From SUF CPT to Life Time Trainer in Austin | Sean Hyson's Success Story

The hardest part of becoming a great personal trainer usually isn’t programming, it’s walking up to strangers and starting the awkward conversation anyway. Tyson Robertson sits down with Sean Hyson, a newly minted Show Up Fitness Level One trainer who just started coaching at Lifetime Fitness in Austin, Texas, to talk through what the first two months really look like inside a premium big-box gym.

We get specific about client acquisition and building a book of business: how the concierge desk and intro sessions help, why you still have to work the floor, and how to keep your approach natural instead of pushy. Sean shares what’s working best for him right now, including free workshops like joint-friendly strength training and shoulder pain fixes that attract the people most ready to invest. We also talk honestly about who tends to buy training, why “the bros” often resist coaching, and how follow-up creates the multiple touchpoints most members need before they commit.

Then we zoom out to the bigger picture: bridge pay, the early financial squeeze, and why sales confidence matters when training packages can run well over $1,000 a month. Sean explains how his background as a longtime fitness writer and editor shaped his coaching, and why AI and the collapse of magazine media pushed him toward a more human, client-facing career. If you’re a new CPT trying to succeed at Lifetime, Equinox, or any commercial gym, you’ll walk away with practical tactics, real expectations, and a clear reminder that results come from trust, consistency, and smart progressive training.

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Transcript

Welcome And What You’ll Learn

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Addio, welcome back to the Show of Fitness podcast. We have a really cool podcast today with Mr. Tyson, anatomy instructor and trainer at Lifetime. But he's interviewing one of our stud, our hunkets, Mr. Sean. Sean Heisen went through, got his CPT, and now he is training at Lifetime in Austin. The audio quality is not 100% amazing, but it's still a really, really cool call. Listen to these two hunks talk about what you need to do to be successful at a big box gym, how to get clients, what they're struggling with, how to implement the CCA, level up your business. If you enjoyed today's call, we always appreciate it when you throw it into your story. Leave a five-star review for the podcast. If you've read my book back there, leave a five-star review for that. So trainers know that there is a path for success, and that's exactly what we're helping provide.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Remember, big biceps are better than small ones. Keep showing

Sean’s Start At Lifetime

SPEAKER_01 0:55

up. My name is Tyson. I am the anatomy instructor at the Show Up Fitness, and we're here today with uh Sean Hyson out of Texas, uh newly minted Show Up Fitness level one trainer, and just recently started at the lifetime down in Austin, Texas. And uh how's it going, Sean? Like what what's what's new? How you been since uh you got your level one certification?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

I'm alright, Tyson. I appreciate you having me on. Uh yeah, I mean, without any further prompting, I'm happy to report that I think Show Up Fitness did everything possible to prepare me for a new career as a full-time personal trainer. And I I couldn't be happier with the program. And uh I mean I've learned a lot since. And as they as they say, level one is level one, it's just the beginning. But I really feel like that was as good a start as I could have had for the job that I'm doing now.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

How long have you been at the lifetime there? And kind of what was your process in getting in? Like, take us back to like right when you uh passed the the level one zoom, 15-minute zoom with an instructor, past that, moving forward, set your sights on, getting into a gym and getting some real experience. What did what did that look like? What brought you to lifetime and what were like the steps of onboarding?

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Well, the reason I wanted to do lifetime, I was aware of the the chain before, obviously, but when I first started talking to Chris Hitchco and like became aware of uh Show of Fitness, you know, he he explained to me that he had a connection with Lifetime and he could uh you know grease the wheels and make it possible to get into a lifetime as a trainer or an equinox, you know, both of those being top-tier gyms and and uh where the you know there's the highest earning potential and the most you know career growth potential. So that's what turned me on to uh pursuing a career there. So I got the I went, I pursued it, got the certification, and then he uh got me an interview with, as promised, with the uh the GM of the the local club that had just opened. And I went in there and I did everything that he and you and everybody at show up told me to do. I you know, I said everything that you told me to say in the interviews, and it made it a lot, the whole process a lot easier. And after a couple rounds of interviews, I got offered the job, and I it's been uh I guess nine, 10 weeks now that I've been there.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Okay, so you're about two months in. What's happened? I'm sure it's a roller coaster. I know how I felt when I first came into Lifetime. You're meeting new people, you're having assessments, you're trying to sell, you're trying to make sure you're folks on your programming. What does that whirlwind look like in the first two months of onboarding at lifetime?

The First Two Months Whirlwind

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Yeah, a whirlwind is a good metaphor for it. Um, you know, they what's great about working in a big box place like that is the management, they will, the concierge desk, they will set you up with people who are potential clients. They'll introduce you to people, they'll book you with these intro sessions so you can start meeting people and you know, possibly begin to convert them, but not probably as much as you'd like them to. You you still have to work the floor, as we call it, walking the floor. You have to go up and start conversations and uh and you know, spot people and hand out towels and uh try to you know make as many connections as you can on your own and hope that you can you know build those relationships and convert them into clients down the line. So it's just a lot of awkward conversations, really. I just you know going up to people at random, trying to get them into a conversation that leads somewhere. And of course, you know, everybody these days has their earphones in and you know they're sweating and they're in the middle of a workout, and nine times out of ten, they have no interest in talking to you and they act like you're you know you're slowing their roll and disrupting their day, and it's a big nuisance. So, you know, you have to keep your chin up and keep be aggressively, assertively going after that. And you know, so that was the first couple weeks in the job, and it was rough. And and I was it was very uh, you know, I'm not a natural extrovert. That doesn't come easily to me. So I really had to get out of my comfort zone to make that happen. But you know, little by little you get the ball rolling, and I I got some people familiar with me and some friendly faces, and uh I was able to convert a couple of those clients and then a couple or a couple of these people into clients, and then a couple of the people that uh the concierge desk set me up with and for goal setting and intro sessions, they became clients, and I feel like I've got a lot more momentum now.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Beautiful. That's that's generally what it takes, it's just a little bit of momentum, something to break through, I think, with the personal training game. Once you can get some dominoes to fall, it kind of gives you a little more confidence to go out and talk to that next person. Like you get beat down over and over by you know, chatting with someone, introducing yourself, you get the cold shoulder, you know, you're helping out with this, helping out with that, and it seems like people are very unwilling to talk. But then one out of ten times you get the one person that's like, hey, I got a question for you. And then, you know, and then it opens up a conversation where you can actually help a person. So I get you when it it's really hard to start out with on building relationships.

Breaking The Ice On The Floor

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Do you have any type of tips or tricks that you use on maybe remembering people's names, like remembering like a combo so that maybe you can build on a relationship later? I feel like just personally, real quick, starting slow with someone is usually the best thing, like saying hi, giving them a compliment, and then just walking on and then trying to remember maybe if they introduce themselves, remember their name. What type of like tips or tricks do you have or have you been using to try and keep people kind of in your circle of uh of relationship?

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Yes, I think what you just said is absolutely right. Um, real simple, basic stuff, you know, handing out a towel, offering to spot them on a bench press or a squat, complimenting them. Uh, I always try to, you know, keep it casual and as unsalesy as possible, keep it as natural as possible. You know, hey, how you doing today? What are you working on? What's your goal? You know, can I help you with this? Or, you know, hey, I see you're doing uh hip thrusts. Here's a tip to find the right positioning from the box, here's where to put your feet or something you might try. And you know, it's it's funny how that stuff does uh eventually accumulate into something, you know, it maybe not the first time, but maybe the third or fourth time you see them, you know, they're a little more familiar with you now, they trust you a little bit more because you've been offering free information. Um, I feel like this any kind of sales, it it's just it's like dating, you know, it's it's just like it's the same thing. You know, you're gonna click with some people, and the other people you're not gonna click with, and it really doesn't matter what you say and do, you know, you know, it works or it doesn't. You can uh you know, there's some people who are gonna take a shine to you because of how you look and how you speak, or just the energy that you have you when you guys match up, and then other people you can be incredibly nice and patient, and it won't make move the needle at all.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I I think coming from the uh kind of the side of being a little more introverted, maybe like you, I'm like that the same way. Like I can feel energy when it comes to like speaking with people and talking and tell and like trying to assess whether or not, you know, could this be something? But I've been more often than not, I've actually been surprised the people sometimes that you think may not be willing to chat are the ones that open up and like tell you their whole life story. Whereas some people who are super, super nice, they don't want anything to do with you in the sense of like training with you. So I think just getting as many test points as you possibly can and just what I like to look at is like you got a garden, right? And you're just planting seeds. You don't know which ones are gonna come up, you just try to plant seeds everywhere. And and I like to hear that you are training some people now and have some clients. So can you give me like a little idea of what that looks like, how many sessions you're running, and and how many people you have within your circle of training?

Free Workshops That Convert Clients

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Yeah, well, how many clients I have and how many show up consistently are two different questions. But I I think what's been most effective for me is, and I would love to hear if you've done the same thing, is uh is doing free workshops. You know, we we have uh we can put on our schedule every day, they have a list of all the classes that are available at Lifetime on the Lifetime app. And people look up, I think that morning what they want to take that day, and it's all for free. So they come in and they they try to find some classes that are you know suit whatever their goals are. And I've been offering joint-friendly strength training where I make it very clear I'm gonna show you some workarounds. If you got a bad shoulder, bad back, bad knee, here's some ways you can keep training that doesn't want to aggravate those injuries. And then I kind of built on that with uh I'm now doing uh shoulder pain fast fixes as a workshop, which I'm basing I'm basing entirely on the show of fitness shoulder seminar that Chris and company did at the laughtime uh just a month or so ago. Like I'm taking a lot, I'm repurposing a lot of or is a nice way of saying I'm basically robbing and pillaging everything you guys taught me at that last seminar. I'm using that on clients, and it's I've so far I've gotten a great response from that. So just giving out free workshops or people can sign up the day of and show up and get some kind of you know quick uh uh feedback and and you know, feel like they got a good workout for free right on the spot. That has greased the wheels. And I of course I get names and leads from that that I follow up with, and I've been able to convert some of those people. And and so far I I feel like um I'm getting some most traction with people who are a little bit older, people who are injured, and a lot of moms too. A lot of like middle-aged moms who uh want to get in shape again for their next pregnancy or they want to get back in shape after pregnancy. That for whatever reason, that's not who I uh envisioned myself training decades ago, but that seems to be who's been most responsive thus far.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Yeah, I think that's kind of the thing, right? We think when you're training, you're training like all these stud athletes or like Connor McGregor. Oh, I I could have trained Connor McGregor, he wouldn't have got injured in the fight last night, you know, stuff like that. But uh when you're work dealing with gen pop, I think I don't know, this this is definitely stereotypical, but it seems like the bros, they tend to know it all. Oh, I betch 350 back in the day, you know, I'm doing fine, even though they can't even put their shoulder above their head. They're not gonna they're not gonna seek out help. Sometimes they need they don't know what they don't know. They need to be shown that they can progress. But I feel like women, like you said, middle-aged women, are a little more open to coaching and a little more open to hearing, you know, from a trainer and learn like basic principles of lifting and stuff like that. So it's interesting to say that because I've had the same, I've had the exact same experience.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Yeah, you're absolutely right about the bros too. I've had almost no success with any of the young guys who are, you know, at all muscular, who have any training experience. They think they know everything. You know, you can't you can't teach you can't tell them a thing. I've got one guy now who wants to get bigger and he's been training with me, and he's been great, but uh everybody else is like they they just turn a deaf ear. Whereas I find the women are almost always far more receptive.

Staying Fit While Building The Business

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yep. Let's switch gears. How's how's your training going? Are you still able to fit in time to work on yourself?

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Yeah, that's a great question. It's been tough. You you'd think that uh working in a gym, you'd have no excuse but to be in the best shape of your life all the time. But it is anything but, you know, I can I can only train when when I'm not training somebody else or when I don't have a meeting or something, and so it's like early, early morning or late at night and and my off days. So it's been tough, but but uh, you know, of course, this is like my biggest passion, so I find a way to get it in. But I have noticed that I'm not I'm not progressing at quite the same smooth rate that I was prior to taking this work. I think is my recovery is is being challenged like it hasn't been in a long, long time.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it? You think that you're in the gym all the time and you have access to all those waste, but thing is you're constantly, especially now, you're in the thick of it, right? Like you're in the thick of building your business and you gotta hustle and you gotta get as many people within your web as you can. So we tend to forget about that. So I'm gonna give you encouragement, Sean. Go in there if you have 10 minutes, throw some plates on the bench, you know, the machine bench, it'll be easier. You don't have to worry about getting spottered and knock out some sets here. That's that's what I do. I'm always working on mobility. And actually, to be to be honest with you, I think getting out there and just doing some knickknack things on the side kind of creates like an eye towards you where people are like, I wonder like why is he doing the 90-90? Why is why is he doing some shoulder bandwidth? Like what what is what is that? I think it draws people's interest. So I'd encourage you to do stuff like that. I don't know if you have, I encourage you to do like maybe some mobility drills. Like you're obviously doing workshops, but mobility drills, little kettlebell stuffs, things that are kind of outside the box and not like traditional strength training. I feel like I feel like feel like it brings a lot of attention to you because you'll be that guy doing all the crazy shit on the side.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Yeah, that's a great point. I think the more that you can be seen on the gym floor doing anything, especially stuff that, like you said, is a little more unconventional or eye-catching, the better it is for your business. You're basically selling yourself without having to overtly sell yourself. And yeah, I think I've have found that it's good for like a lot of the little tasks that you don't really want to do at the end of your workout because you're tired or your time is not permitting. But you know, you can sneak in some more core work, you can sneak in some grip work, some mobility work, as you said. Uh, you know, it it the nice thing about being in a gym all day long is yeah, you do have access to you know bars and racks and stuff, so you can sneak in a couple sets here and there of core or stretching or stuff that you if you were just going to the gym and then going home, you you'd never make the time for.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Uh yeah, that's great. What do you what do you what do you see happening in the next couple weeks, two, three weeks?

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Well, if the schedule doesn't run me into the ground, I'm I'm hoping that I'll have a you know a full book of business uh before too, too long. It's tough right now because this is summertime and so many people are traveling and and they're really inconsistent. There's so many vacations you have to work around. So I don't expect things to really pick up until you know at the end of August. But I'm hoping but by the fall, you know, I'll have a a steady number of reliable clients and I'll be uh able to pay my bills again.

Bridge Pay And The Money Reality

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yeah. Are you having to so are you having to do any type of supplement on the side as far as income goes, or are you all in at the gym? Sounds like you're all in.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

I'm all in on the gym. I mean, I do coach a little bit online, but it's not enough income to really speak of. So for those who don't know, uh Lifetime offers a bridge pay when you start. They'll pay you a certain allowance every week to kind of keep you afloat while they're expecting you to hustle and get clients. And then once you uh after a certain number of time, they'll either take that bridge pay away, or when your when your uh client commissions exceed that number, you know, you're off on you're off on your own and you're living purely off those commissions. So I'm not at the point yet where I'm living purely off the commissions, but I hope to be soon. So to be perfectly honest with you, I am losing money right now. I'm living off you know my hard-earned life savings, and I'm I'm hoping that uh I won't have to much longer, but I am hemorrhaging money on a weekly basis at the moment.

Selling Confidence And High Prices

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the the plight of a trainer, right? Is just building that book of business and getting it going, getting it moving. Uh here at Show Up, we like to talk about confidence as being one of the main factors when it comes to selling and getting people uh to train with you. How has Show Up given you confidence? Or do you feel like it's like a riding away? Like some days you come in feeling confident, some days you have those automatic negative thoughts in the back of your head. How would Show Up help with the confidence? And and what's the what's the daily struggle like with that when it comes to like your seller approach? Because I know for me, I've had days where like I I I pretty much recommend exactly what the person wants. I pitch the number, they're okay with it. Whereas when I first started, you know, I was hesitant, I was kind of like beaten around a bush when I say the number wasn't super confident. I think that comes with building a book of business and being at the point where supply and demand is at a point where I can offer a higher price and not have to worry about the person signing necessarily. But from your perspective, like again, you're in the thick of it, you're are in you're in the the ways, the ways are thrashing. How does that confidence ebb and flow and and what's helped you through show up and how you're gonna use those things going forward?

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Well, I don't think I would have had any confidence in the sales stuff if it hadn't been for Shaw, because a a big part of the uh the level one course is videos talking about how to how to sell and how to feel confident doing that. And yeah, I mean, you guys pretty much all but give a a word-by-word script on how to do that. I mean, Chris lays out here are the points you want to hit, you know, here's here's the timing of it. Here, you know, do the assessment, do the workout, and then here's how you present the training packages. You know, if it hadn't been for that, I I don't I I would have really just been guessing my way through it, and I sure I would have had a much, much harder time. Um, but yeah, I I have days where I feel better than others, and again, I kind of liken it to dating. It's like there's some people who come in and we have a good connection and an energy right off the bat, and I feel really good about it, and I just know they're gonna buy, or I feel really good that I can I can get them to buy something. And other people, it's just a stone wall, and I feel like there's nothing I can do. And often at times, even if we have a great workout, and we almost always do, I still feel like it's not gonna go that well, and then it doesn't. So yeah, I think there's the the the sad truth of it is is you know, you just some people you're gonna be able to connect with and other people you're not gonna be able to budge no matter what. And I've gotten pretty much nothing but great feedback on my workouts, but you know, at those intro sessions anyway, but uh a lot of times when I get them in the chair and we start talking business, like they just they they won't pony up the money. And I think I I wonder if if my lifetime is a little bit of an atypical situation because we are, to my knowledge, the most expensive club in Texas. We have the highest membership fees, and then our training packages are several hundred dollars on top of that. So for some of these people to get the cheapest training package we offer, it's still gonna be well over a grand a month of investment in their fitness. And while for a lot of these people, money is no object, for a lot of others it still is, and I still think it's hard for them to see the value in spending that much money on fitness. You know, we at the end of the day, we are selling, we're not selling the perfect body, we're selling hard work. We're selling our product is the hard work it takes to get the fit the perfect body or the fitness level that they want. And it's just not as simple as selling the pharmaceuticals and the supplements and all these other things that are marketed as a much quicker fix.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Well, that's the thing, you have to make a sale, but then you have to service it. So not only you got to show up and make a sale to the person to get them on board, and then that's when the work just begins. Then it's it's servicing your client, providing them with the best experience they possibly can have, doing it safely, progressively overloading them enough to where they're seeing results. Like there's really a lot that goes into it. I had a talk last week in the uh in the trainer meeting, and uh the PTO, the personal training lead just wanted me to speak on programming for 15 to 20 minutes, and we were talking about just how hard it is to do all these things. We haven't even talked about programming. You know, everyone just kind of goes out there and does their own thing. Well, what's the proper programming like that to show up like to talk about with the CCAs, progressive oil overloading, used using four movement patterns so that you can, you know, say you want to go out there and use the bench press if taken. Well, just take a step back and horizontal push. We'll go do some push-up or we'll go get on the machine and get some dumbbells. Like, how can you incorporate all of those things? I always say that personal train is like one of the hardest. Um probably to me, just because I love working on a gym rat, it's the most fulfilling, but it really is one of the hardest professions I think to break through in. So I I give you uh I give you a lot of credit for going in there and and taking the plunge, right? You're going all in at it. And I think it's a it's a great thing to hear from someone who's going through thinking, especially someone like you who has had a lot of success in the fitness industry in another another avenue. And before we go on any more about the training stuff like that, can you can you share with us a little bit about like your previous um like your previous direction in the fitness industry and what that looks like and how that compares and contrasts to being in the trenches as a trainer now?

From Fitness Media To Coaching

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Yeah, I like to say that for 20 plus years I was trainer adjacent. You know, I wrote about training and diet and exercise uh by interviewing people like you, great trainers and coaches, for years and years. I was an editor at uh Men's Fitness Magazine for a long, long time. And then I worked for Muscle and Fitness and Men's Health, and I wrote a book for men's health, and I was in fitness magazines, and then I worked for the supplement lifestyle company uh on it for almost a decade. And so I was but basically the same work. I I was always, you know, interviewing trainers and nutritionists, and I was talking to celebrities and and athletes about their workouts and kind of you know getting their best tips and turning that into articles and videos and stuff like that. And along the way, you know, so I knew what I was doing. I got certified with through various organizations and got various training credentials over the years, and and uh, you know, I was coaching people on the side, but I really never spent time or any significant amount of time training people in person in a gym before. All my experience was kind of uh secondhand or you know remote. So I yeah, I I I can't say enough about you know, I can underscore what you what you just said. I think this is one of the toughest professions. It's certainly got to be the toughest sales job that there is. And I have you know, my hat is off to you guys for for uh grinding it out as long as you can. This is this is a A very tough business to break through in. And it's very tough in general. I think you know to be a good coach, you have to be you have to know the science of training, but you also have to be a psychologist, you have to be a friend, you have to be a showman, you have to be uh a nutritionist. There's so many hats you have to wear, and and the the amount of being on, like just the problem solving you have to do thinking on your feet and just reacting in the moment, because some people they don't show up and other people take their place last minute, and somebody comes in injured, somebody comes in in a bad mood. You there's no time to relax. You have to really be you know dialed in. And I think to again, to the credit of Shell of Fitness, you guys do such a great job of that at in the the level one course, preparing people to think on their feet and and call audibles, like you said, if the bench press is taken, what are we going to do for chest instead that day? What's our horizontal push? You've got to be you know really sharp as attack.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Yeah, man. Yeah, for sure. Uh curious, what got you into the fitness industry way back when?

SPEAKER_02 22:58

I I was just uh kind of a college you know meat head. I I really got into working out in college. I was I did martial arts as a kid, but I was never really an athlete. And I just sort of I fell in love with lifting in in in college because that was kind of the thing to do at my school. It was sort of a trendy thing. And I did I'm just one of those people I had that wiring in my brain where I did it one day and I was hooked. That was it. I didn't need to ease into it. I was like full on from the first time on the gym. So I just I knew I had a passion for it, but I I also felt like my my real talent was writing, like that was what I had done prior to that. I was always, you know, writing articles for the school newspapers and you know, uh essays and stuff that I was getting good grades on and winning awards for and stuff. So I thought, well, that's where I should go. Like I should try to exploit that because that's what what's what comes most easily to me. So I thought maybe I can apply, you know, I could combine the two and I'll I'll write about fitness and make some career out of that. And I fortunately had a you know connection with a publishing company that put out fitness magazines and you know the rest was cut

AI, Gen Pop Myths, And Real Coaching

SPEAKER_02 23:57

was history. But then, you know, who knew that uh 20 years later with with AI and social media, you know, the magazine industry would basically collapse and there wasn't going to be a future for me in that. So what I had what I had to fall back on was uh the knowledge that I accumulated about training for all these years.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Okay, and so that's kind of why you transitioned into the in-person is that you saw kind of the wave coming down the pike or whatever, and you noticed that AI was probably going to, well, the magazine industry went online, right? But then you feel like AI is gonna take some of that, like some of that away from from writers online?

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Yeah, I mean, it already has. I men's health and these brands, they they still exist, but to be frank, I mean, they're shadows of their former selves. Their read is not what it was. And you know, there are people online, you know, influencers who were you know in their early 20s who probably get as much of more engagement than those brands do. And there's just too much competition. You know, now people don't really have the time to read articles, they're just gonna ask a question in AI and they'll get an an answer spit back of them. And I'm not sure that even personal training is really safe from that. I I know it's gonna change how we do things, but I I I wanted to take my career in a direction where I was gonna be social and and you know, client-facing and and deal with people every day. And I feel like you know that is always gonna be secure for us. There's always gonna be a market for people who want to show up and interact with somebody in person. And you know, even though they can get all the information about how to train and eat online, there's still gonna be a lot of people who will only see results if they have somebody like you or me to come in and and see how you do it.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah, I agree 100%. It's got to be tailored for them, it's got to be adjusted for them. Like you said, when they come in, their their personality could change from day to day, how they feel, their sleep. There's all these different factors that you're just not gonna get when you type in the chat GPT, I want to grow my glutes, and it has you do walking lunges for 25 minutes straight, you know, but take a step back and maybe Betsy or whatever comes in and didn't sleep and maybe had a couple glasses of wine last night. We're obviously gonna regress for that. We don't want to injure people. And so, yeah, a qualified trainer that can understand the person in front of them and apply the right principles to that training program and the right intensity, volume, frequency, all those things is really what's gonna get the best best pain for your buck uh with your people. And and I would just share that I tell I tell my clients these things. Like as I start to develop a relationship, I start talking about volume, frequency, and intensity. I start talking about progressive overload. I start talking about what does it look like when you are deadlifting, you know, 135 instead of 95. Like you are a completely different machine at that point. I always like to say, we're building the biggest engine possible, like say for fat loss, we're building the biggest engine possible. Once we build that big engine, then if you want to start doing maybe some cuts as far as like calories go, reverse dieting, you can do that and that fat will melt off. But guess what? When you refeed, when you're hungry again, put all that energy toward the lifts again, and then you're gonna build muscle energy to offer the races again. I always have this talk, especially with people on the on the cardio equipment, like what's your goal? It's fat loss. Well, did you know that cardio is not the best for fat loss? Cardio is great, it's great for heart health, but not necessarily the best for fat loss. Why is that? Well, it's temporary, and you start going down the road of talking about not only anecdote but also studies. Um, I'm not sure exactly where I'm going things, but uh you know, it's just one it's it's it's ri it really does create a good experience for someone, and it's three things that I like to say. If you can get someone out of pain, if you can increase their performance, that helps their lifestyle. Or if you can get them to that point where they feel better in their clothes, like fat loss, right? I like to say the scale is very low on importance, but how you feel, compliments you get, how your clothes fit. Those three things though, fat loss, performance slash lifestyle, and getting out of pain. If you can help someone with those three characteristics, I think that you can really build a good book of business. You can ask for refer referrals, people will start talking about you, and I think that just leads. It just takes time though, and showing up every single day. And that's that's what I've known so far. I told myself the first six months that I was gonna be here, that I was going to pretty much live here, and people said that right off the bat. They're like, Oh, you're here on your day off. I'm like, day off. I did have one day off, right? I'm a firm believer in the one day like you have today. It's kind of working, you know. You're talking about fitness, you've got some errors to run and stuff like that. But yeah, take one day to relax and decompress. I'm a firm believer in grinding to gold that book a business engine to show up consistently in six months, though. I'm not gonna be one to run 35 sessions a week. I'm gonna try and you know, scale that back, but you have to push, push, push to get that number that high. Question though, do you still write?

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Uh, I am available for writing. I really haven't done much in a while. Uh, you know, occasionally some of my old uh clients and contacts will reach out and say, Hey, do you want to do an article on this or that? And I'll say yes. And I I still I have a newsletter, I still have uh uh some social media, so I I try to put out content when I can, but I I just I can't commit to anything right now because I'm I'm so entrenched and trying to build this thing with lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Yeah. What when you walk in the gym, what's the first what's the first things that you do when you walk in for the day?

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Well, it depends if I have a a session that morning or not. If if I don't, then I'll usually walk the floor and you know try to meet people and and talk. And uh if I have uh programs to write, I'll maybe I'll go to the cafe and I'll I'll follow up with people. I mean, so much of this is it's follow-up. They people, as you said before, they need multiple touches of you know contact. They don't buy right away. So, you know, maybe you have a goal setting, maybe you have an interest session, but then you know, you gotta send them some freebies, send them some articles, uh, send them uh free diet, send them some tips. I I'm always I'm emailing people half a day, like, you know, hey, remember me, we talked last week, you know, we you mentioned these things were important to you. Here's some stuff that you might help you and get the ball rolling. And so I I'm always if I'm not dealing with somebody face to face, I'm probably reaching out to them online.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

How are you ending the day? How are you trying to how are you decompressing every single day?

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Yeah, I mean, I have just enough time at on the weekdays to come back and and watch my uniform and go to bed because I don't know if people realize this, but it at lifetime, we know we have these issued uh black shirts and shorts. And for some reason I've only been given one pair of the black shorts, so I have to watch the day.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Maybe to stock you up with some more gear.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Yeah, well, I'm I placed an order for some more, but there seems to be a uh little delay on that. So I I have I have to come home every night and wash my clothes and wear them again the same day.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Oh, that's funny. Well, what would you say is some funny interactions that you've had with either members or people that have worked there,

Gym Culture Stories And Peptides Talk

SPEAKER_01 30:52

team members? Like, is there anything kind of out of the box that's happening when we deal with people every day? Is there anything random that's happened since you've been there?

SPEAKER_02 30:59

You know, it's it's funny because Lifetime is a a corporation and we're all under that umbrella and we're W-2 employees, but we're at the same time we're independent contractors. So everybody there, you know, they don't tell us how to train anybody, which I love. You know, they don't have a philosophy or a rules on how to do any of this. So every trainer there is very different. They all have their different styles. And I see some people doing you know wild, crazy stuff that I would never do, but their clients seem to love it, and so that's fine. Uh so that's one thing that I think is funny. Everybody's got their own way of doing business. And then, you know, this is 2026, and pharmaceu pharmaceuticals and technology are are you know changing our lives every day. And I mean, the the questions that I'm getting about uh you know peptides and and the uh assumptions that people have about stuff like that is incredible. I I asked the guy the other day, you know, so what you know, what's your training program like? What are you working on? It's like I take peptides. All right, but well, that doesn't answer my question. What do you what are you doing today? Ah, but I take peptides. Like it that was kind of his way of thinking was well, I'm taking peptides, so it doesn't matter what I could do. It's like yeah, I think in his mind it was like steroids. I can lift anything and do whatever I want, I'm gonna see great results. So good luck selling a guy like that on training.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Yeah, it's it's interesting when you hear what people's mindsets are around training, especially for someone like you or me that have had their ear to the industry and have trained themselves and been around other trainers and stuff like that. It's interesting to hear what the general population thinks about what training really is. The one big thing that I always see is that people go into the group uh training classes and they stay on strength training because they call it like alpha strength or something like that. Sometimes I'm like, should I be offended or should I not be? Because yeah, they are building a little bit of strength, right? But at the same time, like real strength happens when you are progressively overloading and you're you're hitting rep ranges. Obviously at the start, we're going like 12 to 15 for a couple weeks just to build that foundation. But when we're getting into 10 rep ranges and eight rep ranges where the RIR reps and reserve is only one or two, that last rep is really, really tough. That's building strength. And some people they think they're they're taking care of that by doing group fitness classes. And I always tell people, and I see so many people getting hurt, and I always say, you know, group fitness is great if you love community, you love breaking sweat, moving, building a little bit of strength, but the risk is high because they can't hurt all of you cats at one one time. That group instructor can't hurt all of you guys at one time. They're not really taking care of your form. And if you really want to build strength, you need to be out here in the lay room always pointing towards the weights. And they look at it, and there's so many options, and it and it just looks so daunting. Like, what do I even do or how do I even try? But I'm covering that for people and getting them to talk about their fear, their insecurity about the weights. I tell them all, I tell people all the time that you know I I see people in here lifting, and based on optimal goals, I would say for most people, like 10 to 15 percent of people, maybe less, are actually doing what they need to do for that. And that's that's where we come in as trainers. And all that being said, I just think the market is is still there. It's just I'm covering those whys. I I feel like maybe for you two, you've noticed like if you can get some good what or why questions in there where you get people to open up about their pain points or what they're really struggling with, or even their past or past injuries or anything, it just makes it so much easier to talk and then you know, at some point, maybe that not during that initial discussion, but at some point down the road, you can give them something that can help them, or you can create a scenario where it sparks their interest and they'll be willing to like, you know, to work with you, or even to do an intro, because at least if you have that intro, I like to spend at least an hour and a half with somebody. You really get to know somebody and you really get a chance to bond with somebody. We're in the personal training industry, and that that's what it's all about, is bonding with people. I mean, you have some people that take it for granted, you have some people that are energy vampires, is like what I like to call it. Um but we just gotta we gotta keep showing up, like you said, keep doing the thing. And uh Yeah, so I mean it's it's great. I I love seeing new trainers putting in the work and showing up. Had some trainers here to talk about I'm not coming in on my day off, I'm not doing that, or someone wanted to schedule a session and like I'm not gonna schedule because that's that's that's my day off. I'm thinking in the back of my head, yep, I mean maybe, like, yeah, sure. But sometimes like when I started, I was just trying to get people in all the time. My scheduled hours were 11 to 9, but I was coming in and doing sessions at 7, 8, and 9 just because that's when they could train. Like we'd literally have to be there when people can train. Um, but at that point you have to think about yourself like what am I doing for myself to help with the mental, you know, spiritual, physical, all those things. How are you recovering from it so that you can you know pour from a a more full cup because it's it's draining and it and it takes a lot of time. Um so yeah, man, I thank you for for being on here.

Where To Find Sean And Closing

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Uh do you have anything else that you'd like to share with us on your journey or anything that you look forward to to doing in the future or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Yeah, I would just reiterate that and and to be clear, I'm not a an official spokesperson for show up fitness by any means. I'm not being paid, but I really feel like it it prepared me as much as I could expect to be prepared for this career. And and I I'm glad that I didn't go with the more conventional, bigger name uh certs or organizations like in NASDAQ because I I know NASM trainers at Lifetime now, and they've told me they feel lost when they you know see clients clients the first time. They don't feel prepared for this stuff. But you know, show up made me feel about as good as I could feel, you know, jumping into this, you know, uh with both feet. So you guys do a great job and you you're putting out a wonderful product.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Awesome. I appreciate that, Sean. Yeah, I feel the same exact way when I went back and was going through the NASA and being a good boy, opened up the 750-page textbook, taking all the quizzes, and I was about two months in and I was only a third of the way to the book. I thought I was like, what gives? You know, this is taking forever. I just want to start training. That's when I YouTube uh still open stock Chris posterior tilting and showers bell buckle and and what the fun he was his personality on on the YouTube was great. I I really thought it was funny, but at the same time, like what he was saying was was true, and I felt like I really connected with him and the principles that he was sharing. So uh I'm the same way. I think Showp has the best fundamental principles for new trainers, hands down. And uh, you know, as it grows, as we get more people on, uh the live calls, we have Iran Gugori coming up. Uh he's he's the gentleman that uh started Real Coaches, uh Real World Coaches Summit in Las Vegas. Um I think you've been to that one, correct?

SPEAKER_02 37:43

Yes, I know Iran very well, and I went to the RCS conference this year, and I I would also speak very highly of of both.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

Yeah, so that's great. That's really exciting to get people who are you know in the industry, in the trenches, doing the thing, and and and have you know a good following too. You know, we're having him on this Thursday to talk about nutrition. We have some other physical therapists, we've had Andrew Coates on. It's just really fun to see these things starting to starting to fall through. And I think one thing that's real fitness needs more is a little more ubiquity and a little more standing where people think about, oh yeah, that's that's where great trainers are made. And so all that being said, man, I thank you for being on, my man. Um, I wish you the best of luck. You have my number if you need it, if you ever want to talk, stop, ask questions, or even just event. I'm open for it. I know as trainers, we we probably need therapists too. Um so I I thank you for being on, my man. And uh where can people find you and and keep your involved and or your uh your parting parting shots?

SPEAKER_02 38:42

Yeah, I mean, I'm still pretty active on Instagram. Uh just as my name at Sean Hysen, and uh if you want to come to my website at sewnhyson.com or my brand fitnessdistilled.com, that'll take you to the same place. So yeah, look me up on there, and I like I said, I do still do my newsletter, so sign up for that, and I'll send out uh usually weekly emails with good tips and tricks, stuff you can use.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

All right, cool. Well, there you have it. We have Sean Hyson out of Austin, Texas, new trainer Lifetime. I'm Tyson Robertson, anatomy instructor with Show of Fitness. If you guys have any questions, check out the show of fitness CPT page on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and also we are online at show of fitness.com. Hope to see you guys soon. Remember to keep uh keep showing up, baby.