8 Reasons Why Your Career as a Personal Trainer Sucks
To watch the full video, click here: https://youtu.be/Z1QRtz7DVEc
Coaches, athletes. Welcome back to the channel. My name is Michael Hughes, founder of Gymnazo Edu. Personal Training in its current standards is a labor of love. It’s long hours, little pay and a lot of self sacrifice. But I’m here to challenge the status quo and provide you with hope and a path away from burnout that will lead you to have a long and sustainable career in fitness. But before I get into that, please make sure to subscribe to our channel for more videos about movement training, methodologies, coaching skills, and how to turn your passion for fitness into a lifelong career. I really appreciate the support. Alright, I’ve been in this industry for 15 years now. I’ve gone through the burnout, the struggles, the long hours, the whole gamut. And now after years of determination and finding a better path, I’m a proud owner of a business that brings in $1 million in revenue per year, where I actually work a reasonable number of hours a day, I go on vacations when I want, I have life outside of work, and I’m making enough money to live in California, I own a home and two, Tesla’s now I’m not truly trying to flex here. I’m not. But I’m trying to emphasize that personal training doesn’t have to be this grungy run yourself into the ground for the betterment of others type of career, there is a happy medium available for you. So in this video, I’m going to cover the eight mistakes, I see trainers making that are holding them back from having a sustainable and enjoyable career in fitness. Number one, you’re not leveraging your time, you’re giving your attention to one person per hour for eight hours per day, that does not allow you to reach your full revenue potential. Want you to check out this graph. Let’s say you’re charging $100 For our for your one on one sessions, which takes at least an hour of your time knowing that there is also transition time between sessions. So you only making $100 per hour, and you’re probably spending a good amount of time still looking for clients who are willing to pay that price. Now if you add in some group training options to your schedule, like semi private sessions, which we do four to one, and then charging $50 per person, and adding some group training sessions, which we do 16 clients to one coach, perhaps charging 20 to $25 per person, here are your here are the opportunities for your revenue. With semi private training, you can make $200 per hour. And with group training, you can make up to $400 per hour. So when you are making that kind of money in one hour, it allows you to free up time elsewhere in your schedule. So you aren’t getting burnt out doing eight back to back exclusive sessions. And also remember having to spend time programming and doing all the other administrative work that if you’re a trainer, you know what I’m talking about. Now, if you want to dive in, on how to make the transition from one on one to group, check out this video right up here. It’s an awesome video that covers that exact topic in detail. Okay, mistake number two, you aren’t charging what you’re worth. Now, I say this with a caveat that what you’re worth is directly related to your ability to deliver results and apply your knowledge. In other words, there is definitely a spectrum of what you should be charging based upon your experience, your knowledge and your client success. So here are some examples to give you an idea of where you fall on that spectrum. In my opinion, your sessions are only worth over $100 per hour, if you can solve for the root cause of a client’s frozen shoulder herniated disk, total hip or knee replacement while still giving them a full body workout. The example I’m giving here is that you know your stuff in detail. Now, this doesn’t matter where you live in the country. If your skills are that developed, you definitely deserve to be making over $100 per hour. On the other end of the spectrum, if you have no idea how to legitimately permanently solve for these types of movement dysfunctions, then you need to do the industry and your clients a favor and keep your rates well below 100 miles per hour. Because what you’re charging doesn’t match your skill level and it confuses the market unfortunately, and it dilutes what a great trainers time is actually worth. Chances are that you’re probably somewhere in between those two spectrums. So I’m happy to to provide some advice here. Honestly, if you’re unsure of what you should be charging based upon your skill level. So if you’d like my input, Hey, make sure to drop some questions in the comments below. We read every single one of them. I’m mistake number three. This is a super, super common one that really becomes a normality in our industry and really should not be the norm. And it’s that you are not taking care of yourself. You can’t give from an empty cup day in and day out. Because our job as trainers is to give the same energy and attention to our first client of the day as we get to the last client of our day. This is a process like a law of diminishing returns. At some point giving all every second of every day without recharging your battery is going to have a negative impact on your clients. For the sustainability of your practice. You’re going to have a font you’re going to have to find a way to fill your cup every single day. That doesn’t mean that you have to find time to work out every day, I’m serious. You could go for a short hike, or meditation, take some time to read an enjoyable book, or hang out with friends and family. All it has to do is give you energy clarity and a purpose back to your soul. There’s a huge burnout culture in this industry, and it prevents most trainers from making their passion into a career. Moving on to mistake number four, you’re too focused on getting new clients. I said, most trainers have a short term mindset when they’re only focused on getting more and more clients in the door. Basically also known as client acquisition strategies, like running discount just kind of boot boot camps, or offering a bunch of free sessions. But these are not long term business strategies. What’s going to help you gain long term success is focusing on keeping the clients you have and creating an incredible noteworthy a five star experience for them that they’re going to want to tell their friends about. Yes, your clients become your marketers. This way, you’re having to do less work trying to find new clients because your clients are referring new people to you constantly. And you’re turning your current clients into life time customers, who will continue to pay you for your services year after year after year. Now for a deep dive into retention strategies that you can use, hey, check out this video right up here. Alright, we’re about halfway through. Let me get your thoughts on these mistakes so far, do you agree with me or not? Go ahead and drop some comments below. Again, we read every single one of them. Number five, you’re not developing your soft skills. Soft skills are the most underrated and underdeveloped part of what it means to be a good trainer. The program you write is actually in my opinion, only about 49% of the importance of every session. 51% is how you actually coach the client in front of you. I want you to do some reflecting here and ask yourself how you coach, every single one of your clients? Do you approach them all the same way? Do you cue them all the same? Do you bring the same energy and enthusiasm to each one of them? I really hope you don’t. If you are that you’re training your clients on how you want them to be trained, versus how they want you to train them. A personal trainer is a coach first and foremost. And the best training program in the world is a program that your clients will actually do if you’re missing the deeper understanding of what makes them tick and gets them excited about engaging in an uncomfortable physical activity that you will not have your clients for very long. Each client needs to be connected with and communicated with on a wavelength that they connect to not the one that you broadcast from. This is where understanding behavioral science and personalities can really elevate and add value to your sessions. Okay, great job for making it to number six. Because this leads to burnout and changing of careers. The mistake is this, you’re not investing in the right education. I once had a college professor stated my kinesiology class a quote that I will never forget, and one that I only truly understood later on in my career. He said this, getting your CPT is now making you certifiably dangerous to the general population of fitness goers. When I finally said about this quote was that the CPT gives a new trainer confidence that they are good to serve their clients, but in reality, they are the worst that they will ever be in their career. And unfortunately, fitness clients don’t know that fat. It is my belief in my standard that our trainers job is to be as intelligent and capable as a strength coach, a nutritionist, a physical therapist, I buy a mechanist and a massage therapist and a life coach. We call it being a specialist of specialties. And it’s certainly a tall order, I fully get that. But that’s where I believe the industry is heading. So I want to encourage you to find educational programs that don’t just give you a list of protocols, or tell you what to do.
I want to encourage you to find courses and programs that teach you how to leverage physics, how to view muscles as a chain reaction, how to train and program in all three planes of motion, how to train mobility and stability together instead of separately. How to be a better coach. Ultimately, a good core should teach you how to think not what to think, which is exactly what the multi dimensional movement coaching mentorship does that we offer. If this sparked your curiosity, you can get more information on that in the description below. Alright, mistake number seven. You’re not running your business like a business. Businesses need operation and in today’s world software systems to run smoothly. Taking Venmo or cash not programming workouts ahead of time, not utilizing movement assessments, not using client acquisition and retention strategies to develop your business is going to keep you broke and probably miserable and burnt out. A simple way to start running your business like a business is utilizing software’s. Because if you’re still doing things manually that could be done automated by software, then you’re working harder and not smarter and wasting your valuable time. Here’s some things that we use software’s for. For billing and feedback collection, we use mind body. For client intake forms, we use intake cue. For movement, assessment, tracking and video communication. We use coach now, for running high quality virtual training sessions, we use E cam live, I’ll link all these softwares in the description so you can check them out. I’ve got a lot more tips and strategies for you around all these business ideas, including tips for hiring your first employees, which you can also check out in another video we made right up here. All right, thanks for staying with me. Here’s the eighth. And the last mistake I see trainers make. You’re not differentiating yourself from the crowd. Everyone is doing the same stuff. Just look at your typical Instagram post sagittal plane squats. Down Down. Down Down bench press. Down Down. ABS cardio machines are just simply running so boring. The best way to stand out from the crowd is by training the whole body how is intended to move multi dimensionally. This may seem unconventional to you, but is the most authentic to how all athletes move and play sports, how kids move on playgrounds, and how all of us move through everyday tasks. This is the true definition of fitness. It’s not about how good your shoulders and trap look in a mirror. Unfortunately, the other component of this that will put you way ahead of the game is knowing how to fix people’s movement pains. Remember earlier when I said and I mentioned that it’s our job to be a specialist of specialties. That includes being able to offer movement therapeutics as one of your services, instead of just having to refer people to physical therapists, chiropractors and other similar practitioners. Now don’t get me wrong, you should have a Rolodex of them. Because you can’t solve all problems but you don’t have a community. But you should be able to handle those basic tasks. Now you have the opportunity and the capabilities as a functional movement specialist to do exactly what physical therapy does from a movement related pain. And honestly, you can probably even do it better than they can. I’ve been problem solving for movement dysfunctions in helping people fix things like tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, runner’s knee, frozen shoulders, etc. Since 2008, let me tell you, I was not the smartest kid in my class. I was even denied from PT school two years in a row. This is my truth about personal training and the potential I have for you in this field. Reaching that potential is your choice. I’ve outlined some of the mistakes that I’ve made and learn from in order to reach a more sustainable way of working and living. Now it’s up to you to make that decision, and challenge the status quo of what it means to be a personal trainer and pursue a better opportunity for yourself. I’d be more than happy to support and guide you in that decision. The way I’d have for many other trainers who have gone through our multi dimensional movement coaching mentorship program. This is a truly innovative and well rounded program, where my team and I dive deep into the principles of movement, and how to apply them how to address pain, how to set up and price your services, strategies for running and retaining clients, how to communicate better as a coach, behavioral psychology and the multi dimensional aspects of training. I truly have not seen a course out there that looks like ours, and is produced the life changing results for all of our coaches and their clients. So if you’re interested in learning more, and want to create a better, more sustainable career for yourself in this industry, head to the description in the link below to book a call someone on my team and just start asking questions and see about hey, this is a great fit for me. And honestly if we would love to start to work with you in our MDMC program. Alright, that’s all I got for you. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to our videos to keep supporting this channel so we can continue to make content just like this. Thanks for watching. Cheers.
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