The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Six-Figure Personal Trainer w/ A Million Dollar Idea That Gamifies Fitness For The Sports Fan

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 296

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What if your most valuable product isn’t another hour-long session, but a community that people can’t wait to join? Today we sit down with a former PE teacher who turned a neighbor’s question into a thriving training business, then pushed beyond the ceiling of in-person hours to build scalable income without sacrificing family time. From the first $90 session to confidently charging premium rates in an affluent market, we get into the real math: exact client counts, monthly revenue targets, and the systems that make sessions repeatable, effective, and worth every dollar.

We dig into pricing strategy the way clients actually experience it—clear value, annual increases, retainers that stabilize cash flow, and the honest post-mortem when someone says no. We challenge the myth of overnight online riches and offer a grounded path: LinkedIn for lead gen, Trainerize for delivery, and coaching that sells outcomes, not app access. The heart of the episode is the Parlay Club, a clever blend of step goals, workouts, and point-doubling sports picks that turns accountability into a game. It’s sticky, social, and scalable—especially once it moves to a searchable Facebook group, adds tiers, rewards referrals, and features guest experts to deepen engagement.

Parent-trainers will feel seen. We talk about seasons of ambition, designing a perfect week before you sell it, and using the 11–2 midday window to build leverage instead of filling it with low-yield sessions. For coaches working with youth athletes, we map a route to clinics, partnerships, and grant-funded programs, and explain how a credential like the CSCS opens doors with athletic directors. The throughline is focus: avoid the octopus problem of too many projects and choose one lane to push hard for a defined period, supported by precise KPIs and a community that keeps you honest.

If you’re ready to raise your rates, protect your time, and build something that grows while you’re with your kids, this conversation hands you a playbook you can start using today. Subscribe, share this with a trainer who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest goal for the next 90 days—we’ll shout out our favorites on the show.

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_00:

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. And y'all, welcome back to the Show of Fitness Podcast. 30 days of podcasting. We are running strong 20 plus. Mr. T Lo, how are we doing? My man up in the Bay Area.

SPEAKER_01:

Chris, thank you very much for having me. Absolute honor to be on the Show of Fitness Podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Have a confession to make you're one of my favorite followers because you're one of the few that comments on my sports bets. No one else does. And that's how we have a banter. You're like, nice pick there, nice one. I realize don't I don't post all my losses because if I did, people would see that I'm just a degenerate gambler.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's one of my biggest vices in life as a dad of two little ones that doesn't go out anymore. So I always enjoy seeing uh your big wins and keep the losses at bay.

SPEAKER_00:

I know I took the paths last night, so I was happy. Yesterday was a good day. Saturday wasn't, but we don't need to talk about that. We're here to talk about trainers. We're here to talk about your success because you're you're doing a great job and your story is amazing. And you're listening to the podcast I did with my brother, and you can kind of relate because you are a PE teacher. And so let's talk about where you're at now, what happened during COVID, and the big thinking that we're going to discuss with the possibilities of incomes as a trainer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that sounds good. So I was uh my first career was as a middle school PE teacher and health teacher, as you alluded to. I worked at a private school in San Francisco for 10 years. Through that time, I taught PE health class, I was an advisor, and then I coached basically every middle school sport. It was an all-boys school, Pack Heights, which is kind of the nicer neighborhood of San Francisco. So after 10 years, I was I was um kind of ready to try something new. COVID hit, and my teaching schedule changed quite a bit. We were teaching from home for a little while. And during that time, I um I ran into a neighbor who happened to be a mom of one of the kids that I taught. And she said, You look like you've been working out. Would you train me? At the time I had no experience training. I had no, I had nothing essentially. I just worked out myself all the time. But I said, Sure, I'll train you. And uh immediately called up my buddy who's a trainer in Minnesota and asked, What do I charge? I had no idea what the what the rate was. And he was like, You gotta charge her something that's outrageous, something that you're scared of. He was like, At least a hundred bucks. And this is like five years ago, and I was like,$100, you're crazy. No one's gonna pay that. I uh I said all I asked her, would you would you be willing to do this for$90 a session? And she without blinking, she was like, Yeah, no problem. So that's kind of how the whole thing started, just with one interaction. Literally, she pulled me over on the street, and from there I started training her consistently. That turned into her husband. Long story short, I quit teaching and started uh training full-time.

SPEAKER_00:

Are you making more as a teacher or a trainer?

SPEAKER_01:

So when I walked away from teaching, I was heading into my tenth year at the same school. I remember my contract was just a hair under$100,000. And then I had opportunities to coach. Here in year five, I'm I'm I've surpassed that by quite a bit. So I think it was a good, a good uh decision to leave.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, for those that aren't familiar with the Bay, I lived in down there in the marina and Pack Hides, they would call Billionaires Row, because that's where all the the billionaires are. And I can only imagine, I mean, that's probably very similar to where a couple of my clients are. Their kids go to a Marina del Rey private high school, 65k a year. What is your what is that high school or that uh elementary?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so the I think the high school is now$60,000 a year, and uh the middle school, I want to say was in the 50s. So just crazy money.

SPEAKER_00:

And but when you think about it though, it's there's families that will have four kids going there. So they're forking out a quarter of a million a year in private schools. And and so this isn't a podcast today talking about taking advantage of people who make more, but I like training clients who, like you said, when you say it's 250, 300. I have a client that pays me 3250 per month and they don't blink. It's just like here you go, versus you know, chasing that client for a$25 session and they're saying, Oh, it's you know, this month I can't afford it. We have to realize that personal training is a luxury, but if you're a great trainer, you can provide that value where it is something that they need. This is something like their bills for clothing and their bills for food. It's like this is a requirement for their livelihood. And so, how did you come across show up?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so when I made the decision to change careers, I um was guilty of going with ISSA. So I bought the 700-page textbook. I dedicated hours each day to reading a little bit and studying note cards, and I think it was like chapter two. I was like, holy shit, I'm completely lost. I have, I'm so confused. Not like just reading it and then making it stick in my head was not working well. So I started supplementing with YouTube videos. I would read a chapter on whatever topic it was, and then try to get a visual. And in my YouTube research, this guy with a belt buckle with a big wig on, uh putting on a personality of like a I don't even remember, this is a long time ago. You don't do this anymore, but you were a personality, but the information was really good and really helped me put what I was reading and understand it in a better way. So I I found show up through YouTube, became an adamant consumer of all the YouTube videos, subscribed to the to the show up fitness um monthly subscription. I think that was like a hundred bucks a month. And I just consumed and consumed and consumed until I was ready to take the the ISSA test. But during that time you were still training though, right? At the time I was still training. I I only I was still teaching, so it was kind of a side hustle. And I had a very small amount of clients, just a handful.

SPEAKER_00:

And were you implementing the programming that you were digesting from ISSA?

SPEAKER_01:

So I think my very first client, I was a big user of the BOSU ball, which in hindsight is, you know, I feel like they should have revoked my training card right there. As soon as I came across you guys, what I what I I think the biggest takeaway for me was the CCA in terms of how to program. So in my experience, not only does the client really like like the consistency of what to expect in a session, but if your session's an hour, if you do a proper warm up, that those nine exercises take almost exactly an hour. So I really like that. It kind of took out the guesswork and just made the sessions run really smoothly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's just a nice plug and play, makes your life easy. How many clients do you currently have right now?

SPEAKER_01:

So at the moment, I have 19. Um, of those 19 clients, there's a couple groups, moms, groups, uh, couples. And then because of my history as a PE teacher, I continue to train athletes after school. So I'll train middle school at the high school kids. And that's typically in the group setting as well.

SPEAKER_00:

I can always give a really good idea and projection of where people are at in their career when you have a specific number. So like if I tell you I'm making 10K per month, it's kind of vague. But if I were to tell you I make 11,400, you'd be like, oh, he makes 11,400 because he's specific. I can't tell you how many trainers I consult with, and you know, they're looking for business advice and I ask them how many clients you currently have. And they go, uh, I'm I don't know, maybe like is that probably like 10 to 25 or so. It's like you don't know your business. If you don't know your business, then you're gonna have a really hard time of scaling and becoming a lot bigger. And so you've been doing this for a while, you've cleared over you know 12, 13k per month. And now you're thinking, well, what are those next steps? And so I don't know how the algorithm hears our thoughts, or maybe it's something that we're searching, but you said your feed's starting to get a bunch of business coaches who have a private jet behind them and say you could be making 60k a month as a personal trainer. And so that's how we originally kind of had a conversation. You're thinking, like, well, what is my ceiling? What could I potentially be making? And so were you searching specific business coaches, or what was your thought process and wanting to learn more?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So, you know, with as an entrepreneur, as an independent um worker here, there's no rules for me. I don't work at a box gym. So I can I can kind of explore whatever I want. Um, so as my book of business has gotten a little bit fuller, um, you know, you start to recognize the the natural progression in terms of bringing in more income is to expand your services. So I was exploring online training, and uh I don't think that I ever explicitly asked Google or Chat GPT for a mentor or you know, a business coach. But just in, you know, these days it's like you you say one thing in your house and the algorithm picks it up. So overnight, I feel like my my Instagram algorithm just was feeding me so many different business mentors of how to turn in-person training to online training and you know, making 20, 30, 40,000,$50,000 a month. And it honestly sounded too good to be true. But I took the plunge. I haven't I, you know, I have not invested in a in a business coach that exclusively works with trainers trying to go online. But I've reached out to some of the show up fitness community. I've reached out to Chelsea Rose asking her how she does it. Um, I've reached out to a few trainers that I know that are online trainers. I'm on trainerize now officially, which has been awesome to learn how to use that platform because I do think it has a lot of potential. I guess the big the big thing I've started doing is posting more on LinkedIn, which hits a different audience. And through those LinkedIn posts, within the last month, I've I've picked up three train three clients that I'm training exclusively online. So that's the start. I think that you know, sometimes there's frustrations and and how slow it takes to get clients, and that's where the the mentors and their advertisements seem more appealing. But then I reached out to you. I feel I like kind of view you as my my biggest mentor. And uh you were like, yeah, no, most of those are are not what they say they are, and it's kind of a bunch of bullshit. It's just a slow process. You just got to keep keep posting and keep doing what you're doing. So that's the approach I'm taking right now. Um, but yeah, just thinking about growth, I think that once the book of business in person is full, the the progression would be to start offering things online.

SPEAKER_00:

And I don't want to be a naysayer, but if it's too good to be true, and I know a lot of the top therapists and trainers out there, and I can think of a couple of therapists who have the pedigree and they're making like 30 to 40 K a month, and they have a huge following, they're teachers of trainers, and they're in the trenches. So then you have this whole world over here that says, oh, you can make 30, 40, 50k a month. But yet, how is it in my 20 years of training that I've never met one of these people who was making that amount? And so I just, if it's too good to be true, and it's so easy to sell on that, because what they do is you you get someone who you have some supplementary income. And so if I say that, oh, you're making 15K a month, if you pay me 8K over the next three months, six months, whatever it is, I'm gonna be able to triple your business. But the scary thing behind that is you're an actual good trainer because you have a background, you have the fundamentals. What are the systems that they're implementing that they're gonna all of a sudden triple their business? And it's just I'm always the the naysayer in that regard because I've never seen him. And it doesn't mean that it can't happen. But the top coaches who I know, if the the the one coach I'm thinking who has a huge following, he has an equipment brand, and he's making five plus million a year. That's like the outlier. And so if you look at sports in the NBA, it's like, how much, how much can I average? You're gonna see who's at the top. Okay, this guy's doing 30. Okay, Curry's at 32, whatever, 33. That's okay. The upper is like 34. But then you have someone saying, Oh, I can coach you, and uh, you're gonna be averaging 50 points a game. You'll be like, What? No, that's that's that doesn't make any sense. So then you kind of have to do what you're doing is you interview people and you're you're chatting with the Chelsea's and you're chatting with, okay, what are you doing and how are you doing it? Okay, but then we also have that survivorship bias, which is really important because you need to understand that the industry is not big thinkers. And we're we're thinking that the$100 is the max I can charge. Oh, my market is different than yours. You're in the Bay Area, the max I can charge is$50. So when you are in this environment and you really believe in your product and your product is great, your clients will continue to invest with you. And you have 19 clients right now that C, you're a great trainer. So now trying to think, okay, could I bring this online? A, B, could I offer some type of you know, additional supplement where maybe I'm making another five to eight K on the side? What maybe I bring on a trainer. Maybe I at this independent gym, I market to the area and I really do a better job of getting referrals and I get new business in here. And then I hand those clients off to another trainer where I'm paying that trainer 60, 65%. I'm taking 35%. But if you have a book that's 10, 15k, you're making an additional four or five K from someone else, but you're providing continued education and you're helping them kind of level themselves up. So there's so many things that we can we can talk about. And I know you wrote down some questions. So let's start getting into those questions and see what we can do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I agree with all of that. All right, Chris. I believe you're a father. Here's my big question for you. So you talk a lot about turning a passion for fitness into career as a trainer. What's your advice to the trainer with young kids? I understand that everyone has to decide what the work-life balance entails, and that for many, there's no such thing as balance. But what's your advice to the trainer who wants to be present with their kids in an industry that demands your in-person presence most of the time when your kids need you the most, which is before and after school? So that's been probably the hardest um battle for me is balancing work with family. I wouldn't be able to do what I do without my wife who does the lion's share. But even so, as my kids get older, I have a four-year-old and a seven-year-old. It's pretty clear, pretty quick, that it's a very challenging industry to do the parent responsibilities while also making yourself available when your clients want you.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a tough one. I got two kids as well, uh, four-year-old and an infant. You say infant today? I don't know. She's three months, so it's a little sack. She's a sack of potatoes. That's what I say. But that's that's really hard because I think you have to look at what your ambitions are. Do you want to create some scalable business where you know you like that entrepreneurial side where you want to grow a seven, eight-figure dollar business? Well, great. Well, then that's that's something that can happen, but there's going to be more sacrifice there. Is it making enough so that you can be a present at home dad? And you know, my schedule, I've been doing this for 20 years, but I have a really great schedule in the sense that I'm I'm away in the morning, but I'm away at four. But if I need to be home by three every single day, I can do that. But I also do work six days a week. And that's because I have you know big ambitions with our certification and growing that online. So there is that that sacrifice that's gonna happen. But I think you can use that motivation because you're a young guy. How young are you? I'm 38. Yeah, so you're you're still a puppy. And it's like, okay, well, if I you know double down in the next, you know, 18 months and I really just get after this full time, not saying you're not doing it now, but it's like there's gonna be some compromise, knowing that in 18 months, the streams of revenue that I have coming in are gonna allow for me to do that stay-at-home stuff and be more present because you know, yeah, a four-year, I don't know. Ask me this, uh, Tilo. What's the first memory in life do you have?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh God, my first memory in life. Yeah, I think about that all the time. Have my kids made their first memory in life. I have a seven-year-old. I don't know if she's gonna remember. I think, I think you probably my my first memory is probably uh I was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, and I moved to San Francisco when I was three. And I have a very, very vague memory of that house in uh Silver Spring.

SPEAKER_00:

So me, I remember like little Christmas photos, but I don't know if I remember the photo or the actual time, but I remember I was in kindergarten. I walked down the line and I pointed to this guy, his name is Miles Kanaus, and I said, You're gonna be my best friend. And we ended up becoming best friends. But that was kindergarten. What is that, like six, seven?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And so I'm the way that I rationalize this to myself, it's like I have this little window right now where my kids aren't gonna really remember me. And they, you know, I don't remember what my parents were doing when I was three and two. It's not to say being present isn't important, but to justify it for myself, it makes me feel better knowing that, okay, well, if I'm away a little bit more right now, it's not nearly as important as when they are, you know, seven to you know, 15 or so. So, you know, I have a little different window because my my son is four and your daughter is in that memory stage. So obviously, if you're gone all the time, so it's trying to find that quote unquote balance. And but the nice thing is you have that business and you're established. And so at least you'll be able to, you know, move people around and trying to have those days where if it's like, okay, Sundays are completely off and Fridays, I don't go past you know, 12 o'clock. So then on those other days, there might be one or two days where I'm gonna be there a little later because right now where I may clock off at five or six, whatever, and then I go home with my family, but there's gonna need to be some sacrifice to put energy into growing the business so then you can get those seeds set up because the future is gonna allow for those seeds to grow. And ultimately you want to have those streams coming in. Where most trainers struggle and fail is they only have one stream for the rest of their life. So that's when it gets really hard, is because if you make all your money and you have to be there from four to nine, and then you have clients from five to eight, it's not realistic. So, what are some opportunities that you see in your current schedule that you could incorporate and implement some strategies to help grow some business and get some other money coming in?

SPEAKER_01:

I I feel like my approach has been similar to yours, just to not not the same degree. I don't wake up at 4 a.m. like you do, but uh I've kind of sacrificed the morning. So I'm I'm often out of the house before the family wakes up. And then I try to shut it down in time to be present for the kids in the after school hours. And then just in terms of you know, looking down the road and how how sustainable this career is as the kids get older, I think that's where it becomes there's a little bit of urgency to find a way to make that second and third stream of income. So online training would be a big piece for me. Um, I have a little passion project that I've tested out this year. I call it the Parlay Club. And essentially it's I've created a community for people that don't necessarily have the motivation to work out all the time, but they also love sports. So essentially I have gamified fitness, and uh, this has not produced like big amounts of money yet, but I think that having beta tested it a few times, it's got potential to blow up. And just in a nutshell, essentially, this part of Light Club is uh you get one point if you take 10,000 steps a day, you get three points if you work out. As the commissioner, I'll throw out a sport, a game, and you pick one way or the other against the spread. And if your bet connects, then you double your points. It's been a really fun way to kind of have an online community. We use WhatsApp as the platform for chatting and you post your workouts and it keeps people accountable. And people get very competitive. And you know, it's like if you get home and you have 7,000 steps, but you want that one point, you gotta putz around the house for the next 3,000 steps to get your point. Um so just trying to think outside of the box, not be conventional in terms of what can I create that people enjoy? And down the road, how could that create a source of income that doesn't trade time for money? Are you do you have a Facebook group for this? Uh I have a WhatsApp group. So I started with just a few friends, and then last last March Madness, I I kind of marketed it to my Instagram following and uh and my email list. And I actually got a group of like 30 people. Um, and it was awesome. People were posting their workouts, posting their step count, got them very excited to watch the March Madness games. And instead of having to put a big amount of money on a game, I know that gambling is still a little bit taboo, but instead of having to put you know a big amount of money on a game, you're really investing in your fitness. And the the sports gambling aspect of it is the community builder, the banter on WhatsApp and watching the game and feeling like you're watching. I think that, you know, I'm 38, and to your point, you said that's not that old, but it's also not 21 or 18 where you got to watch every big game in college with your best friends because you guys all lived in the same room in the same dorm. So as we get older, it's like, how can we find ways to I'm trying to find ways to use fitness as a community builder and and find ways that people can actually enjoy working out and get excited to go to the gym that doesn't involve paying the big bucks for a personal trainer.

SPEAKER_00:

That's amazing. Like I'm speechless, how awesome that is. My only issue with that is that it's not scalable within the WhatsApp because you can't find people. So that's why you really need to get that Facebook group and go back to one of the first podcasts I did, probably the first 20. If you just type in and search Adrian, because Adrian created a community very similar to yours that has a very, very specific niche, which is uh um comic books. And and he grew 10,000 follower Facebook group, and now he he works at home and he works a couple couple hours a day. That's it. And he makes uh a lot of money. And so there's something with that that I'll really want to to start talking about more because you're gonna get someone just like how you and I connected with a sports pet, and you know, we were chatting more about it, you're gonna have people who are gonna look at that being, I don't want to be labeled as a degenerate, but it's like, no, it's I'm not you know wasting all my money and you know gambling my mortgage. It's like, you know, I just like to you know put a little money on a game and it makes it more interesting. But if you can relate that to fitness and then you you grow that, and then okay, so this March Madness, it's gonna be 50 bucks a pop, and then you're able to take you know uh the margin, 25 and whatever you want to do, but then you give back and then you just start doing it for every freaking thing out there little league baseball, it's like soccer, cricket, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's kind of like uh it's like fantasy football with the fitness component. The coolest part about it is so I call the the sports component, if I throw out a game, I call that the double down. So a few days a week, there's a double down. So the coolest thing is, you know, I have a couple lawyers in the group, a couple professors in the group, big time producer in LA who's a good friend. But uh the the best part about it is let's just say for March Madness, there's a a basketball game in the morning and you pick the you pick the side correctly, then you go back to your workday and you get home and you're exhausted. But you know that if you work out that day, you get double points on this scoreboard that for whatever reason, as soon as you put a scoreboard on people, they really get invested in it. The the motivation to to be more active and to actually put in a workout is pretty uh astonishing to witness, even for myself. Um, you know, there's plenty of days where I don't want to work out, but because I'm a participant in this club that I created, I will force myself to do it. Literally, like on the the second the clock hits 30, I'm done. Or, you know, the with the 10,000 steps. I had no idea how hard it was for the average Joe to hit 10,000 steps. But if you work at an office and you are not going for a run, it's almost impossible to hit 10,000 steps. So little things like this, I think putting a little bit of pressure on on people that don't have jobs that lend themselves to to movement has been very cool. So it's really not about the sports, that's just the niche, and that's what makes it fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. I think that you look at your schedule to see what your your cap is for, you said right now your range is like 150 to 200 per per session. Yeah, it could be a stream of revenue that absolutely surpasses what you're currently making. So whatever you're making now, just say you said right around 15k per month. With this group, you could absolutely do that because you could bring on trainers, you can bring on people to now hold people accountable, where it's like that lawyer buddy, you're probably not texting him saying, Hey, you got to get those steps in because you're you're double down or whatever. You he has that accountability himself. But if this is a paid service now where he's paying 100 bucks, 200 bucks, 300 bucks, you have like a little tier system where you know the more that you invest, the more you get back, as you know, with like a parlay, you get straight money from that one. But if you do three, you're gonna get more. So it's like, hey, here's this step right here for 300 bucks a month. You're gonna get daily video messages from me. You're gonna get this, you're also gonna get that, you're gonna get more, and that's where your coaching comes in. And then you can have like an exclusive club where people are paying 500 bucks a month, and that comes with, you know, once a month or once a week, you have a little insider trading thing and you're drinking your whiskey, smoking your cigars. Hell, you fucking you go find someone who's a a bookie, and you know, there's because there's sites you can go to. I'd go to Doc Sports in Vegas, and my buddies in Vegas. I talked to him this morning, Charlie, got to get him on the podcast. But it's like you could have someone who maybe has some juice in it, and then you know, pay some guy a couple hundred bucks to hop on. Hey, here are my here are my bets for the week, and here's you know, this is a good one over here. And I think that you know, tonight you should definitely be taking the niners minus five and a half because you know, this is you know, river sucks, whatever. But people like that shit, and so now it's you know it's niche down, but then like you said, you have that sports side of it and you have that physical fitness side of it, and that's what's scalable because that's what's fun, where you can, you know, you tell your your buddies, hey, if you get a referral in here, then you're gonna get an extra bonus, and then you're also gonna get plus 200 on whatever. So it's like you can manipulate lines or whatever it is, but you're gonna you you make them work for you because if someone's a lawyer, how many people does he have as a law firm? Chat with a couple buddies, get them in here, and now because you tested it and it works, the idea is there, but let's find out the scalability and really start pushing these people in a fun way. But it's like, hey, my goal and tell them it's like my goal is to get a thousand people in this group because right now there's you know it's 30 of us, but if we get a thousand, how cool is it gonna be to get some people in London and let's get some people in you know South America and then we can really you know blow the sucker up and that's when it gets fun, but then you're gonna be able to profit off of that. That's a brilliant idea, my man. You gotta, I would really double down on that one.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I appreciate you. You know, I think that one of the big benefits of the show up fitness community for me is that um every time I consume a piece of of what you guys put out, I feel like the other than just the the learning, the anatomy and and the business skills, it's the um it's that motivator. It's like, you know, you can do more. And it's it's nice to be pushed sometimes when you're especially as a solo entrepreneur, it's pretty easy to get comfortable in your lane, especially once we get a once you get a little established. So I I always look to your podcast as like my my motivators where I couldn't I can be doing more. There's creative ways to think. It doesn't just have to be trading time for money. And obviously, you know, we want to help people, but once the kids come into play, yeah, the the what you take home does become a big part of it.

SPEAKER_00:

That's my my biggest ant, my automatic negative thought. And where I get reprieve is I love listening to podcast founders, and you know, my my my heroes, uh uh Phil Knight and that book, Shoe Dog, because when I I listen to that every single year, I read it every single year because he was a very successful CEO. But one of his biggest regrets is that he wasn't there for his kids. And so he was able to grow this baby into basically his kid, but in exchange for his actual family. And that's one of the things where it's like, I'm with you. I don't want to be that dad who's gone. And but at the same time, I don't want to have that regret later on in life where it's like I was there for my family all the time, which is great. But then I have that internal voice that's saying I wasn't able to achieve what I wanted to. So that's that when you hear that balance, and that no one's gonna have that perfect recipe because when you hear some of these, you know, titans who were pricks and they grow a giant business, but they're not nice people, and you know, they their kids don't even like them. And you can see that with like Elon, where sure he may get us to Mars, but his kids don't even like. And so it's like, where can you find that balance? And that balance is all individual, so it makes me feel better on what I'm doing, knowing that hey, I'm able to get home and and be able to hang out with my kids, and I'm not able to do stuff in the morning, which could, you know, definitely those voices get louder. But at the same time, my baby is my business, and I want to see this grow because of these connections that we're doing right now. And there's so many trainers out there where they just get a textbook and then they're lost and they don't know where to go. And next thing you know, they're bouncing on a Vosu ball, and their clients are like, This sucks. I'm not gonna work with you. And so they weren't able to do exactly what you're doing. But the cool thing is you're at a fork, and that means that you're at the right fork because if you're just coasting and you don't have issues or problems, that it can get boring. And it's even more lonely when it's just your business and you don't have anyone to talk to. Communities are what are the future gonna be? So you need to try to find a trainer that you can kind of bounce some ideas off once a week or you know, get into a Facebook group and have these conversations because you don't have those conversations. Not like you're talking to your four-year-old about your business and your growth strategies. And and so when you when you are expanding your mind and you get, oh, here's a good seed, okay. Now I'm gonna go and do it. And so that's just where you're at right now is it's taking your business and and doubling it up. So I see a huge opportunity with your with this part, get a Facebook group, start seeing the capacities and let everyone know in the group what your goal is. And I think that when you humanize it and you say, like, hey, right now I'm I leave at four, I get home at eight, not able to be with my kids all the time. I'm really looking to take this group to the next level, which will allow for me to give me like a little bit of a salary. So if we make three referrals each, here are the rules. And like you can have like a very here's what I'm looking for. Let's get three more people in here. Then you get a Facebook group and you can send that to people when you're recruiting them, whether if it's you know the LinkedIn groups or whatever online. And then as you grow your in-person business, start, you know, become more uncomfortable with your pricing. I like what you said prior to the show that you were looking at your your gym that you're at, and the top trainers are charging 190. So you're like, that's me, I'm 190. I want more nos. I want to charge 225. I want to start to get to 250. I know for a fact because I live there, there's trainers that are charging 350 plus in San Francisco. So why not be able to do that? And then I want that pushback because then those are problems that I got to get better at solving. And maybe it's me, you know, providing more of a service to that session. If I present 200 and I know for a fact that this person goes to this private school and they're driving a Maserati, I my kid that I train right now, his parents have three assistants and they have a private, you know, a chauffeur. I know they can afford my pricing. And so every year I go up, you know, to 50 bucks in the sessions. And I let that, I'm not taking advantage of them though, but I let them know in the beginning, here's where I'm at. This is my process. Every year I'm gonna increase my prices. This, if you give me a referral, I'll keep you at this rate. But you know, you let them know that you're growing. And then when they say no, ask yourself, why do they say no? Was I really delivering that superior service? Because what if they had a trainer in the past and that trainer was kicking their ass a little harder than me, and maybe I'm not giving them that sweat factor that they want. So, do I really know what this person wants? I could assume that, oh, they have a lot of money, they don't really want to work out that hard. But maybe that's what they want, and I'm not providing that. So you're getting, you said you had you had a couple of people say no, which is great. And it's like, okay, was it no because of that actual situation, or is it no because maybe there's something I was missing there? And you were talking about retainers for some of your clients, and I want to get in front of more people so then I can really look at the stats. Because if I only get one no, that's hard to look at. And so, what are some other questions that you had?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, as a member of your Facebook group, speaking of Facebook groups, I think one of the coolest parts is that I don't know how often you guys do it, but it feels like it's pretty frequent. You you post a welcome to the community for our new members, and I'm always blown away at how many, how many new members you guys get? I feel like every single time you post that, there's like 10 to 20 new faces. And I'm curious, is that all just as the as the the brand grows? Basically, the question is how are you getting so many people in that Facebook group so so rapidly and so consistently?

SPEAKER_00:

I love I love that question. And I wasn't trying to cut you off because that's always like people say imposture syndrome. I don't I don't relate with that, I don't get what that word means to me. I get almost like FOMO, or it's like not fear of missing out, but I compare myself to others. And I was just listening to a podcast from the mind pump guys, and they're talking about scaling up to$20 million. And I look at their product and I'm just like, oh my God. Not saying these guys don't know what they're doing, but it's like that is a$20 million product right there. And they have a email list of 500,000 people. Our list is less than 10,000. And you look at the lens from what you're seeing, it's like, oh, that growth, I see it as we're failing and we're failing miserably, and we're not where I want to be. But that that thinking can be negative because if I allow that to affect my action, or if I'm super negative to that group, it can come off as not authentic. So what we do is every time someone you know gets a study guide, we have a team. Sierra's our our face behind all the magic, and she'll you know get them into the Facebook group and and let them know that you know you may come across me because of my personality online, and I you're either gonna like me or you're not gonna like me. So one of the things I'm trying to do a better job of get different voices and different faces. So if I do rub you the wrong way, you can be like, okay, this dipshit with the butt buckle. Not a fan of him, but I I resonate with Megan or I really like what Cody's doing over here. So there's different avatars because as you know, you're not going to attract everyone. But if you have these different avatars, then you can almost create sub-communities within. And so when someone buys or reaches out, if someone comments on a post, I'll say, you know, if you want to listen to this podcast, send me your email. I'll take that email, put it into the email group, and then we try to get them in there and just get people to talk about their experiences. Because as you know, we've met in person, you went to the seminar. My personality is specific online, is to be kind of chaotic. But in person, and just like right now, it's it's completely different. And I want trainers to succeed, but right now the path is textbook certification, and then what? Most aren't going to make it. And if you, I mean, you could argue that maybe if you weren't looking the part, which I talk about in my book, that L, that conversation wouldn't have happened with that billionaire that you met. And so if you look at like a different, you know, avatar world, if you weren't exercising regularly and you didn't look like a fitness professional, that conversation would have never happened. And you would still be teaching for you know, you'd be in year 15 right now, and you probably wouldn't be happy, right? Right. So that's what's crazy, where it's like you need to look the part, and you do look the part.

SPEAKER_01:

I was uh I was blown away at the you mentioned that I went to the seminar, I went to the Roseville one, and uh I've never felt so small. I feel like lifetime, my goodness, those trainers are gladiators, each and every one of them enormous.

SPEAKER_00:

But that's the beauty thing is the looking the part is in retrospect to your potential client. So it's you're in great shape, and your clientele sees you as you're in good shape, and I want to look like you, you're fit, you practice what you preach. On the other side of the equation, I'm talking about there's people out there that just they don't look like they're into fitness. It's like they just, you know, I mean if someone has to ask, like, do you work out? That's not looking the part. I want my clients to be like, oh, you're in good shape. I want to come to you. And so that's the fact that you were able to have that. Now it's you're you have your your business hat on, you're an entrepreneur. It's to really dial it up to see what the potential is and you know, motivate other people. And and link up, you know, there's uh Glenda, she's always listening to this, and she's she's in your same area in the San Rafael, and you know, she has a gym and she's actually looking to expand her gym to make it a little bigger. And so it's like chatting with someone like that, where it's like, what are your biggest struggles and what are you charging right now? And then you're gonna hear her fears, and you're like, oh shit, okay. So this is normal. So my goal 2026, why don't you put some of those BHAGs out there right now, my man? What are some of those big goals you want to accomplish?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I knew this question was coming. I prepped for this question, Chris. Um, so I think I would like to get 20 online clients. Right now I have less than five. I'd like those 20 online clients to produce between 50 and 60,000 in revenue. I would like to decrease the number of in-house visits that I'm doing because once you start getting more established, the the commute time is killer in the day. If I have to, you know, give myself a 30-minute window in between clients, that's that feels wasteful. The last two are the big ones, I think. Because I work with kids in the after-school hours, I feel like there's a huge opportunity to create clinics, um, primarily, you know, on when kids are not in school. So some thinking like almost like a summer camp style clinic, I wouldn't call it a camp, but sports clinics. As a parent myself, I know that parents are always looking for really um exciting and fun offerings for their kids that that get the kids outside. And I think that's a skill set that I have. So whether it's renting a facility or getting creative with where I would do that, but you know, kind of becoming the Bay Area's premier number one go-to middle school sports clinic um for for the middle school-aged kids. And then the the biggest one is is just we we touched a little bit on this um this uh project that I'm working on, the the parlay club. You know, I think that that's probably my biggest passion project right now is uh figuring out a way to expand that. Because I think that aside from the money, I do think that it works and people really enjoy it and uh you know it builds community and makes exercise way more enjoyable.

SPEAKER_00:

So the the problem that you're gonna face is you have to choose one. And that's where the majority of your energy needs to go. Because I'm guilty of this. And if you look at our branding of what we have, you don't want to be an octopus. Yes, dreams of revenue are cool, but if you're only getting 10,000 from this one, 10,000 from this one, 10,000 from that one, but each one takes 10 hours per week. Now your goal is to be able to be with your family more, but because you're working on all of those projects, so you have to figure out what you're most passionate about and which doesn't take the most time. So maybe it's okay, I'm gonna give you some options, don't do them all, but you can look into grant money because there's a ton of money out there that they want to give away. And so if you have a proven system that you can reach out to people in those school districts, they're gonna want to be able to pay you as the company and you can say, I'm gonna come in here for 100K, you bring your team of three or four people, and you're just the face. So you can show up there, you smile, but you have your team doing it. If you want to get involved, sure, but you can create that product where you're getting money from a grant, or if you have the right people in those in those rich areas and those rich schools, you could find some teachers who are gonna be like, Oh, I want you to do this. And you know, you do this for the school, it's 150k, we pay you, you take 75, and then you pay your team 75. But it's your branding that's allowing for that to happen. I would highly suggest considering the CSCS because especially if you want to get involved with the the strength side of it, you have your BA, and so you can still get your uh you have to get a BA for PE, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, I worked at a private school, so it was I did not have to do that. Do you have a degree? My I have a degree, yeah. I went to college, my I have a history, history major and uh a master's in sports management.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so you can get your CSCS because what that's gonna do, it's gonna get you in the door. And especially when you get into the sports community, that's the designation they're gonna want to look for. It doesn't mean you can't do it now. It's a it's a pretty easy test to do. We have all the guides and stuff. I can send it to you. If you were to study a little bit here and a little bit there, 60 days you can pass it, but that's something that's gonna get you in the door. So when you're talking to the athletic director, I'm a strength coach, and one of my goals here is to be doing A, B, C, and D. But the thing is, you're already doing it now. So it's not as important to focus on that. But I think that would be something that would, because in 2030, they're gonna make it a requirement. You have to have a degree in kinesiology. So if you look at it in the next couple of years, you check that one off. That's gonna allow for you to get involved with that. I would really put a lot of you know, aside stuff on reaching out, find you know, sportsbook stuff online and trying to follow people on Instagram and talk more about this club because I haven't, you know, I haven't dug deep into your socials, but that's a really, really great idea. That's something that I could definitely I can connect you with Charlie. He's he's in Vegas. He's actually his story is so cool because he was the first one that I got connected with Lifetime. So he came to our San Diego. Did our internship because I did an Instagram live with John Russon and then he got hired at Lifetime. So he had his NASA, went in there. They said, Nope, you're not, you're too green. You don't know what the hell you're doing. Went through our program, went back, and the manager stopped him halfway in and said, Who the hell are you? Like this is a completely different product that you're delivering. Became one of the top trainers within two months, COVID happened, and I kind of took him under my wing because he would gamble for me. So I put my bets in with him. And yeah, I would give him, you know, exchange for mentorship. And now he's leading a as an exercise physiologist with a physical therapist at a clinic in Vegas. And so the guy's doing amazing work and he just loves, you know, massage background and he's just doing some really cool stuff, but he's he likes to gamble as well. So it's like you find people and you talk about these ideas, he could give you a little pointer of oh, this is something that you could look at, or you make it a family trip. You go out to Vegas every three months and you connect with people and you start planting the seeds and you have flyers and you're giving them to people. And it's like there's so many cool things you can do with that, but it's endlessly scalable. And that's the for me, the exciting thing about that group that you have.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and these are not necessarily frustrations, just things that I need to iron out. Once you have established a book of business of in-person training where you're getting close to capacity, so I would say, you know, 80 to 90 percent full. I found that um the the last 20%, the challenge isn't necessarily finding clients, it's finding clients that can uh train when you're available. So I know this is not a unique issue to me, but filling the middle of the day where most people are at work. I'm curious if you have any uh nuggets of wisdom on specifically how to go about filling those you know, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. time slots in the day.

SPEAKER_00:

So that could be two things. A, patience, but B, that could be your time slot right now to focus on your growth online and building up those systems that are needed for the the parlay club. If someone were to ask me how do I make$10,000 per month, you have option A, which is find a client who on retainer can pay you$10K per month. If you can't find that, find a client that can pay you$9K and someone else who pays you$1K. If you can't do that, then you just keep on scaling it back to what's digestible for your market. You could be in a small community and the max you can get is$100. Okay, well, you need clients who are gonna pay you$1,000 per month. You need 10 clients. That's gonna get you$10K. But as you know, clients cancel, so you're probably gonna need 12 to 14 to hit that number to be consistent. So my my question for you would be have you ever wrote and wrote and written, done a schedule with your optimal hourly rates and your optimal hours that you are working? Have you ever completed that out on a list?

SPEAKER_01:

That would be some homework for me. I have not.

SPEAKER_00:

I would so they say if you are jobless and you want to uh get a job. I love I don't know what book this was I read, but most people what they would do is they wake up whenever they wake up, they're gonna fart around their house and their their pajamas. They may uh send a resume or two. They don't take it seriously. The best thing that you can do is you wake up if you want to work at eight o'clock, wake up at six, you work out, you get the Starbucks, you're dressed in the attire that you need for that profession, and then you work from eight to 12, you take an hour break, and then you work from one to five, reaching out, interviewing. You're taking your schedule seriously as if you were actually working. So I would do the same thing with you. It's like, when do you want your first session to be? Do you want to have an hour or two block where you take your kids to school? Okay, well, then maybe your first session is gonna be 6 a.m. or 5 a.m. So you have to look and develop, build out the perfect schedule and then see it daily. And so then you know that, okay, this is not an option right here. I'm not going to be taking anyone at 7 p.m. So that's not on my uh my cards right now. So this these are the blocks that I'm gonna open up and then you talk to your clients about it. I'm looking for two people on these time slots that can fill these in and also my rates because I just finished this great certification. I'm now at uh 225. So when you recommend people, let them know these are my prices. And so then what you can do as you build up those time slots, you can start firing or kicking out the clients who are not at that capacity. And whether if that's gonna be bringing people on your team to hand off to them, or I really actually like that two to three hour block of just focusing on how you can develop those streams of revenue for the online portion, because in my opinion, that's gonna be your gold nugget right there, because that can definitely be a stream of revenue that's coming in significantly more than you've ever imagined.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I appreciate it, Chris. Um don't know that I have any more questions for you, but uh just continuing to consume the things that you put out are very helpful for me. And I think that for the aspiring trainer, this is where this is the place to start for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

And and thing is, you're not even aspiring. You are in the trenches and you're taking that next level, and you don't need to pay someone 10 grand a month for that those business nuggets, and you just gotta incorporate them. I'll I'll take a little photo of us right here, flexing for the uh for the Facebook group, and uh you know, connect with people in the band. And you know, just I want to see a I don't know if you've done um some type of clip art for your group, you know, give it a you know, the parlay club and have a little logo, and yeah, everyone should be seeing that. And you know, in the future, big stuff. It could be your own app, it could be who knows where the California is gonna be next year, three years from now, five years from now. It could turn into a little community where people are able to place bets through you because of the new world. Who knows? I mean, that's the crazy thing is I love this because the the you have to think big. And your number one thing is you're doing what you love, which is great, but now it's are you able to move the needle to continue to do what you love, provide, but also not be burning the candles at both ends and be there for your kids and be a great dad, which you are, and just you know, having these little creative ideas that can subcomplement and parlay the pun intended with what with what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much, Chris. This is uh it's been awesome. Again, it's a a privilege and an honor to be here. I literally consume this most mornings on my drive to to work. So very cool to be on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you're awesome, man. I'm Bradia, and you're you're a great trainer, great dad, and just looking forward to watching you continue to grow.

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds good. Appreciate you, Chris.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, buddy. We'll see you. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_01:

Take care.