Let my pain be your gain as I've rounded up some common mistakes coaches make early in their careers.
When I started training clients I thought I knew everything and strutted like a peacock across the gym floor to assert my superior knowledge of the gym. When I look back, I knew absolutely nothing.
That attitude more than hurt me, and it was the first of many mistakes I made early in my career.
Continue reading
Let my pain be your gain as I've rounded up some common mistakes coaches make early in their careers.
When I started training clients I thought I knew everything and strutted like a peacock across the gym floor to assert my superior knowledge of the gym. When I look back, I knew absolutely nothing.
That attitude more than hurt me, and it was the first of many mistakes I made early in my career.
Continue reading
Our guest today is Tom Purvis. Tom started as a bodybuilder, trained in Gold's gym with all the top professionals in the 90s and trained other fitness professionals at RTS since 1997. He has a wealth of experience and has been tested by name as a mentor for many top competitors and trainers. Tom is the creator of RTS (resistancetrainingspecialist.com) and exercisesprofessional.com.
In this episode, we discuss the underlying thought processes Tom goes through when trying to help someone build muscle mass.
This leads to a fascinating insight full of key principles that you need to understand in order to reach your potential.
You can also find this podcast on top of all of my other Six Pack of Knowledge podcasts (curated discussions with the world's greatest hypertrophy experts).
Or search for Breaking Muscle's channel and podcasts on the following services: iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, PlayerFM, PodBean.
Our guest today is Tom Purvis. Tom started as a bodybuilder, trained in Gold's gym with all the top professionals in the 90s and trained other fitness professionals at RTS since 1997. He has a wealth of experience and has been tested by name as a mentor for many top competitors and trainers. Tom is the creator of RTS (resistancetrainingspecialist.com) and exercisesprofessional.com.
In this episode, we discuss the underlying thought processes Tom goes through when trying to help someone build muscle mass.
This leads to a fascinating insight full of key principles that you need to understand in order to reach your potential.
You can also find this podcast on top of all of my other Six Pack of Knowledge podcasts (curated discussions with the world's greatest hypertrophy experts).
Or search for Breaking Muscle's channel and podcasts on the following services: iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, PlayerFM, PodBean.
I am writing this piece in response to the MindBody Article in the Trainer Only newsletter. There were aspects of MindBody's actions that I could understand, and I agreed with many of the points outlined in the Breaking Muscle follow-up. Ultimately, I don't agree with any third-party vendor that has control over a company's revenue and business practices. Breaking Muscle offered practical advice and I will add my own insights. It includes some insight or support related to my experience and what I'm doing as a fully independent freelance trainer who tries to keep in touch with you in an already vague and unfairly competitive industry.
I have been working in the health and fitness industry for 20 years. This meant I had to have a variety of roles, work with a variety of populations, work in some unruly environments, and think creatively yet critically about my feet to experience a variety of disappointments that resulted from over-trusting others in the industry or who tried to profit from this market. Don't get me wrong, I've also had some good experiences, but I'm an independent trainer for a reason. Needless to say, the reasons for many of my frustrations in this area have also caused me to turn more strongly in situations where we all experience at different levels.
Over the years, I have dealt with distance learning, online and virtual training combined with the use of an extensive range of tools that have repeatedly come out to improve these methods, receive payments, provide schedules and so on. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in many of my attempts because time and costs were not the same for me or for my customers. I didn't have the time to learn how someone else ran my business, and I quickly realized that my customers didn't have the time or interest to learn new technologies in addition to all of their other real-life tasks . Don't get me wrong here, there are some useful technologies and apps for online and virtual training, but I learned during that time and kept my current personal customers by meeting them where they are and kept things as simple as possible for them.
My customers are now mostly professionals and those who work in corporate environments. These are all people who use communication and planning tools such as Gmail or Outlook, WebEx, Citrix, Skype and Google Hangouts. Ask your customers what they're using and you'll find out if you've never seen these programs before. For payments, PayPal is one of the safest, most user-friendly, quick-reacting and customer-oriented companies I have ever used. I also bet that your customers also used a simple secure bank transfer to make payments. Set up a Zoho or Freshbooks account, send invoices from there, and manage things that way.
Did I mention that all of the above are free for you? Up to a certain limit, of course, but the fees are low.
I am and have never been a fan of online coaching (just sending workouts) without being able to interact live with my clients even once a week. For this reason, I decided to keep things interactive in live virtual coaching sessions. It hurts my heart a little to make some coaching sacrifices that require hands-on and 360-degree views, but look at the big picture, soak it up, and find that this type of workout is just about you a better coach because it takes a lot of patience, stoicism, learning new verbal clues and having fun with them. Your customers are probably really needing your kick adversity and ass energy challenges right now. This is one of the best times to really use your empathy and compassion and really show yourself to be the caring trainer that you are all. Support is currently more important than PR and aesthetic goals. These are also aspects that we know can help you get more people on board as emotions sell and we are now selling hope, not just health, fitness and performance.
Although I appreciate the strength of all of us coming together, I have learned that it is important not to have to rely on anyone or anything for my own life and livelihood. Be agile and prepared. I want this for you too, and hopefully a summary of my experience will help you do the same. Know and do what works first for you and then for your customer (yes, in the right order) and stay on your path. Please know that I don't lose my growth philosophy with these things and I don't connect with others. Just do your own life and business analysis first and find out what you really need instead of just following people's advice. Only you really know what you need to be successful in your business. Okay, and your immediate stakeholders and advisors.
I am happy to introduce you to some people and resources that are directly related to this business market and could help you during this time, but there are many others. It is simply a matter of figuring out what is right for you:
I would like to add that if you have the budget for it, a good idea is to buy some small training articles from Amazon and pack your virtual services with some devices. I have done this in the past and it worked well and I know a local gym here that is currently doing this.
During this time, I personally successfully supported customers in moving as far as possible without losing revenue by keeping my hourly prices the same, but rather four times a week in two 30-minute sessions instead of two one-hour sessions each Week. This helps customers maintain their training habits, which we know are unlikely to be motivated enough to do this themselves at the moment. They also achieved some success by including some of my clients' children in their one-hour sessions.
During this time, what I am writing can lead to different results, but much that is perpetuated as the savior of the fitness business will take more of your time, money, efforts, and credibility after this is over. I know that from close friends or through my own experiences. Anything free at the moment is probably not the best solution. As mentioned in the MindBody COVID-19 response article, there is enough free content, and your knowledge and time are worth more. Research has shown that tactics cost you more than you do.
Using T&A will not help you find non-pornographic customers. Hey, if you want to take things there that's up to you, just be careful and really think about it.
The tactic of using too many novelty exercises doesn't work. I think we all know that the majority of the people we want to reach can hardly take a lunge or do an elevated push-up properly. Don't spend too much time creating all these new social accounts, use the existing ones and hash again, have perfect geo-tagging, SEO and the like. Social media management or influencer is a full-time job and can make you even more stressed or angry if you have to go through everything and learn what's out there and what's working. I also know that this path very often only appears lucrative to the people who do all this work.
MindBody's actions were understandable because they too need to protect their business, but I have to say that I don't agree with a third-party service that has control over other people's earnings and business practices. I hope that my forays into this time have encouraged or perhaps led you to realize that you must always be sure that you have the majority about your life and business and that I have provided some useful knowledge and resources to help you to help with that. Know that this has another side and that many people and companies, big or small, have to face the music of their actions during this time. We have one of the best jobs that we all clearly have a passion for, and while many of us are fighting for many of the same things, we don't have to be each other's nemesis – there are still billions of people left in this world, who need our help and we cannot reach them and help them alone.
Feel free to contact me via Twitter or Instagram if this is helpful. The links are next to my byline at the beginning of this article.
I am writing this piece in response to the MindBody Article in the Trainer Only newsletter. There were aspects of MindBody's actions that I could understand, and I agreed with many of the points outlined in the Breaking Muscle follow-up. Ultimately, I don't agree with any third-party vendor that has control over a company's revenue and business practices. Breaking Muscle offered practical advice and I will add my own insights. It includes some insight or support related to my experience and what I'm doing as a fully independent freelance trainer who tries to keep in touch with you in an already vague and unfairly competitive industry.
I have been working in the health and fitness industry for 20 years. This meant I had to have a variety of roles, work with a variety of populations, work in some unruly environments, and think creatively yet critically about my feet to experience a variety of disappointments that resulted from over-trusting others in the industry or who tried to profit from this market. Don't get me wrong, I've also had some good experiences, but I'm an independent trainer for a reason. Needless to say, the reasons for many of my frustrations in this area have also caused me to turn more strongly in situations where we all experience at different levels.
Over the years, I have dealt with distance learning, online and virtual training combined with the use of an extensive range of tools that have repeatedly come out to improve these methods, receive payments, provide schedules and so on. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in many of my attempts because time and costs were not the same for me or for my customers. I didn't have the time to learn how someone else ran my business, and I quickly realized that my customers didn't have the time or interest to learn new technologies in addition to all of their other real-life tasks . Don't get me wrong here, there are some useful technologies and apps for online and virtual training, but I learned during that time and kept my current personal customers by meeting them where they are and kept things as simple as possible for them.
My customers are now mostly professionals and those who work in corporate environments. These are all people who use communication and planning tools such as Gmail or Outlook, WebEx, Citrix, Skype and Google Hangouts. Ask your customers what they're using and you'll find out if you've never seen these programs before. For payments, PayPal is one of the safest, most user-friendly, quick-reacting and customer-oriented companies I have ever used. I also bet that your customers also used a simple secure bank transfer to make payments. Set up a Zoho or Freshbooks account, send invoices from there, and manage things that way.
Did I mention that all of the above are free for you? Up to a certain limit, of course, but the fees are low.
I am and have never been a fan of online coaching (just sending workouts) without being able to interact live with my clients even once a week. For this reason, I decided to keep things interactive in live virtual coaching sessions. It hurts my heart a little to make some coaching sacrifices that require hands-on and 360-degree views, but look at the big picture, soak it up, and find that this type of workout is just about you a better coach because it takes a lot of patience, stoicism, learning new verbal clues and having fun with them. Your customers are probably really needing your kick adversity and ass energy challenges right now. This is one of the best times to really use your empathy and compassion and really show yourself to be the caring trainer that you are all. Support is currently more important than PR and aesthetic goals. These are also aspects that we know can help you get more people on board as emotions sell and we are now selling hope, not just health, fitness and performance.
Although I appreciate the strength of all of us coming together, I have learned that it is important not to have to rely on anyone or anything for my own life and livelihood. Be agile and prepared. I want this for you too, and hopefully a summary of my experience will help you do the same. Know and do what works first for you and then for your customer (yes, in the right order) and stay on your path. Please know that I don't lose my growth philosophy with these things and I don't connect with others. Just do your own life and business analysis first and find out what you really need instead of just following people's advice. Only you really know what you need to be successful in your business. Okay, and your immediate stakeholders and advisors.
I am happy to introduce you to some people and resources that are directly related to this business market and could help you during this time, but there are many others. It is simply a matter of figuring out what is right for you:
I would like to add that if you have the budget for it, a good idea is to buy some small training articles from Amazon and pack your virtual services with some devices. I have done this in the past and it worked well and I know a local gym here that is currently doing this.
During this time, I personally successfully supported customers in moving as far as possible without losing revenue by keeping my hourly prices the same, but rather four times a week in two 30-minute sessions instead of two one-hour sessions each Week. This helps customers maintain their training habits, which we know are unlikely to be motivated enough to do this themselves at the moment. They also achieved some success by including some of my clients' children in their one-hour sessions.
During this time, what I am writing can lead to different results, but much that is perpetuated as the savior of the fitness business will take more of your time, money, efforts, and credibility after this is over. I know that from close friends or through my own experiences. Anything free at the moment is probably not the best solution. As mentioned in the MindBody COVID-19 response article, there is enough free content, and your knowledge and time are worth more. Research has shown that tactics cost you more than you do.
Using T&A will not help you find non-pornographic customers. Hey, if you want to take things there that's up to you, just be careful and really think about it.
The tactic of using too many novelty exercises doesn't work. I think we all know that the majority of the people we want to reach can hardly take a lunge or do an elevated push-up properly. Don't spend too much time creating all these new social accounts, use the existing ones and hash again, have perfect geo-tagging, SEO and the like. Social media management or influencer is a full-time job and can make you even more stressed or angry if you have to go through everything and learn what's out there and what's working. I also know that this path very often only appears lucrative to the people who do all this work.
MindBody's actions were understandable because they too need to protect their business, but I have to say that I don't agree with a third-party service that has control over other people's earnings and business practices. I hope that my forays into this time have encouraged or perhaps led you to realize that you must always be sure that you have the majority about your life and business and that I have provided some useful knowledge and resources to help you to help with that. Know that this has another side and that many people and companies, big or small, have to face the music of their actions during this time. We have one of the best jobs that we all clearly have a passion for, and while many of us are fighting for many of the same things, we don't have to be each other's nemesis – there are still billions of people left in this world, who need our help and we cannot reach them and help them alone.
Feel free to contact me via Twitter or Instagram if this is helpful. The links are next to my byline at the beginning of this article.
