Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2525: Five Steps to Build a $10,000/Month Fitness & Coaching Business in 2025

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

 5 Steps to Build a $10,000/month Fitness and Coaching Business in 2025 Fitness coaching is rewarding if you love fitness and people. (1:05) Why is the turnover rate so high? (4:23) 5 Steps to Build a $10,000/month Fitness and Coaching Business in 2025 #1 - Talk to people every day. (7:52) #2 - Practice your presentation. (18:19) #3 - Block 30 minutes a day for learning. (23:56) #4 - Use social media properly (to support your clients). (29:45) #5 - Use a mix of in-person and virtual is best. (35:11) Questions:  How much does the average trainer make? (37:36) What kinds of clients are the best to get? (40:11) What hours do trainers work? (42:08) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Seed for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code 25MINDPUMP at checkout for 25% off your first month’s supply of Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic** February Promotion: MAPS Anabolic & No B.S. 6-Pack ** We are offering them both for the low price of $59.99, which is a savings of $114! ** Online Personal Training Course | Mind Pump Fitness Coaching ** Approved provider by NASM/AFAA (1.9 CEUs)! Grow your business and succeed in 2025. ** Mind Pump #2390: Should You Become a Personal Trainer? Mind Pump #2465: How to Become a 6-Figure Trainer Mind Pump #2515: How to Become a Successful Trainer in 2025 Mind Pump #2482: Success Secrets from Badass 8-Figure Entrepreneur Jasmine Star Train the Trainer Webinar Series Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Jasmine Star (@jasminestar) Instagram  

If you want to feel more connected to humanity and a little less alone, listen to Beautiful Anonymous. Each week I take a phone call from one random anonymous human being. There's over 400 episodes in our back catalog. You get to feel connected to all these different people all over the world. Recent episodes include one where a lady survived a murder attempt by her own son. But then the week before that, we just talked about Star Trek. It can be anything. It's unpredictable. It's raw. It's real. Get Beautiful Anonymous wherever you listen to podcasts. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is mind pump. Today's episode, five steps to building a $10,000 a month fitness and coaching business in 2025.

We break it down for you. Now this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, seed. This is the world's best probiotic. Go check them out. Get yourself a discount. Go to seed.com forward slash mind pump, use the code 25 mind pump, get 25% off. Also the February special is amazing. This is the original workout program stack. Maps, anabolic, and the No BS six-pack formula. Get them both together. They were made to go together. Get them both together

in this bundle. $59.99 gets you both right now. Go check it out. Go to mapsfebruary.com. All right, here comes the show. Here are the five steps you can take to build a $10,000 a month business as a fitness coach or personal trainer you can do it but you got to do it right. I like this we're sort of create some content specifically for trainers and coaches or aspiring trainers yes which I love to speak to I think most of my career I did that then I more of that than I did with actual clients. Well I think if I think if people don't know, when we started the show,

our biggest motivator was to try to shift the fitness industry in a better direction, right? Because we know that when it comes to fitness and health, through exercise and diet and lifestyle, you could solve a lot of the chronic health issues that are out there. A lot of the answers are out there, but the fitness industry really wasn't doing a great job. So our goal was, can we influence the space in a way

to where it really starts to make more of a difference? I can't think of a better way to help people through health and fitness than by creating and training and coaching trainers and coaches. Why do I know this? We were trainers for years, for two decades I trained Then by creating and training and coaching trainers and coaches. Why do I know this? We were trainers for years, for two decades I trained people and when I got good and it took me a while to get good, okay, it took me at least 10

years to get really good at what I did. The impact that I had on people just through my ability to coach and the ways I was able to coach them, I mean, it's pretty incredible. It's incredible. There's almost nothing more rewarding than helping someone transform their life through better health. Nobody could do that more effectively than a good trainer or coach, period.

There's no doctor that could do it as effectively. There's no podcast that could do it as effectively. There's no book. Then actually having a person there with you week in and week out coaching you through the process, again, we saw it firsthand and it's incredible. So I love speaking to trainers and coaches because if they get better, I mean, we get a step closer to solving these problems. There's such a need right now too.

And it's interesting because you'd think that because there's so much information out there that's accessible now, we used to have to get, you have to pay to get access to a lot of this information and go through these certification courses and build a network to finally kind of learn how to do it, how to actually operate a successful business with this. But there's such a need for trainers right now for people to be able to sift through all the nonsense and be able to be guided on like real true valuable fitness practices. Well, you know this one obviously this episode in particular is geared more towards the business side of the trainer, but

Indirectly, we've been speaking to trainer since day one I mean, I think that when we came together and decided that we were gonna create this It really was kind of scratching our own itch. What would we have wanted as a young trainer coming up as far as information? And so I think a lot of times when we communicate on the podcast, even though it's attracted the general population and helps a lot of people that may not even be in this field, it really was, what would I have wanted or needed communicated to me as a trainer who's up and coming and who's helping all these people.

So really we've been talking to them the entire time. I think this episode in particular is a little more business focused, which I think is important because you gotta be a good communicator, you gotta be a good trainer, you gotta know the things that we talk about on the show if you're gonna be effective, but you also have to be a good communicator. You've got to be a good trainer. You've got to know the things that we talk about on the show, if you're going to be effective, but you also have to be able to make money if you're going to stay in

the business, right? Totally. Cause whenever I, those that don't know this, that the turnover rate in, in personal training is very high. Yeah. Very, very high. And so even though I was only leading trainers for, you know, a small window of, you know, say eight years or so, eight or nine years in my life.

I got the opportunity to train a lot of trainers because it was normal to always be hiring or letting go or watching trainers go. It was just constant turnover. I never had the same staff month after month. There was always somebody new onboarding or somebody going out, you know, and the kind of the 80-20 rule was always really true with the staff, which was, you know, 80% of them were struggling, only 20% of them were really thriving. And of course my job was always to try and bring those, the struggling ones up to thrive,

but that was what the challenge was. Yeah, you know, it's, part of the reason why it's struggling ones up to thrive, but that was what the challenge was. Yeah. You know, part of the reason why the turnover is high is a lot of people who become trainers and coaches, well, first off, it's a very rewarding career if you love fitness and people. So if you love fitness and you love people, it sounds like the perfect job. And it is when you do it right, because it's incredibly rewarding. Like if you're listening to this and you love the gym, you love fitness modalities, you love what strength training

and cardiovascular training and mobility training can do, you love how the human body moves and how you can transform yourself from the inside out through fitness, you love that. And you love people, you find them interesting, you're curious, you love meeting new people, you're a bit of a chameleon, like I can hang out with almost anybody

if we're talking fitness or if I'm coaching them. So rewarding to watch people blossom. I mean, you get somebody to alleviate knee pain that they've had for 10 years. That's life-changing. Somebody loses 30 pounds and keeps it off. That's life-changing and you are a part of that. It's incredibly rewarding, but the turnover is high because there isn't a lot out there that teaches these trainers on how you, how do you turn that into a career?

Right? I think a lot of people, I think trainers often will make the mistake and think, well, I'll get someone in shape and then I'll find another client. You know, the ones that really do well, they end up building a client base that stays with them for a long time. So that's just the, that's just the truth. In other words, if you do a good job over a few year period, you'll end up building this client base that kind of sticks with you, very little fall off.

And then you'll fill in the gas, but that stays with you for a long time. The back half of my career was mostly the same people. The front half of my career was a lot of different people because I would have lots of turnover with my clients. Trainers with lots of turnover of clients become trainers who are part of the turnover themselves. So that's just a fact. So when you look at really successful trainers who do well,

who've done this for 10 years or more, who've been able to support themselves and their families, what you'll find is they have a base of clients. How do they do it? How do they do it? How do they get there? How do they build their business? How did they turn this passion that is rewarding

into not just a job, but a career? That's, I think, what we need to talk about. Yeah, I love the, I mean, you wrote you wrote out the five steps and, and when I looked at the very first step, um, I love this as, as the first one to talk about, because I think, uh, every staff I ever had, uh, this was a constant conversation, uh, with them, I'd catch trainers, uh, in the back area where we used to have a break room and they'd have downtime and they'd be BSing in there or playing games or take off for lunch and get out or

they'd have time to walk the floor and re-rack weights. And you know, they a lot of times would over complicate the sales process or getting clients so much that it just starts with talking to people every single day. We used to say, be the mayor of your club, right? You don't have to be the most educated. You don't need to be the most experienced, but you quickly can become the trainer that is recognized by everybody that comes to that club more than anybody else by simply just

being that person. And this one for me is very powerful because I've admitted that on this podcast many times that I was the youngest, the least educated, the least experienced, definitely wasn't super jacked or fit. I didn't have a lot going for me when I got into the space. But what I did do was I liked people. I liked meeting new people. I liked talking to people.

I was excited about the information I was learning. Yes. Even though I didn't know a lot yet, every day I was learning something new and I loved teaching it and sharing it with my peers, with the

members. And so I just was on the floor always. And very quickly, I was kind of known as the trainer in the club, but not because I was super knowledgeable. It was just because I literally just talked to people and helped people on the floor. And it was so much more than any of my peers that it quickly built that reputation that if anyone ever had a question, they would come find me first. And that allowed me to build and scale my business. So that really resonates with me, Adam.

I was the same. I was an 18-year-old kid when I became a trainer. Didn't have a certification. In fact, I got hired before I became certified with the promise of going through a certification and then getting certified. By the time I got certified, I believe it was three or four weeks later, I had already had a client base that was waiting to train with me. So in other words, they hired me.

I'm not going to get certified till, you know, a month from now. And they waited. How did I do that? I was an evangelist for fitness. That's, that's literally what it was. I was excited about fitness. I loved what it could do for people. Every time I'd learn something new,

couldn't wait to share it. Yeah. And so what I did is I just talked to a lot of people all the time. That's all I did. That's what I did more than anybody else. And this is something that trainers either A, are scared of because they're afraid of rejection. Well, here's the deal.

Look, what's an evangelist? An evangelist is somebody goes out and preaches something but they do it in a way that is because they understand they're trying to help other people. So you look at a roomful, you're in a gym okay let's just paint the picture, you're in a gym there's 50 people working out in the gym. You know that what you understand about fitness could extend the lives of everybody in there and can improve the quality of life of everybody in there and you generally care about the people in there because you like people. You're

not gonna talk to them? How dare you not share this message to these people? Now if they reject you, that's okay, but if you don't ever talk to them, they don't even have a chance to say no to you. So, you want to be that evangelist in your gym, in your neighborhood, in your business complex, everywhere. This works everywhere, by the way, not just in the gym. And the gym is just the easiest because people are already in there to work out. But I've worked, I had a studio for much of my career. In a studio studio you don't get walk-ins like in a gym. When I was first started, I was in a big box gym. People would walk in like crazy. When I had a studio, if I had a walk-in that was like, oh my God, what's happening here? Nobody

ever walks into a studio. So I would walk around my complex, I'd walk around the neighborhood, I'd walk into businesses, and I'd evangelize. I'd evangelize fitness, which always led to, and I'd evangelize. I'd evangelize fitness, which always led to, well, I'm also a trainer. The more people you talk to every single day, the more money you're going to make, the more lives you're going to change, the faster your business is going to grow. By the way, this is true for the real world. It's also true for the virtual world. A second mistake that trainers make around this is as they build their business, they start to forget that they need to talk to people every day. Well, one thing too, I, you know, I'm picking up from that.

It's like people buy into your passion and, and, you know, that was something that, um, I definitely had that right out of the gates and this was something I wanted to do. I love doing it myself. I know what an improvement it had made, uh, you know, on myself and my clients that I had trained. And I just really poured myself into my clients and really got enthused with them. That actually built more opportunities for people to come by, talk with me, chat about what I was doing with my clients.

I was probably a little more reserved in terms of being the evangelist and being the extrovert out there. I know there's a lot of trainers that are pretty reserved with that. They're just trying to manage what they can in front of them, but really being open and allowing yourself to grow and develop into that person where it's like, I can just talk and communicate with somebody, build a little bit of rapport, build off that rapport one freaking day at a time, man. And it took me every single one of those days, was improving on that skill particularly and it can be done. This is a fear that you can work through.

My favorite trainers to help were the trainers that absolutely wanted nothing to do with sales that I would help with this process. It's exactly what Justin said and what it would look like is, listen, I don't want you to go sell anything or present anything, just go meet people. Just go meet people and learn about them. Genuinely, just go be that person, get up there, introduce who you are, find out who they are, and then I would actually tell them

to come back and write it down. So listen, you go out there and you go meet a person on the floor, then you come back and you have a little journal and you write down that you met Justin and he has two kids, their names are Ethan and Everett. And then that's it. And then you just put that in your journal. And then the next time you see Justin walk in the gym, walk up, say hi to him again,

ask him about his two kids, buy their names, watch how much it blows him away and just keep doing that. I guarantee you won't have to sell anything. I guarantee if you make an effort to do that with all these members in here, eventually someone will ask you and then bring them to me and I'll close them. I'll do it for you. That's literally how I would do it with my trainers.

And what makes you more effective at this is if you go in with the intention of getting to know people and help people, not with the intention to sell them something. Now what it leads to is the opportunity for you to talk about your services, the opportunity for you to potentially sell them training, for them to hire you. But if you go in with the intention of just helping people, this is what I mean by an evangelist is when I would walk around in the gym, I just wanted to help

people, Hey, can I un-rack that weight for you? Let me give you a spot. What are you working on today? Have you tried this exercise? Like I learned something new. Let me talk about this. I would just talk to people about these things in evangelize and it would open up conversations that led to what do you do?

I'm a personal trainer. Hey, I'd love to take you through a free workout. It just opened up those opportunities. So one way you can put this into practice, if you want to be that $10,000 a month trainer is to give yourself a goal every day of into practice if you want to be that $10,000 a month trainer is to give yourself a goal every day of how many people you talk to. It's such a simple thing. It's such a simple thing.

Now the question might be, well, how many people should I talk to every single day? The number can't be too big. What do I pick then? Pick a number that makes you a little uncomfortable. Okay, so if you're a bit of an introvert, that might be three people a day, or two people a day. Every day I gotta reach, I gotta just go and talk to two people a day. If you're an extrovert, test yourself a little bit.

I could talk to two people, no problem. Can I do 10? Make that a goal every single day and do it no matter what. Now I think the goal should be different for online versus in person. I think reaching two people online is easy in comparison to in person. But give yourself that goal, hit that goal every single day no matter what. This translates very directly into a more

successful business, more opportunities, more potential clients. Period. End of story. But this is one of the biggest things people make. It also translates, and you just mentioned it right now, over into the digital world. I mean, these were principles that we built our businesses on long before social media existed. And the only reason why I think this business was successful is because we took those same exact principles and we applied it in the virtual world. I mean, I remember when the forum was this tiny group of 50 people. You should have seen how much all four of us talked to those 50 people every single,

as if they were 50 people inside of our gym that haven't bought anything from us, but were in our tight little community. And that's what grew it to this big old thing. It's the same thing. And yet you have these now, these trainers that are growing up in this world where we have digital media, and you have these viral clips that go, you know, where people get a million people viewing them overnight,

and they sell all these things. And people think that the way to be successful online is to go viral and just get all this attention. It's like, no, that's not, that's not just because you saw somebody who got some success away. First of all, it's like the 1%. And secondly, that's not a sustainable business. You're far better off growing slow with a small community and servicing and helping those people and talking to all of them.

That's the formula, which is the same formula that it was for Brick and Mortar. So engaging in these conversations online, whether that be in DMs or in forums or in a Facebook community, doesn't matter. But even in the comment section. Yes, comment sections, whatever, creating relationships and communicating and giving people value whenever you can, as much as you can. And that's what will build that community. And from there, as that community grows, then the business can, can build from there,

but the same principles apply. It hasn't changed. Totally. Next is to, now I'm going to put this in fitness terms because trainers understand fitness. If you want to get good at a squat or an overhead press or a bench press or a row, the way you get good at it is you practice it. You practice it all the time.

Okay, as a trainer, you are not gonna be good at presenting your services or selling your training packages or meeting people and getting that conversation from, hey, how you doing, to, you're gonna show up at Wednesday at four o'clock to get a free session. You're not gonna get good at any of that unless you practice it. Now there's two ways to practice it. And they're both valuable.

One is to talk to as many people as possible. We just covered that. Two is to practice it with a friend or a family member and pretend. And the more, this sounds silly, but the more you practice, the more effective you're going to be period end of story I I would do this so often with my trainers that they could recite their presentations every other word I would get them so good that I'd say I want you to present to me and I want you to skip every other word And then they would slow down and do it because they had it memorized

They had a memorize how they would present their packages. They had it memorized how they would book the appointment how they would confirm it That's how good you want to be because once you have this presentation, like it's subconscious, now by the way this doesn't mean I'm gonna have the same exact presentation to every single person I've talked to, but I have a very solid scaffolding and I could veer off of it here and there depending on who I'm talking to, but the order remains similar or the same and I don't mess things up because here's what happens when you don't practice your presentations. You start tripping over your words or at best you don't sound confident and one thing will kill a sale

faster than anything else and that's a trainer or coach who doesn't sound confident in their own services. Remember the person sitting across from the desk from you or the person on the zoom call with you, who's talking to you about potentially hiring you, what you're asking them to do is to give you money for a dream. I'm asking you to give me a thousand dollars to train with me for three days a week for this long in the pursuit of this potential 10 pounds of fat loss. This dream that doesn't even exist yet, but I'm just selling you this dream. If I don't sound confident at all, if I sound a little bit

like I don't know what I'm talking about or maybe or whatever, that person's not going to want to give you that money. They're not going to want to hire you. They will hire you based off your confidence more than they will based off your knowledge. By the way, knowledge contributes to confidence. So I'm not saying you don't want to know anything. It contributes to confidence. But practicing your presentation over and over again. So I would have my trainers practice with each other. And I would tell them- Role play all the time. All the time. I would have them practice with their boyfriends and their girlfriends and with the front desk and with their friends. And then I would say, okay, tell your friend to be enthusiastic.

Now tell your friend to pretend that they're not interested. Now tell your friend to be enthusiastic. Now tell your friend to pretend that they're not interested. Now tell your friend to be an easy person to sign up for an appointment. Now tell your friend to kind of give you a few objections. And then practice and practice and practice. The more you role play, the more you practice, this, if you do this all the time, you'll get better faster than if you don't do this at all.

So practice your presentation. Yeah, you narrow it down a bit because there's a lot of unpredictable, unforeseen objections, or there's just energy. Maybe you're not ready for somebody with really low energy, and you have to kind of figure out how to adjust your presentation that way. But that was good about role-playing. It's like, if we can at least present that so it's not going to trip me up, where I'm going to be kind of frozen, and that confidence level is going to go down because it's like, I haven't seen this yet. And so to be able to role play that really helped a lot.

This is where I do think that these groups or mentorships or investing in somebody who's got a lot of experience and a lot of talent in this can be worthwhile, right? I know there's a lot of grifters online that do sales trainings and stuff online. And it is hard sometimes to find like, which ones are the good ones that are presenting good information. But I mean, I remember when we had Jasmine in there and like it totally resonated with me

when she made that point about masterminds, because I know I've said a lot of bad things about mastermind groups. She's like, I'm the type of person, it doesn't matter, I'll find a way to get something out of it. If you have that attitude when you go into these groups or you have opportunities to learn from these people that are better, we have these talks inside of our trainer, we have a private forum for all of our trainers that have gone through our course. One of the things I always encourage all of them in that community is like you have all these trainers that are trying to get better at their sales presentation,

trying to get better at their business. And instead of looking at each other like you're competitive, you're all fishing at the same little fishing hole, like you need to learn to practice and role play with each other. Like I would love to see more of that because this is one of the best ways that you can sharpen your sword.

And all sales is effective communication. The way you're going to get effective at communicating the knowledge and information that you're learning is by practicing it. I mean, this is why too, I was never afraid of saying things and fumbling word. I mean, it's still this day on that guy, but that's the only way I'm going to get good at it is not being afraid of the people that are going to point out, laugh at me, who cares? Like that's not the person I'm worried about anyways. I'm worried about the person whose life I can impact and I can actually help through the information I'm trying to communicate. And the only way I'm gonna get good at that is if I continue

to practice these things. And so once you can get past that insecurity of what others are gonna think about you, this is the best way to get good at presenting fitness, is to purely just practice what you know. A hundred percent. Next is, and this one, this one's really helpful for when, because inevitably what happens especially as your career builds, or just through different stages of how you feel. We all know sometimes you're more motivated and less motivated to work out or whatever. Same is true for learning. So one thing that I did in my career that actually had a huge return on my business

was I actually in my schedule set aside 30 minutes every single day for learning. And so what I used to do in my schedule, and the back half of my career is what it looked like. So I used to train people. My first client typically would be 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. I'd train till about noon. From noon until about three I'd have a gap.

Then it would start again 3 p.m. till about 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. And so what I would do is I'd work out at noon, which would take me till about 1.30 or two. From two to three it would say learning. And so no matter what, no matter what was going on, I saw that it was two o'clock, no matter what was going on, I saw that it was two o'clock, okay, I'm going to learn something. Sometimes that was a YouTube video on something that was interesting. Other times I had some formal education or a book, but it was

always something that was related to my field. So whether it be gut health or nutrition or exercise physiology or some new modality or a supplement, I would learn something every single day or learn about something every single day. And there's two reasons why this is super valuable. Now the obvious is you just know more, right? You're just going to become more valuable to people because you know more. That's valuable, but there's also the following you become more excited and motivated to talk about new things So keeps that spark alive within you it also kind of keeps things fresh And I this if you look if you're a trainer now, and you've been in your somewhat experience You know what it feels like after you get a certification or you do a new course you go back You're excited to apply things this This keeps things new. So in your schedule, you should have 30 minutes every single day set aside for learning. And

as long as it's related to your field or your clients, it can even be business. Something that's related to your field, this is a surefire way to make you grow as a person and as a business. But you got to schedule every single day. Otherwise, it goes ups and downs. You know, listening to you talk about that and thinking back to my journey as a trainer, like I don't think I ever formally blocked off my calendar to do something like that. But then I also think that I had this huge advantage in this situation because I was the dumbest trainer

and I was the least experienced in sales. And so all of my peers, there was something to learn from them on the fitness and trainer side, all the sales people that worked there, there was something for me to learn in sales. And so every day I was always learning from one of them. And then I was turning around and applying whatever it was I learned. So that was what I love to do. I love to grab, the trainer had been there for five years already and had five national certs and just

understood, you know, physiology, nutrition, mechanics, everything at a higher level than I did, and then picking their brain about something and then going back and learning that, referring it, and then sharing it with a client. And like I instantly would always try and take something as soon as I learn it and go trying to practice it or apply it immediately, then it becomes mine, right? Like I didn't want to ever, I didn't ever want to just hear something and go, Oh, that's really smart. Or that makes sense. And then just like, Oh, file it away. Like I had to go put it into play. And this is at least how I learned. Like I'm not somebody who can hear it one time and then it's forever mine. It's like, I have to hear it. I have to try and say it. I'll probably screw it up two or three times,

and then I got to go put it to practice with myself or somebody else, and then it finally becomes mine, and then I can start to get better at presenting it. And so I just made that a habit every day. If I wasn't learning something on the fitness side, I was practicing a presentation on the sales side, and then turning right around and then applying those skills. And then it was, it was just a matter of time of doing that before you really start to sharpen that sword. It also, this is also one more thing that made, it was valuable, is as a trainer, and this is not in one of the steps, but it is important. Your ability to have good conversation is actually very valuable as a personal trainer. I mean, you're going to be with these people for an hour at a time, usually.

Week in and week out for months, years, if you do a great job. And you don't want to be boring. You want to have good conversation. This is like a guaranteed way to always have something great to talk about. If I learned something every single day or a little bit about something, this would always be the topic of discussion with my client. Did you know what I learned about probiotics? Did you know that gut health can do this and that? They found value in it.

They found it interesting because I found it interesting and it was fun. That's just one more thing about it, but blocking that 30 minutes a day is good because what you... Look, this probably resonates with most trainers right now. What you probably go through are spurts of learning and spurts of not learning. So you probably have this motivation, excitement. I go through, oh my God, I just read this incredible book. I was super into it. And then three, four months goes by

and you don't really do much and it kind of falls off. And then if you follow, just like with fitness, if you follow your motivation, it's gonna be ups and downs. But if you schedule it and make yourself learn something, it's going to be consistent. I swear I didn't have to look for it. It was always presented to me from clients. I was always looking at these opportunities. There was like, Oh my God, like, I don't know. I got to go research that because it asked me a question or there was like something I was troubleshooting and it led me towards like some kind of information or some kind of book

I need to read or somebody there that had that specialty that I could pick their brain and it just really just have to stay ahead, keep thinking forward and keep thinking about what kind of value you can continuously bring your clients. Well, that leads perfectly into the next point that Sal had, which is to use social media properly to support your clients. That is one of my favorite ways to teach trainers that are building an online present right now.

They go like, well, what should I post? I don't have to do. It's like, if you are training any clients and you're actually training them and you see them, whether virtually or in person, every day is gonna be an opportunity for a post. Meaning, if you are working with them, you are probably addressing something mobility related,

an ache or a pain they were telling you about, something that's related to their diet that they're having problems with, a condition that you've never heard of before until you got that client. I mean, every day there's something that you are either communicating to that client or that you need to go back and learn about because you didn't know anything about it. That's a post. And then what that does is that now serves as something to support that client that has it. Like say for example, the first time you got a client that had gout,

and you're like, what is that? I don't even know what it is. I don't know what their diet should look like. I don't know what's going on. Like then you go find out all these things about it. You're like, oh wow, these are some foods that this person should stay away from. I need to make sure I let my client know that.

They might not know that. Oh wait, that's a post right there. You know, it's like that's how you come up with content and that's supporting the client. And then you're also now attracting somebody else out there on the internet that may be going through the same exact thing. And you now can speak to it because you've learned about it.

Totally, you know, just to back up for a second with the learning, trainerwebinar.com, every other month we do a free webinar for trainers. So if you want resources for free learning, wecom, every other month we do a free webinar for trainers. So if you want resources for free learning, we do that every single month. Every single other month when we get on there we talk about a different topic. But with social media, people I think oftentimes look at social media and they say, this is how I'm going to build my business.

Not this is how I'm going to support my business. Now you could try using social media to build your business and there's nothing wrong with that, but the odds of success with that are small and dismal. The odds that your social media will support your business and then you finding a way to support your business through social media and then the social media growing your business are much higher.

What do I mean by that? If you're supporting your business through social media, it's already valuable. If I'm just trying to build a business out of social media, it's gonna take a while before it brings me any value at all. But what if I could use my social media in a way to support my current business? It's valuable day one. What does that mean? I'm more likely to stay consistent with it because it's already valuable. It's already gonna build my business right off the gates because it's supporting my current business. And then as it does a good job and it continues to grow through that, people will share it and it becomes a business in of itself.

So what does that look like? Well, can I create resources through social media that my current clients will find value in? Who am I talking to in my social media? My current clients. How am I using my social media as a way to add value to the people I'm already servicing? That's where you start because it's already valuable right out the gates. Otherwise I'm starting from zero,

trying to build this brand new business through social media which is fine again, but give yourself a few years to do that. Why don't you just use your social media in a way? In other words, I'm training all these clients, I'm gonna make a post, I'm gonna send that post to my clients. And why?

Because this is what they need to hear. Or I just trained my client Suzy, she has an issue with back pain, we looked at this and we did a couple exercises, we did some bird dogs, we did some pelvic tilts that really helped her. Let me do a post around that. Then I'll send it to Susie, then I'll send it to my other clients and then they're going to find real value in it. If you use your social media properly to support your business, it will be valuable right out the gate. Best way to do it. Yeah, and plus then it's not annoying gate. Best way to do it. Yeah. And plus, it's not annoying.

Because in order to keep those touch points happening with your clients, and this was an area I struggled with in terms of texting them, finding out how they're doing, how's your diet going, la, la, la, la, just trying to maintain that open channel of dialogue. To be able to have a post and then they know that it's on there, they can kind of in the comment section, we can talk. And this is something too, that's like you're constantly adding value. Other people might just watch from afar how I'm talking to my clients. And it just presents like a totally different area of opportunity where you can keep stoking

that constant communication and rapport. It makes it easier for you to keep your clients engaged and keep them long term. Listen, it's how we built this business. One of the most common questions that I get asked or people are most surprised by is, how do you guys come up with content every single day and all the time?

And it's like, because our customers, because our people, our community, they are steering the ship. That's right. That's where that was the, that was the, the quaz that we did way back when when we first started doing this was, we will allow our customers, our little network of people

when we first started to steer the conversation. Let them ask us what they want to hear about, what they learn about, and then we'll communicate that. It's the same thing. So this thing got built off of servicing a small network of people when we first started. It's no different than if I had a tiny little client base and I'm trying to build an Instagram page. I would literally try and service my people and add value to them.

Let them steer the content. That way, like Sal said, right away the page becomes valuable because it's making my business that I already currently have a better business because I'm providing something that my clients want and then guess what will organically happen, you'll attract another person just like that one client who's got that issue. It's like, that's how you build that social media page. Lastly, and this is just general best advice,

I think for most trainers. One of the most common questions we get are, should I do this in person? Should I just do virtual? Which one should I choose? Now, oftentimes other people will answer this and say, well, which one do you prefer? And here's the pros and cons of each, and which

one do you like more, and et cetera, et cetera. Honestly, honestly, the best people I've talked to, because when I was training people back in the day, we didn't do virtual. So my experience was all in person. But since starting the podcast, we've worked and talked with a lot of trainers, a lot of coaches, and the ones that do the best,

do them both. A mix seems to be the best approach for most coaches and trainers. What does that look like? Well, it looks like in-person clients and then using the virtual methods to support and add value to those in-person clients. For most trainers, this is what this looks like. So you have your clients, they train with you let's say once a month or once a week and then I use virtual appointments to bolster that and service that. Or I have this many clients in person,

but I also have a virtual business that I build. It's less expensive, but it acts as a potential feeder to my in-person. But my point with this is, just like with fitness, what's better for my back, a row or a pull-down? Why don't you do them both? They both have value, they're both done together, we're building a more complete business.

If I were training people today, for sure I would do both. For sure I would try and implement both. Yeah, I think it's kind of a no-brainer. I think this is something, this is actually a really cool thing about our industry that didn't really exist 20 years ago. Nobody was training anybody really online at all. And even when the first dot com bubble hit,

it was like, there were some people that attempted to do it and just kind of fell on its face. There is a huge demand and need for it now. I mean, there's a massive demand and need for it. And it just opens up, I mean, before you had to build a business in your community. So you had to be really good. You had to be one of the best trainers in your town and you could only train those people in your town. Unless you were lucky and you were super well known, you might be able to fly into town and get paid. But you're talking about very few trainers ever reached that level to where people are flying them in

to come train with the Uber rich, right? So it was very difficult to build your business. You were limited to the area that you lived in where by opening up to the virtual world, you now don't limit yourself. And so the ability to have both of them, in my opinion, is kind of a no brainer if you're building your business today

100% Doug we have some questions got some questions here The first one is how much does the average trainer make you know when you look when you go online? Google look this up Google what they say I want to hear what that one is between 50 to 75 grand Oh, did you look it up? Yeah, is it really that much that is what this set in the United States? Yeah, that's like nationwide. Yeah, nationwide between 50 to 75 a year. That's actually better than what I thought. Well, it doesn't take into account the turnover. Well, yeah.

So those are people who trainers have been trained. Career trainers. Oh, so those are actually trainers that made it. Yeah, exactly. Oh, okay. Yeah, so that's why. So now, can you, you know, this episode is about making $10,000 a month.

Is that realistic? Yeah, all the good trainers that I knew were making six figures. The ones that had their stuff together, that were really consistent, that had a base of clients that stuck with them because they did a great job, that were organized,

that set time aside to talk to people, get leads, that understood presentation and sales. They were making six figures a year, so it's totally possible. But if you just stick around, on average, you're going to make pretty good money. It's a pretty good per hour job for most people. Yeah, I think it is. I do think though, there's advice that people obviously have heard us say many times about working in a big box gym first. And really what that is, is because you have the support of a big company that is really Really what that is is because you have the support of a big company that is really managing a bulk of the business and you're part of the business is your service and helping people

and what most trainers sign up for. Why there's such a high turnover is there are a lot of trainers that think they're going to learn how to build business in general and then also be a personal trainer at the same time. That's really tough to do. If you don't understand- Just want to juggle around. That's right. If you don't under, if you are, if you're not a,

already a serial entrepreneur, understand really grass business, SEO, you understand things like how to run a P&L, like you don't know how to do that. And you're also trying to become a trainer at the same time. The combination of two of those is overwhelming and drowns most trainers. You're far better off learning about the business part while also having the support of a big

box gym and then if you decide to leap into business. That being said, there are big box type gyms that are more high end, but you still get the big feel, you still get lots of feel. They'll pay their trainers a decent amount. I knew a couple of trainers, made six figures, you still get lots of feel. And they'll pay their trainers a decent amount. Like I knew a couple trainers made six figures working in those types of gyms. They got their pay up because of certification courses. They were established.

And they worked in these facilities that charged more. And so even in a big box gym, you can make six figures if you're one of the top trainers. What kinds of clients are the best ones to get? You know, when you first get started, train everybody. Train everybody, be as, because you want to get a wide variety of people, you want to figure out what works best for you. I think the best clients to get

are the ones you enjoy to train the most. I don't know any better way to answer that. That seems obvious. Yeah, it's like the ones you really click with and enjoy training. Like towards, for me personally, that looked like. You gotta earn your preference though. Totally.

Like to your earlier point. I mean that's such a thing that's overlooked, I think though. Everybody's looking for a lot of these mastermind groups and these other opportunities to really fine tune their niche before they even get started, which I think is a massive mistake, was you got to be a good trainer to see all the variables and be able to be

more predictive and prescriptive. And then we can start talking about where's your passion really and what kind of client is coming to you continuously. That really matters the most. That's a far better strategy. I mean, if you would have asked me when I first started training, I thought I was gonna be training pro athletes.

Yeah. I'm the furthest thing from that guy. But that's what I thought I wanted. I thought that's what, and so I think it's a mistake to pigeonhole yourself into a type of client first. I think you should train everything because most all trainers that work for me ended up finding out later that their niche was different than what they thought it was. They might've came in thinking they're going

to be all athletes and they ended up with the elderly, or they ended up being all corrective and rehab people. You have no idea what you're going to be good at. You have no idea what the type of client that's going gonna resonate the best with you. And so I think it's so important at the beginning to take anything and everything and then you learn that and then you have a better idea of like, oh wow, I seem to really get through to this type of a client

and then maybe you build your niche. What hours do trainers work usually? All of them. Yeah, yeah, when you first get started, I mean, I'll give you guys a great example. 24 hour fitness. I worked, I started in 24 hour fitness, and I took everything I could get my hands on.

At one point, before I became a manager, I trained, I have six a.m. clients, I trained through, I'd have a break, I'd train through the evening, I'd go home at nine p.m., came back, I had a two a.m. client, would go back home, go back to bed, come back. Oh yeah, because I took everything. I took everything I possibly could because I was trying to learn, I was trying to grow my business. Later on it looked a little different, but I would say the bulk of clients are gonna be mornings and

evenings. Midday people typically are at work, and so typically it's like, you're either early morning or you're after work, or both. Which is, if you're building your career, you take them all, man, you live in the gym. I used to crack up when I get, I mean obviously a lot of what I did was hiring trainers, so they would, you know,

and one of the things when they first come on board, they tell you their availability or their schedule. And I used, I saw, I could chuckle when I'd see a trainer, but I'd like to work from, you know, nine to 3 PM. And it's just like, yeah, me too. I would love to do that. This, the schedule doesn't work that way as a, as a personal trainer. Um, and in, if you limit yourself to hours, you limit yourself and the ability how fast that you could scale and grow. I was 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. I was basically open all day. I was willing to take it.

And I've taken things outside of that. I've taken in the middle of the night clients before. I've taken 4 a.m. before. But that was like what I was trying. And I was trying to get them as close together at 5, 6, 7, 8, nine in the morning, and then have a break, and then come back and do four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and like trying. But I would be open to take whatever because I just needed to build my book. I just need experience. Remember, I mean, I love the saying of your first three years, you're in the learning phase of your career, not till the next three years that you get to the earn phase of your career. So while you're in that learn phase, I'm open to taking whatever. I'm not even at the phase of like, you know, trimming where my hours are and what type of client

I want. No, I'll take anything, everything whenever. And that is an advantage if you're working at a big box gym with other trainers that are limiting their hours. And you're the guy. I used to love that guy or girl who worked for me, who's like, Adam, whatever you tell me, you tell me, I'll take a client whenever they're willing to come in because I'm trying to build my business. And I loved having somebody who worked for me who was like that, because I was like that.

And that trainer ends up getting fed and getting their book built the fastest because they're willing to do that. And then through time, they build a reputation, they build the skills, they get better, and then you can start to carve out. And I've seen it all, since I've had so many work for me. I've seen actually some trainers build that ideal schedule. I had a top trainer one time that that's what he worked. He worked from like 7 a.m. and was done by one or two

and he had found a way to... the few people that were buying personal training at 11 a.m. and noon and one, he got them. And so he built this great schedule for himself like that. And then I've had others that just worked night shifts. I've had it all, but it's really tough when you're building your business to limit yourself to a block or say I'm only gonna work these days. That's right, and again, we do webinars every other month where we teach coaches and trainers

how to build a more successful business. The topics change each time. It's at trainerwebinar.com. Sign up for the next one. They're live, but you also get free replays you can also find us on Instagram Justin is that mind pump Justin I'm at mind pump to Stefano and Adams at mind pump out. Thank you for listening to mind pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall

performance check out our discounted RGB super bundle at mind pump media.com the RGB super bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com.

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