How to Add $30K Revenue as a Trainer with Nutrition Coaching & an RD

Become a nutrition coach w/ SUF NC working alongside RD's to build you team and streams of revenue.

Torey Berry, SUF instructor talks about her success with having an RD on her team.

Most personal trainers talk about nutrition all day and still leave money and results on the table. We want the opposite: clear boundaries, better outcomes, and a real nutrition coaching offer that clients happily pay for. That starts by putting a Registered Dietitian on your team so you can stay in your scope of practice while delivering higher-level support.

We dig into how this looks with real clients, including a PCOS and prediabetes scenario where insulin resistance and blood sugar response matter. You’ll hear why the goal is not “no carbs,” but smarter carbs with more fiber, better structure, and the right context. When an RD drives the nutrition strategy, clients get safer guidance, trainers stop guessing, and the coaching conversation becomes more credible and more effective.

From there, we lay out the business model: how we introduce the RD, when we bring nutrition into the coaching timeline, and how we price tiered packages that include consults, weekly logs, and optional meal plans. We also talk systems for scaling without burnout, plus creative add-ons like bringing in a private chef to teach cooking and prep so clients can actually execute.

Finally, we get tactical about networking: what to say when you email or DM a dietitian, how to interview for fit, how bartering can work, and how to loop in medical weight loss doctors to build a referral network that benefits everyone. If you want to separate yourself in a crowded personal training market with a professional team approach, press play, then subscribe, share this with a trainer friend, and leave a review.

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Transcript

Intro And Trainer Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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 showupfitness.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. Thank you for taking the time today. Miss T, how are we doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Pretty good, Chris. Thanks for having me.

PCOS Prediabetes And Smart Carbs

SPEAKER_00 0:40

We're going to talk about getting an RD on your team. She's gone through the SUFNC program and she is generating revenue as a nutrition coach. A big flaw that I see with trainers today. We talk too much about nutrition, and then we do not make money off of our services. So let's start off by listening to a little clip from Tori's RD.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Basically go through first of all, when it comes to the PCOS side of things, right? Usually with that, the biggest thing is that most times people become insulin resistant. And so I know Tori mentioned some potential history for pre-diabetes. So that the PCOS and that does go together. So that is kind of what's driving one over the other. So you do need carbs. And we will incorporate carbs, but the carbs that you do need to be ones that are a little bit higher in fiber so that it does not spike your blood sugar. So for example, someone that, you know, is pre-diabetic, if you were to eat, let's just say like white rice or fruit by itself, um, or just a carb by itself, it's going to spike your blood sugar up and it's going to drop it rapidly. And those are the things that over time affect your A1C, which is the value that is telling them that you are a pre-diabetic.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

How the heck did you get that conversation going? Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

So I initially reached out to my RD through a mutual friend. Um, my friend knew her from college and I told her, I was like, just send me her email. You know, I want to be professional. And she would, and it's important to have, you know, people who support you in your corner because my friend was like, no, I'm just gonna send you her number. And like two minutes later, she put us in a group message. Um, I reached out to Jalen separately asking for, you know, just I need help with my clients. I know you're a registered dietitian. And we got on a call and I talked about, you know, meal plans and counting their calories and just, you know, staying within my, you know, staying in my lane. And the cool thing is her husband owns a CrossFit gym in Charlotte called Shipwreck Performance. And so this is normal for her to have other trainers like reach out and get meal plans and nutrition assistance um through her. So it was just a seamless process. And on my assessment form, I have, you know, if you would you like, are you open to having, you know, an RD chat with you about your nutrition? Are you open to nutrition coaching? And when people say yes, um, after that first 30 days, I'll talk to Jalen, reach out to her and see if we can hop on a one-on-one. Um, hopefully in the future, we can actually like do like a group call with all my clients, but right now it's more so one-on-one catering to whatever uh my client needs. And this particular client um is pre-diabetic and she has PCOS.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

How much are you charging your clients for these services?

SPEAKER_02 3:17

So a basic, your basic package is 125. You get a 30-minute call with Jalen intro call, um, as well as weekly logs with me for about 30 days. And then the more, you know, if you want to talk to Jalen more or you want meal plans, it'll go up to 200 and then 275. So three packages, just depending on what um what you'd like.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

So we also need to remember where you are in the world because some places you can charge more. You're starting out, you can charge a little less. How much are you paying Jalen per month or per consultation?

SPEAKER_02 3:48

She charges$50 an hour. I always tell her, I'm like, I just want, I just want to charge you more. Like, I want to send you more. So if you know, if we're on the call, this particular call was 40 minutes. So I just sent her some, you know, a little extra, but she's$50 an hour. And then her meal plans are$150 um per meal plan. And so those are those are completely separate.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

I love that, just because you you see right there that it just depends on the market. And some people would say, Oh my god, that's so cheap. No, that's what she charges, and she has a book of business from that. It's important to have them on your team because it's just establish yourself as the professional where a lot of trainers say, Oh, I can I can work with your nutrition, it's super easy. I'll include a food plan or a meal plan, which we are technically not supposed to be able to do. So when you consult with an RD and you have that on your questionnaire, it's just it's so significant because trainers don't do that. And then you have that nice little handoff. Are any of your clients currently working with her for meal plans or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02 4:39

No, not yet. Um, but the the first 30 days, and I genuinely I don't want them to, um, depending on the person, because I have a client who has PCOS and she doesn't eat. Um, so right now we're just working on like coming up with a like a meal schedule. So Jalen said, like, what time to have breakfast, lunch, snack. So I think a meal plan would be too much because it's like, oh my gosh, I have to eat all this food. But if she's not getting hungry, why are we even starting there? So the first 30 days, I really just want to see what you're eating. And then if they would like a meal plan, then you know that's something she can do. And it's cool because the meal plans are every two weeks, and it's great because the meals are interchangeable. So you don't have to eat the same thing every day. You can just switch things around based off what um information she gives you.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

How much time are you spending weekly with the nutrition coaching for one client?

SPEAKER_02 5:29

I would say like 30 minutes to an hour, minimally 30 minutes, because it's really just that first I get a lot of information from the call with Valen, and it's so helpful that we just get like a baseline. What I do as a nutrition coach is, you know, we get pictures of their food, and I may tweak some things like, hey, um, how did you feel after this meal? Oh, I I felt kind of weak. Okay, let's add a little more protein or let's take away you know something off your plate. But I would say 30 minutes to an hour every Friday.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

And what do you think your capacity would be for how many clients you could potentially work with when it comes to nutrition coaching?

SPEAKER_02 6:03

That's a good question. I think getting I need to get my systems more in order. I think it would be beneficial to have like one hour call, maybe bi-weekly, with all my clients. You know, we can kind of break down and they can get ideas from each other or maybe two at a time, whatever.

Private Chef Support For Real Life

SPEAKER_00 6:18

And so you look at scaling this out. There's a couple of things that we can do here as you start charging more if you want to, but you could also bring on people within your team because if you set those clear expectations, that nutrition coaching is a different service. I am the lead, I also have an RD, but I'm going to assign you a coach. So if you're charging, you know, as you go up, you said 250 is the highest that you have. You start paying a coach 50, 60 bucks per client, and you have 10 clients, they're making 600 bucks. That's a stream for them. You're paying your RD. You could still be making two to three grand a month. And I just did a podcast on streams of revenue. You could easily be making 30 to 50 plus thousand per year as a nutrition coach. And that's just really cool to think about because so many trainers provide this for free. So if you're thinking, how do I just start charging my clients for nutrition? You got to communicate with them. And we talk a lot about this at the seminars, not just about nutrition coaching, just hands-on learning in general. So if you had 20 clients and you let them know, I'm going through this certification, it's 800 bucks. There's also a seminar, it's also 800 bucks. So I'm going to invest$2,000 into my education. If A, you sponsor me and you pay a portion of that, I will provide nutrition coaching for the first quarter for free. So then you have that conversation with your client and they have clear expectations. When you are certified and you come back after two to three months later, you're going to start charging$250. You're going to start charging$500, whatever it's going to be. And I think where trainers get in their head with the whole automatic negative thoughts, they're thinking, well, I'm providing my clients with a lot already. That's where you have to create systems and have accountability and check-ins and you provide more and more and more, which leads me into the next conversation because you are also doing things when you look at that eye within your Swift innovative things, you're bringing on a private chef. So talk to us a little bit more about how you envision that within your business and how you got that going.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

So yeah, it's, I mean, it's pretty close to home because it's my aunt. Um, she is a chef and she usually does like large group caterings, but she also has options for private being a private chef. And if you want to learn how to cook one-on-one, one of my clients who's doing nutrition coaching, she is vegan, but she loves hamburgers. She loves a burger and she loves chicken. Um, so I'm like, okay, you know, where do we begin? But she's also mentioned to me that, you know, she doesn't know what to, she has a grocery list that she likes, but she doesn't know like how to cook things. And, you know, what do I, what do you usually eat with this? And yada, yada, yada. So I I literally was like, just talk to my aunt. Like, she's a chef. She's, you know, she went to school for this. And so they're one-on-one. If you just want about 60 to 90 minutes of just one-on-one, how to cook, how to prep your foods, it's 275. And then um, as far as like meal prepping, if my client decides, like, hey, I want kind of like a meal meal prep service, my aunt can do that too, but that's at a separate price. Um, it's really great because I'm like, I know people who don't know all of my clients, anyone who I've engaged with as far as nutrition coaching, they're like, Well, what do I eat with this? Or like, what do you think about this? And I'm like, Well, why? You know, I can only tell you so much. Let me tell you a chef and like what grade of meat would be better, or you know, what sauce goes well with this and catering to their taste, but also, you know, catering to their goals.

Reaching Out To Dietitians Professionally

SPEAKER_00 9:30

And I think right there you just hit the nail on the head because that's why I don't want to talk about nutrition. Because if you incorporate this stuff for free, your clients are thinking, well, I'm a vegan, but yet, no, you're not because you're having chicken. That's not a vegan. And like we have all these misconceptions from social media or an influencer saying this, or your aunt, or cultural stuff. So if you set those really clear expectations from the beginning, you take them through a great assessment, check the blood pressure, do the grip strength, take them through CCA looking at the core movement patterns. You deliver on the program, you sit them down, ask them how was it, and they praise you. That was amazing. Oh my God, that was awesome. Okay, how many times a week do you want to train? Three times. 12 sessions cost this, 72 cost that. I want to be very clear with you after the first 30 days, we can start talking about nutrition. In the meantime, I want you to focus on consuming more protein within reason, drinking more water, eat more fruits and vegetables for your fiber. And then we will get involved with an RD. We'll have a metabolical awareness month, the behavioral augmentation. So you're looking at patterns and habits, longevity integration. You have systems built in for the long haul. And so then your clients have a really, really good, clear expectation because of your communication. And then you can have all these fun things with the eye, with the innovation, where you can tell your clients that this month is going to be$25 extra because I'm going to have a private chef come in and they're going to cater for us and we're going to have a team-building event for our community and so forth. And you can have 10, 15, 20 people doing this easily. And don't just limit yourself to one RD. Find someone who's an expert with PCOS, find someone who's an expert with diabetes, find someone who's an expert with eating disorders. This is an opportunity for you to reach out and build your team alongside of what you're doing with your soft tissue cert. You're getting a doctorate of physical therapy. So the more people who you have on your team, that's why you can charge more. And people are going to look at you in a different manner. One, because you're assassin and doing blood pressure trainers, don't do that. But two, you let them know if you have pain, if you have issues when it comes to nutrition, I absolutely 100% can help you because I have a team. And that's really how you separate yourself from the quote unquote saturated market when it comes to personal training. I want to go back to the beginning because I know a lot of trainers get really hung up on, well, how do I reach out? What do I say? Is it on Instagram? Is it an email? You had the fortunate access to a friend who connected you, but how would you suggest for trainers to reach out to dietitians?

SPEAKER_02 11:58

I would say definitely via email. Um, I think that's professional. If you follow someone on, because I've done it both ways where like I'll do it through social media and you know, DM and stuff. If you have an active um RD on social media, I think a DM will be professional as well. Um, just reaching out, saying where you're from, what you do. Um, you know, you have clients who are interested in nutrition coaching, you want to stay in your lane. I think that's the biggest thing is just, you know, I literally use the terms when I talk to Jalen for the first time, stay within my scope of practice. Um, and then let them know what your clients need, whether it's I mostly have clients who want to lose weight or maybe gain weight. I think I would start there. And then the biggest thing is continuously reaching out, not in an annoying way and a ring like um, was it the word that you like to use, pugnacious way, but in a way that lets them know they're professional and this is this is serious business.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Great, great stuff there, Miss T. And I cannot encourage trainers enough to get into a qualified certification because the biggest ones out there, NCI, that's gonna be all like business stuff, which we need to know. But then there's PN1, which is precisely nutrition. It's just another 800 to a thousand-page textbook. Sure, it's gonna teach you about you know behavior and all that stuff, but what are the next steps? Do you have an RD on your team? We have Mel come on twice a month, sometimes more, and you get to hear her talk, but then learning how to reach out to RDs and doing it professional. They're dietitians, as I did with a RD not too long ago. We want to put the tit back in dietitian, so it's T I T. It's those little things. Spelling dietitian properly, letting them know you want to stay in your lane. You're gonna come across some dietitians who maybe you don't align with. That's perfectly okay. You need to interview them and let them know what you're doing. Offer to train them, get them in for a workout. A lot of dietitians have no idea how to train. So you could even barter that. So maybe you're paying$250,000,$500 per month, but you could barter training. So then you take that off of your balance sheet. You could easily, when I say it's easily, I am not joking, easily make$30,000 per year just from nutrition coaching. So that's an extra$2,500 to three grand a month. Trainers do not have that stream. So start building on that and go through a course, get certified. We have our cert, we have discounts, and then we're gonna launch our Q3, our level three seminar with Mel. We're gonna probably do that in New York. Two days, it will be hosted at Lifetime. You're gonna be around a bunch of like-minded trainers, and we're gonna really help you dial in that second stream because why not make more off of your qualifications? Trainers don't do that today. You can be different by getting a cert, reaching out to an RD, mastering the fundamentals. Don't say stupid shit like fruit's bad for you or whatever it may be we see on social media today. You are a competent, qualified coach. Anything else you want to add in T before we call her a day?

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Yeah, I actually had a question. So um one of my clients was working with before she started working with me, she was working with a medical doctor, medical weight loss doctor. Um, she would see her once a month. And it was more so because she wasn't eating, um, she wasn't getting hungry, so she was and she wasn't eating with PCOS, you have irregular menstrual cycles. But she was on medication for a little bit. So she's working with this medical doctor, and I'm like, I'm you're talking about building your team. So I guess what would be your advice to maybe networking with this medical doctor who is who specializes in weight loss. And I'm I'm I might be wrong, but I might be right. She can also prescribe medication to individuals.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yeah, I would loop in your RD because again, most professionals out there don't look at trainers in a high regard. We're just a bunch of idiots on social media. So you can just crush that by doing a you know, what do they call a CC or whatever it is for for Jalen and address the doctor? I have my RD on this email thread. I would love an opportunity to hop on a quick Zoom where we can chat about better serving our clients because, as you know, a lot of trainers are practicing out of their scope. That's why I have Jalen on my team as the RD. If you're in the area, love to take you to lunch or dinner, talk more about what I'm doing. I'll get you in for a workout. That could open up whether if it's concierge medical stuff, or maybe this doc provides GLP ones. I don't know. But I would ask them, what do you do with your clients when they meet with you once a month? Like, what's that next step? Do you have a therapist you work with? Who's your RD? And a lot of times they won't. So then you can fill that void on both ends. You're looking out for Jalen, but you're also getting potential business. And tell the doc who's your trainer? Oh, doc, you don't have one. I'll give you my family and friends discount. No, it's 200 bucks. It's only 150 doc. So then you can start training the doc, nurse practitioners, people at their office. The sky's the limit.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Okay, yeah, that's very helpful. And I know she um the medical doc has lost a lot of weight herself. So I'm like, that'll be a great way to like network and stuff. And it just sets, it just raises the bar because even my client works with my DPT, and my DPT told her she was like, you need to start working with her three days a week. My client signed up for three days a week. So it's like other medical professionals also want to help you if they know that you're qualified. And I think that's the best part, and that's the starting point is being qualified.

90 Day Framework For Habits

Why Clients Listen And Closing

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Last couple of years we've been to close to 30 lifetimes. We've interviewed over 500 trainers. And I asked them, how many of you have an RD on your team? How many have a physical therapist? Less than 1%. So it's not to knock these trainers or trainers out there. We're providing an opportunity for you to make less by doing, we're providing an opportunity for you to make more by doing less. And that's like putting money in the stock market. It's working for you, setting clear expectations with your clients that we will get into nutrition because nutrition is absolutely important. But what I've found in the past is when I address it in the beginning, it's too overwhelming. We get frustrated, our mindset goes to shit, and we don't continue on with the workouts. So we own the workouts for a month, we get into nutrition. I link you up with my RD. You're gonna get the results better and safer, but more efficiently. So a year from now, you're not gonna be going down the same rabbit hole of oh, I'm gonna try this next diet, or I'm gonna try this next, oh, it's my metabolism. No, it's not. You haven't worked with a team, and that's what I'm providing you with. I think a great question that you can have during your assessment process for nutrition coaching. What does success look like in the next 90 days? And what are three questions that you have for me that you would like to achieve during this next 90-day period? And the reason I say 90 days is because most of my clients, they commit to 90 days, and then we can revisit that after the time. And then you can get into nutrition and you can get into sleep, even though you wouldn't think of sleep and nutrition being part of nutrition, but it's all part of that umbrella. You have metabolic awareness, so you get them taking photos and being aware of what they're consuming. Average Americans getting 3,500 calories. They don't realize that they think they're getting 1800 because that's what they're tracking, but it's actually probably double that. And the second month, you get into behavioral augmentation. Those are the habits. Are you really hungry or are you just bored? Did you drink a bottle of wine? You didn't tell me because you're not comfortable. That's going to affect your sleep. That's going to affect your stress. The last month can be longevity integration. So, what are things that we can integrate into your daily life for optimal longevity? And so when you have these conversations with your clients and then you add in, you sprinkle in every two weeks, four weeks a questionnaire that it's bringing them to the next phase and you review stress. And we have that in the program where we have that, you know, 15, 20 questions where you ask them them. And if you see something that's really out of whack, maybe you need to then start building your psychologist, reach out to them because there's behavioral stuff that's going on there, or eating disorders. There's so much that we do as trainers and we call ourselves a jack of all trades. But truly, if you are a jack of all trades, you have the team to support you. If you try to tackle all this stuff at once or just as an individual, it's gonna be very overwhelming because we're not given those tools in a freaking textbook. Why not go to the horse's mouth, pun intended, and work with these experts?

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Yeah, I totally agree. That's exactly what my RD said. Um, my client, when she first came to me, she first came to me in February, barely getting any sleep, going to bed at 12, waking up at 10 a.m. And granted, yes, that's you know, a long amount of like a long time to be asleep, but just her lifestyle wasn't aligned with her goals. And it's like I I wish trainers could truly understand when you have an RD and you have a medical professional on your team, it not only makes your job easier, but it shows your clients that, like, no, this whatever your goals are, it's possible. I've done like macro counting or basic metabolic rating accounting for my clients, and they're like, Oh, okay, that's cool. But as soon as you bring your RD on a call, they're like, Oh, I want to sleep more. You know, my client who just left, she was like, I've got so much water, she barely was drinking a bottle. And now she's going through a bottle a day, she was barely drinking. Now she's going through two just within our one-hour training session. She's like, Yeah, last night I went to bed at 9:30. And that's something my RD was telling her, like, hey, I really want you to get your sleep. She was just sitting on the couch. It was very sedentary lifestyle. Now she's, you know, I go on a walk and I feel overwhelmed. It just changes the game and it just brings so much value to who you are as a coach.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

The common default that we see with trainers is you have these conversations during your sessions or during the rest. And then when you bring that RD out a client not too long ago, and she's like, I'm I'm finally, you know, a lot more aware of my calories because I'm counting them. And that's because the RD said that. How many times has a trainer said, Oh, you got to be more aware of your portions and you got to be aware of this and you got to count your calories? But your clients don't take it seriously because it's during the session. So then when you schedule a time and then meet with that professional, now it's a priority. They're taking notes, and this is something that they realize is really important because they're investing into it. They have skin in the game and they're paying on top of what they're paying you as a trainer. These are things that absolutely we should be doing. And it's a win-win. Your clients get better served. They're going to get the results faster. You're now paying an RD. So you're building your team, but you are more professional in the eyes of the clientele. Now remember, RDs on your team are better than no RDs and keep showing up.