Personal Training Business » fitness client

Primal Fitness

Johnny Fitness — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:42:22 +0000

The Key to Empowering Your Fitness Clients

What is the most valuable thing you can provide your fitness client? This is a great question to ponder.

Any good trainer is motivating. We all know that. But to be great, you must empower your fitness client.

What is the difference?

Self-Empowerment = using your skills to unlock the motivation INSIDE the client, so they learn self-motivation and self-accountability.

Making empowerment a corner stone of your business model is critical for your success. The fitness client that follows your leadership proactively, works out on their own, and takes responsibility over their goals ALWAYS gets better results than the one who does not.

And client’s that get great results will refer you to more great clients, which means:

• more money
• more job security
• better results
• less cancellations
• less time marketing yourself
• more fun :-)

The other option is to create a vicious cycle of co-dependence. The client needs you to exercise. You need the client for money. The results are mediocre and neither party is happy.

How to Make Exercise Sticky

So, how do you empower each and every one of your fitness clients so they stick with exercise? Lots of ways! (Please share yours in the comments).

1. Introduce Them to Reality - our bodies are meant to move every single day. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t have survived. This is what Primal Fitness means; move it or die. The same applies today, except a quick death by sabertooth tiger has been replaced by the slow death of disease. Help them face this reality ASAP.

2. Set The Tone - Write out your expectations and present it to them at the end of the very first workout; let them know that this is a partnership and each side has responsibilities. Explain how this will help them get the best results. Yes you may scare off some potential clients, but the chances they would have made a great client are slim. Great clients will react the exact opposite way. “Wow, this trainer is serious, I am going to have to step it up!”

3. Education, Educate, Educational! - Of course our job is to exercise fitness clients, but we must educate them as well. This means giving them small bits of practical information they can use, not trying to impress them with our anatomy vocabulary.

4. Exercise Homework - Oh yeah, about that “small bit of practical information” i.e. exercise knowledge, make sure you ask them to use that information in between each time they see you. Create a program for beginners and have them report back to you, while more advanced clients can submit programs to you for you to edit. Don’t ask too much, but don’t ask too little!

5. Over Deliver/Care - That’s right, when you really care, the client will care too. Finding client’s that you really care about is half the battle. Good examples are sending hand written notes when they reach a milestone, an encouraging email, or looking up some question they had and sending them the answer.

6. Social Fitness - Back to the whole aspect of primal fitness; we survived through evolution by working together. Hunting, gathering, carrying, building, these are all things we did together. Adding a social element to their experience is a great way to keep them motivated and focused. This can mean working out in tandem, at a group exercise class, bootcamp, or running group. Either way, it helps make exercise more fun and less boring, which makes it easier to stick too.

7. Competitions - Providing clients with opportunities to compete is a great way to connect your fitness client with the concept of primal fitness. Weight loss contests, races, and exercise competitions are great ways to keep clients self-motivated and focused.

8. Connect to Their Joy - Yes, most clients want to get in better shape to “look better naked”, but the simple truth of the matter is that they cannot be happy without being healthy and fit. Again, help them understand this simple statement: no exercise equals no happiness. Find out what their life goals are, what hobbies or physical activities they enjoy, and create programs that will help them enjoy life, and these activities, more. This will help them self-motivate and stick to the program.

9. Be Inspirational- Last but not least, we must be inspirational, not only with our words and actions, but our physicality and lifestyle. While this is a major tool to get clients jump-started and keep them motivated, it works best over the long term when combined with the preceding 8 concepts.

You may be saying to yourself “but if I teach the client everything I know, they will have no use for me”.

Yes, this is true, but our job as a personal trainer is to know WAY MORE than the client. No matter how good you are at educating your fitness client, you should always know even more. If this is a concern for you, then that is a red flag that you need to spend more time on continuing education.

The simple fact is that LIFE HAPPENS:

• Clients Move Away
• They Go on Vacation
• They Run Out of Money

No matter what happens, you want to leave your clients with a better ability to exercise themselves. This is exponentially more valuable than training them to reach a goal that they cannot maintain on their own.

And the more value your provide people, the more successful you will be in life and business.

The Power of Primal Fitness

Michael Pollan, in his book bestselling book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, writes that “Under the pressure of the hunt… the human brain grew in size and complexity”.

As well all know, humanity has survived (and thrived) because of it's intelligence/brain size.

And our brains grew because of hunting.

Therefore...

We survived because our brains grew because of intensely focused group exercise.

Funny, right?

But the truth is the same today; we may live in a civilized society, but our body and brains are 200,000 years old (so says evolution.)

The same rules apply.

Connect your fitness clients to the idea of primal fitness and THEY WILL THRIVE.

Find a way to tap into these emotions and level of intensity, safely, and you will empower all of your clients. Engage their intelligence and focus; the human brain, while representing only 2% of the bodies mass, uses 18% of the calories we consume. Get them actively engage in the workout, and they will burn more calories, retain the information they learn, and the workouts will be more interesting.

So what techniques will you use to empower your clients? Have they worked? What challenges do you face? Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!

Until next time, keep your business fit.

Johnny Fitness

How to Become a Personal Trainer and Get Fitness Clients

Johnny Fitness — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:57:45 +0000

How to market yourself to get premium fitness clients and just how important is a website anyway?

Recently, I was asked a bunch of questions by a trainer who is just starting his personal training business. He basically wanted advice on the fastest way to build a successful personal training business.

I thought this would be helpful for others to hear, so below are his questions and my responses.

QUESTION # 1:

How important is a website in the overall marketing scheme? Is it just a vanity piece that is a requirement in today's business world or does it actually further your business and client list?

ANSWER # 1:

This is a great question, and the answer really depends. If you are just starting out, it really DOES NOT make sense to spend a significant amount of money on a website. If you are tech savvy and interested in learning how to create a website, there are several sites that will show you how to do it.

But to really pick up clients, build your list and further your business with a website, you will need to either learn quite a bit or spend several hundred dollars to get started. Then you must spend time updating your website and distributing your content, or paying someone else to do that.

While for some, a website is just a vanity piece for their fitness business, if you are committed to learning internet marketing or willing to pay for it, a website can be a great way to attract opportunities. However, you will need A LOT of traffic to get clients from the web.

Think about it, if you want to find a great masseuse, are you going to look on the web or are you going to ask some friends you trust? It’s the same thing with personal training or any other personal service that's intimate. Most people that come to your website will be looking for free information, not to purchase sessions.

So if you are not ready to build your business through the web, build your business using offline methods, and save some of your money to invest in your website later on. In the meantime, there are sites like http://wordpress.com and http://www.vistaprint.com/websites.aspx that will allow you to set up a very simple website for very little money.

The purpose of this website is to hold you over until you can invest in a nice one and sending people your prospects so they can learn more about you. It will be hard to get new leads through this kind of website, but it will help convert potential leads into paying customers. They may not want to pick up the phone and call you right away, but after reading about your mission or your client testimonials, it will be easier for them to do so.

The best way to market your business is word of mouth, through your existing social network. The key is to get as much traffic into the gym as possible. Offering a complimentary session is standard, but people will still have reservations about coming in. So ask yourself, who out there is already a fan of you or your skills? Who already knows you, likes you, and trusts you?

It can be anyone! A friend, family member, someone who is friendly and works across the street, a neighbor, etc. Get them in for a session, and offer to train them at a reduced rate in exchange for them bringing in a new friend to workout with you once per week. Just how much you reduce your rate is up to you, and you can let them know it is only for a period of time.

Have the new friend do a tandem session, just to break the ice, and then set them up for their own session after the first workout. The more people you get into the gym, the more you will close, so focus on the thing that will have the biggest impact, getting people into the gym. This is just one technique, but it really works because the potential client is not worried about making a commitment because they are working out with their friend and their friend’s trainer.

You will not close everyone who comes in to your business this way, but this is one of the best techniques to build your business fast because you will get a lot of prospective clients in through the door. Even if they don’t want to commit to training with you, you can always ask them for a referral. Face to face is always the best for moving your business forward! It may feel uncomfortable, but it really works. So put yourself out there!

QUESTION # 2:

Does mass marketing work on this type of client? If I hang flyers/leave business cards around the neighborhood of the facility to which I am trying to attract clients will that actually lead to any new prospects? Am I cheapening my brand by doing this?

ANSWER # 2

This may work, but you will be lucky if you get 1 potential client for every 100 flyers you put out there. Following direct marketing techniques, like putting a strong call to action and a sense of urgency or scarcity will help increase this percentage, but this is not the best usage of your time and can cheapen your brand if done poorly.

One of the things we talk about in our marketing system is the 7 Key Referral Strategies, and how to use them to explode your client list. One of the referral strategies is called “Strategic Partnerships”. You are much better off going around to other business owners or professionals in a related industry and creating a relationship with them while demonstrating your value. Meet them face to face, offer to help them reach their goals, provide them with a complimentary session, and then offer them a reduced rate in exchange for referrals. Then you can give them flyers and business cards to hand out and they can talk about you from firsthand experience, which will make all the difference. You should be able to get 1 potential client for every 20 flyers you put out using this technique.

Use both of these techniques, and you will have at least 1 new client in under 2 weeks flat! Just don’t be shy and get yourself out there, it is ok to fail and be rejected as long as you brush yourself off and keep moving forward.

Until next time, keep your business fit.

Johnny Fitness