These Personal Trainers end up in the 'oh, what is this all about' crap heap. I'm not saying they don't make a living, or even a good living but they don't develop because there is no destination forcing them to. There's no impetus for progressing their learning, no way to reflect on how they are going, no personal triumphs - it's just ground hog day or survival mode whichever their natural capabilities serves them up.
However, if I'm a Personal Trainer who's working from a Personal Training Business plan then I have some objectives, some pay-offs, and because I have this 'purpose' I work toward it learning as much as I can to get me there sooner, more sustainably, more easily. When I get tired of Personal Training or want to take my business to the next level or in a new direction, I know exactly how - just complete a clear business plan, take the actions, do the learning and hey presto you're never bored at work, you can always provide everything you need in life and you're having fun developing better and better skills at the same time.
Without a business plan I have no business purpose, I may hap-hazzardly acquire some benefits from my business but I don't even fully enjoy them because I never defined what I was aiming for. I am destined for the crap heap or I'm a 'rut trainer' someone who just goes through the motions uninspired and uninspiring for their clients.
These Personal Trainers end up in the 'oh, I'm gonna do something even bigger one day' crap heap. Yip, same place, different reason. Again, these Personal Trainers might make a crust, look good in shorts, have some time and some money at some stage but I've never seen one of them (and I've seen 100's of Personal Trainers and the guts of their businesses by the way) make it beyond Personal Training and into what I call the 'leveraging stage' of your career.
The main reason for this all too depressing result is they complete a personal training business plan and then don't use it as a living, breathing, fire producing (yes, the flames of the business plan should be licking your behind creating progress everyday) corner stone. They just file it! I guess the biggest pay-off of at least doing a business plan for these Personal Trainers is that they know how. But what they don't realise is that their business plan can (and should) link directly to their day to day activities and eventually force them to progress to a point where developing new business ventures from their existing business isn't only possible, it's probable.
Without acting on their business plan these Personal Trainers miss out on the vital learning that will give them access to multiples. You know, 30k becomes 300k becomes 3million. Where do you think 3million dollar businesses come from anyway - what do you think anchors them - how do you think their owners build them and create a collective purpose for the many employees - ummmmm 'business plan'!
These Personal Trainers give themselves a shot at the title. They will, at the very least, end up with a sustainable, profitable (read six figures in time) and likable (yes they will love their work and their clients will love them) business because they are consistently taking aim, and knocking over the important pins. My old man (Dad as he is known on formal occasions) described it to me like this;
Dad: If you go bowling, what are you trying to do - what's the ultimate goal
Me: Knock over all ten pins on your first bowl for all 10 frames
Dad: If you go to work today in your business what are you trying to do
Me: buggered if I know
Dad: you need a plan! That's the only way you'll know what you're aiming at and therefore if you're hitting it or missing it.
Me: okay
Dad: At the bowling alley, if you don't knock over 10 pins on your first bowl what do you do?
Me: Think about knocking over the pins still standing and then think about what to do differently to get all 10 pins at once next time
Dad: If you go to work today in your business what pins are still standing from yesterday and what did you learn from yesterday?
Me: Nothing because I didn't even know what I was aiming to do!
Dad: Take aim, have a plan, keep score, learn from your success/failure
Me: Could of told me this sooner...
So, courtesy of my old man, I'm telling any Personal Trainer to get a business plan together and then EVERYDAY don't do anything until you have looked at all the things you could do for the day and decided which is most likely going to get you closer to the 10 pin success that is defined in your plan.
If you do this for your Personal Training Business you will then learn how to do it for any business and combined with the Business Chassis (another thing you should get to know) you will have the tools you need to leverage your income to new heights with as little effort as possible (yes, one of the tricks is to be inherently lazy by doing only the necessary things and none of the noise - as this gives you both progress and time).
For those of you who are ready to take aim here are just two of the tools you'll need to get a Personal Training Business Plan together quickly and effectively.
Once you've done it tune in for my next blog where I'm going to cover the Personal Training Business Chassis for you.
Happy planning
SG
ps - if you're not a member of ptdirect.co.nz then the video and planning template I'm providing here are coming down on the 10th of August - just 8 days to put it to good use. If you're a member you'll always have access to these tools, updates and much more.
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Every time you instruct an exercise you must achieve the following three things:
1. Your client must learn how to perform the exercise correctly. This doesn't mean they need to perform it exactly as 'the textbook' says, its means that they must learn how to perform the exercise effectively, and safely. For example; the textbook might say that squats need to be performed witht the feet shoulder width apart. Now that might be fine for some clients, however some clients might be more comfortable with feet wider apart than this, and a wider foot positioning might enable your client to safely squat deeper than with a narrower stance. As a personal trainer it will be up to you to determine what is optimal for each client - but the client must perform the exercise safely and effectively.
2. Your client must develop a sense of 'mastery' through your instruction. Once you have instructed an exercise your client should be thinking 'I can do it - bring on the next one'. Its not your clients fault if they can't develop this sense of mastery quickly - its your fault. Accept this and learn from it. More often than not it's because you've selected an exercise for them that was too complex for them in the first place (i.e. you instructed them on the barbell back squat rather than the body-weight squat on their first ever gym session)
3. Buy more time to focus on motivating clients and ensuring your sessions hit their 'sweet spot'. When you instruct correctly you don't actually need to show clients what not to do, and you don't need to provide anymore than three or four (maximum) technique points to remember. If you find that you need to instruct heaps of technique points (to protect your client from injury) then again you've probably selected an exercise that is to complex for them. Your time is much better spent motivating and ecouraging your clients, helping them plan extra sessions and tailoring the session to suit their need for either; enjoyment, escapism, aesthetics and/or education (The specifics of great session delivery are covered in detail at PT Direct).
When you are instructing resistance exercises there are four fundamental process you must perfect, these are;
1. Feature, benefit, feel (FBF).
A 'feature' is simply something about the exercise (E.g. 'Bob, this is the squat, it works the muscles on the front of your thigh, the back of your thigh, your bum and some of your upper body muscles as well), whereas a benefit is is the 'whats in it for me' statement that a client absolutely must hear (E.g. 'Bob, because the squat works all those muscle groups it is by far THE BEST exercise for burning calories and ensuring you trim trim that waistline in the quickest possible time). Sadly personal trainers often focus on the features of the exercise in the mistaken idea that the more features an exercise has then the more value it has. You must understand this point very clearly - features, while important, equate to little more than 'noise' for most clients. Clients want to know whats in it for them, why they should do it, how it will benefit them. And they need a little convincing as well...If you've chosen the best exercise for your client (which I hope you have) then you must 'sell it' to them, if you want them to do it time and time again. You do this simply by making the benefits very very clear. And to 'seal the deal', use 'feel'. 'Feel' is the emotional link statement which gets your client into the head space to really invest their effort in performing the exercise (E.g. 'Bob, you're going to feel great when you notice your belt getting loser and loser). Now if you've selected the most effective and appropriate exercise for your personal training client then 'FBT' should be easy. If you struggle to explain FBT to your clients then I'd firstly suggest you check whether or not you've selected the most appropriate exercise for them.
2. Show, tell, do (STD).
The first part of instructing requires you to show the client how to perform the exercise (E.g. 'Okay Bob, I'm just going to show you how to do the squat first and then we'll get you to have a go'). By showing your client how to do the exercise first you insert an image into their brain of what the exercise looks like when its performed correctly (so make sure you know how to perform the exercises correctly yourself!). Most humans learn very well just by seeing and doing. While you're showing the exercise try to avoid telling the client what to do at the same time. This requires them to use visual and listening skills at the same time, and we're trying to make instruction as simple as possible. And avoid like the plague the temptation to show and tell clients what not to do, because all this does is confuse clients 'what should I do, what shouldn't I do...I cant remember! And you run the very real risk of your client actually doing exactly what you told them not to do, because that was the last thing that stuck in their head, and more often than not its what you actually emphasise! Demonstrate 4-5 repetitions of the exercise so the client can learn from your body movements. Then get them set up to have a go. This is where you employ 'tell'. Tell them to get into the start position and help them with anything they don't do automatically. Give them 2-3 reminders about key parts of the technique (E.g. 'Now Bob, just sit back like you're sitting back into your work chair') and get them to 'do it'. Initially have the client perform the exercise at a slow, controlled tempo (so make sure this is the tempo you demonstrate) and keep the exercise unloaded until the client gets the movement correct. You should always remember to cue their breathing as it's amazing how often clients hold their breath when they're concentrating on something else. And as the client gets the movement right ask questions such as 'where do you feel this working', 'where is the weight on your feet' etc. This helps to create and strengthen sensory connections between the nervous system and the working muscles. If you're teaching a new exercise to a new client then be patient - it usually takes 2-3 sets to learn the basics.
3. Commend, recommend, commend (CRC).
In-between sets its important to provide feedback to your clients and the 'CRC' process is great to enhance your clients responsiveness, confidence and learning. It simply involves a 'sandwiching' of feedback. Initially 'commend' your client - tell them something they did well during the set. By noticing and reinforcing the good stuff your client will keep repeating it (E.g. 'Bob, your' tempo is perfect and your knees staying perfectly in line with your toes'). Then 'recommend' your client change or adjust the way they are doing something (E.g. 'Bob, on this second set try to remember to keep your eyes focused directly in front of you - this will ensure you don't lose balance and tip forward'), and then when your client makes the necessary adjustment make sure you commend the adjustment so they keep doing it (E.g. 'Great job Bob, your looking directly forward now - do you fell more balanced?').
4. Question, remind, summarise, make notes (QRSM)
Now before you move onto instructing the next exercise there is a final, vital process that needs to completed first. You must question your client about the exercise they have just performed - ask them what the key points were for the exercise, how the exercise benefitted them and what were the things they needed to 'keep an eye out for'? Doing this keeps the client focused and when you do it with the first exercise you instruct it sets a very important precedent. Your client will learn immediately that they will have questions to answer so they'll need to pay attention and listen. The reality is clients are often wary about whats going on around them in the gym - 'are people looking at me', 'do I look allright doing this'? Asking your client questions helps to focus them and keep their attention where it needs to be - on learning their exercises. And another reality is that many of your clients will be performing these exercises on their own at some stage - so you need to know that they'll be able to perform them safely, independently of you. You should remind them of any key points they miss in response to your questioning, and quickly summarise the 'FBF' again as well as the vital key points. Then ask the client how the feel about the exercise in order to gain an insight as to whether the client has any fear's or anxieties that you can address (or change the exercise if needs be). And finally make any notes you consider to be key reminders on your clients exercise programme. These notes must be short, their function is purely to help jog your clients (and your) memory when repeating the exercise (E.g. 'keep eyes focused directly forward Bob')
O.K. Reading through that it sounds like there's alot to do when instructing exercise eh? How on earth can you achieve the third objective of 'buying more time for motivating clients and tailoring sessions to their sweet spot if you're having to do 'FBF', 'STD', 'CRC' and 'QRSM' for every exercise that you instruct? Well the short answer is - it takes time and practice to perfect your exercise instruction, but it is vitally important and when done well is very productive for you and your client. So the time you invest in practicing, will pay you back 'big time'. For an example of some great exercise instruction in action check out the blog 'The best way to instruct resistance training exercise - the barbell squat in action'.
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I watch too much television - my bad! But anymore than one hour a day is too much for me now as there really is so much annoying drivel on the box. I can't help but think that the programmes on TV are little more than cleverly timed 'interruptions' to the ever lengthening commercial breaks.
Another annoying thing about TV is that it constantly bombards us with information concerning food and diet. Whether its the latest celebrity chef, the latest weight loss challenge, or the numerous junk food commercials with nostalgic jingles designed to give us 'warm fuzzies' about eating their nutritionally deficient product, you cant escape the fact that food and dietary information is everywhere on TV.
And the pervasion of this information (or should I say 'mis' information) extends to all other forms of media; pop-ups on the internet, magazines, newspapers and entire sections of bookstores.
This all ads up to a simple reality - for the general public (who make up your personal training clients by the way) it's damn hard to see through the fog and figure out what actually is healthy in terms of food and diet. The often contradictory misinformation that pervades the public media turns a relatively simple topic into a confusing minefield.
So how do you address this as a personal trainer? As a start here are some simple guidelines that I advise personal trainers to stick to;
1. Gather information before giving any form of advice
No matter how well intentioned it is, the generic advice that is so often provided is virtually useless. What's the point in telling a client to increase their intake of fruit and vegetables if you haven't established that their intake is actually deficient in the first place?
Prior to giving any form of advice or direction a great personal trainer gathers information about their clients actual nutritional intake, their eating habits, and their food preferences. Great personal trainers do this so they can adhere to the second guideline;
2. Limit the advice you give to only and exactly what is specific to your clients individual situation and goals
Any advice that isn't relevant to your client equates simply to 'irritating background noise'. The more of this noise that you provide, the harder it is for your client to actually hear the important messages. Even if you find numerous areas in your clients diets that have room for improvement, limit your advice to one or two changes your clients can realistically implement in order to improve their nutritional intake.
And make sure your advice can be implemented. "Reduce your fat intake Bob" is not specific advice and is hard to action unless 'Bob' knows exactly where and how to implement it. "This week Bob I'd like you to try not spreading any butter on your sandwiches" is advice that is specific, understandable, it can be implemented and it can be measured to determine how effective the action is.
The harder the change is for a client the less likely they'll be to succeed with it. This is a major reason why diets dont work in the long term as they require radical changes to established eating habits that are simply too hard to sustain. This leads to the next guideline;
3. Be realistic
'Rome wasn't built in a day'...or a week...or even a year! Your clients eating habits and behaviours are built over years and influenced by numerous factors - peer pressure, convenience and food availability to name but only a few. With this in mind don't expect all their 'less than ideal' habits and behaviours to change overnight. Be realistic with your advice and make sure you support any, and every action clients make to improve their nutritional intake.
For example - telling a client that drinks six cups of coffee everyday with three teaspoons of sugar in each, to give up coffee completely, will require a significant change in an established behaviour. So it's unlikely to be sustained. Setting an initial target of eliminating one teaspoon of sugar from each cup is more realistic. And if sustained would result in that client consuming over two thousand less teaspoons of sugar per annum.
Bear in mind that success breads success - so feeling good about sustaining this goal may well result in the client reducing to one teaspoon of sugar per coffee and eventually becoming sugar free. Try to always remember, 'Rome wasn't built in a day' and 'patience is definately a virtue'!
4. Avoid adding to the misinformation minefield
I watched a nutrition 'expert' on TV telling their client that they needed to reduce their carbohydrate intake...and in the next sentence the client was told to increase their intake of salad greens and fresh vegetables. This misinformation is sadly quite common - dont contribute to it! The last time I checked salad greens and vegetables were great sources of carbohydrate!
If you actually mean eat more salads with green leafy vegetables then just say that. If you mean reduce your intake of (highly processed 'poor carbohydrate') white bread and choose wholegrain instead then just say exactly that. Don't expect your clients to be able to decipher what your message says if that message isn't actually clear, or can be interpretted in many ways other than how you actually intended it to be.
'Carb's' aren't 'the enemy', just as 'fat' isn't the enemy - these are quite simply nutrients found in the foods we all eat. It's the eating habits and behaviours of people that determine whether the intake of these nutrients is healthy or not. So focus on habits and behaviours rather than the pro's and con's of different nutrients. It's also a heck of alot easier for clients to understand foods rather than the nutrients within foods, so talk in terms of 'bread, fruit and vegetables' rather than 'carbs', or 'butter and margarine' instead of 'fat' for example.
Sadly everytime I hear a trainer tell a client to 'cut out their carbs', or 'eat less fat' I feel like pulling my hear out. Personally I'd prefer not to be 100% Kojac like this time next year.
And lastly,
5. Avoid anything 'faddish' like the plague. Learn your national nutritional guidelines
Enter 'diet' into a google search and you'll get almost 70 million hits! The online encyclopedia 'Wikipedia' lists an A-Z of over 100 common diets. So diets are everywhere yet the national waistlines of every western country are expanding...again - diets just dont work long term.
Develop your critical thinking skills rather than just embracing the latest 'scientific research' presented by a technician with a lab coat, or a celebrity that receives a hefty endorsement fee for promoting the latest fad. Diets do not, and cannot hold any magic bullet for you or your clients because they require radical, unsustainable changes to most peoples well established eating habits and behaviours.
Most countries have simple nutritional guidelines for good health - as a personal trainer you should know these and realise that success for your personal training clients comes from supporting them to make small sustainable changes in their eating habits to help them move closer to achieving these guidelines
]]>Dear fellow failure
That’s how the truth should read. Because we all fail, everyday, in so many ways.
Yesterday I failed to be a great father by getting to my daughters school athletics. I failed to complete 10 minutes on a treadmill. I failed to tell my wife I love her. Generally my day sounds like a total abomination.
That said I did succeed at some things. Reading the above though – maybe not the most important things! So, why do we fail to do the most important things – is it fate, god, ‘them’, or the most general of all descriptions – life.
I know why I fail. I wonder if you know why you fail? I wonder whether you even identify that you fail anymore or just feel the weight of ‘not winning’ on you most of the day. Maybe that’s where blame serves a purpose. After all, if we didn’t push back and unload ourselves by blaming everything else I’m sure we’d all be crushed before we were adults.
I know what I do with failure. I wonder if you have an approach that works for you? I wonder if you understand what failure really is and what jewels lie within it. I’m interested to think of you failing and wriggling under the weight of the dirtiness of it all, not knowing where to go, just feeling the pressure on your skin rather than embracing the closeness failure offers us.
Failure is that lucky experience of being smack up against our current limitations where the possibilities become endless with just a little wriggle of our mind. Yes, a little wriggle of our mind.
Ever wonder how much it takes to be a millionaire? Ever wonder how much it takes to help hundreds or even thousands of people improve their lives? Ever wonder how much it takes to be a better father, to attend the athletics, to build to 10 minutes on the treadmill? To say ‘I love you’ more often? It’s a wriggle of the mind.
The same process is at play when we all fail. Here’s the places it happens;
Ahhh, no you say. I fail for completely different reasons. It’s because I don’t … um … what … you don’t know why you fail most often? I do.
Failed to go to the athletics – decided not to
Failed to complete 10 minutes on the treadmill – didn’t have the resourcefulness
Failed to tell my wife I loved her – didn’t decide to do it
At various times in my life I failed consistently at different stages of this process. Now I fail mainly because I don’t decide or didn’t work out how. When I was younger it was that I failed to commit or failed to be resourceful enough.
Regardless of how I fail now I can always work out why and I can always use that to progress – I’m comfortable as all hell with the closeness of failing and what it tells me about me and my situation. Some time ago I decided because of the jewels in failure that I would make the most progress with an “accelerated mistake making plan”. That’s right, take lots of action, fail a lot and quickly, set myself up to work out what was going on, then go again. The only failure I didn’t want is one that I wasn’t ready to learn from or one that would break or limit my resourcefulness entirely (for example bankruptcy).
So why do I want to fail knowingly? What is it that I cherish about failure?
Failure to me is (three reasons failure is so powerful);
Painful – it gets my attention
Enlightening – it shows me what I need to develop
Stimulating – once I fail at something I have more energy to get it right next time
But, and it’s a big but, failure must be broken down to it’s origin to be useful. This is the single biggest mistake I see made over and over. Why? Because to do this you have to reflect on the failure, feel the pressure and weight of it on your skin, and think through this discomfort.
Most of us simply learn to avoid this positioning. We would rather shed our skin or push off with blame than embrace the dirt and let it choke deep into our throats as we chew on our poor results. That’s human, protective, insulated, safe, stagnant, still, festering and lifeless.
Yes, the dark side of failure is denial and blame. The light side is growth but it takes the taste of fertiliser to get it. If you are aware of your failings and you feel stuck then get uncomfortable with yourself by writing down all the things you are failing at and how (use points 1-4).
Taste the chicken shit my friends. Then repeat these three words ‘I am responsible’.
Never make anyone else responsible for a failure you are feeling – it’s so disempowering you might as well give up your opposable thumbs. If a failure is important enough to get your attention then say ‘I am responsible’ – swallow the muck – then get in to making progress. Never hand over the keys to your life by blaming others – as soon as you do – you’re literally down the toilet. Things I’ve been responsible for;
□ Hiring a staff member who I paid six figures and stole from me
□ Accumulating $130k of unsecured debt and nearly going bankrupt
□ Marrying a woman out of comfort (not my current wife you idiots – I love her to pieces)
□ Not making $100k in four days because of my greed (contradictory but true)
□ Allowing people to waste my time
□ Allowing myself to gain 40kg whilst using various excuses
Here’s the blamers list of the same thing
□ This guy is so dishonest – how could he steal from me – he should be locked up
□ The bank should never have leant me that money
□ She lost her spark and we grew apart from me
□ No one told me how hard it would be to make that place work
□ I have to help these people and meet with them, they won’t do it without me
□ Everyone is taking my time for themselves so I suffer – look at my weight
Getting to the bottom of failure, once you decide (step 1) and commit (step 2) – is just a matter of learning how (step 3) and dedicating some of your time and energy (step 4) to it. It’s so friggin simple and powerful that it truly is a ‘wriggle of the mind’ to change the results. So, here’s the how.
An example (steps are numbered 1-4 as above);
So, if I were to say ‘I am responsible for paying someone thousands of dollars and accepting them not doing what I paid them to do, and allowing them to influence other staff in a negative way, and allowing them to deflect any poor performance with fiction of various types’. Wow, what a schmuck I am!
Alright, so now that I have worked out what and why I didn’t do something and now that I’ve taken responsibility (this is the ultimate painful bit giving you energy for next time), I can plan to do better next time.
Primarily within this example I actually failed to decide to do anything. I realise I needed resources, commitment etc but I really failed to decide that ‘it’s not ok’. Lesson for me is as follows;
□ When I think it’s not okay – it’s not okay. At that point I should decide to take action.
□ Committing to resolving any staff issue quickly and effectively is showing leadership.
□ Resolving issues such as this requires discussion of the facts in a face to face setting followed by an email and a plan for the near future including monitoring – that is, the ‘how’ is not actually that hard.
□ I have unlimited resources in my business to deal with staff performance as when I don’t it costs the business (and me) more resources than I could ever have spent if I had committed to fixing the issue when I first felt it in my gut.
So, let’s take failure to a more common ground. Let’s take a failure to approach members in a club and offer them help and support - despite needing to build your Personal Training business. I’m going to use this example assuming that the Personal Ttrainer has realised that all marketing leads to personal contact anyway and that the ability to approach members in a club will give them a rapid lead generating option and will allow them to fill particular time slots in their diary.
Define the failure – step 1:
This week I have failed to approach 10 members (my goal) and only approached (half-heartedly) one member.
Think back to when it started – step 2:
Even though I nodded and said I’d approach 10 members to my business coach I already knew I was going to do just 1 and see how easy it was. I had committed to trying but not to succeeding (they are different).
What didn’t you do at that moment – step 3:
I didn’t say I was going to try one and then if it wasn’t easy stop.
Why didn’t you do it – step 4:
I wanted my coach to support and like me, I didn’t want to disappoint them so I said what was expected. I also didn’t think approaching members on the floor was for me – but I didn’t say that either. I didn’t think it was for me, therefore I didn’t commit to it, I didn’t really focus on learning the ‘how’ and I definitely wasn’t as resourceful and resilient as I needed to be.
Lessons:
I should be straight up with my business coach because I have wasted my time and theirs with this week of fiction.
I should decide how to generate leads in a way I can decide to do, commit to, learn how to do, and be resilient enough to carry through. This will mean my business will always have some leads because I'm actually succeeding at doing a lead generating activity rather than failing at it.
Notice the lessons above are mainly around choosing the right path for the Personal Trainer and likely involve the Personal Trainer adhering to values they already have (like being honest with themselves and others). It’s not a ‘I need to motivate myself and just do it’ thing. Very rarely is there only one way to achieve something.
Instead, it’s about making sure you are aware of what you are (or you’re not) deciding to do, what you’ll commit to, what you’ll happily get good at and what you will follow through on given your resourcefulness at any given time.
This is the ‘little wriggle of the mind’. It’s little because you are moving closer to your own way – you’re getting in tune with you and your setting. You are failing and taking responsibility – which then gifts you the jewels of learning you need to progress.
I have given you the ‘how’ to learn from failure. Will you fail to use this piece of information to your benefit? Have you decided not to already? Do you lack the will (resourcefulness)? Are you happy to fail some more before you learn how to fail effectively?
Dear fellow failure – don’t ever worry – failure is a tide that comes and goes on the ebb and flow of our efforts to learn and succeed. It’s never too late to pick up from where you last failed. A rut, after all, is just one wriggle away from progress.
Write down what you are failing to do that's holding your Personal Training Business back. Take responsibility. Analyse your failures and enjoy prosperity sooner rather than later. You are the only person who can allow or prevent your own success. You are in control of what you choose to do or choose not to do. That is the gift you and I have both been given.
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