The Right Way to Get Started as a Fitness Professional

One of our franchisees, Tim Ward, is a perfect example of how the new generation of fitness professionals should go about their business.

Laying The Foundation: Only 22, Tim graduated from Notre Dame a couple of years ago and has been relentless in his study of both fat loss programming and youth fitness – and he’s done it the right way – he’s studied both the ‘academic’ side of things and the ‘practical’ side as well. He’s studied guys like Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Eric Cressey, Mike Boyle, Alwyn Cosgrove, John Berardi, and Mike Roussell. He’s attended any number of conferences. And when he wanted to launch a youth fitness & sports performance business he aligned himself with Athletic Revolution.

No reinventing the wheel. Just taking in as much credible information as he can and using it to develop his own beliefs and system of training.

Positioning Himself: When Tim decided to open up an Athletic Revolution in Mobile, Alabama he focused on the things he should be focusing on – building relationships and positioning himself as an expert.

Without a strong network in place in Mobile, he started by building relationships with the local YMCA, the local Community College and other coaches in the area. He set up a coaches’ clinic with other prominent coaches in the area to both get in front of an audience of local coaches, but also to position himself among those already considered the elite in the profession in that area.

He also took on the task of connecting with the local Community College to teach a class – another great strategy to meet other professionals and position himself as a top level expert in Mobile.

More recently Tim formed a Joint Venture relationship with a local YMCA to teach some youth fitness & sports performance classes at their facility. This way he can take advantage of their pre-existing membership base and vast reach in the community.

Finally, Tim recently released his first book: The Theory of Fat Loss. Having checked out the book, I can tell you that anyone reading it will quickly determine that Tim knows what he’s talking about. And instead of trying to make a quick buck launching it as an e-book, Tim published it as a hard copy so he could position himself as a ‘real’ author – something that sets him apart from 99% of the people in the industry.

Moving The Industry Forward: Perhaps my favorite thing about Tim is that he’s always looking for ways to improve. Too many fitness professionals simply settle for just executing what they know. Maybe they learn new things and continue to improve themselves – and in turn raise the standard in the industry. Great for them and great for the industry as a whole. But a special few are innovators.

People that change the way we view things. That actually change the way we do things.

Those folks are rare – and I fully expect Tim to be one of them.

He’s already developed one invention that I’m not at liberty to discuss, but I will tell you it’s very solid. He tells me there are other industry inventions he’s working on as well.

And in his book – The Theory of Fat Loss – he presented some things in a fashion I’d not seen them presented before. A very, very informative read.

If this approach at age 22 is any indication of things to come, Tim will be providing a lot of value to our professional as a whole.

There are a variety of ways to go about forging a successful, lucrative and rewarding career. Some people will tell you the way to get there is market like crazy and to hell with becoming a great professional – but not me. The people I respect in the industry all laid their foundation by becoming a great trainer or coach and strategically positioned themselves as an expert. Yes – they all marketed and some are just as much a student of business as they are a student of fitness – but not at the expense of becoming a great coach.

So if you’re a young fitness pro, I’d strongly recommend you study Tim’s approach because it’s pretty close to ideal. Study your craft. Learn from those that have been there. Become proficient at business. Position yourself as a local expert. Lay the foundation and build on it. Do that and the sky is the limit.

And I’d also recommend that you take the time to check out Tim’s book, The Theory of Fat Loss. Not only is this a great positioning tool for Tim, but it’s a very well put together text on fat loss programming. You can learn more about it here: http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Fat-Loss-Paradigm-Exercise/dp/1456389106/

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

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