[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts. How do I build up a client base as a new personal trainer? It's one of the biggest questions we get asked all the time from newbies who have just entered the fitness industry. And I'm here with Andrew today. No, Josh, as he's disappeared onto the ether somewhere today.

[00:00:20] But I'm here with Andrew and we're going to discuss our best tips and strategies on how we can help you get clients as a new Personal trainer. So, Andrew, I'm going to go to you in this, cause we had a little chat about this off air. What was your number one strategy and number one tip for people just starting out in the fitness industry?

[00:00:35] Very 

[00:00:36] Andrew Wallis: easy. Let's reach out to people who know us best of all. So family, friends. Uh, work colleagues, those, if you're into sports, those at the, the sports team that you work for, essentially, it's everybody that knows you, you know, you've got that unique connection with them. So they're going to want, you ask, they're going to want to be able to [00:01:00] help you in any way they can.

[00:01:01] And that's the quickest way I believe. 

[00:01:03] James Breese: To do it. I totally agree because they're also the ones who want to see you succeed the most. If we're being honest, they want to help you. They want to see you succeed. So who have you got amongst family and friends and colleagues and peers you can help with? That's how I started out with.

[00:01:15] If I go back to my story, I ended up started training some of the guys in the police in the gym. I was training myself. I wanted to learn more. I started training some of those guys, and my first clients were exactly, well, they were their wives, girlfriends, and partners, actually, funnily enough. Because I was training them in the gym, and that ended up how I started my personal training business.

[00:01:33] So, it's got to start with family and friends first, I think. That's the easiest low hanging fruit, like you said, and it's a quick way to do it that doesn't cost too much money. And it's probably the least amount of effort to do, too, I think. If I'm being 

[00:01:45] Andrew Wallis: honest, it is, and I, I've had a similar thing, but I was working in an office.

[00:01:50] So when I qualified as a PT, I was starting out, uh, with with the safety net, still having the job in place until I grew my [00:02:00] business up to a level that enabled me to jump into it full time. But again, it was just telling folks in the office about it and 1 or 2 were interested and the beauty about that as well is that.

[00:02:13] You're getting to find your, your way within the business, you're ironing out any issues, you know, initially, you're getting better, you're greasing the groove, so to speak, so that, um, you know, when it comes to marketing. Externally to new people, you've already got a flavor of what it's about and ultimately what you're looking to deliver as well.

[00:02:38] Exactly. 

[00:02:39] James Breese: Cause you've got to practice on these guys to get good for the goodness. I think that's the best way to say it because you're gonna make mistakes. You know, you're not going to be perfect to begin with. You may think that you are, we all think that we all thought that we were, when we first started, you used personal training certificate.

[00:02:52] You get that thing and yes, I can conquer the world, but you realize very quickly that you make lots of mistakes. And that's okay, it's part of the parcel and these people are [00:03:00] going to be more forgiving. Now another one I think is really important is to get yourself visible on the gym floor. Now what do I mean by that?

[00:03:09] I think it's really important for personal trainers To get a basics and a grounding in working with clients on a gym commercial floor because it's going to do two things. One, it's going to get you more visible in front of people. Two, it's going to give you a good grounding on how to train people and make mistakes here.

[00:03:26] And the third thing I think is the most important is that you're going to realize that you don't want to work in a gym setting like this for the rest of your life. You want to get out of it as fast as you possibly can, but you we've all got to go through that rite of passage in some way. So again, if you're looking at how to get clients fast, If you go to a gym, let's take the gym I am in here JD Gym, I'm part of a commercial gym here.

[00:03:45] It's rammed at the moment because it's January, right? But what happens this is, whenever there's a new trainer, it like sparks, just like, oh, who's that? Even me as a trainer, like, I wonder who is that? It's the same with other people. So get yourself on the gym floor. Start training. So start [00:04:00] wear your personal trainer t shirt in the gym floor so they can see you training, be amongst people, start connecting with people, just having conversations and talking to people and build that rapport and build up that trust.

[00:04:10] You're not going to get clients straight away, but it's going to take time and you need to become that go to person who's there to help people not to show off because that's the last thing you want to do on the gym floor is show off and show you. your muscles and do everything here. Be helpful, be less intimidating and get a grips on the gym floor to get yourself visible and present.

[00:04:30] So yeah, get yourself into a commercial gym is my top 

[00:04:32] Andrew Wallis: tip. I totally agree. Again, um, that's where I got real traction. And again, you, you get that experience of working within that environment so that you can understand that. That's not what you ultimately want. You want to be owning your own business and growing forwards, but you learn so much on the gym floor and how, how a business is run, uh, particularly, um, you know, uh, a successful, uh, gym, mind you equally [00:05:00] not so successful as well.

[00:05:01] Um, but the biggest thing I think you mentioned there for me, uh, is those conversations, uh, James in that, um, it just gets you confident and comfortable having. You know, chatting, going up to somebody on the gym floor and chatting, because that helps build trust. You can answer a question. You're not being pushy and trying to sell your services by any means.

[00:05:25] You're just talking. And as they get to know you, there's going to be at some stage where, uh, when they're, they know the time is right, that they need a coach, that you're going to be the first port of call that they come 

[00:05:36] James Breese: to. Exactly. And it takes time. I'll give you an example. We sold an ebook to somebody two years ago, who then bought another book from us last year.

[00:05:43] We had a conversation on the phone with him last night because he now wants to sign up for our online personal training services. Why? Because it's taken him two years to realize that he actually needs help. So it's the same on the gym floor. Have these conversations. Be helpful. Don't be pushy. You know, you're gonna earn the right.

[00:05:58] Let them come to you as [00:06:00] opposed to you go to them in terms of like trying to sell to them. So yeah, just have these conversations. A lot of new PTs coming through don't have that ability to connect with people. They don't have that like what doctors call this bedside manner, and I think it's a really good place to get you from here.

[00:06:14] So I think Looking at these two strategies alone, you can get to your first five clients with family and friends, right? I really think, I do believe that your first five clients, which is key and is imperative through family and friends. I think the next five to 10 clients you will get on the gym floor by being present and being visible.

[00:06:31] It's hard graft, we've all got to go there, but I really think it's a key strategy and simple strategy to help you get clients as a new personal trainer. Here's a special message from our sponsor. Want more clients without breaking the bank on ads? Google is your ticket. Imagine being the first name clients see when they Google your services near them.

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[00:07:07] Ever wonder how many new clients you're losing by not being Google's number one? Don't wonder? Act now. Book your free strategy call at strengthmatters. com forward slash website today. And the third thing I think I like to, to bring up and talk to people about is, is this idea of, well, they always say, well, I need to be posting on social media.

[00:07:24] Whoa, you probably got like zero, zero, like followers, right? If I'm being honest, there's an element of that's yes, family and friends and your personal page to help you build that family thing here. But in terms of like growing outreach here, we don't believe in our, our framework and marketing here is.

[00:07:40] Get the basics right first, which is getting a website, okay? Then we build and optimize this website to be helpful and useful for people with some good blog posts to answer questions that people may have. Then we go to social media later down the line, but it's really important I think as a new personal trainer listening to this right now.

[00:07:58] A lot of trainers don't [00:08:00] get their profile seen on Google. A great stat I read this morning is that 77 percent of people, when they're looking to buy a product or service, will search on Google first. That's it. 77 percent of people do that on Google first. No one in the personal training and fitness industry is optimizing for Google.

[00:08:19] They're all going to social media. Different intent. Google is a much more higher user intent to buy something. Social media is having fun, learning. Type of thing. They both have a role to play, but you've got to understand this. So if you want to get clients and build a client base as a new personal trainer, I think the best and easiest way is to outsmart the old guys who are not doing this.

[00:08:40] They think they know everything, but they don't. But get a good website. Get yourself into Google business profile so people can find you. So if they're searching for you online, they can find you. Or if you have these conversations in the gym, which is what's going to happen, they want to do more research about you.

[00:08:56] So guess where they're going to go to? They can go to your, you know, personal pages on [00:09:00] Facebook and Instagram. They're also going to go to your website to see how professional you are. So it all compounds. So you can start doing this along the way. I'd say, yes, family and friends first. Get yourself on the gym floor and be present.

[00:09:12] And while you're on the gym floor, Think about building your website to start having this infrastructure and this base to everything that you're going to do moving down the line. Don't worry about the tactics. There's tactics and strategy is very different. This is about strategy now for the long haul.

[00:09:26] And that's my two pence on this. Andrew, any thoughts from you? 

[00:09:29] Andrew Wallis: You're right again, particularly with the website side of things, because so often than not, we always think we've got to jump on social media. But I'm back on the Isle of Man at the moment and. Looking online for personal trainers, just to see who's in the market here now and a very few have websites that are depending on social media, you know, and if for whatever reason that that account was disabled.

[00:09:55] They've lost their window to the world. People are [00:10:00] not going to be able to contact them. So getting those websites. And then, as we say, you've got 5 clients from from family and friends. You've got another 5 from walking the gym floor. There's your 10. Then you can, you're going to start getting referrals.

[00:10:14] Uh, so that that's enhancing that that client base further. We've not even gone out externally. So you're already got a strong relationship with them. foundational base of clients that can service you for, um, for quite some time. Then that gives you that platform to grow even further. Then exactly. 

[00:10:34] James Breese: Cool.

[00:10:35] Awesome. Thanks, Andrew. Well, there you go, guys. Those are three quick, no, I wouldn't say quick. Those three timeless strategies, I think, to help you grow. A client base as a new personal trainer. Everything else you're seeing online is just tactics. Tactics are very different to strategy But what we're going to do is build this baseline first to help you guys grow for the long haul and survive the first 18 months of personal training because it's your hardest time, right?

[00:10:59] So just a quick [00:11:00] recap Family and friends, get yourself on the gym floor and be present, have conversations with real people, and get yourself a website and build a presence on Google because 77 percent of people in your local area are searching for businesses and services like Personal Trainer near me, and that's where most of the competition don't focus on.

[00:11:18] Okay. So those are our top tips. Uh, if you do want more help and just want to have a look, maybe a little chat with us to learn about how to grow your fitness business or any type of strategy to help you grow it, just go to strengthmanners. com forward slash strategy, and we'll have a quick call. It's a free 15 minute call.

[00:11:32] You may even speak to me. How about that? So as we say here in Wales, Ciao for now as we say in Llandau and we'll see you on the next podcast.