3 Things I Wish I Knew as a NEW Trainer
These 3 things would've helped me increase my earning potential, retain more clients and find more satisfaction in my work.
When you first begin as a personal trainer you think things are going to be easy. Most people think things are going to be so easy.
I’ll have a flexible schedule.
I’ll make a lot of money.
I’ll be my own boss.
These are just a few of the things that many new trainers or trainers leaving big box gyms to strike out on their own think.
Many personal trainers find themselves with a rude awakening.
You end up working ridiculously early morning hours and late nights.
You find your money going to renting facility space, travel to and from clients as well as other expenses.
And being your own boss comes with a ton of responsibilities like:
How do I get new clients?
How do I balance my budget or set prices?
Taxes? How does that work?
We’ll dive into some of these other topics in subsequent posts. If you’re interested in discussion on some of these topics, please leave me a comment.
In this post I’m going to discuss 3 simple things that I wish I knew as a new trainer over 20 years ago. Let’s dive straight to it.
1. You cannot serve everyone
A lot of new trainers want to do all the things. I do Nutrition, Sports Performance, Fat Loss, Beach Body, Mobility and Functional Tactical Fitness for busy moms and dads, and also youth and elderly…
What the F@#%
Yo, it took me a while to carve out my niche, but I started right there in that undefined role as a personal trainer. I was everyone’s personal trainer. If you called me in 2002 and wanted training, just tell me what you want and I allegedly could do it.
The problem was that I was managing all these different types of clients and no one knew exactly what I was great at. I was as they say “a jack of all trades, master of none”.
Another issue is that people have specific issues and want specific outcomes. How can you be recommended by someone if they don’t know how to describe your services?
You have to develop your tagline and your elevator pitch.
What is it that you want to do?
For me it was a matter of figuring out what I didn’t want to do.
What I didn’t want to do was measure people’s body fat, weight or try and get them to do the things they need to do at home required to lose weight or body fat. Let’s face it, weight and body fat are directly related to what you eat at home, what you do in your days outside the 1 to 3 days you see your trainer.
So decide who you want to serve and go in on that.
For me, I serve people who want to Move Better, Feel Better and Do More with their body. My focus is on human longevity and holistic overall health. I help my clients in those spaces, share ideas for living a better lifestyle and lead them in directions that help them build better awareness of their body.
It doesn’t matter who you decide to serve. Serve the segment you want and refer out to other professionals the people you do not serve.
2. Put yourself in your client’s shoes
That may be hard to do depending on your age and experience. I’m about to show my age here, but it’s true. If you’ve never experienced certain things it’s hard to have empathy for the process of getting through it.
I’ve been fortunate enough to never have a catastrophic injury so I cannot really relate to being completely immobilized.
I can empathize with it because I work within a Physical Therapy clinic and I see the process. I know what it looks like.
However, I remember being in my 20’s and training clients who were older. Clients were in their 40’s and 50’s. Often I’d hear what they were telling me but I had no frame of reference for what it felt like to be inside their body.
Now that I’m 46, I know all too well what a middle aged man who’s body has been through all types of things over the years feels like internally. I can empathize with my mid 40 to mid 50 year old clientele.
Putting yourself in the shoes of others is so important to becoming a good coach and trainer. You’re able to build a different level of trust with a client when you can share your vulnerabilities and internal joint related issues.
Never discount your service
I used to run the type of business where I did discounts for buying bigger packages. I don’t do this anymore. My rate is my rate. Period.
Your rate should be your rate, regardless of whether a person does 1 session or 20 sessions. But my advice to new trainers is to understand that selling large packages is not the business.
That may be the business of a big box gym, but you have to realize that big box gyms are corporations that don’t give a shit about people. They only want to sell the packages and bank the money. They’ll keep some reserve to pay out the trainers, but sometimes people forget they even bought something at the big box.
As an individual business it doesn’t serve you well to bank people’s money or sessions for long periods. It does not help with your cash flow and even if you have an expiry, when you sold a 30 pack that expires in 3 months and you get to the end of 3 months, and there are still 10 sessions left, you’re going to have a PR nightmare trying to tell that client they’re losing that many sessions.
This is why I only sell small packages and allow people to top up if necessary.
Now I’m not saying you can’t create products that serve the people.
I provide options like monthly programming and single session per month + programming which allows me to work with a demographic that may not be able to afford 2 to 3x per week. I want to be able to serve people like teachers, and other community service oriented people and I try my best to make some form of accommodation.
Do what works best for you, but remember that at the heart of your business is your integrity, which means your core values should be the seed from which your business grows.