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Stronger Sundays

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

03/28/2024

Quote of the week:

“If you want your results to last, you have to stop demonizing certain foods and trying to white-knuckle your way through cravings.

I’m sorry to all the women who hated themselves after they ate a bagel or provided disclaimers after every bite. I promise the trainers out there shaming you for certain foods have some serious food issues themselves.

Diet culture is deep, but we can unlearn it.”

                                                                              - Chloe Shovein (@coachchlo) on Facebook
Watch for this newsletter from the Personal Trainer Development Center each Sunday.

In this issue:

  1. Why you can’t do it all
  2. Three things you should never say to your clients
  3. This week on the Online Trainer Show
1. Why you can’t do it all – Jonathan Goodman (follow him on IG @jonathan_goodman101)

I feel tremendous pressure to do it all. I’ve also resigned to the unfortunate fact that I cannot do it all.

We just moved to Sayulita, Mexico for three months. It’s my 8th consecutive winter abroad.

Escaping the Canadian cold started as a lark—because I could—but it’s turned into much more.

I do it because it makes me a better husband, father, and businessman.

A life well lived maximizes three key elements:

1. Health / Fitness

2. Business / Work

3. Family / Community

Sadly, I’ve yet to figure out a way to optimize them all at once.

For years I felt guilty not thriving in all areas.

I can do two at a time. But not all three.

And no matter how well I might be doing in one area, I’d feel guilty at not doing well in another.

For this reason, I split my year into two parts.

In Toronto I maximize my fitness and my business.

Family life is good. I don’t ever miss dinners at home. But there’s less effort than optimal to maximize there.

During our winter escapes, fitness and family is maximized. I’m still working, but I go into strategy mode and remove myself from the day-to-day operations of my business.

Knowing there’s a time set aside removes the guilt associated with not always thriving in all areas.

You’ll notice that fitness is the constant throughout the year. It comes first. Always. Without it, I can’t be there for my family or my business.

Winters in Toronto, particularly during a pandemic, make it really hard to optimize my fitness.

Before leaving I missed out on 2.5 hours of movement due to ice. Over the course of a five-month winter, that’s 70 hours of movement missed.

Holy shit that adds up.

Escaping winter is not a profit maximization exercise. Money isn’t everything. And if I make less because I’m not hustling 24/7 then that’s a tradeoff that I readily accept. Our cultural obsession with unrelenting hustle has its priorities f***ed up.

People get way too absorbed in comparison battles trying to see who has the biggest business or the most money and their life passes, and they realize at the end that they forgot to live it and they’re filled with regret.

Don’t shoot for more money. Set your sights higher. Aim for a life well lived.

2. Three things you should never say to your clients – Ren Jones

Ren is an Online Trainer Academy mentor and cohost of the Online Trainer Show.

Consider the many ways you’re different from your clients:

  • Age (usually)
  • Gender (sometimes)
  • Lifestyle (almost always)
  • Genetics (universally)

No matter where you look—from your training history to your living arrangement to your hair color—your life and world view are different from theirs.

And yet, coaches routinely say these three things to their clients or prospects:

  • “What works for me is …”
  • “… and that’s how I stay fit.”
  • “I drink/eat/snort [fill in the blank] every day.”

You’re probably in great shape, and that’s awesome. But what you’ve figured out about your own body through years of trial and error is fundamentally useless information for them.  

When it comes to their clients, good coaches follow the science. They take in data and feedback, and then adjust for each client’s individual needs, abilities, and goals.

It’s that simple, and it’s that complicated.
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:

Episode 57, The Importance of Building Positive Relationships with Colleagues, has a very special message for fitness pros: Don’t be a dick.

If you need an incentive not to treat people badly, Ren offers three ways being nice pays off:

  • Learning. There’s no better education experience than explaining something you think you understand to someone who doesn’t. As Jon says, you have to examine what you think you know about the subject, and you end up understanding it on a deeper level.

  • Growth. When people like you, you’ll find yourself in the company of people you wouldn’t otherwise have access to—people with knowledge, connections, and resources beyond yours. Their circles become your circles, and your career options expand.  

  • Income. Yes, there’s a straightforward financial angle to treating colleagues well: Coaches hire coaches. They also tell you about opportunities, often with a recommendation that puts you ahead of other candidates.  

The title of Episode 58, $35k in 30 days: How Marc-Andre Seers Dominates His Market in a Language Other than English, tells you what to expect from Jon’s conversation with Marc.

Marc is a graduate of the Online Trainer Academy Level 2, an English-language curriculum. But instead of going after English-speaking clients, he operates in French, his first and strongest language.

Being a bigger fish in a smaller pond means he has less competition for clients who can afford a high-end coaching program.

He targets clients who’ve been disappointed by their results on other programs, and sells them with deep conversations punctuated by questions they’ve never been asked—and, in some cases, they’ve never really thought 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


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