Become a Successful trainer at Life Time Fitness w/ Marcus Hill in Bridgewater

Ever wondered what it takes to not only survive but thrive in the competitive personal training landscape? Marcus Hill, a top-notch trainer from Lifetime in Bridgewater, joins us to tackle that very question. We take you behind the scenes of the fitness industry, where the barriers to success extend beyond the gym floor. Trainers face a complex battlefield, requiring a blend of interpersonal finesse, business insight, scientific understanding, and salesmanship. This episode peels back the layers of these challenges and redefines the role of sales, transforming it from a dreaded task to an empowering tool for client transformation.

Transitioning from personal training to the financial sector isn't a common career path, but it's one I've walked. I share the trials and tribulations of that journey, discussing the value of real-world experience and the hard lessons learned from the 2009 market crash. The story of a business owner who started at Fitness 2000 and grew a thriving enterprise through sacrifice and reinvestment reflects the entrepreneurial spirit at the core of the fitness industry. This is more than just a workout; it's about the drive and dedication needed to build a successful and resilient business.

In the world of fitness, professionalism is paramount, and we underscore the importance of expanding client services to ensure success. We outline strategies for personal trainers to create comprehensive fitness packages that foster trust and loyalty. Moreover, we are joined by the passionate owner of Up the Hill Fitness, who shares the power of social media in engaging with a community of fitness enthusiasts and offering valuable training advice. This episode is a testament to the importance of authenticity, continuous effort, and the power of perseverance in carving out a successful path in the fitness industry.

Want to ask us a question? Email email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. We're great. Personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy everybody, and welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Today we are with Mr Marcus Hill. He is a trainer at Lifetime in Bridgewater. We're gonna talk a little bit about the life of a trainer on the East Coast and then we're gonna do a role reversal. He's going to quiz me and ask me some questions because he's always in my DMs. You're getting in my DMs asking me questions, texting me, and I love it. People always think I'm too busy. Marcus, do I ever tell you to stop fucking texting me, or are you all here for texting me?

Speaker 2: 0:58

No, you get back to me when you're kidding. So.

Speaker 1: 1:02

And that's what we're here for. We want to change the fitness industry by creating more Marcus's, where they don't lifetime for two years. The average textbook trainer quits within a year and, marcus, I'm sure you've been exposed to a lot of trainers coming to your gym and a lot of them probably aren't there anymore. What would you say? One of the main reasons why trainers aren't able to stick around for that infamous 12 month marker?

Speaker 2: 1:28

I think one of the reasons why trainers come and go in the fitness industry is because a lot of times they undermine the grind aspect of it. Like it is a grind and you know you have to. When you're working with a client base of people, you have to service those people accordingly. So, like when you're not up on your business and you're not on top of things, you kind of have like get this slippery slope downward and it can cause people to struggle and burn out. So you come in with a lot of ambition, you love training, you're fit, you want to work out, you help people get fit.

Speaker 2: 2:01

The idea of it sounds great, but when you're there there's a lot of people skills that go into it. There's a lot of business acumen that goes into it. There's a lot of science behind it too, like anatomy, nutrition and programming to help people reach their results. Sales is a big part of it too. So, like you have to like hone all those skills. You can't just rely on the fact that you're fit and you know stuff to get you by, because people can be inspired by the way you look, but if you can't help them change the way they look or if they feel like you know you're not meeting their needs, then it can be hard for you to sustain a business. So I feel like a lot of times trainers who come and go underestimate the grind that it takes and they overlook the importance of all the small things.

Speaker 1: 2:42

And I'm always very fortunate to be in these situations interviewing people and podcasts. I'm more selfish in anything, because I learned more from the special guest than anything else. And just right there, marcus talking, I had a little light bulb that went off and I was thinking, and, marcus, if I were to tell you, hey, I'm gonna come push you in a fire, what goes through your mind? Are you super excited about that? Like what the hell? Like that doesn't sound good at all.

Speaker 1: 3:11

But what happens like what you're saying is people have this ambition, they wanna help people and they get into this environment and one of the first things that we're told is you gotta sell. And I think what we do is we associate this fire and sales, whereas if you're a chef and you're a competent chef, and if someone were to say, go use that fire, you're not gonna shit your pants. You realize that the fire is a tool that helps you produce what you're really great at creating, and sales that's all it is. It's the fire for us. It allows for us to eat. Our sales is learning about what is going through your mind.

Speaker 1: 3:46

What is preventing you from getting to where you wanna be? I am going to provide that for you and I'm just gonna give you a solution. And so if you wanna lose weight, I know it's eating less, moving more, but there's a lot more that goes into it that your mindset. It's motivation, discipline, sure, but I know how to help you get there. Now, unfortunately, the average trainer doesn't have that foundation where they could have a cool transformation. They lost a bunch of weight, or they have 18 inch arms, whatever it may be, but they don't know how to help other people. And so then they're throwing in this fire and then they say, oh, you're passionate, you wanna help people? Great, I'll go sell. And trainers you look at that in a scary way and I can only imagine how many trainers have you seen been hired at your facility and quit over the course of two years?

Speaker 2: 4:37

Well, a decent amount, more than other jobs that I've worked where, like you know, people don't quit as much. So it's been a decent amount in the course of two years. So, and it's sudden too, it doesn't happen. Like it doesn't happen, like, hey, I'm leaving guys. It kind of just randomly happens, but you're like we're so-and-so, oh, they quit, like what? They just quit Like that, like that's it Okay.

Speaker 1: 5:00

The statistic that I quote and I use it in my book is 90% of textbook trainers quit within the first year. And people look at that and they go oh, that's not right. Would you say that it's fairly realistic?

Speaker 2: 5:12

Yeah, it's realistic because, again, the grind is real and you have to be prepared to work. So when you have this false expectation of like, oh, I can make a lot of money doing this because I'm fit and I know fitness, and then you get there and you have there's a component where you have to be good with working with people and you have to be confident in what you bring to the table, and I think that imposter syndrome kicks in. I've dealt with that. I've struggled with that in the early on and as I continued to learn more, I got more confident in knowing that I can really help the person in front of me and it's helped my business significantly since I first started.

Speaker 1: 5:47

So, yeah, and so you look at where you're at and there's probably 25, 30 trainers at your gym and you're getting 20, 25 sessions a week and you're doing great, you're full time. But you look at the big elephant in the room pun intended where you have posters on your walls. You have anatomy. You're one of our most consistent hunks on Wednesday's calls reading and learning and surrounding yourself by great people. You understand that there's adversity part of the process, but you don't allow that to define who you are. You look at it as just as part of the game and I think that's one of the things that's allowed you to be so successful to this point. And it's not like your career is over. It's like you're thinking basketball right now.

Speaker 1: 6:30

We're going into March Madness Great, you made the tournament. You don't quit the fun just begun Two years into the program. Right now it's like great, you know how to train people, but you have so much more that you want to do, and I think that's what we're going to do right now is we're going to flip the script and allow you to ask me some questions, because you want to learn some stuff about the business side and you had some great questions. You asked me and I thought it would be nice to have a little role reversal right now. So let's hand the mic over to you and start drilling me on some questions and see if I can add some value for you.

Speaker 2: 7:04

All right, cool. So I took some notes. So I'm gonna kind of like go off some of the notes I have on. One of the things I first wanted to talk about is you became a trainer back in 2006, like officially became a trainer back in 2006. That was almost 20 years ago. To me, that's the standard for trainers, like hit that 20 plus mark and that's where you can really say I've been, I'm, I'm official tissue, like I'm one of the I'm in this game for a long time. You have a lot of experience, um, but you left in between that and took another job as a client manager at Bank of America. What, how long was it before you left and why did you leave to go pursue another career? Like what was that like back then, 2006, when training probably wasn't as popular as it is now with social media and everything?

Speaker 1: 7:51

Yeah, I Started training when I was in college because I had some clients there. So that's what put me over that 20 year mark and you know all the internships that I did. I learned a lot. I was, I definitely had a. I thought I was pretty hot shit. I thought I could train anyone, everyone, because I could on it on a physical level. But the people side of it and the business side of it were really interesting to me, because I don't care how great of a Trainer you are, if you can't get them to buy your services, then you're not, can be able to survive. And as I've Collaborated all this data over the years, the big issue that I saw was, as you can probably attest to, some months You're gonna make more, some months You're gonna make less, and that's high and low, can be scary for people. And I didn't leave. I was given an opportunity. As you know, you've probably trained some pretty high affluent individuals and my client at time, alex. He was 25. I was about the same age, maybe a little younger than him. He's a chris. You're great with building relationships. I want you to manage a book of a hundred million dollars In burbank and glendale as a client manager for Bank of America. What do you say? And I'm looking at my paycheck at renaissance club sport at the time, which is now big club call and shout out to you because you're still you're. You're there where I used to work, but he's, he's part of the book club you know calling and and he was what he is. It where.

Speaker 1: 9:17

Now, where I began and like the inconsistencies and I would see some politics going on, that was the spot where I really was first Exposed to nasim, because I had a manager who came in and she said chris, you have to get your nasim certification. I'm like what the fuck is nasim? Never heard of this before. I have a college degree of one of the best internships in the, the nation at the time, ucon, number one kinesiology program in the world with the best professors. I'm like I've done the best, I've been around the best, I work with nsca. Now You're telling me I get this bullshit nasim certification. I literally don't know what it is. And so I do some research and I'm like balancing on bullsew balls and doing stupid shit.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Now is when I first kind of peaked my interest in the political side from the, the government aspect and they're not a governmental agency, but it's it's looking into how the free market can be ran. And so I Wanted to get out of the politics within that gem environment and I was given an opportunity to have a very consistent paycheck. And not only was it consistent, it was significantly more than what I was making at Renaissance club sport. So I stayed at Renaissance while I worked at bank of america, because Renaissance was in, was and is owned by maria, so we would always get these amazing Monthly discounts to hotels. I remember staying like the ritz carlton this is like in 2007 or eight I went to the ritz and half moon bay that's where American pie two was filmed.

Speaker 1: 10:51

It's like a phenomenal scenery and everything. And I drove up in my 92 oldsmobile sierra cutlass this is a pimp car, right and I went up to the the chauffeur dude I'm like hey, don't scratch this sucker up. And he looked me like who the fuck is this guy? I stayed there training only a couple hours per week and I was going to get cut. And she brought me into the office and she was like all right, this is your final notice, you're fired. And that was my whole blackmailing story, because I knew that she was Trainers there and it was Pretty funny where I was like nope, you can't fire me because I know you and what you've been doing, so I'm gonna continue this.

Speaker 1: 11:29

But I essentially wanted to dabble in something else and the the carrot was the money and the consistency, and I'm so grateful for that opportunity because it taught me the, the business acumen that I missed. And so when I put all the pieces together now and I say the reason why trainers aren't successful is because they lack the trade skills, that's the hands-on learning, that's the, the fundamental aspects of programming and anatomy and movement, competency, regressions, progressions, all things that we teach you at show Up, that part is a huge missing component. But then the business side and the people side, and so when you put all three of those together, you really are Deadly in this industry. That isn't that deadly because most trainers will come in with a false self Confidence. They have a cool transformation story, but they don't know how they really got there. They're going to you know, credit it to. You know tilapia and carrots or whatever diet that they did intermittent fasting. They don't understand the true science behind it. So when you know the science, then you can talk the part and you can relate to people and you look the part, all things that you have going for you.

Speaker 1: 12:32

It's a blue ocean, and I say that turn lot because I recorded my book. It's a great book. My book is great as well, but this book a blue ocean strategy it just talks about how, instead of you know battling in these red seas, why get all these certifications and specializations? I got all these certs. I'm so specialized like. Take a step back. What is every trainer doing? They're chasing these CE use what you don't need. You're chasing these specializations, what you don't need.

Speaker 1: 12:57

You want to learn about corrective exercise? That's fine, but you don't need to go waste a thousand dollars on a textbook that could be outdated and more likely probably is, and you don't get to ask questions to it. Why not go learn from a physical therapist? Why not go take a corrective exercise? Weekend seminar, learning from people who are doing what you're doing? And so, really, it was just an opportunity for me to learn more about business. And then the the Ironic slash. Fortunate thing is, the market crashed in 2009. They let everyone go. Now it's kind of back at step one and and that step was all right. Well, I'm very good at training, but now I have this new set of skills, that I understand the business a lot more.

Speaker 1: 13:37

And why don't I go out there and start putting these pieces together while I'm teaching trainers and you know again the highs and the lows of training and at that time there wasn't a A lot of opportunities with online programming. It definitely was if you had the following and the only way, when I was a new trainer and there's a good podcast recently with Lane Norton and Stephen from diary of a CEO, and Lane talks about how he had a six stream, six figure stream revenue from online programming but it was because of what he developed at t nation and writing on these online blogs and I wasn't in that worlds yet. It was, you know, definitely the Chad water berries and the Lane Norton's and Dr Waterbury I'm sorry, dr Contreras, but they were writing on these forums and so it was a pretty arduous process to be part of that elite group. And it was right when the PTD was PTDC was coming out, so there was opportunities to write, but there wasn't the Easy access to social media and gaining a huge following, so those streams of revenue weren't in my mind yet.

Speaker 1: 14:44

And then when I started teaching and I would start tutoring students and I started Helping people pass these certifications. I started that business acumen that I learned from Bank of America Was starting to parlay itself within Training, and so I'm thinking okay, so one of the problems Trainers have is they don't have the sustainability of a monthly paycheck that's consistent. We got to create the 60 30 10 revenue split and that was really the first part of that development learning those skills. While I was teaching and building these relationships with the people who were doing that, like the water berries and Russins and all these people, I would reach out to them as a teacher and say, hey, I teach trainers, love to pick your brain, I'll pay you out of the rate, just want to learn more about it, and so that's how I was able to gain some credibility in the industry. Long-winded answer. Hopefully that helped. Now it gives us a lot of context.

Speaker 2: 15:32

I mean you speak to some of the importance of like networking and Seeking out people with experience and being able to take the information you learn and like kind of have like a practical Apply it to see what works and what doesn't work. Um, you actually inspired me to start going to some seminars. I did the ppsc one and then I'm going to another one with the with dr, with a Brink Brink Brink Brink Bush Institute, then take one is, and just then yours. I think you guys have DC coming up this year. So, like being able to apply what you're learning is important too, because that's another missing component as well, because you can know a lot of exercises but everything's not for everybody. Um, one of the things you talked about too, like when you started show up fitness, you were Training, you were, you were teaching trainers, but then the same trainers you were having trained at show up like the TNT. So take me through that, like what was that?

Speaker 1: 16:31

What was that like I was at MPTI National Personal Training Institute where I first started teaching. They were renting space out of a gym in Dublin called Fitness 2000. And a lot of these students were military based and because the military would pay for the program six months, seven grand and it was a great program and I liked the hands-on learning and that's how I first heard of MPTI. As I met some trainers from MPTI I'm like these guys are sharp and I liked that whole applied aspect. But the thing that they were missing was training Another trainer is better than a textbook, but training another trainer is not the same as training Betsy or Frank, your general pop people. And so I saw that flaw and I said you know you would do so much better if you were given actual case examples of people who you're going to be training. And I was getting my hair cut next door at a beauty college and it just kind of hit me where this girl I remember she had like you know crazy purple hair vividly and she had this doll.

Speaker 1: 17:33

It's kind of creepy because it's like a doll white doll head cut off, hair fucking coming down and you can tell they're practicing on the ship and I'm just picking her brain.

Speaker 1: 17:42

I'm like what happens to good, it's like what does it take to go through this program? And it's like all these hours like it was like a thousand hours and they're there at 8am and 5am. But the business side of the equation was you could go into the spot and you get a haircut from one of these you know apprentices and they would have someone over overseeing watching the haircut. And I'm a dude, I don't really care about my hair. So it's like it was like 18 bucks and you'd go in there if they fuck up. Well, come back a couple of weeks later and you can get it down or shave your head. And I thought it was a pretty interesting model and I was thinking like, oh, they're not paying these people, it's it's something that they're excited about learning. And so I just flipped that into what was happening in MPTI and I said you know, we got to get you guys and girls opportunities to train people. So I put out some flyers in the areas before social media and I put flyers out saying free personal training and no one showed up. It was on a Saturday and I'm like what the fuck? Literally free personal training. So I'm reading books and I'd go to Barnes and Noble every weekend. I'd be there a lot of times on Friday nights. I'd be there Sundays, on the days that I because I would I would teach Monday through Thursday, 8am to 2.30 and then 5.30 to 10.30.

Speaker 1: 18:51

I was doing 44 hours a week teaching Fridays and Sundays, where my day off I'd always go to Barnes and Noble and I would just read, read, read. And I read all these business books and like if you give stuff away for free, I think even at the time I think it was like Seth good ones purple cow is what I read you got to stand out, you have to be a little different, and so I put a price tag and I was like personal training, 15 bucks. And the next time we did it there was people who were there and so then I would just pocket that money. But I would take all that money and I would put it into different Yelp ads and other techniques on Google trying to figure it out. Okay, I got to get my website done and I wasn't actually making any money.

Speaker 1: 19:31

Actually, the one of the first years I started making money from show up was in the last couple and because I needed to start drawing a salary because, you know, families do that and so I didn't start paying myself for over 10 years at show up.

Speaker 1: 19:44

I was just every dollar I made. I put it back into marketing, growth, clothing, whatever I can do to you know, travel and meet people and network. So that came from getting my haircut and then parlaying it into the idea that you could come get cheaper training from students who are learning how to do it, but, in my opinion, still better than most trainers out there, because you have some dipshit who gets their their ACE or NASA certification. They haven't trained anyone but they train themselves. Now they're at an equinox or lifetime potentially and they have someone in front of them and they've never trained someone. They've literally never trained someone. And so students that were going through this program you know they don't have that lifetime equinox entity on their back but in my opinion they were just as good as these trainers out there and they're charging 90% less than them.

Speaker 2: 20:36

Yeah, no, that's a. That's a very interesting story you tell where you say you were out of so for 10 years. You weren't collecting a paycheck from show, you were just building the business, and I think that's another crucial part to like. I was talking to you early about building your business, whether you're working for a gym or you're working on your own. Building your business sometimes can cause can cause you to have to sacrifice. So I remember you talked about like your eight, your 16, your 40 K, like.

Speaker 2: 21:00

So when you were going through that process 10 years, no, no money coming in from show of fitness like what was it that kept you going? What was the thing that Cause you were working already? On top of that, you were pretty determined you were spending your off hours, your leisure hours some will call it learning more. So, and that's not that's not something that the average person does. You were pretty driven at that time. So what was going through your head? Like, what was your? What was your light at the tunnel, at the end of the tunnel that kept you going through?

Speaker 1: 21:27

I've never. Money is great. I like buying. I mean, I'm not a bougie guy but I like nice stuff. I go to nice places like stay in nice hotels. I like nicer stuff and I would be lying if I said otherwise but I'm not motivated by money. I think there's a like a common line, that barrier, where you just need to be able to sustain yourself. You got to pay for your rent, but you know, money was never something that I was trying to make.

Speaker 1: 21:55

I was always just intrigued that there's this profession out there that's not respected. I can tell you so many trainers who I know that have left change careers because they tell mom and dad they all want to become a trainer and they go okay, well, we'll let you do this for a couple of years and learn that's not going to work. And then you can go out there and try to find a real job. And I have so many stories of similar situations where people are trying to do it but mom and dad or family members say it's not a real profession. And so that is what really motivated me. When I go and I see trainers training, I'm just like what the fuck are you guys doing? What are you, these girls doing Like you, literally just doing random shit that makes no sense, and then you get some people who will push back or you don't know what the program is. I'm pretty fucking certain there that male or female who's trying to obviously lose weight didn't come in and say I want to fucking grab a viper and bounce on a bocey ball while doing some battle rope bullshit. No, they come in because they want to lose fat, they want to get stronger, they want to look great naked and what we're showing them today as a society of trainers is inferior and we're allowing for that to be accepted. So I look at that as disrespect to me as a professional, that there's people out there that literally have no fucking clue what they're doing and they try to put themselves in the same category and I'm not saying I'm going to.

Speaker 1: 23:13

Someone has to say this there down on Facebook and I thought it's funny like get off your high horse. I'm like no, my horse is just better than yours. I'm sorry, because you are self taught. You don't know what the fuck you're doing and it's not your fault. I'm not mad at you as the individual.

Speaker 1: 23:27

My frustration is at the industry and how we continue to allow for this to happen, and what can come across is that I'm mocking people who have a textbook certification. No, it's the entities behind that that are okay with profiting literally millions, if not billions, of dollars, knowing that the sacrifice is going to be someone who truly was passionate about this career. They're ultimately going to have to go do something else because you don't give a rat's ass about the industry as a whole. So that's what fires me up knowing that our industry is not respected. And how is it going to be respected? By doing the hard stuff, which is learning anatomy, learning business, networking with people and doing the uncomfortable things. And so that's what really fires me up.

Speaker 1: 24:13

And I always say you really love what you do. If you were to win the lotto, what would you do and I told the client this the other day because right now in California, I think the mega's in the above 700, I think the power ball is above 800. I'd absolutely take that money and I would open numerous amounts of show ups and I would get the right people in the right places and we would absolutely fucking crush the industry because there would be money behind the intent that is, changing lives and making a huge difference. So that's when you really know what you like doing.

Speaker 2: 24:45

No, for sure, Most definitely, and I feel the same way.

Speaker 2: 24:48

I share some of the similar sentiments that you have as far as like wanting to really make a career out of this, because I chose to come here and make an impact in people's lives and really taking the road less traveled, I guess you can say and doing the hard work that you preach to.

Speaker 2: 25:04

You get real fired up when you talk about it. So that gets me going a lot when I hear you talk about it, because you get really amped up and I'm like he's right, you got to do the work, you got to learn, you got to be competent, because that's how you get compensated in the long run at the end of the day. And if you're not willing to do the work that it takes to get to that point where people are willing to pay you very well for what you do consistently so you can sustain a living, then you're going to find yourself phased out in the long run. So take me through, like when you so you own a private studio what are some of the pros and the cons? I know there was a moment in time where you kind of got behind.

Speaker 1: 25:38

That's a little different. So the studio right now they're about 15 or two square feet. We have Santa Monica, we have La Jolla. We did have West Hollywood. Rent decided to almost double there. So I made the business decision to shut it down and use that for marketing to get more exposure. The fine was different because of a outlier that I wasn't aware of, really just a great ticket. The best example I can give is March Madness is going on right now and if you know that the star athlete you're, do you like college sports?

Speaker 2: 26:10

Oh, yeah, I follow college sports. Who's your team Basketball? Why is it Duke?

Speaker 1: 26:15

Okay. So, duke, I find out that I think it's flip Kowski found out that he has a D in one of his classes and if I report him and he can't play in the tournament, is that cheating? No, that's just strategy. I found out that you know he's playing and he shouldn't be in. I didn't have a D in that scenario, but I didn't apply for what's called a non exempt application because we were not a school and there's something called the private, the Bureau of Private Post Secondary Education, and that's where I got a hundred thousand dollar fine because I didn't apply for this $500 non exempt application, of which my previous employer knew about and I didn't. So they teamed together and they tattled on me.

Speaker 1: 26:56

And so I look back now, I kind of chuckle, I get the time, I shit my pants and I was like oh God, liver, prepare yourself because we're going to go through a drinking tirade right here. But, as my dad would always tell me, turn your emotional pain into physical pain. And during that time I never read so many books, I never worked out harder and was able to get through it. And I just reflect back now and say I fucked up, I didn't do my market research, I didn't look at the fact that if you charge someone more than $2,500 and you are doing what we're doing, that's in their mind, practicing in the capacity of a school. By no means are we a school. We're not a school. We don't advertise as a school. We are a gym that has internships available where you can learn how to train. But they are able to twist the words because I didn't use that application and there's basically saying you say you're not a school, but you're charging what schools charge and you're doing what schools are doing. Therefore, you are acting in that capacity. You owe us this money.

Speaker 1: 27:58

And so it was just really again always trained. A CPA, a lawyer had lucky great lawyers on our team and they were able to help us get out of that. We still, we got it debated, but we started to pay about 40 grand and it was a tough lesson to learn. But now, looking back on it, we are stronger. And imagine if it would have gone on longer and just festered and then all of a sudden that was 10 times bigger. I don't know what it could have been, but it was a great learning lesson and I got no hard feelings against a prior employee either. We've actually even we're working together and with the Spanish CPT, with the show fitness MPTI Ecuador, and he was one of my students and he now works for MPTI and it's like we're working together. So it's all business. There's no emotion, you just have to keep on pressing forward.

Speaker 2: 28:51

No, for sure, it's not personal, it's just professional business endeavors. So you have a pretty interesting business model, because you don't just train, you also train trainers. So for a trainer who doesn't train trainers but wants to start their own private studio or open up their own facility, what advice would you give to them?

Speaker 1: 29:14

You have to make sure that you really want to do this, and I think the allure comes from potentially making more money. And in this society where you know we're trying to keep up with the Jones, what's better than a trainer? Because everyone's a trainer well, a gym owner, and so that status is alluring, I think, to people. But what you don't realize is that you now have skin in the game, and skin in the game means that when your employees aren't working, if something doesn't, if something's not going in line, you have to step in. If the you know, when COVID happened, our trainers weren't paying for rent. Those are things that the owner has to do. If something happens to the pipes or you know whatever, you are the one who they're going to go to. So you are less of a trainer, you're more of a business person and if you like the business side of the equation, if you're intrigued by the business side of the equation, go in turn and learn from a business owner and try to get someone who is going to be literally open with you. They can show you their books, because in my opinion, a lot of trainers just lie. Business owners tell you that they're doing great. I knew a student who went through the program opened up a gym. It didn't align on what I know. They left crunch. They got an investor. They're paying 20, 25 grand a month in rent. The facility was at least $2 million. So I'm crunching everything in my head. I'm just like something's not adding up, because I see what's going on here now and you're not making rent and they're just, oh, we're crushing it. We're going to open up three other gyms. We're doing this. I'm like, nope, I don't think so. And then what do you know? A couple months later, they were there for a total of nine months. They got kicked out and they're no longer owners because you know they just keep on putting on that persona, especially in LA.

Speaker 1: 31:00

You're going to get a lot of people who say they're great at what they do and they're crushing it. But you don't know. You don't know fucking mom, dad, grandma, her will. Who knows? They could have money coming in, they could be having money coming in. That's laundered. Who knows? It's not always as great as the front sign says? And so find a business owner who will really show you the ropes and get into the books and teach you everything about what it takes to run a company because you're less of a trainer, you're more of a business person and with that risk comes a lot more reward potentially, but a lot of sleepless nights. I've slept in our gyms all of our gyms and it's just. You know, it's what you do. You have to sacrifice, and so it's a wild ride, but I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. I've learned a lot, but I'm really grateful for where we're at and excited for everything.

Speaker 1: 31:54

When it comes to open up your own spot, you want to have at least six months rent saved up. We opened up La Jolla in 2019 with our business model. As you said, we have other streams of revenue and at the time, we were developing the online with the fitness educational technology component, which is choked in a CPT, so that is able to cover rent for the gyms. But if we didn't have that, then COVID kicks in. Even if we had six months rent, you're looking at a year where you don't have revenue coming in. So it was like I think the statistics are coming out either it's either 68, 70 percent of gyms during COVID. We're able to make it. We were able to make it because of the overhead from the online. Have stream of revenue options. Also have a backup plan, and that backup plan could be you want to do high end training, but you may have to resort to small group training you want.

Speaker 1: 32:52

They'll say like you shouldn't have a backup plan, but when it comes to a business, you should. You should have that secondary option in case you don't have revenue coming in. I was just actually consulting with someone because I do consulting and I help people with their businesses and this kid is in the process of getting an investment from one of his clients and so I went over like mock interviews, helped him with his pitch deck and his investor deck to give to the individuals. I think there's certain things that you should say and you shouldn't say, like when you have an investor deck, when I did my investor deck for Sean Finness and I pitched it to a couple of CEOs and I went over our weaknesses, they stopped me and said you don't have weaknesses when it comes to your company, when it comes to investments, you don't have weaknesses, you don't let anyone let you know that. I was like, oh interesting, I was trying to be honest. I said we don't want to hear that you have to be beyond confident because we're buying you. And I found that really fascinating because you watch documentaries on like Floranos and the girl who did Elizabeth Holmes with the prick of the finger in the blood. It's like something that she had going for her. She was beyond confidence, she was a visionary. And then the same thing with the we work guy being a kook, but it's like they had the vision and they were able to sell that.

Speaker 1: 34:05

So you have to go in there knowing that you're the best. You can't have doubts and if you do have them, you can't let that other person know about those doubts. You don't want to be 100% honest with them because then they're going to be doubtful of giving you their money and if you want that money, you have to believe in yourself a thousand percent. So you got to go in there, go through your braggart sheet. If they don't give you their money, they're going to give it to someone else and that someone else is going to waste their money. Blow it. It's probably some fucking bozu ball trainer who's going to do something terrible and they're going to hurt people. So you are the best, you need that money. And when I was going through his streams of revenue I said well, what happens if their money that they're giving you, which was like 50 grand, what happens if that's your cash reserves and six months later it's gone? What are you going to do? You're not going to go back to them and ask them for money, so you have to have a backup plan. What if worst case scenario that would happen? You got to have stuff in the works and so we were going over secondary plans from a business perspective that he's not necessarily going to tell them, but you got to go through those scenarios.

Speaker 1: 35:05

So if you're going to start your own gym, I would encourage you to do it with someone who's going to bring forth something you don't have. Don't do it with a trainer buddy. That's a recipe for disaster. Don't do it with a significant other recipe for disaster. Don't do it with a family member. You should probably do it with someone who's going to bridge that gap. So if you're amazing with business and I'm amazing with fitness, we would be perfect partners. If you're great with numbers, I'm the visionary. We would do really really well together. But if we both have these crazy dreams that we're going to make the best gyms and each time we're going to one up each other with new inventions and so forth, who are the organized people? Who are the people that are going to get it into play and write it out, organize it so that it's going to work.

Speaker 2: 35:55

Yeah for sure, no, um, that's. That's really insightful, because you bring up a good point of making sure when you're doing and maybe think about Phil nice book, actually shoot dog, where he kind of talked about I think he said like he had the store open or he had like a store front, when he didn't and you bring up a good point where it's like you need to be Confident in your ability to produce. Even if the product's not there yet, you have to know that you can produce it because your ultimate goal is to Continue to grow and produce anyway. So if you have a vision for yourself in your company, you want to know that, no matter what, you're gonna get to that point. So I think when you talk about like investors, they want to know that you're confident in yourself. It's not that, oh, like I have a weakness here, weakness there, I know. We just want to know that you're confident what you're about to do.

Speaker 2: 36:40

Because if I'm giving you $50,000 to say what you're about to do and you're telling me you're not sure you brought up sports before. It's kind of like if we had at huddle I'm like, hey, chris, you want to take the game when it's shot? You like, well, I mean I could, okay, no, he's not taking the game when it's not. We need somebody who wants to take the shot, like if you don't want to take the shot, then you can't have the ball and businesses kind of like sports. Which brings you to my last question I wanted to ask you was this even if a trainer didn't want to go into business for themselves, they still have what's known as a book of business. So how important is business acumen for the trainer? Even if they don't want to open up their own gym or they don't want to be in their own business, like virtually, or anything like that, how important would you say that it is for a trainer to have a solid base of business acumen?

Speaker 1: 37:26

Extremely and it's the difference between being organized and growing that book and Just kind of floating around. And so I see a lot of trainers. I mean business and professionalism they kind of go hand in hand. Like I was at Equinox the other day and it was 704 and I did a little tweet on this and a trainer came in and Ran upstairs and you tell they relate to the session and client was sitting down on her phone. He comes up. I hear verbatim oh, you know, traffic can't manage a little late, sorry about that. Go, start warming up and we'll get going.

Speaker 1: 37:59

Runs into the back room, puts the stuff down and she's okay with it. She's not like, oh my god, you're a pile of shit. But what happens in her head subconsciously? She's take, she's tracking all the stuff down and sooner or later, the Affluent clients that you're not giving the service and professionalism to, they're gonna get fed up with it and how they get fed up With it. They're not gonna sit you down and say you know what? Here's the track record of all your failures and, taking advantage of me as your client, they're gonna say you know what? I'm gonna be out of town for the next couple months. When I come back. Do you think I can just renew? Then you go yeah, sure, no, don't worry. And then you never hear from him again and you text them and they ghost you. I don't know, I was such a great trainer. They love me, we were friends. Oh, maybe that was it. You took him as a friend and if you're not letting your clients know that Nutrition, programming and exercise are all different, that's all part of the business as well.

Speaker 1: 38:51

Trainers will try to get people to sign up for a package. All do the programming, for you also do nutrition. Or now they're seeing you as a jack of all trades and those things are part of the training services, which they're not. It's like when you go to the doctor You're not going to get your teeth worked on and then go get some major surgery For your ear or your toe. They're all different specialties. And so, when it comes to those streams of revenue Communicating well with your clients, letting them know that this is the service that you have, here's an additional service and here's another service.

Speaker 1: 39:23

Which one do you want right now? And most of my clients are going to get X amount of sessions per week and then, after a month training with me regularly. They're going to subscribe to nutrition. Nutrition is going to be a hundred dollars per month. What is included with that is you meet with me once a week on a zoom. Once a week we're going to do a social event with all the members who are part of that Exclusive service and then you're going to get access to a registered dietitian and also my physical therapist. You can charge more than a hundred bucks if you wanted a package at all. Together Therapy session once per month. You have like a group therapy thing. Then you have your RD it's your wellness restoration package and you're charging 300 bucks. Your clients would eat that up, especially because they're going to get more access to you. They're getting a community, they're getting a dietitian and a physical therapist.

Speaker 1: 40:07

You said you have 10 clients. How would you like to make an extra $3,000 per month? That was sound beautiful, and is that your fault for offering that to your clients, though? The gym does not do it? Not at all. Don't ask for permission, asked for forgiveness. You could easily set something like that up and it's all in how you deliver it.

Speaker 1: 40:27

You know, mr Jones, I know that. You know we talked a lot about nutrition and I'm thinking about I'm maybe doing this service that maybe I'm like, if you wanted to do it like I don't know, maybe maybe you think about it, it'll be like maybe a hundred, about a hundred, about fifty bucks, no confidence, I mean. Okay, whatever, man versus mr Jones. I just finished up my nutrition course. We shall finish one of the best programs out there, really excited to start implementing some of their strategies. How does this week look to sit down and go through a nutritional plan for you? It looks great. So this is gonna be additional to our training for the first time. It's complementary and I think it'll be great for us to do it on this Thursday at this time.

Speaker 1: 41:05

How does that sound Awesome? And then you take them through a nutritional consultation. You show value to help him with Nutritional strategies, maybe even go that step further and you have the RD on the call. So it's like I want to let you know that this is a team who's working with you with nutrition. Normally this is gonna be 300 bucks per month, but because you're my favorite client, I'm only gonna do it for 150, but here's why I need an exchange from you. You're gonna need to refer to other people part of this and, if you can refer them at the price of 300. I'll even start doing this for free for you, because my RD and I we're gonna help take you to that next level.

Speaker 1: 41:37

This is the thing that's really missing, part of your plan. How does that sound? Does that sound insecure? Does it sound like my product is gonna be flaky? No, I'm giving you more value. You're damn right that clients can invest in you because they believe in you and they've seen what you've given them from the past.

Speaker 1: 41:54

Now if, at the same time, you're flaky, you're not asking great questions to your clients, if you're coming in sweating, if you're talking about inappropriate stuff oh, I was blacked out this weekend and I was doing this with these buddies of mine. Now you're not being a professional, right there? Are you looking at your clients as a Business opportunity and not as a friend? Too many trainers look at their clients as friends and then it gets. A point comes when they're like you know, I'm just I'm not getting the results and I think trainers take advantage of their clients and it comes from those professional aspects of tracking your sessions is huge Asking, not asking, telling your clients every six to 12 months You're going to increase your prices. Do we throw fits and do we strike when Starbucks increases their price 10 sets, 20 cents, 30 cents? No, you pay for it because that's just what happens. It's inflation. It's part of the game.

Speaker 1: 42:50

You need to let your clients know that you're going to seminars. You're investing in your education. Hey, mr Jones, um, there's an isss convention, iss and Iss and international society sports nutrition convention in Miami. It's going to be $2,000 room and board, everything. When I'm done with this event, I'm going to increase the pricing for all of my clients $15. I'm going to give you a special little option right now. If you were to invest in my education and help me out on this event, paying for some of it, hell, if you want to pay for it all, that would be awesome. I'm not going to increase your rates.

Speaker 2: 43:28

What do you?

Speaker 1: 43:28

say Maybe that client will pay for the whole thing, maybe that client will give you more. Maybe the client's going to say you know what? I love the fact that you're constantly learning and taking opportunities to put yourself into situations that you're growing from and you are risk adverse. You want to get out there and do shit. You know what? I actually have a couple buddies who are investors and they got a couple hundred thousand dollars and we're looking to back someone just like you.

Speaker 1: 43:51

Let's have a meeting and they're gonna say do you have an investor deck? You say, fuck, yeah, I do. And your mind you go what the fuck is an investor deck? It doesn't matter. You say it confidently. And then you go when you make it and you get that deck done and then you present it to them and you say, hey, fellas, let's get this shit done. You know we're going to take this on to the next level. And then that opportunity asking for business because that's what you did to the client. You said I'm going to go out there and learn and become better for two thousand dollars. I'm not going to up your pricing, which I'm doing to everyone else. Invest into me. That takes balls. To say that trainers don't do that. How do trainers ask for my? Um, I don't know. Maybe, uh, maybe, could you pay extra ten dollars per sessions. We're passive, so when you, you know, put your big boy and big girl pants on, the world is yours literally 100%.

Speaker 2: 44:40

You had a good acronym for what you were talking about Discover, disclose, Deliver Like being able to discover a need-.

Speaker 1: 44:46

Triple Ds baby.

Speaker 2: 44:48

Exactly triple D being able to discover a need, disclose the service and the product that you have to offer and deliver on that said promise or that said offer. Luckily, in my gym we do offer things like nutrition and stretch, so that you can add those on as additional. I've taken those opportunities to learn more about nutrition, to learn more about P and F, stretching things that add nature, even going through the level 2 cert with the nutrition coaching, through soil fitness, and then being able to say okay, well, I've been training this person for three, four months now. They're clearly brought into what we're doing, but there is a nutritional component to this Starting to speak to the importance of nutrition and explaining, like you said, a communication aspect, which is also a part of business acumen communicating with your clients. However, you see, fitting, oh hey, over the annually, they give you a raise here at lifetime, and when they give us a raise, they bump my session price up. So, instead of paying 120, you're going to pay 130 moving forward as of April, something like that. Here's why, though because I got a promotion, because I learned about this or I got certified in this, but you're competent in the topic and the subject matter because you've actually been doing the work, the hard things, the boring things behind off hours, when you're off the clock, I literally have a stretching table right here.

Speaker 2: 46:07

I practice this stuff because I want to make sure I'm delivering on the service. I'm similar to you where it's like money doesn't motivate me as much as what I'm doing for the people in front of me. If I'm going to provide a service for my client, I want to deliver on that service and I want them to be satisfied on what it is that they're purchasing for me because my name's on it. At the end of the day, that client's my walking advertisement. I want them to leave the gym feeling good and go and telling people who maybe don't even go to my gym I work with Marcus at this gym in lifetime.

Speaker 2: 46:36

Go see him. You need to sign up for a membership there. Go see him, go train with him, because he's got all these things going on. He's adding a lot of value. He's helping me get in shape, things of that nature. So I think that's where business acumen comes into play for a trainer who is not looking to leave their gym and just build their business at their current club or facility, because if you can't see where there may be a need and it's right in front of you, then you're missing out on opportunities to earn more money, and that's something I learned from you, and just some of the things that we've done here at Show Up and some of the books you've had us read and some of the conversations we've had throughout some of the cohorts that you have within Show Up. Fitness is a platform. That's some of the stuff I learned from you guys, so I definitely appreciate all that information.

Speaker 1: 47:19

I appreciate you. This was great asking these questions. I'm just obsessed with triple D's. Those are that's where we got to go, and yeah.

Speaker 1: 47:27

I can and you got there and I'm proud of everything that you're doing and we're going to meet in person. I love to get that seminar going at your spot. I need to reach out to your manager and see how we can continue to network with the right people and take those next steps. And so people in your area they want to train with the best. They can just go up the hill to up the hill fitness where can they find you on social media?

Speaker 2: 47:49

They can find me on Instagram, my up the hill fitness. I also have a YouTube, up the hill fitness, and I have a Twitter account, uphill battle image, or X account, whatever you want to call it.

Speaker 1: 47:59

So I love it, my man. This was great, one of the my favorite podcasts I've done so far. You ask great questions and you're really composed, and the sky is the limit for you and your future. So let's keep on showing up, and you're going to do it, my man. Have a great day.

Speaker 2: 48:13

Thank you, chris, I appreciate you as well.