Chicago to Miami Equinox Trainer Jakub talks about the life of a Successful Personal Trainer

Embark on a transformative expedition into the heart of high-end personal training with our esteemed guest, Jakob, as he shares his riveting climb from a sports management graduate to a titan of Miami's fitness industry. His journey is a testament to the power of entrepreneurial spirit and savvy in the world of wellness, offering a wealth of knowledge for anyone aspiring to sculpt a career in personal training. Together, we dissect the nuts and bolts of success within the luxury gym ecosystem, revealing the vital interplay between discipline, salesmanship, and the confidence to stand as an authority among the who's who of fitness aficionados.

While we navigate the challenges and victories inherent to personal training, from the fine art of client communication to the strategic deployment of one's unique strengths, our episode becomes a beacon of insight not just for fledgling trainers but for seasoned practitioners keen on polishing their craft. Join us, laugh with us, and emerge armed with the strategies to conquer the ever-dynamic terrain of the fitness landscape.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where 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. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Today we have Mr Jacob with aK and he has a really neat story because he was a trainer at Chicago Equinox, moved to Miami and just absolutely kicking ass. He's 28 years young, started when he was 23. So thanks for taking the time to chat with us today, Jake.

Speaker 2: 0:49

What's up, Chris? Thank you for having me Excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:54

We serendipitously were connected via Vinny, and he actually is one of my favorite students right now because he just sent me a nice bottle of Willett. So, vinny, you're number one and we're going to get you hired at that equinox in chicago. I'm very confident in that. But how do you and vinny know each other?

Speaker 1: 1:11

uh, vinny is a friend of my younger brother okay, and so then why don't you take us through your story? You got a degree, you did a little bit of kinesiology, sports management and then, as a as you said, a young buck, 23, got hired at equinox. And that's a whole new world when you, when you go into an environment where the average person's making 250, plus lots of millionaires, maybe even billionaires, and you're a 23 year old looking around like, holy shit, I'm gonna start charging 130, 140. Now as a t-rex trainer, you're at 180, so let's just talk about that process.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Yeah, no, I mean I'd say you know that was where do we kind of kick off from there? From you know, the beginning of you know being in college, I went into kinesiology and made a shift into sports management and business admin, both for reasons of one interest and two kind of I had no choice at the time Wasn't the best academic in my first quarter of my collegiate years. But that changed for the better. Here I am with a degree and everything that's a story for another time. But sports management was still something that was very much so interesting to me and I was looking forward to, you know, getting a gig at a professional sports team, minor league team, and then, after graduating and going through a few internships, I realized that I mean, I still had a strong passion for health and fitness. I mean it's been a part of my life since I could remember, you know, even when it was just my parents forcing me into recreational sports, like there's always something about it that I truly enjoyed.

Speaker 2: 2:59

Um, and I had an awesome opportunity to work for a sports performance team back in Chicago where I was there for two seasons working with primarily hockey athletes, but they, honestly, they really helped instill the discipline and attention to detail and time management of being a successful coach. I mean from, you know, kind of putting in the sweat equity, of being the guy coming in to the facility first making sure that things was, things were clean, mop like mopping the floors, weights were put away. Well, I was taking care of the uh, the nitty gritties. Before I had the opportunity to work with athletes and, of course, getting my certified personal training degree at the time, and after working with them for two years, I was looking for that next step for myself. I wanted to find a company that was, I'll say, for top of that luxury fitness club category. The first thing I did was apply um over to Chicago and from there I was going to say the rest is history, but where would you like me to go on from there?

Speaker 1: 4:45

I like how you build up a book of business in Chicago, and, as a 23-year-old, what was that like? And you used a great word prior you said you learned the entrepreneurial skills. So entrepreneur, you have to put your own skin in the game, investing your own money, whereas entrepreneurial, you're helping build that great brand of Equinox, and I agree with you completely. I don't think there's a better gym out there 107 plus locations, and just the overall quality and way that Equinox presents themselves. And if you look at growth, there's rumors that they could potentially be going public. You're getting into the hotel space and so there's just magnificent growth going on there, and so you were able to get in there at 23,. Grow a book of business. Let's talk a little bit about that entrepreneurship at the Chicago one, and then we'll, you know, transplant over into Miami.

Speaker 2: 5:34

Yeah, for sure. I'd start with kind of giving you that backstory of working with that sports performance company and they really helped give me the set of skills and foundations. Going into working at Equinox is again uh, 23 years old, tier one coach. There were incentives right off the bat around, you know, certain uh like ramping incentives for a trainer to build up their business, and I was able to use my prior experience with sales with just the basic discipline of showing up, being present, knowing how to hold a conversation and not being intimidated by whoever it was that was at the gym, because you know the way I looked at.

Speaker 2: 6:24

It is like in every individual in the gym they are excelling in whatever business industry that they're in. When you're here at the club, you are almost as if you know, entering my domain where I'd say, if there are any, you know, if there's anything that I can help with and assist with and give tips and tricks for individuals, that's where I can provide my value and, as a 23-year-old, that's the way I went into it. Business at first took a little bit of time for me, of time for me, but I mean I had a great, great managers, training managers that I had a chance to work with that gave me some good feedback and ways I can apply myself better. When it came to really just and knowing how to speak about the value I have to offer individuals, kind of the results that they were looking for, which helped me ramp up, I'd say, to a full-time trainer within the first seven, eight months of working at Equinox the Loop.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Yeah, it's super impressive and can I mean? You've probably noticed the industry has a common folly where people will say it's super saturated. But you hear your background, you have a passion for fitness, you have a sports background and then you get a degree in kinesiology, sports management, and then you also have an internship under your belt and so many trainers come in with a textbook certification, what we call level zero, and then they're like okay, I'm now qualified and they're so far from having that. If you were to compare, you interviewing an Equinox first, one of these textbook trainers, you have three, four years of experience and confidence with you. And so why do you think so many trainers and talk to? Have you seen a lot of trainers go through Equinox and quit? And why do you think that is?

Speaker 2: 8:26

Kind of like you were talking, like you mentioned earlier, with the textbook certification coaches that are now going into the industry. I think there needs to be a I mean honestly, just the understanding of like, why is it that you wanted to get into this industry to begin with? And I think a lot of individuals going into industry are, they're going in with good intentions. A lot of it does revolve around wanting to help people. Now, with that being said, you should be, you should have that opportunity to help people, while also not being exaggerating here but not being broke. So knowing the exercise physiology component is one piece. The business aspect and knowing how to sell yourself is also an extremely important piece, because you can be the smartest exercise phys whiz out there, size fizz whiz out there. But if you don't know how to build a business, then it does become stressful to some capacity and then if one isn't willing to adjust or learn on the fly, then that's where I've seen people just change industry or try something new and go a different direction.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Absolutely. I mean, those are the three biggest, most important skills that you don't learn in a textbook and I talk about that in my book, and it's your people skills, your trade skills and your business skills. And sales for some is daunting, but when you have confidence in your product and you know the value in yourself, you're just having a conversation with someone and I think a lot of people get hung up with the fact that, oh my God, $150 per session, that's so much. But the clients you're working with this is pennies on the dollar. And so then you stuck around COVID hit, and then you decided to transfer over to the Miami one. Now those are pretty two different climates. Right there You're looking at cold as shit in the winter in Chicago and then you go to sunny all the time in Florida. So would you say, the clientele at both of those gyms are pretty parallel, or what were the differences there? And then let's talk a little bit about the tier X aspect.

Speaker 2: 10:34

Sure, yeah, demographic similar, yet different due to just the lifestyle and like living, like the environment that we live in. From being in chicago and miami, and the similarities were you know, chicago, the loop was a corporate gym, it is in a corporate area, so it was individuals that were very timely, walking in with their suits, changing to work out, then changing to go back in their suits and go back to work. They were analytical, assertive, they knew what they wanted and if they didn't, then conversations that we had to figure out what it is that they wanted and, uh, going from there, whereas here in uh, my location specifically, with coral cables, um, still individuals that are very successful in their industries and what they do with, I feel like it's a little more lax, which I think could be attributed to the incredible weather that we have down here in Miami for almost 98% of the year.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Absolutely. I mean, it's very similar to San Diego, but just different, and lots of opportunity in both. They say that LA, miami, new York, the three biggest markets when it comes to personal training. And when you reflect and you look at trainers that have a challenging time making it, what are some of those things that you notice? Whether, if it's lack of confidence, lack of credentials, maybe they don't look the part? Where is the industry lacking on why these trainers aren't making it?

Speaker 2: 12:07

I mean all of those could potentially be checking off the box of why someone's not making it. I lean on. I mean, I feel like I lean really heavy on understanding why I do what I do, kind of like my values and beliefs within the health and fitness industry, and knowing that if this is something that I really want to be good at, what are the other components that I need to work on and strengthen to be as successful in this industry as I can? Kind of, like I mentioned earlier, with the sales, like the business side, when it comes to building value around continuing my education within business sales, exercise, physiology, nutrition, regeneration all these components to help continue to add value.

Speaker 2: 13:00

And I think and it could be a lot of variables here, but it's dependent on how open-minded and willing a coach is to learn, whether it's from a textbook or another coach or their manager, but then also applying it. So we talked about, with textbook certifications, like you're reading all this great information, like you're reading all this great information Now, the way to truly digest it not just to digest and absorb, but retain it is to apply it, whether it's a NSCA certification, whatever certification is, if it's in the fitness industry, if it's on business sales tactics. It's great if you read it, but if you're not applying it, you're. I don't want to say you're wasting your time, but I could see why individuals would be getting frustrated with why they're not seeing change.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Yeah, I mean, I was just talking to a kid earlier today and he said that he got his certification. He did his NASM and I'm like, right, you got your level zero, great, now it's time to level up and start practicing. He's like I think I'm going to get my specialization, I'm going to go get a corrective exercise and go get nutrition. It's like you're wasting time because you got to get in the trenches and start learning how to communicate with people, because the last thing your client wants to know is that they're overactive in this or some type of lingo that doesn't apply to their goals. They want to move better, they want to feel better. Like you said, a lot of the popular, depending on where you're at, obviously, but the market where you're at with Equinox, they're assertive and they want that confidence. And these are business professionals and you need to have that business sense as well.

Speaker 2: 14:37

Exactly. Yeah, no, and it's a common variable here. When we get through level zero and we think that we're already experts and it's almost, maybe there's a closed-minded approach that goes in. It's like you know, I know this stuff, let me just keep learning where it's. If you truly like, continue to push through that knowledge curve, you'll realize that's like oh, I actually don't know anything. This is just a tip of the iceberg and I need to continue to refine what it is that I want to do. And it's really throughout the years of being a coach where I've noticed kind of my how, my philosophy of what my philosophy of training is, and how I apply that to myself and how that reflects on myself and how I apply that with the clients that I work with as well.

Speaker 1: 15:28

And how that reflects on myself and how I apply that with the clients that I work with as well. So you did a great job moving up to. You know the ranks from Chicago to Miami. Now if you could go back and give Jacob a couple pieces of advice, like little shortcuts, like Mario star, you could skip a couple levels. What would those pieces of advice be for the younger, newer trainer?

Speaker 2: 15:45

What would those pieces of advice be for the younger, newer trainer? Familiarize yourself with the business of what makes a successful coach. For example, I was going to say choose the variables of what's going to help your business grow. Find your strengths, use those strengths and, along the way, refine some of your weaknesses and make them stronger, but really hone into your strengths. For example, I knew that I was really good in working on the floor at the club.

Speaker 2: 16:25

When you start, you're put on floor shifts. You have no business and it's honestly giving you an opportunity to show face. Keep the weight room photo shoot ready and it gives you a good opportunity to, one, have members watching you do work and, two, to establish relationships with the individuals that you see every day. That's where majority of my my business came from was just showing face, always coming in with the mindset of like I'm coming, like I'm doing this right now because it's giving me an opportunity to, as I mentioned, check off those boxes of building rapport, showing face, helping our members and making sure the club stays photo shoot ready.

Speaker 2: 17:15

And I think for any other coach, it's what is it that you're really good at? And then apply yourself to that. And if I was just to peel back another layer there. I think I briefly touched over it, but it's the kind of the mindset of what you're going in, when, on the days where you don't want to do a floor shift or you don't want to go, you know, talk to that individual. It's just like a, just like a day in the gym. There's some days you walk in and you're like gosh, darn it. I really don't want to be here right now, but you did get your butt in there, so you're going to do something right, and doing something is better than doing nothing.

Speaker 1: 17:54

It's all about showing up, right? You still got to show up.

Speaker 2: 17:56

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 17:56

It's interesting because I've talked to and consult with a lot of trainers and the mindset, like you're talking, is a lot different, where when you have a sports background, you can't go into every single game expecting to put up 60 points, and in trainers it's like they'll go through and then maybe they do five, 10 assessments. They don't sign them up and then you just start seeing them kind of tail spin down where, if you put it into perspective, it's like it's part of the game and you just have to get back out there and ask great questions, keep on smiling and remember why you're doing this. You're passionate. So are you in the gym training regularly? Are you taking care of yourself? Because a lot of times when we aren't, we can go down that negative, toxic route. And then we got to look at opportunities to help people, because that's what we're doing.

Speaker 1: 18:36

So all great piece of advice there. And I like to get into the business side, asking, like for you win a round table Equinox trainer and all of a sudden you're at a high-end steak restaurant with mr harvey, the ceo. What would be a question you want to ask him? What would be like that conversation that you'd want to, you know, get more into, because I'm sure that you see a lot from being around trainers, being around managers, and then there's that disconnect a lot between the upper management and the trainers.

Speaker 2: 19:09

Yeah, I mean, that's a. That's a good question. I think you know if we were sitting at that steakhouse waiting for my ribeye to come out sipping on, who knows what I'll be sipping on. But my, my question.

Speaker 1: 19:22

Some wine or some whiskey. What would it be? Whiskey with steak? Oh yeah, bourbon's great with steak, okay.

Speaker 2: 19:28

I'll take your word. I'm not too familiar in that area, but I'm going to try it next time.

Speaker 1: 19:35

Okay, harvey's paying for it. Ask for some Pappy Van Winkle. It's only a couple hundred bucks a drink. That's fine.

Speaker 2: 19:43

Ready for it? Yeah, a question I'd ask him is I feel like it'd be a two-piece question around you know, what trends has he seen? The luxury fitness industry as a whole and what component of equinox are they putting their manpower in and, and what areas are they not putting their manpower in, and why?

Speaker 1: 20:10

I like it. I like it. So, with the ending thoughts, if you were to foresee in the future, five years from now, within Equinox, without Equinox, what are some things that you would like to start dabbling your toes in, because you've done great in Chicago, done great in Miami. Now you're moving up the ranks, you're at the tier X, but then, when those next steps, whether it's going to be management or you know, where do you see yourself?

Speaker 2: 20:33

Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, right now I'm definitely taking advantage of having an opportunity to doing some continuing education or doing some, yeah, continuing education for our younger coaches at the club, wherever that may lead, who knows? And that's kind of the short-term additional activity I've been doing here at Coral Gables. But that's a good question. Right now I am figuring that question out myself.

Speaker 1: 21:11

It happens All great coaches you get these forks and you hit one with the COVID and they gave you a great opportunity to adjust and you pivoted. Well, now you're doing well there, and then another fork comes along and you start looking at okay, well, where do I want to be five years from now? And you know what do I like and things that I've learned from this position that I can carry on to other stuff. So I really appreciate you taking the time today to chat with us about the life of the trainer at Equinox in Chicago and also Florida. Where can people find you.

Speaker 1: 21:43

I'm sure you get this before, but your doppelganger is the guy from Galaxy of the Guardians. What the hell is that movie, galaxy of the Guardians?

Speaker 2: 21:53

Yeah, guardians of the Galaxy, there you go.

Speaker 1: 21:56

I like it. You have a great Instagram, so make sure to give him a follow. What's your Instagram at?

Speaker 2: 22:01

It's J-A-K-U-B underscore S-I-Z-Z. Love it.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Well, I can appreciate you taking the time to educate our followers and hopefully we'll be meeting you soon when we get out there to Florida. In the meantime, just keep on showing up and kicking ass, my man. Have a good one.

Speaker 2: 22:19

Thank you, chris, thank you.