Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of Contents
I Wanted More
4
This is Why I Became Incresingly Frustrated by Aspects of the Fitness Industry
6
Online Training Gone Wrong
8
The Benefits to a Gym Owner
10
The Software
11
How to Charge
12
Meshing Online and Offline Training
13
Your Packages
15
Email Support
19
Using Calendar Systems
22
Legalities
23
Writing Your Sales Page
24
Your Web Form
26
The Consultation
30
Building Your Exercise Library
34
Templates
39
How to Find Clients
40
About the Author
44
Disclosure
46
I wanted more
So I took on more.
For two years I ran a bootcamp 3 days a week from 6:30am to 7:30am making $120 cash. I
would then travel to 4 clients houses making $65/hour cash. By noon, I was in the gym where I
trained 8 more clients and ended my day at 8:30pm.
In one day I would make $710.
But that wasnt enough I wanted more.
So I took on the role of senior trainer at my club and made a small salary. I also negotiated a
commission for referring my overflow of clients to other trainers.
By 24 years old I was rolling in dough. But I wasnt happy. I was scared. And still, I wanted
more.
By all accounts I reached what many would consider the peak of my earning potential.
The only logical step up was for me to open my own facility. I had offers of financial backers but
knew in my heart that I didnt want to be a gym owner; I was youngI wanted to travel, I
wanted to make more money and to help more people.
I was scared that there werent any options other than to continue working 14hours per day. And
to make more money I would have to work harder for somebody else.
My good friend, spoken word artist, and YouTube sensation Suli Breaks later summed it up:
If you don't build your dreams, someone else will hire you to help build theirs. - Suli Breaks
But things have changed and in this book Ill give you the tools to change them for yourself as
well.
thePTDC.com 2014
thePTDC.com 2014
thePTDC.com 2014
1.
Training clients online allows you to scale (make more in less time).
2.
You can make money when youre not in the gym which supports a family and
healthy lifestyle much better.
3.
Business no longer has to dictate fitness. Scheduling becomes a non-issue. All
clients can workout at 6:30pm if they want and youre not stuck to a strict 30 minute or
1hrs session policy. Online training allows you to program for the clients goal and give
them what they need.
4.
You can finally take on friends and family members of current clients that live far
away. Referrals become much easier when location isn't a factor. You can also keep
training a client even if he or she moves away.
5.
You can charge less per client and make more exponentially increasing your
income while providing a more cost effective service.
thePTDC.com 2014
Example 1 -- Steve
Services Offered
Program design
Nutrition design
Example 2 -- Sandra
Services Offered
Workout plan
thePTDC.com 2014
thePTDC.com 2014
2.
Your income streams are limited to training, memberships, and potentially sales of things
like supplements.
3.
Your gym has busy times (good) and dead times where your trainers are bored and youre
not making much money.
4.
For individual trainers building an online training business is a nice supplement but for a gym I
consider it a necessity because it solves every one of the above 4 problems.
Imagine being able to say to your trainers that during the dead hours between 1-4pm they can sit
with their feet up and design programs + answer questions from online clients of the gym. In
exchange, youll pay them their hourly rates all the while youre taking a cut off of the top.
Once you set up the proper systems (which are no different from what an individual trainer
would do), your online component organically grows.
The trainer is ecstatic because its extra revenue that they can make without having to be on his
feet all day, youre ecstatic because youve created an extra revenue stream, and the online client
is ecstatic because they can train with your team if they live far away.
Win-win-win its a beautiful thing.
After we spoke upon the initial release of my 1K Extra course Nick Mitchell decided to put
emphasis on the online training component of his facility Ultimate Performance in the UK.
According to Nick, this one aspect of his business results in an extra 100,000+/yr ($166,000
USD).
Heres the website - www.upfitness.co.uk/services/online-personal-training/
thePTDC.com 2014
10
The Software
A misconception with starting an online training business is that you need to be proficient using
technology. Nothing can be further from the truth. If you wish to ultimately scale your business
beyond 1K Extra a month, than software helps. But for those looking to take on a couple clients
online to supplement their incomes, software isnt needed.
Well, thats not entirely true. You will need an email account, a free Paypal account, a free Skype
account (optional), and some sort of workout template that you can email electronically (which
you probably already have in Microsoft Excel).
Later in this book I outline how to organize your business and offer support. For now know that
your entire business could consist of a free Paypal account to accept credit cards, email support,
and sending out workout templates and instructions to your clients.
thePTDC.com 2014
11
How to Charge
Before getting into the details of how you should build your offers and pricing, lets talk for a
minute about payment processing. Plenty of options are available for taking in payments online,
but Ill just go over a couple.
PayPal
This is the easiest option. Create a free account. New clients dont have to have an account to
pay you. They can pay with any major credit card in one of two different ways: Directly through
a button you create or by clicking on the send a payment button at PayPal.
Often trainers want to offer the option of recurring payments. Instead of asking for $2000 up
front, its more appropriate to offer 4 payments of $500 once a month for 4 months. For $20 you
can sign up for a professional account in PayPal that allows the functionality to create
subscription or recurring billing buttons/profiles with whatever terms you like. You can also
schedule in monthly or bi-weekly payments that never expire.
1Shopping Cart
While a touch more involved with setting up, 1shopping cart allows you to receive payments. A
benefit of this option is that you can create a page with 1 click up sells for other products as a
client is paying for training. If you sell other products and services like T-shirts or supplements,
this could be a suitable option.
InfusionSoft
Even more involved still, InfusionSoft offers an all-in-one solution. The system takes some time
to get used to but can be molded exactly how you like. A principal benefit of InfusionSoft is the
ease of integration with commission systems and email marketing.
Really, any method of accepting payment online will work, and there are hundreds of similar
methods available, but for most trainers, PayPal will suffice. Its the easiest and you can
withdraw directly to your bank account from it for free.
On receiving payment, simply create an account for your new client and send them the login
information and they are in the system. If they decide to stop training, cancel their account.
thePTDC.com 2014
12
thePTDC.com 2014
13
propose training 2x/wk for the first two months followed by once every two weeks moving
forward.
Her fee for each of the first two months would be:
8 in-person sessions + the maintenance plan fee
After the initial two months her fee would be:
2 in-person sessions + the maintenance plan fee
Aside from being able to provide a more specific service to the different types of clients you
encounter, I love this because it allows a trainer to justify spending as much time is necessary
ensuring that a client has success. When I trained clients I didnt follow up as much as I should
have simply because I didnt have time.
thePTDC.com 2014
14
Your Packages
Creating various levels of training packages to offer at various price points is important both in
being able to cater your services directly to a client and to deal with the objection of price. Your
time is your most valuable asset and should only be offered in premium packages.
To build your packages, first make a list of every service you could possibly offer. You dont
have to offer all of them, but write everything you can think of for now. They might include:
This isnt a conclusive list. You might have other services to offer.
Once you have written them all, put a value on each based on time commitment. Value your time
not as an abstract measure, but as time you could be using to produce something that will
generate leads or passive income. Look at it as an opportunity cost and if people are taking that
from you, they should do so at a premium.
From the above example, heres how I might value each service per month unless otherwise
noted:
thePTDC.com 2014
15
$50
Ignore the specifics of these figures but notice how much more value Im putting on the services
that require a time investment on my part.
Daily tips and the membership program can be compiled either by you or outsourced and sent to
an entire email list through an autoresponse sequence. Forum support can be provided by
somebody else who you hire. The Webinar is your time, but you can service many people at
once.
The phone consultations, assessments, and email support must be done by you and therefore are
premium services.
thePTDC.com 2014
16
precedent. The addition of a premium package at a much higher price point makes the middle
package seem more reasonable. It is a point of reference.
This is how I might choose to split it up into 3 levels and make up fun names for each level. For
this book Ill use a Star Wars theme because, well, why not?
Level 1 (14.99/month) -- May the Force be With You ($50 value. Save 30%)
Access to a membership program for new workouts, exercises, or articles each month.
Level 2 ($199/month) -- The Force is Strong With This One ($400 value. Save $200)
Follow the rule of 100 when showing a discount. If the money saved is less than $100, represent
it as a percentage. If its above $100, represent it as a number.
thePTDC.com 2014
17
You expect most people to choose level 2 here. If they object because of the price and wont
budge, you still leave yourself the option to present them with level 1.
After following my 1K Extra system, Colin from Coconut Fitness built out and represented his
systems beautifully.
Heres Colins Website - www.coconutfitness.com/coaching/#packages
Note: In Colins example the middle option seems like a no-brainer and the top option is much more expensive
than the bottom two so acts as an anchor making the middle seem like a bargain.
Dave Dreas from Arizona is a good example who, after following my 1K Extra Course, included
a pre qualifying statement on price before his web form.
You can see Daves website here - www.modestlyrefined.com/coaching/
thePTDC.com 2014
18
2.
It creates a community. Getting your clients to know and become friends with each
other is a useful way to increase retention. This is an age old tactic in brick and mortar
gyms, why not do it online? All your clients will likely have Facebook anyway.
They can post questions to the group. Rarely, if ever, does a client have a question that
cannot be answered by others within the group. Instead of asking you, tell them that they
can post the question to the group at any time. Youll be present in the group and add an
answer if you feel its needed. 9 times out of 10, 5 people will answer the question before
you even reach it.
thePTDC.com 2014
19
3.
4.
It gives you one place to answer. When all the questions are in one place it allows you
give yourself a time limit, log into Facebook, answer everything, and log off. Block off
15 minutes a day and dont go over.
It creates an air of exclusivity. Give your group a cool name. The group itself will begin
to have value (that you can add to the valuation in your packages). People talk about how
theyre a part of a cool club more than they talk about hiring a trainer to send them
programs remotely online.
Allow people to email you once a week at a specific time, say Thursday night.
The email must be point form. Each point is a question and no longer than 3 sentences.
This is the only way I recommend giving email support for 3 reasons:
1.
2.
3.
It enables you to plan. If you know all the questions will come in on Thursday, merely
book off two hours every Friday to answer them all and you dont have to worry about it
for the rest of the week.
You avoid the dreaded wall of words. Most people arent writers meaning that they will
write you an impossibly complex, long-winded, and repetitive description of events.
Forcing them to be succinct should be a priority.
The unimportant questions never get asked. You should only be spending your time
answering questions that matter and not responding to people emailing you during a
workout that their wrists hurt. Forcing them to build up a list and email it to you once a
week will eliminate most unnecessary questions.
If you need more information on a situation, youre always free to ask the client for more details
or to jump on Skype for 5 minutes.
thePTDC.com 2014
20
delivered. I also recommend adding in an F.A.Q. with responses to common questions that you
get.
In my 1K Extra course I provide a template information package to send out.
An F.A.Q. saves you from answering the same question over and over again. The easiest way to
build it is to take your time and write a great response the first time that youre asked a question,
send it as a reply to your client, and add it onto your document.
Before long youll find that most of your support will be handled with this document. Also note
that having effective documentation is the only way to scale your business. If you eventually
want other trainers taking on clients for you, you need to have documentation built.
thePTDC.com 2014
21
Using Calendars
Keeping an effective calendar system for tracking payments, monitoring clients, and organizing
consultations is imperative to your well-being. Using a Google calendar and software called
TimeTrade in tandem will save you time and lots of money on Advil.
Here are the steps to set up your calendar system:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Create a free Google calendar and sign up for the free 30-day trial at Time Trade (its
$49/year afterward).
Connect your Google calendar to Time Trade.
Decide on a block of time in your schedule to do initial sales calls or consultations over
phone or Skype (For example, I personally only do calls from 9 to 11am, Mon to Thurs).
Set this as an appointment in Time Trade. When you do, it will create a link for
you to email out. That link takes the user to your calendar and only shows them
the available spots for the appointment youve offered them. You could, if you
want, create two types of appointments and the user would only see the
availability for the appointment you send them.
When a user chooses their meeting time, it will insert the meeting into your
Google calendar and no longer offer that time as available in Time Trade. If you
book another appointment in your Google calendar at that time, Time Trade will
no longer offer that time as available
When a new client books in with you, set a reminder in your Google calendar to alert you
one week before their payment period is to expire.
Add in any other reminders with alerts you might need. For example, if you do a biweekly Skype as part of a premium training package, you can set a reminder to alert you
every two weeks for the client.
Systems are everything in this game. Let the software do the heavy lifting for you. When a new
client signs up, you should have a checklist with all reminders in it. Schedule them all into your
calendar at the beginning. That way, you dont ever have to think about continual scheduling or
worry that clients sessions are expiring soon.
Another reason I like TimeTrade is that it automatically adjusts for time zones. If you send
somebody a 9am appointment time, it will show to them as the time in whatever time zone the
client is in.
thePTDC.com 2014
22
Legalities
If a client gets hurt while exercising with your program, youre still liable; it doesnt matter that
youre training them remotely. Protect yourself the same as you would offline.
The following are the basic waivers you need. This might not be a conclusive list and does not
constitute legal advice. Depending on where you live, rules might be different. I strongly advise
you to consult a lawyer to ensure you have all the proper documents.
Par-Q
Every client must fill out a Par-Q, sign it, and send it back.
Par-Med X
The Par-Med X is for clients over the age of 55 or have answered yes to any of the questions on
the Par-Q. It must be filled out by a physician.
Waiver
I advise that you get this drawn up by a lawyer as it should be specific for your business.
Liability Insurance
Even if you follow all the guidelines and offer sound advice, its possible somebody will get hurt
and might sue you. Liability insurance is offered through most certification agencies and all
trainers programming or selling nutrition advice online should have it. You can also obtain it
from all major insurance providers.
thePTDC.com 2014
23
Below are links to the online training sales pages for Mike Campbell from Australia and Chris
thePTDC.com 2014
24
Wren from the United Kingdom. Both Mike and Chris are trainers who Ive worked with helping
to structure their online business.
On their pages linked below, notice how both outline what it is that makes them unique, what
their ideal client has problems with, and a succinct overview of the program components noting
why each piece is effective. Also, they both showcase a good amount of personality.
Mikes website is here - www.unleashyouralpha.com/online-coaching/
Chris website is here - www.thefitnessarchetype.com/coaching
thePTDC.com 2014
25
This section will go over the various types of questions that you should include in your web
form. The better you get at configuring forms to gather information and build a rapport before
speaking with a client the more successful you will be. Also to consider is that these forms will
save you time.
Many questions you would ask a client in an initial assessment can be included on a web form.
The Basics
This is relatively straightforward, but make sure you collect the first name, last name, and email.
In addition, you might want to collect age, gender, and phone number.
thePTDC.com 2014
26
forms I ask people to name their favourite books or quotations. Ask whatever you like here; it
should be in line with your personal interests outside of the fitness realm. Getting people to fill
out this information has 3 benefits:
1.
2.
3.
Sets you apart. Conventional is boring. Conventional gets ignored. Ask them to quote
their favourite line from a movie and theyll start reminiscing about a fond memory.
Immediately your services become associated with that fond memory.
Gives you a talking point when you contact them. When you contact a potential lead
would you rather say, thank you for your query. My prices for training are. Would
you like to get started? Or would you prefer to say, Wow! You love Indiana Jones too.
Remember that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana and Sallah uncover the
Wall of Souls?
Helps you pick out the people you really want to work with. Your time is your most
valuable commodity. My clients became some of my closest friends when I trained.
Asking questions to predetermine whether youd enjoy working with a client is just as
important as learning their exercise histories.
In a sales meeting its best to start by trying to find a common interest. Often salespeople will put
pictures on their desk from vacations or conveniently forget that a fiction book was left on their
desk hoping that a potential lead will ask about it.
People buy coaches, not coaching. It you want to be successful in this business youve got to get
your lead to like you before you try to sell them. Use your web form to accomplish this
thePTDC.com 2014
27
In the previous page where I went over writing the sales page for your training I speak about the
difference in offering a free consultation and allowing the client to APPLY for a free
consultation. Tell the client youre busy and theres plenty of demand and that youve made a
commitment to yourself to only work with those who you can really help even if it means turning
down paying customers. Two questions that need adding here are:
1.
Get the client to tell you why they think they would make a good client.
2.
Get the client to tell you why they specifically chose you to be their coach.
Ive also seen some trainers add a prequalifying question getting the client to rank their
commitment from 1 to 10. Not a bad idea as an addition but I wouldnt use it as a replacement
for the two questions above.
James Cerbie, currently living in Boston, is another trainer who has applied the principles from
my 1K Extra course. Notice on his contact form via the link below how specific hes made the
thePTDC.com 2014
28
questions, the rapport building element, and the numerous attempts at getting the client to qualify
himself/herself to him in addition to the buy-ins before presenting the options.
Heres a link to James website - www.rebel-performance.com/coaching/
thePTDC.com 2014
29
The Consultation
Recall Parkinsons Law (work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion). The
first step in keeping your online training program manageable is to use the calendar systems I
outlined earlier. Set blocks of time aside each week for consultations. When an application for a
consultation has been submitted, send a brief email (no more than 4 sentences) back to the client.
Comment on their favourite books if possible and ask them to book a time to chat sharing your
Time Trade link or if youve chosen not to use TimeTrade, with two possible times to chat.
This step is important to avoid much of the back and forth for scheduling. If, for some reason,
they cant fit into any of your blocks and youre willing to book them another time for the call
obviously go ahead. This way you know that every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 11am youre
doing calls and dont have to worry about it for the rest of the week (or whatever times you
choose).
In Time Trade you can share information for the call. Keep it simple. Instruct the client that the
call will be over Skype and ask them to add you no later than 15 minutes before the allotted time
and share your Skype username.
Try not to have any other communication before the call.
The Call
Send a text message through Skype to the client when the time comes for the call asking if they
are ready. When they reciprocate, call them by phone only (you can do picture, but I find Skype
cuts out much too much when I show my webcam).
These calls should be kept short and you must maintain control of it. After exchanging
pleasantries and making a quick joke about Star Wars and how awkward it wouldve been to be
in the room when Luke and Leia found out they were siblings, initiate the conversation. If you
dont take control right away, the client will start giving you his or her life story and it becomes
much more difficult to conduct the sales meeting.
thePTDC.com 2014
30
A simple, let me start by asking you a couple questions right off the bat is enough to take
control of the call.
After that, your questions will change depending on the training you do. However, there are 3
categories of questions sot you should ask:
1.
Discuss history. Both exercise history and any medical concerns should be discussed
here. If you find that they are going on tangents and being long-winded, interrupt them
and ask them politely to be specific for you.
2.
Identify goals. They would have already written this on their form, but get them to repeat
what their goals are to you. Dig deeper. A goal is never to lose 10lbs, a goal is the reason
for a 10lbs weight loss goal. Often the goals that our clients give us are superficial; they
are the perceived steps a client believes that they need to take to accomplish what they
actually want to do. Perhaps the clients goal is to feel sexy again and feeling sexy might
be defined by being able to fit into a sleek red dress again. Dig deep and figure it out. Ask,
why? and what does that mean to you? until you find your answer.
3.
Identify limitations. Get them to tell you what they are struggling with. While they are
talking, write these points with pen and paper. Before you make a sales proposition to
them, you must show exactly how youre going to solve all their problems.
After these 3 questions and solving all your clients problems its getting close to the time where
you make the sales proposition. By now youve gathered plenty of information about the client.
Decide the two packages that would be best suited for the client.
Tell the client that you offer a package that you think would work excellently for them and name
the one piece of the package that will specifically solve the biggest problem they are facing. Then
thePTDC.com 2014
31
They say yes, you silently fist pump and make a PayPal button (Ill explain at the end of
this section).
2.
They object based on a problem you failed to solve. If this happens, explain how the
package will solve their problem.
3.
They say I have to think about it. If this happens, ask what they have to think about.
Thinking about it isnt an objection. Theres always an underlying reason.
4.
They object because of the price. Lets get into this one in more detail:
thePTDC.com 2014
32
By now people have an idea what training costs. If they inquired through your web form about
training they knew it was going to cost them money. A couple hundred dollars a month is
affordable to most if they carefully inspect their purchasing habits.
If they are willing to do it, you can discuss with them ways to save money so that they can pay
for training: giving up cable TV, buying meat on sale in bulk and freezing it, and not eating out at
restaurants are 3 examples that would save most families at least $200/month.
I should also add thats its common practice to pressure a lead into committing over the phone
with a fast action bonus. Its your decision whether this is right for you. Personally, I dont like
the tactic for personal training. Either the person is ready or they arent. And if they arent, you
dont want to train them; pressure sales tactics will only cause headaches for you down the road.
Payment
They agree to buy, congratulations! After negotiating the terms and payment plan you want to
take the payment as quickly as possible. This is one of the reasons that I like using PayPal for
transactions of this nature. While you are still on Skype with them, you can log into your account
and create a custom button for them with their exact terms within seconds and send them a direct
link through Skype messaging.
Another option is to have a page set up on your website with payment buttons already set for
each payment level. Whatever you decide to do here, remember that your goal is to get payment
quickly with as few in-between steps as possible. Dont have more documents or even a sales
page for them to read. Tell them on the phone that after you receive payment, youll send them
over all the forms and information to get started.
thePTDC.com 2014
33
thePTDC.com 2014
34
Step 2 Take a day and enlist the help of a friend. With a smart phone or handycam, film a
20-30s video for each exercise. A 5s spoken description and 2-4 reps of the exercise.
(Pro Tip: Buying a Mic kit from your local electronics store makes a huge difference in sound
quality and might be worth the $150 investment.)
Step 3 Upload all videos to YouTube (create a free account if needed).
Step 4 - Write as the title of the video in a form similar to YOURCITY Personal Trainer
EXERCISE_NAME
Step 5 (optional) - Go to https://www.youtube.com/keyword_tool which is the YouTube
keyword tool. In a separate tab, go back to YouTube and search for another video demonstrating
the same exercise. Copy the video id.
Select YouTube video id or url on the keyword tool, enter the ID and click get keyword ideas.
thePTDC.com 2014
35
thePTDC.com 2014
36
These are the words that people search for in Google and YouTube to come across videos similar
to the one youve just uploaded. Use one of the terms in your video title in the
EXERCISE_NAME spot.
What many people dont know is that the entire description in YouTube videos is indexed by
Google. This means that you should use as many of these keywords as possible in the description
of your YouTube videos. Before that description, include a link back to your website.
This way people searching from your city for advice related to your video will come across you
as Google identifies a users IP address and location and gives them results largely based on
location.
Heres an example of a video by Dan Trink demonstrating a biceps curl where I implemented this
system. Note the keyword stacking in the description. http://youtu.be/MVoCCUSucwg
Martin Rittenberry, a trainer from Minnesota who I worked with in the past created a beautiful
thePTDC.com 2014
37
thePTDC.com 2014
38
Templates
Writing individual programs is a time-consuming process. You might still choose to do it, but I
want to present an option for those of you who want a different solution. Most clients can be
bunched into categories. The workouts for all clients within a single category will be similar and
doesnt need to be written from scratch each time.
First, decide on 1 to 3 groups of clients you want to take on. For example, 25 to 30-year old
males who want to look good naked or over-stressed 25-40 year old working women. Whatever
the case, take some time and build a killer workout for this client category. Film all videos for the
exercises and write all descriptions in your software.
All your marketing materials should be aimed at this client group. Only take on clients that fit the
mold. Depending on the assessment or questionnaire you have a new client fill out, you might
want to individualize the program. No problem.
Another benefit of using software is that you can easily set up a template and switch in and out a
single exercise as a replacement without having to rebuild the entire thing. You can create
individual programs in minutes once you set up your templates.
To illustrate my point:
Lets say a client mentions in their assessment that they have shoulder pain while bench pressing.
Based on how they describe it, you assume its probably some sort of common impingement.
Instead of including a bench press as the second exercise in your program for 4 sets of 6 to 10
reps at a 4010 tempo, you decide to replace the exercise with an incline dumbbell neutral grip
press because its safer for the shoulder. The sets, reps, and tempo stay the same and this change
takes all of 30s to make.
thePTDC.com 2014
39
thePTDC.com 2014
40
5. If your lead is interested, theyll ask you more about it. If they know somebody interested,
theyll talk about you. If theyre not interested, theyll either not respond or wish you well. Add
them to a reminder system to alert you to follow up in a month.
6. If they show any interest in your program or ask you a fitness question, send them a link to
your TimeTrade or share two times to chat and offer a free 30 minute call to discuss follow
the sales call discussed previously.
**See how this system builds upon itself. Hustle at the beginning and get 100s of people in your
reminder system. Every day your calendar will beep and you should be sending 3-5 hey, how
are you emails. Everybody knows somebody who wants training and this is how you stay at the
top of their mind without pitching.
** Your entire marketing for a $100,000+ online training business could, and should, be having a
reminder beep at you and sending out 3-5 emails to say hi every day. Its a maximum of 10
minutes, not bad eh?
Facebook
If you only use one type of social media, Facebook should be it. With over 800 million active
users, Facebook is without a doubt the most widespread. Almost everybody that you meet will
have a Facebook account that they check. Its where we go when were bored, have to vent, or
want to show off.
I suggest you look at Facebook as the place that you use to stay at the top of your audiences
mind. Everybody in your Friend group is either a potential client or knows a potential client.
They might not be ready to buy training from you right away, but when they are, you want to be
seen as the expert so that youre the first person they call when they are ready. This will all be
done from your personal page. Unless you have much bigger aspirations than building a
clientele, its all thats needed.
In a study conducted in the 1970s called the Strength of Weak Ties, the researchers concluded
that success was directly and exponentially correlated to the amount of people that you have a
loose connection to. The reason is that in order to succeed, you need to get luckyand your
chances of getting lucky increases with the number of people you know (even if you dont know
them well). So, say person A writes a tip of the day status update with advice on reducing
chronic back pain to 100 friends and person B writes that same status update to 2,000 friends.
Who do you think has a better chance of somebody knowing somebody who has back pain who
is looking for a trainer? Obviously person B.
So step 1 is to gather as many friends on Facebook as possible. There are 3 approaches to
gathering more loose connections:
1.
thePTDC.com 2014
41
2.
Search Facebook for people based on your years of high school and college and add
people who you knew back then.
3.
Search through the friends of your existing friends and add anybody who youve met.
Step 2 is to be consistent. Every day post a fitness tip of the day. These can be short and might
seem like basic information to you. Heres an example:
Fitness Tip of the Day
Squirt some freshly squeezed lemon into a cold glass of water first thing in the morning. Its a
great way to start the day off right by stimulating bile and removing toxins from your body. It
also helps with fat loss by breaking down adipose tissue.
If you, or anybody that you know, has any questions about health and fitness you can message me
anytime.
At the end of every tip of the day, include a call to action for people to contact you. Once they
do, respond by offering a 15-minute phone call to discuss. Aim to help, not sell them, because if
you do, theyll ask you to train and at that point no objection, not even price, matters.
In addition to the tip of the day, share articles written by somebody else a few times a week.
When you do, be sure to add in your intelligent thoughts about the article in the description when
you share the article.
Understand that your goal of these Facebook shares 7-10 times/week is not to educate or
influence friends of yours. Its to continually remind them that you are the fitness expert in their
friend circle. Everybody knows somebody who needs or wants training. Be consistent with this
and reap the benefits.
Step 3 is optional, but also effective. Facebook is a great place to publicly celebrate clients
achievements. Did your client just have a great workout? Or smash her deadlifts? Or put on 10
pounds of muscle? Celebrate and tag them. With their permission, sharing pictures of them
training is powerful as well. It could be as simple as the following:
Just wanted to congratulate my client Dan Smith for crushing his deadlifts today. Two plates
went up smooth like butter, my friendlike butter.
Tag your client so that the comment shows up on his wall. His friends will see, comment, and
like it. Youll see some atta boys and wish I could do that and youll probably have a few
people asking your client for your contact info.
Facebook is the best place to find people interested in what you do best, collect them in one
place, build a value-based relationship with them, and sell them on your online coaching no
matter where they are in the World.
thePTDC.com 2014
42
Kate Mckee Horney from North Carolina, who Ive coached in the past, created a free 3-day fat
loss meal plan as an ethical bribe.
Heres Kates site - www.beyondfitphysiques.com/
thePTDC.com 2014
43
About Jon
These things are always written in the third person, I dont really know why but it just feels right.
So imma go with it
[Jon exits and a mysterious writer enters to finish the book in third person]
Two weeks after his 18th birthday, Jonathan Goodman became certified as a personal trainer.
Four years later, he built his first fitness blog and it was awful. The same can be said for his
second and third fitness blogs. Trying to avoid working 14-hour days training clients for the rest
of his life, Jon created a passive income stream by writing his first book called Ignite the Fire:
The Secrets to Building a Successful Personal Training Career.
Jon started his fourth blog in an effort to promote his book this one didnt suck. Instead of
haphazardly posting content, he strategically built a network to promote the site and the idea of
improving personal training from the inside out. The result was the formation of what has now
thePTDC.com 2014
44
become the worlds largest collaborative blog for personal trainers, the Personal Trainer
Development Center (www.theptdc.com). Hes obsessed with using psychology to build simple,
yet effective systems for solving common problems that trainers face.
Jon spends his summers in Toronto, Canada but takes off when the snow starts to fall having
spent the 2012-2013 winter in Maui, Hawaii and 2013-2014 winter on the island of Koh Phangan
in Thailand. He loves to work hard, travel, and has recently discovered that he thinks babies are
cute and maybe one day hed like to have a couple.
Jon answers all his own email and can be reached at jonathan@theptdc.com.
thePTDC.com 2014
45
Disclosure
As of Dec, 2009 the FTC requires that I disclose any hidden interests I might have whenever I
recommend a product or service. All the links in this book are of products or services that I either
use, have used, or developed personally and receive my full recommendation with our without
compensation. But, to protect my butt, assume that for every link in this book I receive money,
swag, sex, and a light saber.
thePTDC.com 2014
46