The Hard Truth About Making Money as a Personal Trainer

Hustle matters. There’s no way around it.

In this episode of Smittyville, we talk honestly about money and why effort, consistency, and hustle still play a major role in building a successful career as a personal trainer. This isn’t about grind culture or empty motivation — it’s about understanding how money works so your hard work actually leads somewhere.

Hosted by Chris Smith, CEO of Fitness World, and Krissy Vann, national television host and fitness journalist behind All Things Fitness and Wellness, this episode breaks down what it really takes for personal trainers to earn more, keep more, and use money as a tool for growth.

If you’re a personal trainer who loves what you do but wants your hustle to translate into stability, opportunity, and long-term success, this episode is for you.

Transcript

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there shouldn't be any surprises and it's like no but I how did I know a client was gonna leave me they've been with me for 3 years cause they always do and they always will so if you're ever in a place where like I'll I'll have my clients forever I'm golden they're not gonna be there forever they just won't they're gonna move on and if you are really training them forever I would say you're probably not doing goal oriented training anymore and it's more of the rent a friend thing they like hanging out with you or they have zero self discipline to complete a workout on their own welcome to Smithville the smartest Small Town in fitness real talk for real trainers hosted by Chris Smith CEO of Fitness World and fitness business journalist Chrissy Van this is the show for personal trainers we talk business leadership money and the stuff no one teaches you on the gym floor welcome to Smithville Population Trainers let's start in Town Hall this is where we talk about the things that actually shape a career in fitness something that not everyone knows about is their finances if you think of the education system that we grow up in it doesn't necessarily lend ourselves to be financially literate you turn 18 years old you can have your first credit card all of a sudden you're signed off can be accruing debt in this lifetime no one teaches you necessarily how to deal with that unless you decide to seek the knowledge so from your perspective as a leader of personal trainers that are looking to grow their business and therefore grow their income what kind of questions come your way financially because I know your team doesn't just seek career advice they seek life advice at the same time there's a number of different ways I think I could take the question but you know I think certainly there's there's what you frame there for sure I think is everything and everyone's navigating as they're adulting or growing into that and you know whether that's I've now moved out of home and I'm on my own or I now have roommates so but I still have certainly financial obligations so what does that look like and you know how do I get there so yeah I think figuring that all out and just again having a plan and knowing how you're gonna get there is an important part so if it's the hope wish want pray kind of mentality uh that's not a plan right that's certainly not a plan and so yeah I think just make sure you get there I think you know one of the ways that we've even talked about before is like a lot of people you know get anxious right about money and it's like well why do young people get anxious about money because money makes people anxious and and with respectfully like rightfully so right like you know one of the things that we talk about or I've even you know taught many personal trainers to say this when we are talking to you know potential clients about money is like we live in a real world with real money and I certainly don't understand the inputs and the outputs of your bank account but what I do know is I'm here to help you and change your life and make a difference for you and help you get from here to here again in the safest fastest most effective way possible and so in many ways like that's something that you know from a quote unquote if you want to call it scripting perspective that you can teach and mold for like ways to interact with clients to get over that kind of how do I talk about the money with people when I'm uncomfortable talking about money cause that is kind of the brass tax reality of it and to just go back to your question it's really not that dissimilar for young people that are trying to figure out I've never really had to balance a checkbook before I've never really had a credit card before I've never had to pay rent before I've never had a car before whatever else and it's like again I don't know the inputs the outputs whatever but what I do know is these are your goals so if you tell me like these are my goals as a personal trainer I wanna be a part time trainer doing this I wanna be a full time trainer doing that whatever that might be then we're gonna dig into that and again just kind of work backwards from that right cause now we've set your aim we know your goal now we just work backwards to make sure we're doing all the things that are necessary to put you in that position and then again now the money doesn't matter cause we'll get there but we're gonna do it a certain way a lot of people could look at you be tuning in and be like well this guy is the CEO of a company and so how can even he even relate to my thought process around money it didn't start that way so maybe can you just lift the veil a little bit about where Chris Smith's career took off because as I understand it when you started as a personal trainer your family was growing at the same time yeah I mean I was a personal trainer at a Gold's Gym in Portland Oregon and I wouldn't say I sucked I actually think I was a pretty good trainer but I hadn't yet connected the dots because again how do I convey my value proposition in terms of who I am what value I bring to the table what that's actually worth to people and then having the confidence to convey that to folks in a way that was not just that I could get them to believe it I mean first I had to believe it obviously but yeah I mean I didn't do well as a trainer at all man my first 90 days were horrific I don't even know that I had five clients at the end of 90 days and I don't think it was whether it was pity or whatever generosity however you think about it but I mean there was a vice president at the time that took some time to invest in me and I stuck it out that long you figure man this kid really wants to make it I was fortunate that I built some relationship with members over that period of time that started giving me some business advice as well and then my business started to take off but I needed some tools in the tool belt cause at that point just you know you only know what you know right that's that you know those phrases of you don't know what you don't know and there's a lot I didn't know right and it's not to say that I thought I knew it all cause I certainly didn't but it wasn't till I started getting these other pieces of the puzzle to kind of put together that bit of what I would even call a kitty puzzle to get myself to a place where yeah I started making what I would call sustainable income meaning I could pay my bills and that took time and that was probably another call at 90 days give or take right but at the six month Mark yeah there's sure to be some rhythm and routine to kind of what I was doing and kind of how I could get there yeah cause it's not a get rich quick scheme it is having a system and a goal so when you talk about the tools and the tool belt what are they well it was just understanding like time management when to prospect how to prospect um how to go out and talk to people what does that look like I'm starting to you know even then you know things have changed now with the digital age or whatever but customer service hasn't and so again you know we've already been talking about the age of AI and what does that mean and some different things but like you know customer service still wins out we're still in that age right and it's not to say that the future doesn't hold a lot more technology and it's one thing that technology can't necessarily replace which is just that it's the humanistic nature of empathy and it's the you can program an AI to be empathetic but it's not genuinely right empathetic it's programmed to be empathetic so that humanness of like what do you bring to the table and how do you bring that to the table and figuring that out and then yeah there's certainly ratios right if I'm just focused on meeting people eventually over time I can go well gosh if I met 20 people today five of those people wanted to have an appointment with me to see how I could help them versus if I say I gotta go out and I gotta get five appointments I gotta make five appointments today who am I gonna talk to now everything becomes so outcome based in every single conversation that it becomes unauthentic and disingenuous and all those types of things where it just doesn't work right it's too much pressure it's too much stress especially on the what I would call the the average personal trainer which is a bit not loving the world of sales and so again it's service equals sales so the the amount that I sell is directly proportional to the amount I service period but if you're someone well I'm just super shy and I don't wanna talk to anyone I say well then you're gonna have a hard time well those that are having the hard time because if all of a sudden this can be an industry where there's a bit of unpredictability in regards to the income you're making especially first starting out or trying to build your personal training repertoire and business and repeat clients so how does that impact decision making then of the trainer just in general life we talk about I've been an independent trainer as well we talked briefly like I started Golds Gym and then I went from golds became an independent trainer and then I'm going back and being a trainer you know at that time which was then you know 24 Hour Fitness you know back in the day I think that's truthfully where a lot of trainers go wrong right now is that they all wanna be an entrepreneur from day one and they wanna just go on and do everything and again back to they don't know what they don't know and they really don't right and then I'm hearing stories even of people that have worked in enterprise solutions and they're paying coaches to coach them$10,000 to like make them successful in something and it's like well what is their track record on success and so to me it's just like a almost vicious circle of insanity of like people teaching people that don't really know and not to say there aren't credible people out there because there certainly are but there's also a propensity of like bad actors if you will that are just capitalizing on people's naivety which is you know again disingenuous and and not good so get where where you're getting your information how you're getting information and I do think that that's the advantage of working in an enterprise system or corporation where they've got good sound structure and there's certainly some that don't right I'm not gonna say your name names of ones of who I think and don't I think people should do their own due diligence and anytime you get into an employment conversation certainly it should be an informed decision right who are they what are they about what's their track record and then vice versa right like that's what they're doing they're they're making an assessment and so should you you should make an assessment of like is this a place that I want to be what is the culture of this place what do the other employees say it's like well yeah I want to get interviewed by the manager but I want to talk to five employees what do you like most about it what don't you like and if everyone says everything is great and there's nothing to not like there I don't know that's truthful either there's gotta be something that they're like well this one thing bothers me but in the totality of everything it's like just it's a small fraction of like what I love about being part of and getting my world fitness world right I mean we do that even we interview managers people that want to come into our system as a manager from wherever they come from we interview them a little bit but then that's just to see I do we think they have a little bit and then we send them out to our clubs go hang out with our GMS and our fitness managers ask as many questions as you want once you've two or three clubs pick any three you want we don't care but once you've done it three times then come back to us and let us know if you wanna keep talking right go learn about us and then tell us what you think we talk about money income can be quite variable but I do feel like some people regardless then treat it like it's guaranteed so tell me a little bit about how that could be a trap and how people should avoid that pitfall it's definitely a question that I get asked by trainers frequently which is you know my clients are leaving for this or that and they go away months at a time and it's like how do I get around that and so a lot of it is like well I can accept that on the surface or I could do or I could approach it with a problem solution so yes I hear you on it could be variable and it can be variable but it can also not be variable it's like I know that's going to happen so then what can I do what should I do what might I do and so I would just say it's about like well if I have a steady client base that's based on like X amount of sessions per day per week per month whatever but I know that a certain percentage of those clients are gonna travel overseas I just do the math and I work backwards and I say okay well then I gotta be constantly prospecting and I gotta constantly be generating what's called two new clients a month and as long as I'm doing that it's gonna cover that 10 15% of session variability per week per day per whatever that I'm losing out on to keep myself whole right and so to me there shouldn't be any surprises and it's like no but I how did I know a client was gonna leave me they've been with me for 3 years cause they always do and they always will so if you're ever in a place where like I'll I have my clients forever I'm golden they're not gonna be there forever they just won't they're gonna move on and if you are really training them forever I would say you're probably not doing goal oriented training anymore and it's more of the rent a friend thing they like hanging out with you or they have zero self discipline to complete a workout on their own even though it's still not a physical goal and they just need someone to kind of hold their feet to the fire every set every rep so on and so forth which is fine too right if that's that's people's prerogative that's rent a friend yeah rent rent rent a friend like if that's what you want to pay for then by all means like go for it right to each their own but I think yeah but just getting people to their goals and and kind of where they're going so to go back to that kind of the angst of it in terms of how do you pre plan for that yeah there there there doesn't need to be a bunch of variability there shouldn't be a bunch of variability if you have a lot of variability I would actually argue you're doing things wrong and again people say well then give me specifics I'd say well are you doing a monthly newsletter are you partnered with the apartment buildings in in your area to be in their newsletter to advertise your services how how often are you like on a monthly basis teaching a seminar whether on your own in your own studio if you're an independent or whatever or again if you're an enterprise operation are you doing a knee seminar shoulder seminar like what's your specialty what do you know are you doing around diet nutrition flexibility mobility like whatever like there's all I'm not keep going on and on and on about things that you could be doing quote unquote doing to make sure that you stay whole as it relates to your financial objectives and goals with consistency or again you're just like going to Vegas or wherever you wanna go whichever casino and you're just gonna roll the dice right let's just do roulette and you're playing roulette and you're like 22 if you just hit 22 and that's all you're gonna play there's a lot of numbers on the wheel you might hit 22 but it's not gonna be like the probability would say 1 out of whatever right it's not very probable I'm not about that I'm about taking the I'm about taking the I don't wanna be the house right or I guess I do wanna be the house money I just wanna know like I'm gonna plan for and execute against well for those that are planning on the other side of the trajectory there are some people that are really wanting to invest in themselves and all of a sudden you start to make real money and generate real income but much to my point how we started this conversation you aren't really offered the blueprint or life advice of what you should do when that start ha starts happening so what would be kind of your best advice when somebody starts to see real money come into the door save as much as you can yeah so those are hard lessons in life and I think it's real hard to execute against again Vancouver where we are is an incredibly expensive place to live for sure and so you there's balance to kind of all this for sure but I think the sooner you can start to realize the power of saving and investment and what that can do for you over the course of a lifetime can be very very powerful whether that's saving for a home or a trip or you wanna get crypto or like whatever your jam is right traditional stocks index funds who name who knows right but the sooner that you can learn that lesson then I think the farther you can get ahead in life let's head to the trainer circuit real questions real situations Chris shows up listens and mentors from experience I would like to know like what's the one key like you believe to be a successful trainer in this fitness world or industry if I was to say it's one thing I would say it's a determination that just always keeps you hustling where you're just constantly moving and then hopefully you get enough traction to move forward you gotta hustle I think a lot of people take it for granted they think wow I'm fit I like working out this and that it's gonna be a great industry I'm gonna get into it and I'm gonna go make all this money there's lots of people that start this job and then they're either not very good at it and they spit out and again they they play the blame game there's a thing you can look up called the accountability ladder so take a look at the accountability ladder cause the first thing you do around accountability is you look at who yourself and you say what did I do wrong in this process and so the challenge is gonna be like again we're giving you a formula of success right all you gotta do is follow the roadmap like again I I live in I have a house in Washington I have a house in Oregon and I have an apartment in Vancouver right so if I told you to go to my house in Washington right now you'd say well can I get the address cool I'm gonna give you the address how many of you are just gonna try to find it on your own without a map by the way is where I'm going like you're just gonna find it good luck you're all gonna map it right in your phone and it's gonna tell you turn by turn direction and it's gonna tell you the fastest way to go at this point in time right whether you use Google or the Apple Maps doesn't really matter it's that hustle but I would just I'm just trying to help you out also say like hustle on like do exactly what you're being asked to do in this course cause if if if you do everything we ask you to do in this course and you're not successful whose fault is it you're not successful it's our fault I got bad news we're undefeated if you run the play and you do what is we're teaching you to do I guarantee you'll be successful like I'll bet you huge sums of money that you'll be successful but if you're like well I just gotta tell you like I liked a lot of it but there's a couple things I didn't really like align with so I tweaked them a little bit but that's not why that's not why I'm not successful can't be that it's like no it is your job is to come out of this course back to the one thing hustle to follow the recipe then what's gonna happen is that's gonna honestly that's gonna get you to above average that'll get you to above average and then if you're like yeah but I don't wanna be that even I wanna be good great elite now to be good great elite is when you're gonna start layering on additional education and information and resources you'll start putting in more of your niches whether it be progressive overload whether it be I wanna train this type of people or whatever then you're gonna layer more and more and more of that on and that's gonna take you the rest of the way the one thing is hustle hard work every day before we wrap we'll leave you with a Smithism a lesson Chris has picked up along the way Smithism of the day I didn't think for clarity cause as Smithism started to grow in popularity and I've noticed some likes and comments and some different things I I mean with full disclosure Smiths are me sponging off of people over my lifetime so when they think I'm sitting around going hmm what is a catchy thing I can say or do so I I've been collecting them from all the leaders mentors coaches different people that I've been around unfortunately been around my whole life and there are things I take I interpret I then apply them to what I do or how I think about my business or whatever else so there's no credit being taken like smithisms are like me sitting in this vault of whatever in this ivory tower yeah I'm just making sure like there's a level here of people being like wait a minute I've heard that somewhere else you probably did I probably didn't invent it it's just something I use with frequency or regularity yeah so I think we're talking about money and we're talking about financial planning and how to get after it what does that look like how do I avoid pitfalls how do I keep my business consistent and all these things and so I think the Smithism I would share is like if it's meant to be it's up to me and so again if you're if you're waiting for someone else to do something for you you're gonna be holding the beer or whatever for a while it's not gonna happen so again if it's meant to be it's up to me get after it everyone go out there change lives make a difference that's today's Smithism Chris Smith is the mayor of smithyville and I'm Chrissy Van your town correspondent this is the smartest small town in fitness we'll see you back here every other week