Share

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:

"If you’re struggling to see progress with a coach, the worst thing you can do is coach hop. Sometimes it’s just not the right time for you to reach your specific goals. You may need time away from dieting or maximum-effort training.

A good coach will tell you this. If you’re not willing to listen, that’s on you."

                                                                                  - Lacey Dunn (@laceyadunn) on Twitter
Watch for this newsletter from the Personal Trainer Development Center each Sunday.

In this issue:

  1. How to have a life-changing transformation
  2. The arrogance of procrastination
  3. This week on the Online Trainer Show
1. How to have a life-changing transformation – Jonathan Goodman (follow him on IG @jonathan_goodman101)

When I was 17 years old, I weighed 110 pounds.

In the 18 years since then, I’ve trained for strength (I deadlifted 395 when it was two and a half times my body weight) and body comp (culminating in an oiled-up photo shoot).

But no matter how strong or lean I got, I could never get past two barriers:

  • My weight peaked at 160 pounds.
  • My arms just wouldn’t get any bigger.

(I did get my family’s "thick calf" genetics, so that’s something.)

That all changed three months ago. That’s when my company launched Online Trainer Coaching with Joe Dowdell, one of the world’s most accomplished and respected trainers, as the program’s architect.

He wasn’t cheap or easy to get. But he was worth it. We sold out all 100 spots in our first cohort in a single day.

I chose to start with Joe’s hypertrophy program. After just eight weeks, I’m a lean 170 pounds.

I was stuck at 160 pounds for years, and it took just two months to pack on 10 pounds of muscle.

But as impressive as that is, I’ve gained more than muscle. Years of lifting like an idiot left me with degenerative disc disease in my lower back, among other injuries. The pain used to keep me up at night.

Today, thanks to Joe’s program and the help of a chiropractor, the pain has mostly gone away.

Now I’d like you to experience your own transformation when our next cohort opens up on October 27. If you’re a personal trainer or nutrition coach, I invite you to sign up for our waiting list to reserve one of the 100 spots.

They’ll go within a few hours. If you’re not on the list, you won’t get one. But if you are on the list, and you change your mind, you’re under no obligation to take the spot.

Yes, I’m the owner of the business. But I’m speaking to you as a client. And as a client, I can honestly say it’s changed my life.

Click here to get on the no-obligation waiting list for our next cohort. You'll save $200 and get an invite to join two days before the public, on October 25th:

--> Online Trainer Coaching

2. The arrogance of procrastination – Ren Jones

Procrastination is a growth industry. All of us do it sometimes. Some of us do it so often we may as well include "waiting" as a business skill on our LinkedIn profile.

So why do we procrastinate?

I think it’s because of the scary stories and fairy tales we create in our minds.

Scary story: "If I fail, I’ll be hurt and embarrassed and people will think less of me."

Fairy tale: "If I wait until the absolute perfect conditions present themselves, I have a much greater chance of success, and everything I want will happen with less effort and fewer challenges."

There’s a kernel of truth in both examples.

Will you feel bad about yourself if you try something and it doesn’t work? Probably. I certainly have.

Will people think less of you? Maybe, although those aren’t the kind of people whose opinion you should care about anyway.

Is it sometimes better to wait until conditions are better than they are right now? Sure. If you’re going through a bitter divorce or battling a serious illness, that’s probably not when you want to launch a new business, start a new diet, or train for an Ironman.

But most of the time, you’re simply waiting for things to "calm down" or for your life to become "less hectic."

The truth is, you’ll always be a little scared, and there’ll never be a perfect moment. And deep down, you know it.

Procrastination is the arrogant assumption that life owes you another opportunity to do what you could’ve done already if you hadn’t believed those scary stories and fairy tales.
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 41, How to Train Online Without In-Person Experience, Jon admits this topic contradicts what he wrote in The Wealthy Fit Pro’s Guide to Online Training.

He told readers it’s "crucial … to get in-person experience for a minimum of a year" before working with clients online.

It’s not like he buried this advice; he wrote it in the introduction and repeated it in the first chapter.

And it’s not like the book is old and outdated. It came out in the fall of 2019—which, you may recall, was a few months before COVID-19 caused gyms to close. Some still haven’t reopened.

That’s why he changed his thinking about starting out online. If you’re an inexperienced coach, you have two choices: Start out online, or delay your career as a personal trainer.

In fact, Jon says, new trainers actually have a marketing advantage. When you’re honest about your inexperience, you can make your first clients partners in your learning experience.

In Episode 42, The Procrastination Behaviors That Stall Your Business, Ren reveals the secret to getting things done:

Poverty.

When you’re broke, you have no choice but to move forward and do what you can to land clients and grow your business. It’s the only way to pay the bills.

Not-broke fitness pros find any number of ways to procrastinate, as podcast producer Amber Reynolds explains. They tinker with their websites, they focus on their workout clothes, or, as Carolina says, they simply go down a "Google spiral" of searching for perfect information instead of accepting that they know enough to get started.

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.

If you like this newsletter,
please forward it to a friend or colleague.
You're training others, but who's training you?

Join the Online Trainer Coaching waitlist. There's no obligation when you do. But you'll learn more about OTC (our new training service for trainers) and get $200 off if you decide to sign up.

--> Join the Online Trainer Coaching waitlist to learn more!
------

Please share freely but always provide attribution
.


Affiliate Disclosure

 

Email Marketing by ActiveCampaign