| Hi Friend,
Happy last few days of summer to you!
One of the great benefits of training people is learning from others experiences and one thing I've learned over the last 20 years as a professional is how September is different from August in all regards (planning, schedules, mindset, travel, commutes, philosophy, commitments, expectations, ...). Now that we're 3 weeks into the year and the dust is starting to settle on the contrasting changes, I'd like to continue sharing with you some of professional lessons I've learned.
To re-read #'s 1-8 of my professional lessons learned, click here.
9. Get a Self-MBA! When I came out of the gates of school and jumped right into an internship, volunteering and work experiences, my head and my words were both overflowing with knowledge. Most peers in all the settings I worked in couldn't compete on equal footing for the same roles because of this knowledge and experience. That made for an extreme advantage. I rode this for a while and then I started to crave new knowledge and I looked at going to grad school, but the economics and time commitment didn't make sense to me, so I decided to self-learn. Brilliant! I bought all the books, videos and attended all the conferences to learn the skills I wanted to learn to get better. It was more budget and time friendly, though less organized. I'd do it again and I have this year.
10. Pitch Ideas in a Win-Win-Win format! During this process of self-learning, I came across semi-private training and read up, watched and attended as many learnings as I could. I even joined a coaching program to learn more. It made so much sense to me. Help more people by having them share the cost of training, get better results quicker from the "team environment", and train & sustain results longer because of the reduced cost. The club gets more members training (greater penetration rate), more members training longer (better retention rate) and more revenue. The trainer gets to help more people, get better results faster, sustain results longer, make more money and have a more sustainable career. It was win, win, win. I wrote the VP of personal training in NY. Wrote my first proposal. Pitched it and got the go ahead. I was the first personal trainer (master trainer) out of 2000 over 200 clubs to get to do semi-private training. I went from an 8-4p schedule to an 8-12p and increased my total clients and total revenue while training less. It was cool. Until...
11. Remember to Include Everyone It Affects. ...it wasn't. I wrote & pitched the VP of PT because I had a relationship with him. I didn't even think to check in with the VP of Operations for Boston or the District Managers or the Area Fitness Managers, all of who I had relationships with as well. I told my Fitness Manager and my General Manager, but that was it. So once I got the go ahead, I created these packages for my clients to purchase. They were very holistic, 13 week packages (3-months) paid up front and included pre-& post private measurements, 1-on-1 manual stretching, movement screens, and custom program design, on top of the 2 or 3 days of semi-private training.
The problem was the software system wasn't built for these programs and it made the sales process and reconciling process a real mess. Clients got a receipt that showed the dollar amount, but not what they purchased and corporate didn't understand the purchases. Plus every item had to be "checked in" in order to be used, but the software was super slow and buggy and you could spend at least an hour everyday scheduling people in and another hour checking people in. When operations would look at the revenue numbers, it was hard for them to understand except for the fact that there was a lot more. They couldn't explain when they were asked about it. There was also a lot of jealousy because I went from 8-4 to 8-12 and was making more than probably everyone except maybe the VP of Operations Boston, while working part time.
In the end, it led to me being fired for the 2nd time. Once again a very humbling and unsettling experience.
12. Find Problems to Solve, Things You Can Do Better. BSC was great and I'm real grateful and thankful for my time there. It provided a large ceiling to work on my craft, great relationships and done for you marketing that brought me a steady & predictable flow of new clients. Now that I was on my own and unemployed, no jobs were appealing to me. I was too talented to go backwards and was really focused on where the industry was heading. So I continued my self-MBA with both extreme hopefulness and scared sh*tlessness (I know it's not a real word, but it had the same # of syllables) and started researching successful businesses, writing a business plan and doing my swot analysis. Adventure Boot Camps, Ultimate Boot Camps were 2 very popular outdoor boot camps at the time and interval training was just starting to hit mainstream. I saw all the problems with both approaches and with training in a health club, with personal training studios, with classes, with everything and I also saw all the solutions, and decided to do something about it.
No more tv's, magazines, ads, mirrors, distractions, turnover, sedentary exercise machines & training, people not on programs (tire kickers), bad technique exercises, jogging, mediocre training, renting equipment, not caring if you didn't show up, trainers drinking coffee while training, no tracking of results, and no accountability.
13. Create the Market. So I decided to piggy back on the boot camp concept and create a new market. Group Personal Training. Everyone would be on programs. We'd focus on technique. We'd measure before & after. We'd test before & after. We'd teach do anywhere workouts, using minimal equipment, ... that the client would bring (talk about being invested & accountable), so they could get workouts in @ home, in hotels, on vacation and with us. We'd pre-screen everyone so there were no tire kickers, negative nellies or pretentious people.
We'd create real relationships and teams! Teams pick each other up. They bring out your best. I'd coach the group and the group would support each other. The programs would have beginner, intermediate and advanced exercise levels so you could choose the best level for you. The workouts would be set to time, so regardless of the shape you were in, everyone would start and finish at the same time. The more fit people would get more work in vs. the less fit people.
Plus because of my background as a Certified Athletic Trainer, Licensed Athletic Trainer and Certified Strength & Conditioning Coach, I would build in recovery over the course of the year, to reduce overtraining and injury risk, by implementing "recovery / empowerment weeks". This not only kept people safer longer, while yielding faster & more sustainable results, but it reduced the cost of training so people could training longer. Few people were doing this in the country. Most every commercial & branded program just grinded people down. Not maliciously, but because they didn't know any better. It wasn't their background. It was mine, so I thought about it and built it in from the get go.
The program would include both a nutrition discussion and grocery shopping tour covering the latest research for weight loss, fat loss and performance enhancement all as part of your membership.
#NoExcuses.
#GuaranteedBodyChangesForBusyPeople.
Private measurements would be 5min long and first thing on a Saturday morning (so it fit your weekend schedule very easily) and be done at the beginning and end of every phase (4 weeks) and the performance testing would be every quarter. The performance testing didn't make all 11 years. People actual don't care about that as much as I thought, and told me so through their lack of attendance, so I eliminated it. Measurements are still important to people and well attended by those who value the appointment, the data and care about their body composition, but its certainly not for everyone and that's o.k.
Plus this program would provide overall accountability because you'd have a coach and if you didn't show up, I'd call you, text you, email you and some cars, I'd send you a letter. It was a cutting edge program, with few like it anywhere in the world at the time.
So that's #'s 9-13 of 20 lessons learned in 20 years.
I'd love to engage with you and read your feedback, so if something resonated with you, please reply.
And if you know someone who'd love what we do and would be a great fit for CYBBC and/or you know someone who could benefit from a custom program and/or the support and accountability of private training please reply with an email introduction.
Getting better!
Coach Mike
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