How Do You Plan Your Fitness Career in These Times? “It’s a mess.” …said dear friend of mine and university lecturer describing what it’s like for kinesiology students who were to graduate or did this spring or summer 2020. “I’m at a place where I don’t have money coming in but I need to invest money in my future.” … said a participant in a recent master class. Sometime in the future this will be the year of COVID19 and you will be looking back knowing exactly what you did and how it worked out. You won’t be stressed or emotional as you talk about it. It will just be a memory. Right now, it may feel like a black hole. There are things you don’t know. What We Know Let me remind you though there are things we do know. We know people can’t be healthy without exercise. We know that they are distracted by other things right now. PPP loans and layoffs and full houses or empty houses, or work-at-home. We know they’re confused by what to do. We know they have so little time and energy. We know they’re scared, potentially depressed or anxious. All of those things point to a need for support, a plan, and that’s a model for business. Especially for those looking for support whose gyms are closed, or even reopened but they don’t feel comfortable. The business you end up working for may not even exist yet. Just 10 days ago authorities projected that 35% of brick-and-mortar businesses won’t be here next year. That’s before the next 6 or 12 months when we don’t yet know what will happen. New Business Models So while it’s easy to focus on the negativity of that, focus on this instead. New businesses will be there instead. They may be online or entirely different hybrid models. You may start your own business. Can you teach? Did you know with Zoom fitness instructors with a following are charging $8/class. Say 100 people do a class. That might work. One class won’t work but if you give people a reason to feel good, they’ll come back. That could be a membership. Instead of $8 a class, $29 a month. You can make it easy. Easy to get started. It’s not hard to set up Venmo or Paypal to accept money. Send the link for the private paid class. That’s figuroutable. How to Plan Your Fitness Career Whether you’re in your 50s and you need to decide how you’ll recreate your business, or you’re in  your 20’s with ink waiting to dry on your diploma  -or just hoping you get one now that the internship you’d planned has been put on hold indefinitely or cancelled… this is for you. No matter what you need to do right now at the moment - and it may be away from health and fitness - if you’re committed to a career and life in fitness, don’t stop building a foundation. It may feel like there’s nothing. But there is opportunity. When others are quitting, folding, going out of business, there is more opportunity for you. Few others will do the consistent steps I’m going to suggest. They’ll start and then realize it’s not convenient or it’s not earning them any money and they’ll quit. There are trainers and instructors who are getting paid unemployment and enjoying being at home getting paid. They’re probably trainers who should have been fired because anyone on your team complacent is not someone you want to work with. If you will stick with it, it will set you apart. Because no matter if you want to work for yourself or you want to work for someone else when that opportunity arises. Look, online fitness platforms are going to expand and going to be hiring … people all over the world are now potential hires when a business goes digital. What’s True People have found they can exercise at home. Some have enjoyed getting the commuting time back, the ease of any time they’ve got time, and that they’re not dependent on a class. Some have always exercised at home. But one thing most still need… is accountability. They need to report to someone. That is never going to go away. App or no app… talking to a person about what you are going to do, what you did and how it went, t