After decades in the fitness business operating an international fitness association, we’ve come to realize that you’re usually going to get one or two individuals that always seem to have a well-sustained session schedule and constant overall success. And even on their ‘bad’ months, they somehow always seem to make a comeback in curiously short periods of time.
This is one reason why, early on in my fitness pro career, I decided to learn from and mimic these individuals. Because, well why not?
What Makes a Highly Successful Personal Trainer?
In really any industry, the fastest way to experience success and growth is to find someone similarly positioned, who is also abundantly successful. After that, next is to figure out what they’re doing differently from others, understand why their methods work, and then pattern your own business strategies to mimic those fundamentals.
There’s no money in reinventing the wheel, because there isn’t much of a demand for a new wheel design …since it was never really broken to begin with. Because a wheel is a wheel, I set out to uncover why some fitness pros (and many other successful entrepreneurs) almost never seem to find themselves stuck in a stagnant or hemorrhaging business. And if they do get stuck, then it’s rarely ever for long.
Here are 4 simple reasons why these abundantly successful #FitnessPros always seem to succeed …and after applying these reasons, then you can be abundantly successful too.
#4 – Their Core Mission Is Simple
“To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.”
-Bruce Lee
Entrepreneurs have a nasty tendency to feed the complexity monster, and there comes a point when this big guy decides to start chomping away at the core parts of their businesses.
However even in massive, supposedly complex, Fortune 500 companies that routinely experience growth -you will usually find that their business models are truly based on simple ideas. But if their payrolls, accounts, tax forms, networks, etc., are massive webs upon webs of systems, built upon bigger webs of systems -then the question is:
Which part of a successful company is usually the simplest?
It’s the core mission. Often times, fitness pros lose sight of this absolutely foundational commitment between themselves and their businesses. To its purest definition, a fitness trainer is in business to meet with their clients, offer a quality training session, and help those clients achieve fitness and health results.
If a fitness trainer does not succeed in this core mission, then that’s a problem big enough to ultimately cause the entire business to fail. If a fitness trainer does succeed, however, then their original purpose has been fulfilled (and billable hours tend to accumulate under those conditions).
So, provide yourself with a simple definition of your fitness business’ core mission, repeat it to yourself every Monday morning before your first client, and stick to it. And by the way, I’m not talking about future goals here, because that’s a vision. Unlike a vision, your core mission is a statement/commitment of what you should be doing right now, which fulfills your business’ most basic function.
#3 – Their Winning Personality Is It’s Own Fitness Brand Builder
Interestingly enough, some of the most successful fitness trainers have never attended a business school. In fact, this one attribute is far more powerful than any MBA, especially when it comes to pitching, selling, and motivating new clients: I’m talking about the advantage of having a winning personality.
What is the Best Personality for a Personal Trainer?
What does that entail, exactly? According to Jill Konrath from LifeHealthPRO, the best salespeople could be described like this:
“Successful salespeople had more energy and a more positive attitude about things. They talked and listened more than other salespeople and spent more time chatting with others and drawing them out. Their positive attitude truly did make a difference — in other people’s feelings toward them.”
In a sense, you could sum up that paragraph into four primary qualities of successful salespeople, which is…
- Magnetism
- Manners
- Punctuality
- Positivity
#2 – Their Business Model Is (Also) Simple
Fitness trainers also not only complicate their core mission too often, but they also tend to complicate the particulars on how to accomplish that mission.
It’s not uncommon for new company owners to go ‘app crazy’, attempting to integrate several different back office platforms, etc., Instead, it’s usually best to keep things simple. For instance, in cases where something seems to work reliably, like a particular marketing strategy for instance -then putting your time, budget, and energy into several different methods can actually become counter productive.
“The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.”
-Andrew Carnegie
Looking back….. Interestingly enough, from 2000 to 2010 some of the world’s most prevalent companies were able to secure the top 85% of the entire global market. However, the curious aspect about these particular companies was that they really didn’t change any of the fundamental aspects of their business model in order to achieve such an accomplishment. One article, from David Mielach of Business News Daily, discussed how these companies like, Apple and Nike, merely mimicked the effective business models of other prolific brands -largely because that was a simple course of action with a historically repeatable success rate.
#1 – Their Winning Brand Grows Within Its Fitness Business’ Capabilities
Perhaps THE BIGGEST reason why some #FitnessPros always seem to get ahead is because they’re extremely good at growing their business in proportion to their revenues. It’s a huge temptation to try and capitalize on additional cash flow by investing in things like a professional marketing company, an accountant, or purchasing some new app software in the name of ‘efficiency’. However, the crux of our downfall is usually in the fact that our revenues aren’t great enough to justify these new costs…
…and this tends to act like a house that’s too heavy for its own foundation. One stiff gust of wind, and the building’s occupants homeless. If anything, this is an issue with all newbie entrepreneurs in general, because cash flow mastery is seen to be a trait of accomplished businesspersons (and according to a webinar from SmartCompany, it’s a challenge that almost all of us have struggled with).
But there’s the misconception: you don’t need an MBA to master your business’ cash flow. To its fundamental definitions, profit happens when your costs are less than your revenues. This means, that it simply comes down to making common-sense decisions and easing your way into new investments for the growth of your business.
Don’t Trade the Function for the Form
If you want more pie, then you’ll need a bigger plate -but before you upgrade, you should have already obtained access to a greater portion of the dessert table. With that said, you’re not in business to have a big fancy plate. You’re in business for the pie. Successful fitness pros understand this, and that’s why they always remain mentally focused on their core mission, while emotionally driven toward their future goals and vision.
The overarching principle here is that function is what keeps your business alive, whereas its form is what provides it with room to grow.
