Lifting the Bar: The 5 P's of Highly Successful Personal Trainers

By Tristan Hill

Do you want to be able to achieve consistently outstanding results for your
clients and boost your industry credibility? Do you want to sky rocket your
lead generation and client retention rate in your personal training business?
Great news! Lifting the Bar will give you the know-how to do all that and more!
Whether you are a new personal training graduate or are well-established in
the fitness industry, Lifting the Bar is a practical guide to achieving professional
success. Author, Tristan Hill introduces you to his 5-step framework which
will give you an in-depth knowledge of movement analysis and exercise
prescription. You will gain the confidence to tackle the leads that represent
your dream clientele and give you financial security. At the same time, he
advises you how to safeguard yourself against the common pitfalls that force
thousands of personal trainers out of business every year.
If your goal is to maximise your prospects in what is one of the world’s most
competitive, yet rewarding, industries, then this book is for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9780994346711

Book preview

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SECTION ONE

The Where, What and How of Becoming a Highly Successful Personal Trainer

Do you enjoy the smell of the fresh crisp air at 5.30 am on ovals and playing fields as an outdoor PT? Or does the prevailing smell of rubber in a gym first thing in the morning appeal to you? Both indoor and outdoor work environments have their pros and cons. With outdoor training, you are free from rental agreements, the competitive nature of corporate clubs and ongoing requirements to conform to house rules set by your gym manager. On the other hand, if you are an indoor trainer working in a gym, you won’t need to purchase fitness equipment, you have a collective and targeted audience readily available to be marketed to and you certainly don’t have to worry about the weather.

There is no right or wrong answer as to what is the best option for your career as a personal trainer – you just need to discover what’s right for you! You can’t expect to build a small empire or even provide an amazing service to your clients if you are unhappy in your workplace. For this reason, the first step in this book is to assess if you are in the right environment to launch your personal training business. If you’re not, then it is crucial for you make the necessary changes to your work situation before you even begin to consider any of the other concepts in this book.

There is obviously more involved in choosing your preferred work environment than simply an indoor setting versus an outdoor setting. For example, personal training studios, as compared to a corporate clubs, are two different alternatives to consider, as are outdoor boot-camps versus sports conditioning environments. If you aren’t fully aware of the pros and cons of the key PT environments you are considering, then be sure to find out more before committing yourself to a particular situation. Make an effort to speak to someone who has walked the path that you are considering. It’s the quickest and cheapest way to figure out what is the right option for you.

Lift your Bar Exercise

Write down the three fitness environments that excite you the most. Now highlight the pros and cons of each situation to help you to decide which one is best for you.

For example:

•    PT studio

•    Boxing gym

•    Outdoor boot-camps

Remember it’s critical that (a) the PT environment you work in excites you and (b) you fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of that work environment.

So, what are your career goals and what are you aiming to achieve from the PT industry? Over time, as I have gained experience and developed my personal training business, I have realised that this can be a difficult question to answer. When I first started working as a personal trainer at the age of 22, I just wanted to train people and get paid for it. Now, I am aware that the answer is a lot more complex.

We are often very quick to limit ourselves because we think we don’t deserve what we want or we don’t know what we can expect without being unrealistic. After all, as with any type of business venture, we are constantly being reminded that we need to create SMART goals (which, for the most part, is a fair call). However, the key thing to remember in this situation is that ‘bold is beautiful’!

I recall reading an interesting story in which the famous comedian/actor Jim Carrey wrote himself a blank cheque for ten million dollars, signed it, and kept it in his back pocket. He didn’t know where, when or how he was going to get ten million dollars. He just knew that if he worked hard and kept his attention focused on the prize, things would work out. Guess what? His breakthrough movie – Dumb and Dumber – made him a little over ten million dollars. The point I am making here is that anything is possible if you desire it strongly enough and you stay focused on your goals. The moment you make it a conscious objective and you keep it firmly in your vision, your brain will start formulating ways to make the desired goal a reality.

In my opinion, one of the biggest advantages of the personal training industry is that it allows you to leverage your time – and time is definitely a hugely valuable commodity in life. There aren’t too many other jobs in the world that permit you to earn $80–$100,000 per annum and only work 30 hours a week – mostly between the hours of 6 am–10 am in the morning and 4 pm–7 pmat night.

Throughout my entire personal training career, I have used this benefit to my advantage. Initially, without my job as a personal trainer when I was a professional athlete, I never would have had the time and financial stability to train as hard as I needed to in order to succeed in sport and have the opportunity to play professionally. Likewise, my personal training business provided me with the flexibility and financial security to study for a Masters degree. With this qualification completed, I was then free to re-design my PT business and branch into the education sector while, at the same time, having plenty of time available to watch my first child grow