Kaizen Outdoor Fitness - Bootcamp Workout Ideas for Personal Trainers

We are going to cover off some of the basics you need to get in place if you want to do well as a fitness professional.

And remember, if you are not running your own group training business already, then you are unlikely to get very far. Working for an hourly rate for someone else is gonna put an end to your career pretty quickly.

Shownotes

00’45” The situations you could get yourself into if you miss these fundamentals
01’56” What gets us into this situation?
02’38” Fundamental #1: Seeking clarity
03’16” How to quickly work out what makes you unique
03’36” Fundamental #2: Your training program
04’35” Where to get six free, done-for-you bootcamp workouts
04’46” Fundamental #3: The PT earning zone
05’58” The quickest way to burn yourself out
06’19” Fundamental #4: Getting paid
07’37” What you should be selling instead of training sessions
08’13” Fundamental #5: Choosing your clients
09’04” Your peanut butter sandwich…
10’31” Some Action Steps
12’28” How to bust through your fitness career ‘sticking point’

Resources Mentioned In The Show

More video training on Fitness Bootcamp Fundamentals

Fundamentals

This episode we are going to cover off some of the basics you need to get in place if you want to do well as a fitness professional
And remember, if you are not running your own group training business already, then you are unlikely to get very far. Working for an hourly rate for someone else is gonna put an end to your career pretty quickly.

Before we go any further, let me just cover off a couple of the situations you’ll get into if you miss some of the fundamentals that I’m going to show you today.

- First is, you might not get started at all because you are still a bit unsure what to do next or nervous that you will get something wrong. There’s a good reason for this. A lot can go wrong – and one of the problems with our profession is that common practice is not at all best practice. In other words, the strategies you’ll see most trainers using simply don’t work.

Think about it. That’s why we have the highest dropout rate of any profession. Trainers all over the world are struggling to make money, working for the equivalent of minimum wage and most of us burn out or quit within 18 months.

- The next problem is you start your fitness group, bootcamp or open a crossfit box and get stuck at around the 20-30 client mark. This is the worst place to be – because now you’ve got clients you need to train and look after AND you’ve got to make time to get more clients. This is where you feel like you’re working your arse off all day and there’s not enough in the bank account at the end of the month to show for it.

You’ve got to be real careful here. This is the place I see a lot trainers getting stuck. That’s why I want to talk about what gets us into this situation and what we can do to get out of it quickly.

What it comes down to is not thinking far enough into the future.

Getting to 20-30 clients is like the first step – but a lot of trainers don’t think about how they are going to get beyond that – they overlook some of the fundamentals that I’m going to talk about in a second, or it just doesn’t occur to us at the time that we could be setting ourselves up for trouble.

And I say 20-30 clients because that’s where I notice trainers get into trouble – but wherever you are, if you feel like you are constantly chasing your tail and working harder than you want to, you’ve got a problem.

1. THE FIRST FUNDAMENTAL IS HAVING CLARITY ABOUT WHY YOU STARTED YOUR TRAINING GROUP

You must be able to describe exactly what you do in a way that gets people’s attention and interest. If people don’t find what you do remarkable in some way then they won’t talk about you. That means you’ll have to do all the work yourself.

So to get some clarity around this – sit down and think about WHY you are doing this, exactly WHO it is you really want to help and WHAT you do differently that would make someone want to train with you verses any of the thousands of other so-called qualified trainers in your area.

This intersection of WHY you do what you do, WHO you do it for and WHAT you do differently is where you’ll find your uniqueness. No one else is like you and no other training group can offer what yours does. Make sure you are crystal clear on this because it will make attracting new clients so much easier.

2. THE NEXT FUNDAMENTAL IS TO REALLY NAIL YOUR TRAINING PROGRAM

Can you be 100% certain that your program will deliver sustained results? If not, you need to pay attention. Of course this is fundamental. It’s at the heart of what we do! But too many group outdoor trainers simply scan the internet for fun ideas and think that this amounts to a training program.

The trap here is that it creates an illusion –new clients, people who aren’t used to exercise will notice a difference no matter what they do, right? – but again, it comes back to not thinking far enough into the future.

What are you doing to avoid those clients reaching a plateau after about 3 to 6 months? – because that’s about how long it will take. Once their results start to plateau and they start leaving it starts to feels like you are pushing a rock up a hill. Fix this and you will grow out of the struggle zone much quicker.

Planning an effective group workout program takes time and knowledge to get right. But you must make it a priority.

By the way, I send out 6 free bootcamp workouts every week so you can get a quick head start by signing up for that email at www.fitprolifestyle.com

3. TIME WOULD BE THE NEXT THING

Everyone complains that they are short on time and being ‘busy’ seems to be a badge of honour these days. Well the truth is, being busy is not the same as being productive.

You can be busy doing things that do absolutely nothing to contribute to your bottom line. What you need to be aware of – if you are not already – is what I call the ‘PT earning zones’. See, there are certain times of day that are far more valuable than others and it’s what you choose do during these earning zones that dictates your success as a trainer.
Let me give you an example.

If you lie in bed until 7 o clock every morning you are missing out on business because a large proportion of the population prefer to exercise first thing in the morning.

That’s pretty obvious right, so if you want to be professional about it you get up early and train people. But if you’re getting up and doing 1 on 1 personal training first thing then that is almost as bad as sleeping in.. That’s because you could be earning 2, 3 or 4 times more than what that client is paying you if you ran a group session at that time instead.

Wasting one of the most lucrative times of day by trading your time for money with one client is the quickest way to burn yourself out. There are 3 super-profitable earning zones in every weekday. If all you did was train groups in those 3 sweet spots you would earn far more than most full-time personal trainers do and still have plenty time to spare.

4. THE NEXT FUNDAMENTAL IS GETTING PAID

Close behind organising your time is making sure you get paid efficiently. Hardly anyone working as a fitness trainer today is getting paid what they are worth. This is despite the amazing benefits and extraordinary value we bring to our clients – we transform people’s lives on a daily basis. Literally. We can help people live longer, become happier and more confident, reverse the effects of aging and even cure chronic joint pain.

You might think it isn’t fair – that we don’t get paid what we are worth – but we’ve only got ourselves to blame. Again this is down to common practice not being best practice. See, most personal trainers sell training sessions instead of results. This makes no sense
For one thing, most folk don’t like to think about exercising. The very idea puts them off. Charging for training sessions focuses their attention on the wrong thing and conjures up negative feelings for the majority of people — and who would value that?
Cosmetic surgeons don’t sell painful surgical procedures. They sell the benefits of a beautiful face.

That’s probably a bad example but you get the point.
If you were to shift the focus on to adopting a life-changing habit that produces a highly desirable outcome then suddenly your proposition becomes a whole lot more valuable.

So why are you selling still casual sessions and 10-session packs?
What you should be selling is a more satisfying life or at the very least, fat loss, more energy, stress reduction, pain relief, whatever…

Sustainable life-changing results cannot be attained in 10 sessions or during a pointless ‘30-day challenge’.
Once more, it’s a case of short term thinking. Selling training sessions instead of results is the cause of one last fundamental problem that crops up regularly and that is….

5. CHOOSING WHO YOU WORK WITH – WHICH IS THE LAST FUNDAMENTAL I WANT TO MENTION TODAY

Training the wrong people will lead to conflicts. If you have clients that don’t show up, cancel sessions at the last minute or generally don’t seem committed, then not only do you not need them, they are actually taking the place of someone who you would really love to train with and who would benefit a lot more from your unique service.

Have you heard the expression ‘one bad apple spoils the whole barrel’?
Well putting up with just one client who you don’t get on with can ruin your career or business – because they have a negative effect on not just you, but everyone else. Often these people are the reason no one else wants to show up to training.

If you are at a stuck point, think about each of your clients in turn and consider that each one could be the reason others will or won’t join your group.

To use a really crass analogy, how much shit would there have to be on your peanut butter sandwich for you to not eat it? It’s a disgusting thought but bear with me.

‘Cos for me, it’s a tiny speck. A tiny speck of shit would condemn the entire sandwich.
If your fitness group was a peanut butter sandwich, how many shitty clients would it take to ruin it for you? Just one my friend. One whingey, self-sabotaging client can destroy you.

I’ve fired clients who I realised were not a good fit for my group and then witnessed a whole bunch of other clients come back. It can be a real breakthrough.

Now let’s say there are 10,000 people living in your immediate area. That’s about the population of a very small town or about two or three neighbouring city suburbs.

How many of those people could you or your business realistically train at any one time?
The answer is only about 50 to 100 people which actually less than 1% of the population!

Why not go and find just those 50 to 100 people who truly ‘get’ what you do. That way, you know they are going to show up, won’t make your life difficult and won’t disrupt the vibe or atmosphere of your group.
The great thing about this is that you’ll probably find at least half of them in the same place.

ACTION STEPS

OK. Times almost up.
Let’s sum up some of the fundamental things about fitness bootcamps or training groups that you might be stuck at and see if we can come up with an action step or two that will get you going again.

1. Be remarkable. You need some clarity about what makes you unique. Draw 3 overlapping circles on a sheet of paper and label them WHY, WHAT and WHO.

WHY is the reason you do what you do or what inspired you to become a fitpro in the first place
WHO is a description of your perfect client or the name of someone who completely represents and ideal client
and WHAT is the special way that you get results for that client

The intersection of those 3 circles is what makes you unique and remarkable.

2. Make sure your training program deliver sustainable results. Otherwise you’ll have clients reach a plateau after 3-6 months and they will leave. That will suck you into a churn cycle of having to replace them and it will burn you out and stop you from growing your group.

3. Make the most of the PT Earning Zones by running your group training sessions during those times and moving any 1-1 personal training clients into your groups (or at least train them outside of those times)

4. You’ll be able to charge more for results or outcomes than you will for training sessions.

5. And finally, fire any client that you suspect could be the speck of shit on your peanut butter sandwich and go after the 1% of people in your area who you can actually help and will actually benefit from what you can offer.

SUMMARY

That’s all for today folks, if you want help busting through a stuck point the best thing to do is join my community of outdoor personal trainers at Kaizen Outdoor Fitness. You’ll find the link at www.fitprolifestyle.com

For less than $100 a month you will get access to
- A completely done-for-you group training program that guarantees results
- Video lessons that show you exactly how to implement the strategies I talk about on this podcast
- Daily mentoring and coaching from me to help you to get the right stuff done and stay accountable

But before you rush of and do anything, I would really love it if you quickly go over to iTunes and leave a short review of the podcast.

Next time I’m going to talk about how you to triple your retention rates by rewarding your clients to train more often. So make sure you subscribe on iTunes so that you get notified as soon as the next episode comes out.

OK. Speak soon…

Garry Robinson
www.kaizenoutdoorfitness.com

Fitness Career Lifestyle

Kaizen Outdoor Fitness members :-
· Enjoy free time to do the things they love
· Have confidence to charge what they are worth
· Are highly valued by their clients
Click here to join us now

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