How Do I [NOT] Scale My Personal Training Business Significantly?

[ZCP]

Lol why still help him after 8 pages of excuses over 2 years

this has nothing to do with @JLE at this point. he's already lost.
might be able to save others.

i don't think people understand just HOW MANY people are paralyzed with the same excuse machine.......
ANY bread crumbs we can leave might open the door for someone.

 

[Timmy C]

Buckle up. Or click ignore before reading what I’m about to say if you feel vulnerable and not ready for some harsh words.


JLE, you have an addiction, it’s not your purpose or a hobby. It’s an unhealthy, toxic addiction. Your priorities in life are: bodybuilding, bodybuilding and bodybuilding.

Any claims about you wanting a family (kids) or anything else in life isn’t even in the books. You aren’t a trainer or entrepreneur, worse yet - you want to be neither. You want … yes, of course, only bodybuilding. If you couldn’t do bodybuilding tomorrow you’d feel a part of you died. Like a heroin addict … your withdrawals could break you. It’s evident from my chats with you and for how long you’ve been “trying” to monetize that you are “in shape”.

But you already know this. And @BizyDad nailed it, a time (sooner than you wish) will come when it’s too F*cking late.

You are either going to win competitions, get sponsors and earn some decent coin now… I mean this year! Or soon, none of this talk about bodybuilding will even matter.

You still have some hope of success in bodybuilding… and that prevents you from hitting a real bottom, real FTE, rock bottom. But it’s coming. And it won’t be pretty.

To succeed financially, you will have to change yourself: and you aren’t willing to do that yet.

I recently posted a thread to address this very issue:
Thread 'Tell us, who are you?'
ASSERTION - MINDSET - Tell us, who are you?

I see it everywhere, with my employees, people on this forum… and you know what? Even in me! Yes, I too have some harsh realities to own up to.

Also, on the topic of business… @JLE when in your mind you think about being in such great shape that people approach you for advice and pay you, you are missing the point entirely. I don’t need to be in as good a bodybuilding shape as you to be 1,000x more successful in getting clients to train. You know why? Because it works in the opposite direction.

It is NOT about YOU!
YOU doesn’t matter. The client is all that matters.

To discover how to deliver greater value to clients , you must interact with clients. Make mistakes. Fix them. Correct and adjust. Then get better and better. That iteration means changing how you behave AND who you are.

True.

A 60 year old lady at a gym I managed sold like a champion and had clients coming out of her eyeballs.

She wasn't the most physically impressive person, far from it.

But she cared about her clients and helping them, getting them results and improving their lives.

She did very well.

Your physique matters, but it isn't nearly the benefit OP thinks it is, or the silver bullet he is looking for.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

HEALTH - How to get started with strength training?

Hi, I realized in the last weeks that I need to take my training more seriously. Soon, I will be 40, and what I did until now will not cut it anymore. It's not the case that I am unfit. I trained three to four times a week for more than a decade. I mainly used a rowing machine in the last two...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Here's your first client, you both can help each other level up.

And for the love of God, you can stop the 2 years of endless action-faking, excuses, and idle chatter.

 

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[ZCP]

There’s 2 goals.

1. Become a competitive HW/SHW bodybuilder
2. Go to school for programming and get a job as a full-time programmer after graduation

Stop referring to the title of this post.

you can do BOTH of those RIGHT NOW. just do them.
you don't need anything else to do them RIGHT NOW.

there is some bigger fear here. you obviously don't WANT those two things, because you could already have them.
you are afraid of being judged, failing, something ..... go see a counselor and actually talk it out.
remove that hurdle. you got this!

 

[perchboy]

Leave the current job and apply for a job at the gym.

While working your shifts, don’t just be standing around. GO HELP PEOPLE. Help with their form, give them advice, etc. Be the worker that everyone knows and greets when they come in.

People who are looking to get in shape (target audience) will be striking up convos with you, asking for advice, and thanking you. From there you can just let them know that you do some 1-on-1 personal training on the side.

BOOM! You just nurtured prospects from your target audience and exposed them to your personal training.

Best case scenario: gives a kickstart to your personal training business and you get a stead flow of new of new clients

Worst case scenario: now instead of working security for minimum wage you’re working in a gym for minimum wage.

 

[Aidan04]

Calling me a liar, huh?

Yeah it works. Buy a react / node SaaS boilerplate and make a project out of it using AI (or doing whatever you feel like). Just add some cool features and host them on an EC2 instance (or SSD nodes if you want real cheap multi year hosting). Hosting a project like that would give you front end, back end, database, hosting, and possibly container and CICD experience. Try using Google's keyword planner to find hot topics and build a SaaS around that idea. Maybe you could skip the job entirely.

Smart tech companies ask to see your GitHub, so having some public repos with quality projects will help. Bonus points if you actually hosted the code and people use it.

You could find some tech group in your area and demo it. Or you could demo it in some online group. During covid I demoed some dashboard that I was building using the elastic stack and I ended up meeting the father of one of the guys who founded Mint. You'd be surprised who you meet and what opportunities come up when you talk about your projects.

You might not get a job at FAANG, but I've worked with some dumb developers and IT people. There is less competition than you'd think.

Going to give this a shot. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Simon Angel]

Nothing against you, but your mindset is dreadful and you're full of limiting beliefs.

Instead of rebelling because of your ego, get EXCITED that people are pointing out the reasons behind your failures.

I agree you don't need credentials. I promise I have tried this route.

It's very easily said. Not easily done.

Nonetheless great job on your accomplishment. I personally do not need a degree but I think it would drastically improve my chances of employment in the field.

He literally laid it all out for you. You could've DM'd him and asked for more info on how you can replicate that yourself, etc. But instead, you replied with this:

I agree you don't need credentials. I promise I have tried this route.

"I agree that this is possible but I automatically disqualify myself from believing I could personally make this happen. I promise I haven't done jack shit to confirm this, but it's what I think. I absolutely fail to see the big picture here and perceive this as an argument rather than you helping me."

It's very easily said. Not easily done.

"This could never happen to me. Perhaps because I don't believe in myself... No, that can't be it. Anyway, I'll just reply back with an idiom that sounds clever"

Realistically I don't think there is a way to convert in-person clients into online clients and so this goal of sitting around in my underwear at home whilst collecting $300 a day could never be realized as I'd be building the wrong business model from the get-go.

If you could explain to me how that transition could eventually be made through whatever advice you have, perhaps then I'd be willing to take action.

But yeah no, I don't wish to "take action" in a way you see fit as I don't want to wind up stuck with a business I don't want to do that is taking up all of my free time. Even if it technically makes me money as a personal trainer.

It's not online. It breaks the Time commandment of CENTS.

He's literally offering you to get on a call so he can help you live the life you want to live. And you're still pulling excuses out of your a$$.

A few years ago when I was broke and failing all the time, a guy here on the forum made me a similar as he did to you... I felt extremely grateful and lucky to get on a call with him. And I, unquestionably thanks to his help and guidance, soon hit a breakthrough.

So I think deep down you want to be miserable and would rather fantasize about the life you "could" have rather than actually going for it.

 

[ZCP]

Told myself I would stay out of this thread for a while. It's like a car crash you just cannot look away from......

For this second part, I've already got on a phone call with ZCP before.

Yep, we talked Feb 8th. We worked on your 'why'. I had offered to be your first paying client. You got another client to train, they paid you, and you started executing. SO I can motivate / help / direct you to progress toward achieving your goal. Then you stopped.

Maybe you get your stubborn a$$ out of your own way and we setup a call with a couple of us and you try it our way for 13 weeks? Weekly 20 minute call. Scoreboard, status of commitments, new commitments. All to progress toward your goal.

@BlackMagician would kill for this much attention. Don't turn your back on it @JLE

 

[AceVentures]

Which was:
1. Continue to build myself as a bodybuilder
2. Continue to build a following on Instagram as a bodybuilder
3. Start school as a computer programmer and get a degree and job in a relevant field as such
4. Put myself on Youtube making educational bodybuilding content once 1 & 2 sufficient
5. THEN, start offering online bodybuilding coaching, once I'm well prepared

This will take time. You all can doubt and berate me for years to come. I'll still be here.

What makes you think doing goals 1 2 3 and 4 make you good at 5, which is coaching?

You're trying to become a better bodybuilder (what does this mean?). Simultaneously, you would like to have a bunch of likes and followers on IG for being cool. Then you'll start making "bodybuilding content" on YT. Whatever that means. But actually before you start doing that, you're going to go to school for computers and get a job in a related field as computers. (?!)

Somehow you think doing those things make you a great coach and suddenly place you in a position of helping hundreds of people all at once. Simultaneously you'll be sitting in your pajamas programming some thing on a four hour work-week you've fantasized about.

You become a good coach by actually helping other people and evaluating their performance over periods of time. You don't need to be Mr. Olympia to do this. And you don't need to have the IG reels of you doing some crazy thing and have thousands of likes and people sending hearts and fire emojis in your comments to do this. Having a bunch of followers on IG doesn't make you a coach. Having a bunch of cool pictures of you flexing on IG will mostly bring you gay dudes in your DMs. It won't help you sell a productized service you've not actually created.

Now imagine using your social media to post before and after pictures of the success you've brought to your customers. Show a video of them at their first assessment and then 4 weeks out. 8 weeks out. 16 weeks out. Imagine being able to post one of those every other day. I put my money on an account like that with like 5 thousand followers making more money than most of the cool jacked kids on IG with far more likes and status.

You won't get good at coaching hundreds of people without first coaching one of them. You understand?

 

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[ZCP]

@JLE time to train the mind. watch and post a summary and your takeaways.

View: https://youtu.be/MOXkko0N3XM?si=zzvIC4ndytnsBHd7

 

[ZCP]

 

[ZCP]

While I'm sure you have good points, can we get to the part about the book? Lol. ZCP has me super curious.



I was going to ask the same question considering I showed him data on the number of Canadians searching for an online or virtual trainer.

But I already know the answer.

Many roadmaps have been provided. The only roads this man trusts are the ones he's already walked.

It doesn't seem to matter how "not risky" you make the road map, his brain will keep perceiving risk. Mainly because the only thing he cares about is competitive body building.

The only way to get @LightHouse to answer a question is to not ask that question. My bad. He's told us a few times how that was really THE book that got him going at the point he was at in his life. I'm sending @JLE that book, so wanted to get a testimonial from @LightHouse ..... who is an amazing real world version of Lisa Simpson and will answer the question not asked. Love you, Chris!!

 

[ZCP]

Are you willing to call it with bodybuilding for the sake of becoming an entrepreneur? If not, you aren't at your bottom yet.
.....
Frankly, this is the very first time EVER, I've seen you open up and become vulnerable. So I hope you see that "I'm trying..." to you may be 3 years in the making, to me it's less than 24 hours.

#1 - come clean to your wife, devise a plan with her and let her hold you accountable.
......
Do WHATEVER IT TAKES to cover your bills and get out of that stupid debt.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE. You have support network the likes of which most would envy. You will get to the other side of this stress and you'll enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Those of you reading this thread years from now .... stop. Scroll back up and read this post. Print it out. Save it to your phone. It's the way out. It is the open door with the light at the end of the long tunnel. And it only takes one action from you ... start walking toward the light.

I REALLY, REALLY hope you will stop and reread what @Antifragile said four times. It is the way out. You've got this.

Decide you are going to do it.
Walk toward the light.
You got this!

 

[ZCP]

#1 - come clean to your wife, devise a plan with her and let her hold you accountable.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE. You have support network the likes of which most would envy. You will get to the other side of this stress and you'll enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Does anyone in this thread really think his wife wouldn't help him?

EGO, the number one killer of dreams.
And from that, failure to team up with the one person in his corner.
And still not willing to do what it takes due to all these reasons that really have no basis.

The crossroads for @JLE :
Commit to changing his story, his identity, his life. Build a plan with his wife. Take simple actions to make it all happen. Fail. Keep working. Fail. Keep working. Make slow steady gains. Just like the gym.
Or
Continue this path, be broke, and probably be jobless and wifeless by January.

The phone is ringing, John.

 

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[BizyDad]

ut I admittedly completely am drawn to making my own website. I already know how to code a website and could make one for free. Plus I own the domain name of my first and last name... It's an action fake but it's really something I'm drawn towards doing and that I feel like would still be headed in the right direction.

It has been 25 minutes. HAVE YOU TAKEN ACTION OR IS THIS JUST TALK?

I would be very happy if you could help me with the marketing.

If you're comfortable with it I would gladly let you have 50% of all online client conversions, and 10% of all in-person customer conversions.

This is a stupid offer. Just another way you are discounting yourself and your value. KNOCK IT OFF AND GET TO WORK.

 

[BlackMagician]

gladly let you have 50% of all online client conversions

This is a stupid offer.

@JLE Think why this is stupid offer brother.

50% is too much. You will spend money on ads, tools etc that will reduce your margin and if you give 50% to me, you might get nothing.

Let me go through your profile and see where you stand right now.

Remember, marketing can't do anything if the base and foundation is not good enough.

I won't do marketing for you until you start getting customers.

I will help you with the path right now and how you can get those first customers and then will do marketing.

Let me check it first.

 

[ZCP]

@ZCP
Is this right?

Key here @BlackMagician .... we don't really know what is 'right'. And that is ok.

Action is what matters. Any movement, even in the wrong direction is awesome.

Stay in place and die.

 

[ZCP]

It's just talk because yet again I do not know what to do.

My every action I am looking to have validated.

You gotta understand there's 20 different people here trying to help me from different angles.

@JLE not 20, only TWO people matter ..... YOU making the decision to do it. And your wife being a part of that team.
F*ck the rest of us. we are just helpers for your future. you TWO are the machine.

 

[ZCP]

He's close ...... he's trying to reword it in DM ......
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I asked him this question....
Key question .... what makes this different this time?

From @JLE
It's something I actually want to do. It's something I'm willing to play long-term games in. It's something I'm already significantly competent at. It's something I already get asked for advice in (which she's seen first-hand). It's something I'm already complimented on (which she's seen first-hand). It's something I'm already putting myself out there for and want to be known for....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I responded:

You will succeed this time,

Because you leaned into the pain: That isn't the life you want
Because you have a clear WHY: Your wife and your future
Because you have an identity: You are a bodybuilder who is building an amazing life for you and your wife.
Because you made a decision: You WILL do this, WHATEVER it takes

If you are trying to skip these four steps and go straight to a To Do List. Stop now and start at the beginning. It won't take, you aren't getting it, you are just in a sugar rush with no lasting change made.

go back and read this post HOT! - How Do I Scale My Personal Training Business Significantly?

Finish step 1.

 

[ZCP]

i suggested this path: (for those reading this years from now, to help you get rolling)

start your progress thread ....

Hi, I'm @JLE . Brief background..... yada, yada

Here is a link to the thread that got me this far _____
It is a long read of many people on this forum yelling at a brick wall for two years

Here is my clear outcome: _____
This is my metric i will measure and track on a weekly basis: _____
Here is my clear why: ______
Here is my identity I will use to make this happen: _______

Here are the current obstacles: ______
Here are our current assets / connections / opportunities: ________

What advice does the forum have for helping me achieve these this outcome?

While you post, I will reserve the next two posts in this thread to go gather ALL of the advice I was given in my brick wall thread. I will organize it and group it and post that for us to look through together.

Once all that is there, and you guys have gotten your thoughts in; I will decide on a 90 day plan and begin executing the top 3 most important items each week. I will ask you to yell at me and hold me accountable.

While doing this, I will take the following one action _________ and get it done by _______.
This will prove to you and me that I am changing my ways and will make progress.

Love,
@JLE

 

[ZCP]

Action is definitely better than no action. I'll take it.

 

[AceVentures]

I'll tell you what. This thread inspires me to be more open with my projects. This level of criticism and variety in feedback is invaluable. Can't believe he ran from it rather than to embrace it. But then again, I do understand why he did. If he had the capacity to withhold emotional reactivity in the face of honest criticism he wouldn't be chasing a minimum-wage job and hiding in the shadows.

 

[perchboy]

Action is what matters. Any movement, even in the wrong direction is awesome.

Stay in place and die.

Love this thread.

@BizyDad even offered to pay for his marketing and he didn’t take advantage of it LMAO

Winners will always find a way to win and losers will always find a way to lose.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

He made a GOOD cheesecake. Pity I couldn't get on a subscription.

The cemetery isn't just for dead people, it's for dead dreams that never happened; epic symphonies, inspiring novels, delicious cheesecakes-- all because their owners didn't have the balls to pursue those dreams.

Their fear and excuses castrate them, and then buries them in regret.

 

[LightHouse]

Wasted is relative.

If the goal was to help the guy, maybe you are right. Time will tell.

If the goal was to help others, then some people have admitted to being helped, and you are wrong.

If the goal was to become a better helper, then speaking for myself, I got out of this thread what I put in. You can choose to believe I wasted my time, but I see this as a limiting belief. Frankly I get to decide if my time is wasted. I am better for having contributed to this thread.

That said, you are an excellent helper of people, so maybe you don't need the practice I do. Lololol.

And when it comes to points 2 and 3, that is why I get offended at people's requests to delete threads. They make the thread all about their own wishes at the expense of others' benefit.

JLE thought this whole time that the only thing we all wanted was to help him. Your assessment seems to perpetuate that myth also, hence my response. We did/do want to help, but many of us respond for the sake of the reader, not the OP.

Oh, here is a great point that might illustrate the difference in our views. (this is more open ended, not a statement.)

The reason why I think it's wasted... is not because I do not think it benefits others. I know reading things will highlight things for other people.

The big reason it's wasted is because you are throwing tactic after tactic on a problem you can't actually see. It's like throwing all the troubleshooting steps out there hoping one is the answer. The reality is, you have the wrong manual.

Then, what you are highlighting, is others see that and think... "Wow, look at all these solutions, these are the answers to my problem too.... but which one" Well.... that may be true, and it also may not be true. Esp if they too are an unknown or unclear problem and now applying the wrong steps or the wrong order of steps to overcome any specific challenge.

They may also skip over the hard but needed step for the one that seems most easy since it was tossed out as a solution or tactic in the thread.

que chatgpt for a great analogy here....

Let me give a simple one a shot. Imagine JLE came to a board of therapists on the internet and said, " I have OCD, fix me ( <-big issue in the first place). In the real world, this wouldn't exist, but in theory here.... all those therapists just started throwing the book at him without examining and uncovering the entire "math problem" before attempting to solve it.

You would have a ton of tactics that solves parts of a problem in a random order.

I am not so sure that is actually as helpful as it seems... though it is great content.

(I want to reiterate that this post is on the fly, this isn't a hard statement of truth, open to discussion!)

 

[Roli]

A few Questions for you and things to consider as you start your PT journey. Please do not be discouraged or take them negatively. This field is very competative but that doesnt mean it's not possible for you to succeed.

You just recieved a personal training certification. What are you going to focus on? Weight-loss,Hypertrophy, strength, endurance, over all health and wellbeing?

Do you have knowledge in nutrition? Metabolism?
what are your workout focused on? HIIT? Hypertrophy?Group Training? Agility and Speed? Strength? Endurance?

Who is your target age? 18-24 25-31? etc...

As a personal trainer appearance and raporrt is everything, and you have to practice what you're willing to preach.
Appearing approachable and being knowledgeable in the gym definitly boosts credability. Smiling, dressing appropriately and smelling good is a plus.

When you say aspiring heavyweight bodybuilder- what exactly does this mean? Are you going to be competing? Do you have knowledge in PED's? training cycles, offseason cycles, caloric metrics for these cycles,Blood work and postcycling? All good information you should post about or prepare to answer questions on if thats going to be your target.

Have you trained with a personal trainer before? or have you always trained alone? Training or side branding along side a vetted personal trainer could help you show you the ropes on the various aspects of the trade.

Sometimes if you find a Very experienced freelance personal trainer thats growing their brand they will pass off some of their overflow clients for you to watch over their workouts he'll watch over you as you learn the trade. But like a new barber in a barber shop youll need to pay a cut. He passes you clients and you pay a share for marketing much like a big box gym providing you with a client.

Where will you be training your clients? Some big box gyms arnt to fond of freelance personal trainers taking buisness from their personal trainers. Research some gyms that dont make it a huge deal, eg.Planet Fitness.

Research some online training platforms to post your programs-trainerize, trainingpeaks, everfit, trainheroic for starters.

With all that being said,
Places with the cheapest ads are Athena, Nextdoor,Thumbtack,Bark, Meta Reels,Youtube Reels, TikTok, Meetup. If you have time, talk to people in the gym and make friends then provide them with a few workouts. " Hey bro can you give me a spot" "Could lead to "yeah man so here is your workout schedule for the next month" but dont seem desperate. Everyone is a "Personal trainer" now a days, stand out.

Remember you are your brand, So Aspring bodybuilder needs to show some credability as in "Im competing next month follow me and I can get you there too"

Things I've thought about and done as im slowly building my brand as well.

This is post is from a deleted user, MJ added the word (not) into the title because he asked questions, got answers, but kept on asking the same questions. He was an action faker who kept on about his instagram and building his muscles instead of getting sales.

Then when we didn't all agree with him, he deleted his account. Hopefully nobody else wastes time answering him.

 

[Sandy Dives]

Significantly meaning $50-70k a year.

My current business I intend on doing 1-on-1.

Current revenue: $0

Target revenue: $50-70k

How many hours do I want to work a week: 30-50

I work alone, no team.

I just got certified so I presently have no clients.

I have a friend thats a PT and did 275k a year pushing it with working all hours possible. Now he has wife and kids and I think he is doing like 150k - 170k with "normal hours" so that should be possible

He told me that to succeed as a PT you need to be good at selling, so look into that

 

[Guest931Xfjyx]

100%. Why is he talking about scaling a business with NO sales yet?

If I've got no sales don't you think I'd need some scaling?

 

[Samuel Wotton]

Absolutely quality advice from most of you.

The biggest takeaways I've received:
- just start. if you had 5 days to sell to 100 people, what would you do?
- sell your services to your ideal customer
- possibly offer something as cheap as a $5 first time session
- ask for feedback about my service
- walk the floor at the gym and be helpful/friendly
- set weekly quotas for how many people youre going to try to sell to each week
- ask for 3 refferals from everyone you know


Cheers to all of you. Not kidding.

Now I just need to prove I want it and execute.

I saw this thread pop up in my email.

I do marketing for a bunch of different supplement brands.

One of them in particular we have a 70k user email list.

I have been looking for coaches/trainers to work with who can produce good content especially written. Basically it would look like - you provide valuable information in the form of content, we drip articles into email blasts to 70k+, and include links to your training consultation / website / social media... on the back end, if there were brands/products you'd recommend to clients, we can provide a portal to both get paid on the recommendations as well as fulfill/ship them, and I can make you a custom collection on shopify with products you use/recommend to clients.

This would be a "free" way to get some clients and get rolling.


Provide value, leverage our platforms, get clients, monetize / provide further value through supplements

If you have any interest in something like this shoot me a DM I'd love to help. My goal is to bring people up with us as the thing we need most across all brands is better / more content and it's hard to get good content.

 

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[Guest931Xfjyx]

There is this app called up where personal trainers advertise their training programs at specific time.

Some are virtually held via zoom.

This is not my website and I'm not affiliated with the guy whatsoever. Not sure if I'm permitted to use external links on thefastlaneforums but here is a great example of the kind of business I would like to replicate: https://www.runandliftcoaching.com/

The premise is offering a month-by-month physique transformation service. Anyone who lands on the site sees a handful of previous successful transformations, you fill out a questionnaire, and then you'll be contacted by email for payment.

The coaching consists of email and/or phone correspondence, entirely online, and you receive a workout + cardio plan based on your goals, willingness to devote time to fitness, and previous fitness regime. Most also include a diet plan as it's a very significant part of weight-loss or muscle gain.

So yeah, simple business model; it's also recurring so that's a bonus.