Trainer AIM for Excellence in 2021

It hasn’t been an easy season.   A staggering number of independent gyms and fitness studios will not re-open.  If we can imagine “the other side” of this unprecedented disruption, we can see opportunity.  It isn’t necessarily pretty for those who have lost, unless, of course, they’re willing to see through different eyes.

I’m giving you different eyes.

New Playing Field, New Availability, New Leaders

Retail space will be available.  It's hard to celebrate this certainty as many have suffered by losing their livelihoods.  If, however, we look beyond the immediate, in a sense, this chaotic erasure of once-thriving business entities provides opportunity for rebirth.  New businesses will have an opportunity to move beyond the “I have an idea” stage and come into existence to flourish in what might be called “The New Spring.”

Commercial property owners have watched their revenues plummet as more and more spaces require "For Lease" signs.  It's a difficult burden to face.  Landlords are unable to demand fees from businesses teetering between survival and bankruptcy, and in many cases its precisely that rent payment that will push the business owner to the bankruptcy side of the balance sheet.  

Several months ago we spoke in anticipation, hoping we'd find an answer. 

It's now beyond speculation. 

The landscape has already changed.

While its easy to get caught up in the pity and sorrow of the disintegration of the world we once knew, if we take a wider look we'll see the miracle of "industry shift."

Companies that built their core offerings around “in-home” options once battled the “you have to go to a gym” thought process, but they’ve managed to achieve massive growth in a season where their former competitors were literally shut down.

So, in that, there’s a new awareness of the virtues of “fitness at home” and with creativity, a wide opportunity to find and negotiate a space in which to build your dream as a new and unique pursuit.

I can go on and on about how the newly shaped landscape will allow new seeds to be planted and new leaders to emerge.  I run current programs  helping wellness professionals, health club owners, health practitioners, and fitness entrepreneurs find both the navigation through the challenge and the blue ocean that awaits on the other side of the storm.

A.I.M.

For the Personal Fitness Trainer, I see three vital and opportune shifts.  In my T.R.U.E. Program, I teach participants to embrace the concept of “AIM.”  They are asked to reposition themselves as “Aggressive Informed Marketers.”

In that simple acronym, we see the essence of the 3 Shifts.

1. Be Aggressive

2. Be Informed

3. Be a Marketer

Your first impulse might be to react, "I am all of those things," and if you are I congratulate you for being an Outlier.  You are certainly in the minority if, in the past, those three words, Aggressive, Informed, and Marketer" have underscored your profession.

The more common reaction is revulsion.

Ugh.  Marketers?!?!?!  Nooooooo. 

My response is sincere.  I meet the disgust with a genuine optimism.

Yes!  You will be a Marketer.  And you'll love it! 

If you learn to market in a manner that's congruent, ethical, and efficacious (as I'll teach you), the process of converting suspects to prospects, prospects to compelled wanters, and wanters into clients is incredibly rewarding. 

Its a game of strategy you quickly master.  I'll show you how . . . as long as you're willing to make the first shift and acknowledge, the marketing task is now yours!

Passion and Love

Listen, I know you.  In fact I am you.  Having now worked with over 50,000 health practitioners from assorted disciplines within fitness and medicine, I know, beyond all doubt, the underlying drive that propelled you to pursue this career.

• You have a passion for fitness.
• You love helping people.

While we might adjust the first of those two sentences if we’re speaking to physical therapists, surgeons, internal medicine docs, or family practice physicians, the “Love helping people” part permeates all.

Dismiss the idea that “doctors only care about money.” It’s a fallacy.  I understand where it comes from, and I understand why a myopic belief combined with an assessment of how our medical system treats chronic disease and pain may draw people to that conclusion, but it’s skewed.  Every physician went to medical school and struggled through sleepless of overstressed period of internship and residency because they LOVE HELPING PEOPLE.

While the flawed system may impact their actions and practices, the inner heart is connected to “making people better.”

An Altruistic Force

Let’s call trainers and medical professionals “altruistic health practitioners.”  They aren’t wired to “market,” they’re wired to serve.  And in that lies the weakness as we head for The New Spring.

If you want to thrive in this new environment, don’t change who you are, but embrace new thoughts of the power you have.

Most personal trainers have a “ride-it-out” attitude, with a preliminary acceptance of what they’re referring to as “The New Normal.”  If you are a personal trainers seeking a secure future, waiting for normalcy of any kind is a massive mistake.

An Industry on the Verge of Collapse

Let’s look at reality.  The fastest growing segment of the $85 billion fitness industry pre-COVID was brick and mortar studios.  Wow have things changed.  Not only have an alarming number of fitness studios closed their doors, but mainstays including 24 Hour, Gold’s Gym, TSI, and the industry’s biggest players are filing bankruptcy. 

This is real.  There’s a massive shift both in the market and in the marketplace.

We can turn our attention to Peloton, a company that, amidst skeptics and raised eyebrows, went public last year.  Remarkably  they showed not only their first profitable quarter ever in the season of COVID, but skyrocketing stock prices, unprecedented growth, and sales beyond anything their prior curve suggested became a part of the Peloton story.

The simplistic conclusion would be, “people want virtual fitness,” and that’s leading trainers and health clubs alike to offer online training (Zoom, Skype, new apps).  Following that trend is equivalent to following lemmings off of a cliff.

With the marketplace being besieged with “train online" offers, the “trainer on your screen” offering will become a commodity and the value will drop so far below what a “training session” commanded in 2019 it simply isn’t sustainable without massive reach.  Companies will capitalize, but it isn’t a viable path for independent trainers seeking any level of security.

Aggressive and Informed

I said you’ll want to become an Aggressive Informed Marketer.

I also touched on how “practitioners” hate marketing, but that’s because of their preconceptions of what marketing is.  The truth is, you have to grab a position before a proven marketplace.  Take steps to establish yourself as “the best option” for those in your target market, and marketing simply becomes sharing your message with a proven and hungry market.  When you learn to do this comfortably, doors fly open in every direction.  New client acquisition becomes formulaic.  Pricing and value walk hand-in-hand.  Revenue streams can become diverse and complementary.

As far as the “Aggressive” part, when you identify and know your target market (your Ideal Client Avatar), you have to pursue efforts and energies toward delivering your message with impact, repeatedly, full recognizing that your competitors will be relentless in capturing your prospects’ business, but will not come close to your dedication toward “making the client better.”

That leaves one more word.  The Aggressive Informed Marketer must be Informed. 

Beyond the scope of your certification.  With a new recognition of the importance of immunity and recovery, the market at large will be responsive to those who appear to have an elevated knowledge, a heightened ability, and that makes this the ideal time to expand your skill set and scope.

The Road Forward

My T.R.U.E. program (an acronym for The Road Underlying Excellence) was designed around this foundation. 

By walking you through 10 Milestones (one per week), it prepares personal trainers to readjust in a way that’s explosively profitable, immensely promising, and ideally suited to tap into “a new blue ocean” in “The New Spring.”

I’m willing to invite trainers with heart, ambition, and passion to join this group of extraordinary men and women.  Send me an email saying, “I’m interested in T.R.U.E.” and I’ll send you to access to one of the preliminary webinar meetings so you can get a sense of the program’s content, power, and commitment to excellence.

Don’t wait for “The New Normal.”  Be the force that nourishes, empowers, and captivates others in the soon-to-come New Spring

If you want to find the pinnacle of your fitness career, contact Phil and consider being a part of the T.R.U.E. Program for Personal Trainers Seeking Excellence.

email: [email protected]

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