The PT Roadmap

A weekly newsletter for personal trainers to guide you to become a better coach and build a better business.

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

In today’s issue:

✅ Business topic

✅ Recommended exercise

✅ Social post worth your time

Let's get into it!

Business

An Open Letter to a New Personal Trainer

I often write this newsletter with my younger personal trainer self in mind.

I made so many mistakes.

I wish I’d had someone wiser who’d been where I was, made the mistakes, learned the lessons, and gotten through.

So, I write as if I’m talking to myself back in 2013/14/15 - the years I struggled the most.

Here is an open letter to me with a bunch of advice.

I hope it resonates.

At least for your first couple of years, put most of your focus on coaching, not business.

• I know you need to make money to survive, and I’m not saying don’t do some business, marketing and sales stuff, but weigh the scale in favour of the things that’ll help you become a great PT.

• Communication, psychology, self-determination theory, coaching theory, programme design, biomechanics. This stuff will lay the foundation needed for success.

You're in the relationships game; don't ever forget this.

• The more relationships you build, the more clients you’ll gain. This is why placing yourself in a jam-packed gym to begin your career is smart. It is far easier to build a thriving PT business in an already busy gym than it is to do it in a private studio where you need to master marketing.

Train people for free.

• It’s like a new hairdresser or barber offering free haircuts to get experience. You’ll speed up your learning and convert more people to paid PT.

Shadow other PTs.

• Find the best ones local to you (or slightly further afield if there isn’t one), and ask to come and shadow them for a half day. You’ll learn a ton by watching someone with more experience do their job.

• This never gets old, either. Shadowing can benefit you even if you’re ten years in.

Learn your ass off.

• Commit to learning new things and upskilling yourself every week. You’ll not only feel better for doing this, but you’ll become a better PT, sign up more clients, and be able to charge a higher price, too.

• There are so many incredible educators out there nowadays, and you can access their courses, webinars and communities at the click of a button. Shout out to Lift the Bar here. If you’ve never been a member before and you’re looking to upskill yourself in programming, coaching or numerous other areas, LTB’s free trial is worth jumping on.

See this as a long-term career, not a short-term fast-buck.

• I doubt you’re reading this and thinking about PT as a short-term thing. But you must take a long-term approach to this. You will be unlikely to build the business of your dreams quickly. It will take years. Have this in mind.

Treat each client as if they were your only client.

• Give them your absolute all. Full focus on them for the entire session.

• This will help you get more referrals and keep your clients for longer.

Some of the best learning you'll do will come from your own training. Don't let it fall by the wayside when you get busy.

• This is so easy to do, and most PTs fall victim to it at one point.

• Prioritise your own training. It can and will change (I used to train for 5-6 hours a week. I now train for 2-3 hours in 30-minute sessions), but make sure it still happens. You know how important it is, so schedule it just like you do your sessions.

Get a cancellation policy in place. And make sure you enforce it (kindly.)

• Bring it up when a new client signs up, and then use the first time as a reminder. Then, enforce it. Treat your business like it is a real business. Real businesses have policies for things like this.

• You can and should be lenient about them when there is a legitimate reason, but these are rare.

Look out for client red flags, and make a point of bringing them up.

• See if your client has cancelled a few sessions in a row or is no longer responding to your check-ins or just seems a bit disengaged with your coaching, call it out.

• The sooner you do this, the better. Do it compassionately, but don’t let small things turn into big things by not addressing them. Lots of lost clients can be kept in your business by dealing with issues before they negatively impact your retention rates.

You'll struggle to do your job if your head and body aren't right. Look after them.

• I’ve hired a therapist to help with mental health issues. I’ve paid another coach to handle my training. I’ve varied my training to get over stale patches hundreds of times. I’ve had to accept that I cannot do 30+ sessions a week or sleep for 5 hours a night, and still do my job well. I’ve told clients I’m not the right PT because our coaching drove me insane.

• Your head and body are what keep your business going. Look after them.

You don’t need to promise or sell fat loss to make it as a PT.

• If you don’t resonate or agree with the fat loss side of PT, don’t market it. You do not need to. There are plenty of other ‘transformations’ you can market.

• You’ll do far better if your business is aligned with what you stand for.

Anyone can become a client (but only if you put yourself in situations to meet people.)

• I recently joined an Axe Throwing league. I competed with 27 other throwers over a 6-week period. This was 3 months ago. Since then, 5 of the members of that league have either done a session with me or signed up for ongoing PT. Including the owner (see image below)

• Clients can come from anywhere. This feeds back into the relationship point. Do more things that allow you to meet more people.

Remember the small things about your clients.

• Kids and partners’ names. Their drink of choice. Their favourite local restaurant. What they do for fun. Random facts about them.

• It is all part of the personal part of personal training. And it all adds up.

Make taking payment easy, and don't let things slip.

• Set expectations early. No payment = no sessions.

• Using services like Stripe to set up subscriptions and Square so you can take payment on the day if needed has made managing payments far easier.

Abundance vs scarcity.

• There are more than enough clients for every single PT.

• Try not to view your PT colleagues as competition but as people you may be able to collaborate with or refer to.

Remember: you’re doing work that changes people’s lives.

• We’re in a career that helps people to improve their health, reduce pain, maintain their independence, and have more fun with their kids/ grandkids.

• Don’t ever forget how meaningful what you do is. It is easy to get in the rat race of being a PT and forget the impact you have.

Exercise

This Week’s Exercise: The Leverage Row

Another one I’ve picked up from my good friend Gregg Slater at 55X Project

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the strongest in the anatomy or biomechanics department.

Hence, the reason I’ve gone down the business & marketing route…

so I won’t talk about strength curves etc, as I’ll be talking rubbish 🤣

But I know this feels great, and it’s another exercise to add to the toolbox!

This is from Gregg:

“I originally came up with this trying to figure out a way to get a back exercise to “drop off” or get easier at the top of the row.

Notice how the weight plate starts further away from me and gets closer through the rep.

The drop-off combined with the head support makes this feel lovely.”

Social Post

This was an inspiring and entertaining watch.

Sean McInroy’s Mum deadlifting 160kg.

Excellent commentary.

Friendly banter between them and an amazing lift.

Social media can be so lovely when you come across content like this.

Thanks so much for reading.

Until next Friday, Stuart.

Here is how I help in-person PTs like you build businesses they love.

1-1 Business Coaching

Are you fed up with spinning your wheels trying to grow your business?

Do you wish you had a clear plan to help you hit your client and income goals?

Are you unsure whether you should take on more clients, launch a new service, or try something different to get your business where you want it?

January is right around the corner.

And now is as good a time as any to put the things in place that’ll help you take advantage of the increased interest in fitness that occurs every New Year.

Let's talk if you’re interested in having a business coach who has been where you are and will help you create a plan to move you and your business forward.

Hit reply, and we’ll set up a free 30-minute business review consult.

No high-pressure sales tactics here.

If I think I can help you, I’ll tell you. If I don’t think I can or think you would be better suited to one of the many other excellent business coaches out there, I’ll also tell you.

Hit reply if you’re interested.