Why I Shut Down My £500K Online Personal Training Business

In this powerful and honest episode, Callum and Ryan sit down to talk about a hard truth: why over 80% of personal trainers leave the industry within their first two years.

They break down the real reasons behind burnout, inconsistency, and lack of support—and what you can do to beat the odds and build a sustainable, fulfilling PT career.

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Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9zcs6P5mn8

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Hello everybody, episode 10, PT Launch Lab. We've got two massive topics to cover today. We've got the reason and decision behind shutting down the ultimate tread.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And also And also we're going to cover a topic today which is very important is which is why PT is usually quick after the first or two year mark.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Right, we'll start off. How's Sinn have been going?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Randomly at the weekend, this just happened. So I went out for a few beers on Saturday. You know, like you get married. And you know, Chris, he read he messaged me randomly. Oh right. It says um oh I've got a spot on the Great North Run on 7th of September if you want to do it. So September.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

It doesn't twice. So I really into it and then I said, so it's an hard course.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

You know what it is? Like same as fucking 3k times. But the thing is, I'm gonna do it because I like being put in hard situations. Yeah. I think it brings out the best thing yet. And it opened up like a new train of thought for me. So obviously, we spoke many times before. I've been looking for something to ignore its players. Yeah, yeah, cool. So what I'm gonna look for, I'm gonna throw myself at this, I'm gonna try to look for a challenge every month or every five months and just sign up for it. Because I think uh for a lot of people like myself and out there, when you get involved in business and lifestyle and all that kind of stuff, you sort of forget to really challenge yourself. So I've sucked it on, I'm ready for it. I'm not actually ready.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Sorry, mate. That's uh that's exactly what I did. So I want to come back from injury. Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to do I did the half marathon my first run back after breaking my leg, so no pressure. You'll definitely beat that time. I remember doing that. Um, I went to one of my one of my mate's pies at his new house, like um Housewived thing. And I told him then that I was I'd been planning on this doing this half marathon the first of the first of January. I wanted to do it New Year's Day, make sure I got it in. I gone to this bike and must have not run it. Well, seven o'clock at night. I can remember checking my gaming watching it. I had seven percent of my battery left. And it were I think it was minus three when I run it, and I think I'm ill for two weeks after to really kill myself from the leg of the dead. Uh obviously coming back off snapping my leg in half and then running that the first time. But slow run. I'm not gonna be relieving those stravos.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

What you've done now is you've met sure that I've got a complete error. Yeah, do it one for the best. Sorry, old man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good luck. Hope's the entire distance.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Uh and then just just for me, Cal, obviously the same old for me. Nothing, nothing's changed. I've been hard in training. I'm two weeks out from the fight now, three weeks out from the massive tournament. Weights are good, as you can see. My face has absolutely disappeared. Well, I feel great. It's probably the best I've ever felt. Camp wise, healthy wise, weight-wise. You seem locked in. What I used to do is I used to have like a cheat meal. Cheat meal, I don't like that word anymore, but I used to do that and I used to tell myself it was for morale. Um, and then it keeps surprising your body, shocking your body. We know they're all myths, but it's sort of what I've got to tell yourself to you know, to keep going and keep progressing uh during the camp. And you're like, oh well, I'll eat this, and then by Wednesday, I'll be even lower, and I keep shocking my body, even though there's only about three days uh between having that having that cheat. And this sound just stage fully not having anything outside of my plan, I've literally stuck to it 100%. And I think it's made it so much easier for like it's just built a like um like a constant habit and routine of what I meant to be doing rather than every time I get to the weekend, then it made all the rest of the week hard. So do you know, like it's a bit of a sweep for me of that like old school jellies and stuff like that, or like bags of crisps and stuff were just a bit strange like that. But what I have then, I want it for the next few days. Yeah, yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, so yeah, yes, that'd be what yes. And then I'm like really, really struggling the diet for like the next two or three days after that.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

But this time I'm just not bothered. I think it's just an opening thing because when you're on a hard diet like that, and then you allow yourself to have those little treats, your brain gets just like fixation, right? But you did it and you're fine. Yeah, yeah. It's one of those you lead yourself into those security moments, be like, oh well, I was still on weight, so I could do it.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Absolutely. I think um I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

I think I've I've gone different with it morale this time. The more walked in I've been, the more rewarding it's felt, and the more I feel like I should quint. Do you know like and I'm I'm way too close now to be taking any risks anyway, two weeks out. Me my weight was like plateauing a little bit, you know, a bit worried and all of that. Um I think I stayed the same way for three weeks, but I looked completely different. Um I'd now swear I'd normally have a bit of a refeed, get some energy back in, and then go again. But I just felt like I was just too close. I decided against it, and then away with myself the next day, and I'd lost like two kilograms, which is I say this all the time, I enjoy the time when you feel like quitting most, or not quitting mostly in that sense, but the time when you feel like maybe it's time to make a make a change on this or that, when you stick it like then, it just shows that the consistency over time. Then it would just ride last bit. I feel like my body were like, ah, it's gotta be another weight, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah, uh it's that type of dieting anyway, especially because you're active as well, because your activity tends to go up while your food's still coming down. Yeah, so your body's like in a state of shock, going, well, you're not giving me more.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah, it's uh you know, it's nice to see you so locked in because I think I've seen you do it quite a few times, and this time does feel different because obviously you're doing it with a family home as well. Yeah, so having to balance that and not go insane, yeah. You'll think you're doing pretty well. Unless that seems yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

No, but in all seriousness, I think I've got a really good balance of I'd be booking one day a week out to do something with the kids during summer holidays. Um, I think that alone, and then my weekends, I've probably been over booking things over the weekend, which is a massive first for me. Like, I never I'll usually just work every day, like back to back months on end. And with the training, because I'm training so hard as well. And on the night, like I usually get bored on the night, that's when I'll do my eating or feel like I want to do something, but I get a bit like ADHD riddled where I'm like, great, what can I do now? Everyone's going to bed, and that's when I get my energy because when I've just finished work. But because I'm so tired from the training, I look forward to a good night's sleep because I think, right, well, I've got another hard session at morning, I need full energy for it. Yeah, so it's been I think it's all falling into place. Like I've got a matchup uh for the first fight and all as well now on the 6th of September. So I'm excited. It's the last big week of training now. So hopefully we'll get one more podcast in next week, and then after that, I'll be telling you how good my win was. Well, I think, yeah, I see it for my catch-ups anyway. I'll not I'll I'll not bore anyone too much with the fight stuff. But um the big important thing, I've just done a quick little video of a serving or scene at this point when this is released, but uh I decided to shut the ultimate shred down in 10 years. So the reason why I've decided to shut it down, obviously, it's come a long way from when I used to do it, I used to legion do it on pen and paper. Um, I used to go weigh people in, take all the photos. I used to have thousands of photos in my album, and I had all the before ones, and then I can remember after the five, and it were five weeks at this point. After the five weeks, then I'd have to try and find this person, and because the pictures were so small, because I I obviously I had that many photos, and then I'd done like 10 places, and you had to match them all up. It took me, honestly, it must have taken me hours to get the before and after pictures because the finishing rate that them were like 90%. And I'd have over 100 sign-ups, and half the people I didn't even know they'd come in one week, so obviously the quite bigger set at this point, they've got glasses on, they've got a big long t-shirt on, uh, trying to cover cover up what really that they're not happy with. And then at the end, they come in, they've got the lycra stuff on with no glasses, yeah, completely different, all done for photos, and you couldn't even recognise them. That's that so it was just so difficult. I can remember putting them on, and someone said it's not even me. So um, so anyway, I've come from these points and all these amazing memories that I've absolutely loved. It's gone all over the world. I changed it to online during lockdown. That was April or May 2020 when I started online, some of the best years of the company then. Uh I had a little bit of a fallout with a business partner, which again moved moved all from that. It's nothing to do with any of that. Uh, it's just come to a point now. No, I don't love it anymore. I just the passion is going somewhere else. I've done it for 10 years. I feel like I've really I've put everything into it, I've got it to a brilliant point. I'd love to just leave on top. I I feel like I'm not giving it the credit it deserves towards the back end now. And I've always been one of them. We spoke about it a million times just on this podcast alone. If you're not enjoying it, don't do it. And as much as that company's like a baby to me, like the amount of hours that people like unseen hours behind closed doors is absolutely unbelievable. Like, you want if I could put all them into a chart, I think people would be absolutely shocked at the amount of time and free work I put into it to get it to where it is today. But I just feel like leave it on top now. 10 years is a good mark. I've got my own boxing, I've got the boxing team, this PT, the PT launch lab, and the courses. I think that's where I want to go now. I want to um I want to be able to show people how they can do it as well. So I feel like I want to take that step forward. It's not a step back. No way. It's um I've done the PT bit, I've done the online coaching bit. What I want to do now is help other people. Yeah. I don't know. I think we all get one when when we get old, that's the sort of way we want to do, we want to give back. And I think that's just where the passion is now. I feel like I've done all that bit, I've done the recruitment bit, I've done all of that. I've put my years in the gym and I just feel like it's come to a point now where I'd like to just pass the advice on and do this. I enjoy it. Like running those running those um short competitions, you need time, you need a lot, a lot of time. People need you 100% dedication and focus. If you want to do well in that, you've got to be on call, on that type. Like we spoke about with AI, like you've got to be, you've got to be ready to answer people. Boom, boom, boom. As the messages come in, you need to be ready to help them because that could be the difference with them falling off the plan or staying on it. Is you just answering. There is no time. Everyone works different shifts, people get off work at different times. You'll get a message at 11 o'clock, and that's when someone's finished saying, What can I have in the panicking? And what I can do if you don't answer, I'll just not doing it. And it's an excuse and it's a way out. And uh sometimes they don't need the door holding open for them, though, they're already halfway out of it. So because I can't commit that much anymore and that in that sense as well. Like I just can't with the kids and everything. I just they are the priority now, whereas before my work was always my priority, and and building this massive brand. So that's ultimately what it's come down to is I want to be able to give everyone the attention they deserve, and I also want to give back, give the advice and show the people what they need to be doing, and like I've just said, being able to direct them and say, right, this is what you need to be doing, this is what you can't do, you can't have these hours off. If you want to make it big, this is how it's got to do. And I just want to write a little bit of a blueprint for it, and that's why uh we're doing the not to 5k plan on the PT launch lab as well. So I think it's all going to tie in, hopefully. Uh, but I'm obviously a bit devastated. But the last one's gonna be the 6th of September. Anyone still wanting to do it? I'd love to go out with a bang and make it one of the biggest ones yet. Give it a good send off. Um, well-deserved farewell for over this last 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah, and please, as well, obviously, we'll see little clips of these posts going out. If you've done this red before, if you've had a transformation, please reshare it. Show everybody what you did, what you achieved, if you're taking the next one, just show your experience, show your love for it because I know, especially just living in the local area, so many people did it, so many people loved it, so many got so much out of it. So, as this is the last one, please just show your appreciation. Add the page in it, message Ryan. You know, let let him know that you appreciate what Yorkred did for you.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

No, thank you, mate. Appreciate that. End of an era, um, some brilliant memories, like I said. So thank you, everybody. Uh, I love that idea, Calum. Thank you very much, mate. Well, um, let's move on to the to the content.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

So, what we are gonna cover in the educational topic today is the two-year quitting period. So, PTs, there's an eight percent thing of PTs out there after the first two years of starting. Eight percent quit after two years. And it can be a little bit of a sobering statistic in the sense that yeah, that that's a big number of people that failed. And this is just focusing on the PTs, but you can sort of marginalise it towards a lot of businesses, like a lot of people do quit after the first couple of years because it might not have picked up traction that they want heard, or maybe, for instance, I don't know, some fight hard financial time coming the way, and they didn't plan for that.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

And does this uh statistic is that going to PT? Is that going to a different uh halfway industry then, or is that just completely quitting the industry?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Just completely quitting the industry. So this is just in the UK alone. So it's just in the first two years, and this worked for self-employed and employed. Um a lot of the times obviously some it comes down to financial struggles, underestimating taxes, inconsistent income, uncharge, undercharging clients, but which we've covered before, you know, poor marketing, client acquisition, and burnout, and generally burnout, because obviously we talk about this all the time. The amount of time that you'll spend working as a PT, especially in the early days. You know, the the fun thing is when people say, Oh, when you're self-employed, you get to dictate your own hours. When you're self-employed, all the hours are your hours to work because you have this trickling anxiety of if I'm not working, what's the point of doing this? And you know, you don't get sick pay and you'll leave, you don't get a pension plan. You're in charge of every single bit of income coming through that door. So I can understand quite heavily if you're not prepared to understand what it's like building a business from scratch, how you're motivated it's gonna be to do those endless hours. And in the early days when underpaying clients, yeah, it can deter you.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

And and I feel like the business skills is massive.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Like as you move along and you get more clients, you have to you have to get new skills. So what I mean, like the taxes are massive, for example, like one like the other one tread, it scaled enormously when we went online. And we like what really ready for the tax then that comes, we thought getting masks from money, that's what it felt like. It was just like we've made it, it's nice. I guess all this money, we've done it, it's a dick forever. Um and then all of a sudden, obviously, when lockdown finishes and things start slowing down, and uh that tax is still there to be paid, there's VAT on everything, like it's sometimes you learn the hard way, unfortunately. And that's why, again, that's why we're doing this podcast, and hopefully it just tell people it doesn't matter how much you're making, make sure you've got an accountant set in place um and you've got a plan to do with your finances because everything that comes in is not actually your money, yeah. Especially now in the UK.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

I mean, if I could do it the opposite way around, because obviously everybody goes into a business with the notion of the idea that we're gonna make as much money as we can. Yeah. If you go into it, I work out how much you need to live, then you know, got a little bit extra to have a bit to have a life. Work out how much you need as a minimum, to how many clients you need, how many hours you need to work to pay those bills, to make sure you're safe. And then the rest of the time you can focus on the scaling part because um we've been working with a few uh members of the PT Lawrence Lab. Uh, one in particular, I think we're seeing next week. Uh he he started a run club in the local area and he works endless hours all the time, and he's trying to find a way to start his business without affecting his current income. So, well, the natural way to do it is online, he's already getting attention. So as well as bank start exposing yourself using a coaching app, for instance, and bringing people on the line, as you can scale down more of your workplace and take less hours there for them into there. Because what everyone's worried about, I just for my personal preference is they don't feel like they're gonna be able to do enough or know enough or learn enough in the beginning to be able to make a start because someone's coming for an employment background, they think, well, if I can't do it full-time, what's the point? I'd say a good 45-50% of personal training start with a little.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Yeah, what's it, and I think depending on your responsibilities, depending on your situation that way is whether you can actually step out of that job or not. I feel like I've seen success with people who who already have a job and then do it on their side, and then obviously get rid of the get rid of the safety net, and then they go full self-employed with a PT. I've seen that work. High demand, that's the reason why they did it. I've what I've also seen people try and stay and keep the safety net, and then it actually holds the business back because they can't cover the hours and they can't meet the demand of the people that are actually wanting to, and then all of a sudden the business becomes stagnant, and then they're almost clothed the go with the the gate on actually being able to move into that self-employed thing. So that so he's trying to time that right, he's trying to make and make the decision, make it at the right time, making sure that it's not gonna put you in financial difficulty depending on where you are in your life.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

But I think it's got to be a little bit ballsy 100%.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

There's always a risk when you're self-employed, there's always a risk, especially if you've never been self-employed before. Um the stress that comes with it can be like monumental for him if you're not used to it.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

And the thing is, the reason why you want to do this is because obviously you might be sick of what you're already doing. Maybe it's not fulfilling you. So if you look at the the average and you say, Well, if I stay where I am, nothing's gonna change, I'm gonna be unhappy still. Whereas if I take this risk, the very worst case is that you have to pick up the hours back at your old job. The very worst case, you stay exactly the same as you were, which I don't think is a bad risk. Now, don't get me wrong, you freshly qualify, you go right. Quitting my job, morgan's unified, jump in, got a month's worth of wages saved. That can be difficult because you haven't put any time in. And I say to every single PT, I think you say it as well, says you only get better by doing it. Yeah, don't start fresh and think this is it.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

And sometimes you perform better when your back's against the wall, don't you think? When you have to go out and get it. And I I think if you've already got financial security with your job and you wanted to expand this and go into self-employed, build your own safety net. Yeah. I think I that would be my main bit of advice for if you've got money coming in, whether it's going to take you a year or two years, put a little bit to the side that's going to cover you for I don't know, let's say six months. Maybe that's in this day and age might be a bit of a push. But for me, the PT money is a bonus right now. You can live off the Money, anything you make from PT goes into a pop. When you're ready to make that move, then I've already got a little bit of a wage of a safety net, just like the wage you've been getting, maybe a little bit less, still give you that little bit extra motivation there to push because if I don't start getting work fast, that money's gonna run out and it's all on me. So I feel like the best way would be make a decision, make an amount that you're willing uh to work from, take the risk from, and just keep putting into it, then don't rush it. So you only get one, I think you get one big chance at this to really, really give it a go. So make sure uh it's realistic, it's the amount you want, don't cut your short. Whether it takes you six months of isolation, just hammering work, coming home.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Yeah, so some good tips if you're worried about stuff like this and you're getting into industry and your employment. I I would personally say maybe look into getting a pool of referrals first. So you've got people that you work with, you've got family and you've got friends. Try and get them on board, do some sessions with them, run some programs with them, get some testimonials. Because when you start transitioning over whether it's part-time or full-time, you've already got a little bit of a list of clientele that can give you a backing, and that's the most important thing. People buy you for what they can see that you've already done, not what you're promising to do. So I think that's a really good thing to close off on. But uh, thank you for watching today, episode 10. This is really important to us. Thank you for sticking with us. Thank you for the subscribers, thank you for the likes and social media. We're gonna keep going. And again, as always, if you've got something you do want to hear about, instead of us trying to make stuff every week that we think is important, if something's important to you, let us know.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

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