Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 87 - 5 lesser-known mistakes KILLING your PT business.

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

In this episode coach, Danny outlines five lesser-known mistakes a lot of trainers make that tank their PT business.Thanks For Listening!---RESOURCES/COACHING: I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE! Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS: Sign up for the trainer mentorship HEREFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!Support the Show.

Hey everybody, welcome in to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matranga, and today I'm going to talk specifically about five of the most common mistakes personal trainers and coaches make, particularly those of us who are newer or, you know, maybe we just haven't had a full taste of what the industry has to offer because maybe you started last year and you're not super new, but 2020 wasn't exactly the best year ever with regards to getting a pretty clear picture of what the fitness space is like. And we don't know too much about what it's going to be like moving forward. We only know that people are going to need help getting in shape and personal trainers

are a great way to do it. But today we're going to look at five what I would describe as classic mistakes people make. And so these are kind of market proof in that they're going to be mistakes that coaches make in all fields, not just personal trainers, but even like strength coaches, even athletic team coaches. And quite frankly, a lot of entrepreneurs in general make these mistakes, or they just have these preconceived notions that don't pan out. So we're going to go over all of those today. I've

got five things to share. But before we do that, I wanted to let you guys in on a little secret, and that's that we are getting closer and closer to the launch of the mentorship program. Right now, the mentorship is already 10 modules long with three to six videos in each module, and that's just the course portion. In addition to the course, there will also be learning opportunities weekly where you and your learning cohort can sit down with me in Zoom for an hour and really chat in depth about what it is you need help with on your specific business. things, like what we'll talk about today, are classic. So if you're just somebody who wants to do a better job with what you do, you're going to love it. There's a functional anatomy module that's going to be taught by my friend, Dr. Brandon Baranzini, one of the best physical therapists in the industry. There's also 10 business-specific modules covering everything from the ins and outs of being a great in-person coach, to building an online brand, to building

presence, to reaching more people, making a bigger impact, and even making more money doing something that a lot of people need help with. And we'll chat about that down the road today too, because quite frankly, a lot of coaches are held back by their limiting beliefs about money and their limiting beliefs about what their services are worth to people. Don't forget, guys, if you're helping people live healthier, better lives, you are worth a lot more than they'll ever be able to pay you hourly or monthly for your services. Health is everything, and what you have to offer in the space is worth something. So if you want to get the most out of it, if you want to make better connections, if you want to feel more actualized

in your coaching, this is the mentorship for you. I'm not a marketer trying to turn trainers into marketers. I'm a trainer who's had success in the in-person space, online space, with hybrid models, in box gyms, in private gyms, in my own gym. This is going to help you succeed in this space, no matter who you are or where you're at. So the link for the membership is in the show notes, guys. But you can easily, easily sign up by going to www.coachedannymetrenga.com and click the coaching tab. And in the coaching tab, you will find the personal trainer mentorship where you can sign up to get all the latest and greatest information about what this mentorship is going to be like.

I promise you right now, if you're a coach and you like the podcast and you like what I've brought on this platform, then I promise you're going to go gaga over the mentorship. And I'll promise you this too, right now, this is not going to be a massively high ticket, multi-thousand dollar course. This is going to be something that's very affordable, that I think is going to be accessible for coaches across the spectrum, regardless of how 2020 treated you. I think this will be a very, very reasonably priced course loaded with value. I'm not into the idea of selling $3,000, $4,000 courses to people and not delivering. I think that's quite frankly, a lot of crap and it's tainted just the personal development space in general. So this will be affordable. It'll be loaded with

value and you'll get a ton out of it for your coaching business. So without further ado, guys, let's go ahead and dive into the five biggest mistakes I think coaches make with their business. And number one is being afraid of selling or thinking that selling something is bad. And I want to open up with a little bit of a story because I felt this way first and I felt this way actually for quite some time. Selling felt really weird because having to convince somebody to take their health seriously initially didn't seem like it was going to be a problem. I felt like it was going to be a problem. I felt like everybody was going to care about their health as much as I did, especially

when I first got started. But if you've been training for any amount of time, then you know that that's the farthest thing from the truth. When I got hired at the first gym I ever worked at in a 24-hour fitness, I showed up for my first day of work. And that consisted of sitting down at the computer, going through some programs, uploading documentation, like driver's license and all of the stuff that you need to be employed somewhere. And I was working on this for

about 20 minutes before the training manager who literally only hired me because he had a headcount number. This was back in the days when 24 hour fitness required you to hire a certain amount of new trainers. He didn't expect anything of me. I was only 18 at the time. I didn't know shit about shit other than the fact that I just got my NASM and I liked working out. Um, and he said, Hey man, one of the trainers slept through their alarm, but their consultation is here. Would you take the guy through a consultation? I had no fucking idea what I was doing. I had never been taught how to sell. This was literally my first day on the job. I took this guy through

about a 45 minute consultation. He said, that was an awesome workout. I really enjoyed it. I had a great time. I'd like to buy some sessions. He then bought 20 sessions in full and the manager lumped praise on me and told me I was the coolest thing ever. And I thought to myself, dude, this is about as easy as it gets. Fast forward about three weeks and about 20 consultations later, and I was one for 21. I had only sold my original consultation and I struck out on every consultation after that for the next three to four weeks. And I would go home every single day, heartbroken. I remember one time, again, I was 19, so I was immature. I was also broke, so I couldn't afford to be missing these sales. I go home crying. I was so upset. I didn't

understand what I was doing wrong. I didn't understand why it was that I could not sell or connect with these people. And then it hit me. The first consultation went so well because it wasn't supposed to happen. I didn't go in it thinking about my last missed sale. I didn't go in it thinking about making a sale. I went into it trying to make sure that the person that I was training or consulting that day got something of value out of our exchange of time. And after giving that guy tremendous value, he told me he wanted to buy and everything I did after that, I was so consumed by that daunting fear of having to sell, to do a good job, to be, you know, in the favor of the boss and the corporations that be

that I totally got out of my element and I got really, really uncomfortable and I wasn't confident and I didn't even really make that good of connections with people. So the first thing you have to get over is this idea that you're this sleazy salesman. Remember what you're selling, guys,

specifically those of you that are coaches in this space. You're not selling beater cars you're not selling shitty shoes or crappy clothes you're literally selling health and if you know what you're talking about which i'd wager if you listen to this podcast you do you're already in the top 10 of people in your field because you want to learn from other people whereas most trainers just plain don't they get their cert and they're like, whatever, give me clients. And then a year later, they're out of the industry. You're selling people a better life for a very reasonable hourly rate or monthly price if you're doing online coaching. I think that what you charge for a session, regardless of where you

live, whether you charge $50 or $150 for a session, will never ever be worth what you're giving that client. If you can keep somebody fit, healthy, off of the operating table, off of prescription medication, living a good, healthy life, your services are worth exponentially more than what you're being paid. You should remember that first and foremost, that you have something of tremendous value that can unequivocally change somebody's life. And it's not more, it's not that expensive compared to the alternative. So think about that. Think about that when you go to sell that what it is that you're offering is a really high quality life changing product.

And that should change the way you approach it, period. Right. And I'm not just talking about selling packages, selling programs, selling sessions. You need to be steadfast and really believe that what you're selling is legit because it is. And if I know it, you should know it too. So that's just the first thing that most trainers do. They get in their own head about selling because they don't even believe what they're selling. head about selling because they don't even believe what they're selling. And let me talk to you guys for a second, really quick. If you don't believe that what you're doing has value, then you might want to course correct because your clients or your potential clients will pick up on that. If you don't have conviction about what it is that you're selling, about the services that you

offer, about the life-changing transformation you can take any client through, then they're never going to buy because you can't sell because you don't even like what you're selling. That's like rule number one, right? Like you'll hear that from every sales book in every single sector or industry. You got to believe in what you're selling. And if you're a coach, you should believe in your services and you should be confident and take that with you. And that should independently, like one time, kind of really relieve some of the common, common issues around selling. And we'll dive way more into this in the mentorship. But first things first, you've got to believe that what you're selling is worthy of being sold, period, end of story. Okay. Second mistake I think a lot of coaches make is spending a little bit too much time doing the wrong continuing education. Now, hear me out. Certifications are badass.

I've done tons of them. I've probably spent no less than $50,000 of my own money on certifications, courses, and education in some capacity, whether it was my bachelor's degree, all the way through doing a bunch of stuff with NASM, CSCS, traveling all over the place to get different biomechanical certifications, online workshops, you name it. I've got a ton of certifications and they've all provided me a lot of value and a lot of education. But most trainers spend all of their time learning more and more about the human body, about nutrition, about mobility, about stability training, athletic training, you name it. And I think that upskilling and becoming a really competent trainer is super, super important. But if you're spending $800, $1,500, $3,000 on courses and workshops to get certifications, but you're not spending any time

or any money learning the basics of marketing, you're not spending any time or any money learning the basics of marketing. You're not spending any time reading books or listening to podcasts or audio books about business, about branding, about building a personal brand, about reaching more people, about marketing, about advertising. You're cutting yourself off at the knee. You're totally limiting your ability to help people. So I'm not saying not to invest in your education with regards to your craft. I think that is very important. I think that's critically important, but I'm saying that you should invest in the part of your craft that maybe you haven't connected with yet, which is being a business owner. If you're a personal trainer in a corporate gym or

a big box gym, like I was in a 24 hour fitness, you're still a business owner. If you're a personal trainer in a corporate gym or a big box gym, like I was in a 24 hour fitness, you're still a business owner in some capacity, right? You own your time. You own the clients that you train. Technically they train with the gym and you get paid for it. But your business is something that you should take personal ownership of. You're an entrepreneur, right? You're a entrepreneur inside of a company. And if you're an entrepreneurial trainer and you're independent, you need to take this stuff even more seriously. So take the time, read some books about business, about marketing, about social media, about

client retention. All this stuff's going to happen in the mentorship. But I think it's critically important that you don't exhaust all of your income getting certifications to the point where you're not even a profitable business. And I think it's really important that you don't reject the idea that marketing is important, that learning how to sell is important, that learning how to connect with people is important because it's not slimy.

If you become a great marketer and you become great at sales, you're going to change a lot more lives than you would if you think that these are just kind of bad things. Because I'll tell you what, if you don't get in front of these people, some douchebag on a YouTube video selling body type fat loss templates is going to fucking clean up shop because you're too afraid to get out of your own way and learn how to get in front of people and help people. And you don't want that to happen, right? If you want to be somebody who changes a lot of lives, you got to be comfortable putting yourself out there and learning what goes into operating a business, marketing and reaching people

is a really good way to spend a little bit of time. If you spend 20 hours on biomechanics, you'll be in the top 10% in the world. If you spend 20 hours on nutrition with how much crap is out there, you'll be in the top 10% in the world. If you're in the top 10% in mechanics, training, and nutrition, you should help a lot of people. But if you're not in the top 10% of sales and marketing, you won't. So take that 20 hours over the course of a year and learn a little bit about

this stuff. Read a couple books. I promise you it will help a lot. And if you're looking for somewhere to start, I always recommend the book To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink. Start there. It's awesome. Hey guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me

if you would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. Tip number three. You've got your clients, right? You get them to do what you want, but you're not necessarily giving them the right combination of what they want and what you need them to do. It's one thing to write a program. It's a whole nother thing to have a client do it

from start to finish. And one thing that a lot of trainers make the mistake of doing is they really focus on what their clients need to accomplish to be physically fit, but they don't really focus on what it is that their clients came to them for and what they want to do. And what I mean by that is this. I call it the FRC principle. So FRC is a certification that I've done. It's a cool certification. I really like it. It focuses on joint health and it's a really good introduction into functional anatomy terminology like flexion, extension, internal, external rotation. It's great. You'll learn a lot and it's something that you can use with clients. But one of the things that I didn't like about FRC and it's something that I see with a lot of FRC practitioners is they really approach things with everybody's fucked up, everybody's broken, and you need to only do FRC for a really, really long time before you can even touch a weight. If your shoulder doesn't function well, you don't have a shoulder. You have a massive tissue that doesn't work. And that's really the approach that these guys take. And they hammered into a lot of trainers over the course of some two-day weekend seminars. And I've worked with

a lot of coaches who have done FRC. Like I said, I myself have done it. But one of the common pitfalls with these people is they come back from their gym, their weekend certification to their gym. They have their clients on programs, their clients are making progress, their clients are enjoying it. And then they go, hold on, we've been doing this all wrong. You're broken. And we need to spend 50 minutes a day doing joint jam FRC stuff. That's going to make you cramped. It's going to be uncomfortable. And that's nothing like what we were doing and seeing results because my paradigm is shifted. And in doing that, I need to shift your paradigm as well, or in that happening, I need to shift your paradigm as well. And it's all fine and good to work some of this stuff in if you think it's what your client needs,

but it's critically important to remember what your clients want and what they originally came to you for. If you have like, you know, Susie Smallbutt, and she said, Danny, I really want to grow my glutes. That's the most important thing to me. And I go, well, Susie, we'll grow your glutes, but you don't have a lot of accessible flexion or extension in the overhead position. And you don't get a lot of IR out of your glenohumeral joint. So we need to work in tons of that. She's going to be like, yo, I'm sorry. I understand that this is important, but this isn't what I signed up for. So one of the things that's critically important guys is remember that you should always be walking the line of giving your client what they want, what they came to you for and what they're paying for, but working in what it is that they

need, especially if it's stuff that they won't do, right? Because you need to get them to do it, but it's kind of like getting a dog to take a pill. You got to mix it in with their food. If you want them to do this stuff because you think it has value, and I think a lot of the stuff I've represented does, like FRC still has value. Let it be worked in intelligently with some taste, do it slowly. Don't flip this person's paradigm just because some dude who's really good at moving his shoulder around really shocked you over the course of a two-day weekend seminar. There's no course in the world, in the world, that's going to give you more ammunition than simply operating with common sense.

All of this stuff is really important to learn. It's really important to diversify your knowledge base so you can help more people. But if this knowledge is something that you are forcing on your clients, but they came to you with something different, you have got to do that in a very tasteful way. And I have seen way too many trainers have clients operating on decent programs, making decent results, and then they go out and learn something new, something important. But instead of working it in slowly and tastefully, they break the client's trust by forcing them to do something that in effect they never came to you to do. It's not to say that this stuff isn't important, but remember, your clients have their understanding of how this works and they are your

customers. So you have to respect what they came to you for originally while you work in new stuff. Okay. I think that's pretty easy to understand. Number four. Okay. You're not showing your clients enough appreciation, period. Okay, you're not letting them know how they're doing. You're not acknowledging when they've been successful and you don't let them know that you appreciate them being in your business. Nobody owes you the favor of training with you, period. There's a million great trainers out there and maybe nobody's as good as you, but I can tell you something. There's somebody who's probably taking better care of their clients and showing them I can tell you something. There's somebody who's probably taking better

care of their clients and showing them more appreciation than you are. And it's a lot easier to retain clients than it is to find new ones. So do yourself a favor. Make sure that every client you train feels like they are an important or even your favorite client, especially when they're in front of you or you're on the phone with them or you're doing online coaching emails. That shit matters. Okay. Your clients want to train with you because of who you are and they like who you are and you should let them know that you like them too. Okay. We all know that one trainer in our gym or that one online coach that we got a client from that does a horrible job with their clients, but their clients keep coming back. They have their clients do like shitty exercises, stupid stuff. They've got them doing curls on the Bosu ball and their cock and balls are stuck in the TRX and they're blindfolded and their

mouth's covered. And it's just, Oh, what's going on here? You look at them from across the gym and you know that at face value, they're not doing a very good job of training, but their clients love them. They keep coming back. They keep resigning. A lot of that's relationships. A lot of that is that their trainer makes them feel appreciated that their trainer is connecting with them. So for good coaches out there, this should be a new brainer. You shouldn't just be the best trainer in your gym. You shouldn't just be the most knowledgeable trainer in your gym. You should be the best trainer to train with in your gym. And that's very different than being the best trainer in your gym. They've

even studied this and found that being appreciative is one of the best ways that you can get somebody to do what it is you want them to do. And knowing all of the barriers we have getting people to modify their behavior with nutrition or with activity, get in the habit of being appreciative and recognizing what it is that people do well and looking to build some momentum off that, right? And you can work this into your business very systemically. It doesn't have to be super specific. Some of the systemic things you can do are remember a trainiversary. If it's been a month since a client signed up, six months, a year, recognize and acknowledge that, right? Thank a client after each session. Say, hey, awesome effort today. I appreciate you being on time and training hard. You're working towards

your goals and I'm really grateful to be a part of it. Have an awesome weekend. I'll see you next week. Make sure that you're eating well. Stay active, right? Small shit like that. Or hey, check out these amazing results my client got. Her hard work inspires me every day and I'm sharing her progress photos on social media with her permission because I think it's very important to acknowledge the hard work she's done. That says something, right? Also, working into this, it's always better to start off on the right foot and build trust. And the best way to do this is by under-promising and over-delivering on what it is that your client can expect. So if Susie comes to you and says, hey, I want to lose 15 pounds in a month.

And you go, well, Susie, you know, that's unrealistic. That's too rapid a rate of weight loss. I'm not comfortable with it. We can definitely lose 15 pounds, but I'd like to start off with losing four. And she goes, okay, but you do a good job. And Susie loses seven pounds in that first month. Not only did you meet the initial expectation, but you kind of low balder with your first offer so that when she lost the seven pounds, she feels just as good as if she lost 15.

So it's really important to temper expectations and just be honest and upfront about stuff. Okay. That stuff really matters and it's important. And the last mistake that trainers make is they just don't handle their scheduling and cancellations well. And this can kill you, especially if you don't do a good job of making sure that all your clients are scheduled and getting reminders about their appointments using something like Google Calendar or what I like to use, which is Square, something that you can do all of your billing, scheduling, and cancellations from, you need to set that up because if you let your clients cancel and you don't charge them and you're like, oh, it's okay. And it's really not okay because you still fucking wasted your time. They just didn't pay for it and they didn't get

any closer to your goals, but you want to be nice. You're not helping them out. So you need to become very, very skilled at handling cancellation. So if somebody says, Hey, I'm not going to make it today. Didn't sleep well. Instead of going, Oh, no problem. See you next week. Go. Okay. Too bad. Please do your best to stay active. If we can reschedule this appointment, that would be better. I'd hate to charge you for a late cancellation. Be firm on this stuff, guys. Your time is valuable. And if you need another way to look at it, consider this. If you're a busy trainer and somebody wants to train with you, but you have a client who's continuously flaking and canceling, they're not just getting in the way of themselves getting in shape. They're getting in the way of that next client of yours who would

show up, who would do the work. And so you need to nip this stuff in the bud and be really good about scheduling. Make sure people are getting reminders and make sure people are paying for their cancellations unless it's an extenuating circumstance. A good example, if a client says, hey Danny, I just wanted to let you know I tested positive for COVID last night and I'm not going to make my session. If you charge that person, guess what? Not only you're, what you're doing is you're basically charging them the cost of one session to possibly lose them as a client. There's some things that aren't worth charging or canceling people for. And one of those things are obvious extenuating circumstances. So don't be greedy. Acknowledge where people are at. So guys, very quick. Again, these are the five biggest things that hold most trainers back.

You're afraid of selling because you look at it through the wrong lens and you're not confident about what your offer is. Number two, you spend too much time learning about training and not enough time learning about how to be a business operator. I'm not saying that spending a lot of time learning about training is bad. Spend the same amount of time doing it, but add on an extra hour a week about business or make room for two hours a week about marketing. Become somebody who takes running your business seriously and you will help more people. Okay. Number three, you got to meet people where they're at. You have to give them what they want mixed in with what you know they need. Don't make them do shit they hate or you won't have clients very often. Okay, number four,

you aren't showing gratitude, genuine gratitude and appreciation for the awesome opportunity that's in front of you of helping somebody change their health. And number five, you don't handle billing, scheduling and cancellations. Well, you're just not firm enough there. Those are legit problems that I know because they've affected the dozens, if not hundreds of trainers I've worked with and hired when I was managing in big box gyms. And I know that getting this stuff under control will help your business a lot. So guys, the mentorship is coming up in a few months. If you liked this, be sure to click the link in the notes to sign up for the mailing list so that you can be notified when that goes live. I guarantee you this, and I'm willing to make the guarantee before I've even done the filming. And that's it.

If you found value in this podcast, you'll find a hundred times the value in the mentorship. And again, guys, that's coming down the pipeline soon. So stay tuned. I hope you guys had a good one and I'll check in soon.