How Understanding These 4 Personality Types Will Help You Be a Better Coach
Michael Hughes
Welcome back to the Gymnazo podcast. Michael Hughes here, founder and owner or part owner with Kaleena Raskin, movement specialist, Rockstar FCC specialist. And I think we need to get nicknames. Now for all of us after hearing the last few podcasts, though, yeah, a little jealous about the transplant, transverse plane Tiger. But here, we’re talking about behavioral science. And the behavioral science is one of those soft skills that even before this podcast, we were starting, just kind of get ourselves warmed up for it. It’s the art, it’s the soft side of training. And in this podcast, we’re gonna dive into so much of the benefits and not just in this facility. And so talking about in our own personal lives and our relationships, but why training someone, the way that they want to be trained, is like this holy grail of possibility, and how understanding different personality types, and how your personality type is a huge asset for your training, but it’s also a limiting factor of your training. So stay involved dive in, really think about opening up your own mind about who you are as a personality, how you communicate, and how those communications can be very beneficial for certain clients and maybe not so much for other clients. So if you’re ready to dive in, I’m excited about it. It’s one of my favorite topics and what we believe what makes juveniles super unique. So let’s get ready to roll. Let’s do it. Welcome to the Gymnazo podcast where you get to peek behind the curtains of what it takes to create and run a seven figure fitness facility that ranks in the top 5% of boutique fitness studios for revenue. But to be honest, that’s the least important thing about us. Founded by me, Michael Hughes, Gymnazo has created an ecosystem of services that blend performance with restoration techniques, and attracts top coaches to its facility hosted by its owners, Paden, and myself and our top coaches, this podcast shares our best practices on everything, from how to build a sustainable fitness business, to how to program for maximum results, to how to build a hybrid training module that’s online. And in person. We have marketing secrets, movement, innovation, and breaking down trends in the industry. If you’re a fitness professional, or fitness business owner, this is where you learn how to sharpen your skills and to see maximum results. All right, first thing I want to talk about is how do we incorporate behavioral training in Gymnazo. And I think we got you know, so in so many different ways, we got our older clients, we have our younger clients, we have our youth athletes, we have certain sessions that are one on one sessions that are somewhat private sources, certain sessions that are group. So it’s a big topic, I want you to dive into it, unpack it for us. And for those listening, what does behavioral science mean to our training,
Kaleena
it’s everything I think, I think it’s our kind of our secret sauce, actually, to what makes us so capable of taking a group class full of 18 people, different personality types, different ages, different skill sets, and how to have one hell of a great class where people continue to come back, understanding how to motivate somebody who’s in their 70s versus motivating somebody who’s in their 20s is very different. Or somebody who maybe was a competitive athlete versus somebody who is just there to move and feel better. That’s a very different strategy that you have for each of those. Whether it’s transitioning from group to semi private to one on one, understanding those little nitty gritty details of how somebody wants to be coached is huge. You know, you can tap into the soul of somebody and really relate to them or not really relate but even just being able to understand how they process things how they want to be motivated that is such an asset to us as as trainers and I actually like the fact that the back of our shirts a coach because trainer I feel coach implies something different than necessarily than just a trainer like a coach you are you are personally invested in your client and seeing them succeed in not just their wants, but their needs as well.
Michael Hughes
The whole person is I would like to look at it right? We’re training the physical here’s kind of how I break it down. We train someone’s physical in reality we’re just tricking them totally because we know the physical taps right to the mental and the mental taps right into the soulful Have you want to call that spiritual inner self, you know, you’re Who’s that guy on the shoulder and Pinocchio anyways, you know, that guy? conscience. And it’s really people if you someone came into Gymnazo and we said, you know, we’re going to tap into your soul today. I’m going to speak to you that way that only, you know, your inner self talks to you. Yeah, like See you later.
Kaleena
It’s crazy,
Michael Hughes
right? Yeah, but I think anyone who’s been in the training game long enough for any personal service game, even a waiter or waitress, right And it’s tapping into, it’s understanding who that person is. So you can best feed them, serve them, approach them the way that they kind of want to be treated. Absolutely right kind of the podcast is over right there, boom, you know, treat people how they want to. You want to be treated, but and to understand that we’re going through physical movement to change the way someone feels about themselves or thinks about themselves. And that ultimately changes the way that they feel about themselves. And I guess the thing is, like, how do you do that? How do you do that in a group of 18? People? So let’s go into that one. Like really? Seriously? Session? You just finished a session? Yeah, there was, I think, like 16 people plus, yeah, I
Kaleena
think we had 1440. Perfect, awesome, great.
Michael Hughes
Tell me about your mindset.
Kaleena
Man, preparation, I’m always about being prepared. So looking at my my list in advance, I’m fortunate enough to have been here for almost seven years now, obviously, seven years. And I know a lot of the clients, but then also, I had three people that I never coached before in that session. So the first thing that I do is I walk out early, out there five minutes early on the floor, so I can meet the new clients have a personal conversation with them? Hey, like, how did you find out about us? How’s your body been feeling? Like? Do you have any limitations? And just in that, two minutes of interaction with them based on their tone, how they talk to me how they respond to that question, I get a pretty good understanding of their personality type. And we’ve done specifically work traits, which breaks the personality types into four different categories. Don’t go to them yet, although they’re yet I’m not gonna give away everything. But based on that interaction, I can kind of start to slide them into one of those different categories. And based on that, now I go, Okay, I think I have a good idea of where to start, I definitely know where not to start with how I, how I coach them, and how I motivate them. So I might come by and do little check ins, do little little local encouragement, you know, give them like, hey, that’s looking really good. How are ask questions? I’m a big question. Asker, I want to understand how somebody’s feeling. And not just assume, so I’ll ask them questions. Whether it’s about their movement, or about their lifestyle, and see what they really get into, and then you can, you know, you get to know them and that little bit and helps you helps me, push them or challenge them or motivate them to get through this session. You know, and
Michael Hughes
then you said something very critical. At least it tells you where not to start. Yes. And I think as a trainer, like you just think like, I have this human being in front of me, I’ve endless options of opportunity. I know their goals, relatively speaking. I know the classes, demographic goals, you know, it’d be hit with the spin Ruby yoga, right leash, you know, you should kind of be to be doing Yeah, but how do you connect to that person? And at least knowing where you shouldn’t go? I think that’s a key key piece. Absolutely. That’s why we do movement assessment. That’s why we do goals, right? At least we know what direction to go somewhat. Yeah.
Kaleena
So you know, my before I started getting into training, I was a youth soccer coach, Coach, teenage girls can be very challenging, right? You have so many different personality types, which is high school, junior high is hard. But the way I look at it is you have as a coach, or even as somebody who played team sports, you know that there are teammates of yours who can handle being yelled at by the coach. And they either thrive in it, and they’re like, oh, yeah, that’s fine. And then there’s the other kid who cannot handle being yelled at by the coach, and they completely shut down. When they’re yelled at. Maybe they need a little bit more like simply like, hey, Susie, that friggin sucked. You know, and calling them out in front of the whole team that doesn’t motivate them, they just shut down and it just totally turns them off. And they don’t want to work hard. But if you can go have a private conversation with them. Hey, Susie, next time, we really want to do this instead, they appreciate that and then they like, okay, I can fix it. I can handle it. There’s people who hate being put on the spot like you do. If you’d like public speaking everybody today had to take public speaking most people friggin hate public speaking. Nobody wants to be put on the spot that situation. And the same kind of goes into group training. You know, you can’t just call every single person out in the middle of a session or even if we think it’s harmless, maybe correcting form to them. That might be embarrassing. Like they did it wrong publicly, publicly, right? Like you’re in a whole group. Hey, Steve, do this instead, you’re doing it wrong. That might just ruin his experience, because now he might not you might not think it would did any damage might be just a harmless like, hey, no, I just corrected this guy or about your job. But you corrected him out loud from across the room in front of 10 other people he’s mortified right now, you know, and that just ruins their whole experience. And then if they don’t come back, I mean, be quite honest. That’s that’s money out your door. Like that’s a potential another client that you just lost because of something that you was seemingly harmless that you could have addressed differently.
Michael Hughes
And I would say, and it’s gonna be a little bit bold, but I would say most people don’t continue training because they lose connection with the commute. Really, with the trainer with the staff? Yeah, I don’t think enough athletes have the movement intuition to know whether an orange theory is the right workout for them or the CrossFit is the right workout for them, or that homegrown mom and pop hit is the best workout for them. You know, I don’t think I hope the community of of athletes out there, we’ll start to break that down understand it more. But it’s more about the connection. Yeah. Hence why it’s called personal training, you know, because it’s, it’s flat out personal. And if you don’t like that trainer, then you’re probably not going to hang around for that long.
Kaleena
Absolutely. I mean, I even started doing peloton, right? And there’s a variety of trainers, and there’s very easily the trainers that I gravitate towards. And it’s because I like that style of coaching better not, I mean, it’s different, because they’re not actually coaching me, but you just gravitate towards different personality types. But when you have when you are doing one on one or group and you interact with these people, you need to be able to interact with all personality types, right? Not
Michael Hughes
leave money on the table, or have you walked out the door for you like why they leave on or know
Kaleena
exactly. Just like going to a restaurant, you want a good customer service experience. Like we should be providing that same kind of level of quality customer experience to every person that walks in the door, especially if you want them to stick around. Because they might like the workout. But if you suck, they’re not coming back.
Michael Hughes
So let’s go back to the session that you just had, and some personal stories about how you incorporate behavioral science does not just have to mean like, oh, this client said this, but like, ooh, here’s my room, and my mindset was, and then dive into maybe a mistake that you made?
Kaleena
Yeah, yeah. So really, one of the things that I pick out is if people are soft spoken, if you know, you know, people who are shy right away, those are the people, I’m not going to scream at them from across the room, right? I’m not, I’m not even going to scream at them up close and personal, will probably be that same, you know, I try and like match their energy, actually, I think that’s a really good way to look at it is alright, I’m gonna match that energy, I might have a bigger smile on my face when I say it to them and have a little bit more gusto, but I’m not going to be like, drop down, give me 20. You know, like, let’s brick and do this, you know, you Matthew to kind of match their energy level. And then you build from there. Or same thing if I have somebody who’s like super gung ho, like, going all out balls to the walls, you’re like, sweet, I’m going to match your energy level. But maybe I’ll like, control it, you know, hey, let’s control that movement. That looks freakin awesome. And then give them something you know, it’s constructive per se, to coach session. But I’ve definitely made mistakes, you know, calling out the same thing. Like that was a hard lesson learned to have a client who came in who does not like to be called out, and then calling them out. And then don’t mean like negatively, but just like even giving encouragement from across the room like, Dude, you’re friggin killing it and then going, Oh, my gosh, everybody looked at me that and totally embarrassed me. Like, please don’t ever do that. Again. I don’t even want that recognition. You’re like, oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry. You know, because, you know, I like getting yelled at from across the room. I’m doing a good job. And coach sees that and coaches like, Dude, you’re crushing it. You tell that from everybody like, yeah, I am. Right. But that’s just how I like to be coached. That’s not how they wanted to be coached. That was a that was a hard lesson learned
Michael Hughes
a session for me if I don’t hear my name. That’s again. I guess it wasn’t that cool. They didn’t notice me. Yeah. And we’re a certain personality style type that we’ll dive into. There’s, there’s a story that I love to share. Because it’s such a bad story. It’s a bad thing. But it’s a big learning lesson is when I had someone literally walk out of a session. I heartbreak turned around to go coach, someone else and it turned back around, and I’m one athlete short. And I’m like, did they get abducted, you know, like, you know, like, what happened. And I see you see that their gears gone too. And it to continue on through that session was very challenging. Because you just in the back of your mind, you know, the next drill is coming up, you gotta run this page thinking, What do I do? What do I do? Shut up. Should I text them right now? Should I call them right? You know? Yeah. To me, it’s the heart and soul piece, we really want to connect with that person. And it’s realizing that you said something a little bit off that to another person would have been totally fine. But to them, it didn’t connect with the right way. And the it’s really, I don’t want to get into too much more because it’s it’s more personal, but it’s getting to the point where you have to understand that you speak like 25% of the people that hear Yeah, and there’s another 75% of people that hear things differently the way that you say it. Yep. And that’s really to me when I heard that statistic. I know it’s a it’s a it’s a number right doesn’t stop perfect. But like I’m only going to basically get 25% of the clientele out there that really like me just the way that I am. Yeah, just my mind me and if you look at your friends, they’re probably kind of like you You ready? Relatively speaking. Yeah, absolutely. And to understand that you’re a coach and you want, do you only want 25% of the community’s business? That No, you’re not gonna have a very big business? No, not exactly. Or very, very niche. Yeah, looking at. And that’s not a bad way to do it. But you know, obviously want to serve and help as many people as possible. So, you’ve had a few interesting scenarios, at least recently, in your, in your life, where clients may have said something? Yes. And we can go back a few years to we’ve had that we’ve all had it. How do you handle that? Now, knowing what you know that you’re 25%, and you understand the other 75% to
Kaleena
mean, when the comments come at me, I still have to keep my customer service face on. But that’s Yeah, right. That’s part of behavioral science. So I think it has helped to, because it’s given me not necessarily a thicker skin, but a different understanding of why somebody may have said something to me. I understand their motivation behind it, or their maybe it’s, it’s called harmless, you know, they didn’t mean anything by it. I don’t take it personally. You know, they’re trying to give their humble bit of advice that comes off as arrogant and rude.
Michael Hughes
Getting married and wanting to coach is happening a child when any coach is dating somebody. Yeah, it comes at you. Yeah, it is that a love it is out of fun, but it is you can be awareness. Right. Yeah. I know, you’re gonna take this comment. Yeah.
Kaleena
And, you know, so you just kind of I just kind of do this smile and nod, you know, thanks. And just move right along. You know, because I don’t want to have an adverse reaction that, you know, then causes them to be in distress, or, again, have them walk out of a session, you know, because I said something that was defensive. Based on their harmless comment, or what, you know, they thought it was just harmless. I don’t think any I don’t think any comments I’ve gotten have ever meant to be malicious. But certainly can be misinterpreted, or, or taken differently, you know, they’re talking to, to themselves, I think we, you know, we talk to others the way that we would want to be talked to, or, you know, we say things just come up with overheads. But we have to as coaches and trainers, you have to be able to adapt that other 75%, it has certainly helped me understanding behavior, behavior science, helped me understand clients that I typically would have struggled to coach, right, because you have the clients that you are your ideal clients that match your personality type that like your coaching style, and then there’s clients who maybe don’t like your coaching style, or are just trouble clients. Like as being a female in the fitness industry. Dudes with egos are hard to coach, they’re really hard to coach. But when you understand some of the behavior behind it, and how to still have a successful session with dudes who they’re like, Well, you can’t benchpress 275. So how can you possibly give me anything helpful? Or coach me?
Michael Hughes
Just like, the brain surgeon says, Well, I’ve never, you know, how do you how do you do brain surgery? Did you? Did you have done on yourself? Yeah. Yeah, I think I understand little bit more. But it’s those it’s the it’s that type of clientele. That’s kind of opposing it in a way. And then it’s the topics of politics, religion, religion. And I don’t know, it goes a bit beyond that. But that kind of covers a big base, like how do you have a community conversation? Like we love having a community conversation? It’s, I think it’s very big deal. Every single warmup. Yeah. And around the holidays, around those types of things around political events, you know, we just had the elections. It’s like a good solid few months, really, like you’re just on your toes.
Kaleena
You’re waiting for it, and you’re waiting for it.
Michael Hughes
So you start and I’ll finish, what are some of our strategies to really keep a diverse group of people on the same page?
Kaleena
If I know like, it’s a politically charged environment, even even currently with how people feel about COVID You know, yeah, the business being open business being closed masks, vaccines, you know, I my strategy going in is don’t let anybody else talk. Have enough in my pocket that we can talk about that that doesn’t even come up in a conversation so that we can kind of guide it and keep it being that positive environment because really, didn’t they we come here to work out you know, why sanctuary sanctuary safe space? I you know, and then I try and be Switzerland. neutral party, everybody’s entitled to their opinion. We’re not here to discuss this. Well, let’s get into your legs dying right now. You know, and then just move on. You can all unify on Yeah, yeah. Or even just doing something to make fun of myself. Like, let’s just draw the attention off of that and move right on.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, I think it’s important that a coach when you ask a question, how’s your weekend? You go, Ronnie, you know, because we’d like to, we’d like to do questions of the day. And if you’re not a coach who does that? I think it’s just a really good strategy. Just what question you’re gonna ask and Oh, real easy ones. How’s your weekend? It’s Monday morning. That’s a tough answer for some people. Because if we Crap, real rap. And even understanding that and giving people outs, you know? Because if you kind of go around the room, you’re kind of forced to answer, ya know, and, and obviously people can just say, oh, like we couldn’t was fine. But I think it’s most important because when we’re talking about the art of training and conditioning, it’s under, it’s having that awareness that when you ask a question, what are you trying to get out of that? And what are your outs? And what is your tweaks? In the sense? How do you play that game. So it is a positive experience, because you can only have so many negative experience of a great product before it’s no longer a great product. For you. That’s just the way it goes. But it’s also cool that your clients will give you a bit of grace. No, business is perfect. No training is perfect. No product is perfect. Even that amazing. Massage was good wasn’t always the best massage every time but you’d like alright, the track record spin. So asking a question. I asked questions like, how was your weekend? And I’m gonna give the actual answer here. And because it was one of those amazing answers. It was, it was around Pride week in San Luis Obispo. And we have a new member and header a I’m gonna say it because it just kind of fits the story a little bit more. And I don’t mean to upset anybody. We had a red hat on with white lettering. And he literally said, Oh, how’s your weekend? This is all great. I went to the the Pride Parade in the mission. And I trolled for days. Literally was as answered 12 plus people in the session. And my heart stopped for a good noticeable time. And that deathly silence silence in the room. And, you know, I’m not here to judge you know, I, you know, I have my own opinions in a sense, but as Switzerland. Yeah. Right. in a business setting. You really have to say to yourself, What the heck do I say to this guy? Yeah, you know? And I, my answer was like, Okay, moving on the next one, you know, literally and asked, and I deliberately jumped to someone else. Who knows a big talker. Yeah, you know, and that was a, that was a very interesting moment, where you the silence, and then you kind of went on to but you know that there’s a consequence to that comment? Yeah, he threw a grenade. Really? Did you know, and it went off? Yeah. And, you know, how do you know how people are taking that? And how do you have a great session? And then do you just let it be? You just let it be? And hopefully, or do you address it? And then as again, as a coach, I get that I’m sure there’s other people listening to how to way worse comments in that and how to deal with it. But it’s really, you know, so we decided to deal with it. But how do you deal with it? And how do you have a one on one conversation with a client who you want to be a client? Yeah, and you want to have that, that that relationship, but you have to realize that that’s just not something that you go into. So anyways, to finish this story off, because I don’t want you guys hanging on it. Luckily, that person, we had kind of our membership, you know, kind of talk like that. This is what we do here. You know, that session, I just didn’t say anything during that session. Yeah. But I knew that I’d have an opportunity to speak with this individual. And luckily, the conversation continued to go a little bit more like, you know, in this membership orientation type things like, gosh, this is a good place to meet women, because man, there’s a lot of good women here. And I’m like, you know, you know, yet we really, you know, there’s a lot of good looking people here, but this is, you know, we’ve chosen not to place we don’t really thought that environment, we’re just here to kind of pick up on on people. You know, like, we love community. We love talking love really gaining good relationships, but not that kind of vibe. And he’s like, oh, you know, I really love it here. This is a great place. And, you know, luckily, the conversation went on a little bit more few more, those kind of little questions in the meeting returning back and person never came back.
Kaleena
Like, awesome. Yeah. No more potential grenades.
Michael Hughes
Right, you know, and anyway, so to tailor to that story, it’s like you how do you how do you manage that? And my option was to really step in, divert, and keep and keep going. Yeah, first, I could have said, hey, you know, what, we don’t know who we’re, you know, I could have been confrontational. Yeah. And you got to think well, what’s the consequences of all those things? Yeah. Okay, so that’s on the community side, right. Yeah. Let’s jump into the actual coaching side. Okay. You know, really talking about let’s talk about like, your the different amazing coaches out there. The the John Goodwin’s, the Phil Jackson’s The Bob knights, and what kind of coach because we can all kind of relate to the professional world. And how those coaches, we’re all amazing coaches. Yeah, but different winning coaches win. Yeah, excuse me. Thank you. I meant to say winning coaches. So let’s kind of break down let’s break down, Bobby, you know, let’s break down the yell in your face type of
Kaleena
coach repair for a win. Yeah, Mother Kherson.
Michael Hughes
Right. Yeah, right. And let’s do that in the same way. A let’s take different people that we know and let’s break down what personality type that we think they are. Yeah, and let’s name it, and then we’ll kind of go into how we classify personality types. Okay, four different ones. Okay, you go for
Kaleena
if I’m bringing down Bob Knight here, you got it. All right. Well, do we want to dive into the personality types first or just say
Michael Hughes
let’s do it? I can let’s do it at the same time. Okay. Okay.
Kaleena
So Bob Knight, he’s, he’s a yeller, he is flamboyant. He is extravagant. He would be somebody that we would call an encourager. He’s out there spotlights Good for him. He’s also probably what we would call a combination of a decision maker. He’s, you know, he’s the guy who makes all the calls. And if he disagrees with you, he’s definitely going to let you know about that. You know, he’s the coach that will he will swear at you who grabbed by your shirt, he’ll throw chairs at you. And that’s his style of coaching. And for some people that works and for some people, that doesn’t for some for 75% of people will probably doesn’t work. That’s how I would say, Bob, and I love it. Love
Michael Hughes
it. So I’m gonna go. Tony Dungy. Yep. Tony Dungy least when I was really following him, he was with the courts. I will call a soft spoken, but certainly a person who would not yell. You wouldn’t you would never say a cuss word. I remember him saying that, like I just not I don’t go that way. And certainly someone who I don’t want to again, you can be a coach. And I’m going to even I’d like to kind of jump into a little bit kind of acting here in a sense, not me acting but you go to Saving Private Ryan, and you go to Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, his character actor, the captain, right. Never seen him yell. In fact, that one scene where everyone’s yelling guns in people’s faces. And he’s he asked question like, what’s the what’s the pool? What’s the betting pool on? Yeah, what’s the over under? And simple question could totally kind of calm down this definitely situation in a way that I think Tony Dungy would to like, everyone’s freaking out. He’s like, Guys, let’s focus. Yeah, and that’s more of a facilitator type, which is more of the soft spoken doesn’t mean they’re not a leader by any obviously they are leaders, but they speak in a way that is their command comes through their presence, through their through their way of delivering words, not just the volume at which they the the power behind the words versus just the the deliverance. Yeah, of it. Phil Jackson,
Kaleena
another one. Another one like he’s soft spoken, but in charge.
Michael Hughes
And how we could command one of the biggest personalities Dennis Rodman with one of the biggest skill hard workers, we’re going to work until we fall on the ground, Michael Jordan, and then that backup person who is the best backup person I’ve ever experienced in basketball, at least in when I follow basketball, IP and and let him be the number two and make that all work for what six? Yes, seven championship
Kaleena
and and then he did it again in LA. Right? Exactly. Oh, you’re gonna manage Shaq and Kobe, also to very flamboyant athletes, right? Different coaching strategies for that.
Michael Hughes
So do you think we can think of the fourth one, so we have decision maker to type a yell very, very loud, very kind of upfront, encourager who was the talkative over the top, you know, just you can’t use your client just like okay, please stop talking. We’ve got to work out. The facilitator soft spoken very much as part of the team. I’m here to support. I’m here to guide. And then the third one is the tracker, which is actually a little bit of both of us a little bit more you Yeah. Which is the numbers, the bean counter. Yeah, the looks at everything it says, I’m gonna read the review on that one before make that purchase? Can we think of a coach or Hollywood character in a sense? It’s a little bit more challenging.
Kaleena
It is challenging. I’m gonna go female coach here. Pat Summit. Awesome. Yeah, some is kind of on that that tracker decision maker line for me. Super detail oriented. Stern, look, we some of us would call that resting bitchface. But it’s just our thinking face. It’s just how we look. But not your unnecessarily over the top flamboyant happy go lucky, soft spoken a little bit more on the on the stern side, I would say,
Michael Hughes
yeah, and none of us as we define these four that we use, we’re not one, just like, and I like to use this example, if I give you a pen, you’re going to grab it with your dominant hand and write your name doesn’t mean you can’t, you can’t trap with your non dominant hand and write the same name a little more effort, a little sloppier, but you can still do it. And that’s how we like to look at personality traits and how we look at communication traits. Is decision maker facilitator encouraged or tracker. I am a dominant of relatively three of them. I am which is encourager, tracker and facilitator, not in that order. I am not a decision maker. Not so or for me coaching those decision makers those type A in your face on here to just crush it. Did I have to shift how I talk? Yeah. Immensely to match them. And if I don’t I lose them which I haven’t lost one before I’ve lost that decision maker. Because I went into like the reason the why and the belief and too much flat Yeah, their hip internal rotation wasn’t enough and that run that race that we’re gonna run wasn’t good enough and we had a really kind of toned it down before we ramped it up, and they just wanted to crush it. Yeah. Which we’ll talk about taking people’s teddy bears away in in a little bit. Yeah, but so what about you?
Kaleena
What’s your style? I’m a I’m a split between tracker encourager, so I’m a little bit more. I love the whys, I want those details, but also like to have a good time. And I want to be out there. So my personality type is actually kind of unique. Because on the on the spectrum, tracker, and encouragers are kind of formed the circle, they’re on opposite ends, they’re on diagonals. Usually you’re on like one half of the pie, but I’m opposite on different ends. So I think I’m kind of lucky in that regard. Because I can ebb and flow between all the personality types pretty, or coach them? Well, because I think I have a little bit of perspective for each of them.
Michael Hughes
But in a personal awareness, to which perspective Yeah,
Kaleena
and same thing for me, decision makers are always the hardest to work with.
Michael Hughes
But we’re both married don’t want we are
Kaleena
their decision maker, which is a whole
Michael Hughes
different podcast on why you marry your opposites. But that’s it. But yeah, we can go there, actually. But relating is like that fills us that’s the completes the package. Totally.
Kaleena
That’s how I view it. I mean, for as much as I use work traits every single day, and love it and diamond personality types, I can tell you firsthand, the way it has led me understand my relationship with my husband, with my family with my friends has been mind blowing. Because same thing, you know, you know, there’s a little everybody gets in little arguments, and he’s sitting like picking other little, little ones. Like there’s always that, you know, they say something and you’re like, oh, that really grinds my gears. And you have an initial knee jerk reaction to like, either explode or cry or do whatever. And then understanding maybe why they said that or or trying to put yourself in their shoes or understanding what motivates them. What doesn’t motivate them. You know, or why they had a knee jerk reaction to something that you said, Oh, my gosh, it makes it so much easier. My poor husband, he’s definitely been like, I feel like you’ve just mind tricked me. Yeah, but he you know, he’s said before I with that decision maker type, you don’t blow up. But um, by the way, just a heads up, don’t yell decision makers never ends well, because they they want to yell, oh, they will yell back. They weren’t 100% yield back. So my husband is straight up said like, thank you for talking to me about this. Even if I’m like fuming, just recognizing like, Okay, we can’t yell, because it’s not gonna get me anywhere, right, even if you’re pissed. But
Michael Hughes
so let’s jump into the customer service side inside of this, this whole whole thing, right? Because when you’re training when you’re training people, right, yeah, it’s also session ends and you have to go get collect money, or they want to schedule something, or they want to set up for a new service. Right? How do you manage that? So system, here’s some kind of some some some quick hits. Training a decision maker again, predominant, and we’ll talk about how you figure out who they are just kind of this awesome topic. Training a decision maker, you want to be upfront, you want to be enthusiastic. Yelling the name across the room is a good way to train them good way to kind of connect with them, given them a challenge partner them with someone who’s going to make it a race. Yeah, right. That competitive edge. They’re gonna love, love that. encouragers very similar in a sense, here the name across the room, you know, give a good conversational topic. Let them run with a conversation for a little bit, you know, make something exciting, but make something easy that they can attend. That’d be fun. Gotta be fun. Yeah, awesome music you know, lights the whole thing big big big deal. The facilitator loved be part of all that. But not out loud. If you’re going to correct them it’s it’s next to them. It’s not across the room. Please don’t do it like that. But they’re going to be very loyal to you super loyal to you. But make sure that the correction the conversation is you in them. You and them. They can be hard workers. I mean, we got some amazing facilities that crush it. Oh, yeah. But they don’t want the recognition. Nope, they don’t. And then the tracker they’re gonna want to know that that transverse plane is 135 degrees open rotational lunge did not know they’re gonna want to know how much weight to use when to switch make sure the clocks at 30 seconds sweet you know those details to where what’s Why is it exists Say that again? Where what and why exactly. They want to know those details behind when you’re describing that exercise when you’re just gonna like why didn’t this funky drill because well, it actually relates to you getting off on a wakeboard, whatever they love to undertake. And what they’re doing exactly. So those are good ways to coach them. And also you can take this that same thing on how not to coach them. But when it’s interesting, because when I’m talking about money, you’re totally different ballgame. Totally ballgame, right? So like, you may have that total decision maker at the front desk, oh, shoot me in the workout, but then go to your front desk, and they’re talking about their bill. Now they’re gonna tracker on them, or they’re a different person. Yeah. Right. And so, especially when things go wrong, especially, or when they think something has gone awry, right. Right. So it’s, it’s so so we’ve been able to, we think, for our customers listening, we hope we’ve done a great job is having that awareness that we have front desk staff that are strong facilitators, yes, on purpose. Because they can take that I’m gonna use the word beating, because that’s not fair. Because your clients don’t beat up on him. But that they can take that that heat, and they don’t blow back. No. Verses are my wife who also runs his business. She can take that for good, maybe a day. And then she’s gonna be like, You know what, you can just go so she’s ever said that.
Kaleena
You know, that’s what that person, person, right? It’s personal. And it’s offensive. Right?
Michael Hughes
So it’s kind of interesting, as you as an owner, you as a trainer, you relating to this, like, you know, like, yeah, I, you know, interesting, or who I didn’t make that mistake, or, you know, I am crushing it in that particular way. Yeah. So, it’s fascinating, who we put in certain roles, and who we realize even having our interns coming in, who are strong facilitators, and we’ve had one of my gosh, one of my most standout trainers, interns who we didn’t hire, but she figured it out. It’s like, you know what, I think I’m gonna be a great one on one coach. Yeah. And she was, yeah, because we made her do this global versus local drill. Do you know what I’m talking? Yeah. Oh, man. And it’s the basic stand in the middle of the facility and yell the ABCs. as loud as possible, because that’s when I did it. And you people look like mortified. Yeah. And it will you kind of learn real quick that if I’m going to be doing that yelling throughout every session? How, what’s your stamina as a coach? Yeah, my sessions. Can you do that before? You’re literally burnt out? Yeah.
Kaleena
Well, even if we talking about personal work trades, but even like introverts versus extroverts, right, right. Right. You can be you can be an introvert extrovert, extrovert, introvert? And how much does that wear and tear on you as a as a coach? Like, that’s it. I think Gemini has done an incredible job of fitting coaches with their personality types, and what kinds of classes that they’re coaching, because you can get burnt out on group training, because that sucks so much energy out of you, you do have to be you’re the star, you know, and you’re you can be with 18 people, or it’s much different when you’re one on one. And you don’t have to have that same level of hype, right? Because nobody wants to come to a group workout class with the coaches like, Hey, guys, is what we’re gonna do today. Ready, set, go. Like no mode, no motivation, no motivation. Yeah, like slow clap, you know, solid job, guys know what he’s like, I like that glass. But you want you know, most people gravitate towards high energy. And that’s in that regard. But we have plenty of amazing group coaches who don’t have that energy. But they might be less in group and more, we utilize them in other specialty areas, right,
Michael Hughes
which makes it even more powerful. Yeah, even more powerful. And we’ve had great group coaches who understand that concept of themselves. And they go around, and they do a lot of localized encouragement. Yeah. And honestly, I don’t care for hear my name over the loudspeaker. Or you say, in my ear, I’m stoked. Thanks for recognizing me. You know, and they have about one or two times when they bring up the volume, and then they take it down again, and they and they rock and roll. And it’s in this industry, that’s more like a hobby job. How do you build careers in doing this for 30? years? Yeah, 40 years tart? Right, we have to understand that your personality type is unique. Yeah. And there are ways that we’ve categorized if you’ve understood Personality Typing, you understand Myers Briggs, and they’ve had 16 different types, or Enneagram. In a sense, they have nine different types. Nothing wrong with those were us. We follow those two, but it’s really cool when you can break down four, because you understand when that person walks the door. Yeah, clean is already right there saying how they dressed, how they walking? Seriously, it what is the what is the tone of their voice, the first time eye contact, eye contact, and we even have in a system. Here’s some of our secret sauce when our front desk even gets an email from them. Is it long? Is it short? Is it bullet point, right? You really have to format it when they get a phone call from what’s their voice like? And then so we try to communicate that not to not to manipulate hear people listening, but to connect and all the great brands do it the I certainly know because we’ve done the training but the four stars, not four seasons, but My gosh, what’s the top Hotel? I’m going blank on this one? Hilton, not that I know I want to Hilton. We set reset Marriott, no, it’s not Marriott, no, we got to get like a high level high highest level. Like hotels, I guess four seasons. Yeah, something like that. But yeah, Ritz Carlton, very good. Thank you. I’ve never stayed there before I want to Ritz Carlton breaks this down, like how they connect with that with that with that guest Yeah. And they really get the finer details, you can do that as a coach. And I believe that your training your conditioning, your service is going to stand out. Crazy, crazy, crazy lots. So much so that we even have many courses on this, we call five star customer service and group training one on one, we have these little video sets, that we literally open source share exactly what we do. The checklist that we have the internal classification, even the breakdown of what we just said about our four different personality types, how to train them, how not to train them, and really what you can do to build an operational system around it. Because that’s what really comes down to it, you have to repeat this day in and day out, day in and day out, day in and day out. And if you want to check that out, go to gymnazoedu.com. Check us out, give us a call on on Instagram, whatever the case is, those are great little mini courses that share much deeper dive educational on what we do. So let’s end this in kind of this one way. How do you understand behavioral personality types, when it helps you with the community? And with the end with your own personal kind of clients? So group and clients? It’s kind of sum it up? Like how do you how do you think that these types of helps you communicate to that group and to that one on one to the group client and to the personal trainer.
Kaleena
Understanding behavioral types makes you not just palatable, but desirable for every single person. You know, there is an aspect of being a trader, where you have to sell yourself, you want people to come train with you for your personality type. But if you want more people to train with you, you have to understand how to inspire, motivate, empathize, and have people give you money, you know, understanding how they’re motivated, you know, financially, to get them to want to come train with you. And that’s at the group level that’s at an individual level, you know, I think it’s exponentially critical as a coach or trainer to understand how to identify the personality types and how to talk to each person. Because I mean, you can handle any situation at that point in time. If you understand somebody’s underlying motives and beliefs and what they do, and especially what they don’t appreciate, makes you such a better trainer. It may it makes you honestly have easier conversations makes the hard conversations a lot easier. And it makes the good times really good times.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, yeah. And you have that availability to see, this is how they’re talking to me. And you can put up that I will call it it’s a glass wall, you know, where you can go through your day and realize, okay, that this is who I’m dealing with, and I can let that bounce off me. Or I can absorb it. Because when bounces off you it doesn’t affect your date as much. And when you absorb it, it just lightens it up more and more. And they’d be able to what I honored, I always gravitated towards the system of it. All right, you can organize it you can see it it’s not this is like woowoo out there. But when you do it well enough your clients think it’s it’s magic, it really is, well, they don’t even notice it because it’s that good. Yeah. But you we can we can be in the room, walking around, connect to 510, who cares how many people it is, and know that you’ve touched each one of their lives in that one hour that 4% of their day. And we hope it’s always the best 4% of their day, every single time. And you can rely on but you can lean back on it and have something to I don’t know, again, it’s that foundational aspect of art. And we call it kind of the red, blue yellows are those primary colors in a sense those principles of thinking. And I don’t know to me that makes it what makes training condition. So Austin is it is a science, it is an art and you can master both of them. There just have to be this genius person who can break down biomechanics and data today, you must be this awesome entertainer trainer that can only you know rah rah and be on a spin bike and you can be both Yeah. And so I’m pretty excited about this is a topic I can dive into a whole lot more but I think that’s a good ending spot dialed in on it. Well, thanks for hanging out. Listen to us. If you have any more questions, reach out to us put a comment. We are geeks about this kind of stuff. And you may want to get into it just for your own personal life because that boyfriend girlfriend spouse of yours. I think there’s a lot more more to life when you can understand where they’re coming from. More than just where you’re coming from
Kaleena
makes everything easier.
Michael Hughes
Got it. Take care. Cheers. I’ll see you guys soon. Hey all. Hope you guys enjoyed today’s episode. And if you did, please share it with your fitness obsessed friends and peers who are also navigating this world of fitness and trying to succeed the trends and misinformation. As you guys can see, this podcast is basically a masterclass for trainers wanting to level up in their coaching skills, and their fitness business model. We launched this in 2020. Because you and your fitness tribe deserve to see an unfiltered look at all the aspects of what it takes to stand out as a next generation coach, and build a successful fitness business. So share it far and wide. And please, when you do do me a favor, take a screenshot of this screen and share it to your social media accounts and use the hashtag Gymnazo podcast that’s hashtag Gymnazo podcast that way we can see you and share your posts with our audience. And finally, when you’re ready, go to the next level as a coach or in your business. And to reach more people, please go check out gymnazoedu.com, we have put together the best 90 Day coaching program on the market for trainers wanting to become a masterful practitioner and build a business that gives them the freedom and impact. So let us help you do just that. We have online training and one on one coaching to guide you through a full 90 Day certification. We even get you training our clients live because it’s always better to work out your kinks on someone else’s clients than yours. But we promise you this, your clients will be blown away by the transformation our program will help you make you’ll be masterful at a whole new level and part of an incredible community of coaches worldwide, taking their skills to the next level. So if you thought this episode had some fire to it, and inspires you to take action, wait until we see what we deliver on this program. So just go to gymnazoedu.com. And we’ll see you on the other side. Remember that turning your passion for fitness into transformation and sustainable business is critical to reaching the people and lives you were put on earth to help it matters and truly can make an impact in other people’s lives. So hope you do that. Keep sharing a passion and we’ll talk to you soon.
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