The PT Roadmap

A weekly newsletter for personal trainers that'll guide you in your career to become a better coach and build a better business.

Hey!

Thanks for opening up today's newsletter. I appreciate you being here.

Let's get into today's PT Roadmap.

One Coaching Cue

What's it for?

I loved reading this cue from my colleague, Maggie Elliot, in our Lift the Bar member group a few days ago.

Got a client whose feet keep caving in during the squat?

This is an excellent cue to test out.

Better Business

A selection of weekly business tasks for Personal Trainers:

Do these and feel more in control of your business.

I'd recommend tracking them in an admin Excel file. It doesn't need to be fancy - each task has a column, and each day or week has a row. Colour it green when it's done.

I also have a daily recurring 30-minute slot for tasks like these. Rather than handling them during the day, I handle them in one of these slots.

• Update Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

No of enquiries

Consults booked

Sales made

Client retention %

Sessions completed

Frequency = once per week.

• Update Your Accounts

Expenses & income tracked in an excel document or using an app like QuickBooks. Receipts tracked.

Frequency = once per week.

• Client Check-Ins

Has every client had some kind of contact with you? Is everyone booked in who needs to be booked in? Is there anyone showing some signs you need to keep an eye on? (missed session/s, ignored messages etc.)

Frequency = weekly, reviewed daily.

• Client programming

Are all of your client plans up to date? Does each client have their home programmes (if applicable)?

Frequency = ideally once per month for a 2-4 hour slot. Could be more often if needed.

• Ex clients & leads

Have you contacted the leads who have gone cold & the clients who left?

Frequency = once a week for 15 minutes.

• Client payments

Has everyone paid you?

Don’t let this slip. You’re offering a paid service and deserve to be paid on time.

Friendly follow-ups for payments are expected.

Frequency = weekly.

• DMs & emails up to date

Scan through your DMs and emails to ensure none have gone amiss.

Frequency = twice per week.

• Session to do’s

Have I sent everything I said I’d send? Recipes, articles, stretch routines, home workouts? Is there anything I promised I’d do I haven’t done yet?

Frequency = once per week.

• Content

Is my next week planned out? What posts can I repurpose? What questions have I been asked I can use for inspiration? How can I show off what I’m doing with my current clients?

Frequency = once per week.

Better Coaching

I read this quote a few months back, and it's stuck with me ever since.

I've said it to my clients.

I've thought about it whenever I don't feel like going for a walk or training.

The research on longevity is conclusive; exercise/ movement is as good a drug as we have.

If you're looking for something good to share on social media, this is a great quote to use. Personalise it and tell your followers why staying active matters to you.

One Social Media Post Worth Your Time

Different post than usual for this section.

I love the caption (copied below) on this post from Jennifer Anderson @kidseatincolour

"What happens if we don't teach kids about food? ⁠⁠

Someone else will.

Talk about nutrition, food, and weight is everywhere.

Food companies spend billions of dollars to shape our kids' food desires. ⁠⁠Deciding not to teach kids about food is a decision to let others teach them. 23% of all ads on children's TV are for food and beverages*.

Ads are on children's educational platforms, apps, kids' podcasts, magazines, schools (yes, that's right), cartoon product placement, and more.

And it's hurting the health of kids. ⁠⁠Kids see food marketing on every food package.

Even toddlers can decide they only want yogurt with the orange cow on the front.⁠⁠ Plus diet culture is everywhere: calories are bad, sugar is poison, fat is bad, etc. ⁠⁠

I'd love to just serve food and leave it at that.

And 90% of the time, I do. I want to focus on connecting with the kids and just enjoying food.

I just watch for positive opportunities to chat about food and take advantage of them.⁠⁠

This starts with simple, basic messages that help a child know different foods do different things in their bodies.

From there, we follow our child's interest and share facts that will be interesting to them.⁠ ⁠⁠Eventually we expose them to concepts of food marketing and how companies are manipulating them, but that's for another post. 😆 ⁠⁠

Two things are important: helping kids have a good relationship with food and helping kids know facts about food. These things are two sides of the same healthy kids coin, mental + physical health.⁠⁠

I don't think we need to be afraid.

I did use some strong language in the post, stronger than I normally do, because of some recent messages I've heard about how teaching kids about food will ruin their relationship with it.

I wanted to address this head on.

⁠⁠I believe we can think about this calmly and about what we might be able to do. We don't have to sit back and give it over to diet culture and the food industry.

Our kids listen to us, we can influence them too.⁠⁠"

Personal Instagram Growth (week 5)

TL:DR on this section - Meta decided my Fb & Ig violated their T&Cs and deleted my pages. I'm trying to rebuild them. So, I'm using this section as a form of accountability.

My goals just now:

• post three times per week (with at least one thread),

• and hit 500 followers by June.

The follower number doesn't really matter; I just want something objective to work towards.

I'm testing out a new post format after doing some education with Janos Ozolins. Here is my second attempt!

Posts goal = 3 (Posts this week = 5 ✅)

Follower count = 372 (up by 11 from last week. Goal = 500 by June)

I'm starting to think my 500 by June goal was a bit ambitious... this is ok! Growth is slower than I'd like, but I've been receiving an increasing number of DMs so the signs are positive.

Thanks so much for reading.

Until next Friday, Stuart.

Whenever you're ready, here are two ways I can help you:

1) If you’re looking for a place to help you gain knowledge & develop your skills as a personal trainer, I’d recommend joining Lift the Bar on our trial for free for 14-days. You'll get access to courses, actionable webinars and time-saving downloads, and a community of PTs who have achieved what you're struggling to achieve.

2) Listen to the LTB Podcast. Latest episode #393: Katie Hughes - How to Transition From 1-1 to Semi-Private Personal Training