Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself - A Personal Trainers Journey

Perspective - Not everything may be as it seems.

I want these stairs in my gym!

Dictionary.com describes perspective as: a way of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance.

Some people may have all the experience in the world, but perspective is anything less than black and white.

I'm sure there have been situations where you may have misinterpreted or miss-communicated language or signals with your clients and that's cool, we're all human, but was it an honest mistake or are you so self obsessed that you're completely oblivious to what's happening in the real world?

In this guest post from one of the most handsome Scorpio's you'll ever meet; personal trainer Matt Jolley takes us on a personal journey that he recently went through and the importance of perspective in the fitness business.

Health And Fitness Jobs Dominate Top Ten Worst Paying Degrees Of 2011

Came across an interesting article today that highlighted the top 10 worst paying college degrees of 2011 and not surprisingly, of those ten listed, two of the positions were directly related to the fitness industry.

It's true for many fitness professionals that money wasn't the motivating factor that contributed to their career path decision and thankfully so. But numerous studies have shown that work/life balance and making a difference in the community is far more important than salary expectations for many people.

So why is it that jobs that help people and the community pay breadcrumbs and if that's the case, why is it that accreditation bodies continue to pump out personal trainers like Shannan Ponton pumps out endorsement deals? It's simple.

People love to help other people.

Here are some of the other jobs that were listed in the top 10 worst paying degrees:

• Social Work
• Child and Family Studies
• Elementary Education
• Special Education
• Public Health

Sometimes I forget just how lucky we are to be earning an income, be it high or not so high in such a giving and caring industry.

Yes there are tools out there who take advantage of the the hard work of others but I just want to say thank you to all of you for doing what you do every day making a difference in peoples lives and for the most part, for very little reward. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

I would love to read any comments that you have below and of course, if you enjoyed this article, please share it on facebook and twitter by clicking the icons at the top of the post and to never miss an update, make sure to add your email address below and click "Get Updates"!

Full Article And Top 10 Can Be Found Here:

Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway

Do you ever wake up in the morning with that burning sensation in your toned gut wondering how your latest marketing campaign is going to perform? Or do you lay there panicking about how you're going to pay the next months rent or find 10 more personal training clients?

That burn that you feel is fear and it's your bodies way of telling you how awesome you are and to get up, get juiced and start ROCKING!

Think about this:

What was your 'why'? Why did you want to become a personal trainer? What inspired you to cough up thousands of dollars and spend hours upon hours of your time studying to be in a position to help OTHER people achieve goals? That was a HUGE decision that you made and now that you are one, why stop taking chances?

5 Tips To Increase Your Home Office Productivity

Almost every fitness professional I know has some kind of home office set up where they plan their personal training sessions, make their calls, do their taxes etc. etc. and today I've got 5 simple tips to help you increase your home office productivity.

Working from home instantly throws two very challenging hurdles at you before you even get started:

• Separating business and home life,
• Lack of stimulating social interaction.

So why make things any tougher on yourself?

How To Choose Your Personal Training Niche Market And Live Happily Ever After

What a lot of people who get into the fitness industry don't understand is that there is a LOT more variety to this personal training gig than just helping fat people get thin.

There's

• Sport Specific Training
• Rehabilitation
• Kids Fitness
• Elderly Fitness
• Pre And Post Natal Fitness
• And about 127/128 other specialities that you could pursue.

Ask yourself; Who Do You REALLY Want To Train?

Sure, if you enjoy helping overweight people change their lives by dropping kilos then be my guest; but if you're finding yourself becoming bored with the same routine or having a tough time finding your place in the increasingly competitive personal training market then read on!

Is Your Fear In The Way Of Your Business Success?

Today's article is a guest post by Cheryne Blom who, as an international speaker and mentor, specializes in awakening and inspiring people all over the world to achieve their true potential. Cheryne's full bio is at the end of this incredible post.

Is Your Fear In The Way Of Your Business Success?

What if the only thing blocking your business success, right now is you? The fears, the negativity, the doubt…Are they standing in the way of achieving your ultimate goals and visions?

5 Simple Steps To Increased Motivation And Productivity

Even on your best day it can be tough to maintain enthusiasm and tick every box on your to do list, much less on days when you feel flat and exhausted.

They say (and they are rarely wrong) that the secret to success is consistently taking action; so it makes sense to find systems and resources that work for you, so you're able to maintain a steady flow of enthusiasm and productivity and ultimately; progressive results and success.

Here are 5 ways that might help you become as successful as you are awesome:

4 Ways To Re Ignite Your New Years Resolutions And Goals

They say that time flies when you're having fun; can you believe it's June already!?

At the beginning of the year; like 99% of the world you probably wrote down or in the very least thought about some things you would like to achieve in 2011 and today we're going to see how things are going...Oh yes, an accountability post!

Over the weekend, I was looking through the goals and resolutions I'd made for 2011 and it very clearly brought to my attention how well I'm progressing with some things and how off track I am with others.

Seeing this prompted me to completely rewrite all of my goals for 2011 and re evaluate what's actually working, what's still important and what's still relevant to help me be where I want to be at the beginning of 2012; aka in 6 months time.

The A To Z Of Being A Successful Personal Trainer

Let's get straight into it!

Attitude:

Your attitude toward your work, your clients, your colleagues, in fact, your attitude toward EVERYTHING will be a huge determining factor in the progression of not only your personal training business, but your personal brand as well.

If you're not positive about what you're doing, stop doing it because your clients deserve a trainer that gives a damn.

Balance:

I'm not talking about your mad bosu skills; I'm talking about how you balance your time between work, life, family and of course spending QUALITY time on your own personal development.

How To Get A Job As A Personal Trainer

This article is for anyone that's either entering or looking to move up the career ladder in the fitness industry.

During my time working as a club manager and as a gym owner, I think I've seen just about everything when it comes to recruiting staff. From almost amusing applications, to stand out candidates that made me actually create a position in my club, just because they were THAT good.

Maybe you've just become a fully accredited personal trainer or you're looking to move on to bigger and better things by applying for a more challenging role; if you really want to improve your chances of getting the all important interview and then wowing the interviewer once you get through the first stage, then there are a few steps you should seriously consider.

How Much Do Personal Trainers Really Make?

I made a comment on the My Business Is Fitness Facebook page today that when I started personal training 13 years ago, the going rate was between $50.00 - 100.00/hour; 14 years later in 2011, the going rate is still $50.00 - 100.00/hour.

My question is, will the going rate in 2020 still be between $50.00 - 100.00/hour?

Out of that hourly wage, you have to deduct your expenses before you even get paid and these can include, but are not limited to:

• Taxes
• Rent
• Business Expenses
• Holiday Pay
• Sick Pay

Now that you've taken out all of that, what is your hourly wage?

3 Traits Of A Successful Personal Trainer

Successful personal trainers attract opportunities by creating them. Success isn't biased, success doesn't favor some people over others, every single one of us has the potential to be successful in our own right.

Your definition of success more than likely differs to mine, in fact I almost guarantee it does and that's the beauty of it, but there are 3 traits that I've noticed in practically every successful fitness professional I've met; and they are Activity, Accountability and Versatility.

Activity:

Quite simply, activity is doing things...getting off your backside and taking action.

Activity is the foundation to success; if you're not working toward your goals you're moving farther from them.

Activity can be things like:

• Making Calls
• Writing Emails
• Networking
• Brainstorming
• Promoting
• Marketing
• Educating Yourself

People respond to active people. People with drive, people who get up early and stay back late, people with a strong work ethic and passion.

Make activity your priority; don't procrastinate, don't worry about what eveyone else is doing, take control of your life and hustle every chance you get.

Accountability:

Accountability is being responsible for your actions. Planning, measuring and recording your activity to see what works and what doesn't.

Accountability is forecasting, budgeting and conducting market research that you can use to give your activity direction and value.

Successful personal trainers plan their days, their weeks their months and record the results.

Accountability is living your brand and representing your business professionally and consistantly.

Versatility:

Versatility is the ability to cope with and anticipate change. To adapt to changing business environments, consumer habits and technology.

Successful personal trainers use information to adjust their direction or incorporate new technology, to regroup and restructure if required.

You could refer to versatility as flexibility, but to me flexibility sounds too laid back and like you might be waiting for change...Successful people say "f#ck that" to waiting around.

Successful personal trainers know what's coming and if they don't, they embrace it. Change means challenge and versatility is not panicking, not quitting and not having the mindset that "this is just a passing fad".

The fitness business is full of personal trainers who know what they want and are prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve it, but without embracing the aforementioned personality traits, I really believe that they can never be "all they can be".

If you enjoyed this article, please share it on facebook and twitter by clicking on the icons above and if you feel I've missed something please leave it in the comments section below.

Have a great day!

Ben

How Much Personal Information Should You Share With Your Clients?

The client/personal trainer relationship is unique in many ways. We're generally privy to the life story of our clients; their hopes and dreams, their personal and work life frustrations, their physical goals and problems whether we like it or not.

To establish a level of trust we encourage our clients to open up and share, to express themselves; this is a quintessential part of being a personal trainer.

But what about when your clients ask you about your work life, your goals and dreams, your personal life? Is it necessary to open up as they do to you? Is it good business sense to express your work frustrations?

Too Much Too Soon

Some trainers might feel that telling their clients their life story right off the bat is a way to strengthen a professional relationship and in some way encourage their clients to open up also.

But what if it doesn't work out? A rule of thumb is to never disclose anything that you would not want revealed to anyone else.

Ask Yourself Why You Want To Tell Your Clients Something

More often than not, when people disclose certain types of information (normally personal), it's about them, not the immediate relationship.

Sometimes we want to express ourselves to alleviate our own guilt or stress, so ask yourself, how is telling your client about your personal life moving your hard earned business toward it's goals?

Sure, share your professional accomplishments, even talk about what you did on the weekend; but what time you got home, who you woke up next to and the content of the texts and pictures sent to your phone have no place in training session conversation.

That's sharing out of the way, but what about things you flat out shouldn't do or discuss in a professional business situation:

Don't Be Dishonest

It sounds obvious enough, but if you feel you have to make up stories or experiences because you believe clients won't want to work with you otherwise, your doomed right from the start.

If you know how to do something, sell it, if you don't, learn it. You might be surprised to know just how small this fitness industry is, take my word for it.

Never Criticize Past Or Current Clients

Even if you've had clients that were complete nut jobs, keep it to yourself. If you must talk about them, or your client asks you about a funny experience, make it light hearted, but never speak poorly.

If you start whining, complaining or humiliating someone, your client could draw the conclusion that you discuss your relationship with other clients or even worse...your client might know or be related to that person.

Never Criticize Your Colleagues

This would have to go without saying, but no matter what you see other trainers do with their clients, if it's unsafe or inappropriate, mention it to their manager to address or approach them yourself, but don't talk to your clients or colleagues about them.

This probably seems like common sense to you guys, after all, you're fitness professionals with ambition and common sense, that's why you read blogs like My Business Is Fitness. But I'm sure you've seen or know of trainers that over-share, or that give the rest of us a bad name...do them a favor and email them this article :)

Have I missed any fitness faux pas? What advice would you give to a new trainer? Please leave a comment below and like I mentioned, if there are some trainers out there that you feel should have a read of this, share it on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the icons up top!

Thanks for reading!

Ben

I Achieved My Goals And Found Myself More Frustrated Than Ever!

How can that be? How can achieving goals be frustrating? This is the frustrating part!

As I write this post; I don't have any 12 month goals in place, but there is a reason; I've already achieved my major goals, 6 months early!

On the surface, that might sound like a great position to be in, but let me tell you, for someone that thrives on setting and achieving goals, not having any has become very frustrating.

I've had to go back and re evaluate my whole strategy. Some of the goals that I achieved that I'd calculated would assist other goals fell short and rather than patting myself on the back for one achievement, I beat myself up over failing others and consequently became 'goal blind' (I just made that up, but feel free to use it).

To put that into perspective; let's say you wanted to have 25 stable clients on your roster doing a certain amount of PT sessions per week and you calculate that would translate into you earning 100k (for arguments sake). Now let's say that you achieved the 25 clients and sessions but only earned 60k, something obviously worked, you achieved those goals but something else went askew.

That's why I thought I'd write this post. I've been doing some research on this and figured I'd share what I'd found with you guys, because I'm sure I'm not the first, nor will I be the last to experience this.

What Did I Do?

The first thing I did is look at what I did right over the past 6 months to achieve the goals I did and one of the major influencing factors was connecting with some great people. Looking over this period, there have been quite a few but several that come to mind and deserve a mention are:

• Sonja Falvo: Sonja Falvo.com
• Rick Watson: PT Business In A Box
• Kaiser Serajuddin: Super Trainer
• Jody Arnot: Healthy Balance Fitness
• Cheryne Blom: Cheryne Blom.com

I also spent a lot of time trialing different ways to do things. If one thing didn't work I'd try another, if that didn't work I'd try something else, never give up.

Every day is a learning curve in business and sometimes the most unassuming activity can reap the most amazing rewards, so I always kept tabs on what was working and what wasn't.

Using My Business Is Fitness as an example, some articles that I spent hours and hours on hardly saw/see any traffic and some that took only 1 hour to write, like my 50 Ways To Tell If You're A Personal Trainer still gets about a dozen hits every day.

If I could come up with 50 more ways to tell if you're a personal trainer to post every day I still wouldn't post it because you guys would probably disown me!

So those are a few of the things I did right, so obviously I'll keep doing them, besides, I've made some great friendships and have set up a reasonably efficient accountability system.

Let's get this thing back on track...

So what am I going to do now in order to re align the universe and get my goal setting ass back in action?

I'm going to write NEW goals!

How earth shatteringly crazy is that!? I've begun by writing down 3 weekly goals each Sunday night. These are things that need to be addressed at the moment because of the slack created by achieving the other major goals (who would have thought that achieving major goals could be so destructive?!).

This week for example, I need to publish a certain number of articles, I need to work on the My Business Is Fitness Facebook page and there are some branding issues with my other social media accounts that I need to address.

Getting into the habit of setting and achieving these smaller goals should start to get me into the mindset of looking at the big picture again and give me some clarity, instead of worrying about less important activities.

What do you think? Have I lost my mind? Have you ever found yourself in a goal setting rut? What are your 3 goals for this week?

Spread your wisdom in the comments section below and as always if you enjoyed this article, share it on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the blue buttons at the top si vou plait!

Have a great day!

Ben

Not All Of Your Clients Are Full Of Shit

I don't have to tell you that a lot of our clients are full of shit when it comes to how well they follow the exercise and nutritional programs that personal trainers prescribe them.

There's no need to sugar coat the fact that what our clients report back to us and what is actually happening are rarely the absolute facts; but what about when they're actually telling us the truth?

What do you do if your clients progress hits a wall?

Have you ever heard the expression that 'the customer is always right, no matter how wrong they are'? We have to assume, no matter how frustrating it can be, that they're genuinely telling us the truth and that what we've suggested really isn't working.

Forget about how much you know, how much work they put in or how hard you push them, there will come times when our clients flat-out stop progressing towards their health and fitness goals.

We can't fight the fundamentals of human physiology. Bodies will eventually adapt to nutritional plans and exercise routines and ultimately they will stop being effective for an individuals weight loss and/or muscle gain.

So rather than coughing the word *bullshit* under your breath and instantly jumping to a negative conclusion; take a breath, ask some open ended questions and you might be surprised by what you discover.

Some questions you can ask your client to determine what's really going on are:

• If there were any foods that we could replace in your nutritional program, what would they be and why?
• Are there any exercises that I've prescribed for you outside our sessions that you aren't enjoying? If so, which ones and why?
• Are you finding it difficult to find time to prepare the meals, drink enough water etc. as recommended in your weight loss program? Could you elaborate on where you're finding it difficult.

Provided your clients answer questions like these honestly, it won't take you long to figure out why their progress has come to a halt, re-evaluate their program and get them back on track.

There are only two reasons why your clients aren't progressing towards their goals:

1. The program you've designed for them genuinely isn't working. Shit happens, not everything works for everybody. Don't take it personally, take action and enjoy the challenge!

2. They're lying about what they're actually doing and that can ultimately be related back to the simple fact that they're not motivated to follow what you prescribed.

If you're sympathetic to their concerns by listening and re-evaluating the programs that you've given them, your clients will eventually respond physically, emotionally or both.

If you call bullshit and just tell them to stick with what you originally gave them, regardless if what they've told you is the truth or not; they will inevitably leave your business.

Eventually, you will either discover a new formula for your client that reignites their fat burning furnace or you will motivate them to take action through your passion and persistence for them to succeed.

It has to be at your discretion how much time and energy you give to your clients. At the end of the day, if you're convinced that a client is just a complete waste of time that you will never satisfy, maybe you're better off without them.

Have you called bullshit when your clients complain that their not achieving their goals based on the programs you've given them? How do you handle difficult clients that refuse to follow instructions outside of your training sessions?

Would love to read your comments below and if you enjoyed this article, please share it on facebook and twitter by clicking the icons at the top of the post!

Thanks for reading.

Ben

Is There A Difference Between A New Years Resolution And A Goal?

I recently read that 50% of Americans, English and Australian's make New Years Resolutions (NYR's) and almost everyone (around 88% in fact), fail to keep/achieve them. I put this down quite simply to a lack of realistic planning and identifying solutions.

This got me thinking about regular goal setting; the kind that personal trainers and fitness professionals make at any time of the year and if the statistics are any more positive.

An hour of research later and found it tough to source any hard stats on regular goals, so I can only assume, based on talking to people and my own experiences that the figures would probably be quite similar.

So is there a difference between a new years resolution and a goal or are they the same thing?

The most obvious difference would have to be the timing and while the start of a new year is a great time to make goals, most people are too busy looking in the mirror or their demolished bank accounts to make any real decisions - and the most common NYR's reflect that.

1. Lose Weight
2. Save Money
3. Pay/Reduce Debt
4. Be Somewhere More Exciting Next New Years Eve

Not exactly earth shattering or original and definitely not specific and that's why we fail.

The above list using goal setting techniques would look more like:

• Lose Weight - Start regular exercise and stop eating so much rubbish
• Save Money/Pay Debt - Create a realistic budget and save 10% of weekly income
• Better New Year - Research and book NYE celebration vacation by March

For what it's worth, this is my opinion:

A new years resolution is a normal responsibility that people procrastinate. A goal on the other hand, is a life altering decision be it personal or professional.

"A goal without a plan is just a wish" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

To make a new years resolution succeed, the same principles used for goal setting should be a applied and no one is better to recommend a great strategy than one of my favorite authors/speakers, Zig Ziglar.

Ziglar's formula to effective goal setting is as follows:

• Write Down The Goal
• Put A Date On It
• List The Obstacles That You Need To Overcome
• Identify The People That Can Help You
• Set A Plan Of Action
• Identify The Benefits To You

New years resolutions are fantastic; sometimes, this is the only time people actually make goals, so if you're one of those people, you should definitely give Zig's strategy a try.

If you have never heard of Zig; here's a cool video of the man talking about goals:

A few weeks ago I wrote down a bunch of new years resolutions and goals, but applied the above formula to both and I'm looking forward to seeing how things pan out for 2011.

Do you think there is a difference between a new years resolution and a goal? Do you use a specific formula to make your goals reality?

I'd be very interested to read your opinions on this so please leave a comment below. And as always, if you enjoyed this article, please share on facebook and twitter by clicking the icons at the top of the article!

Happy 2011!

Ben

Related Articles:
3 Steps To Setting And Achieving Fitness Business Goals
How To Set Social Media Goals
4 Fundamentals To Building Your Personal Training Business

3 Steps To Setting And Achieving Realistic Fitness Business Goals

I'm sure you've heard and read about the importance of goal setting for your business, but there's a little more to it than simply announcing financial or material desires and then crossing our fingers.

For personal trainers looking to build their businesses, everything comes back to your goals. What are you doing this for, why do you get up at 4am every day?

Even if you're in the fitness business for the purest of reasons and that is solely to help people achieve their goals; how many people do you want to help, how much help do you want to give them?

"If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes." Andrew Carnegie

Goal setting according to Wikipedia:

Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable and time-targeted objectives.

"I want an Audi R8 to drive to my 10 year school reunion in 12 months" is a specific, time-targeted, measurable goal. It's specific because I want the R8, time-targeted to 12 months and measurable because if I achieve it, I will have an Audi R8.

Everybodies goals are different (or maybe I've just given you a new one because the Audi R8 is that awesome) and they do not have to be exciting or meaningful to anyone but yourself.

1. Make your goals specific:

You can't be too specific when setting your goals. There's an expression that suggests that when you want something so bad that you can taste it. That's how specific your goals should be.

I could describe my dream home to you underwater it's so vivid to me.

You should be able to describe every detail of what your goal is. If you don't know what you want, how will you ever be able to achieve or acquire it?

2. Make your goals measurable:

When your goals are measurable, you're able to calculate your progress toward them. Financial goals are a great example of this.

If your goal is to make $100,000 in 12 months, we can say that you will have to make an average of $274.00 a day, 7 days a week for the next 52 weeks. Make a chart, tick boxes, do whatever you have to do to track your progress.

Another way to measure goals that may not have a figure attached to them, such as self improvement type goals; measure the amount of time spent doing activities that will help you achieve those goals. If after a period of time you can see that you've spent 20 hours listening to Spanish lesson CD's, you're that much closer to knowing what the hell Zumba is all about.

3. See yourself achieving your goals:

If a goal is to travel to Egypt; it's easy to picture yourself at the pyramids, but most people don't see themselves going to the travel agent to buy the ticket or applying for a visa or getting any vaccinations.

You have to see the entire picture when you set a goal. If you want $100,000, it's not just seeing yourself on a king size bed rolling around in your underwear covered in hundred dollar bills; how will you make that $274.00 each and every day to get there? See the goal AND the journey and you will be prepared for the best and worst scenarios.

I was looking over my goals for 2010 earlier today and was for the most part happy with how things have gone (I'm my own toughest critic). How did 2010 fair for you? What changes will you be making for 2011?

It would be great to read your comments below and as always, please share this article on facebook and twitter by clicking the icons at the top of the article.

Thanks for reading!

Ben

Related Articles:
Is The Fear Of Failure Holding You Back?
3 Common Success Obstacles And How To Overcome Them
6 Reasons You're Not Making Six Figures

The Real Reason Your Clients Hired You; When You Know Why, You Can Change Their Lives

There's always been an inherent connection between personal training and personal development.

I'm sure you'd know from experience, that along with prescribing exercises and counting reps, personal trainers offer their clients motivation and tools to potentially transform their lives completely, both physically and emotionally.

The emotional transformations our clients can experience are an understated part of the personal training industry. We often sell our services on the back of physical results and promote the benefits of being thinner or more muscular to attract the opposite sex, or to live longer and while that is a core component, it's what lies beneath those results that our clients are most concerned about.

Maybe our client has never had a boyfriend or girlfriend, maybe there's a new addition to the family and if they don't lose weight, they won't see their child's 18th birthday. Maybe their marriage is on the rocks and they feel if they don't get into shape they are going to lose their life partner.

These are the underlying factors why people join gyms and hire personal trainers.

Do you go to the dentist because it's a cool thing to do or you want to give away money? If you're like most people, you probably go there to get your teeth fixed so they don't fall out or to make them whiter to be more attractive. You might not tell your dentist, but they're generally the underlying motivators.

I think a lot of the time that we as fitness professionals forget about these things. We forget the core reason our clients made the initial phone call or walked into our gyms or what's more likely, you probably never asked.

Have you ever had a client just disappear off the radar? Maybe you weren't doing your job properly, or maybe your client just achieved their underlying goal and doesn't need you anymore.

I remember a client of mine in his mid thirties that loved rugby. His dream was to play again but a niggling knee injury and lack of fitness was holding him back and that's why he hired me.

We worked together twice a week for about 4 months and he was so driven and committed to achieving his goal that his progress was phenomenal.

Then one night he came in and told me that he'd played on the weekend with no problems and would no longer require my services. He was extremely grateful for our work, said that if he ever wanted to do more training he'd look me up and he did refer me several clients as well.

This made me wonder if this was a business success or a failure? I mean, he achieved his goals but I lost a client.

Of course it was a success. This is what we do, we help our clients achieve their goals; their underlying, life changing goals.

Maybe the pre-exercise questionnaire should look more like this:

• How long since you've worked out?
• How important is it for you to achieve your fitness goals?
• How long since you've been laid?
• Is death knocking on your door?

It may sound funny, but take a second to think about it...it would make sense to find out these things don't you think?

Make that connection with your clients and find out what their underlying motivators are to work out or eat right.

You will find that not only will your relationship greatly improve, you will be better prepared to supply your clients with the tools that they need and therefore build a more stable and consequently more profitable fitness business.

Do your clients confide in you? How do you get them to open up and share their true goals?

Would love to read your comments below and please share this post on twitter and facebook by clicking the links at the top of the article!


Have a great day!

Ben

Additional Reading:
Is The Fear Of Failure Holding You Back?
When Personal Trainers Feel Rotten, This Is What They Do
I'm The World's Best Personal Trainer
Personal Training Is Hard Work

Is The Fear Of Failure Committing You To A Life Of Mediocrity?

What holds you back from chasing your dreams?

From starting your own personal training business, from opening your own studio, from starting a fitness blog? You have the skills, the connections, the will to succeed, but there's that one thing that overwhelms everything else and that is the fear of failure.

Sure, we can make excuses; not enough money, not enough time, not enough support, but that's all they are...excuses.

To move forward, sometimes we have to take a gamble, to put it all on red, to venture outside our comfort zone and that's by far the hardest thing.

If you really want it, you can find capital, it's easy to find someone to support and guide you and there is always time for what's important; but failure is the devil on our shoulder telling us we're not bright enough or that we're better off staying just as we are and hoping everything will work itself out. Let me tell you from experience; hope is not a proactive business strategy.

I began writing My Business Is Fitness for many reasons, I didn't start writing it sooner for many more.

• Would people read it?
• Would people be able to connect with me, get me?
• Would I have the time to do such a blog justice?
• Do I not know as much about the fitness industry as I think?

In the end, I had to start. I had to take the chance and what's the worst that could happen? One more unread blog floating around the Internet to join the millions of others?

"There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them." - Tom Krause

I was talking to a good friend of mine today who is a lot smarter than me when it comes to these sorts of things and she asked me something that made me think long after our lattes were devoured; "Is my business exactly where I want it to be?"

Of course it isn't; who's is? I suppose I could reframe her question into something positive like "It's where I want it to be right now", but 'right now' isn't what I close my eyes and ultimately see for myself.

Many people underestimate their ability to recover from failure.

As mentioned before, if no one read this blog, what's the worst that would happen? It would just disappear into the Internet abyss. Sure I may have invested time into it, but I would have learned a valuable lesson and what's that worth?

I would have simply started another blog, better than the last and had a platform from which to judge what works and what doesn't.

"Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up." - Chinese proverb

Enrol in a course you've been considering, register a domain and start your blog, buy some gym equipment and hand out some flyer's. Seriously, if you plan carefully, what's the worst that can happen?

What are your dreams and are you taking action to make them reality? How do you overcome your fear of failure?

Would love to read your comments below and please share this post on twitter and facebook by clicking the links at the top of the article.

Be awesome!

Ben

Additional Reading:
4 Qualities Personal Trainers Can Learn From Quentin Tarantino
When Personal Trainers Feel Rotten, This Is What They Do
3 Common Success Obstacles And How To Overcome Them

I Made My Best Friend Pay Me For Personal Training And He Thanked Me For It

Can you can relate to this scenario?

You're at a party and somebody (or you) mentions that you're a personal trainer; so you spend the next hour giving, correction, yelling consultations in between finger food and the occasional person falling down perfectly good stairs.

I don't know what it is about drunk people and getting in shape; the drunker people are the more they want to know and the better shape they use to be in...there must be research out there to explain this phenomenon.

Everyone signed up for this fitness gig for different reasons, but it's par for the course that you will inevitably be asked by friends, relatives and even complete strangers how to lose weight, put on muscle, or 'tone up'.

Please don't get me wrong, I love giving advice to people and it all goes full circle. I have mechanic friends that I call if I need some car advice or blogging buddies if something has me baffled, but where do you draw the line?

I mean, that same buddy I called because my cars indicator wasn't working, I wouldn't expect him to come over and change the engine in return for a high five, that would be insulting...I would give him large amounts of beer because that's mechanical currency.

It's like this blog; while I give away a ton of fitness business information, it barely scratches the surface of what I offer my paying coaching clients.

Training Friends

A very good friend of mine hired himself a personal trainer at the gym he was a member at. I was working from a studio but I didn't feel threatened and had absolutely no problem with this whatsoever as long as he was achieving his goals. We spoke about it occassionally and everything was going well, that and I think he had a crush on her.

Then one day he began asking me more about my services and what I did with my clients. At the time I was developing a workout program that was getting some incredible results and as I explained what we did he became very interested and wanted to train.

Like most people he could only train when everyone else could, so of course training him free was going to cost me money.

We went through his complimentary first session to see if it was for him, then we negotiated a payment structure because he wanted to come in four days a week.

Some people might be happy to train their friends as a 'cash job' but I decided to put him on a direct debit plan to avoid ever having to ask him for money.

It wasn't difficult for me to go from friend to trainer, it was just the reverse of how things normally transpire and quite frankly he became one of my favorite clients because he was so commited to achieving results and we always had a great laugh.

It was also cool because in social situations we could switch off the trainer client relationship and enjoy a pizza and a few beers and not feel guilty or him feel like I was watching or anything like that.

We trained together for about six months, four days a week right up until I moved to North America and over that period we achieved some amazing things.

Because I knew him so well, I knew his strengths and weaknesses. I knew he had problems with hand eye coordination amongst other things (a question I later added to my pre-exercise questionnaire) so I was able to focus on these things right from the start and incorporate them into his program.

What I'm getting at here is that it's fantastic to help out friends and family but you're running a business and as you know, people find more value when they pay for something, like turning up for example.

Give your advice for free, just accompany it with a business card.

Ben