The Most Overlooked Personal Trainer Skill with Michael and Paden Hughes
Michael Hughes
If you could go back and think about all the studying that you’ve done about anatomy, physiology, physics, biomechanics, nutrition, facility layout, the best tools to purchase equipment that really sparks people’s excitement for movement, and you tally all that up. And then I want you to tell me how much time you’ve spent into understanding personalities, how to communicate the best message to the vast amount of audiences that will receive it and hear it and how each one can dynamically understand and learn on their own time in their own ways. And compare those two right hard skills versus soft skills. I would venture unfortunately, that your hard skills far outweigh your soft skills. And most of us, including myself, in the past, have traded on our personality traded on that we’re just an outgoing, bubbly type of person, and we’d be great in the fitness world. And here we are rockin and rollin and hoping that our soft skills and our coaching atmosphere environment dynamic leadership is enough for our own clients and to grow our business. So my name is Michael Hughes, co founder of gymnazo.edu, and I’m here with Paden Hughes, my wife, business partner, and fellow soft skill enthusiast who really love to deep dive into how personality types how leadership, and how corporate America has spent so much time on refining managers to lead businesses in a profound way. And how that should in our mind, be trickled into the fitness world in the same depth. That is, it is everywhere else. So ready to dive in, because we’re super excited about this. And it is this topic that we feel should move does it have a podcast? So here we go. 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. Alright, for those of you that have been maybe under a rock or just not following Apple TV plus payment have been diving into our actually fully delving into and are done thinking about rewatching. Again, Ted LaSalle. And this is amazing show of this coach who gets ripped out of his current environment into a brand new environment. And I’m gonna have Paden describe the show because she really gets into the show, like all the time throughout the entire day, or I’m just in the show in the moment. So who is Ted last? And what does this show? Yeah, you’re
Paden
better compartmentalize er than I am. I’m like Empath to the core and like, feel all the feelings for the characters and obsess about how I’m going to predict how the show unfolds. So that’s what’s really going on there. But Ted lasso is this really disarming story that’s Do you just think is going to be comedy from day one, and it is, I mean, he gets really funny, but it’s this American Football Coach D two football coach, who has had unprecedented success in America and gets plucked out of his American coaching and thrown into England into a premier Football Club. Now, having been someone that has lived in England, and also a former soccer player, it cracks me up to see this total culture clash that goes on, which is the super snarky kind of embittered, like English players, and they’re pissed because there’s this Yahoo of an American character that shows up with this southern drawl these horrible jokes, which are really actually kind of funny, but if you like the dead joke genre, and then he comes in and like wins people over systematically with zero knowledge of soccer, zero, like credibility in the industry, but he’s just really good with people. And that’s his shtick. That’s what he’s really excellent at. And it kind of takes you like three episodes to realize, oh, my gosh, the guy’s actually good. People just don’t see him coming. Yeah.
Michael Hughes
Not going to soccer or Premier football, but really good at emotional quotient or emotional intelligence. Yeah. And that’s, that’s how he coaches like he knows how to build a team. That’s what he does disarm high level kind of type A people make him drive in. And it’s honestly it’s I think it’s impeccably amazing writing, whoever wrote this and how they take on real life scenarios and the way I think about it, and ties in this, as you said, disarming, approachable, we’re going to work together, if the team doesn’t work together, then we’re never going to win. In fact, he even goes to the point of slight spoiler alert that the team camaraderie is more important than winning, and obviously, that is battled to a point in the show. But what brings up this big topic, and something that we’ve been talking a lot about is how much in the movement training space, you know, trainers, personal trainers, coaches, you know, anything from any sport, what’s the most important and kind of most overlooked aspect of coaching? If you’re a professional sport, Coach, you know, if you’re, you know, all the way to us as a as a training staff, is it your IQ? Is it? What is the battleground of Instagram and what movements are good? And should you train in the transverse plane, and what’s your ankle doing and subtalar, e-version and all these different, right, that’s a huge battleground in an Instagram, the visual of it all. But what Instagram or anything doesn’t really pick up is how you display the information to the clientele in front of you to the athletes in front of you. And that’s what we’re really going to be diving into today. Because it is massive.
Paden
It’s a huge, it’s a huge mess. And so I remember early on you and I were chatting, like early on, I want to say 10 years ago, we were talking about leadership, and we were talking about the skill sets of a good coach. And I just kind of want to dive into that for a minute. It which is like a caveat, my background being more in marketing and more corporate and a lot of startup culture but but with the corporate desire to be skilled and to build skills, and the first thing that most of us do, so I’m talking to talk outside of fitness, because think fitness is super unique, but could learn a few things from this, which is as soon as you become a manager, and how I’m defining manager is somebody that has to get a group of people to do something has the end is tasked with motivating, inspiring them to want to do something as well as critiquing, correcting and refining how they do it. And when you are tasked with that, it doesn’t matter if you’re a good person, a fun person and energizing human. If you’re a jokester, if you’re super fun on the floor, like whatever your style is, like, doesn’t matter what you come to the table, every single other industry takes leadership really seriously. And if they don’t have a corporate training structure in place, like as the new manager, you’re gonna go invest in your skill set, you’re gonna watch YouTube channels on it, you’re gonna try to level up, you’re interested in an executive coach, because you know, your career hinges on you understanding and mastering leadership and management. And it’s powerful, and it’s super absent in fitness. And what I see is every so often trainers are, you know, take me or leave me, you either like me or you hate me. And just trading on this personality, most of whom are really energizing people, people like they already come to the table with this great energy. But they never evolve it from there. They never strategically Hone, they never like decide like this is unlike even be open to criticism like, where are there gaps? Yeah, they might naturally connect with one style, but is that the limit of their abilities. And most of the time that is like most people show up with their great personality and only connect to other people with similar great personalities. And in doing so leave out 75% of the capabilities that they could otherwise have.
Michael Hughes
That’s an interesting statistic that we’ll certainly dive into more. But it makes me passionate because I grew up in the 90s. Right, and the Chicago Bulls that was it. I mean, Michael Jordan even I was a fan Dennis Rodman Scottie Pippen right these huge personalities, I mean, especially Rodman and Jordan, and how to how to how to that coach, right how to feel bring them together to win championship after championship, How To me that’s what I think, but did he teach them basketball? Did he make them better basketball players? I don’t really think so. I really don’t. He was not managing the dynamic of that team. So they can skill themselves together to be an unstoppable obviously force. And that’s what I again, I look back to the coaching side, and I looked at how we did it at Gymnazo. And it I started very purposefully, even though I didn’t understand it. It was a mentor of mine really diving and Kim coming from the corporate world of NBC. Johnson kind of amazing, amazing man. And understanding like, you have to talk to people. And he said that to me, like, how do you present yourself? How well do you know yourself? I think that’s where it all starts. Yeah, do you just do just do it. And a lot of people just do it. And I thought that was it was interesting, and a small little, you know, Seinfeld thing here, but patronize kind of first dates and ascensor business dates. But it was definitely busy state, you know, so I felt very comfortable being this story in a sense. But I said, here, here I am I on paper, and it was my Strength Finders, and many more things, but it was really fun. It’s like, This is who I am. I’m, I’m strong and belief. I am strong and relator. I like a lot of input. I’m a learner, and I command like, those are my top five. And it was very much like a huge awakening for me as a movement practitioner, because I knew where my strengths were. And I could say them. And so I said, Oh, this is me being an input. It’s me collecting all this information. Well, this is where my command is showing. Oh, so it’s like if you can untap and reverse engineer a product? How well do you know it? How about can you tap into its weak points, and it’s strong points. And I think that’s what really was a huge growth factor for our business, is the soft skills and I’m gonna say it’s a soft, and tangibles EQ how you make a room, smile, Shine come together, because guess what trainers out there. You are a leader, you are a professional coach, and people look up to you every single hour, half hour session, data data. And if you can’t capture that, doesn’t mean you’re a bad trainer. But you’re leaving a lot on the table.
Paden
Yeah, you’re missing out on what’s possible for you. And that’s the culture like
Michael Hughes
there’s a lot of culture, right? You know, a lot, a lot, a lot of people drinking the Kool Aid, CrossFit sneaking the orange theories, you know, the soul cycles a lot. But what did what made that? Did it just happen organically? Maybe, but could it be happening a lot faster. And I think that’s, well, that’s what we want to dive into a lot. And so so from the corporate side, you know, if you’re a manager you express things, pin, I want you to kind of think like, what are the skill sets that you either noticed that we had in you know, before you when you came came on board, or things that you brought, that you now see our our coaches to do?
Paden
So the biggest. So, so the biggest truth is to me, people hire coaches, not coaching programs. And we say that a lot if you hang out with us on YouTube, or in this podcast, because it’s really anchoring and validating if you realize as a trainer, like they’re gonna buy you. Yeah, it’d be nice if you had some smart workouts behind you. Yeah, it’d be super cool if you were like a movement guru that could tweak on the fly, and like validate, or help people navigate through dysfunctions, aches, pains, tightness, etc. But ultimately, why they come back is because of you. And that’s the truth in corporate America is, is that more people are likely to leave. When they leave an organization, it’s about their manager. If they have a powerful manager that they’re loyal to, they will stay. So retention of employee to manager is about the relationship of the manager, well, you apply that to fitness. That’s the coach being the manager, and the athletes being the employees, if you will. And I know it’s kind of a stretch, we don’t normally think of it like that. But the loyalty is to that coach. Now we have business strategies on where that can be risky for your business to like, have all your eggs in one basket with like this one coach dominating the scene. But the truth is, when you really unpack this skill set of each coach individually, which I think you did a really good job when I first like came into the gym now as I’ve seen, it was you and Trevor. And you and Trevor had both gone through this one on one coaching program with John, that’s really unique to begin with, like you guys had already individually. I think I don’t think you made Trevor do it. I think Trevor watched you do and was like sign me up. I want this man speaking into my life. I want him helping me own and identify where I have a unique skill set. And so you had already validated that he doesn’t have to be you to be a coach in your business. And I think that’s really powerful because a lot of trainers miss that and kind of feel the stress and anxiety that if they don’t say it like you say it how you say it and are like you to their clients, the clients won’t accept a new coach. And that’s just not true.
Michael Hughes
That’s a fallacy and said, it’s actually a fault of a business that you have to replicate yourself because Yeah,
Paden
yeah, it, take it that take the pressure off of you for doing that. And also give your future coaches the opportunity to be really powerful in their own right. And so for me, that was really cool. You already had that what was what was seemed to be a really cool opportunity was that how you guys quickly identify and type communication styles of your clients, and how you shift how you describe workouts, how you motivate how you correct like, all the little pieces. And the mantra is, don’t treat people the way you want to be treated, which is the number one issue in training, in my opinion, is trainers go, that’s just how I am. And I’m going to talk to you the way I want to be taught, I’m going to coach you, I want to be coached,
Michael Hughes
subconsciously, more often than not like, that’s just who I am.
Paden
Yeah, it’s just who I am, except me, I’m super authentic, like, I’m who I am. And there’s this whole authentic movement. And I’m not going to speak ill of that. But you’re missing out on the real Platinum Rule, as they call it, which is treat people the way they want to be treated. And if you have a heart of service, you know that reaching that heart in front of you. So it’s like your heart reaching their heart, sorry to get all like, go for the fluffy and heartwarming here. But But if that’s your goal is like you’ve got a fire in your heart and you’re trying to light it in somebody else. They may not be lit the way you do like for you. So you need to figure out what do I do to inspire this person? What do you do to bring a smile to their face. And guess what it’s gonna be different for that person than the other three buddies that you naturally clicked with. As soon as they walked in the gym, you’re like, those are my that’s like my tribe. And you go there, and I sense it. You can sense it, you can feel it like you don’t even know you’re lighting up in a different way. Now everyone thinks you’re playing favorites. Because you just found people that get you, they laugh at your jokes, they compliment your music, they wear the same style, like you just kind of gravitate towards your tribe. But you can’t do that as a professional. And if you’re really coming from a place of service, you’re you you never want to compromise your authenticity as a coach. And that’s where I think individually strengthening your core sense of self and who you are as a coach is really powerful. But you need to build a bridge of communication to reach the hearts of the of people that aren’t necessarily like you.
Michael Hughes
And we’ve broken it down, we have a lot of different tools, I really want to say it like that I wish I indented these things. That’d be pretty awesome. But it’s really just tools that we have accessible, and a lot of books, and I was just just chatting with a fellow MDMCer and like just the books that are in our course. And she’s like understanding them. And I’m gonna share a few of them with you because they’re just great, great books. Mindset is a great starting point growth mindset or fixed mindset like Are you are you already set up?
Paden
So it’s called Mindset by Carol Dweck. At Stanford PhD, who figured out there’s a fixed mindset that keeps you back from your potential and growth mindset that propels you into a very vibrant future that you can create.
Michael Hughes
And all of us are predisposed to one or the other. Yeah, simply put, and the other one a read for this one if you listen to and write this one down How to Win Friends and Influence People. Yep. During class Dale Carnegie it’s an old school book but it is like the test if it is still stood the test of time, you’re gonna
Paden
say it’s like the Tesla. Do you don’t know this about my good, it could be the Tesla books. It at least it was the first one that you really anchored in before I even joined your mother. That one is Strength Finders, those are your two,
Michael Hughes
right. And it’s really about this human relations. Like that’s what we are like, again, I’m gonna say this, like, you can be the smartest person in the world, you can be the amazing professor. But if you can’t communicate what you’re doing it really, it’s, it’s pointless. It’s, I’m gonna say it that boldly. It’s yeah, it misses the mark. And that’s hard to hear. And if you’re a trainer out there who really kind of wants it, like I have so much to share, how do you share it, and it kind of, you know, goes into even our whole philosophy as a facility and something we’ve worked on a lot. A lot. It’s not just the culture, the culture is the is the equals part of the equation. It’s what happens from all the exponents, if I’m saying that analogy and super
Paden
smart and cool. Does roll with it.
Michael Hughes
But you know, that’s that’s how that’s the end result of everything. But you know, how we how we coach someone into a brand new first time session. And what we, you know, we put ourselves in their shoes. And we look at at personality types in a very simplistic way that there’s four different types, you know, Myers Briggs got sick, 16 types Enneagram, you have nine types, in a sense, right? There’s other ways to kind of classify it. Well, you know, let’s break down the most simplest way so we can make a quick decision. And to really talk to that athlete in a way that you understand, and you can pick up from in 30 seconds that they’re not like you. And that’s okay. In fact, that’s great for your business because you want people that are not like you, and to coach them into, and to give that first exercise in a way that they hear it, not just like, Okay, let’s do a deadlift, and it’s gonna make your legs look awesome. They can care less about you don’t care for their leg, they want to know the opportunity. Yeah, they want to know how their knees are supposed to be, and what it should feel like, and this other person wants to know, like, how it’s going to make them talk, move with their grandchildren better. And that’s how that’s how they’re perceiving it. And so just to speak to that is, is huge, I want you to kind of dive into that, you know, maybe you can get it all the way or not, I’ll let you make a decision. But if you’re
Paden
still listening to this episode, we’re gonna get some gold right now. And so here’s the thing. So it, there’s a lot of research out there since the start of Carl unes. Research actually back in the 1800s, late 1800s. And he really realized that you could start predicting behaviors based on some of these personalities. And that sort of your personality psychology really evolved from that point on. And then they started to realize like with the Myer Briggs mother daughter combination, that job fit is predictable. So certain people are going to enjoy a desk job, if you will, doing accounting because they’re oriented in that way that’s going to be successful for them, other people would rather die. And they would rather be in front of a front of live humans, leading, inspiring and connecting. And like, that’s their thing. Whereas like, different types of go, oh, my gosh, that’s my worst fear. And so he started going, Wow, this is really great. Like, I wonder if we could start using this as a business tool. And so from there we progressed into, you know, it’s it, there’s personality, which we know half of us is fixed from birth, like, it’s, it’s inherent, if you will, and the other half of us is evolving through life experience, communicate, like education, crazy life events that just like change everything, like you almost get in a car crash, and like your life flash before your eyes, and like you show up and you start evolving into a whole different type of person. And so, but but we know that that communication style is inherent, and people are born, like wild personalities, super like connectors, connectors, with other people and all these different things. And so we know that that’s possible. And so just as you know that there’s four different communication types. There’s decision makers, there’s encouragers, there’s trackers, and there’s facilitators, and those type of people, some are introverted, some are extroverted, some are. Some are big picture thinkers, some are realistic, kind of in the in the moment, but the point is like, you can figure out who these people are with things like tone of voice rate of speech, how detailed they are, how serious they look. And sometimes we call that resting bitchface. Like if they just look mean and pissed. That actually clues you into a communication style. And they don’t know that they’re looking this like nasty at you. They think that they’re just a serious person. And they come in and you’re like, geez, if you’re a real extroverted, happy, go lucky type of person, you’re sitting there going, Oh, my gosh, I don’t understand what’s happening here. This person hates me. No, they don’t, they just have a different communication style than you, they’re just more stoic, they’re just more, more factual, which tells you don’t relate to them through emotion, relate to them through facts, relate to them through data, and they’ll love you. So like, that’s an example. And so a lot of times what we see is super extroverted coaches that are like what we call encouragers, typically, which is where they’re really into people, they’re really into connection, they’re really into fun and playful. And they have to relate to types of people that don’t care at all about how they feel in the workout. They want to know that they crushed their workout metrics wise, they want to know that their form was perfect. So they don’t want to be motivated by having a fun time. They probably could care less, if there’s even music on, they just want to crush the workout. And if you miss read that you miss an opportunity to connect. So that’s just one example.
Michael Hughes
So for different types, you’re one just like you have a you’re right handed or left handed for the vast majority of us. Yeah, that’s a good way of saying, right, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot use your other hand to write a name or to do other things. It’s just, it’s just harder to do so.
Paden
And when we’re in autopilot, or under stress, we divert back to the primary way in which we communicate. So even if somebody has intention motional intelligence, and they know how to pretend to be playful for the cause of the social interaction. When they’re stressed out, when you’ve corrected them, when you’re not delivering for them what they want in the workout, they go back to what they know, which is gonna be that default state where they’re looking pissed again, and you’re like, oh, gosh, there’s the face again, like the Miss hate me. And if you can just build some tools and awareness around what’s really going on, you can kind of run off your back, like water off a duck. And that’s what you want.
Michael Hughes
Right? And that’s kind of on the defensive side, from the offensive side, you get to be able to tune in a little bit more attune. Excuse me, and change your tone is what I want to say, change your tone towards that particular person. And I’m gonna give an example of what we do exclusively, is that certain members, certain athletes want to hear their name, said, like, they’re like, me. Yeah, like, you know, like paid and you’re crushing it from like, across the facility, amps you up, makes your work work harder. But there’s another type who actually that would do the opposite. It would actually, it would actually make their workout less enjoyable, because they don’t want that. Social anxiety. Yeah, they don’t want that attention. Yeah, they’d love the workout. But they would love it. You walked up next to him and said, Hey, Paden, you’re crushing it. Only you can hear that, that amps him up. And if you like, I hope that is like a big brain explosion for a bunch of people. Because that is huge. And we’ve been have we’ve been had members want to leave? Because we didn’t understand that yet. And like, why did they give us a bad rating? Yeah, because they were they were felt picked on they felt picked on by rent, or like our most outrageous, awesome coach, and this client left in tears.
Paden
Yeah, remember that? I do remember that. And then we try to dig into like, what what did we get wrong? Because we’re like, so receptive to feedback, like, hey, if we don’t mind getting things wrong, we just never want to do it. Again, we can avoid the second third repeat offenses, like we’ll avoid those. But for now, so. So yeah, I remember that that client was in tears. And we went and talked, and we really understood the impact. And it was like they felt called out, like, picked on. And all we knew all that coach was doing was rocking his dynamic personality and coaching her the way they want it to be coached.
Michael Hughes
Tell me what our coach did. Like, what would they do about it?
Paden
Yeah, so our takeaways from that conversation was really illuminating. It was like, Okay, this, pretty much, let’s just call it introvert. Like a total soft hearted, introverted client, or athlete, as we like to say, which we’ll dig into a little bit here in a minute. She wanted to feel like special one on one, like come alongside next to her, almost not whisper in a creepy way, because they feel like if a coach comes up behind a client just started whispering, this is going to backfire on us. Yeah, like cringy. So not that. But if you just kind of like stand next to like your friend and just go like, hey, zones, or like, I love what I see you doing, like, Thank you for making time for yourself. Like you’re crushing it, that would go so much farther than Yeah, Christie, and you’re killing it, you know, or whatever their names were yelling across and and making everyone want to look at that person to like, why or why? Why is she crushing it so much. And that’s like her worst nightmare. So just really treating people the way they want to be treated. And this is where empathy and putting yourself into someone else’s shoes, even if you’ve never been in those shoes, but just imagining what it would be like to feel that like uninspired by attention, like they just don’t want attention. And for most coaches, you’re good with attention. Because you’re in that space, like you’re stepping up as the leader of that group.
Michael Hughes
Well, here’s the thing. Another thing to think about as we’ve run our internship over the last decade, is that if we have an intern who’s a great coach on it detailed has a knowledge has has the EQ really but the EQ in an environment that is controlled, the lights, you know, aren’t on them, because it’s an internship, it’s a staged environment. But then we start putting them into our one of our drills, and I love one of these when these drills, we literally are in our, you know, 13,000 square foot facility. And one of our drills is yell, the ABCs as loud as you can. And the people that are around or the coaching staff and the other interns, and it’s amazing to see how certain interns respond. Yeah, and some people just go right for it. belt it out. And others like you see their face.
Paden
Yeah, they’re like you mother. Yeah. Like no way
Michael Hughes
and again, not good or bad. But it really kind of points the story and there’s one particular intern who I really wanted just ran pull out of the story. So She cannot, I’m going to be a great one on one coach. At least that’s where I want to go now. And the group, I just don’t feel it. Now the cool thing is I feel strong that she built her skill set to go into group but she did on her time in her path, versus saying, Hey, you guys, we’re hiring for group coaching. That’s it is really it. But it was a long story short, she identified that, that strength in her and that’s where she went. And I thought that was great. Yeah. So as a coach, if you’d like I am, I am more of an introvert. Good. And don’t start, don’t keep busting your butt, trying to make this amazing over the top group training, maybe just one or two a day? Well, that’s
Paden
all day long. Yeah, yeah. So So let’s let me clarify a few things. If you’re listening, we have learned over time that there are certain personalities for coaching, that where they are naturally thriving in a group social environment, quicker, it doesn’t mean long term, they’re better just initially, they’re strong, and they have an assuredness around their skill set. But we’ve found that you can actually hire any personality type to be a successful group coach. But the amount of effort and the amount of shifting that it’s requiring does vary. So I just want to say that because Gemini burnout, I wouldn’t want someone to listen to and be like, Oh, you can only be like a playful extrovert, Labrador puppy style person. No way. Like, that’s not, that’s not what we found, we found that those people are very hit the ground running and accelerate with focus, they still need focus. And that’s what we’re talking about today is if that, if you feel like you’re a natural fit, you probably are. And you can probably skate on that for a while, a building a long term business building and attracting people to help work with you like, you’re gonna just need a lot more training and skill building around it. And so that’s what I would say. The other thing that you commented on it a few seconds ago, that’s really powerful, which is that particular intern that self identified through the internship process, that she felt more suited right away in building a business in a one on one more private context, because she felt like she shown in that environment, that’s really affirming. And like, that’s a successful moment to say, I see me shining in this context. Because when you identify an anchor into your sweet spot, you go all in on that sweet spot, and you build and grow around where you’re naturally good. That’s what it is, like, you come to the table with a natural raw skill set. You can grow blossom and direct it in a lot of ways. But you want to come home, because when you’re home in your skill set, you create energy. And when you follow and build and like navigate your career around what drives and brings good energy into your life, you will have a happier career. And this is me putting my like consultant hat back on and like executive coach. headset on because it’s just, I see people trying so hard to fit themselves as a square peg into a round hole, and it’s miserable. And when you do that, and you’re trying to get a business off the ground, even if you’re a solopreneur or a one a trainer, just trying to build up clientele, and you’re trying to build it up around a skill set that you think is is the smart skills out to build or the high leverage skill set because you want money and freedom, but it doesn’t give you life. That’s not a good long term move. And all of this is about long term gains, right?
Michael Hughes
So another kind of case that me, us, me, okay, I’m a I’m unique in a few sets. And I’m not trying to toot the horn here in a sense, but like my personality type. And how I communicate is I’m strong on three of them. But I’m really poor on one of them. And the one I’m really poor on my strongest, so it’s kind of cool, yeah. But when I’m in my best is that I have a session that’s group in the morning time, bring the energy go for it. And then I convert into like a one on one, you know, reverse engineering a movement dysfunction, and then go to like a semi private, which is more technical chatter. It’s not like high energy, and then maybe end the day, you know, with another one on one, like, I love all three, you know, the variety and I go home and I’m like, how’s your day is like, it was awesome. I loved it. And it’s really powerful to me to do like I can do that day in and day out. Yeah, and that’s really cool. I might have thrown a third mixes, I’m an owner kind of operate in a sense, but like also, like, oh, I also did a bunch of like equipment, you know, inventory and purchase and understand like were some stuff to go into facility for flow. You know, it’s that’s the kind of more of the detail side of things and that’s so I want you to actually yet feeds it versus again, we’ve had some coaches that like they’re like, I’m gonna do four group sessions in a row.
Paden
Yeah, like that’ll kill me. Yeah, that’ll Wait me out. I need to recover for three hours
Michael Hughes
out over the top. So again, understanding and having that confidence that’s why Brought up Strength Finders, like I knew what my strengths aren’t if you do, and if you’re, if you’re a coach working for an organization, if they know what it is, yeah, that’s it. Burnout is a huge part of this of this industry. And hence, it’s why it’s kind of a hot job like I used to be a trainer.
Paden
Yeah, because you couldn’t make it work.
Michael Hughes
And maybe it was the EQ of the entire business plan that made it not work, not your skill set, not your intelligence, not your ability to kind of put together programming just you just everyday, like, why am I doing this.
Paden
So I gotta bring up the rubber band analogy. And so if you’re watching this on YouTube, you can see my little rubber band right here. And the idea is, like, all of us have this proclivities or this natural bias towards a style. So for example, if we just use training as an example, for a lot of people who get energy from other people and get like, it becomes this like, generator of energy, like just the giving and receiving of energy, and increasingly, this fireball of fun for you. Like, you could probably knock out more group training than somebody that’s a little bit more technical, not technical in this intelligent side, but more detailed and process and really wants to problem solve it and really focus in on something and so it’s like, your skills are a rubber band, and you can flex into a skill set that’s not primary for you, and you can do that, but you can’t sustain it. Otherwise, you’re either gonna get, you’re gonna eventually get so stressed in that and not be able to sustain it that it snaps, and you just can’t do it anymore, and you burn out and we see burnout happening a lot. And burnout can happen because you are a trainer who just wants to train people and you hate running your business. And every time you sit down and have to run your business, it zaps and sucks all the life out of you. And you’re miserable going is this even what I want to do? Well, yes, it is training is what you really want to do. That’s What lights your heart on fire. This business stuff is stressing you out on that. So often what we see in our industry is that the practitioners, the coaches want to motivate correct, inspire and, and get results for their clients. Like that’s what they’re here for. And somewhere along the line, they have to shift into business mode. And then the bigger and more successful their business gets, the more coaches they add to it, the more they’re they have to phase themselves out as a coach, which was the very thing that gave them a heartbeat. And that’s where in our example, I could come alongside and do that piece because that lights me up. And you could be set free to coach and that’s been part of what it’s what’s worked for us.
Michael Hughes
Yeah. And also as just to be transparent, I’m coaching the least I’ve ever coached in my entire career, actually having just as much fun.
Paden
I know you’ve had to reconcile your guilt around
Michael Hughes
that, it’s very big deal. Very big deal.
Paden
You definitely have the whole, like, if I can do it, I shouldn’t do it. And we’ve really had to work on like shifting that.
Michael Hughes
But again, back to the EQ again, is I want to talk about like correcting people and beating people and stepping into that piece because that’s where coaching is truly coaching.
Paden
That’s what Ted lasso did so right. Thanks for
Michael Hughes
bringing it full circle. You know, it’s like it’s, it’s, it’s managing the group of athletes in front of you, the team. Now we always say alright, team, let’s get ready to rock and roll for this warmup. That’s what you’re really doing. You’re bringing a bunch of very, very fun spirited people into one environment. And we ask a question of the day, you know, for the most part, at least a conversation starter of the day. And you’re gonna get some answers that you didn’t expect, especially around well, especially around the pandemic, especially on election times, around holidays and family. And those happen about once a month. If you throw those all together, and you have to manage that.
Paden
Yeah, you have to sidestep the polarizing comment that could really change that dynamic or absorb it. Yeah. And completely
Michael Hughes
take it front on and keep moving. And do that because you want to create community and foster that, you know, who wants to walk into a facility be like, Okay, we’re working out. Here’s the drills. Let’s go for it. Let’s put on some Mozart and let’s just go certainly inspire. Yeah. Yeah,
Paden
we have a brother in law who would be very inspired by that word. Playlist.
Michael Hughes
Playlist, definitely, but not as high. It’s an it’s an it’s a rock concert. Right? A workout should be in a sense more like that, in a sense. So you have to you have to foster that communication. And when somebody brings in a polarizing comment, it’s your job coach, you’re the coach, you’re the leader, how you going to do it, you’re going to offend somebody, and you’re going to turn that situation and let that person who made a polarizing comment, which may not be a bad comment, and have that be okay, thanks for your comment.
Paden
Yeah, or you might agree with the comments that you’re watching six pets true bass just turn and you’re picking up on their energy and they just shifted down hard and you’re like, Oh, your ultimate goal is not to create connection individually. with people it’s to create the alchemy of the group like you’re trying to curate the full experience. And you have to be loyal to that first over your personal opinion and not to be freaked
Michael Hughes
out when it happens to anticipate it every single day. And again as a coach, we have that confidence I think that’s a big piece of it, you know, into teleconference do a backflip off a diving board, same can’t move estimate movement side of things. Well, how do you have that confidence? When it’s literally election time, and you do your very best because you know that one athletes coming in
Paden
wearing their shirt, red hat, or whatever it is,
Michael Hughes
or their blue sticker on their water bottle? Just go for it. Right? Yeah. And you that’s and so what I’m proud to say that we’ve during the election time, guess what wasn’t talked about the election election? And it was like totally understood. But what’s what do
Paden
we tell our coaches? What are the topics that they should avoid? At all costs?
Michael Hughes
Well manage at all costs, right? Avoid Yeah.
Paden
As long as they can control it sidestep artfully right and refocus on a very neutral topic as soon as they’re brought up,
Michael Hughes
right. And we kind of all will probably know what we’re gonna say here. Yes, the same thing happens at Thanksgiving dinner sits, it’s religion, it’s politics. And the third one is a little bit more kind of it’s religion in politics for the most part, but then it goes into, like personal preferences around. I don’t want to say religion, politics, but like personal preferences that are like unwavering. Rigid belief. Yeah. Right? Well,
Paden
I mean, not necessarily, if you say, what’s the one car for the rest of your life you would ever drive? And like for you, that’s like a very strong stance for others. They’d be like, I really don’t care.
Michael Hughes
Right. But we’re talking about like, you know, philosophies in a sense, because we’ve had this question of the day just, y’all know, we’ve gone deep into it. Duck, and, you know, we’re talking Plato at times, or like some people like, What are you talking about? You know, that’s kind of it when it’s when the question of the day gets to one person doesn’t include everyone else. Well, and
Paden
here’s something that came up for me, which was we’ve had in two instances, members lose a significant other husband, sister, brother. That’s right. That’s my kind of wife piece. Yeah. And so they’re coming in, and they’re stepping in to escape reality for a minute, because it’s painful. And if you are the kind of coach like though we want to groom and create around us, we know that and when we know that when they step on the floor, that question of the day actually doesn’t happen. Because that all that will do is create this social anxiety in this person who’s coming here to turn their brain off. And they’re not coming here to connect. And as weird as it sounds like there’s times where we might actually just allow the coach to just monologue for a minute, tell a funny story. And maybe say guys, today, we’re going to coach through the warm up a little bit more, I’d like you to go into your body and pay attention. And they’re doing it because that person walked in, and they will lose it and start crying. If they even have to answer anything personal.
Michael Hughes
How’s your weekend? Yes, that’s the question.
Paden
How’s your weekend? Yeah, totally. I’m like, that’s a pit in your stomach. And when you know someone’s walking in with that, you you don’t even want to go there. What’s your favorite popsicle flavor that might just bring up this memory of them sitting down next to their sister, and like enjoying summer popsicles and now they want to cry because that sister is not here anymore. Like this is real stuff. So we do kind of nap we talk about how do we navigate those things
Michael Hughes
and as a front desk staff if you guys have a front desk staff like you know you can’t catch everything you can’t have every athlete’s life outside of the facility but as much as you possibly can you’re having that internal network of of communication from front desk staff email who maybe don’t have a front desk staff we didn’t for a long time, but it’s really you’re using the tools and the resources available we use Slack actually.
Paden
Yeah, we just got a Slack message last night saying hey, we got a new member who just bought a house next time you see him congratulate him it’s a big thing for him right and so now a guarantee a coach is gonna be like so and so like so big like and they know that that he’s okay with that external kind of praise. Like congratulations on buying your house and like a huge milestone you must be feeling like 100 bucks a million bucks maybe but yeah, in California it’s probably more like a million bucks Hunter rags
Michael Hughes
here so let’s let’s kind of wrap this up because I hope what you what you know, pin you and I were talking about comes across like you have to be intelligent about movement mechanics and programming and the physiology and biology right. I get that right and a lot of us in this in this field, especially this emerging, super bleeding edge training. And I must say environment, but it’s really the industry is going you’re either an entertainer trainer
Paden
yeah All right, like the motivational hold, Your Honor, like if SoulCycle taught me this, the first time I went to SoulCycle was like, I just got preached, like, I came to church on a bike, and I’m here for it. But it was not a good workout for me. I sweated, but like, it was because they gave me a frickin motivational, inspiring speech. And I was like, wow, that’s literally 80% of the brand right there. For me, the experience was rooted in the communication of the coach. So that’s what we’re saying is like an entertainer trainer is bringing
Michael Hughes
it bringing the party Yeah, sense, but not necessarily a great workout or well rounded workout. You know, there’s a lot of ways to do that. Or you have that movement Master. Yeah. And that Guru who’d like man they’re looking at, they’re looking at the anterior tilt of your pelvis in correlation to the external rotation of your knee, and how that’s affecting your medicine ball throw. Yeah, and that’s our kind of trainer. They’re doing, like doing massage therapy as your group training at the same time, you know, and that’s kind of more like us, to be honest with you. Yeah. But we understand that you can do both to a degree, like both take skill, they both take a lot of practice.
Paden
And if you’ve got to deliver like a 45 minute, like, lift up your heart, lift up your eyes and see what’s possible, and peddle through your shit. Like, if that’s your style, I mean, you don’t just wake up with the speech, like you refine it, you dial the music, and like it’s a full experience, and you can’t have a dynamic workout and pull that off. You need people to just be so repetitive, they can turn their brain off. Is it the best workout? For sure not? Is it? Is that workout? What they’re really trying to go after? No, it’s not.
Michael Hughes
Right. And it’s okay to have both of that, you know, again, there’s certainly there’s certain companies that like the SoulCycle, they bring the soul, that’s what they do, and they do a great job. But don’t be flat out about it. Yeah, there’s some enjoy. And some people just bring the hardcore, you know, I’m just going to go for and we’ll just use a classic example of like a cross pitch, it’s gonna be hard workout, you go there to work hard. And then there’s the alternatives. And those are the other options. And we go to yoga,
Paden
and it’s like, body image, body conscious love and acceptance session. And it’s super gentle movements. And it’s also a form of an inspirational motivational talk. Yeah, and
Michael Hughes
in this industry of movement, there’s like a 31 flavors of stuff, there’s a lot of stuff, there’s a lot of options. So what we’re repurposing for those who are in the kind of the movement fitness, I don’t use the word boot boot camp, but that kind of like we’re just a group training, this is where we can really shine and come through on a whole different level. Because, again, I’m gonna say at the SoulCycle, you’re gonna get preached out, you don’t have an option. Yeah, you know, you have to listen, you got to listen, you got to be stuck there, you’re stuck, you’re locked into the bike. And in
Paden
Bikram yoga, they won’t let you out. Good luck. If you pass out, we’ll we’ll get you at the end. It’s a whole different
Michael Hughes
Yeah, so it’s really being that being that master of both IQ and EQ. And, and that’s, that’s where the MDMC course really comes in strong. And where we felt super passionate about it, is that we want you to have that skill set. And to know that there’s so many tools out there, a lot of them are technology based. Yeah. And why can’t we have this convergence of technologies come into the movement space, because as our human bias, our knowledge of human body has dramatically increased, dramatically increased, we need to follow that trend line and understand how we can use technology, computer technology, and how to understand mental because how many, how many life coaches are out there now. And I’m not saying that in a bad way, how many people are understanding that mindset is so critical, and if you’re a coach, and you realize that the body is connected to the mind, and the mind is connected to that soul of that spirit of theirs, and if you can influence all of them, yeah, really the intelligence of somebody, the personality of somebody, the physicality of somebody, and that all equals equals the spirit, soul community of side of things. And our big common is you’re going to come in here, and we’re gonna go back to your physical, that’s our focus, knowing that we can tap into the mental and know that those to change soul. Well, because
Paden
we influence where we are right now in society is there still, I think it’s shifting, but there’s still some shame around admitting that you need professional help to go to sort through the hang ups the darkness and like the shadow side. And we don’t accept that. But we’re far more willing to write a check to get our body to push through some of those feelings and get into the euphoric state. And that’s what we understand. But so often when people come into fitness, especially if you’re not a performance facility, working with specific high level athletes, or you’re actually training a team of athletes for competition, but you’re talking about general population training, most of the time, they’re coming in for mind and soul relief. And it’s actually not their physicality. That’s the thing because if they say I want to be I want to be in a perfect bikini body by summer. What’s behind that why self love self except Since the attachment to food and these habits and the shaming and the diet culture and the starve yourself, so you can earn your food, like, there’s so much going on right there that has nothing to do with your body, you
Michael Hughes
know, and I’m kind of bonus Heather’s at the end of the podcast, but like, our trainer job is to move physics. That’s the least important thing. Yeah. I bet wish would have beginning. That’s the least important thing. But that we spent all this time on emphasizing we do to the biomechanics of it all. It’s the least important thing.
Paden
I mean, it’s important, but here’s what’s on it. So
Michael Hughes
of course, it’s important, but that’s not why they’re there. Yeah. And what’s
Paden
most ironic to me in the fitness industry, or really, any any profession that feels technically like they have to prove their worth, and I think that the credibility is like, in your intelligence, I want you to think about the last time somebody corrected you on Instagram, and came at you with research logic and within your face throwing things in your face. Did you like them? Did you respond? Well, was it a? Was it a good moment? Or was it a slap you in the face? I have high IQ. But no one likes you. And like, for me, it’s like, okay, you got people are so much more ready to pull out their wallet for Movement Science, for intelligent modifications for pain, knowledge. And that’s really important, like we understand that. But what you need to also be balancing that is just as much attention on cultivating and really understanding your sweet spot and communication, and motivation and correction, where you’re really strong and where you’re blind. You’re flying blind, in relationships, not
Michael Hughes
knowing what you it’s not knowing what you don’t know. And that’s why our course has it in it. And I just want to say it flat out if you’ve ever seen anything, anything about like, Oh, this is the kind of like woowoo stuff. It’s a big deal.
Paden
It’s a really big deal. And it’s only getting more Yeah, the world is becoming far more open to alternative alternative to understanding the placebo effect, understanding the power their own mind has in creating success, motivation and like wellness. That’s a big thing. Well, the
Michael Hughes
pandemic has been, again, a bittersweet part of it. The sweet one is health. Yeah, and the dire what happens without it,
Paden
yeah, or how mentally stressed people are. I mean, how many times people are binge eating because they’re stressed, or, and there’s just so much going on, and you just look in your like, it’s not even about your physique, BMI, any of that. It’s about your soul and your heart and like you’re going through some pain right now. And what we get to deliver and serve up in fitness is really unique. But don’t, we can’t fool ourselves that it’s just about how you look naked or, or even the functional movement that you want to do. It’s more than that strives
Michael Hughes
deeper, it’s deeper. So if this spot has gave you anything, I hope it gives you this sense that there is the mental side of it, and you’re a practitioner of it, whether you like it or not. And I hope that you kind of do a self check like we’ve we’ve done ourselves and say, what more can we offer? How can we get in a little deeper and by all means, you know it hairdressers and personal trainers, were kind of the second tier of the mental health space, you know, besides those licensed, you know, doctors and practitioners, and it doesn’t mean that you have to go there. But I want you to be able to go there confidently, because that’s going to grow your practice, it’s going to grow your business is going to help people connect to you. And your job is to make people feel better. Yeah. You know, if people want to execute on a pilates reformer, great. They want to do it with an Olympic bar overhead. Great. They want to do it with a Bosu bond or jump rope grave, you know, doesn’t matter, I really want to say that it doesn’t matter, because they need to be in it for life. Yeah.
Paden
But if you want to dis skill stack strategically, you would go into self awareness and like really understand like you’re you have to start with yourself and start with you that really explore where you shine and own it and step in with the confidence of that. And as you’re building your skill set, you’re anchoring to what you’re really naturally good at, then I do think you do need some science, biomechanics and some some intelligence around movement that’s going to even create more confidence for you because again, it comes back to when you know things you respond with confidence and that assuredness that calms people that creates trust, and then definitely can’t ignore the way you can create and motivate and inspire people to move better feel into their bodies get like really get to that next level. You have to be next level. And we can’t trade on personality beyond that.
Michael Hughes
No, no, I would I would hit a limitation. Yeah, so
Paden
too. me like, as Michael talked about the movement master and the entertainer trainer, like look at that as as ends of a spectrum. And there’s sweet spots all over that spectrum, but likely more in the middle than on the far outreaching sides. If all you deliver is like a movement, dialed personality, less experience, you need to kind of bring in some fun, be excited opportunity, bring in some motivation, really curate an experience. And understand that as your skill building and stacking your skills, you’re gonna bias towards the newest information that you’re learning. And we talked about this all the time, like you guys talked about when you guys were as a team learning about the human body and you were like deep diving on the foot, suddenly, every client has a problem. Because it’s what you’re processing, that’s what happens to is your skill building anytime like if you go hard into Movement Science, your shift in your service is likely to bias towards a more rigid, less human connection service. But you just want to pendulum that sucker back. And when you’re ready to soft skill build, and really understand human hearts and motivation. And when you can do that. The byproduct is your human relationships improve. It’s really fascinating. But like you, you end up creating and curating the best of both worlds in a way that’s a really blended pro like product that shows you is such a well rounded human, and you have that emotional intelligence and intelligence quotient. And you come at it from both sides. And you’ve curated this very intentional experience that doesn’t have to suffer from lack of movement science, and doesn’t have to suffer from human connection and uplifting hearts.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, I dig it. And I kind of want to go for another hour on this topic. So for the if you’re curious about more about what we’re kind of doing, again, there’s so many resources out there, check out our YouTube channel, Gymnazo. Go there, there’s there’s descriptions, there’s links on just this topic of mental side, we have a mini course just on the soft skills of it all. And you can kind of do a quick little deep dive in that message us DMS where the case is we love this, this this whole concept in our coaching office, we talk about it a lot. And even our members that are listening, like we dive into this. Yeah. And because we realize that we are physical beings, we’re we’re mental beings, and we’re social beings. And that’s not a scary topic. That’s not a scary topic, it just understanding that it is there. And if we can touch you the way that you need to be touched, I mean that mentally and soulfully, then I think that’s a big, big aspect that our industry has, but doesn’t fully know how to yield it in the powerful way that it can.
Paden
Yeah, like if you’re doing it, it’s because you’re doing it by default. Or maybe you’re unconsciously competent, right. But we talk about obviously, in the corporate America worlds, like being consciously competent is what you want to get to. But there are people who have who have results they don’t even know how to explain, that also hurts their business because they can’t replicate anything, because they don’t know the strategy that they have. Right. But so often we know and fitness people come to you for Beachbody. But you know, they need something else, like mobility is the same thing. When trainers come to us and say how do you make us the best we could possibly be? And it’s like, okay, we can give you all the knowledge in the world. But if you can’t drop it in a way that people feel as a magnetic way to receive, like, Don’t roll your eyes, that’s what you need, you need some you need some delivery, you’re a natural communicator. But you know, you need more around that it’s got to be cultivated, and we’ve done it in trainings on our team for years, where it’s like, what are we training on? I thought we were gonna do like elbow mechanics or whatever, if that’s even a thing. And it’s like, no, no, we’re gonna dive into the Enneagram. And it’s like, what, but then it opens up all these conversations, all the self awareness, like all this deep dive and, and so much comes out of that where we’ve had multiple trainers come back and go, that was actually some of the most valuable content ever. And it just goes straight back to leadership training. Like, if you’re a trainer, you are a leader. And most of the time you’re leading groups of people that are more that are maybe different demographic than you, you’re younger than them often cases, they’re more professionally established than you. They probably earn more than you there’s a lot of intimidation. But you can step in and be that leader that commands respect. And when you do with intention, you get CEOs of huge companies coming up to you and me or you’re the business owner or you if you are the business owner congratulating you for your masterful communication and curating a critical experience for them. And that’s when you know, you’ve been strategic.
Michael Hughes
They get paid and thanks for time. Right back at you. Right on. All right, we’ll see you guys next time. 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 inspired 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.
Leave a Reply