So you want a fitness career.  If spring of 2020 was your last semester, supposedly full of parties, plans, and optimism, you have officially been rerouted. If you just passed your certification exam or are on your way… Now what? It’s a bit of an oh-Sh*# moment. Stop! Take a bow! But first… I want to congratulate you. Stop and acknowledge it, especially if you didn’t get to officially cross the stage and flip your tassel, if you just got that certificate mailed to you – even though that’s typically what happens anyway. That job waiting for you may have disintegrated but do not overlook the thing you just did. The world does need fitness professionals. You can’t be healthy without exercise. You can’t have a strong immune system without exercise. Your weight loss, or sport specific program is not necessarily your best immune boosting program and people need proper instruction now more than ever.  The Difference that is Now Fitness is forever changed. It isn’t what it was just a few short years ago when you declared your major. It isn’t what it was when you headed back to school after your Christmas break. It isn’t even what it was at the time you were looking forward to spring break. So what’s your plan B? Maybe you were a lucky one and you already were planning on an online business or a hybrid one at least. And yet, even that is different now. Because 100s of thousands of your fitness training and health coach colleagues are now online too. There’s more competition than ever. So What is the Plan B if You Still Want a Fitness Career? Here are 3 BIG  tips for you.  (1) Don’t blend in. Do not do what everyone’s doing. That’s easy in part, because no one was doing this and if you just follow the leader it’s the blind leading the blind. Just because someone was successfully established in a face-to-face training business does not mean they will be successful taking that training business online. For one good reason, if they weren’t there in the first place before COVID19, they didn’t believe online training was effective. If you believe that in your gut, you will relay that and no one is going to buy from you something that you don’t even believe in yourself. An established business with a track record is starting at square one just like you are when they go online. In fact, the more conservative, and set in habits and at pricing and package structures, the more they used a script and stuck with the script that worked decades ago… the harder time they’ll have. (2) Do homework. You have to set yourself apart and you’ll do that by doing foundational work. Know who you want to serve and why. Know what their problem is, in their own words. Three big mistakes any trainer can make are starting with: I want to teach…. I want to use… I want to be on… (social media platform) So let’s go through them one at a time: I want to teach kickboxing… or yoga… or zumba … If you start like this you might have some success. But it’s limited. So someone has to be shopping for Kickboxing or yoga or zumba, first. Then you’re going to potentially have a problem already. Who might be searching for yoga, for instance? Someone who loves it. And that could mean an 18 year old, a 50 year old, and a 70 year old. Could be a male or female, an athlete or a woman with hot flashes and stress. It could be someone suffering from depression and anxiety. And the same is true for Zumba or Kickboxing (or fill in the blank). So starting that way can make it hard to write an ad or an email to someone. Don’t you talk differently to an 18 year old girlfriend than you would to a 50 year old man who’s dealing with depression? So if you want to have a fitness career, start with one of those people and the problem they have you can talk to them all day in a way they’ll listen. I want to use… bodyweight only… or TRX… or trampolines… I get it. Some tools are just sexy and fun and are easily accessible. But, to play devil’s advocate again, body weight training is going to eliminat