What not to do in personal training

Most trainers I don’t think even realize that our industry has a huge black eye from the perspective of the general public. They don’t know it because they are the ones not showing up for appointments, drinking coffee or eating during workouts, teating clients poorly, and generally being unprofessional. The above picture is probably not the best practice professionally. Not only is it not exercise, it is incredibly demeaning to the people who are paying us. I’m not a believer in regulation of hardly any industry at all so it is up to us, the professionals, to make some changes.

As a Master Trainer, I want to raise the standards in the industry. I’ve noticed some trends over the last 11 years or so. Trainers are notoriously bad business people. This isn’t necessarily bad, because they are really good technicians in a lot of cases. But, when you are an entrepreneur, you need to have other business skills most don’t have. Typically, they have to sell and resell packages of sessions and avoid marketing themselves like the plague. Most don’t have a business entity established and I’d be surprised if they were all paying taxes. I’ve had many new people sign up with me that have had terrible experiences with other trainers which makes me surprised that they had the guts to consult another one at all. I can’t imagine how many people we don’t see because they’ve been treated poorly before. This is all beside the fact that I don’t see any discernable direction or philosophy for what most trainers prescribe as exercise.

As part of my association programs, I’ve started a mentorship program to stop people from going down this path when they get into the industry. It’s also for any current trainers that would like to improve their business skills and develop a viable and successful business strategy for the long term. They don’t even have to live in the area as this program can be virtual. It’s fully supported with done for you systems that you can immediately put in place. Plus, there is the super secret ULTIMATE revenue generator specifically for trainers. It can improve your cash flow and double your income!

There’s also a Mastermind group which is only open to a select few. You must be invited to join after acceptance by the group. I’ve spent a lot of time and money on self improvement and coaching, myself. My old ice hockey coach used to say: “No matter how big and bad you think you are, there’s always somebody bigger and badder than you are out there.” Or somebody that has already been there and done that. And if they have, we should learn from them.

As my old boss, Gary Anger, used to say: “Let’s put the personal back in personal training.” These people are paying us a lot of money and we should treat them professionally at the least. A must read book for trainers is Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service by Ken Blanchard

You can’t afford not to read it. Be sure to under promise and overdeliver on your service. Currently, there is 60%+ of the population that is doing nothing in the way of exercise. Let’s not make it harder or less desirable for them to hire us. Let’s make a real effort to raise the standards in the industry together.

If you are interested in mentorship by a Master Trainer, go here.