Fall of 2008 Tyler English decided he wanted to leave his job as a trainer in a gym and go out on his own.

He’d kicked around the idea of launching an infoproduct but hadn’t gotten any traction – and about that time we launched the Bootcamp Blueprint.

Even though he still was employed at the health club, he took the plunge and made the 12 month commitment and joined the program.

On December 23^rd he felt like he had learned enough to go out on his own and left his job at the gym.

On January 12^th, 2009 Tyler opened up his first 2 camps with 15 paid campers and about that many free trials using a Karate Studio and a Dance Studio.

In almost no time he was at capacity with over 60 campers and decided to open his own facility.

On March 30^th Tyler opened his own warehouse style facility and moved his camps there.

Tyler was just getting started.

He dialed in, put the infoproduct idea on the back burner, quit worrying about a lot of the online stuff that hadn’t really been giving him a significant ROI and started focusing on the high return marketing activities we were sharing.

By September his camps we up to over 110 members.

About that time, Tyler’s brother Robert left the Marines and came home to work in the business.

Having Robert on board took everything up another notch.  Tyler could work even more on the business instead of having to deliver all the camps himself.

Fast forward to now…

Tyler’s facility is literally bursting at the seams.

They’ve got over 200 campers.

Robert’s added his own specialty programs to go along with the camps and weight management programs they already had running.

Tyler’s hired a staff bookkeeper / assistant.

He’s working with his landlord about expansion so he can add more programs and accommodate bigger classes.

His business is churning out 25K or more month after month.

So in about 13 months Tyler went from club trainer to his own facility with over 200 campers and 25K per month.

There are thousands of fitness professionals out there in a similar situation to the one Tyler was in back in the fall of 2008.

Unhappy with their jobs or their current income.

Feeling like they were settling for far less than they we’re capable of.

Hopefully this isn’t you – but maybe it is.

He decided it was time to take action and build the career and the life he’d always wanted.

Will you do the same?

http://theBootcampBlueprint.com

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

I just spent the weekend at Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit.  He put on a great event and delivered a lot of good content.

Unfortunately, my biggest pet peeve also reared its head too.

We went through a ‘speed networking’ session that Ryan put together where you meet with a bunch of people in a hurry and each person shares their elevator pitch.

Well, about 5 out of the first 6 people that I met said stuff like ‘I’m a list building expert and I help people build huge lists.’

So naturally I said: ‘So how big is your list?’

‘Well…ummmm…I’m just getting started.’

Ugggghhhh.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time swallowing the whole ‘expert’ thing with people who don’t actually practice much of what they preach.

You see it online a lot.  People that sell money making products and programs that supposedly teach you how to build a business online who have never built a business doing anything but promising the get rich quick dream to naïve people.

But it’s not exclusive to the money making market.

Have you seen all the people online that have a magic program promising to help everyone and anyone lose weight or build muscle – and the supposed ‘expert author’ has never trained anyone except themselves or their mom?

It’s amazing.

I guess that in my ‘perfect world’ if you tout yourself as an expert in anything you should have some significant practical experience.

Trainers that don’t take care of themselves probably shouldn’t coach others. I’m not saying that they need to be cover model fit – but 75 pounds overweight is not acceptable.

List building ‘experts’ should have built their own list.

Money making ‘experts’ should be making money – not just selling money making info.

In fact, if the stuff they taught worked so well, why wouldn’t they be practicing what they preach?

Nick and I still own a health club in large part to the fact that we buy in to that philosophy.

Practice what you preach.

In fact, our entire business model for our Athletic Revolution franchise is based on only making money if our franchisees make money.

We’re paid on a percentage.

If what we teach doesn’t work – we’re not profitable.

So do me a favor – before you package the world’s best list building system – build your own list.

Before you become a business expert – run a successful business like the one you claim to be the ‘guru’ for.

Before you launch the latest, greatest fat loss system – help hundreds or thousands of people lose fat in person.

I hate to rain on people’s parade because I love catchy marketing as much as the next person, but the truth is – if it sounds too good to be true it is.

The 4 Hour Workweek is a lie – because NO ONE successful works four hours a week.

So commit to doing the work – but doing it smart and efficiently so you reach your goals as quickly as possible – and do a great job.

Then market what you do.

Sell the sizzle then actually deliver the steak.

If you think I’m totally wrong about the get rich quick stuff and my opinions about all this – or have your own thoughts – share below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

For me – outside of what my parents taught me – competitive sports had by far the biggest impact.

It’s funny, thinking back to the things I learned in high school, as an undergrad and in graduate school – not a lot of it has a daily impact on what I do.

But the lessons I learned in sports – they matter every day.

Here are a few of the things being an athlete or coaching athletes taught me:

• The Ability To Handle Adversity – you can’t go very far as an athlete without having to overcome adversity and the most successful athletes are usually the ones who deal with adversity the most effectively.
• Work Ethic – I remember my freshman year of high school going to baseball practice at 3:15 after school and being done at 8. It was kind of a rude awakening for a 14 year old, but I quickly learned that to be successful you couldn’t do just enough to get by. I don’t know anyone who has ever become a real success just punching the clock and working 9-5.
• The Intangibles Matter As Much As The Tangibles – Many of the most talented athletes I’ve ever played with or coached were huge underachievers when it came to performance. They didn’t have the passion, drive or willingness to work hard. They couldn’t handle adversity. To this day – I’ll hire intangibles 10 times out of 10 over a great resume.
• To Keep Score – The beauty of sports is that you keep score. There is a tangible way to measure performance. I tracked everything when I coached because I was looking for an edge. We track our numbers for the same reasons now – if you don’t keep score you can’t measure how you’re performing and know where to focus your efforts on improvement.
• Sacrifice & A Team Attitude – If you compete in a team sport and want to succeed at a high level you quickly learn to work within the framework of a group, sacrifice some of your individual goals for the good of the team and understand that if you want to be a champion you need to get past selfishness and shortsightedness.
• You Can’t Hide – As a baseball player, if you step in the batter’s box it’s a moment of truth. You either put in the hours in practice or you didn’t. As a coach, when your team takes the field – you either recruited and did the job preparing your team – or you didn’t. Too many people make excuses. Sports teaches you that excuses don’t get you very far.
• Hustle Can Make Up For A Lot – As a player I got to play at a higher level than my talent probably would have taken me because I worked hard. As a coach we developed a nationally ranked program with some of the worst resources in the country. If you’re willing to outwork the competition you can overcome a lot of shortcomings – whether it is talent, resources or anything else.

That’s just a sample of the things being involved in competitive athletics taught me. If you were involved in sports – what did it teach you?

Share the lessons you learned from being involved in athletics below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Here is the Part II of the roundtable discussion on assessments:

How does the assessment influence the programming you do with your clients/athletes?

BH: The assessment is the foundation of the program.  It provides the answers to the questions of what this client needs to do to close the gap between who they are today and who they will become with proper training.

EC: It’s incredibly influential on what we do. 

It dictates contraindications; for example, someone with poor ankle and/or hip mobility may not be prepared to squat safely.  

It dictates our “filler” exercises; these folks would do specific ankle and/or hip mobilizations between sets of compound exercises, or separate from the session.

It dictates compound exercise selection; someone with poor frontal plane stability and a history of lower back pain would need more single-leg work and less bilateral loading.

Finally, it dictates how “progressed” an exercise should be.  For instance, many women struggle to do “clean” push-ups from the floor – so just prescribing a push-up isn’t as appropriate as prescribing an elevated push-up off a bench or the pins in a power rack.

MR: The assessment is the foundation, or cornerstone, for everything I do.

The more quality feedback I get from the assessment, the better my programming will be. 

I’m extremely lucky to work with a guy like Bill, who has spent 20 years of his life assessing clients in the gym or in the clinic.  When he sends me their problems list, it’s akin to a major leaguer getting that fastball right down the middle – I know I can absolutely crush it.

The more thorough your initial assessment is, the better your resulting programming can become.  Period.

For the individuals reading these posts, how can an assessment help their fat loss clients?

BH: One of the keys to a fat loss program is getting a client to generate a high level of intensity during a session.  Clients that have common instabilties and mobility limitations are limited in their ability to access the larger muscles which compromises intensity. 

For instance, a client lacking hip extension because of shortened hip flexors won’t be able to effectively activate large hip extensors like the glute max.  They must therefore substitue with smaller, less effective muscles.  Small muscle = low intensity.  Low intensity = no fat loss.

If your client is stuck using the three pound pink dumbbells, you can forget seeing much progress.

EC: To take it a step further, if you had to ask me what the single-most important factor is with respect to success on a fat loss program, I’d say “continuity.”

If you aren’t assessing clients before throwing them into a “generic” fat loss program, you’re just waiting for the least experienced of them to incur a chronic or traumatic injury.  And, if you’re hurt, on top of being in pain, you’re also not dropping fat.

MR: It’s funny, because a lot of people think assessments are only for high-end fitness enthusiasts and athletes.  However, I feel as though the assessment is every bit as important for fat loss clients.

How many fat loss or overweight clients come to you with poor mobility?  Orthopedic issues like a bum knee, or bad back?  And how many just have horrible work capacity?

If you don’t take the time to examine the client and how they’re currently moving, it’s very challenging to pull together a great training program for them.

Same question, but for athletes?

BH: Athletes have the same problems.  Let’s use the same hip flexor issue as above.  An athlete with shortened hip flexors can’t activate glute max effectively.  He’s immediately more likely to strain a hamstring.  The glute max is also a high intensity muscle required for top speed running.  No butt = no speed.  Sure you can try to do glute activation exercises ‘til the cows come home, but it won’t make a difference if you don’t address the shortened muscles.  If you didn’t assess this in the first place, how would you address the problem?

Another big issue with athletes is fatigue.  Most athletes we get have horrible general fitness.  We know this because we test them.  A fatigued athlete not only performs poorly, but he’s more likely to be injured.

EC: Being a successful athlete is about finding a competitive edge.  If you aren’t getting assessed, your training is – to be blunt – just throwing shit on the wall to see what sticks.  I meticulously measure all of my professional baseball players when they get back from the long season to know exactly what we need to do to get them headed in the right direction as soon as possible.  In a sport with a long in-season and short off-season, you can’t spin your wheels for a few weeks and feel things out.

As an example, many pitchers we see develop large, unacceptable shoulder internal rotation deficits over the course of the season if they aren’t good about their flexibility training.   I get the typical minor league baseball player back between September 15 and November 1 (depending on how long their seasons go and how much time they take off after the season).  Most of them start to toss again right after Thanksgiving, and anyone who manages arms will tell you that it’s tough to gain back internal rotation in a shoulder when someone is accumulating significant throwing volume.  So, when it comes down to it, we might have 3-10 weeks to get that range of motion right with soft tissue work, manual stretching, and self-stretching.  If I don’t assess, they miss out on that crucial time period – and they run the risk of developing shoulder or elbow problems because of the issue.

Conversely, a small number of our pitchers have congenital laxity and will NEVER need to be stretched into internal rotation at the shoulder.  In fact, stretching them into internal rotation would increase their risk of injury (it’s better to be too tight than it is to be too loose). 

If I give these two groups the same “arm care” program, I might help some people, but I jeopardize the careers of others.  Assess, don’t assume.

MR: I feel the biggest reason that high-level athletes don’t achieve their goals are due to injuries and the subsequent interruption to their training.

By thoroughly evaluating an elite athlete, you can examine their current issues and what could be holding them back.  For instance, a lot of powerlifters have bad backs.  If they are constantly either working around the issue, or not taking the necessary steps to address it, they’ll never achieve their true potential.

However, if you can nip those little injuries in the bud, and give your athletes consistent training, there’s no telling how far they can go.  You have to keep them healthy and training at a high-level, though.

Do you feel an assessment could be performed within a very large group setting, such as a boot camp?

BH: Sure.  By performing assessments prior to participation, individuals can be placed in groups by their needs, fitness levels, and levels of movement proficiency.  This will allow a more optimal training experience.

EC: Absolutely.  It all comes down to knowing the assessments and practicing them over and over again.  Last year, I assessed an entire Division 1 college pitching staff in under an hour by myself and individualized flexibility recommendations and strength and conditioning contraindications for each of them.

MR:  You may not be able to evaluate them individually within the confines of the class (outside of the always assessing mindset), but you can absolutely have them come in individually and get an assessment done.

Another option is to simply start the class with very low-level training, addressing the most common issues you see – weak glutes, poor scap stability, faulty core/lumbar spine stabilization patterns, etc.

I find that even though many clients feel as though they have a great training base, when you focus on doing less complex exercises correctly, you can get a wonderful training effect.

————

If you have questions for Bill, Mike or Eric – post them below and I’ll ask the guys to stop by and answer them when they get a chance.

Also, don’t forget Bill, Eric and Mike have agreed to provide my readers with a big discount on Assess and Correct – an incredible resource detailing many of the exact assessments and corrective strategies they use at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training and Cressey Performance. If you order before March 3rd and use the coupon code ‘RIGSBY’ you’ll get $30 off the normal price – so it’ll be $97 instead of $127.

If you don’t already have a copy, it’s a must have for every trainer and coach.

You can learn more here:

www.AssessAndCorrect.com

So check out Assess & Correct, submit any question you have below and also let me know if you’d like to see more posts like this from time to time, focusing on helping you deliver better results to your clients.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

I am in a fortunate position.

I get to see what many of the most successful fitness professionals in the world do to build successful businesses.

I also get to see what holds many of the struggling trainers back.

And I can tell you this:

If you want to run an extraordinary training business, it takes more than just effective marketing, the ability to close sales and delivering a bunch of workouts.

Your clients are paying you to get results.

With that in mind I asked Bill Hartman, Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson to share their thoughts on a few questions I had concerning assessments and their role in delivering programs that will get clients results and turn them into raving fans.

Here’s Part 1:

What is the role of the initial assessment?

BH: The initial assessment represents point “A” in the training process.  The client’s goals represent point “B”.  Without identifying the measureable difference between the two, it’s impossible to determine the client’s needs and develop programming to close the gap between today’s status and where they plan to be in the future.

Is it possible to train someone without an assessment?  Sure, but I think you’ll quickly find that a tremendous amount of time is wasted on progressing and regressing exericses as you move through the first part of the training program.  You’ll also put the client at potential risk for injury by asking them to perform exercises for which they’re not prepared.

Training is a multifactorial process.  Without prior knowledge of mobility, stability, range of joint motion, general strength and endurance, every component of the training program is a guess.  The more information we have in developing the training program, the faster the progress.

EC: To piggyback on what Bill said, I’d simply add that most folks want quick and (dare I say it?) easy results early-on to “justify” their decisions to hire a fitness professional in the first place.  If they feel like they’re just being put through a factory line, all the exercises are too difficult or easy, and they’re constantly feeling overwhelmed or unchallenged, then they’re not likely to stick around long.  An assessment enables a coach to avoid these pitfalls.

MR: The initial assessment gives us feedback on what limitations the client/athlete currently has.  It tells us what they do well, what they don’t do well, and what we need to address within their training.

It’s funny that people want to argue about “how much” assessing is enough.  Some want 4 or 5 tests, while guys like Bill, Eric and I are willing to spend some serious time up front to root out any issues a client may have.

Here’s how I look at it – I’m going to do as much assessing as I deem necessary.  I think we sometimes forget that our job isn’t to expedite the process, or to make our jobs easier, it’s to make sure that our clients get the best possible results.

When we start re-focusing on the clients’ needs and goals, everything gets a lot more clear.

Please discuss the “always assessing” mindset.

BH: I use a statement “Everything is an assessment” when speaking or working with our interns.

As detailed as we are with out preplanned assessment, there are factors that cannot be identified or anticipated.  For instance, technique, mobility, and stability change with varying levels of fatigue, speed of movement, and load.  Therefore, we must be attentive to these changes to protect the client and assure proper loading for that day.

A guy that comes to the gym well-rested and well-fed may perform significantly different from a guy who only got four hours of sleep last night and missed 2 meals.  Sometimes this may happen to the same guy.

By always assessing, allow a coach to adapt the program to the individual today.

EC: Along those same lines, I’ve actually worked backward from things I’ve seen on the training floor to create assessments.  The goal is to have assessments that “carry over” to real performance as much as possible, and sometimes the best way to get to that point is just observe what’s going on and work in reverse.

MR: Every second of every session, you should be evaluating your client.

How are they moving today?  How is this in comparison the session before?  Or when they started?

I can often tell how a client is going to perform simply by watching them come in the door.  If their shoulders are slumped and their head is down, chances are they’re not going to have a great session.

This, however, goes beyond simply assessing for the sake of assessing – this now becomes coaching.

How do you all use an assessment within your semi-private training models?

BH: Even though we train our members in groups, each one of them undergoes a formal assessment.  This allows us to program to the individual needs of that member.

We’ll have as many as four members training together, but each member is performing his or her own individualized program.  It takes more time to assess each member and then develop a program for each of them, but that’s one of the things that separates our gym from the rest.

We provide our members with a higher level of service from the moment they become a member.  It makes an impact on their attitidue right away.  It’s quite common for a new member who’s hired a personal trainer in the past to comment that no one’s ever taken the time to determine their needs before.

That’s very powerful and has a tremendous effect on our outcomes.  How committed would our members be to generic program that everyone does compared to one that’s designed specifically to their needs?

I can tell you that it sets us apart immediately.  We’re perceived as specialists.  We’re providing a much higher level of service than anyone in the area.  It adds value.

EC: Agreed on all accounts.  We run things very similarly; clients all undergo individual evaluations when they start up, and they get their own programs in accordance with the results of those evaluations.

An added bonus to the one-on-one first session is that it allows us to do some “intensive” teaching right off the bat.  All of our clients learn our exact foam rolling series on the day of their evaluation and go through a sample dynamic warm-up to get a feel for how an actual training session would start.  Then, they may go through pre-tests before some technique coaching on some lifts such as trap bar deadlifts, push-ups, single-leg exercises, etc.  This one-on-one coaching makes it easier to integrate them into a semi-private setting in their next session, as they know what to expect and have some of their technique flaws ironed out.

I also use the evaluation as a means of making sure new clients understand that my entire staff and I are interchangeable.  So, while it is a one-on-one session, it is not one-on-one with a single staff member.  A new client might do their evaluation with me, then learn foam rolling and a dynamic warm-up with Brian, do their pre-testing with Chris, and then do their lifting technique work with Tony.  All four of us, therefore, are privy to what’s going on with their evaluation, injury history, and goals so that we can set them up for success accordingly.  And, when they have questions, there are four people they can seek out – as opposed to just one.

MR: The fact that we use a primarily semi-private model has no influence whatsoever on how we assess.  We use the same assessment at IFAST whether the new client is going to be a one-on-one, a distance client, or a group training client.

Think about it like this:  The more information I have initially with regards to a clients needs and goals, the better I can develop a training program to help them achieve or address those needs and goals.

Doing less work up front leaves me with exactly that – less work up front, and typically more on the back-end.  I’d rather really put someone through the paces up front to determine what can possibly hold them back, and address it right from the start.

That’s it for Part 1.  We’ll be back with Part 2 on Thursday.

Also, Bill, Eric and Mike have put together an incredible resource detailing many of the exact assessments and corrective strategies they use at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training and Cressey Performance called Assess and Correct.

If you don’t already have a copy, it’s a must have for every trainer and coach.

You can learn more here:

www.AssessAndCorrect.com

As you can see, this is not an affiliate link and I am making no affiliate fee for recommending this to you.  In fact, I’ve asked the guys to pass any commission I’d have earned for recommending this on as a savings to you.  So if you order before March 3^rd and use the coupon code ‘RIGSBY’ you’ll get $30 off the normal price – so it’ll be $97 instead of $127.

So check out Assess and Correct and we’ll be back with Part 2 on Thursday.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

1. Doing an extraordinary job.
2. Making sure a lot of people know about it.

I think it’s really odd that none of the marketing ‘gurus’ pay much attention to #1.

Actually – until I really brought some attention to it they didn’t mention it at all.

But think about it – could all the marketing in the world get you to go back to a restaurant that served you an awful meal?

Zappos is one of the most prominent online retailers in the world – do you know how much of their business comes from repeat buyers?

Over 74%.

And they’ve become the gold standard for doing an extraordinary job.

It’s not a coincidence.

So I’m going to keep sharing a ton of ways you ‘make sure a lot of people know about you’ – but this week I’m going to have three of the indsutry’s most respected pros – Bill Hartman, Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey do a couple of guest posts to help insure that you’re doing an extraordinary job.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the role doing an extraordinary job plays in your success below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

Coaches love quotes and clichés.

It’s almost impossible to find a coach that doesn’t have quotes or clichés all over their office or locker room.

I was no exception.

I love distilling things down – a checklist to teach a system or sentence that conveys a bigger message.

So here are 5 of my favorite rules for business and a sentence or two about what they mean:

1. You get paid for done. You don’t get anything for having a great idea, getting started or developing a plan.  The finish is what matters.  You only reap the rewards when you get done.

2. Be remarkable. No one raves about ordinary. Deliver an extraordinary experience and a caliber of service that people can’t help but talk about and everything else about business becomes much, much easier.

3. Never stop learning. At every seminar I’ve ever been to, the most successful people always seemed to be asking questions and taking notes. This is not an accident.

4. One is the loneliest number. Only one revenue stream and you’re only a couple of steps away from disaster. Only one team member means no time off and a lot of time working on things you don’t enjoy working on.

5. Treat everyone like a prospect.  Treat every prospect like a client.  Treat every client like they’re family.  Treat your family (and business family) like gold. As far as I’m concerned, relationships are everything. Grow your relationships and you’ll also be growing your business.

There are 5 of my favorite business lessons – all worthy of their own Successories poster. I have more, but I want to hear what you think.

So here’s what we’re going to do – post your best business lesson, quote or cliché below and I’m going to pick my 3 favorites.

I’ll give each of the 3 winners a copy of the Ultimate Fitness Professional’s Business Success System that I created with Alwyn Cosgrove.  Countless fitness professionals have told me it’s the best fitness business product on the market – and I’m going to give you a copy if you’re one of the 3 winners.

Post your entry below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

I love stories.

That’s a big part of why I prefer to meet with people in person or talk on the phone over sending emails.

It’s easier to share stories.

Sharing stories are one of the easiest ways to get to know someone – and if you’re selling, they’re one of the easiest ways to build rapport.

This weekend at the IYCA Summit I shared my personal story with the audience so they could better understand where I was coming from when I offered business advice.

Based on the feedback I received, it was the best thing I could have possibly done.

Now they know me when I send an email or make a suggestion.  I’m not just another random guy.

I also got to spend some time with Jason Ferruggia – who I’d never really talked with before. I’d exchanged a couple emails with him a long time ago, but I didn’t really ‘know’ him though I’d certainly consider myself a fan of him as a coach.

So the first thing I did was ask Jason about his story.  How he got into the industry. What inspired him.

After listening to Jason’s story I not only have even more respect for him as a coach, but I also know how he’s become as successful as he has.

That got me thinking that I’d love to hear more people’s stories.

Any relationship is a two-way street, so while you may know quite a bit about me and how I got to this point, I don’t know as much about most of you.

For me to be the best coach I can be and help you as much as I can – I want to hear your story.

Tell me why you got into the fitness industry.

Tell me what hurdles you’ve faced.

Tell me how your career has evolved and where you want it to go.

Honestly, tell me anything you want that will help me know you better.

I want to know.

And because I value your time and expect that it may take more than a couple of minutes to share your story – if you do take the time to help me know you better I’m going to give you a gift as my way of saying thanks.

So share your story below and I –along with my assistant Lee Ann – will be following up with you this week (at the email you provide when you submit your comment) with a gift for contributing.

I look forward to learning more about you!

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

Walt Disney developed Disneyland in response to the fact that amusement parks left a lot to be desired.

Wal-Mart grew like crazy because retailers ignored markets outside the big cities.

If most of the fitness industry is going to ignore the problems at hand – that equates to opportunities for you.  Here are the most obvious opportunities as I see them:

Become ‘The Solution’ For a Targeted Group of People In Your Area – In Boston baseball players seek out Eric Cressey’s gym. In Edison, NJ wrestlers flock to Zach Even-Esh’s Underground Gym. If you’re in Santa Clarita and want to lose fat, you go to the Cosgrove’s gym.  If you want sports performance training in Watchung, NJ, Jason Ferruggia’s Renegade Gym is the go to solution. In Pembroke, MA young athletes seek out Dave & Andrea Gleason’s Athletic Revolution.

Determine who you want to serve and become the ‘Go To Solution’ for that group. While I’ve never asked Jason about how he decided who he’d work with (I’d assume it’s the same for him from reading his blog) – I know the others all built businesses by becoming passionate about helping a certain group and putting in the time to become the best solution for that audience.

If you take this approach, as a businessperson everything becomes easier.  You know what you have to focus on.  What to study.  Who to market to. What your identity is.

I really think that the fitness industry is poised to move this way – targeted solutions for specific audiences.  It’s up to you whether you’ll be one of the leaders.

Build a Community – All the gyms I just mentioned have their own community. Starbucks coined the idea of becoming their customers’ 3^rd place – that place people wanted to be outside of home and work.

Great fitness businesses become that 3^rd place for their clients.

I mentioned it in the previous post – I don’t care if you love or hate CrossFit – they’ve built a community. Their members are posting pics and videos all over their Facebook pages, communicating with other ‘CrossFitters’ outside of the gym and making their experience viral.

Think that stuff happens at Ballys?

Find ways to connect your clients with one another. Encourage them to support each other. Instead of each client only being ‘your client’ – they also become part of ‘your team’ or ‘your family.’

Do that and you’ll be amazed at the impact on your business and you’ll separate yourself from all the other trainers and gyms in your area.

Be The Anti-Health Club – Even if you are a health club. Make everything personal.  Know your clients.  Not just their names.  As about their work, their family and their hobbies.  Even if you run a bootcamp, at least spend some one-on-one time with clients in the beginning to build a relationship and learn about them – then make it a priority to have periodic one-on-one contact with them regularly.

If clubs want to try to be Wal Mart (it won’t work) – you be the boutique location that everyone raves about.

Deliver Results or Find a Different Career – If you aren’t focused on making the people you work with better, move on.

I’ve spent a LOT of time in health club settings and most trainers there don’t work to improve at their craft, don’t do assessments, don’t design programs and don’t really care about their clients.

They just sell training and give workouts.

Take the complete opposite approach.

Study like crazy. Become a great trainer or coach – and accept that it will require a BIG investment (time and money) on your part to get there.

Do assessments, design programs, care about your clients’ success – focus on delivering results.

And if you happen to work in a big gym – do this and you’ll quickly set yourself apart from 99% of the other trainers there.

Run A Business That’s Tough To Beat – If you’re going to be part of the solution in the fitness industry as an entrepreneur that means you are going to have to run a sound business that’s poised to compete successfully with the big box health clubs.  Here are the components I think give you the best chance for success:

• A low overhead, primarily open floorplan facility without expensive cardio & selectorized equipment.
• A model primarily based around group training.
• A specific target market (or two) that you’re trying to serve.
• The utilization of EFT billing.
• A dedication to creating a community atmosphere.
• A focus on client results instead of client volume.
• Several different revenue streams.

All the businesses that I mentioned previously utilize most if not all of these components.  Our new youth fitness & athletic performance franchise – Athletic Revolution – incorporates all of these components.

They give you the best chance for success.

So where do bootcamps fall into this plan?  Other than the facility they fit the bill to a ‘T.’ It’s beyond the scope of this post to compare bootcamps where the owner has their own space versus ones where the owner uses someone else’s space – but I will say that controlling your own space certainly has advantages over being at someone else’s mercy.

So there you have it – my formula for taking advantage of the problems the fitness industry currently faces. What do you think?  Are you one of the leaders ready to step up and take advantage of the opportunities I’ve mentioned?  Do you see other ways to take advantage of the problems I and so many others on the previous posts alluded to?  Let me know below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

First off, I think there are a variety of problems, not just one or two.  So here’s my list:

A Focus On Everything But Results – If you go to the mechanic, you go to get your car fixed…not just worked on, right? It’s pretty much that way for any service.

If I drop my clothes of at the dry cleaner, it’s because I want them clean and pressed.

In fact, if my car isn’t fixed or my clothes aren’t cleaned – the service provider didn’t do their job.

The fitness industry’s job is to get people results.  Not just ‘work them out’.

These are far from perfect analogies because they deal with objects like cars and clothes – not people – but the point remains.

If gyms and trainers were graded on the outcomes they deliver to their clients – most would get an ‘F.’

You can argue that their job isn’t to provide the outcome – it’s to deliver the tools or the process.

Fair enough – but if that’s the case they shouldn’t be using the outcome (results) to sell the clients.

If the industry focused more on delivering results businesses would be a lot healthier and clients would be a lot happier.

The Typical Health Club Approach To Business – For the most part health clubs do nothing more than rent their members access to their equipment.  They put little if any effort into building relationships with their members, helping members achieve their goals and essentially delivering on the promises they made in order to sell the membership.

They’re too busy chasing the next member.

It’s little wonder the typical club only has about 30% of their members actively using the facility and only about 3% involved with personal training.

If a member hasn’t visited the club in a couple of weeks, do they get a call or a note wondering where they’ve been? Nope – no one cares…until it’s time to renew.

I know of no other ‘service’ business in the world that provides less actual service than big box clubs.

Personal Trainers That Don’t Respect The Profession – While a lot of people get caught up in other things like ‘there are too many certifications’ – I just think that most of the trainers you find in clubs – and a significant percentage of the trainers in the industry as a whole just don’t get it.

As simply as I can put it – the job of a trainer is to make their client ‘better.’

‘Better’ can mean any number of things depending on the client’s goals.

Unfortunately, most trainers are just busy making clients tired.  They just give them a workout with no real concern as to the client’s goals.

If you go to a doctor, you don’t just want a random prescription.  You want one that will cure what ails you.

Same thing applies here.

That means more focus on trainers becoming better trainers.  More education. More assessments.  More thought to program design.

It makes me throw up in my mouth a little when I read someone suggesting that they just dream up their bootcamp workout as it’s going on.

If you’re charging someone for a professional service, treat the service with respect.

Bad Business Models – Only offering 1 on 1 training so only the affluent can afford training held back the personal training industry for so long it’s scary.  Finally the industry has evolved so that more people can afford to work with a professional coach / trainer.  Multiple offerings = better reach. That’s one side of it.  The other side is that most people with the title ‘personal trainer’ work in a club setting and make $7 a session for 4 months then decide to get a real job.

To deliver a professional level of service the business model needs to accommodate paying professionals.  In most club settings, the only person in the training department making a decent wage is the person doing the selling.

Don’t mistake this for needing to start every trainer out at $25 per hour or more.  They just need a career path that allows them to grow within the profession if we want more stability and a better quality of service.

No Career Path For Trainers – Personal training is a very young profession. How many retired trainers do you know of?

With this youth comes a lack of development within the profession.  It’s kinda like the wild west in a sense.

Once you get a certification or a degree and decide to set out on your career – where do you start?

For a seldom few – they get to do an internship with someone really good and are set on a sound path.

For a few others, maybe they come across a blog like this or the IYCA where I (or someone smarter) can help them pursue an entrepreneurial path.

But for most, they head to the local health club and get caught up in the turn and burn nature of that environment.  A few survive, but most move on to another career. And the club members are probably the biggest losers of all as they only the rawest of trainers and a club environment that is focused far more on sales than service.

Honestly, this is an area that I would like to one day be able to look back and say I had an impact on helping to develop career paths for fitness professionals – but this is at best a work in progress.

No Understanding Of Social Support – Too many people in this industry think that there is a magic program that fixes everything and give little concern to the other variables (outside of discussing nutrition) that impact results.

Clients don’t live in a vacuum.

To really make change happen you need to embrace the other things that impact client success.  Atmosphere matters.  Community matters.  Social support matters.

If you as the trainer or a gym owner creates an atmosphere that is motivating to your clients – average programming will deliver above average results.

If your clients have a community – they have social support – they’ll be more accountable not only when they’re in the gym, but for the 23 hours they’re not each day.

I don’t care if you love programs like CrossFit and Zumba or hate them.  They certainly do one thing better than most everyone else in the fitness world – they create a community atmosphere.  People wear the fact that they do CrossFit or Zumba like a badge of honor. If other programs got their participants to become ambassadors for what they do like these programs do – retention and reach would be far smaller problems.

Too Much Sizzle – Junk ab gizmos on TV promising you’ll fit back into your skinny jeans for only 3 easy payments of $49.95. Magic pills to make you thin. 5000 diet books all trying to say ‘Eat Less’ in a catchier way. Hundreds of E-Books all providing the secrets to being buff – with 2/3 of them written by people with less experience working with clients than my 8yr old has.

The consumer gets so caught up in the bullshit that they often either give up or don’t have a realistic perception of what attaining results requires.  Or worse yet – we get caught up in the bullshit and focus on the quick buck instead of building a high-impact career.

Those are the big problems I see in the fitness industry right now.  Next week I’ll tell you how I think you can take advantage of the opportunities they present.

In the mean time, tell me what you think below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.