The Show Up Fitness Podcast

How to start your own Personal Training Business - From Crunch to Life Time w/ Anna

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 273

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If you’ve ever passed a certification and still felt lost on the gym floor, this conversation will sound uncomfortably familiar—and surprisingly hopeful. We sit down with Anna, a Cincinnati trainer who went from textbook confidence to real-world clarity, trading fear-based assessments and complicated plans for simple, effective coaching that clients actually feel.

We start with her early days at Crunch, where 30-minute sessions exposed the limits of memorized protocols. Moving to Lifetime changed the trajectory: peer-led discovery sessions, floor observations, and direct feedback sharpened her coaching lens. Anna explains how learning by watching seasoned trainers, then being corrected, built a skill set no chapter could deliver. That shift is the throughline of the episode: master core movement patterns, keep programming competent and flexible, and use your freed-up attention to connect, listen, and guide.

From there, we dive into building a business without gimmicks. Anna breaks down a client-first model: start in a rented space, create clean discovery processes, charge with confidence, and build a referral network with physical therapists and chiropractors to keep clients safe. We also take aim at common industry traps—like misusing the overhead squat to scare people into buying—and outline a better standard: test only what you’ll retest, train what the goal requires, and treat psychology as part of the program. You’ll hear practical scripts, mindset shifts for pricing, and a clear plan for standing out in a crowded market by doing the quiet, expert things most skip.

If you’re a trainer wrestling with imposter thoughts, or you’re ready to go independent without getting overwhelmed, this episode gives you the blueprint: simplify, collaborate, and show up. Subscribe, share with a coach who needs it, and leave a review with one action you’re taking this week.

Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world!

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

Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA
NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

SPEAKER_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 showofffitness.com. 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. Hi there, everybody. Welcome back to the Show of Fitness Podcast. Today we have Miss Anna from Cincinnati, and we're going to talk about the certification process, training at great gyms like Crunch and Lifetime to starting your own company. Welcome to the show, Anna.

SPEAKER_00:

Hi, Chris. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

So why don't you tell everyone how you came across the belt buckle trainer and how we're helping you progress in your training life?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So like most people originally when I started training, I just Googled, you know, best CPT certification. And ACE and NASM came up. I went with ACE. I was certified within a few months and I started working at Crunch. Long story short, uh, after a few years, I realized I just wanted more education. And I found the show fitness podcast uh because I was struggling with imposter syndrome even a few years into training, um, and came across you talking about that and listened, signed up to do the SQF courses, and I've been in that and really appreciating my education so far.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. And I wanted to dive a little deeper into that. We were in Sacramento this last weekend at our seminar. We'll drop the next one, Dallas, next weekend, the 21st and 22nd, and back to the OC in December. But there was a couple of girls that were doing their SWIFT analysis, and it was great because we were talking about the fear of failure. And it was a really cool conversation because they were like, Oh, it's not just us, it's guys too. And I'm like, that's a it's part of the game. And I think the fear of failure is kind of wrapped up in that whole imposture phenomenon because you know we are working with people, but unfortunately, a lot of people will just get a certification and they're kind of like, okay, where's my next guidance? Who's gonna be my mentor? And you were lucky enough to get into a crunch, which are great gyms, and maybe you had some good management, maybe you didn't. Maybe your trainers around you were great, maybe they weren't. We don't know where you're gonna be. And so then you left to another crunch and went to Lifetime. And so, could you kind of talk about the environments, the differences? Was it one more sales focused? Was one more trainer focused and education? I'd love just to hear your side on the difference between those two gyms.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And I definitely noticed a big difference. I think there are great trainers at each of them. Um, but I do remember the first time I actually stepped out onto the floor at Crunch, and I was like, shoot, I have to work with an actual person. It's not just a textbook that I'm reading anymore. I memorized everything, I knew everything, I passed it pretty easily, but I'm working with a real person now. Um, so all of a sudden I was realizing, okay, these assessments aren't really cutting it. My programming doesn't really make any sense for a real person. How am I supposed to their 30-minute sessions at crunch? How am I supposed to do this in 30 minutes? Um, I have I was so confused I didn't know how billing worked. Um and yeah, again, I I think I came across confidently. So it's not even necessarily the fault of a manager or another PT not teaching me, uh, but I was faking it. I I really didn't know what I was doing. So um fast forward to when I started working at Lifetime, um, I really, really appreciated working there. So they had they have understood the value now of actually taking trainers out on the floor and seeing how they train first before they'll just advocate for your training. So I was required to train each of the current trainers and take them through a discovery process. So they asked me to do that and then they took me through theirs. I didn't do that with every trainer, but I got to see how much training styles varied, how people asked different questions. And I was finally working with actual people who knew what they were talking about and could correct me where I was wrong, which I was dying for. I needed to be corrected in so many ways.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. It just when you think of it, I like using a cooking analogy. So it's very common you go to a gym, you tell them you're great at making pizza, and what they say is great, okay, it must be good pizza. Now go out there and feed people, and you're like, whoa, uh uh, is my pizza even good? Did I do it right? And right. So the process where you you get to watch other people do it who've been doing it for a while, and you're like, Wow, oh shit, they did it this way. That's really neat. I'm gonna take that and put it into my toolbox. And I'm oh, I actually didn't like this. You may not tell that trainer, but that's an interesting way, but I'm not gonna use that. So you can kind of take what you feel is good, you can push aside the stuff you don't, and then you're able to, you know, work on building your book of business. And so then you you're at get some good experience and career capital at those gyms, and now we are at a point where we want to start our own business. So let's talk about what's going through your mind, maybe some of those fears that are representing themselves. And is that how you kind of were thinking, like, okay, I got to get recertified? I'm I'm I recognize that the process in the beginning reading a book didn't really do too much for me. So you're smart and you're like, I don't want to do that same thing. I'm not just gonna go get my NASAM CPT now because that's not gonna do anything for me. So you had that the intellect to be like, okay, I need to talk to people, I need to be able to work through these problems, and I really want this to be successful. And so you're going through the program now. And what are some of those things that you're feeling and thoughts and aspirations when it comes to your own business?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so um, and I appreciate the compliment. I was not smart though. I thought so many times about doing a NASM certification or the ISSA. I was like, something has to give me something different. Um, but it was not the case. So I've I eventually got there. Um, that podcast was really helpful, genuinely. Um, so, anyways, yeah, I am super excited to start my own business. Um, but I was running into the same problem of thinking about my past experience when I started at Crunch. So when I was a beginner in that, and I'll be a beginner again at starting my own business. And I thought about how crushed genuinely I would be if I heard from any of my prior clients that they felt like I wasted their time or I wasn't giving them a valuable product. And so that was my number one focus when starting this business is that I will not at any point, even as a beginner, give somebody an unvaluable product. They're coming to me at a super vulnerable time in their life, and it's really critical. So if somebody's coming to you and they are ready to make a change or they're thinking about making a change in their health, I feel it is our responsibility in the healthcare professions that we need to be ready to respond to that properly. Um, and so I was intrigued by your podcast. I started going through some of these courses now, and all of a sudden it's clicking for me. So I'm seeing, okay, here's an outline for programming that makes sense. I know why we do it this way. I know why this outline exists. So now I'm not too focused on programming. That's a breeze for me now. And I can really focus on client care. And then the other thing that really stuck out to me was making connections with other healthcare professionals in the industry. So chiropractors, uh, physical therapists. Now I'm able to refer clients out when they come to me with an issue that really is not mine to take on. Uh, because again, they're at that critical point and I never want to lead them astray. So now I'm sending clients out to other professionals that I totally trust. And that has been a huge difference. So I feel really confident having people come to me now.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel for the clients, the trainers in the beginning who spend a lot of time with the program, it's not a knock to them, but it's really how they just come in because they'll spend hours trying to come up with the best program. And I can only sense from being a third party the interaction with the client because the client can definitely feel like you're not in control of this. And so, what happens when we're thinking, we have those ants, we all have those automatic negative thoughts. Is this the best program? Is this the right exercise? We're going through a mile a minute, all these scenarios, and we're not allowing for, as you said, the professionalism, the people skills to really show. And ultimately at the end of the day, your clients want to be safe, but they want results, but they want to relate to another human. And if you're all caught up in your head thinking about should I do an RDL or should I be doing a single leg RDL? I don't know what's the right best exercise. Your clients can sense that. So when you when you know programming, you know, okay, CCA, I'll throw this in there, you're confident with that, then you get to ask the questions and you get to get to know them on a personal level. And ultimately, that's what they're buying. They're buying another human connection, not the best program, because there is no such thing. But if you're confident with the programming, then you let your true colors come out.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. I definitely have seen that to be true.

SPEAKER_01:

So your big vision is to have your own spot in Cincinnati. What would you like to see? Five years from now, you are the master trainer of Cincinnati. What does that gym look like? What does the environment feel like? Talk to me more about that.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I like that question. Yeah. In five years, um, I would love to create my own gym space. Um, and I want people when they walk in to just immediately feel really comfortable. So they can take all their guard down, um, and they're just there. Like you said, they're another human making another human connection. And we're both there working on being the best versions of ourselves that we can be. So that person comes in, they feel really excited and confident. Um, it's not intimidating. I think sometimes you walk into a gym and there's equipment covering every square inch of the floor, and you're like, I don't know what to do with that. So it's not intimidating. You feel educated and empowered when you walk in that you could walk into the door and even see, okay, I could even make the workout for myself. I'm not gonna, I don't even have to be totally reliant on my trainer for this. Um, so that is kind of the experience I would like somebody to have.

SPEAKER_01:

And so I I I really appreciate your process as well because I feel like it's it sets you up for a lot more success where we get caught up in our head and we want to have a gym right away. Maybe we get something too big, we get really overwhelmed. So you're starting out in an independent place where you're gonna be paying maybe 20, 30 bucks a session. So you can really get your feet wet and experience what it's like to run your own business. You don't have a manager telling you, hey, you got to hit 25 sessions this week. And by the way, you got to hit 200 hours in supplement sales, and you also got to do this and you got to clock in. You can just kind of do your thing to feel what you want to feel for when you open up your own spot.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. That's true. And um, it can be intimidating to start out, but again, I feel like nothing's more intimidating than starting out training for the first time ever, just going out on the floor. So now I can kind of tackle anything.

SPEAKER_01:

Were there some case examples that you can reflect on in the beginning where you could give yourself that advice? So the new trainer that's listening, what would be that advice that you would give to those trainers who are just beginning? Maybe it's at a crunch or a YMCA.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, definitely. Um, I can think back to um this uh woman, she was in her mid-40s, not a ton of experience, really no experience at all with strength training. Um, and I was caught up in that cycle of what is the perfect program? Um, how do I bring in all of these complicated elements to this person? Um, and I look back at that specific client and think, okay, she was not ready for this perfectly scientific, exactly how she needs it program that um takes up honestly too much of her energy at that time, doesn't really motivate her to come back. Um and I would say, okay, simplify it. Let's look at these core movement patterns, which you go over several times throughout this course, the core movement patterns, let's get those down so that again, she feels confident that she doesn't need to rely on a trainer her entire fitness career to understand what she's doing. But she starts to have this baseline working knowledge of what it means to be healthy and moving. Um, and so I would love to empower her, go back and say, hey, here's the basics. We're gonna work on these basics, get really good at it, and then let's get complicated. Let's have fun getting complicated, not be overwhelmed, scare you, never step into a gym again. And that way I hope that woman still walks into gyms. But I feel like I could have set her up better to walk into a gym herself and work out on her own.

SPEAKER_01:

So it sounds like we've worked a lot with women in the past. Is that who you're gonna be focusing on in the future?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's my primary target audience. I love working with women. I think they go through so many different stages in life, you know, um, pre- and post-natal work, menopause, um, a lot of autoimmune issues that we run into. And I love those complex cases.

SPEAKER_01:

What are some of the things that you would consistently hear struggles, whether if it's more nutrition, is it more psychological? How did you provide that value? And what were those questions that they were constantly battling?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, that's a great question. Um, yeah, a lot of it was uh just a mental block for people. Um, they're walking into the gym, generally already defeated. There's a lot of complications when it when you are a woman with any type of health issue. So you're seeking out all these different answers and you're like, hey, maybe this will finally be the thing that fixes it for me. One, can I get healthy? And then two, can I also look good while I get healthy? I feel like that's a very basic train of thinking there. So, and the answer to that would be yes. Yes, let's get you healthy and then let's get you feeling really confident about how you're feeling, also. So, yeah, working with women with autoimmune disease or throughout pregnancy and postpartum.

SPEAKER_01:

So I wanted to dive a little deeper into the imposture aspect because it's very common and people will definitely experience it at one point or another. What were you experiencing when you were going through that? Was it negativity? Was it you know confusing because all the stuff you see on social media? Can I do it? I'm not good enough. What were some of those internal dialogues you were having?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, you kind of hit the nail on the head with all of that. So I'd have consistent negative thoughts. And I mean, this was really distracting to working with clients too. It wasn't just that it was affecting me. I think it affected um people I worked with and my clients. Um, so yeah, I would consistently think um, there's no way what I'm doing actually is valuable to this person. Nobody would, and this is so difficult when you're trying to build out your books and you're trying to sell your personal training. If you don't believe in it, if you go, oh, okay, I charge, you know,$75 a session and you're cringing when you say it because you don't think it's really that valuable, why would somebody buy a session for$75 if you're telling them with your body language and which it with your voice that it is not worth$75? There's no reason to, but people are smarter than that. Um, and so I had so much doubt going into that. I had so much doubt of how much value it was. Um, and yeah, as I look back, I think there were points in my education where I was lacking, and there was probably a rightful lacking of confidence there. But now going through SUF, the these the CPT course here, um, I'm seeing, you know, it's actually a lot more simple than we make it. We make it a lot more complicated in our head, all the things you need to know all at the same time. Um, but you learn the basics and then you get complicated from there.

SPEAKER_01:

Again, I'm gonna go back to my cooking analogy, but I I think it makes sense for people. And like you're talking about with the program, we try to simplify it, but not to degradate or downgrade the information, which is very valuable. And when you have the foundation as a great chef, which we are, you're in the program, you're listening to this, you're a great trainer, you're a great chef in this analogy. You're not gonna stay up at night thinking, well, what is that next client gonna order? You're just gonna sit there and you're gonna smile and say, What do we want today? I really want a steak. You're not gonna go give them uh a spaghetti salad. You're not gonna give them something that's completely irrelevant. If someone wants a steak, you give them a steak. What do you like with your steak? Do you like it well done? I like it well done. You're an idiot. Why would you ever eat that? I don't eat it like that. No, you would never do that. Great, let me go get that for you. You bring it back in a timely manner, you engage with them, you ask great questions, and then you get a tip at the end, which typically is gonna represent how well you did. And I think that can be tough for trainers because we base so much on that first assessment. If they say no, it's too expensive, you're like, shit, I'm not a good enough trainer. Clients gonna sign back up and they're gonna go, oh, you know, the holidays are coming up. Uh, let me touch base with the end of the new year, and they never follow up. And so they ghost you. And so the internal dialogue, those voices just get louder and louder. I'm not good enough. I can't do this. How am I supposed to care for my family? How am I supposed to make money doing this? And so when you can, you know, check off the boxes of making people feel good, the results come when you implement good workouts. Not great workouts. I don't strive for perfection or great. Get the workouts to be proficient so they're happy, they're moving well. If pain is in the equation, as you're saying, you have the right team members. Well, you know what? I'm not quite sure what's going on with your knee. And I'm gonna have you go check in with Doc over here because I want to make sure that everything is okay. We get in this to help people, but yet it's almost like we're not allowing ourselves to help people properly because we're so much in our head. Put that guard down, go out there, network with the right people, and the word of mouth in your community will start spreading around because people are looking for great trainers. And it's unfortunate that so many people quit. But when you go through and you have a good community where you can ask questions and you can get those doubts smashed because when you're going through a big conglomerate and you have a question, you don't get asked. You can't go to ACE and say, Hey, I have a question about my programming, can you help me? They might get back to you in a month. And so, what does the average trainer do? They go online to a Reddit or a Facebook group and they say, Here's a scenario, can you help me? And then it's even worse because now you have 15 people telling you, do it this way, do it this way, do it that way. And you're like, oh man. So when you actually speak to a real person, it helps a lot with building your confidence. Not imposter syndrome with starting a business, but it's kind of similar where when you started training, you have these doubts. Now you're starting your own business. What are some of those thoughts that are going through your head and questions that you have?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's a great point. So one I would say a big question that keeps popping up in my head is okay, why would they come to me versus anybody else? And I think I have my own personal feelings about that. Like, yeah, I think I work really well with this current group of people. But yeah, that that question always pops up in my head, like, okay, am I really offering anything different? There's, you know, hundreds of gyms in this area. What am I doing that's going to be different or better? Um, and and so why would people come to me? Um, do I really have a right to charge this amount of money, X amount of money, whatever it is, um, for you know, programming, for nutrition? Uh, and then I I try to remind myself, you know what, this is one of the most valuable things you can invest in in life. Um, and I try to think about how if I were working with a trainer, so I ask them, you know, one-on-one, like, what do you charge? What are you gonna offer me? All of those questions, you go through the discovery process. Would I find what they're offering to be worth it? And do I offer that to people? And I have to remind myself the answer is yes, but that question always comes up in my head. Am I offering something actually valuable?

SPEAKER_01:

A statistic that I have in my book, 90% of trainers quote within the first couple of years. And you are one of the trainers who didn't follow to that statistic. And so you are an anomaly. Now, when you look at the landscape and you reflect with the trainers at Crunch and Lifetime, you're not saying you're better than them, but at the end of the day, why should someone come to your gym versus their gym? And when you reflect and you look through what they did, most of them are going to do the same exact process. They read a textbook, they almost create this sense of false confidence where they're overly confident, thinking they know how to train everybody, maybe because they're in great shape. But the difference between great trainers and the average trainers, great trainers understand the human body. And that's something that's really important to know is that when they're in front of you, you have to think if you don't work with me, you're gonna go work with a trainer who's probably gonna be cheaper. And what happens when you go work with a cheaper trainer? You're probably gonna get hurt. I know I'm the best trainer in Cincinnati. You have to believe that. And if you don't, you say it a hundred times a day. You look in the mirror, you wake up, and that's your mantra. I'm the best trainer in Cincinnati, I'm the best trainer in Cincinnati. Because if you're not saying that, another trainer is. And that trainer is having your client doing some weird shit on Bossu balls, telling them to eat 1200 calories and oh, you got to do this or that. And there's no practical scientific approach, it's just random shit. And so the more confidence that you are going to experience is with being around great people who are doing that, going back to that cooking analogy. If you want to be the best chef, how do you become the best chef? You don't go to fucking Taco Bell, you go and you surround yourself by the best chefs, you see what they're doing, you go back and you implement it into your environment, and then that's how you're gonna grow. So the imposture phenomena is really common. And it's almost like you just have to let those voices do their thing. And we're we're getting into Christmas time right now. One of my favorite movies is Home Alone, and there's that scene when he goes down into the little dungeon and the fire comes up and he loses his shit. But then he came, he got to a point where he's just like, shut up, not anymore. And that is like that Neo moment where you're able to say, those voices are normal, they're there, everyone's in their head, but it's knowing that you are going down that right path. And you're you're a very smart cookie because I can tell you're already talking about finding medical professionals in your community. And what you're gonna find by doing that is these professionals who are really respected, they don't have trainers reaching out. So you can come back and go, wow, I'm afraid, which is natural, that why not go somewhere else? But I now know by networking with these individuals that no one else is doing what I'm doing. And so by having those conversations, you're gonna see, wow, I know that I'm doing the right thing. And my clients are getting the results and they're feeling good. And they're they're showering me with those compliments because they are moving better and feeling better. And more importantly, listening, where I'm not just showing random exercises, I'm helping them from a psychological standpoint, but also that physical side as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that is really encouraging to hear. And I think that's definitely the process that just everybody has to go through. It's like this basic thing where for some reason we all don't believe that we're good enough. And at a certain point, you have to decide, okay, am I? Because I gotta act like it now.

SPEAKER_01:

And again, when you compare this to like sport, it's easy to say, I'm not good enough. And then you go up there and you hit a home run. You're like, oh shit, I am. Now with training, it's a little more challenging because you could sign up a client for 12 sessions, but you still have that doubt. Like, am I gonna get them results? What if they don't sign back up? Are they gonna tell other people? And so the process is long term. It's like we're planting a field, and that seed is not gonna sprout in a couple of days. It takes time and you really have to nourish it, and it's going to happen. You have to tell yourself that because I'm confident in your skills and I know you can make this happen. And your clients are better off working with you than a trainer out there who's just studying a textbook. And so that's really how you separate yourself. You could have a client in front of you and they're gonna say, I'm gonna go meet with a couple other trainers. And you say, Great, I think you should do that. But let me urge with some caution, when you're looking at other trainers, make sure you dig a little deeper into their credentials because the average trainer, they just read a book. They don't have a physical therapist, and I'm looking out for your best interest. So if they put you on a stability ball or BOSU ball, or if they have their NASA certification and they're trying to scare you with an overhead squat, I'm just looking out for your best interest and preparing you for what the industry is like. And so that I cannot tell you how many times here in Santa Monica clients will come back and say, Holy shit, I went to another spot. I wasn't trying to bogard that client by saying you have to work with me. I said, No, go out there, try it out. I'm confident in my skills, knowing that I'm the best here. But I set them up for success. This is what you should look for. And if they do this, if they're trying to scare you, you can't get your arms above your head with the overhead squat, you're gonna get injured. That's not true. So be aware of that. And then guess what? Your confidence will grow significantly because your clients will start getting results.

SPEAKER_00:

Agreed, yeah, and thank you. And I love the overhead squat analogy too. Um, that has always made me laugh. I had one of my first clients, they came to me um pretty convinced, or one of my first clients at lifetime, sorry, and they came to me pretty convinced that they had some serious issues because a trainer had previously told them uh they couldn't do the overhead squat properly, and a trainer had told them it was an issue with their Achilles heel. Um, and so they couldn't squat at all. And so again, that was a situation where we're like, okay, I'm not really sure. Let's refer you out though to a physical therapist if they thought they saw an issue with your Achilles. Um, they saw that physical therapist for an initial exam, and the physical therapist said, There's no problem, they just haven't done an overhead squat before.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so great. Where in that case, I'd be like, Oh, I totally understand. When was the last time you did an overhead squat? And the climate never be like, it'd be like doing a sport for the first time, you're gonna suck at it. So understanding movement, let's come over here, let's put some wedges behind your ankle, let's not have any load and let's just see if you can squat down. And guess what? You can do it, but we're not gonna be putting something over your head because that's not something we're gonna be doing. My big push with the overhead squatter and the FMS stuff, if you want to do it, that's fine, but you better retest. And trainers don't do that. If you're gonna show someone they're not competent in something, you better test them again later on and regroup to show them they're getting better. It'll be like me giving a bunch of grade schoolers a test that they've never prepared for, and then I never test them on that again. Who the fuck would ever do that? No one, you're scaring people, so then you can sell them. And then when they sign up with you, guess what? They don't get results because you scared them from the get-go. When you're pro movement and you say, Okay, you're afraid of squatting, I understand that. We don't have to squat. But if someone scared you from squatting, I can show you that you are capable of squatting if you want to squat. But your goals are A, B, C, and D. I can help you get there, even if it's not through squatting.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And I think uh going back to your uh cooking analogy, you know, to be to make a great dish, you have to have the salt, fat, acid, and heat. And so it's again going back to those basics that are really foundational. And so I know show-up fitness, um, you guys touch on that all the time, the core movement patterns, getting those down, but then you adjust it to a real person. And that's kind of what differentiates using just an ace textbook to going to this, is that now you're saying, okay, this person, um, they just want to be able to pick up their grandkids. So now we're gonna practice movements where they're hinging, they're squatting, and they're picking up a heavy weight. Um, and that's what they want to do, and that's what you adjust for and adapt for.

SPEAKER_01:

And then that same client comes back with that smile that is just contagious. And they say, I was, you know, during the holidays, I picked up my two grandkids and they weighed 60 pounds, and I never thought I'd be able to pick up one. And then that's when you know you have a client for a long term, but also they're gonna tell other people how impactful that was.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

What are some questions you have for me? And anything before we call our day?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, um, I am curious. Uh, what was your experience? Did you go through impostor syndrome? Did you feel burnt out at any point? What was your experience kind of going through starting your own business?

SPEAKER_01:

Great question. I think that everyone experiences fear or imposture in different ways. I have that background with my pops being a psychologist, and he'd always tell me, turn that emotional pain into physical pain. And so, whenever I was caught, and I've had a lot of difficult situations, one being we got fined from a competitor, and that was a$125,000 fine where we almost went bankrupt. But what would complaining do? What would pointing a finger at everyone else saying, poor me, poor me, you have to act on it. So whenever I get that anxiety, which is normal, I get into books and I work with more mentors. And so whenever I'm stuck, I'm thinking, okay, what am I listening to right now from a podcast perspective? Because I drive a lot. And there's something that's cool when you're listening to a podcast on Ellie, uh Larry Ellison, and he's talking about the struggles that he had and he built a billion-dollar company. You go, wow, I guess it's not just me, it's very common. And what that does, it kind of builds up your confidence that stuff that you're going through right now is normal, but you also need to take a step back. And if you've been doing this for a while and you haven't had any hurdles, maybe you need to put yourself into uncomfortable situations because those hurdles are what really make people better. How you figure out those difficult equations. And so I've been blessed to be around a lot of great people. So when those times come up, I almost can preemptively feel it and be like, you know, something's going off right now, whether if it's our CPT or our corrective uh courses that we have, whatever it may be, maybe I need to make them better. I'm going to reach out to some people preemptively and get that feedback and always trying to be ahead of the curve. But when the time comes to be reactive, you need to be reactive. But I think one of the biggest things I've learned is to be proactive and to get your ducks in a row and surround yourself with great people. We have a really great team, great instructors, great people on the back end. And it's nice knowing that I don't know everything, but I have a team that we can get the answer. And I think that for new trainers, those voices are really loud with imposture because you don't have that team. It's like you get certified, you go into a gym, and you're all in the same playing field. The trainers who are more senior, they know like, oh, we got this new buck in here. They're not going to make it because statistically, I've seen so many trainers leave. It's just a revolving door. And you could probably attest to that at Crunch and Lifetime. You probably saw a lot of trainers leave. And so then you're just like, I want to be different. And you become different by surrounding yourself with people who are really, really good. And burnout is something that is it can happen. But again, I I've always used my past. And that what they say is history doesn't repeat itself, human nature does. And instead of allowing myself to get into the you know, Debbie Downer and allow those negative, toxic feelings take over, I'm gonna say, okay, I know this is gonna happen, so I need to work out. How are my workouts right now? When was the last time I read a book? Who am I meeting with Ray Group? Maybe I need to go schedule an appointment with a therapist and just get some different energy in my life. And so I give myself a pat on the back in that regard, is I've always been pretty good of sensing that burnout could be coming. And so I try to be more preact uh preemptive to make sure it doesn't take me down.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I really appreciate you instilling that in your students right now to be proactive about creating those connections because I think you're right, that's huge. Sometimes uh you need to get out of your own head. Uh, you're thinking all these thoughts, and then you got to stop and be like, you know what? Maybe I'm not that different from everybody else in the entire world. Everybody else is thinking this way. I do need different energy. So yeah, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01:

And that goes back to what we said earlier with that Swift analysis. That's something why we do it every month, we do it every quarter, every year. I think it helps with this process because that trainer, I will probably never forget this. Her look when she looked at me and she was like, Oh wow, other people experience that. And so, what that does, it really just builds up your confidence because those thoughts can just wreck you. And most importantly, what we don't do in those times is act. And so we allow for that negativity to paralyze us. And so then when you hear other people talking about, you know, I have a fear of failure, I'm not smart enough. I'm not good enough. I don't think I'm in good enough shape. And you're like, wow, you're in phenomenal shape. You're getting yourself, you're in your head over that. And like, wow, that's awesome to hear because it normalizes those thoughts now.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I thought that about so many trainers that I worked with at Lifetime that were so great. And then I heard that they weren't even sure about themselves. And I was like, oh no, you're you're great. You're doing fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Where can people find you on social media?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so my Instagram is Anna Catriel A-N-N-A-K-A-T-R-I-E-L. And TikTok is Anna underscore tassel.

SPEAKER_01:

And if you don't mind, would you be comfortable sharing the name of your gym? Your business?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. So yeah, my business is stronger with Anna.

SPEAKER_01:

And where is that going to be?

SPEAKER_00:

I'll be renting out space at uh P3 Fitness in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I'm also online training.

SPEAKER_01:

Love it. Well, thank you for your time. And remember, keep showing up.