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Stronger Sundays

Dominate your fitness business with this weekly collection of strategies, tips, and tricks.
By trainers, for trainers.

03/29/2024

Quote of the week:

“When a client does something wrong, the script shouldn’t be ‘no, no, no, that’s not how you do it.’

Instead pick out one thing they did right, even if it’s minuscule.

Highlight a success first. Then demonstrate the fix.”

                                                                 - Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore1) on Twitter
Watch for this newsletter from the Personal Trainer Development Center each Sunday.

In this issue:

  1. During COVID, Fitness = Mental Health
  2. What’s the best educational path for you?
  3. This week on the Online Trainer Show
1. During COVID, Fitness = Mental Health – Jonathan Goodman (follow him on IG @jonathan_goodman101)

This morning a friend asked me how I was doing.

I told him I was doing okay. It could be better. But it could also be worse.

I told him that trying to grow my business, being there for my family, thinking of my parents’ health 24/7, and focusing on my own health sometimes feels like it requires 30 hours a day.

I told him I just want this COVID thing to end so things can go back to normal.

Honestly, it’s hard to remember what “normal” feels like. I miss seeing my friends. I miss high-fives and bro-hugs with the obligatory double back-pat.

Then I realized what's kept me sane these past six months. It surprised me and I kind of broke down talking about it.

Here's what I said:

"If I'm really honest, the renewed focus, edging into obsession, I've put on my own fitness has kept me sane these past six months.

And there's no way I would’ve been able to do it myself. There simply aren't enough hours in the day to plan my own workouts right now.

I like being able to walk into the gym—or basement, or park, or wherever I've had to work out in these past six months—and have my program set for me."

The conversation with my friend was eye-opening.

It's easy to talk about the physical changes Online Trainer Coaching (OTC) has brought me. I look better, feel better, and have more energy than I've had in a long time. I get compliments on my transformation almost every day.

But until I spoke to my friend, I didn’t understand the biggest benefit of the coaching program. It isn’t physical. It's mental.

What you do has so much power to change your clients' lives. It goes far beyond just the physical. It's the mental as well and, for many during this seemingly never-ending pandemic, it's helping to get your people through it.

So, from me, and on behalf of all of your clients, thank you for the work you do.


2. What’s the best educational path for you? – Lou Schuler

When I started out, there was a well-understood path to the career I wanted: Go to journalism school. Get a degree. Get my first job. Work my way up the ranks.  

It wasn’t easy, but it was certainly straightforward, which makes sense for an industry that traces its roots to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

The fitness industry, by contrast, is in its infancy. I worked out in commercial health clubs for 10 years before I encountered my first personal trainer. (It didn’t go well.)

But before long, personal training was one of the fastest-growing job categories in the U.S., and the career path began to look a lot like the publishing industry’s: Go to college, get a degree in exercise science, get a job, work your way up.

But that path doesn’t make sense for every personal trainer. As Daniel Rosales shows in this new article, not every trainer needs to get a college degree, and not every trainer’s degree needs to be in exercise science.  

There’s a lot to think about for every fitness pro, at any stage of your career. Check it out here:

--> The Honest Truth About Personal Trainer Education
3. This Week on the Online Trainer Show
The Online Trainer Show is proud to be sponsored by PT Distinction. After carefully reviewing all the major software platforms, we recommend PT Distinction because it offers a unique combination of flexibility, coaching tools, and ease of use. That’s why we use it in Online Trainer Coaching, our just-launched personal training business.

Click here to get a full 60-day FREE TRIAL to try PT Distinction with your own clients.
Here’s what podcast cohosts Jonathan Goodman, Carolina Belmares, and Ren Jones talked about this week on the Online Trainer Show:

In Episode 68, How to Be a Content-Creating Machine, the cohosts take intimidation out of the creative process.

Along with tips to make the process smoother and more efficient, Jon offers an underrated and underutilized reason to create social media content:

It gives you a chance to test new messages to see what resonates—and, just as important, to whom it resonates.

That helps you narrow down your target audience, which is a crucial way to reduce the problem addressed in Episode 69, How to Turn Public Criticism into Sales.

Think about it:

Who’s most likely to become a dissatisfied customer? Someone who wasn’t an ideal fit for your program. The best way to avoid complaints is to sharpen your message so people understand not just who it’s for, but who it’s not for.

But when you do get complaints on social media, you have two unique opportunities to turn the situation around:

  1. You can make the dissatisfied customer feel vindicated, which prevents a one-time complaint from turning into a long-running grudge.
  2. You can frame your response in a way that appeals to your ideal clients.  

Thus, public criticism can turn into a free promotion for the very service someone complained about.  

You’ll find every episode here:

--> The Online Trainer Show
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways we can help you:

1. Grab a free copy of The Wealthy Fit Pro’s Guide to Online Training
It’s your blueprint to building a fitness or nutrition business online. --> Click here

2. Join the Online Trainers Unite Group and connect with other online trainers  
It’s our Facebook community where fitness and nutrition pros like you can share insights and advice about starting or running a successful coaching business online.
--> Click here

3. Join the Online Trainer Academy
Our world-class certification course is everything you need to responsibly and profitably coach fitness or nutrition online. --> Click here


**Thanks for reading. What to do next**



Want to improve your fitness business? Buy a book or two from the PTDC book store.

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You're tired and frustrated. But you need to get paid and do what you love. So it's time you met the Online Trainer Academy.  

Discover how to build an online training business that adapts to YOU. So you can do what you love, get paid what you're worth, and take full control of your time.

--> Enroll in the Online Trainer Academy now.
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