All these things add up to disease and imbalanced health, but more often than not, they are coming more concerned with their looks than anything else. The client doesn’t fully realize or want to admit that THEY NEED TO CHANGE THEIR LIFE.
This is what the elite personal trainer focuses on. Not just getting them in shape, but helping the client take control of their life. It is the only way to achieve and maintain their goals. What the hell is the point of getting in shape and then losing it a few weeks later? Why not just get in shape, stay in shape, and be happy? This is a goal for all clients.
But you will never be able to influence your client, and inspire them to change their behavior, if they don’t respect you in the first place. When they cancel on you, they are saying, whether they realize it or not, “This isn’t a priority”. Help them make it a priority. Enforce your policy with a sincere smile and a gentle energy, but enforce it consistently. You will weed out the bad client’s who cannot match your commitment to their goals, allowing you to focus on the super clients that will become walking billboards for your business.
Stick with it; this is often a big issue for personal trainers who are just getting started and not very confident. Make sure you do not give “weak” energy for the client to feed off of, create good habits in managing your clients, and you will have less cancellation very soon.
Neat Little Trick for First Workouts
The first time a client comes to workout with you is the time when they are most likely to cancel! And if they don’t come in, there is no way for you to get them as a client. First, just understand their predicament:
• They want to believe you will help them, but have seen some terrible trainers out there.
• They are scared, and feel vulnerable.
• They will be opening up, sharing an intimate space, and be forced to confront their own behavior, and on some level they know it.
• The gym is intimidating, they may have a terrible self image, or feel ashamed.
Whatever the case, the first step is to try and disarm their fear as much as possible. Talk to them on the phone and be generous and supportive. Send them to your website so they can see your face, see the testimonials of your clients, and get to know you. Then set up the appointment.
Often the first workout is complimentary, but a sneaky little trick we use is to take a credit card down and explain to them that the first step is often the hardest for people to take (so true!), and so people often cancel their first appointment. Explain that your time is valuable, so to ensure that they will show up and not waste your time, you take a credit card #; they are only charged if they DON’T show up. This is a great way to screen out people who will waste your time by no showing, or will be crappy clients.
Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. What are your biggest problems with clients? How do you handle repeat offenders? Let me know what you think.
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 8 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Part 3: How to market yourself to get premium fitness clients and just how important is a website anyway?
Recently, I was asked a bunch of questions by a trainer who is just starting his personal training business. He basically wanted advice on what the fastest way to build a successful personal training business.
I thought this would be helpful for others to hear, so below are his questions and my responses.
QUESTION # 1:
How important is a website in the overall marketing scheme? Is it just a vanity piece that is a requirement in today’s business world or does it actually further your business and client list?
ANSWER # 1:
This is a great question, and the answer really depends. If you are just starting out, it really DOES NOT make sense to spend a significant amount of money on a website. If you are tech savvy and interested in learning how to create a website, there are several sites that will show you how to do it.
But to really pick up clients, build your list, and further your business with a website, you will need to either learn quite a bit or spend several hundred dollars to get started, and then spend time updating your website and distributed your content, or paying someone else to do that.
While for some a website is just a vanity piece for their fitness business, if you are committed to learning internet marketing or willing to pay for it, a website can be a great way to attract opportunities. However, you will need A LOT of traffic to get clients from the web.
Think about it, if you want to find a great masseuse, are you going to look on the web or you going to ask some friends you trust? It’s the same thing with personal training or any other personal service that is intimate. Must people that come to your website will be looking for free information, not to purchase sessions.
So if you are not ready to build your business through the web, build your business using offline methods, and save some of your money to invest in your website later on. In the meantime, there are sites like http://wordpress.com and http://www.vistaprint.com/websites.aspx that will allow you to set up a very simple website for very little money.
The purpose of this website is to hold you over until you can invest in a nice one, and to send people your prospects to so they can learn more about you. It will be hard to get new leads through this kind of website, but it will help convert potential leads into paying customers; they may not want to pick up the phone and call you right away, but after reading about your mission, or your client testimonials, it will be easier for them to do so.
The best way to market your business is through your existing social network. The key is to get as much traffic into the gym as possible. Offering a complimentary session is standard, but people will still have reservations about coming in. So ask yourself, who out there is already a fan of you or your skills? Who already knows you, likes you, and trusts you?
It can be anyone! A friend, family member, someone who is friendly and works across the street, a neighbor, etc. Get them in for a session, and offer to train them at a reduced rate in exchange for asking them to bring in a new friend to workout with you 1x per week. Just how much you reduce your rate is up to you, and you can let them know it is only for a period of time.
Have the new friend do a tandem session, just to break the ice, and then set them up for their own session after the first workout. The more people you get into the gym, the more you will close, so focus on the thing that will have the biggest impact, getting people into the gym. This is just one technique, but it really works because the potential client is not worried about making a commitment because they are working out with their friend and their friend’s trainer.
You will not close everyone who comes in to your business this way, but this is one of the best techniques to build your business fast because you will get allot of prospective clients in through the door, and even if they don’t want to commit to training with you, you can always ask them for a referral. Face to face is always the best for moving your business forward! It may feel uncomfortable, but it really works. So put yourself out there!
Also, be sure to check out our resource page too, which will help you master marketing for your fitness business.
QUESTION # 2:
Does mass marketing work on this type of client? If I hang flyers/leave business cards around the neighborhood of the facility to which I am trying to attract clients will that actually lead to any new prospects? Am I cheapening my brand by doing this?
ANSWER # 2
This may work, but you will be lucky if you get 1 potential client for every 100 flyers you put out there. Following direct marketing techniques, like putting a strong call to action and a sense of urgency or scarcity will help increase this percentage, but this is not the best usage of your time and can cheapen your brand if done poorly.
One of the things we talk about in our marketing system is the 7 Key Referral Strategies, and how to use them to explode your client list. One of the referral strategies is called “Strategic Partnerships”. You are much better off going around to other business owners or professionals in a related industry and creating a relationship with them while demonstrating your value. Meet them face to face, offer to help them reach their goals, provide them with a complimentary session, and then offer them a reduced rate in exchange for referrals. Then you can give them flyers and business cards to hand out, and they can talk about you from firsthand experience, which will make all the difference. You should be able to get 1 potential client for every 20 flyers you put out using this technique.
Use both of these techniques, and you will have at least 1 new client in under 2 weeks flat! Just don’t be shy and get yourself out there, it is ok to fail and be rejected as long as you brush yourself off and keep moving forward.
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 8 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Here is another great video to send to your clients when they start getting down on themselves, complaining, and using the word “CAN’T” allot.
Really? You “can’t” find the time to work out on your own? You “can’t” eat breakfast? You “can’t” do more cardio?
I bet they think that it a little kid “can’t” do 30 handstand pushups either! Prove them wrong and show them this video, and show them that they “CAN” !!!
Check out this video, and be inspired. Impossible is nothing!
Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE! Are you inspired? Confused? Disgusted? It is a little freaky when he starts posing, right?
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Specialized Certifications for Personal Trainers & Strength Coaches: PICP
I just took the Poliquin International Certification Program (PICP) level 1 Strength Coach Certification in New York City ($650, 3 days). It was really good information.
I learned about the certification through a mentor, Joe Dowdell, I trust his opinion because he is very committed to continuing education and has taken pretty much every respectable certification.
Charles Poliquin is a famous strength coach who has trained more Olympians than any other strength coach I can think of (except maybe Mike Boyle.)
If you read Part. 1 of this series, you know that there are allot of good certifications out there, and there is no one best certification for everyone. It all depends on who you want to work with and your career path.
But, if you want to work with athletes to increase performance, this certification is up there with the NSCA’s C.S.C.S. and the Athlete’s Performance mini-internship (both of which I have taken, and honestly, even though NSCA is the most respected, I feel like I got more practical knowledge from Poliquin and Athlete’s Performance.)
There are several things that I loved about this certification, and a couple of things that I thought could be improved.
Pros
• The level 1 strength coach certification focuses on manipulating acute training variable (sets, reps, tempo, and rest) for highly effective program design. These may seem like basics, but no other certification covers it like Poliquin. It’s amazing how few people really understand how to manipulate time under tension, tempo, and rest for specific goals and sports. They also emphasize creating precise descriptions of every exercise, to ensure the most amount of variation and adaptation (Squat vs Barbell Back Squat Shoulder Width Stance).
• I loved how much research they provided as evidence, although they could have done a better job summarizing it. I have found that the best certifications specialize in one area. (Too many certifications try to be a jack of all trades, and end up being a master of none.)
• The information easily transfers to practical application, and is applicable to your general population clients. If you want to learn program design, in particular for power, strength, or fat loss, this certification is great.
• They provide a good methodology and protocol for testing maximal strength, although somewhat incomplete (see below). Based on this test, they provide a nice formula, based on studies, for assessing the balance of strength throughout the upper body. (Ex. If you lift xxx on the bench press, you should be able to do 8rm of external rotation with 8.6% of that bench press weight, and if you can’t there is an imbalance etc).
• The course instructors were friendly, knowledgeable, and generous with their attention.
• You have to take a test before being admitted to the class, in addition to a test at the end. I like this! Only committed trainers show up, and they show up with a good understanding of the basic material, so nobody asks stupid questions.
Cons
• One of the instructors didn’t understand BASIC biomechanics. Either that, or we had a major miscommunication.
• Some of the pictures in the manual were misleading and/or confusing.
• The little demo on stretching was a waste of time at best, and misleading at worst. Stick to what you are good at, leave the stretching to certifications that focus on that!
• We were quizzed on Cluster Training and German Body training, which is very cool stuff, but we only glossed over it during the lecture. I would like to have spent more time on these specific programs, but there is allot of good info about them online too.
• Some of the topics in the manual could be worded better. Initially, they do an ok job of defining the different strength qualities (limit strength, maximal strength, absolute strength, speed strength, strength endurance), but aren’t as clear when they refer to these qualities later on in the manual.
• They were clearly negligent and not following their own methodology when they chose a trainer to demonstrate the 1rm testing protocol for the bench press. The specifically chose someone who appeared to be out of structural alignment, and then tested him to his limit, without ever asking him if he has been working out consistently for the last 12 weeks (which is their own protocol).
• Furthermore, they should change their protocol and ask what kind of workout has been done over the last 12 weeks, because a person could be working out for 12 weeks and still not be ready for a 1rm bench press. RULE # 1 in personal training is do no harm. The trainer came in the next day and couldn’t participate in certain lifts, and my understanding was that he had joint pain, not just muscular soreness. Not cool and not necessary. I later talked to another trainer who said he was injured in a PICP certification.
You may read this last part and say “Whoa, no way am I doing this certification” but I think you should reconsider, it is a very valuable certification, just know your own limits and don’t do anything you think is risky (and keep the ego in check! I know it is hard when there are other trainers around).
We all had to do a 1rm test to get experience; I chose the pull up because I am a rock climber. I was able to do 1 pullup with 90lbs loaded on me, chin over bar. There are several exercises to choose from, so you should be able to find one you are comfortable with, and if not, you can and should pass.
Biomechanics
Regarding the biomechanics issue, one of the instructors mentioned he does 1 and ¼ reps on bench press with girls with the ¼ rep at the top of the motion, because this part of the motion overloads the triceps and girls care about the back of their arms looking good.
Totally cool with me. This instructor had mentioned that he is very precise in tracking his programs and exercises, so I asked was if he ever manipulated their intention on the bar to overload their triceps also?
In other words, you can push out against the friction of the barbell with your triceps, your hands aren’t going to move, but the line of force caused by the friction, when combined with the line of force of the barbell (gravity) create a resultant with a different line of force that changes the force angle’s at the axes of rotation of the shoulder joint and elbow joint. (Not a typo, axes is the plural of axis. Who knew?)
With intention, you can make the lowest part of bench press harder for the triceps, and the top part harder for the chest. Can you do this and still lift maximal weight? No! Can you just lift a barbell with only your triceps? No! But that is not was not my question.
His response was “I would love for you to come do chest with me sometime” as if who could bench the most would settle who knew the most (It doesn’t, duh).
Whoa there cowboy, first off, I was just asking a question, second off, I would be honored to workout with you because you know allot, even if you don’t understand basic biomechanics, and thirdly, you are welcome to do one of my empire state building stair workouts with me. I can get up 86 flights in UNDER 15minutes, I would love to watch your face as you try and keep up, although to do that I would have to slow down, and slow ain’t my style buddy. Either way, neither of these workout would settle anything, I was just trying to learn from his perspective without losing my perspective.
His finally response was “Yeah, you could probably do that, but why not just do a triceps exercise instead of modifying a bench press?” Really, didn’t we start this conversation because you said you liked modifying a bench press with 1 and ¼ reps to hit the triceps more? Sheesh! I wasn’t going to push, because it wasn’t a seminar about biomechanics and I didn’t want to be one of those trainers who take over a lecture to prove their point. Anyway, this instructor has a lot of potential, but he is young and testy! I liked him to say the least
I hope you enjoyed this post, and will consider this certification. Also, if you want to be able to rip apart knowledgeable instructors, text books, and pretty much everyone else in the gym about biomechanics or exercise mechanics, you should strongly consider the Resistance Training Specialist certification.
What is your favorite certification? Why? What information helped you pick a certification? Is there any topic you want to learn about in particular? Would you take the PICP certification?
Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Personal Training Degrees: The Next Step in the Fitness Industry’s Evolution
I just learned that 2 of my favorite certifications now count as credits to earning a degree at a major university! How cool is that J
If you read Part. 1 of this series, you know that there are many good certifications out there, and there is no one best certification for everyone.
You have to take a look at your goals, who your target market is, what you need to learn to best serve them, and where you are in your career path before figuring out what the best certification is for you. However, there are a few things you should consider, especially if you plan on making a career in the fitness industry;
Education is a constant process. (but you knew that already!)
The more perspectives you can utilize to create real world solutions for your clients, the better.
Stick to learning things you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about nutrition, just find a good nutritionist to refer to, etc.
General certifications are ok to start with, but you will get more value from specialty certifications as you get more educated.
Evolution
It’s pretty cool that some of your certifications can count towards a degree. Don’t get me wrong, having a degree in a specific field is NOT AS IMPORTANT as actually having practical knowledge that you can apply to your fitness business. I have met trainers with Exercise Physiology degrees that are straight up clueless when it comes to basic biomechanics. Degrees aren’t everything; I just think it’s cool that some of my hard earned money that I invested in personal training education is now recognized by a university.
Globe University has both a Bachelor’s Degree (4 year) and Associate Degree (2 year) in Health and Fitness. If you have taken the RTS certification or MAT certification, you already have earned credits towards your degree!
RTS and MAT are 2 of my favorite certifications because they provide you with real working knowledge that you can use, and provide 2 different invaluable perspectives for assessing the body. They really pick one topic that is critical to being a personal trainer, and then they take it apart and teach it better than anyone else.
For RTS, they dig deep into biomechanics/exercise mechanics; no program design, no nutrition, no physiology, just biomechanics, and they teach it way better than anyone else. Tom Purvis teaches the basics of biomechanics better than anyone on the planet, hands down. And with those basics, he can (and does) literally takes apart other books on biomechanics (including text taught by other certifications and textbooks from major university’s). His information is truly eye opening; no wonder he is being accepted at the university level.
With MAT (created by Greg Roskopf), the perspective is physiological, and they provide a unique method for testing muscle imbalances in the body, and a modality for addressing those imbalances. Forget about stretching for increasing RANG OF MOTION (which allot of outdated certifications still teach), lack of range is caused by muscle weakness; MAT provides a tool for finding those weaknesses and strengthening them precisely.
While certain aspects of Globe University’s degree certainly may not be ideal (you can earn your degree online!), it is great to watch our industry evolve, being pushed forward by our leaders.
What is your favorite certification? Why? What information helped you pick a certification? Is there any topic you want to learn about in particular? Would you want to get a Fitness Degree?
Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you.
SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 8 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Jaime helped test my personal training business software and marketing system and achieved some amazing results in a very short time.
In less than 4 weeks, Jaime was able to:
1. Get 4 more fitness clients and earned and EXTRA $1,600.
2. Increase his yearly projected revenue by $6,480
3. Build 5 partnerships with other professionals, who will continue to provide new leads for his business.
Watch the video here and learn more about this marketing system for personal trainers.
Then leave me some comments or questions at the bottom of this page, and I will get right back to you!
Part 2: How do I get clients and differentiate myself from other trainers to minimize competition? How important are certifications?
Recently, I was asked a bunch of questions by a trainer who is just starting his business. He basically wanted advice on what the fastest way to build a successful personal training business.
Below are his questions and my responses.
QUESTION # 1:
It seems that many private personal trainers get their client base by poaching from the commercial gyms they have worked for. Is this the only/best way to establish a private clientele?
ANSWER # 1:
A lot of trainers do poach, but this is certainly not the best way to get clients and build your business! Even in NYC, personal training is a small industry, everyone knows everyone, and any successful business is built on a foundation of relationships. Don’t burn anyone!
At the same time, if you work at a facility for a respectable amount of time (1-2 years perhaps), then decide to pursue a different/better opportunity and your clients want to go with you, that is completely different. It’s their body, their money, their health; so ultimately, it is the client’s decision on where they want to train.
QUESTION # 2:
How does someone who is very passionate about training, very well educated on both the science and practical applications of training separate themselves from other trainers?
ANSWER # 2: There is an infinite # of ways to differentiate your business from other trainers, but my one word answer would be !MARKETING!
(Most trainers are not good at sales and marketing, so if you can add this skill set, you will be sure to dominate your market).
I am not talking about being pushy, I am talking about working smart.
One of the best marketing concepts that will help you stand out among the crowd is picking a niche. Ask yourself these 2 questions. What kinds of people do you love training and what are their goals?
I love training kids age 12-18, and I love training people for performance and athletics, so Youth Fitness is a market I go after. I am passionate about this niche, so it shows up in my marketing. I target this market by writing blog posts for them, making contacts with schools in my neighborhood, and finding reporters who are looking for stories about youth fitness.
There are a lot of other ways to differentiate yourself, but follow your passion, and use your talents. If you are a great writer, write to your market. If you are a great speaker, find associations that are looking for public speakers.
Be sure to check out our resource page too, which will help you master marketing for your fitness business.
QUESTION # 3
How important are certifications? Do they matter to clients or are they just something that makes an impression on gym owners/other trainers?
ANSWER # 3
This is a great question, be sure to check out our blog post “What is the Best Personal Training Certification?” Essentially, a training certification is only as good as it helps you provide real world practical solutions to your client’s health and fitness problems. Certifications have been instrumental in helping me grow and provide more value to my clients (I have 8 certifications so far and I am taking a Poloquin certification next weekend.)
However, they are not the only way to gain experience and knowledge. Reading books, interning and working with other trainer, attending seminars, interning with physical therapists, all of these can help you step your game up.
NO, the clients don’t really care that you got a certain certification for the most part, but they do care about the knowledge and results that they can get from you.
So evaluate every certification and learning opportunity? Will it help you provide results for the specific demographic of clients you are targeting? What do other trainers have to say about that certification?
There are no easy answers here, and there is no shortage of certifications out there. Just do some research, ask around, read up on them, and then trust you gut.
Until next time, keep your business fit.
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 8 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Our industry, much like our world, is transforming at an accelerated pace. The unthinkable and impossible soon becomes the inevitable and forgotten.
The fitness industry, as you know, is relatively unregulated, which is an advantage and a disadvantage. There are so many certifications out there, so many experts, so many things we can learn to help transform our clients’ bodies and minds, but how does one go about choosing the best educational path?
Is there even a thing such as the one best personal training certification, or is it possible that some certifications excel at teaching one specific area, while some excel at teaching a different area, while others only excel at building their own business and following?
We all know how important education is for our industries credibility, our client’s success, and our career stability. Our client’s come to us looking for leadership; we wield great power over them, and with great power comes the need for responsibility. Of course, they are ultimately responsible for their own success, but we are responsible for providing them with the best shot at realizing their full potential, while also being responsible for their safety and joint integrity.
And in order to give our client’s the best shot possible, we must be passionate about learning and dedicate ourselves to the study of many topics.
“Those who love wisdom must investigate many things.” Heraclitus
I have personally, in 9 years of being a trainer, been to numerous courses and conferences across the country, including Florida, California, and Oklahoma, taken 8 certifications, several all day workshops, 2 internships, and read numerous books, textbooks, and research studies.
If I could point to one thing, it is my passion for knowledge that has allowed me to create a very successful career in the fitness industry. A wise man once said “A better question will lead to a better answer?” This is absolutely true. Think about it. If you ask “Why am I so fat?” you may come up with the answer “Because I am lazy or stupid”. But if you ask yourself “How can I lose weight while having fun” you will come up with a much better answer. Right?
So how does this idea apply to the question at hand? What is the best personal trainer certification? Honestly, I have learned important things from each and every certification. I think a much better question is “What area am I passionate about learning about?” If it is biomechanics, RTS is the best certification. If it is the heart and cardiac rehab, ACSM is the best. If it is about sports performance, you may want to go with an Athlete’s Performance Internship, get you C.S.C.S from the NSCA, or check out Charles Poliquin’s certification program. Want to teach Olympic lifts? No one does it better than USAW.
So ask yourself, what are you excited to learn about? Just as importantly, what kinds of people do you want to train? If you are focused on the elderly and post rehab, MES makes a lot more sense than USAW.
One very cool certification that I just learned about is PTA Global. They are unifying some of the best teachers and trainers in our industry under one certification system.
Asking yourself “What knowledge and clients am I excited about” is an important first step in laying the foundation for a successful fitness business. Based on your answers, you can begin to identify a career path that will allow you to realize the business and lifestyle you deserve, while enjoying your life’s work and client’s successes.
Leave me some comments! Show me you are alive! What is your favorite certification and why? Do you have any questions or advice about picking a certification? Let us know, we will respond to your comments.
Part 1: What is the Fastest Path to Private Training Clients and My Own Successful Personal Training Business?
Have you ever wondered:
a) How much many can a personal trainer really make?
b) How long does it take to build up a client base?
c) How do I find clients that are a good fit for me?
d) What is the best way to build a successful personal training business fast?
e) How can I become one of the best Personal Trainers in the world?
I gotta admit, that last question is my favorite.
Recently, I was asked a bunch of questions by a trainer who is just getting started. He is a really nice guy, and I think he has a lot of potential, so I thought to myself “how can I help myself and this guy at the same time?”
I love trying to think in terms of “Both”, instead of “either/or” (which is what we are taught from our education system, parents, and popular culture like “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
That is PURE NONSENSE.
So I wanted to help this trainer and help myself. Then it hit me. I asked him to write down his biggest questions about growing a personal training business from the ground up! He will get good answers and info, and I will get a cool and helpful blog post. This post is the first in a series of articles that address trainers’ questions about the business of personal training.
What are your questions about building your personal training business? Leave them in the comments and I will answer them!!! How can I help you?
His first question is below, and will be followed by other posts to address the rest of his questions.
Question # 1
1) As someone who is new to the business, is it possible to develop a good practice as a private personal trainer, or is it essential to start at a commercial gym first?
This is a great question! Personally, it took me 5 years before I felt comfortable “taking my clients private”. I thought about it seriously about 3 years into the game, but decided that I wanted to get more experience before pulling the trigger.
For myself, I am glad I waited. With the support of a name brand gym, in two years, it allowed me to build my technical skill set (increased exercise knowledge) and increase my rate without having to worry too much about where my next client was coming from. I am sure I could have moved sooner, but I doubt that my business would have been such a success.
HOWEVER, this does not mean that every trainer needs to wait 5 years before “going private”. I was PAINFULLY SHY when I first started working as a trainer, I worked a floor shift 4x/week at World gym in NYC for 6 MONTH BEFORE PICKING UP A SINGLE CLIENT!!!
Thank god I overcame my shyness (actually, personal training helped a lot in this regard, and ever since I have always thought of personal training as a way to develop oneself and one’s clients.)
So how do you know when you are ready? For most new trainers, I think the following goals should be achieved before venturing out on your own:
1. At least 1-2 years of experience in a gym.
2. A combination of at least 2-3 certifications or degrees (to help develop critical thinking skills and increase perspective you utilize when training).
3. A solid client base and contacts.
4. Confidence in your ability to achieve results.
5. Confidence in your ability to promote, market and sell yourself.
Of course, these are just general guidelines. If you know and have rapport with a lot of people in the area you will be servicing, have developed a skill set that will help you get exposure (worked as an advertiser, internet marketer, etc), and are confident using those resources to generate business, you can probably pull the trigger and “go private” in under a year.
Also, some private training studios will provide you with clients, which will make the transition from being a gym personal trainer to a private personal trainer easier and faster. Be sure to ask them about how often you can expect a new lead from them.
If you don’t have the preceding requirements, I think you are better off leaning on the gym to help you build your business, so you can focus on developing your exercise skills and confidence.
Then once your business and exercise skills are built up, you can shift to a private facility and start working on your marketing skills.
Having to work on business skills, exercise skills, and customer service skills all at once is not ideal for most people (although I would imagine some trainers would thrive under this pressure.)
So ask yourself, honestly, what is the fastest way to become a big success in the training industry? What skills and resource have you developed and are confident using? Are you ready to go out on your own?
Still not sure? We provide a step by step plan for “going private” in our Personal Trainer Marketing System ( click here: http://ptbizcoach.com/personal-training-business-software/), which includes software to help you grow and manage your business. We make it really simple! There alot of experts out there talking about alot of cool stuff, but our system is the only one that comprehensively address everything you need to take your fitness business to the next level, step by step, in a very simple way.
We break down skills into 3 mega-competencies (exercise science, business skills, interpersonal skills) and then break down each mega-competency into several competencies and sub competencies:
A) Exercise Science
Career & Educational Path
Biomechanics
Physiology
Anatomy
Program Design
Nutrition
B) Interpersonal Skills
Communication Skills
Customer Service Skills
Pscyhological/Motivational Skills
Leadership Skills
C) Business Skills
Marketing Skills
Organizational Skills & Systems
Sales Skills
Professionalism
Entreprenurial Skills
Each of the above competencies are an opportunity to get better at your craft, help more people, and make more money!
There are many paths to success, and personal training allows a lot of freedom and creativeness regarding the skill sets that can be utilized to build a career. This is why entrepreneurs love personal trainer. But there are alot of good trainers out there with potential who would grow faster with a little more structure. That is what our system provides; a little structure to help you create your own path to ultimate success.
You don’t have to master every skill above. In fact, you can’t master any subject above; a person can study exercise physiology for years and still argue about the details with someone else who has spent their life studing the same topic. The point is not to master all the skills above, but to find and focus on the unique combination that will excite you and allow you to realize your full potential.
Our marketing system will help you to do this step by step, and help you find ways to delegate or outsource skills that you are not passionate about and not interested in. (Of course, basic knowledge of every skill is essential, at least.) You still have to do work, but our system will help you define a path that suits your specific dreams and take you along that path step by step.
Please leave me comments and questions, I love hearing from you guys. Just scroll down and write me a comment. Are there any skills that you think I am missing? What is your biggest problem with building your personal training business? What skill are you great at? What skill are you most passionate about or interested in learning about? Let me know and I will get right back to you.
Until Next Time,
Keep your business fit,
Johnny Fitness
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has directly coached, managed, and mentored over 100 personal trainers in the last 5 years alone, and owns a highly successful consulting company for personal trainers. His coaching clients have achieved amazing results including making more money, helping more people, and creating more opportunities for their fitness business.
http://www.getbodysmart.com
