The Retention Playbook: What to Do When Personal Training Clients Start Pulling Away

Most personal training clients do not quit out of nowhere. It happens in small moments that trainers either recognize or miss completely.

In this episode, Chris Smith (CEO, Fitness World) breaks down the real situations that lead to client drop-off and exactly what to do when they happen. From missed sessions and motivation dips to pricing tension and stalled progress, this conversation focuses on the moments that actually determine whether a client stays or walks.

Chris and fitness journalist Krissy Vann cover the early warning signs clients are checking out, what clients are actually thinking when they pull back, and why client retention has less to do with programming and more to do with presence and trust.

If you are a personal trainer dealing with cancellations, clients fading out, or struggling to build a loyal book of business, this episode is for you.

Smittyville. Real talk for real personal trainers.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What separates good from great trainers. I think in having the ability to really connect with people on a human level and figure it out what makes them tick. And then again, kind of pushing those buttons, pulling those levers, however you want to think about it, to help them accomplish their goal safest, fastest, most effective way possible.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

You just rolled into the smartest, small town of fitness. A podcast for personal trainers.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Let's get to work. I'm so excited to be here talking to you about the challenges that personal trainers face.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Joyful. Happiness and joy. Yay! Even though we're talking about people quitting.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Fucking quitters.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Fucking quitters.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Yep, it happens.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Clients take an emotional turn, doubt, shame, a lot of shame. All that energy that we started off with tends to wane because people realize holy shit, behavioral change is hard. It's not the easiest thing to accomplish. Trainers know that this moment is coming. Keeping their clients' confidence, keeping that momentum is going to ultimately become more challenging. So, what do you say to a client who's maybe now already missed a week and feels embarrassed?

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Sure. Well, I mean, I think part of this is we're gonna go we're gonna go on a few Smithisms today. Uh, but we'll start with like the seven P's, right? So prior, proper planning prevents piss poor performance. So if I'm starting with folks and I know that there's a lot of people that are impacted by these things and the blue Mondays and the number one day where everyone quits and their resolutions or whatever folks call it, I know all that's coming. So plan. How have a plan? Well, I I think again, it's back to like you know, some other stuff we've spoken about about is it fear, is it anxiety, is it confidence? Like what what is it that I need to be coaching them on a lot every time I see them? What am I building on? Like, am I just saying you can do this, Chrissy? I'm so excited to see you again today. It's gonna be so amazing when you get to your goal. And I'm so proud of you that every day you're just stacking wins and you know, making progress and just reminding them like it's not about again the it's the journey, not the destination, right? Like we're just we're we're putting blocks together, like we're building something, right? And so I think it's important to kind of help people do that and and do that in a meaningful way. And so yeah, that's that to me, that's kind of the key is just figuring out what the it's gonna be very different for everyone. And I think you know, we're gonna talk a little bit about it today. I believe you've got some notes and and kind of the what we want to talk about around motivation and how much and what does it look like, but I do think that that's a huge element. In fact, I would tell you, I think it's what separates good from great trainers. I think in having the ability to really connect with people on a human level and figuring out what makes them tick, and then again, kind of pushing those buttons, pulling those levers, however you want to think about it, to help them accomplish their goal safest, fastest, most effective way possible.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

How do you coach somebody back to action? Really?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Well, again, it's just to understand that like that's just a it's a step back, right? It's one step backwards to take two steps forwards, and that's part of the journey, right? And I think we talked about it in a different episode where it's what does success look like and it's not linear, and it's just it's just contextualizing that because yes, someone who maybe skipped two workouts or it's been four days since they were last in there, or they made some bad food decisions, and all of a sudden they're feeling that shame and blame and guilt and all the rest. It's like it's okay, it's okay. That's part of the journey. You're learning, and so it's more about what made you make those decisions, and now how can we back to planning? How can we plan if we start feeling that way next time? How can we avoid that? I just can't. I just I know I told you I could commit to not having sweets or whatever at night, but I can't. Okay, so now let's figure out what is something that's gonna be a satisfying sweet that maybe still gives you way less calories, way you know, not nearly as quote unquote bad for you, or back to if your goals weight loss and that type of thing, as an example. Like it's finding things that work, and then slowly, right? Like you're just you're making changes.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

What about the client that kind of seems to keep restore starting from zero? I mean, we talk about those that have big goals and wanting to strive toward them, and then there's a whole other subset of human that tend to lean more in that victim mentality. So there's always a reason, there's always an excuse, there's always a why not. And so you kind of get them at that zero percent starting rate all the time, but they want it for themselves, but there's a disconnect between the identity they have of the one that wants it, and then the version of themselves that's showing up that's the defeatist attitude.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah, I mean, there's obviously some there's there's a reason though that they keep having to restart. So it's understanding what is that? What is it that constantly is pulling them off a track, right? You got to figure that out. I mean, are they not balanced at work? Do they work so much that they forget to eat? And then not eating on a timely schedule is then leading to low blood sugar, which leads to bad food decisions, which is inhibiting like there's a whole myriad of things that could be driving it. But I think as a trainer, it's your job to figure it out, it's your job to crack the code. What is it that is holding my client back from being successful? And how do I help them? Right again, it's it's really from a service-minded heart and servant leadership and those types of things. And I would also say, you know, like back to another one for you uh winners never quit and quitters never win. So don't be a quitter. So you could say that from a client perspective and also a trainer perspective. It's like, oh, I've already talked to this client six times, they're never gonna get it. Then I would say, as a trainer, you're a quitter. You suck. Like I would say you're a terrible trainer. And I would tell a client who's like, I just can't do it. I just can't be like, you're not a quitter. And maybe you're used to that, but unfortunately, now you work with me. I'm your trainer now, I got bad news for you. I'm not, and so we're gonna try again. We've already tried it. No, we've tried five things. You think there's only five things that we can do? It's an infinite amount of different things that we can experiment with to get you to your goal. And I'm not giving up. We're gonna figure it out. I'm gonna help you. We're gonna get there. And it's that little maybe that's the what they need to hear that day, right? That little tick of confidence that someone else has in them that they no longer have in themselves because they have habitually self-sabotaged or whatever it might be to kind of keep themselves from going where they say they want to go or where their vision for themselves is, but they can't realize, you know, that vision.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Well, and kind of on that note, because obviously the whole premise is to be coaching and honing these new behaviors for a client. Accountability can go a long way. I mean, if somebody has an appointment with their trainer on the calendar, more than likely they're gonna want to adhere to that. People start to get a mindset where all of a sudden they're excited and proud, like, hey, I'm working with a trainer and working toward their goals. But then you also want to help them build like autonomy in a workout space as well. So talk to me a little bit about those different drivers. Should trainers be pushing accountability or building a sense of autonomy in their client to seize their goals? Because the goal for the trainer, of course, is to make money. And so you need to also be an important part of the role on their journey.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

You don't make money unless your clients are successful, right? Not really. You're not really gonna make money. So helping your clients be successful is really the sole focus, and then the money follows, right? So we would talk to people about, and I would talk to anyone. So if like you were thinking about being my client, say, Chrissy, what I'm gonna bring to the table for you as a you know, personal trainer is motivate motivation, right? Education and accountability. And I'm gonna bring it to you in a way that you're just not used to. I promise. Like it's gonna be different. And now you gotta say, well, what does that look like? Well, again, from an accountability perspective, autonomy perspective, back to that personality. Like we were talking about a moment ago, a client that we know makes bad decisions every night. I know they do, and I figured out that they make that bad decision between 8 and 8:30. I'm gonna start texting them eight o'clock at night. Chrissy, I know you've already won the day, win the night, stay strong. Just maybe that's all you need is that little bump, that little reminder. And it's like, oh gosh, that guy believes in me, so I gotta do it. And like, if that's what it takes to get you to be habituated, because eventually you'll start making those decisions on your own, but to get you habituated to that, it's gonna it might take a nudge, it might take some help. And so, is that autonomy or is that account? Well, it's of course that's accountability. That's what the accountability is. It doesn't mean you're yelling and screaming at your clients and five more, and yeah, yeah, like you know, those days of I think what people envision as a you know, a personal trainer in a cartoon, if you will, doesn't really exist. I mean, it still exists in some of these, uh, what I would call you see, some of these, you know, I don't know, studios and different things where you still have some of these military-style workouts, if you will. And look, if that's people's cup of tea, and like I can't exercise unless someone's yelling and screaming at me. I mean, good luck. I'm not sure if that's ever gonna be behavior change for you, but you're just scared. So you'll do whatever you're being told. But yeah, I think that that's maybe how I guess answer it's a balance for sure, there's no doubt. But I think that certainly for most people, I think it's accountability leads to autonomy.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Well, and when it comes to the plans, because that could be the other thing too, how you said we've tried five things, there's all these other things that we can try. Because some people, if they're new to it, you have a client that's maybe not gone through something like this before. They experience DOMS for the first time and are like, ouch, this hurts. I don't know that I want to work out anymore. I mean, shit like that does happen. So, at what point as a trainer do you what would be the signs that, hey, I just need to rejig their plan, or hey, I need to rejig my client's identity around what it means to be accountable for themselves?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Yeah, I think that's all in a goal setting, right? So again, like we would run a five-pillar program, right? So we're gonna talk about you know nutrition and strength and cardio and flexibility, mobility, and then professional assistance as a fifth pillar of like these are the pillars of how we're gonna run your program, but we're gonna have regular check-ins with you, right? So again, I'd be so Chrissy, how are we doing on food and nutrition? How are we doing on your cardiovascular exercise? How are we doing on the strength program that we set out for each other? How are we doing on the mobility and recovery? And lastly, Chrissy, I want to talk about me. How am I doing as your trainer? What can I do better for you? And if you're having literally weekly check-ins, so if you only train a client once a week, you're gonna have that quick little conversation. Takes three minutes, by the way. It's not like it's like a 30-minute deal, it's three minutes while they're warming up, usually is where I kind of recommend to people to do it. Um, it's easy enough to kind of get out of the way and still be meaningful and purposeful, intentional, all the right kind of things, right? And if you do those check-ins, then I think it it lends itself to exactly what you just described in terms of how do I balance, because then you know what to balance and you know where to go. And again, yeah, people are gonna experience DOMs and all these different things and soreness, and they tried a new exercise, and all of a sudden their lats are sore for the first time, and you know, they think, Did I did I injure myself? And it's like, no, that's just your lat. Um, you've just never felt it before. And sometimes for some people, that's just their muscles turning on for the first time, and all of a sudden, you know, they've never felt that before. And then they're like, Well, well, that's cool. I I didn't even know that that could have happened. It's like, yep, that happens.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Does the conversation normally go that way in your experience? Because obviously you've been a trainer yourself, and then you also have a team of trainers that work for you. What happens if a client's all of a sudden coming up and saying, You caused an injury, yet you know it's not an injury, it's just part of the process. How do you navigate that conversation?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah, I mean, truthfully, it doesn't happen to me very often. I've really never did truthfully that often in my professional career. But I mean, there'd be more people be like, Whoa, like what is that? And then it's like, well, that is your latissimus dorsi, or that is your rhomboid, and like you know, you're explaining the muscles, right? And it's like, see, it's even on the machine, this picture, but now we just worked that muscle. Oh, well, that's interesting, or I didn't never really done that before. So, yeah, I mean, it can certainly can happen, but I mean, at the same time, there are people that do get hurt with personal trainers. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that in our industry that doesn't happen. Um, I am proud of the work that we do within our organization that is very, very rare. Um, and that's I think a lot because we have our personal training school and academy with a very intensive onboarding process that we call Lyft uh for our personal trainers, right? Additional courses and education and certifications that they're you know required to have. We're not just throwing, you know, mud at the wall to see what sticks, if you will, right? So anyway, I don't know if I answered your question or not, but that's my answer.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Well, switching gears because you touched on it, quitters can be your clients, but there also can be a defeatist attitude amongst the trainers themselves, kind of having that quitter's attitude toward their personal goals for the year, not from a fitness perspective, from a growing their business perspective. So, what experience have you had? You've kind of had trainers that are like, I'm in the middle of this and I was so game, but I'm feeling like I'm not hitting my goals. Where do I even go from here?

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah, I mean, not dissimilar to what we talked about. So, you know, a fitness world, we do a business plan with all of our trainers every single month. And the business plan is built around you. It's not fitness world's plan for you, it's your plan for yourself. So, and it really starts with a simple conversation with Chrissy, how much money do you want to make? Well, I want to be making five thousand dollars a month, no less. Net or gross? Oh, what do you mean? That's usually what trainer says. It's before or after taxes, uh, after taxes, okay. And then do you understand the marginal tax rate? No. Well, let me educate you on marginal tax rate. Like, because sometimes we're teaching life truthfully. So then in order to take home five, you're gonna need to earn 6,800 or whatever the number is, right? And they're like, oh god, that's a big number. Yep, it is. But now let's see if it's possible. So you'd have to service this many sessions at your current level, which we could also talk about how you could get additional incremental education and information and add a certification, which could level you up in our system. That's really how it works in most enterprise operations, and therefore, then you could make more so on and so forth. And then we're gonna talk about like how much new business do you need to generate in order to generate that much new business as well? How many new clients, right? If you will, and then how many conversations is that? Is that five? Is it 10? Is it 20? I don't know. It's a plan. So let's say you're two weeks into it and you're way off plan and you're struggling, or three weeks into a month and you're struggling. Well, chances are you're gonna have a hard time hitting that month's plan. Doesn't mean you can't again back to behavioral change or just understanding or taking stock and inventory of where you're at to say, am I following the plan? Because again, the plan would have been from from our perspective, it wouldn't have been you need X amount of appointments to get X amount of clients. It's really how many conversations you get into. And then you as a trainer should be able to say, Oh, I met a ton of people this month. So great, good take me on. So I would do this, I do this trainers now. It's a great, take me on the floor and introduce me some people you met this month. What? That's what they say. What? Just take me on the floor and just introduce me some people you met. I mean, I don't necessarily remember all their names. And I go, well, I'm gonna kind of call bullshit on you. You probably didn't do that, did you? No, I did. I go, but genuinely, because to me, if I go out and genuinely meet people, I'm gonna remember their names. In fact, I even teach people like I have a sit I had a system because I I talked to so many people, I couldn't remember all their names.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

Share this system because I feel like this is a super common problem.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Well, in today's world, everyone I think would run to like, I'm gonna use my phone, I'm gonna use an app, and I'm gonna use this that I would still literally get an index cards and a box, and I would alphabetize it A through Z. And I would meet you and what's your name? It's Chrissy, how long you're gonna remember this, and then I would go back and I would go, Chrissy, brownish red hair, mid-30s, uh, likes to work out, likes to do this, likes to do that. Nose ring even, maybe, right? So then when I see you in the club three days later, because again, in three days, I probably have already talked in my world, I would have talked another 150 or 200 people. Me remembering your name is probably not gonna happen. But I'm gonna see you again, I'm gonna go, hey, and you're gonna be like, hey, but then I'm gonna go run to my box and I'm gonna know that I put you in my box. I put a physical description, all this stuff, your name, and I'm gonna flip through real fast. I'm gonna find Chrissy. And then as I go back on the workout floor, I'm gonna go, hey Chrissy, I just want to check in real fast. How's everything going? And you're like, oh, he remembered my name. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Different level of service. And I'm not even gonna be like, Do you need help with that appointment? I'm just gonna say hi, Chrissy. Because again, if I do that two or three times, eventually, yes, I will remember your name. But for me, like that was my system name, goal, physical description, what they're training for, what they're all about, and then that's what I would do. People say, Oh, I'm gonna put in my phone. I don't think I can keep myself organized. I had three by five cards, it's fair anyway. It's old school. But if I had to do it all over again, I promise you, that's probably how I would do it all over again.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

I know it's funny when you said index cards, and I thought to myself, What are those? Yes, I was like, There's gonna be a whole set of people that are like, I have no idea what the fuck that I do.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

You kids at home, there's a little plastic box you can buy, and there's these things called three by five cards, and you put them in there, and it's like, wait, what? I'll just put it in my phone. No, you're not. Yeah, don't put it in your phone.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Physical systems like that work well for me, though, too.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

I still print calendars and write my stuff on my is this your way of saying you donate to the firefighters association on an annual basis?

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Well, I do love campfires, and everybody needs kindling.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

I just didn't know if you had like a firefighter calendar at home on the wall, you know.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

No, I actually did use to cover that for work though. And then I took a behind-the-scenes tour of the firefighters gym in we live in Vancouver, so it was in Yale Town, and it was the saddest gym that I've ever seen of my life.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

They don't have very nice stuff usually.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

They don't. Yeah, and yet they have a lot of free time, not discounting saving lives. They save lives, saving lives.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

But it's like to do in between them. Between all that, they gotta do something.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Okay, so three things right now. Let's say there's a trainer. I mean, you covered a lot of the basics there, but to summarize, top three things, if it's a trainer that's feeling like, uh, I just don't know if this year is gonna be my year, three things that could change their business for the rest of the year if they implemented it right now, because they aren't a quitter, even though if they came to you and had a defeatist attitude, we've said you would tell them you are a quitter and you shouldn't necessarily be a trainer, but maybe there's a string of hope we can.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

I wouldn't say that, I would just try to motivate them to say, like, be a little bolder, have a little more self-confidence and self-worth and believe in yourself, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:19

So three things to build that.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Well, again, I think mindset is huge, right? Like, you again, there's a lot of smithisms coming out today, but like your attitude is your altitude. If you don't have a good attitude and you think you're gonna go high, you're you're kidding yourself, right? Perceive it, believe it, achieve it. If I perceive, I'm going to do this. It's almost like in some regards it's manifestation. But if you don't have an idea of where you want to go and you don't believe you're gonna do it, I promise you won't. You just you won't. So, like, what is the first thing I would do if I was really struggling? Is I would be vulnerable enough to ask for help. Step one, ask for help. Who should I ask for help from? Well, again, if you're an enterprise operation, you're gonna be able to ask help from like a manager or someone that's there that can tell you specifically and explicitly, this is what you need to do to get out of where you're at. If you're like, well, no, I'm not that I'm an independent trainer, I'm all on my own. I have no idea. Like, who do I talk to? What do I do? Well, you you must know someone else in the industry that's a peer, a partner, someone at your level, and maybe they're doing better. And just go take stock and inventory of like what is that individual doing? So that would be like the first thing that I would do. And then, two, I would just again humble myself enough to look at that plan that I made for myself and just tell myself from an accountability perspective, be reflective and hold yourself accountable. Am I doing what I agreed to do when I made this plan? Am I doing those things? You either are or you're not, right? And then I would say from a third perspective, my advice is just always like get in more conversations, just go talk to more people. I just think in our industry, and especially in this generation where we're at now, it's just more and more apt to like think that like, no, I don't want to do that, and I'm gonna get people through Instagram and I'm gonna get no, you're not. No, the the human element wins because that's what I think what people still want. They want human connection more than anything else. The more, the more the world runs away from us from technology. I think all of us are gonna embrace that technology in different ways. And at the same time, I think we're all seeking human conversation and in-depth, you know, connection to other people that can help us. So just go help people.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Let's head to the trainer circuit. Real questions, real situations. Chris shows up, listens, and mentors from experience.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

So she was someone who had never lost weight, big woman, tall, probably weighed around 250 pounds, 260 pounds, never could lose weight, had thyroid issues. And so again, I'm running, I'm doing diet plans, I'm making manual diets, I'm trying to modify it, I'm learning as much as I can. I'm going to the library, trying to learn as much as I can about what I think, what is going on in her body physiologically. And then I go and I do some extra work and I say, Can I talk to your doctor? I talk to her doctor, and I'm like, that doesn't make sense with some of the stuff I'm reading. So I say, Hey, why don't you go to a naturopath instead? So I get her to go to a naturopath, go to the naturopath, and I'm talking to the naturopath on the phone. The naturopath and I modify her diet even further, right? She keeps working out, she's working hard, doing all the mobility exercises. Like she's doing it all, right? She's doing everything that I'm asking her to do. This is over the course of like six weeks, and again, the scale's not really moving hardly at all. Then she comes in in that sixth week after I've known I've been tweaking and working with all these people, and then like that week she lost like a couple pounds. Which again, with a really big woman, you think a couple pounds, it's like it's a couple pounds. So we stand there and I wear, and then it's like a couple pounds, and again, I'm still pretty new trainer, young trainer. So I'm like, well, I mean, it's good, right? It's coming out. And she starts crying. And I mean, crying, like bawling. And I'm like, oh my god, holy shit, what did you do wrong? And I'm thinking, I must have done something really bad. What did I say? What did I do? And I'm like, Kathy, are you okay? Like, what's going on? What's the problem? And she's like, I've just never been able to lose weight. And she she was happy. These were happy tears, not sad tears, right? I just hadn't been exposed to that at that point. Career. I was like, oh my God, she's happy. Okay, this is a good thing. Kathy's happy. And then I'll be honest, then she kind of gave me a hug. She was super appreciative. And then she continued on her journey to good things. And truthfully, that was kind of my hook to say, you know what? Maybe I don't want to be a strength conditioning coach anymore. Maybe I just want to be a personal trainer. Maybe I'm good at this. Maybe I really like this. Because that emotional feedback that I was getting in terms of like truly making a difference in people's lives and helping them, like that was my addiction. That was my dope, my dopamine, right? And I be I did. I truthfully then and now I'm still addicted to like how can I help people live better lives? It's different now. Like I don't train clients individually at this point. I write programs for some people, that sort of thing, but I'm not training clients hour by hour, day by day. That's not what I do. But in terms of leading people, and you know, Darb comes to me and asks questions, or Anastasia comes and ask questions, and quite frankly, personal trainers that come and ask me questions. I still get a lot of reward at like helping people on their journey wherever that journey is going.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Before we wrap, we'll leave you with a smithism, a lesson Chris has picked up along the way.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

I think a lot of people know this one and where I got it from, I couldn't tell you or when I first learned or heard of it, but it's just the KISS principle. So all these things that we're talking about, I think have layers of complexity. And I think we don't want that. So we just want to do the KISS principle, right? Keep it simple, stupid. And so when we're thinking about like, how do I do this? How do I do that? Well, if I do this and do this and do this, I think again, even as personal trainers, we can start to think about that versus like what is the root cause of this situation, whether it's me as a trainer or what I'm solving for my client. What is the root thing I'm solving? And solve that, that one thing. Like keep it simple, stupid, solve that and see what happens. Nothing changes, figure out another option, right? But versus like, I gotta change three things today, and we're gonna do this and this and this, and we're gonna change that, and then it's like that's confusing, and that's really hard for most people to do. So keep it simple, stupid, change one thing at a time.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

That's today's Smithism. Chris Smith is the mayor of Smittyville, 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.