Success Is Not Linear: The Truth Every Personal Trainer Must Teach

A client walks into the gym motivated and ready to go.
Now what?

In this episode of Smittyville, Chris Smith, CEO of Fitness World, and Krissy Vann talk about what really separates average trainers from career builders.

We break down:
• How to coach clients through the excitement phase
• Why success is not linear and how to explain that clearly
• The role of realistic goal setting
• How to shift from short term hype to long term discipline
• What behavior change actually looks like in real life

If you are a personal trainer who wants better retention, better results, and a stronger reputation on the gym floor, this episode is for you.

Welcome to Smittyville. The smartest small town in fitness.
#personaltraining #fitnesscareers #personaltrainer

Transcript

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if you're like I'm a badass with a kettlebell I'm a superstar with a Bulgarian bag whatever you think you're a bad mamajama at I would do that in my uniform at the busiest times you just rolled into 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 and Chrissy Bang a podcast for personal trainers let's get to work from the trainer perspective that's what we're gonna talk about today so client enters the gym fired up ready to go how do you then coach them to feed that almost intensity addiction because everyone goes in with the best intentions yeah I mean we we focus on a number of different things in terms of like our systems and our process and the coaching that we're giving but you know at the end of the day what you're really trying to do is impact you know systemic behavior change which we're not in full control of but that's really what we're trying to model and or describe to individuals as they're going through that excitement phase and all these different things and you know again from a behavioral change if you start a behavior change models there's a number of out there but so from pre contemplation to contemplation stage taking action and all that stuff and leading into that excitement that you're describing how do I sustain that and help you sustain that in a meaningful way is really the key right and so that's just about level setting and again helping them set realistic goals to understand what that process is gonna look like so what should the process look like an important part for any type of behavior change and so again whether you're talking about I wanna lose weight I wanna be more toned I wanna gain muscle I'm only doing it for my mental health I'm whatever their reason is right whatever that that motivation or goal a big part of it for for what what I would teach and I believe we still teach as an organization is that again success is not linear and so I think that's where a lot of people get frustrated right it's like I started today I expect to be here on day 7 and here on day 14 and here on day 21 and at the end of day 28 first month if you will like and it's gonna look just like this and it doesn't success looks like this it's a squiggly line right I mean there's memes and stuff out there for what success really looks like but at the end of the day if you can look back after six months of discipline and doing the right things with as much consistency as possible and as much discipline as possible you're then usually able to really easily chart this is where I started and wow look where I am now right and so I think that's to really understand that again depending what that goal is I think the instantaneousness that we all want of give it to me now give it to me now versus understanding anything worth having is gonna take a little bit of time well and it's not just the clients that are goal setting right now we're speaking to trainers and there might be some that are looking at their take home from the year and thinking I didn't really make the financial goals that I set for myself so for the trainers that are starting out 2026 with that financial goal in mind of I'm gonna crush it what should they be what should their habit set look like to kick things off that's actually sustainable versus going balls to the wall and then kicking themselves on Quitters Day the age of AI and where we're at and people's ability to get programs really at their fingertips right that you know again whether they're really how good the program is or whatever the machine generates for you but world class customer service still wins right so we would kind of talk to our team about that around world class customer service so that's really the human element and so where does that come in so if I want to grow my paycheck sales equal service the amount of people that I'm helping is directly proportional to the amount that I'm going to sell which really ultimately drives how much I'm going to service and therefore my income right and so people need to understand that kind of that that cyclical side of it and so again if I didn't have a great year or I'm coming off a a tough fourth quarter you know and now I want to go into the New Year and really do well I would look at who are all my past clients who would I train in the past and then have I checked in with all of them and then what did that check in look like so you can go old school you can send people postcards they're gonna get it in the mail just a little touch of class a little touch of service something a little bit different it doesn't cost that much money to do but is that gonna be more impactful and meaningful or am I just gonna send them a text maybe you'll just send him a text or do you text him with hey I haven't seen you a while I'm really hoping you're doing well I'd love to connect with you when's a good time to call cause maybe I know that from that individual's relationship and what we did in the past those conversations were more powerful like again you gotta meet the member where they're at or meet that individual where they're at or kind of think about that but there's a number of different ways and for me anyway that you could kind of reach out and provide world class customer service and that's what I'd be thinking about in terms of who are all the people that I've made contact with that I can reach out to to kind of just check in and see how they're doing cause again maybe they have got a new goal to your point right like we just talked about maybe they're coming into this year with you know what this is my year and while I've been doing mental health for the last three years this year I wanna do a high rocks race this year I wanna do that whatever it is right now they got a different physical fitness goal so maybe they wanna take their physical fitness to another level and they want someone's help to get there right but again service is the key how important is it cause you bring up obviously High Rocks has grown in popularity we see a lot of different fitness challenges how important is it for individuals to have their fitness goals tied to a particular outcome goal definitely depends on the individual's mentality and personality and all that kind of stuff but I be I do think impending events in general serve as a really big motivator for a lot of people so again whether it's like a wear a suit or you know this dress at a wedding or whatever it might be and you want to look good for a graduation or a reunion or any of those things or more and more we're seeing the impending event is an event right where it's like a physical fitness challenge I'm gonna do with my peers my partners my friends the people in my building like whomever right um so I think that it can help for sure but again I don't know that those races are for everyone right I mean there's a lot of different varieties that are out there but still for some people that's still not necessarily you know their cup of tea know that trends come and go but from your perspective when it comes to the clientele what they might be seeking like who's coming in the door and what are gonna be the primary for example we had the year of the booty not this year but the year previously strength training there was another report that came out that that was the primary focus for Gen z's and millennials so for 2026 where do you see or have you heard kind of that shift of focus happening for the ones that are coming in your doors I think it's all those trends right I don't think that those are necessarily going away I think it's really about there's still a huge component I think for aesthetics and for a lot of the you know the generations that you just mentioned but there is now this fitness element that I think is also as important to them so we're talking about the high rocks the Decca um the fun runs where they you know blast them with the powdered chalk and do this and do that and just all these different types of different events I think just the community sense of that and there's also obviously some brands and some businesses that are focusing on that element explicitly as part of what they do I mean we do it through our small group training and our group fitness classes and and we see that even within our own kind of business just that community and that seems to be growing quite a bit so I think that that's it's less of like a brand new trend and in some ways it's kind of back to the future so for those that's their first time kind of really being involved in fitness like this is amazing this is the coolest newest thing ever and it's like wow we've kind of been here before it's just got a little bit of a different spin and flavor on it and definitely a different generation that I think is driving it for sure uh huh another thing that people and I'm sure it will remain the theme through this year is mental health I mean searches for that actually outrank weight loss now which is wild considering weight loss was the primary goal for most people so when it comes to the trainers approach are there any differences or further research they should be doing to support their clients if they're coming in with that is the primary goal different provinces states depending where you do business right they're gonna be rules and regulations around scope of work and what you can or can't do I think as a practitioner and as a professional personal trainer again depending on what level of certifications education background you bring to it that's gonna determine your ability to you know how far you go probably right so a lot of this is you know who am I partnered with and there's you know certainly fitness entities are out there that have medical components and full blown you know assistance available at people that kind of just hey we're gonna point you this way versus that way but there's lots of different people you can just even partner with from a practitioner standpoint so your natural path your chiros your counselors your psychologist whatever it might be physio you know depending on where that person's journey is cause I think when we talk about mental health you can even step back and say generally speaking I think people are looking for a couple things they either have a big lack of self confidence right and that inhibits them and creates fear for a lot of different things and not quite the same but different is I think some people just have a lot of anxiety in general right because the world just works them up into a place and they're looking for a place to find an outlet and get that get that energy out in a healthy way right so those are the two that I tend to see the most so again I think for personal trainers out there in particular it's understanding where people are at right and I think especially one of the big challenge for a lot of young trainers is they haven't lived yet so sometimes it's like the math ain't mathin the life ain't life and so they think well what's wrong with this person did it and it's like if you're a younger trainer and let's say you're 25 26 years old for your degree you got four certifications you're on top of the world your business is great and now you've got this 38 year old person who's just kind of really off and it's like what's up and they're like oh I lost my job oh you don't have a job no I got a new job but you know this and that but you know one of my kids is sick and they're always hurt and this and that and I got this other thing and my husband that and they're like they're life in and so I think that's often on even where younger trainers tend to go wrong is again that like legitimate what I would call empathetic approach on trying to understand people and again most of them if they stop long enough to go do these same things exist in my life what about my mother my father my aunt my uncle my grandma my grandpa da da da da cause if most people just even take stock of their own inventory they'll realize all that same shit is in their own life somewhere and it's actually not that hard to be empathetic if cause then when most people can think about it from their own family in that context they're like oh God like that's a serious deal and it's cause that's again what people are going through right and that can be stressful and all the things that go with it and those things over time impact people so yeah I don't think mental health is going away and I think it's important that people continue to talk about it I mean if I was to ask someone 10 years ago hey do you do you go to counseling have you ever seen a counselor be like oh no no no bro like I'm good no that'd be man or woman yeah no they'd be like I don't see a shrink 10 years ago what they would say five years ago if you ask a woman in my experience anyway they would say yes or no if they do and many kind of would just say they were now doesn't really matter who you ask hey have you seen a counselor in the last like 12 months 24 months almost everyone I talk to says yes I have oh really and how's that how was that experience for you it was amazing I Learned so much about myself it was so great I'm applying you know and I don't think you know there used to be this shame and blame and everyone would kind of think be embarrassed about it versus like no like I'm working on me right and so yeah I think trainers having the ability to understand that people are doing that and then helping in their own way within their scope of practice but also pointing them in the right direction is I guess how I'd summarize all that yeah that would be a winning formula so on the topic of winning formulas people we started the conversation trainers wanting to grow their business if you were in their shoes a trainer as I say that didn't quite hit their goals that they wanted to they wanna crush it this year what would be the top three things that they should do right now well 1 call everyone they met before check in with them send them a postcard send them a text can I talk to you love to get you back in evaluate your program all that whatever the second thing I do is I would get on the workout floor and I would talk to as many people as possible right and I would really just like non stop every day with no outcome expectation other than to meet new people not I'm gonna go try to book appointments not oh I gotta sell something today no take all that pressure off of you and just say I'm just gonna talk to people be a human I'm gonna be kind I'm just gonna be nice I'm just gonna go learn about people cause the outcome of those conversations is a certain number of those conversations will turn into appointments a certain number of those appointments will turn into a new client but you just gotta take the pressure kind of out of the situation the third thing I would do is I would work out in my uniform right and I would do all my crazy shit so if you're like I'm a badass with a kettlebell I'm a superstar with a Bulgarian bag oh I can flag pull and do this and do that and I can do muscle UPS I can do whatever you think you're a bad mamajama at I would do that in my uniform at the busiest times so everyone could see that like I know what I'm doing right I'm I'm a product of the product myself so'cause 'cause I do still believe and I mean when I say I believe it statistics show it studies show and people even tell it to me anecdotally they don't wanna work with people that don't know what they're doing so just go you're your own Billboard go show people like what's up check it out I'm not saying you gotta be the strongest person but like your technique your form the intensity about how you're going about it versus everyone's like I gotta go get out of my uniform like it'll it'll wash go get a sweaty maybe buy another one figure that out ask your company to give you another one whatever that is right but like work out in your uniform and do like cool shit let's head to the trainer circuit real questions real situations Chris shows up listens and mentors from experience you have to think about how am I gonna stand out in a crowd of crowds I don't look like I'm the funniest guy but I'm pretty fun I'd wear a referee Jersey on some days right with a whistle right I'd blow the whistle at you and you'd be like what I'm like hey man your left your left knee's caving in here we got a little adductor issue going that's bad form on the squat I'm gonna need you to correct that on your next set like dude you're an idiot get away I'm like I'm gonna blow the whistle again if you do it I'm swear to God and they go do the same thing get out of here like whatever just to make it fun right uh huh like whatever I could do to bring life to the gym there were times I put on rollerblades I rollerblade around the club do all kinds of crazy stuff just to like make it fun to keep it different to keep it lively and again back to today and nowadays with AI and all the social media and all the content that's out there well they're here and so are you so how can you make that an impression what does that look like what does it sound like how you gonna differentiate yourself before we wrap we'll leave you with a Smithism a lesson Chris has picked up along the way this is the lesson of the heavy suitcase there's a suitcase you have all the different ways you can pick it up the best way to pick up a suitcase is assume it's heavy right technique right form get your feet in the right place get your back in the right place activate your core this and that obliques everything's firing stand up right big firm grip all of it versus if you go just to be over kind of just sloppily bend over to pick this thing up and it's got let's say it weighs 80 pounds you're gonna be like oh you might throw your back out you can get hurt all these things can happen share that lesson cause you're gonna kind of lazily walk in like oh it's gonna be great cause I'm just gonna kind of no you gotta go on intensity like it's the heavy suitcase you gotta grip that thing get your feet right and like hmm and go and if you do that I think you'll have a great year so yeah the lesson of the heavy suitcase that's today's Smithism Chris Smith is the mayor of Smithville 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