3 Mistakes You’re Probably Making as a New Online Personal Trainer

“And how to fix these mistakes to not lose more money and time”

Let’s face it…we all make mistakes, wouldn’t you agree?

One of our favorite quotes is by the legendary Warren Buffet:

“Rule Number 1: Never lose money; Rule Number 2: Don’t forget rule number 1”

Its probably our favorite quote because we broke both those rules so many time and lost so much time and money from constant mistakes when we were building our online personal training business.

Here’s the thing, you’re here reading this article, so you’re already a step ahead of the game.

Meaning…you don’t have to make as many mistakes as we did.

You can be on your way to creating more income, influence, impact, and independence within your online personal training business.

These 3 mistakes that you are probably making as a new online personal trainer are very common because we’ve mentored hundreds of our Dynamic Fit Pros that were making these mistakes.

Now, business is good, their lives are flourishing, and they’re creating more income, influence, impact, and independence within your online personal training business.

You ready?

Here we go!

Online Personal Training Mistake #1- You are Doing Online Training Through Zoom

When we did the bulk of our online coaching from 2011-2019, not once did we do a zoom or skype session with thousands of clients we served. This allowed us to sustain a six figure online personal training business.

You may be saying, “Okay Chris and Eric, so what…”

Hear us out.

We are HUGE advocates of the Hybrid Training Model because you have the best of both worlds within online training and in person training.

In fact, the Personal Training Development Center did a survey with over 1,000 personal trainers that showed that the average Personal Training session was between $50-70 US per hour.

They also revealed that those who trained at small boutique gyms made more money than Personal Trainers at big box gyms. Moreover they showed that when you do the Hybrid Training Model, you make more overall income per year.

Now, if you sit there and do in person private training sessions plus online zoom private training sessions, this is a recipe for disaster.

The business models are broken!

The issue with in-person personal training is it isn’t scalable.

So, you will run into the same issue with online zoom private training sessions.

You need an online fitness coaching model that is scalable and frees up more of your time.

How to Fix this Mistake-

Great news…you don’t have to make this mistake and you can test this online training model out so you can make more money, impact more lives, and create more time freedom for yourself.

Step 1) Have a coaching model and system in place where you create an individualized training and nutrition program around their goals, lifestyle, and personal preferences

Step 2) Customize it and send it off for them to follow on their own via an online tool or software like Trainerize or via a cloud-based storage app like dropbox

Step 3) Have a system in place where they check in weekly with you via email, zoom, facetime, phone, whatever you want

Step 4) Answer questions via text, email or a facebook group

Step 5) Give them an amazing client experience and get them their desired results

Step 6) Watch them pay, stay, and refer

Hopefully, these tips help to scale your online training business.

Online Personal Training Mistake #2- You Have a Lead Generation Leak in Your Business

We remember we were out in Palm Springs last year, writing our new book “Rise of the Fit Pros” and the Airbnb we were staying at had a leak in the ceiling that was coming from the AC vent.

This was an issue that was urgent because the leak was making a mess with the water and it was hotter than hates and we needed the AC to work so we can write the book comfortably.

So, what happens when you the personal trainer has a leak in your business, specifically not being able to get fitness leads?

We hope its urgent for you to fix because without the new leads coming in, you won’t be in business for too long.

How to Fix this Mistake-

You need more fishing poles in your lead generation lakes.

I know you’re probably like fishing poles.

WTF? Lol

Here us out…

Take Instagram for example:

Instagram is like a lake.

Its massive wouldn’t you agree?

Because it has 6 ways to connect with people:

Stories
Direct messages
IGTV
Lives
Standalone posts (pics or videos)
Highlight reels

Give us your honest opinion here:

Do you think that the personal trainer that has one fishing pole in the Instagram lake, meaning this personal trainer is only posting content on stories would OUT FISH the personal trainer that has 4 poles in the Instagram lake?

Meaning this personal trainer is posting content on stories, standalone posts, DMing leads, and has a system to follow up with leads from Instagram?

We’d bet all of our money on the personal trainer that has more poles in the lake just like I would bet all of Eric’s money on red at a roulette table in Vegas…(I’m kidding, I’m not a hard core gambler).

But really think about this analogy with lakes and fishing poles.

How can you add more poles in the social media lakes?

Start fishing on Instagram and Facebook, then move onto other platforms.

Online Personal Training Mistake #3- You Think Your Business Model is Working, But It’s Not

If we piggyback off Mistake #2 above, with having a lead generation problem. This next mistake goes hand in hand with it like Kobe and Shaq or Michael and Scottie!

The reason being its not always a lead generation problem. It could be the following:

Your business model is broken like all the cardio machines in a gym
You have no systems or processes to make your online personal training business run like a well-oiled machine
Your offers aren’t solving big enough problems so that your clients pay, stay, and refer more
Your products in your business model aren’t stacked properly thus they fall over like the leaning tower of pizza

How to Fix this Mistake-

The first step is coming off a free offer [Learn 8 free offers we wrote about], discounted offer, or value based offer. Then you need to follow the “4 Cashflow Divisions to an Online Business:”

Here’s a real-life example of this:

Step 1: Get leads in through a free or discounted-high value offer like a 5-7 day online fitness challenge

Step 2: Implement the “4 Cashflow Divisions to an Online Business:”

1. Core product offer
  - Ex: $1499 8 week transformation program
2. Add on’s or up sells
  - Ex: add on done for you meals or supplements
3. Prepaid or financing for programs or offers in the future. Offer prepay 10-20% discount
  - Ex: your phase 2- six-month program is the next level for your client and you want to offer this as a prepaid upsell for 10-20% off the normal price since they already committed to your 8 week transformation program. So, the six-month program is $5000, but if they commit today and for the next 6 months, they get a 10-20% discount
4. Continuity
  - Ex: Turn prepaid offer above into reoccurring discount. Your six-month program above was $5000 and you gave them a 10% discount, which is $500, now you can turn the rest of the six month program into monthly payments of $750

Conclusion

Our hope by writing this article, was to help you not continue to keep making these 3 mistakes new online personal trainers are probably making.

If you actually take action on these 3 ways to solve these mistakes you will see your online personal training business scale.

It will at least get you off the damn island. Lol.

Now get out there and serve so you can create more income, impact, influence, and independence!

-Coach Chris and Eric

Avoid the Many Pitfalls Personal Trainers and Nutritionists Make…

Avoid making the #1 MISTAKE Personal Trainers and Nutritionists make by not having an online coaching business alongside their in-person businesses.

If You Want to Learn the Secrets to Adding an Online Business So You Can Create More Income, Influence, Impact, And Independence…

Then Grab Your Copy Of Our New Book “Rise Of The Fit Pros” 100% FREE Here

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101 different ways to make more income using the Hybrid Training Model
The power of your story, why, and vision to separate you from average fit pros and become a Dynamic Fit Pro
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Why you need to be a fitness marketer first, learn to not be afraid to sell, and re-frame your mindset to serve and transform lives
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