75%, or more, of the trainers we hired had less than 2 years of experience in the industry. Many of them had none.
The first 2 years of a fitness professional’s career are vital to build a solid foundation. Unfortunately, the fitness industry is a wild west of information and too many trainers end up flaming out before gaining solid ground. They usually leave over some combination of:
- Not having enough clients.
- The hours being too long and scattered.
- They hate selling and prospecting for new clients.
- Education in the industry is all over the place and they don’t know who to trust.
These are all issues that could be minimized or overcome with the right guidance.
That is what I hope to contribute to the industry with this newsletter and PersonalTrainingPlaybooks.com.
There are several things a fitness professional needs to do to be successful in the industry. What I’ve often seen though is that trainers become consumed by the things that don’t get them a high return on their investment.
Instead of focusing on the big rocks they’ll spend too much time on the fringes of what’s important. For instance, instead of getting really good at the basics of program design they’ll spread themselves thin and overthink what actually get’s clients results. Instead of spending their time studying the fundamentals of education they’ll start chasing every specialty certification around.
What I’ve seen as a commonality of the successful personal trainers I’ve been around is that they get really good at the basics of the profession. They put their reps in over and over to make it their own. Then they expand and add to what they’ve made their own.
6 Things All New Personal Trainers Should Do If They Want to Build A Successful Career
1. Find Mentors to Help You Grow
A newly certified personal trainer will usually end up at the gym or health club that is closest to their home. Unfortunately, this severely limits the amount and quality of guidance you will receive in your first two years in the business.
Unless you are lucky enough to live close to an Equinox or Lifetime, you are left trying to find a needle in a haystack. There may be an Anytime Fitness or Crunch nearby, but these are all franchise owned, which means your mileage will vary by owner. Often, a personal trainer’s best bet is hoping to find an independent location or club that has a passionate owner or manager. This will often vary by owner as well.
If you do find a gym in the area with a strong staff, it’s important to do everything you can to learn from the team. Seek and ask questions of the most senior and successful trainers on staff. Ask for extra time from the managers. Learn as much as you can from the general managers and sales staff. Everyone can help further your growth, and the more interest you show, the more likely the team will be to help.
Some things to consider when searching for a training job are:
- What In House Education is offered? Is it offered by the company? Managers or trainers on staff? Do they attend continuing education events together? A combination of these goes a long way.
- Do the managers seem like they care? I’ve worked for and with managers that are more focused on the numbers than they are the personal trainers on staff. When finding mentors and a place to grow its important to find a staff that cares about the growth of their employees. Look for a management team that talks more about education and development, during the interview, than numbers.
- How long have their senior level trainers been there? A good sign of culture and a growth oriented gym is trainers that like to be there. This will also provide a big advantage for you as senior trainers are often the ones who care most about helping new ones.
The above is an ideal scenario. We won’t all live near gyms that have great support staff in place. With that said, we are lucky enough to have several strong mentorship options out there in the industry. Both 1-on-1 and group.
Most of the group mentorships will have a set 3-4 month curriculum and include session-specific and business oriented topics. Two of the better ones out there right now are The Standard from Compound Peformance and Program Design from Pat Davidson. We also currently have a 1-on-1 monthly mentorship available, with a group program on the way.
2. Find Education You Trust and Then Find Who They Trust
Don’t Fall Into The Certification Trap!
It’s your first few months after getting certified, and the only education you have in the industry comes from the organization you got certified through. What do most trainers end up doing? Get another “specialty certification” from that same organization!
These “specialty certifications” can range from a Mixed Martial Arts certification to being a Social Media Influencer. I’m not making that up.
This is one of the biggest issues I’ve seen with education in the fitness industry. If trainers don’t have the right guidance in their own facility, how will they know where to find the right education after certification? Instagram? YouTube? Ads from the organization they got their certification from?
This is why finding sources you can trust is so important. This doesn’t mean you blindly follow what they say going forward, but having reputable sources gives trainers a huge advantage.
Here are some good rules of thumb:
- Focus on Individuals and not organizations
- Find sources you can trust and then find out who they trust. Most individuals are happy to answer questions on social media, or at conferences, to point you in the right direction.
- I’ve already mentioned Pat Davidson and Kyle Dobbs above. There are a ton of quality coaches and trainers out there providing quality information. I’ll provide a whole separate newsletter to highlight some of the top sources. In the meantime, check out this great list from Coach Brett Bartholomew on the books every trainer should read.
3. Build Your Own Systems
One of the biggest mistakes I see trainers make in the first couple years, and for years later, is jumping from training system to system. I’ve been way too guilty of this myself over the years.
Some trainers stumble onto quality education and find systems they think are the answers to helping their clients see life changing results.
Then they find a new system, and new certification that they think will make a huge difference.
They end up jumping from one system to the next without ever developing one of their own.
This is true not just in training, but in their sales, coaching, productivity, and business systems. Instead of creating their own, they end up jumping from one to the next, looking for the next big thing.
If you are just starting out in the industry, it’s so important for you to create your own system. This doesn’t mean you should create this system out of thin air.
Instead, the idea is to “steal what you learn” and make it your own. Take what you learn and create your own framework. Then, as you continue to learn, you can continue to change this framework based on your experience.
This applies to everything from program design, in session structure, post session communication, coaching, productivity, and sales. The list goes on and on. You should have systems and frameworks in place for each area of your training and business. This will not only clarify your thoughts but also make things much simpler when starting with new clients.
Where You Should Have Systems in Place:
- Intake and Assessments
- Program Structure
- In Session Structure
- Out of Session Behaviors
- Values and pillars of your program.
- Productivity including when you are studying, programming, etc.
- How do you handle renewals?
- How are you keeping track of sessions? Birthdays?
The tools I recommend everyone start with are Notion and Google Drive. Keep in mind that some of the systems above may be influenced by where you are working.
4. Learn How to Get Clients
I’ve seen too many personal trainers avoid sales at all costs. It’s such a dirty word in the fitness industry. As if we aren’t selling ourselves in almost every facet of our lives.
What the most successful trainers realize is that we are selling ourselves at every step of our client relationship.
- When we first meet a potential client
- Conduct their assessment
- In their first session and initial program
- When they renew their package.
The list goes on and on. We are always guiding, or “selling,” that client toward achieving their goals.
When we look negatively at this aspect of the business, we will always lack the confidence to pick up the next client and help them achieve their goals.
Instead, we need to reframe our mindset about selling. Instead of it being that kind of dirty word, we can instead look at it as part of the coaching process. We are acting as a guide for each person we interact with, and it’s part of our job to show them their best path forward. How we present ourselves and our program will make a difference in helping them make a difference in their lives.
Some tools to get us on the right path with selling are:
- Learning how to show a potential client how the program will benefit them. This requires background knowledge of the client so we can personalize how the features of the program will benefit them.
- Establishing a rapport or connection with the client. Preferably an uncommon connection that you can come back to later.
- Ask questions and listen. You are looking for answers to what their goals are, why they haven’t achieved them yet, and why now is the right time.
- Consistently check in to see what they like about your service. Having a client tell you what they like about you and your training program will go much further than you telling them what they should like.
- Some great resources in sales our Spin Selling, Influence, Pre-suasion, Alex Hormozi’s $100 Million Dollar Offers and Gym Launch Secrets, and Motivational Interviewing for Nutrition and Fitness.
5. Discover How To Keep Your Clients
How many program design courses does a trainer need to take? As mentioned above, there are too many trainers focused on the latest and greatest in program design when they haven’t identified how to build a relationship with their clients.
There’s nothing wrong with seeking more education on program design, but we need to step back and look at what’s actually driving results for clients.
Learning how to keep your client Mary on track and accountable will go so much further than how many sets and reps she needs to do on the 3rd week of the program. Keeping your clients consistent will be more important than the progressions you are programming.
How Do We Do This?
- Set the stage in the first session assessment and conversation to let them know that this is a partnership. That you will seek feedback from them throughout. This helps to create ownership of their goals and program.
- Give them autonomy during and between sessions. Let them have a hand in choosing what exercises they love and what they are doing on their own.
- Provide accountability by asking! This doesn’t mean punishment through burpees, but asking how things went and then asking what they can improve on. Often just knowing that they will be asked is enough to keep them adhering to out of session homework.
- Look to Precision Nutrition, Motivational Interviewing and Conscious Coaching for help in developing these skills.
6. Put Your Reps In and Realize You Won’t Be Good When You Start
There are very few careers or activities where you become very successful in less than 2 years. Personal training is no exception. I’ve seen too many trainers come in and think they should have it all figured out after the first six months. They will see more experienced trainers pulling in six figures and wonder why they aren’t doing the same.
The difference between the trainer that drops out, the average trainer, and the really successful ones is repetition. Having the patience to put in the repetitions and then reflect is the most important thing on this list.
You have to do the work over and over to build the models in your mind. It’s like a rookie quarterback. He can have all the skills and knowledge to be successful in his first year, but very few see that success without the in game reps.
Advice on Getting Reps:
- Train everyone you can. Do we all have an ideal population? Yes, but training across different populations will give you different perspectives. You’ll also learn how to connect and coach different personalities.
- Plan and Reflect. Not all repetitions are created equal. You will see so much more progress when you properly plan out a training program/session and then reflect on what went right and not so right. This includes asking for feedback from your clients and peers!
- Look at failure as a good thing. Let yourself go through the process of sucking when you first start. Fail, Reflect, Improve is the recipe for success.
So, Remember:
- Find a mentor! Preferably in the gym you work at but online works as well.
- Find providers of education you can trust. Then find out who they trust.
- Build your own systems. Steal from others. Make it your own. Realize that you will always be learning and improving on your systems.
- Change your mindset on selling. You are a guide toward helping others reach their goals.
- Develop yourself as a coach. Helping clients stay consistent in a program is more important than the perfect combination of exercises, sets, and reps.
- Train, Reflect, and Improve. Train as many people across different spectrums as you can. You’ll learn how to work with different personalities and improve your skills as a personal trainer.