The Show Up Fitness Podcast

LIVE Ep. 252 How to get hired at EQUINOX w/ Top Eq Trainer Meghan in Santa Monica

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 252

Share episode

Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why!

Want to get hired at Equinox? Show Up Fitness CPT has helped get more trainers hired at Equinox than any fitness company. Learn how to ace the interview and get hired at the BEST gym for personal trainers.

Breaking into the elite world of personal training isn't just about looking the part or having a textbook certification—it's about strategy, confidence, and genuine expertise. Megan Gilbert joins us to reveal how she transformed from a Show Up Fitness intern to Equinox's top trainer in just three months, eventually charging $200+ per hour while others struggled for years to reach full-time status.

Ever wonder what really happens behind the scenes at luxury fitness clubs? Megan pulls back the curtain on what it takes to succeed in high-end gym environments, sharing candid insights about everything from the initial interview process to managing difficult conversations about pricing with affluent clients. Her story demolishes the common belief that trainers must "pay their dues" at budget gyms for years before moving upmarket.

What's particularly fascinating is Megan's revelation that despite being relatively new, she quickly became the go-to resource for veteran trainers who lacked practical knowledge about training clients with injuries or discomfort. This speaks volumes about the gap between certification and real-world competence in the industry. She also addresses the unexpected challenges of burnout, unsupportive management, and the mental barriers many trainers face when valuing their services.

Now channeling her experience into a new book, "How to Get Hired at Equinox," Megan shares actionable strategies for accelerating your personal training career—from negotiating with clients and creating different pricing tiers based on referrals to avoiding the toxic mindsets that hold many trainers back. Whether you're just starting your fitness career or looking to level up your training business, this episode delivers a masterclass in b

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!

Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/showupfitnessinternship/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@showupfitnessinternship
Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Personal Trainer Book (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Personal-Trainer-Successful/dp/B08WS992F8
Show Up Fitness Internship & CPT: https://online.showupfitness.com/pages/online-show-up?utm_term=show%20up%20fitness
NASM study guide: ...

Speaker 1:

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'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.

Speaker 1:

Today we are live in Santa Monica with Miss Megan Gilbert, from Colorado, but born and raised pretty much in Nebraska. We're excited to talk about the life of a trainer at Equinox. But before we start, we want to create a new little style to this. So I wrote Megan a lovely card that I would like for her to read. If she cries, it's bonus points. There's a little gift in there. Everyone that comes on the show to show up, you will get a nice little gift. So I packed it full with some money in there and we'll talk about the significance behind that. But, megan, the mic is yours. Read the card and make it uncomfortable.

Speaker 2:

I feel like you're trying to make me cry. Okay, megan, you are a phenomenal trainer and even more spectacular teacher. Your journey has been nothing short of inspiring from show up fitness, cpt and internship to becoming the top trainer at Equinox with three months till within three months, so now charging 200 an hour, soon to be 250. What I admire most is not just your rapid rise resolve, but the gravitas and precision you would. You bring to everything. Your attention to detail has sharpened our show fitness teaching modules and made the program oh it's hard to read, so it's so hard to read.

Speaker 2:

He has doctor's handwriting very poor handwriting, so do the best you can um, better, and you've taken the bull by the horns and elevated our standard through both intellect and initiation, a rare and powerful, powerful combinations. Now we just to find you a cowboy. I know that's wait. Who's what is that? As you are, what does that mean? That's the thing about Megan.

Speaker 1:

She's an erudite. She likes the vocabulary, so I always put a couple vocab words in letters that I write to her. Underline them so she has some homework. That means that you're attracted to the brain.

Speaker 2:

No, that's facts. No more beta LA boys. I'm proud of you.

Speaker 1:

So many betas down here, but that's okay. We are very fortunate to have you part of the team and the forgotten art is letter writing, and so one of the things I like to do at show up is, when you come on the team, I like to write you a little letter, and it's more of a new thing that I'm doing but for the in-person trainers, and I give them what I feel their worth is, and when we first started telling the story about the first letter that I gave you and how much I put in there, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So he gave me a letter that had $200 in it and just to get me comfortable with charging $200, when I was at Equinox I think the most I charged was $145. And I remember telling Chris that I got my first client out of Equinox and I charged him $150. He's like you can charge them $200. I set a goal like you should charge them $200. Within a few weeks I got my first $200 client, which I wouldn't have done unless you would have pushed me to.

Speaker 1:

It's not about how much you're making per hour, but we strategically put our gyms within a three to five mile radius around Equinox lifetime. The clientele can definitely afford it. And one thing I commonly see is when trainers leave, they charge less and what I think that does is kind of internally it's like well, I'm not as good as the brand on my back. Yeah, sure, you may be making more, but your value? You really need to understand that it's not the brand on your back. In my opinion, if you're a great trainer, you go out there and you charge what you're worth, because nothing wrong with charging 40, 50 bucks an hour. But at the end of the day, if you can charge 200, 250 plus, you don't have to be working 5am to 10pm, which so many trainers do, and unfortunately they burn out because they're not able to make enough. So there's a little intro.

Speaker 1:

This is technically season three. We're going to add some new stuff in here. I'm going to do a breakdown of companies, which I'm enjoying doing some research. I just did one on NASM, and it's an unbiased research, looking into how it started, where it's at now, the ubiquity from their marketing. Fly SUFCPTs out, those that are doing wonderful, as Miss Megan has, and then just kind of talk about the story leveling up the audio. Thank, mr Kevin. He kicked major booty over at Equinox too. We are.

Speaker 1:

You know, the proof is in the pudding. You can get hired at these elite gyms with the SUFCPT where a lot of trainers they'll get a textbook cert and if you want to go to Lifetime or Equinox you got to go to a lower end gym like an LA Fitness anytime, nothing wrong with those. But you got to spend a couple of years getting those stripes and it's almost like a rite of passage that our industry unfortunately accepts, like you have to go to the lower charging gyms for a couple of years and then if you make it which is challenging because you're not making that much money then maybe you're going to get on over to Equinox. But Megan's done an amazing job. I think we have about 10 trainers that have gone through our program here that are working at the Santa Monica in the greater LA area, equinoxes, and that's all. Compliments to her and the great job that she's doing teaching trainers with our in-person.

Speaker 1:

But I really just wanted to talk about the flow of becoming a personal trainer for you and what it looked like to get hired. We'll talk about that process. Some tricks to the trade and you know, congratulations, because you have a really neat presentation that you're you're going to get out there. It's a lot of not that many trainers can say that they've written a book and you're going to be launching your how to get hired at Equinox. So let's talk about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I am going to be launching my book within the week. It's how to Get Hired at Equinox and then also how to Get Full Time and then also kind of working on the ants the automatic negative thoughts that a lot of new trainers do happen to have, like imposter syndrome, stuff like that and I just tell my story and then everything I did. I was able to go from zero to full time in about three months, which was very impressive. I was telling Chris that a trainer who's worked there for over a decade he was telling me it took him a year and a half to get full time and I don't think it's impressive or exceptional. Really, I think a lot of people, I think it's completely doable and honestly, people could probably do it faster than I did it.

Speaker 1:

And again, it's not to say that toot your own horn, but it's pretty impressive when you go to a new gym and you're able to ramp up, as they say you're a ramper and you did. You have some really cool stories that we'll we'll dive into, with trainers coming up to you for mentorship because they're like what the hell, how do you know this stuff? And it's kind of it kind of starts with the fundamentals, so how'd you come across? Show Up.

Speaker 2:

I came across Show Up through YouTube. I was studying for my NASM and everything I read that I just didn't understand. I would just put that into YouTube and I would be like I'm going to grasp this so. And then I found Chris teaching on YouTube and then I realized he has an internship and he had a NASA study guide, and so that's kind of how I found Show Up.

Speaker 1:

That annoying personality, the belt buckle trainer. I know I either hook some of you or some of you just are detested from me and that's okay, that's all right. But she took the leap of faith and you came to our in-person. You got certified, so kind of take us through what that interview process looked like. So your resume was great because you have a great background with working with people in the military. Again, thank you for your service and you were able to bring that into your people skills.

Speaker 1:

You talk about being an introvert and some people will use that almost negatively, but you used it to your advantage. So what is it like to get hired at Equinox? What was that process like, from resume to submission? Who do you talk with? I know it's not the same today and we always have to state that we're not working with or for Equinox. This is not any proprietary information or anything. We speak very highly of Equinox and Lifetime, but we're going to be pretty straightforward and just tell you how it is and things that you liked and things that maybe you don't like, because you were there for three years total.

Speaker 2:

Just over two years. So let's start. It's a little bit different than it is now, because I had a practical interview, but I had one phone interview and then I had two in-person interviews and then I had a practical interview where I took a trainer through a workout in front of the two hiring managers and, oh, as well as show fitness with my resume.

Speaker 1:

They did help me build my resume, so, thank god it's pretty crazy to think about our profession, the low entry standards. You read a book and now we're not even seeing if the proof is in the pudding. It's like, okay, you look the, you looked the part. Okay, we need a girl, let's bring her on. They don't even check out your practical aspects anymore and I know that some lifetimes do it 24 in LA Fitness not so much. It's just kind of like come on in and there's 110 almost plus equinoxes.

Speaker 1:

So obviously I'm speaking from the ones I've been to and the managers who we know. I've been to over 40 of them. Lifetime has 180 plus gyms. And I'm speaking to the management who I know, because I do know there's some managers out there that will do more of an arduous practical part. I was talking to a hunk at one of the Texas ones who's the manager, and he actually has the trainer go out on the floor, prospect someone and take them through working on the spot, or prospect someone and take them through working on the spot, and I love that. I think that really would eliminate a lot of the trial and error because essentially what happens is you get hired and then you have a month of doing EFTIs.

Speaker 2:

It's like three weeks to a month that you're doing just onboarding.

Speaker 1:

And that's just a video on watching someone telling you oh, this is what this is, and you're like oh, I pretty much already know that.

Speaker 2:

And then you have to get the FMS and the Equifit, et cetera. You have to get basically cleared before you can train anyone. So that's when you get hired, so let's go to.

Speaker 1:

If you can remember that first call with one of the recruiters. They're probably asking you what are your strengths, and you know, miss America stuff. So tell us what some of those questions are and how you prepared for it.

Speaker 2:

Oh man, that was so long ago. I don't even know if I remember the question. I just remember being so excited that they offered me the job. I'm being just shocked because I did not think that they were going to actually offer me the job or the interview.

Speaker 1:

In my book, Volume 2, there's a whole entire chapter just going through the types of questions you should prepare for, and make sure to do that in front of a mirror. I highly suggest putting your phone, recording it and then watching it, printing out the transcript, seeing if there's word fillers. Smile, be prepared punctual. It's the little things that they're eliminating. You'd be surprised at a two o'clock appointment on a Tuesday and the person calls in five minutes late, or they don't answer the call. They say oh, I'm sorry, I was driving, it's traffic. It's like no shit, Sherlock. What do you expect? So it's those little things, because you're not working with average Joes and Janes. You're working with people who, statistically, are going to be able to make a decent amount of money at these gyms and they're professionals. So they want to be working with professionals and the clientele may think they're working with professionals, but the process isn't necessarily the most arduous. But they called you in and you did the practical so you could at least talk to that. And what?

Speaker 2:

that was like the practical. I swear was the only reason I got hired, because I was so nervous during my first two interviews that I had with the managers. I was stuttering over all my words and they had me do the practical interview and I trained one of their trainers who'd been there for about five plus years, and I only trained them for about 15 minutes before they called me back in the office and they're like You're good.

Speaker 1:

And what did you take him through when you did it?

Speaker 2:

The only thing I remember doing is actually I do remember I did like a band pull apart whole warm up and then I took him through pull ups, goblet squats and then I did like a trainer engaged plank variation. That's the.

Speaker 1:

CCA right there.

Speaker 1:

If you implement that you're going to be good to go. And then they brought you on. You go through a couple of weeks of onboarding, as you said. But one of the amazing things I think that you experienced was how common it was for trainers who've been there for a long time that were kind of lost and when it came to programming, when it came to how to train clients who had shoulder discomfort, knee discomfort, they kind of just take a completely different approach than what you were taught in school, Kind of just take a completely different approach than what you were taught in school oh, 100%.

Speaker 2:

After I got to my three-month mark and I got full-time, I went from, kind of like, those first three months of me asking other trainers how to do something. It just switched where the trainers who've been there for years have been asking me how to train someone who has knee discomfort, knee pain etc. So it was just like a switch and I'm like, oh, I actually do know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1:

Because you're kind of spoiled. You come through a program where you're hands-on every day learning this stuff. You get asked questions. You don't know what the industry is like. So then you get hired and you're thinking that everyone's kind of on the same playing level. But then what you find is it's not necessarily that level. But then what you find is it's not necessarily that. It's not to say, obviously you're on this high horse, but we've been doing this for a while.

Speaker 1:

I've been a trainer for 20 plus years and our internship and CPT program is the best. I'm a little biased, but when you actually go through there and we teach you soft tissue techniques because now you get all three of our certifications with the in-person nutrition, soft tissue and certified for life you're really prepared. And then when a client comes in like I have shoulder pain or shoulder discomfort, Okay, let's screen you. Let's do this. Okay, let's do some soft tissue, Let me need some red flags. Okay, Do some of this stuff. And they're like Whoa, I want to work with you. And then take that black amex out and you're like Whoa, Holy shit, Like that was impressive. What was one of the largest transactions that you had over there?

Speaker 2:

Oh, oh, it'd have to be 48 sessions. There's so many different sales pitches you can do. There's way too many, so I picked two. You could either train with me two times a week and do the subscription. Well, three times a week and do the subscription, or you can pay for a 48 pack. I believe the 48 pack was either 55 or 6K.

Speaker 1:

So the first time you see those numbers that's a lot of money, especially coming from military salary You're thinking, wow, that's five grand. They just pay you up front. So what, what's going through your mind when that first person you pitched them that and they said, yes, they wanted to do it. Like what Cause? I know a lot of people have. Like you're saying those ants.

Speaker 2:

what's going through your mind at that time, if you can recall, I had to constantly tell myself and I would give myself like positive affirmations before I would do an assessment, and one of them was this isn't your wallet, right? I'm like you don't have this kind of money, but they do a year, and I was like they can afford this. And just being confident about it, and then, assuming the sale, I was like why wouldn't they want to train with me? Right?

Speaker 1:

And just that confidence helped me so much no-transcript, much as 350 plus, and they're not blinking eyes Yet at not even a mile down the way. Their most common excuse is it's too expensive. So my question to that is is it really too expensive? Or did you just not listen, were you not empathetic? Or maybe you just weren't fun to be around? And so talk to me more about your, your introvertedness, and how you use that to your advantage.

Speaker 2:

Oh man, I was terrified. I had so much gym anxiety and I just. One of the reasons is I saw everyone training and nobody was training like me and that I just like I would literally go outside and train my clients because I didn't want other trainers to see me, because I feel like I'm doing something wrong, which funny enough, looking looking back on it. But one of the things I did, especially with floor shifts where you have to go out and kind of clean and then also prospect clients I just I did not want to talk to people on the floor. I was so scared because nobody wants to be sold on the floor and that's kind of the job you're doing, but I mean the inner introvertedness. I did have to really force myself and talk myself through it, but it ended up being something that really helped me with clients, especially one-on-one.

Speaker 1:

I'm great one-on-one, but we just had a student come through here kind of similar situation that maybe they're a little intimidated to go out there. So what would be that advice you would have for that new trainer? And it's like you're not sizing up the other trainers and comparing yourself to them, but you have to realize they're in the same shoes. You can definitely learn something from them, but the most important thing you need to be is present and be out there. Where I've been to numerous equinoxes and I see so many trainers distracted on their phones. They don't. They're not very, you know, resting bitch face, resting dick face. These people just don't look friendly.

Speaker 1:

And if you smile and you walk around and not just clean up the gym, there's nothing wrong with that, but there is a maintenance staff for it and they they have a lot of money to pay people to do that stuff. And I'll see trainers that are just meticulously making sure everything is aligned and so I'm wondering, through the viewpoint of the client, do they see you as a trainer or do they see you as a maintenance staff? So why not walk up to someone who's on a bench press or a squat rack or whatever it is? Make sure they don't have their headphones on and their their hoodie and they're looking down. Don't make it weird or be that pestering person, because how many times has that person been transactionally pushed by a trainer? Probably a ton. So there's already this pushback initially that you're just trying to sell.

Speaker 1:

But if you focus on the give, give, give and you're just introducing yourself, hey, how's it going? My name's Chris. Hey, how's it going? My name's Megan. You need a spot? Let me know. You don't have to correct their form and make them feel bad on the spot, but form and make them feel bad on the spot. But what were some of those things that you did that allowed for you those conversations to open up and get them into the equal fits?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, one of the ones actually is that we had two benches at the Equinox Santa Monica location and I would, as people were benching and they were like struggling for that last, like one or two reps, I would like go over and like kind of assist on a spot. I wouldn to touch the bar if they need it, and then after the site I'd be like oh, I knew that you had it, but I just wanted to like make sure, and that's kind of like one way I started a conversation and I got actually like a few clients from doing that.

Speaker 1:

So easy Just being present and don't touch the bar. They'll yell at you, I know, but that's great, it's just being there. And so you have your floor shifts. You were quickly able to ramp up. And then let's go through what it was like to be full-time and what was that schedule and how much money were we making? That's the most important part, right? I'm just joking.

Speaker 2:

Well, the first few months I said yes to every single assessment I have. They'd be like can you train at 5 pm? And I'm like yep. And they said 5 am, yep, I took everything. My schedule was very much like Swiss cheese. It was all over the place. But as soon as I got full time I was able to kind of condense it to where I was training at like 5 am to like 1 or 2 pm, which was nice. And then the biggest paycheck I got, I think one month I got like $8,500 or like $9,000. I kind of forget at this point.

Speaker 1:

But that's take home too. So you know you're bringing in 14 or so, and then yeah, so that's after taxes.

Speaker 1:

Right. It's like Dr Galpin said. I did a podcast with him and he said in the beginning the answer is always yes, and I love that, because you'll hear some trainers like oh, you got to set your schedule and I was like you're missing out on an opportunity. Sure, you want to, you want to go from nine to five and have that perfect schedule, but where are your reps at? Have you been training anyone and everyone? That's a rite of passage that you're going to get to be able to do later on. Or, like you said you, your clients trust you, they know that you're great. So you can say you know, frank, actually, instead of at three today, I have an opening at 12. Do you want that one or do you want tomorrow at eight? So you can kind of look at your your week and set it up for your schedule and your clients will respect them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I feel like a lot of personal trainers at least going into the industry, they think, oh, these are the only hours that I can work, or once this is part-time and that's not really how it works. Like you have to grind, especially at the beginning and the most. I think I was doing around 160 sessions a month for the first, like for like two years straight.

Speaker 1:

I was grinding it out. Yeah, shout out to our boy, mr Carlos. He was our number one SUF CPT. The first person gets certified. And I love his stories about taking on clients who like, yeah, I want to be here at 5 am and they'll be like, oh, there's only two people available, or one person it's him over there. It's like that's when our clients want to train 5am, 6am, 7am. There's a trainer in Lifetime. Today she was at the gym at 4.30 because that's when her client wants to get there. It's like great, that's an opportunity to train and make some money and help someone. So it's like you're going to wake up early. You're probably going to go to bed late. Are you going to do that for the rest of your life? No, but that's given to you and you'll be able to definitely make it work in the long run.

Speaker 2:

A hundred percent.

Speaker 1:

So then you've been training. Did you hit that quote unquote burnout that everyone talks about? And then what did you do to overcome it or adjust the new schedule moving forward?

Speaker 2:

I did hit burnout a few different times but I was just grinding for so long Like this is kind of like what I have to do right now. And one of the reasons I ended up leaving was because I was one of the top. I was like the top trainer and I wanted to reduce my sessions because mental health burnout, I just I couldn't handle everything. And the managers I've had some amazing managers but the last two managers that I have were not supportive of me trying to you know better myself and just taking a step back for even just two months. And I was, like I have, were not supportive of me trying to you know better myself and just taking a step back for even just two months and I was like I have to leave because I got to put myself first.

Speaker 1:

That's a tough one because, being on the other side of the equation, from the business side, you want your trainers to do what they love to do, which is train, help their clients, and so if you have a team of five and your top one is kicking ass, it's very easy just to kind of let them be. You think that you're giving them space. In actuality, as I've learned and I've made lots of mistakes and I figured out, hold yourself accountable and don't let that repeat itself. But there's so many times where they don't get checked up on and it's just a simple little hey, how's it going?

Speaker 1:

Wanted to go grab coffee with you and check in with your mental health, see how you're doing, and unfortunately, depending on where you're at, it's easy to get lost in the weeds, because it's a big-ass gym. You know 170-plus sorry, 110-plus Equinoxes. How many managers are there? You have two, and one's taking care of the rampers, one taking care of the numbers up top, and then you have your district manager and they're getting nailed by that manager who's getting nailed from that other manager. It's the pecking order and unfortunately, when you start moving up the ladder, it becomes less about how you're doing and how your clients are doing and it's more about those numbers. I can't tell you how many times trainers will send me a rap sheet of the managers harassing them on. Get your numbers, get your numbers up, make sure to cancel on them and you got to get you know. Schedule that in there, or they don't have your iPad on the floor. You got to have your iPad on the floor. They micromanage, and so it's just.

Speaker 1:

It's frustrating because I'm doing my job, I'm bringing the gym a lot of fricking money. Where are my thanks? And my thanks are oh good month, Do it again. Oh great Good month, Do it again and they might give you a high five. Or if you hit a monster month and the team blows out 200 plus thousand in training and you're like, oh, that's great, what do you get? Do you have a team get together? And I'm sure there are some. But, reflecting on your two, three years, how often did you have team events where you were brought together because of the gym, not necessarily the manager, taking the initiative to look out for the trainer's wellbeing?

Speaker 2:

We had. We had these things called PT forums, where every month everyone would get together, they buy us lunch and then we just go over numbers. Or we did good, bad, like where we can improve, but outside of that we didn't over numbers.

Speaker 1:

Whether we did good, bad, like where we can improve, but outside of that we didn't really so there's something to give them some credit, but you know, what would you have liked to seen done better? Reflecting back, and I always like to say you know essentially what could they have done to keep you around longer?

Speaker 2:

I wish I had more mentoring, because I ramped on so fast and once, once you get full time, they're just like hands off. They're like, oh, you're doing great, we don't need. And I just checking on me every maybe like one to two times a month, would have been amazing. And then also continuing education, because once you go through all of their education it stops, and that's another thing where I was like I don't really get to like learn more. And they also cap you in how much you can make, which I wish there was an option at Equinox where you could charge. If I can charge 200, why can't I charge 200, right?

Speaker 1:

And it's always funny because I've talked to managers in other places in New York and Florida and they'll say, oh, there is no cap, you can do whatever you want. But then I'll talk to other managers and they say, oh no, there actually is a cap. And if you look at the pricing it's like no, t-rex is the most you can do and that's 175, now I think 180. But that's interesting to hear, the checking in and that's good info for me, because as an owner and we're running our company I can always do a better job of reaching out to people and say how are you holding up? And I definitely get into that whirlwind of how can we move the needle more for more CPTs, because that's what's growing the business and you know, to be fair to the brand, equinox could have something in play where it's like okay, here's management, this is what you should be doing, make sure to reach out, but maybe that manager didn't do it and you never know.

Speaker 1:

And that's again the hard thing about top-down leadership is it's brought up to a meeting that the execs are having and they're going to say okay, so this is what we need to cover in this hour meeting and a lot of it is numbers-based, but then there's some stuff that we need to talk about trainer involvement and continuing education. So maybe it's on there, but it was not emphasized as much as okay, you're only at 100. Last year you're at 103. You guys got to get up there and it's push, push, push. So it's not easy running a business to that scale and there's just definitely a lot of top-down leadership where if you flip the script and you ask the bottom up, it's you know what are you trying to do. And it's like you said, I want to learn more.

Speaker 2:

How often were you guys doing? Here's to you, equinox. How often were you doing hands-on learning as a ramper? You do.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, continue education Did they bring in third parties and you learned from respected certifications and you know people out there who are like legit, like I want to learn from this guy or this girl. They're coming in every month, every quarter, providing for you guys to level yourself up.

Speaker 2:

No, but we would get emails like every few months where it's like if you want to get a kettlebell certification or you want to do, you know, prenatal, et cetera, and you still have to pay for it. But you get like a little bit of a discount or something like that. But after you get like your PN and your precision nutrition and then you kind of just decide if you want to be T-Rex or if they'll accept you into T-Rex.

Speaker 1:

But that's it. To give Equinox credit, I'm sure that there's numerous opportunities, but from what I've seen, I mean they have a relationship with PN, they have a relationship with FMS, that's kind of like their system, and so they're going to whatever the back end agreement they have. That's included. So you don't see that that's $1,000 of continuing education that they're providing for you, just like you don't see that how much the gym costs. I think it would be awesome for these bigger gyms to almost have a monthly or quarterly meeting with all the trainers saying, hey, okay, so here's how much rent we paid here, much we did in marketing, here's how much we paid these individuals and that breakdown Cause. Then you'd have a really good idea Like, oh, so that's why you're taking 60, 70% of it. Because of all of this equipment.

Speaker 1:

We had a student who was in our program and his dad and him. They contracted with Equinox. They were a mirror hanging company. Like, literally, he's brought in giant slabs of mirror and he would say it was literally hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the install. Because you think about it like you and I, we couldn't go in there and say, oh, let's put up this mirror real quick. It takes a professional to install that and so it's really really expensive, but the trainers don't know about it. Really really expensive, but the trainers don't know about them and they don't realize how much it costs to have branding customized for the weights. And I'm not saying Equinox is right or the trainer's wrong, but I think if there was clear expectations, that okay.

Speaker 1:

So if you hit this quota, here are three certifications that are out there right now that are the best out there. You got your soft tissue from show up. You have Russ and stuff. You have Justin and his stuff that he's doing right now Farnsworth, and these are the top five certifications. And because you're a top performer, we're going to fly out there. You can go to one of these locations. We're going to put you up for a couple of days and you even get paid for it. But you don't see that as much. And again, as a big business, you have to look at your bottom line. So I get it, because at the end of the day, if you go to your investors and be like, oh, so we spent $5 million on our trainers, I'd be like, okay, let's cut that cost, cause if we trim that fat, then the bottom line is looking better and then we're going to get more if we want to go public or something like that.

Speaker 1:

Who knows what's actually happened behind those closed doors. But what happens from the trainer's perspective is they get, um, almost a little bitter because they constantly look at their paycheck and they go well, shit, I'm charging 150. And when you look at everything, I'm only really bringing home maybe 60 bucks an hour. So I'm not even getting 50%, maybe exactly at 50. But what happens is they start thinking this client is here because of me and I should get everything and that's why you get this revolving door.

Speaker 1:

So after maybe a couple months, after a couple years, trainers leave. A lot of them will take their clients, and then what that trainer does is they leave and they start charging less. And I think that's the mistake, because again your self-doubt goes down, because you're like oh man, I'm not as good without Equinox on my back. And then you go out there and train it's really fucking hard to get clients my back. And then you go out there and train it's really fucking hard to get clients. So then you know 30% of your clients say they're going to go with you. A hundred percent are going to go with you, but 30% don't go with you. That's just a rule of life and I talk about that in my book because it just happens.

Speaker 2:

You have 10 clients.

Speaker 1:

Are you going to leave? I want to go with you. Oh my God, I love you. I'm here forx. And so then you're thinking, oh shit, I need to get more clients. How do you get clients? You were never taught those skills, so you know, um, you know, betsy, maybe if you know someone who wants to train with me, maybe you could uh, um, uh, maybe, uh, refer me. The clients don't refer you shit.

Speaker 2:

No.

Speaker 1:

And so how do you get clients? And then your paycheck starts going down and down and down and because you're like, oh shit, I actually had it pretty good over there, but that's not you. You took a step aside and you did it in a great way. You left with no bridges being burnt and you still have great relationships and can't even tell you how much money we've helped Equinox make from all the fucking CPTs we've gotten hired.

Speaker 1:

Not a single gift card or anything. Equinox I'm still waiting. You guys just take, take, take over there. But I get it. You're a big organization, did you get? When you left was there. Sometimes it was kind of pull the rug from you. Okay, you're leaving now just get the hell out of here, cause they don't want you to take their clients. What was that quote unquote breakup like?

Speaker 2:

No, I let my manager. I had one manager that I just could not stand. They just did not care about me or like who I was as a person. And then I had another manager who was just so great, just amazing. Whenever I talked to him he was very supportive. And I let that manager know about two months in advance that I was thinking about leaving. And then he let me know he was also thinking about leaving as well, and around the same time. And then I put my two weeks in and I mean, yeah, I asked for an exit interview, which they were like why would you want to do that? But I did ask for one because I wanted to, you know, kind of say my piece and I was not granted one. Oh, interesting.

Speaker 1:

Wow, so that's again one person, but that is always interesting and you would think that they would send you off with a. You know if you needed a resume or not. A resume, but a letter of recommendation. Did you get any gifts or anything when you left?

Speaker 2:

No, I got like some thank yous from like other trainers, but that's most I got.

Speaker 1:

And maybe a $5 gift card.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I got a $5 Starbucks gift card. I made it one year and the woman that did my phone interview, she sent me a letter and she was like congrats, you made it like a full year and I got like a little five dollar starbucks gift card I get it.

Speaker 1:

I get it and it's like, oh, you're being unappreciative. But it's kind of the same thing when I look at like venmo or uber and like refer someone to us and we'll send you five bucks, and I'm just like, fuck you five dollars. That's almost a slap to the face.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I did the math on because I went back into, like my projections, everything, everything, I and I did all the math for the first year I worked there and I made them well over $100,000. And I'm like a $5 gift card. I'm like at least maybe something to the like the gift shop or something.

Speaker 1:

but and that's the whirlwind that we're in today, because ultimately what happens is trainers will then leave, they go to independent spots and then they start working their way up. They want to get into teaching, so then they'll start doing some education stuff If they get opportunities. Not many trainers can call themselves a teacher of trainers like you, but you are now teaching trainers how to make it and really just expedite the process, because until it's fixed which I don't see at any time it's going to be fixed because 70,000 trainers come into the industry in the U S annually and 90% of them are coming from textbooks, and so that trainer is just going to keep on filling into that revolving door and they're going to go in there, they're going to want to take the clients, they're going to go out there and then they're going to change careers because they're not able to make it into a career, and that's unfortunate. But what we're seeing is you're able to expedite the process where you are competent and you earn your stripes, and then you're able to take that next step, whether if it is teaching or building your own brand or some type of supplement, endorsement or whatever it is.

Speaker 1:

But there's so many opportunities in this industry. Reflecting back, if you were to have a conversation with Megan on that first day, what would be some piece of advice that you would give her Whether, how long you should stay there. People to surround yourself with be careful of these people. What would be that conversation?

Speaker 2:

That's so funny. You mentioned that because I was about to bring this up. I would tell baby Megan not to listen to the older trainers, especially the ones who aren't full-time, because what happened a lot is those older trainers a lot of them were like played the victim or were very entitled to where they would. I'd meet them on floor shifts and just like to chit chat and they would say things like oh, like they should just be giving us clients, like I shouldn't have to do an assessment, I shouldn't, like we're not salesmen, like they should just be giving us a client straight away. And I kind of internalized that and I did play like the victim for a while and I'm like you're right, like they should just be giving us clients. I'm not a salesman, I don't want to sell, because that was the one thing I just did not want to do. And it took me like a little bit to realize like there's a reason that trainer only has like three clients and they've been there for five years.

Speaker 1:

Right and you fast forward that to a recent assessment you had here at show up. I really liked that because she came in and you pitched her your I'm $200 an hour and it wasn't a package, it was just like here's my sticker price, I'm 200 bucks, I'm not going to negotiate how many times a week you want to train. And she kind of danced back and forth and like, oh, maybe like one, 25, whatever. But then, if you recall that conversation, what was it like? How did you get her to train with you at $200 per hour? How many times a week did she say she was? What is she training with you now and what is that relationship like?

Speaker 2:

Uh, one of my favorite clients. She's just a riot, she's so funny. Um, sometimes she'll like forget to pay me and I'm always like, oh, you pay with your personality, Like you're just so much fun. Um, but what I pitched her at the beginning is she only wanted to train one time a week because she only could afford $200 once a week and, as we know, that's not great. I mean, one is better than none, but I want to be at least at two or three. So I let her know my all right. Well, what if I do $200, but we'll do 250, but you train two times a week, and then we'll do that for the first month and then we'll kind of increase the price and we can go from there, cause I really do think you know this would be really beneficial for you. Currently. Now she trains three times a week at my almost to my full 200 price.

Speaker 1:

So that's great, and you give her a little discount. And why do you give her a discount?

Speaker 2:

I do give her a discount because, oh, I think we're talking about a different client. But I do give her a discount because she does refer me other clients. Most of my clients do come from referrals. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1:

So it's that's conversations you'll hear from other trainers would be like how can your clients be paying a different rate? It's the service you provide and if you just set very clear expectations and you're very honest with them, well, the reason this client pays more is because whenever they want a session, I will drop everything and I'm going to make that a priority the professionalism and everything that comes with it, the accountability. They're getting that higher service, so that's why I'm charging them more. But I've definitely had clients that I'll charge between 200 to as much as 350 and they never talk. They never will talk, but it's the clear expectations and the conversations that you have prior, so they understand that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, normally your price is this, but here's some things that we can do. If you were to send in a couple of people who are paying at my new rate of 225, 250, whatever it is, then I'll keep you at this rate. I'll even drop you down a little bit. And the one that I'm thinking of, she loves to pay in cash and cash is king. So that's not bad to be making a couple of grand off of one client training them 12 times per week or 12 times per month. That's not bad.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have one client right now. I charge, I think, like 30 to 40% less than what I normally charge. I don't work weekends and then I don't work at night, but I train her Tuesday nights and I train her Saturday mornings and I also have her at that lower price because she's gotten me so many new clients and at that higher rate as well. But I do always let her know when talking about our training to other people, that she does pay like 200 plus dollars an hour.

Speaker 1:

And that's just a little tip to show up, because I always like to say we have some of the top end trainers out there that are charging more than 200 bucks and I think that's something to to go for the brand, where it's not to say it's about how much you make, but you are worth it. And you know, when you say it to a client and they go, oh no, actually that assessment was legit and I have worked with other trainers and the stuff that you did was significantly different, where this is more of a almost like a clinical setting versus you know, rah, rah, influencer style. So the value is there because of the professionalism and how you handle yourself when you take them through it.

Speaker 2:

And that's something I learned from you is just how to negotiate, and you don't have to sell someone if you know your rate is 200, 250 and they can't afford that. All right, well, let's see um post on your story us training, you know, three times a week, or every time you come in, give us a five star review, et cetera, something like that, to make it kind of like worth the difference.

Speaker 1:

There's a story I remember from a trainer here and I kind of have that tough love approach. I'm never like, oh my God, you did so great, you signed them up. But it was a referral. Not a referral, it was an inquiry from someone who said on their inquiry that they're coming from Equinox and so I set them up. She took her through the assessment and she said, oh my God, I'm so happy I signed them up for $150 and it's my highest paying client, so that's great.

Speaker 1:

Why did they stop training with the trainer Equinox? I said it was too expensive. So how much were they charging? It was a TRX trainer. It was 175. So well, did you ask them. And next time you can do this, what if you would have got the results would have been expensive then. And so she's like oh, I didn't, I didn't think of it, Cause she initially found out how much they were charging and she just dropped the pricing.

Speaker 1:

So if you get excited about the sales process, like I'm not deterred, charging X amount, and you just literally I want to know what's going on, why not? Why don't you want to get the best shape of your life? So when you pitch that rate and they go, oh, it's kind of expensive, which you don't hear. When you've been doing it for a while, then you kind of know your upper threshold. Versus what if you have 10 people in a row who are all paying 140, great, and they all say, yes, well, what if you could have charged 170, 180? Because 140 to a client who's making hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, per year, 140 to 170 isn't that big of a difference, but to you it is. So why not make more so you can put money aside for retirement and have that emergency fund that you should have 10%, 20% set aside for a COVID round two or who knows what's going to happen in World War III? It's like you can set yourself up for those rainy day scenarios. So why not make yourself uncomfortable? Ask for numbers that make you kind of scared. You get those butterflies. I want my client to go. That's kind of expensive. Yes, Okay, I know that's my upper level.

Speaker 1:

So what were you thinking when you came into Santa Monica to work with a private trainer and you smile and you look at them and you just wait and then they go. Oh well, I was thinking about going to his you know body fuck fitness over here and I'm going to do this group training. It's 200 bucks a month. Great, Go there. When you get hurt, come on back. I'll fix you up, Cause we've got a great team. We have doctors, physical therapists, RDs, and when that happens we'll take care of it and they go. Well, hold on a second, Hold on a second. Their their foot is still there and they literally lose their shit and they're not confident even asking for what they're worth. But yet we can think about times where maybe you go to Vegas or you go to Cancun, or you go to a game or Coachella whatever the hell you kids are doing today.

Speaker 1:

It's way out of your budget, but you went because you wanted to go. You saw the value in that. And how many times I always put girls on the spot. But how many times have you got a pair of shoes or a bag, especially in fucking LA? It's like how much did that bag cost? $5,000. It's like size of a little dog. What the hell? Oh, my God, it looks so cute, though. I love it. They saw the value in that. They made it happen. We're changing lives. We help people feel better, look better, better sex lives, promoted to work all these awesome things. We are changing people's lives. There's no value to that, and so trainers need to kind of level themselves up, and that's going to come from being competent in what you deliver, and you should have a process for pain management and assessing people, not scaring them with the FMS and all that bullshit. But we're not here to break down their assessments. I want to learn more about your book and how that will help trainers get hired at Equinox.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so one well one. I go through the whole process of how to get hired, your resume, what to say during the interview, typical questions they'll ask you, and then also just how to answer those questions, and then I go more into how to be full-time. So the floor shifts. Special events, really, how to optimize and get clients, and just different strategies that I used, and this is obviously geared towards the Southern California market.

Speaker 1:

So there's gyms all throughout New York and Florida for Equinox and Lifetime at least. But if you're at a smaller end gym, don't start throwing out $2 sessions, because if the monthly membership's 50 bucks, like LA Fitness, you're probably not going to be getting that. But also level yourself up and don't be afraid of that. No, you should almost be excited for it. You get that first. No, it's like okay, the worst thing is over. They said no. And you look at them. You're like, oh, that was it now. Okay, wow, I'm going to have fun with this. And what can I provide? Because why do we get into this to help people? And you have someone right in front of you who you can help and you just either maybe it is out of their budget. You got to find out what is in their budget. Okay, what were you thinking about then? You came in here today and if 1200 the waiter, you say what's your biggest meal? And they go oh, the surf and turf, it is amazing. And you look at the price and it's $204. And you're like, fuck that, you don't just get up and leave. You say, what else do you have? And they're going to give you other suggestions. You may land on the Caesar salad, but you're still eating, you're getting something, and so you have someone in front of you. You should get something out of that because you can help them. You have to understand you can help them and you can be deterred by looking at those set pricing that these gyms have. But your value is more than that, because that gym isn't necessarily teaching you all the skills that you know and unfortunately, people come in with not the best expectations from textbooks that they read. So double down in your education, get hands-on learning, mentorship, learn from people who charge significantly more than you.

Speaker 1:

I always say, if you're, especially at Equinox, go to the top trainer at your gym and say hey, guy, girl, I will pay you X amount under the table, take me through a workout. I want to see why you're so awesome. And if you offer to pay them cash under the table, yeah, the equinox would get mad if they heard that. But you're showing a sign of like okay, you're the head honcho here. So it's like you're giving them the range. You're not trying to piss on everyone. I see so many trainers come in and they're like oh, I'm the best trainer here and you had a case over there where there was a guy who came in and he's like oh, I don't need to learn that stuff, I already know everything. And he didn't have much of a background, and how long did he last?

Speaker 2:

Three weeks.

Speaker 1:

It's like you go I'm the top dog in here, but you haven't earned your stripes yet. And what happens? That's why most trainers don't make it.

Speaker 2:

It's going to be on Amazon and I'll link it in my Instagram bio.

Speaker 1:

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are coming to the end and I want to ask two random questions. One more strategic one compliments of Megan. If you could be any animal, what?

Speaker 2:

would it be, and why, if I could be an animal, or what animal I think I'm most like?

Speaker 1:

I don't need to get into the spiritual stuff here, megan. We don't need to take any weird drugs and have a trip, I'm just talking about next time. What would your animal be?

Speaker 2:

I feel like I'd probably be like a humpback whale or like a blue whale.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, see, that's why it's kind of a cool quote. Why the flying fuck would you want to be a humpback whale, 2000 pounds, in the ocean, floating around just chilling?

Speaker 2:

they're just like massive and they just chill all day. They don't really have any predators, they're just like. They travel a bunch. They go all over the world.

Speaker 1:

Fishermen who kill them and take them for so well I would avoid those areas? Obviously, obviously, yes, that's true. And what about a question that you would like to ask our next person on the podcast? Who's?

Speaker 2:

the next person.

Speaker 1:

That's what you don't get to know. Okay, any question, keep it. Pc, pc. You can get weird if you want to. This is like a professor and I'm like, oh, what's your favorite sexual position?

Speaker 2:

No, we don't do that. No, not this time. If it's Megan, I want to ask her. I would ask her my favorite question to ask people, but I don't know if this would be kind of related to the podcast or not, but their first memory of music. I think that's such a cool question to ask and, like I love people's answers, for that.

Speaker 1:

First memory of music I like it. Yeah. Do you remember yours? Yeah, I remember the first country song that got me into it was Alabama Dixieland Delight.

Speaker 2:

No way.

Speaker 1:

In front of my buddy's house and I was wearing a wife beater I remember vividly and I was rocking out our 76 Blazer. I'm like I could like this stuff. And you know when I was in high school, it was all Linkin Park and it was Eminem and the best rapper of all time and the best rapper of all time. Nelly. So I definitely remember that first country song. So I appreciate it, that's a great question.

Speaker 1:

I'll ask the next person on there and remember what are the most important things. Big biceps are better than small one. Megan, and keep showing up, yeah.