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 fitness 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 Fitness Industry 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.
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Hey Pat 1st i want to say what a great weekend i had at the IYCA summit it def rocked and it was great to hear your story as well as many others!!!!! I def want to thank you for all you do for us!
No onto my story well i kinda gotinto the game by accident!
About 10 years ago i was in a very very bad car accident that was my fault. I hit a telephone poll going around 90 miles an hour and was very lucky to have lived.
I did how ever alost lost my left leg but there were able to save it but both my legs wer in very bad shape.
I was in the hospital for about a week then in a hospital bed in my home for about 3 months.
I had broke my tib fib in both legs and my left femur. I had 2 rods a plate and 24 screws holding me together.
After many months of pain they told me that my break in my left leg was to bad to heal on its own and they need to do a bone graft from my hip.
So after that finally healed up it was onto the fun process of romoving all the metal one thing at a time so after 3 more operations i had all the metal out.
Now they told me my knees were in bad shape and i needed my acl redone so after 3 more knee opertios and about 3 years after my accident i was finally done with my operations and “walking” on my own.
Needless to say over this time and the next few years i had gained alot of weight and was in terrbile shape. This is something that i thought was going to be my life as the doctors said i would never run, or really ever workout again becuase my legs were in such bad shape.
So i pretty much went around thinking that was that and i men weh ni was done work for the day my legs were in soo much pain i could hardly walk.
So one day i decided that i had to try and get in shape or i was going to never be happy so i started back at the gym doing the normal stuff i knew bench curls etc etc i over some timed gaine some strength but never lost any of the fat or felt like i was really chnged for the better.
So i started researching altentive methods of training and i found Zach Even Esh and learned alot about the advantages of bodyweight training.
So aftert aking his cert. and reading and learning as much as i could about kettlebells, sandbags, bodyweight etc etc, and training my self at home in my garge i started to see some changes for the better.
People started asking me what i was doing and if they could workout with me sometime and i said sure.
After i helped a friend lose some weight i had a light bulb moment and realized that maybe the reson God let me live throught my accident was to leave me here so i could help others!
So i started to take steps to start my own boot camp business on the side.
After a few months and finding PTU, The Boot Camp Blue Print, YOU, Jim and Nick, Bj and workout muse, Dave “the Band man” and helping some people make some true changes in theri lives i knew that his is what i am meant to be doing nd i took a leep of faith and quit my “real job” and started doing this full time out of my home and some local parks.
This last september i opened up my own space and things could not be better right now i am way ahead of where i thought i would be with around 70 full ie clients and 25 local dragon boat team memebers i train 1 once a week during their off season.
I have had parent asking me to do something for their kids for a few onths now and i just took my level 1 yfs cert and after this weekend at the summit i know that this will be my next amazing way i can get out there and make a differnce and help improve our youth and give them a brighter future!
So thats my story in a nut shell i sorry if it was a little long.
Again thanks for al you do for us and the summit def rocked looking forward to working with you in the future for many many years to come!
Dave Lee
Pat,
I’ll get the ball rolling with a quick synopsis of my story…
I opened Kansas City’s very first personal training studio in 1986, with nothing more than a vision, faith, and an understanding wife.
I was fresh out of graduate school with no job, no money, no investors, and no Pat, Jim, and Nick to help guide me through the process.
There were lots of mistakes made early in the process, but I learned from those mistakes and turned them into an education experience instead of a pattern of negativity.
The one advantage trainers have today is the development of proven systems from leaders in our industry.
Nothing replaces hard work and dedication to your business, but being about to implement proven stragegies and systems into your business can seriously shorten the learn curve.
Pat,
I am a 32 year old teacher and business owner in Tucson, AZ. I began my career as an elementary education teacher and taught 5 years in the TUSD District.
About 2 years ago my 6 month old daughter was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, a deadly genetic disease that effects the lungs and digestive system. This forced my wife out of a full time job and into a full time mother/nurse. Several treatments daily along with battling insurance issues leaves a family very tired and stressed. It also forced me to find a way to support my family on a single income. I turned to the fitness industry and the IYCA to help me out.
Like Greg said, one advantage I have is that I can turn to people like Pat Rigsby or Nick Berry to ask questions, learn systems that work, and get advice on how to be successful.
In the last year I have opened my own youth fitness and sports performance business and will be expanding into a new location soon. It is because of the strategies and implementation of proven systems that work that I am able to do this.
Thanks Pat for sharing your knowledge. My family thanks you as well.
Kevin Nichols
Hey Pat,
Love all of your info and I hope I can meet you in person some day.
I am not making millions with what I am doing but I consider myself successful and happy. Soon I will not have to work my current full time job and I will be running my fitness business full time. I currently do both!
I’ve always been involved in fitness in one way or another. At age 14 I took karate lessons. I actually thought I was Bruce Lee! haha. Later I started up in Tae Kwon Do and actually taught TKD for a year or more. In high school I played a little soccer and was the fastest runner in the 100 meter dash in my area.
One day I moved to Moncton, NB, Canada and joined a gym. Tae Bo was taking off like crazy around that time. With my background in martial arts and teaching classes I decided I would approach the gym owner and offer to teach a Tae Bo style class. The owner did not hesitate and hired me. I had 50 people show up for my first class. I was a go getter and did not know it at the time.
I took different fitness related courses and worked at this gym for almost 6 years. I helped people with weight loss, muscle gain and instructed those Tae Bo style classes. Meeting lots of great people was the best.
Suddenly the gym closed down on me in the end of 2005. No more classes to instruct and no gym to go to. I kind of stopped working out for about a year or so. I noticed I was getting out of shape and missed being around people who wanted to be fit.
In 2007 I formed a business called Serious Trainer. I did not know which way I was going to go with my business but thought I would go with whatever came my way and then stick to what works. At first I thought I was going to only do one on one training sessions but that was not the case.
The spring of 2007 I put up signs and made myself a website and started a fitness Boot Camp in the city park. I offered these classes three days per week. One class at 6 am and the other at 630 pm. It was slow at first. I got around an average of 6 to 10 people for the classes that summer. I stuck to it and got myself and indoor place for the winter. My numbers went up to an average of 20.
Today my classes are anywhere from 35 to 50 people! In the winter I offer 9 classes a week and each one of these classes have no less than 25 people and most often have 30 or more. Everyone in the city talks about my classes and know it is the toughest Boot Camp in Moncton. Even though it has a tough reputation, I still get lots of new people signing up.
I keep thinking that the gym that closed down did me a favor.
Thank you Pat for the emails I get from you. I use a lot of the info you supply to help me out with ideas.
Well there ya have it, my story.
Richard Huard
Slave Driver!
Serious Trainer
I got into the industry by way of research. I have a teenage daughter who was into playing sports, but kept injuring her ankles and knees and if not injuring, they just hurt constantly. I was constantly researching ways to help her relieve the pain and prevent future injuries.
Through my research, I kept coming back to the IYCA and what it had to offer. I was very impressed with the information I was gathering, their knowledge of working with young people, and the resources available to help my daughter through a very important development stage in her life.
I started playing sports when I was 8 and still participate in them as much as I can. By combining my own experiences, what I have been able to learn through the IYCA, and what I see as a lack of understanding with child athleticism in sports today, I decided to start teaching what I know. I am now a certified YCS and YS&A with the IYCA and starting to take on clients (young athletes).
Thank you IYCA and Pat for helping me see how I can put my experiences to good use.
My story started in the military about 6 years ago. There were a lot of out of shape people that were on the chopping block to be booted out and I started volunteering to help them loose weight. I found that I really enjoyed helping them out, even more than I enjoyed my job.
After I was discharged, I decided to attend graduate school and become a physical therapist because I thought that was the best way to spend my time helping others. While waiting for grad school, I decided to get certified as a personal trainer and start volunteering at the local YMCA. They quickly offered me a job and I have spent the last five years working for the Y. I gave up being a physical therapist for a personal trainer. I did attend grad school for exercise science though. I have moved from just training to middle management and expanded my knowledge from wellness to aquatics and membership.
Now, I have reached the point where I feel I can better serve others by opening my own place and not having to spend my time playing politics and getting griped at for things beyond my control. I have resigned from my position and am now pursuing a location. I work part time as a trainer to help with the bills as my wife works until I can make the switch to full time business owner.
The hurdles I have faced have been conquering fear and the unknown. It makes better sense in society to choose the safe job or the career path that is easy. Beating my fear and opening my own place is challenging but I feel it will be very rewarding in so many ways. I have attended some of your events Pat, and bought some products and I believe that you are so right. I am so anxious to apply the techniques you have taught and “take action”. The one thing I am facing right now that I could use some help with is finding the right location. Anything you can share about how to find low rent spaces, how to choose the right location, and other stuff like that would be a huge help.
Thank you for all that you do and keep it coming!
-John
I’m still working on it man. I’ve worked to build enough at the athletic club I work in to live. Almost all of them are non members, which shows how much they help, but you’re help has been of huge value to me. Thanks a ton.
At this time last year, I was living off credit, and had a couple months where I made less than $500. I actually had one paycheck that added up to $150 for two weeks work, it was rough. Don’t know how I pulled it off. But things are on the up, and it’s gonna happen.
The business plan is on paper, timeline is tentatively set, and within the next year GRITgym will be an up and going.
Not to bad for a guy that can’t “sell” for shit, but results seem to make waves.
Will you be heading up to Ryan Lee’s Summit in March?
Fitness has been a way of life for me for as long as I can remember. Mainly because my dad refused to let us be a statistic. My extended family mirrored all of the stereotypical junk that plague the African American population. Aunts and uncles dying from alcoholism and diabetes. All grandparents having at least one bypass surgery. high blood pressure and obesity seemed to be the norm.
So, my parents determined that we wouldn’t fall into the same patterns.One of the things I remember most is that we would go to the gym with my dad for years and watch him and the guys working out. The manager used to let me and my brothers sit on the bright orange carpet in front of the desk at the Holiday Health Spa until we were old enough to work out ourselves. I loved learning about the human body and though I was going to be a doctor (and had the grades to prove it) until I experienced my first taste of coaching. I started out in this business in the early 80′s (1982) as a field event coach for junior high school athletes. Seeing the guys that i trained win medals got me hooked on other people seeing results.
I decided that I wanted to become a personal trainer. I got my first job in a gym and decided to work my way up. I was a natural. I had an overload of clients and made a little over 90K my first year in the business. It didn’t matter what area I worked in (sales or training) I was able to rise to the top. BUT, I was immature and the guy that made just enough bad decisions to lose everything. Family, friends, money… EVERYTHING except my faith and determination. I ended up being homeless. Not the “I didn’t have a place, so I stayed with my brother” homeless. But the “looking for a place under a bush out of the wind, sleeping at the bus stop, ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ kind of homeless. (in the beginning you worry about things like spiders and ants crawling down your back but that soon ceases to be of much importance)
I was so hungry and tired that I ripped a page out of a phone book with the military recruitment office numbers on it. I figured that since I was in great shape and these guys will drop everything and come pick you up, that this was my meal ticket. I “borrowed” change and called those numbers for 3 days at varying times and never got anyone to answer the phone from ANY branch of the military…EVEN THE COAST GUARD! I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.
Fast forward to my first “place” after I had enough money to take a bus away from L.A. area (It costs so much to live there). I met a guy who had one of those old school campers with a trout on the back door. You know. The ones that go on back of a pickup. It was in the middle of a 10 acre field behind his house and he let me stay there in exchange for building chicken coops and general labor. I didn’t have an iron so I would roll back the super thin mattress and lay my clothes out as neatly as possible. Then I’d roll the mattress back out and sleep on top of my clothes and hope for the best. Didn’t want to go job hunting with wrinkled clothes (by the way- A job is pretty tough to get with no address).
In all of that, I never gave up on my dreams. I never thought that I wasn’t going to get my family back. I never once thought that I would not be a successful entrepreneur. Needless to say, persistence paid off. I got it all back… with interest!
Even though my family and most of my friends told me that being a personal trainer and coaching was just an excuse not to get a “real” job and that it was one step up from working a drive through window, I had a vision that I couldn’t deny. I loved working with people and through all the years of working in the ministry and working with youth (probation officer, lots of volunteer work)I knew that one day it would all pay off.
I started subscribing to everything I could get my hands on. I remember when You (Pat), Jim Labadie, Nick and a slew of others were getting started. I was always encouraged. Little by little I learned the value of learning from others that are already successful. I stopped trying to be a maverick and become some “self-made” millionaire. I also learned the importance of sacrificing and investing in ME so there would be a better product for my clients.
While I’m not there yet, I’m on the right track and appreciate the things that I am learning along the way. The Fit Kid Network, FitKid.TV and Captain Fitness are works in progress and a testament that absolutely ANYONE can make it in this business with some determination. You can learn from others and still blaze you own path.
I have been involved in sport/fitness my whole life. Showed horses at a kid up until age 21. Took up weightlifting and competive bodybuilding at 25. Competed to National Level; my last National show at age 47. I have had several “careers” over the span of my life; but always hoped to one day own a gym.
I was an Operating Room Nurse for 10 years, specializing in Open Heart Surgery. In the summer of 1990 I decided I needed a change and then started to look at the prospects of owing a gym, although I had no idea what shape that would take.
While still Nursing, I had gone back to school to get a NASM Certification. In the March 2001, I left a full time Nursing position and opened a private studio – with 1 client!
At that time I worked part time at a small surgical facility, working in the early mornings for a few hours; then would go an open my studio. I had no idea whether this venture would take off, but I knew there was nothing like it in the City at that time.
I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I learn quick. I eventually found PTU and that really helped as well. I had worked in a lot of offices over the years so I had a good background in bookkeeping, filing systems – all the office stuff. So setting up the business part of my studio came fairly easy.
Within 3 months of opening, I had to quit my job at the surgical facility as I had more clients coming in. The business was self-sufficient by Month 3!
Now 2010 finds me in a new 300 sq ft studio that I moved into 2 years ago. I now have 2 full time and 1 part time staff trainers. We have a full slate of long term clients. Most of our clients have been with us over 4 years, some since I started 9 years ago. And, they all train 3x week or more.
We continue to grow and expand our services and I am excited what the next 9 years will bring. I still absolutely love coming to the gym every day and love all our clients, some who have become close personal friends.
I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,
Narina
Pat,
I love the opportunities you present and the way you casually bring out the best in each one of us through your questions. Thanks again.
I, like Greg Justice, have been around the “iron game” longer than many of the trainers with whom I associate have been alive. I’ve always admired the look of fit physique, male or female. It speaks of strength, dedication and perseverance…all qualities I look for in prospective clients and employees.
My father was a typical high school athletic star, and after school continued to eat like one as well. I watched my entire life as his weight took its toll on his life. 2 bypass surgeries and 3 stents later, I am glad he is still alive, but that example has lead me to strive to be healthy and fit, and encourage as many others as my influence will allow, to do so as well.
I tell people often that my singular goal in both business and life is to help as many people as possible die young, very late in life. It usually gets a laugh, but it gets the point across also.
I’ve been a fitness trainer and strength coach in one capacity or another for almost 30 years. I spent a brief time as a computer technician and found that I grew tired of watching the company I depended upon for my livelihood go under. The feeling of being laid off with bills to pay and mouths to feed does very little to bolster one’s confidence.
I am fortunate to be a fitness professional at this time because I see the wonderful opportunities afforded to us today that were not there only a few short years ago. You guys are special, and the degree of information, integrity and credibility you impart is second to none.
Thanks for all you guys do and for all you give back each and every day. God bless you and your families.
Steve Payne
This is part of the copy from my site.
My name is Paul Sweatt and I’ve been a personal trainer for Boston Sports Clubs for over a decade. In that time I’ve trained thousands of people in the right way to exercise, lose weight and tone their bodies so they feel their personal best.
The people I train trust me because they know I’m not feeding them a line. You see, I’ve been EXACTLY where you are now. I don’t expect the people I train to do anything I haven’t already done myself!
I won’t lie to you. I wasn’t always as healthy and fit as I am today. Not even close. Even though I was skinny as a kid from all the playing and dancing I did, I became very overweight and out of shape well before I turned 20.
What’s worse is I got downright lazy. In fact I even had a sweatshirt that read “If I was any lazier I’d be in a coma.” Shocking, but true!
Being lazy and overweight became a way of life until one day something shocked me enough to look in the mirror and see how I’d gone from being a skinny teenager to gaining 70 pounds and fitting into a size 38 pants.
I couldn’t believe that I weighed 240 pounds!
I’d always had a thick skin where my body image was concern until one day my mother said words that pierced me right to the core. She said she noticed that my pants were getting very tight, that my butt was going one way and my stomach was going the other. Then she hit me with the final blow. I was starting to resemble my father!
Go from Lazy and Fat… to Fit and Skinny
in Two ½ Hour Sessions per Week!
My mother’s observation, while true, hit me hard. I didn’t want to look old and haggard before my time. I was only 16! I knew I had to make a change so I took the plunge right into exercise and dieting. I went from being fat and lazy to being thin and fit.
But it wasn’t an easy journey…
I had a lot of speed bumps along the way simply because I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have anybody to tell me what I was doing wrong. As a result I not only wasted a lot of time, but I exercised the wrong way and ended up with 18 months of chronic back pain for all my effort.
What a lot of people don’t know it that exercise related injuries are a common occurrence for people who do not work with a personal trainer. Most people have a basic understanding of what they need to do. But if their technique is wrong, they could end up getting hurt!
Those painful 18 months are burned in my memory. I don’t want anyone to go through the pain I went through. Around that time I started attending college and taking biological science courses. Exercise and nutrition became my favorite subjects and I was hooked. I loved it so much I decided to change my major to Exercise Science.
I was determined to teach people how to avoid fitness mistakes that only cause setbacks, frustration and even pain. That’s when I decided to become a personal trainer.
Went from scrawny shy dork to confident, less scrawny, very successful dork.
All thanks to good ole exercise
My biggest turning point was getting the biggest kick up the backside of all. My Dad died very suddenly from a massive heart attack at 53. That was 5 years ago this May.
Until then I cruised through life. Was running a small gym, on very ordinary money and didn’t really know what I wanted in life.
That made me reassess my priorities. What was important and what wasn’t.
I made the decision to pull my finger out, leave the ‘comfort’ of a poorly paying job and start my own biz.
Best move ever.
Now I work when I want to work, play when I want to play and love my clients who make getting up at 4:40am worthwhile.
I don’t take life, or people, for granted anymore.
I’m married to the woman of my dreams who I met since I changed my priorities.
Life is great and I owe it to my family and my clients who enable me to do what I do everyday.
Thanks for allowing me to share my story Pat
Pat,
I put my story on my web site. It goes over the passion I’ve had for health and fitness for the last 20 years and how losing my job at the end of July was the push I needed to finally start my own fitness business.
You can read it here: http://www.undergroundfitnessrevolution.com/nates-story
Check it out. It’s a good one!
Nate
Hi Pat,
My story is about as regular as it comes. Growing up I was a multi-sport athlete – really solid across the board, great skills etc., but I was just way too small and weak. At about 6’1″ when I was 14 I weighed around 140 pounds. I was quick and agile, and had the skill to become a higher level player, but in my chosen sport (rugby) size does matter.
Week in, week out I got pounded. So I decided to put on some size. I turned to the regular bodybuilding style magazines, and started using body part splits, isolation exercises and machines like leg presses etc. to get bigger. By the time I was 18, I weighed 230 pounds, but I had given up sport – entirely because I was now big enough, but very slow, and very deconditioned – and I was constantly getting injured to boot.
Fast forward to now, at age 24, I am in the best shape of my life – as strong, fast and as heavy as I needed to be back then, but my opportunity has passed me by. It was a lot of trial, error and heart ache to get where I am now, and I really do not want to see other young athletes suffer through what I did.
That’s why I opened my performance training company designed around high school athletes. We’re still only a start up, and things are slow at the moment, but hopefully I can realise my dream by helping others grab the opportunities that I missed out on.
James.
Hi Everyone!
My story probably doesn’t have as much wow factor as others but I thought I’d tell it nonetheless!
I actually got into the fitness industry by complete accident – I took a course for other reasons and ended up falling in love with all things fitness!
Basically I’d spent years in an office job totally miserable and had dreams of becoming a dance teacher. As I was unable to take my professional dance exams at that current time I figured I’d take a Fitness Instructing course at a local college to give me some anatomy and physiology knowledge for the day when I took the plunge and went pro with my dancing.
Well I just loved the course and have worked in the industry ever since. I have added loads of courses over the years and have loved every minute of inspiring people to take action and get exercising!
I now don’t want to just plod through life doing a job I hate – I want to make a difference and I want to encourage others to find the strength to do this themselves with their goals – life is too short to waste being unhappy!
Hey Pat,
I enjoyed your speech on this last Summit.
Well, after spending 3.5 yrs studying civil engineering I found out that that wasn’t my passion and decided to change majors. My senior year I got accepted to OSU to do my master in Exercise Science and before I left one of my professors told to get certified as a trainer because that could be a great part time and decent money while I was in school. I was married at the time and decided to go to FL to start a new life in this country. I started to teach and coach at HS in West Palm Beach and started to work at LA Fitness at the same time. All of the sudden, the passion and opportunity in the industry started to come my way. I started to run camps over the summer and had some athletes to train over the school year. Finally, my name started to go around and started to get more athletes and the athletes moms until I grew up my biz. I started my personal training career in PR and now I’ve been in FL for 7years (side note: never forget that I moved with only $10 in my pocket and left my wife in PR while I settle down I found a job to then save $ to bring her here)
I went to coach baseball at the college level and continued to work the biz, ultimately decided to leave coaching to pursue training. Currently, I run a bootcamp, several group training sessions for athletes, in-home training and some one-on-one’s.
Trying to get a place to run my biz, cause I’m still teaching full-time, training clients/groups for about 5-6 hrs a day. I’ve been blessed that part of my business I run it at the school weight room because I’m the strength coach there as well.
I wanted to go full time but I know fear is stopping me from taking that step. I have more to say but I have to go teach
Pat:
Played baseball in college and soon found myself interested in muscles and how athletes worked. After searching for a profession to accommodate my interest and my passion I found physical therapy.
Soon after graduating from PT school several years later I went to work for a small company who promised me an opportunity to become a partner so I took less salary for the future opportunity. Well they sold the business to a large corporation about two months after I started. I soon found I was not the corporate type and I was working very hard at doing corporate things not related to my passion.
Sparing several details I found the gumption to open my own PT clinic (that was 8 years ago next month) and have been very successful with that endeavor. In recent years as my children have grown and I’ve had the blessing to coach a ton of youth sports I realized that while I love PT my true passion is working with youth and helping them to achieve their greatest potential.
Through a lot of hard work (with the IYCA’s help and many others) I have started a small youth training program within my PT business. It has remained fairly small but very rewarding and slowly growing. Persistence and hard work have paid off and I’m very blessed to be where I am and do what I do. I can truly say there is never a bad day at the office.
You know, the coaches I had in college used to ride you right into the ground, call you names, and basically degrade you to the point that you felt like dirt. Being the little shit head that I am, I didn’t deal with this very well but I kept pounding away. It’s amazing the kind of treatment we allow to happen with our developing athletes.
My beginning of coaching was rough, it felt like my legs were being cut from underneath me all the time. Kids responded well to the way I coached. There was no degrading but the training wasn’t easy. The idea was to make them tough and take pride in that. Other coaches didn’t like that on the other hand. It was a small school. The kind of place that a freshman would have to start if you benched an upperclassman. The coaches there acted like practice and coaching couldn’t be tough and that we had to practically beg kids to come and stay out. That seems ridiculous to me. A high school kid that doesn’t want to play football? I suppose it happens but I doubt dislike is a common reason. Fear maybe, but not dislike.
Long story short, we lost almost every game. The only games we won were to teams that were willing to punt on first down. Know what I mean?
It was a long season. I’d not been on a team like that. I’ve only had one losing season my whole career, when I was a sophomore playing varsity. I’ve rarely seen any athlete so defeated before, it was hard.
What’d I do with my losing. I went to the drawing board, rethought my approach, my training, and what really made the difference in this team, and what makes the difference in an athlete.
I guess I did what I always do when I don’t understand something, I dig like crazy. I usually get obsessed and my friends don’t see me for a few weeks and I read and think of new things to experiment with.
I go to my best resources, buy the books they suggest, devour them, and on to the next one.
I’m beginning to try and get out of the pages and get in more meeting with/observation with these types of guys. It’ll be good to meet with Coach Boyle, and everyone at Cressey Performance in March.
I suppose that was alot of words to go pretty much no where, but whatever. Wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t going 10 directions at once, and I’m working on that too. I naturally get tunnel vision during competition so I’m continually working on transferring that to other areas of life. Call it continuing the goal towards the best man I can be.
What do you think of trainer/coach commissions? What’s fair, what’s realistic, what are some determining factors? Would be an interesting blog to read.
Thanks man, I appreciate this site, and consider it one of my top resources.
-Rees
I have been in the fitness industry for over 12 years now and have worked in a variety of settings in those 12 years. I have moved around alot recently do to professional growth and just not wanting to settle for my current situation. One move proved to be costly since I followed what I thought was the money to a personal training studio and proved to be a very big mistake financially and professionally. Because of this mistake I had to find a job quickly and leave the industry somewhat.
I have been unhappy with my current job and very recently found out I no longer have a job due to budget cuts, so now am in a bad situation of trying to take care of my family, but still wanting to follow my passion of working with the youth. I recently attended the A-Z business part of the IYCA summit and could not stay for the enire weekend because of the job I lost. It was a great event and I was bummed to not be able to stay for the entire weekend.
So currently, trying to put things in motion to utilize what I have learned at the event on Thursday as well as other things I have put on the back burner do this job and not having the time to devote to things. I am tired of working for other people and just going through the motions and want to get back to doing what I am passion about, but I also have to be smart since I have a family to support.
So right now I am excited and scared all at that same time, but I am not going to let this keep me down.
Hi Pat,
As a kid growing up in a household of an overweight dad and a mom that chain-smoked for all my life I knew I had to do something different than what was modeled. I was always told to “play it safe and get a city job”. I knew I had to do and be something different.
As I grew older and went to college I decided I wanted to major in Movement Science. I was completely blown away from the education and research that was out there – other than gym lore. This was going to be my passion and to give back.
Now into my 15 year of teaching PE at a local high school. The training bug has bitten me. Running several strength and conditioning programs for the athletes I have decided to train adults. My wife and I built an addition above my garage to use as a training studio. Just by word of mouth I have obtained a small amount of clients. I love training so much that I’m actually considering leaving teaching and building my business full time. I have not taken any business classes but am reading everything I can about building my business. I am new to any type of marketing and need so much help!
I appreciate all your emails and newsletters. They have inspired me to work more “on my business” rather than working in it. My goals are to own my business and model to my children to live a healthy life and take chances to pursue their dreams like Daddy did.
Thanks,
Rick
First off, thank you for the incredible stories.
I feel fortunate that I’ve met many of you in person already and consider you friends – and I’m honored that you’ve viewed me / Nick / Jim and others as resources to help you better your career.
Hopefully you agree – knowing a little bit about someone gives a relationship a foundation to build on.
I feel like I know some of you much better just by reading;)
I’d also suggest that you ask your prospective clients and clients to tell their story. If you know what makes them tick there is a much better chance of you being the solution they are looking for.
We’ll be sending you all access to the Personal Trainer Business Action Plan and Mega-Marketing For Fitness Pros this week. If you already have them both – let us know and we’ll give you something else;)
P
Oh – Rees – yes, I’ll be at Ryan’s event in March. Can’t wait to meet you there!
Pat,
Thanks so much for your wisdom, writing, and coaching.
I will talk about my life starting at a young age. For me my faith and sports really kept me going strong. Coming from a turbulent home we have to focus on the positive things in life and that is what I did.
One thing was for sure I loved sports and was very competitive. In fact basketball and baseball really motivated me and were a scape from the real world. Looking back over my sports career (Division III) I know I was not the best player but I tell you I maximized my potential and I believe I got as good as I could. To me that is the ultimate success… doing the absolute best at something and not just saying it. Actually knowing and believing it is key.
After graduating College I (like many) was lost. I jumped jobs, drank to much, was broke, hated work, slept on a friends coach, and was depressed. There was a moment in time thought that I swore things would change because I decided to make them change.
Fast forward to today. Now over 6 years in the fitness business and almost two years with my own business….. life is much better.
At first I thought that passion was enough to create an outstanding business but I quickly realized I needed help. For me a network of people all on the same mission to help people get more fit and give them hope for a better life is very empowering.
Although, my business does not look like I want it to I am way better off then training 60 plus one on one sessions a week and working for peanuts.
This next year looks very promising because of all the tools, ideas, action plans, and help that you all give. I am very fortunate and excited for the opportunities that are constantly developing.
Thank you for all the good you do!
Jeremy
Hey Pat,
I originally got into fitness for selfish reasons. I was a chubby kid. I was very active playing sports in the schoolyard and tearing up the streets on my BMX bike, but I also had a huge appetite, especially for carbs – nothing beats a NY pizzeria!
Anyway, both my older brother and father worked out. My dad was 6’ tall and skinny with killer guns and my brother was 6’3” and diesel. I, on the other hand, was a 5’10” 13 year old kid who never had an ounce of definition and had “cute chipmunk cheeks” – ugh.
So, one day, my dad took me to the gym for a workout. Instantly, I was hooked. I loved the feeling of working out. I loved the movements, the sounds of the weights, and the camaraderie of the guys working out. I started to study everything I could get my hands on when it came to program design. That eventually led me to want to study exercise science in college.
As a teenage kid who loved to workout, I naturally got hooked on bodybuilding. Of course, genetically I couldn’t have gotten hosed more, but I was still committed (a bit delusional, too – I actually believed pro bodybuilders didn’t use steroids!). I eventually did two minor bodybuilding shows in college (all natural) and learned that if I put my mind to it, I could accomplish anything I wanted. Those shows taught me a tremendous lesson about myself; I will be forever grateful for those experiences.
Eventually, I found myself working in a Gold’s Gym as a personal trainer and operations manager. That was great, but I could see the writing on the wall – a dead-end job that maybe would produce 50 – 60K per year. All of sudden, I saw myself turning into my dad (whom I respect and love very much for what he provided for me). He worked his but off in a job that he really didn’t like, making 60K a year counting the days until retirement. That wasn’t going to be me.
That gym was soon taken over by TSI and became a NYSC. I couldn’t have been more disappointed. I couldn’t stand the way these corporate guys were, not too mention the pay and development structure sucked. So, I left and started a training business out of my home. Most of my clients came with me – that’s when I realized the power of creating loyal clients. However, that operation quickly went south as I had no idea how to get new clients (they don’t teach you squat in school, and in 1998 the internet was still very new) and I was going through a rough personal time – divorce #1.
I took about a year off from training, worked with my childhood best friend in his new business, and began my search for my next training opportunity. Fate interceded, and I found Life Time Fitness. There’s a lot more to the story at LTF (I’ll save that for another time), but long story short, in my second year at LTF I was awarded the Most Valuable Trainer of the Year. Year number 3 and 4 was all about building one of the best teams in LTF history. As the Assistant Personal Training Manager I set many individual and team records in the company and we won the coveted Artistry Award (best team in the company) back-to-back. The next step was to run my own club. I did that with a bit of a twist.
In 2005, I was promoted to Life Time University Training Specialist. I had a dual role. First, I was to grand open and run the personal training department in the new flagship facility in Chanhassen, MN. Second, I was to develop and implement the training curriculum for new personal trainers and personal training department heads. That was a blast. Our club truly took the training and business philosophy to a whole new level. We set just about every record possible and changed a lot of thinking about the business side of PT. As the LTU-TS I got to travel all over the country and meet tons of awesome and inspiring people. I also got involved with R&D and helped develop many of the programs that still run today.
All in all, it was a fantastic experience, BUT the honeymoon wouldn’t last forever. Things changed as they always do. I found myself going in a different direction than LTF. I also got burned on a really big stock deal, but that’s another story. I found myself wanting more; wanting to move faster, create more time freedom and really make the big bucks – 150K was nice, but 1.5M just wasn’t in the cards
I began looking outside the walls and wanted to see what else was out there. That’s when I discovered PTU in 2008. I could go on and on with my story from here, but we can do that over a protein shake one day. All that matters now is I’m here, working MY business, learning a ton from you and the guys and having the time of my life! I’m halfway to my goal of replacing my LTF income through my boot camp business and can see great things in the near future that will help me eclipse what I was doing at LTF. It won’t be long before that 1.5M becomes a reality!!
Thanks for everything Pat. I’ll see you Friday.
Have Faith & Take Action!
Justin Yule
First and foremost the inspiration for who I am came from God. I went to a Christian High school and it was there that I was introduced to the man who became the pivotal person that changed my life. He was my wrestling coach. He inspired me to always achieve success in anything that I aspire towards.
He was a large, muscular man and had a build kind of like a power lifter’s. I wanted to be like that. I’m not, due to genetics, but I got as big as I can get naturally before I realized fitness wasn’t about size- but about overall health and well-being. I decided to become certified as a Professional Fitness Trainer in 1998 and have trained ever since. I have a passion for what I do and it doesn’t matter how long I am in this field my intensity does not waiver.
320 pound 7th grader. Aunt, grandma, aunt all died from diabetes. Went on a mission to lose weight and learn all I could on nutrition. Lost 130 pounds in 1 year. Poured over information I could get my hands on. My brother became one of the top endocrinologist in nation, picked his brain and research papers. Started lifting weights after high school—was the best feeling in world. Opened first gym 2 years later, and the rest is history. have helped thousands healthy. Competed nationally in bodybuilding and held world records in bench press and strongest man record in other presses. Have been personal training for 31 years. Life is great and so is business.
Randy
http://randywoody.com
Ok Pat, here goes. I’d like to start with a little background which some folks may relate to, for others it will seem like Mars. I currently reside in Colorado, but grew up in New York City. The South Bronx to be exact, the neighborhood and precinct were called Fort Apache for some very
obvious reasons. In a 6 block square radius alone, we averaged around 200 murders a year. Landlords would set fires to old tenenment buildings for insurance and leave occupants homeless.
I’m first generation American, and the son of emmigrants. I love this country and have lived the American dream. I also cherish and appreciate the right to also stand and critique my government when I’m in disagreement. That to me is the meaning of a true patriot, here’s the story continues.
I thank God and my mother for helping me see beyond the tragedies that were happening around me. This allowed me to understand that
there was so much out there, and that I deserved it. But, I was always told how much harder I would have to work for it.
Moving forward, I was also fasr tracked into everal gifted programs
within the New York City area. This opened up downtown Manhattan to me, the haves from my have nots. I only new this area from seldom taken school trips. I graduated both High School and College and started a fitness career when very few people could earn a living at it.
I started at rock bottom, and got to the point where as a personal training manager had sales figure upward of 2 million a year for my health club dept. From there I built a lucrative business as an independent trainer. I then married and moved to Colorado to raise a family here. Our marriage then took a bad turn and we divorced. With debt and child support payments, I was left in an apartment with a couch, and a TV on a cardboard box. A year and half later I owned a profitable personal training studio in a suburb of Denver.
It kills me when people in our industry moan about how hard it is to make it in this business. But yet they sit on their asses and do nothing but feel sorry for themselves. Alot of them are people of privledge, that have no clue how other people live, or their plight.
I guess I’m just saying be thankful, work hard, be kind to others, understand no one owes you anything. If you go out and provide a good service, the money will come. Never, ever chase the almighty dollar first and get it backwards.
I wouldn’t change one thing about my upbringing and the environment I found myself in. It has played a major role in the survival instincts, and the tenacity I now show in business. After living that lifestyle, what in the world could keep me down or have me question what I can or cannot do?
Thank you for the opportunity to share my story.
I grew up playing sports, football, basketball track etc… Going into college I knew that I loved fitness and pursued a degree in this field. But after college I let life and excuses get in my way. I ended up working a bunch of jobs that left me unhappy and frustrated.
I let my bills anchor me down working jobs I hated and left unfullfilled. About 10 years ago I was working as juvenille probation officer and as much as l liked working with troubled kids I hated my job and working for someone else. My passion for fitness was boiling inside me so much I didn’t even want to go to work anymore I hated it so much, and it was killing me.
So I made a choice to pursue my dreams, with nothing but passion and the hunger to be a fitness professional, I just up and quit my job and started working as an independent contractor out of a local gym.
I had no clients, no idea how to run a buisness and never even been to this gym once in my life. I would wake up every morning scared to death, but I wanted this so bad, It was my passion and if I failed at something I loved then I would never forgive myself.
Every day I would get there early talk to everyone, something I was so uncomfortable doing it made me sick in the stomach I was so nervous, but again I could’nt fail, I wanted this so bad and I would not be able to live with myself if I didn’t make this work.
So after 4 months of cold calling and just getting to know every client who walked in that gym I built a pretty good base of clients, 30 one on one clients and was making some good money. But I was working 60 hours a week, training, no time to work on my buisness.
I started to get burned out, and was not enjoying my passion anymore, also I it was getting harder and harder for me to stay there because I now had a burning passion to own my own studio.
I got lazy and frustrated, I just was so burned out and let my client base dwindle because I just wasn’t happy anymore. So I knew I had to work on the buisness more and leverage my time with clients to balance things out.
So I joined a mentorship program about 4 years ago, they gave me some good insight on what was needed to take them next step and also the right mindset. So I started to utilize these strategies and started training semi-private groups making the same money with less hours worked, it was great, but I still was just an independent contractor, I still had this hunger to have my own buisness and create my own atmosphere.
So once again I made a choice to just do it. I didn’t have the best plan but I did have a system that I knew worked and my clients love.
So at the beginning of 2009 I opened my own 2,000 sq ft studio with the help of a client who actually just gave me $20,000 because of all I have done for him and the passion he saw in me.
But the mentorship program I was in, just wasn’t doing it for me, I just wasn’t clicking with their blueprint, too much advertising and things that just cost too much money. At this point I had already become a member of bootcamp blueprint, but was really using it, even at one point I tried to cancel my membership for the program and got the, no your committed.
So I logged in and started going over the previous modules and was amazed how simple and cost effective the bootcamp blueprint strategies were, it was more in line with my way of thinking.
I immediatley started putting the modules to use and started to see results in my buisness immediatley. I went from a 20 client base to now over 80 in as little 7 months since actually taking action and getting involved with bootcamp blueprint.
Also there are so many things on the horizon because of this program and my drive to not let my self down and do what I love. It is a constant battle for me each day, because just like your example above, I want to be better and do better, and try and be the best.
Sometimes this is unhealthy and those are the things I’m working on now to keep me positive and moving forward and accept small steps and that the there will be bad times and to learn from them. Fortunatley for me you guys have and continue to help with my mindset to improve my buisness.
My story isnt over yet, I still have alot of work ahead of me, but the fire inside and my passion keeps pushing me toward, educating myself and surrounding myself with people who can get me to my goals and a happy and fulfilling life and striving for bigger and better goals.
Hey Pat,
I was an athletic kid all through my childhood and played sports until I graduated high school, then I got a job and got fat and lazy smoking cigarettes and partying a lot… Decided to loose the weight and exercise… like many I had no idea what to do in a gym even know I thought I did… Finally got my act together and went to school, R…U… Rah Rah (Rutgers) saw a job posting for a trainer and thought I can do that! So I started training at a BS box gym that rhymes with Schmally… Anyways came across some of your stuff and started to really apply myself at my job, I took it very seriously and was the top trainer in sales… Started my own bootcamp and was fired because it conflicted with there programming… Just after I got fired I attended Fitness Millionaires with the whole crew of coaches that truly changed my outlook on the path I was taking…
Jim L told me that most of the people here will not apply what they learn here and will continue along their lame path… My partner and I were determined to not fail and stick it to the Big Box gyms that care nothing of the customer and their goals…
We opened Absolute Fitness NJ in September with no debt and brought a lot of our clients out of the box and created a community of our own… We are now redirecting some our focus to attract and train more young athletes… Hard work pays off and we plan on being around for a while and will continue to pursue our dreams no matter what…
Pat, and anyone else who is interested:
I’ve been an athlete my whole life, and while that may seem a perfect fit for this line of work, it poses a lot of challenges, that I will get to shortly.
I began lifting weights around age 12, and did it primarily to improve my looks and performance on the field. I was pretty strong for my size, but I never got my diet under control to the point where the training had its maximum effect. I entered college weighing 152 lbs at 6 feet tall. Not exactly the ideal weight for a Div I football player.
After I finished my successful high school career, I was sold on the idea that I would become a professional kicker. I have to admit, I could really hit a football, and still can compete with some of the kicks that we see on Sundays in the NFL. But I did not have the size that I needed, and when I had my chances to get to the next level, I failed to perform.
It wasn’t until after I graduated college that I finally began to get my diet under control. Unlike most people, my problem was that I didn’t weigh enough, and when I started eating better, I was able to put on almost 60 lbs in about 6 weeks. That is when I realized that our education system didn’t get the job done for me, and countless others to understand how important the foods we eat are to our daily performance, whether it be on a field or at work.
I worked in the corporate world for about 5 years before I got so fed up with it that I decided to get back to an environment where I had been happiest. That was the gym, and around people who were looking to improve their bodies and performance. I spent 5.5 years in one of the chain gyms, and sadly learned more about what not to do than what to do. Regardless, it put me in a position where I could open my own facility, and did so in October of ’08.
My wife and I operate our studio, and offer boot camps, yoga, and private training to our clients. I love the fact that we get to save lives every day. There’s nothing like that handshake or thanks from a client who has seen great results, and changed their lifestyle in a positive way. I am always looking to improve the service we offer, and to touch as many lives as we can.
Personally, I’d love to leave behind a legacy where I have helped a hell of a lot more people than I haven’t, and made an impact in an industry that, to say the least, has had credibility issues. I want the efforts of our business to have a positive influence on our community, and build relationships that go well beyond a hello, or friendly email once in a while.
I want to dominate my area, do whatever I can to help people understand what they need to do in order to achieve their goals, and put a real beating on the chain gyms who do very little other than steal peoples’ money. If that is my legacy, then I will have lived one hell of a life.
Mark Mogavero
My story in the fitness industry really started after college. After I got my degree in exercise physiology, I picked up and moved down south where the economy and weather was better. I moved with no money, no job, and no experience. I tried to land a job in a hospital working in the cardiac rehab field, but nobody was hiring….thank God!!!! That’s when I fell into personal training. I had to start making money right away. One on one training is what I did for 13 years. I got burned out on it so I decided to get my real estate license and do that full time and the pt part time. Well, we all know what happened to the real estate industry. I had to re-invent myself as a trainer so that I wouldn’t burn out. I converted to group training and now I am training 15-20 hours a week and making more than I ever did. The next step is to outsource the training and develop more locations. After that is automatic, I’m going to ease my way into internet info marketing which has sparked a great interest with me.
When I was very young my dream was to be a physical therapist. I had read 2 similar stories about people who were gravely injured and how they came back through the dedication of their physical therapists and then and there that became my chosen profession. Flash forward several years and aproaching college decisions there was no money and no studiousness on my part to attempt 6 years of college so the dream died and I became a hairstylist.
In my early thirties i decided to try to get in shape and began doing aerobics videos then moving into resistance training and continuing to grow and learn on my personal journey. As my physical fitness improved and I became noticeably more lean and fit (something I never was before) I began getting questions and requests for advice or help from people looking to improve themselves. I decided that if I was going to be giving out advice then perhaps I should be clear i knew what I was talking about so I got my first certification. Since then I have grown in the field allbeit slowly. I still cut hair full time but I train a few clients in my home, and again I’ve found my passion, in helping people be the best they can be.I feel like I’ve com almost full circle from the young dream of being a physical therapist. I love seeing the improvements and share in my clients excitement when they accomplish something they had not been able to do. I feel like I am actually making a difference, finally!! I love this profession! Stacia
Hi Pat,
I’ll try to keep it short. My dad is a great athlete, I was good but not his caliber. I loved sports and I also loved science. The problem was when I was 5 I had open heart surgery to repair a defective valve and this kept me on the side lines when I was young. It also kept my head in the fridge while I studied any science book I could find.
In high-school I found one coach who worked with me to not be a fat kid any more. I played sports to make my dad proud of me and I found I also loved the competition.
Jump ahead many years and I am lost and trying to decide on a career path. I have friends who have become phyiscal therapists, sounds cool to me. Back to school for 2nd degree in Exercise Phys because I had no PT pre-requiste classes.
I loved Ex. Phys., I loved taking science and applying it to sports. I graduated with honors and was deciding on grad school – PT or EX. Phys? Took a part-time trainer job in the gym to take some last minute PT courses (the kept adding to the pre- rec’s) and within 5 months I am offered a full-time position as Fitness Director.
I can go to grad school at night for Ex. Phys and I now have this awesome job! Bye , bye PT school. OK. here comes the good stuff.
I attend my first TSI Summit and hear back to back Mike Clark & Gray Cook present – I FELT SICK!!! Here I was honors degree, top of my class in grad school, CSCS, Fitness Director and I realized I knew nothing!!!!!!!
1st major learning point – never STOP learning, there are always people smarter than you!!!
Jump ahead few more years, I have learned more about training etc. and kept learning – this jeopardized my Fitness Director job. The gym felt I was too concerned with myself , my education etc. I had to sign agreements to stop grad school, seminars, certifications etc to keep my job.
2nd major learning points – NEVER give up your dreams & goals, if you are not working for your own goals, you are working for your bosses! (Big mistake!)
A couple of years later, I am on my own with my own training business and STRUGGLING to market myself etc. I wind up at Fast Track to Fitness Millions and realize once again, I know nothing!! – this time it was about marketing & sales.
3rd major learning point, NEVER ignore sales & marketing if you want your own business!!! I though my reputation & skills would bring people to me.They did but NOT nearly enough to survive. I had become one of those great trainers with no clients, that nobody knew about, a “genius” in an empty studio…
I am finally getting on track with marketing & social media but I need more help. So I fall back to my 1st learning point – There is always someone who knows more than you, in this case it is Pat, Nick & Jim and your products, e-mails and courses really do work
Thanks for all the great info!
Gordon Waddell
Hey Pat. I met u this past weekend at the IYCA summit. I was the kid that drove from NY bc my flight was cancelled just to get out there. First I was impressed with Pat Rigsby himself. And if I could sum it up quickly Pat Rigsby is “The Man”. And I had never been to an event of any kind so I knew I needed to be there. It was well worth my drive and really expired me and adjusted my perspective on training and business.
My story is quite long so ill try to sum it up. When I was a young kid my father was stricken with Multiple Sclerosis. He was hit bad in the prime of his life and lost most of his function imediatly. And really out of no where. My mother who was a drug addict took off with my brother and I across the country to California. She had us around a lot of bad people and eventually we were taken away and put in foster care. We were 3 and 2 at the time. After several years of being bounced around we were brought back to NY to live with my grandparents who were also in care of my father.
I spent most of my younger years caring for my father. It was difficult and not the way any kid wants to know there father. Incapacitated unable to really do anything including talk. And this was the way I always new him. He died last year. And for 25 years he died slowly every day. Now im not a negative person but this is the reality of the situation.
In high school I was a Scholorship football player. Prob would have played at Hofstra or Maine but I tore my ACL my senior year in high school. It was devastating to me and pushed me into a deep depression.
The events of my life had left me with depressive issues and it would get worse after high school. I suffered from addiction, went to rehab and even spent time in jail. I hated myself and had no idea why.
It was a process but I finally got myself together. It took years to fix the emotional problems that I was having and even to this day I still deal with some forms of it.
But my outlook on life is 100% different then it used to be. I changed my perception on life and mostly stopped feeling sorry for myself. And today I stand as a confident, positive person ready to move to the future and forget about the past.
Ive always had a passion for training going as far back as high school when I would read BFS books all day and perform the movements. Unfortunatly i took a little detour to get here.
But im here now and my passion and love is training, athletics and helping people. And I hope through my story and experience that I can do so.
Frank
I AM A CANCER SURVIVOR
June 30th, 1993 -In the span of 24-hours I went from being a physically fit 24-year old young man with a fast car and a fun life to an incapacitated dying man being rushed into emergency brain surgery at Columbus-Cabrini Hospital in Chicago, Il.
My first month was spent in a 24-hour observed Intensive Care Unit. I would not walk out of that very same hospital for nearly three months. When I did leave I couldn’t walk out of the hospital. Blood clots that had developed in both femural arteries of my legs had seen to that. And so I left in a wheel chair with my bag full of daily medication. I was a placid atrophied 252-pounds. I could not walk and could not lift more than 30-pounds. My body had swelled so bad in reaction to the steroid therapy incurred during radiation therapy that I had to wear size 14-shoes -where my normal shoe size is 10.5. Blood red stretch marks had appeared rapidly around my waist line where the skin could not compensate for the rapid change in size.
I would eventually begin to walk again, with crutches at first, and then a cane to my necessary months of radiation therapy.
Severe weight gain was just one of the many, many side effects incurred during treatment. Losing weight is typically hard enough. Factor in surviving Cancer, and the physical wreckage left in its wake, and that which was already difficult becomes overwhelming.
I have amassed a wealth of knowledge over the years in effort to restore myself to the healthy athletic physical condition that I was in before the Cancer virtually wiped-out the person that I once was.
I am in better physical condition today than I was before Cancer. How I train and treat my body has given me a new lease on life being 41-years old with a Polar Tri-Fit tested body-age of 18-years old. The same knowledge and expertise that gave me my life back is what I instill in each and every client.
Today as a member of the American Kettlebell Club, and through GIREVOY (Kettlebell Sport Training) I am in the best shape of my life.
I’m 5′ 10.5″
41-years old
180 lbs
9% bodyfat
Vo2Max – 50 (**this is a cardio score -average for my age is 28-32)
Resting Heart Rate: 68
Blood Pressure: 117 over 72
Polar Tri-Fit Tested Physical Bodyage: 18-Years Old
100% Max Heart Rate for a 41-Year Old is 179-beats per minute. I can function and still form clear sentences at a “sustained” heart rate of 180-beats per minute.
Nicholas James Schodtler
Master Personal Trainer
Sports Enhancement Training
Girevoy – Kettlebell Sport Training
National Academy of Sports Medicine, C.P.T., P.E.S.
MetCon Training / Reality Fitness / Nutrition / Supplementation
Hey Pat, I think this is great idea! It’s great for someone new to the industry to hear the different backgrounds of where these fitness professionals came from!
I’ve grown up and always been the chubby kid. I played all kinds of sports when I was a young, but in Jr. High and High School I didn’t because I was not a good athlete. When I went to college, I went from the chubby kid to flat-out obese. Within 3 years I gained over 100 lbs! I pretty much accepted the fact that I was going to be a “large dude” all of my life. A couple years after college, I got married and looked at my wedding pictures and was floored with how big I let myself get. However, even after seeing the photos, I convinced myself that it didn’t matter, my wife loved me and there is nothing I can do about being that big.
A year after getting married, we had a daughter and that’s when my mindset changed and it started to become clear that I needed to get healthy so I could not only live to see my daughter grow up, but so that I could enjoy being active with her.
I finally had the courage to call a guy that was just starting a fitness bootcamp where I lived. Needless to say after I met Ryan that day, my life took a 180 degree turn and I haven’t looked back since. I am constantly reading, learning, and studying everything I can get my hands on about fitness.
I realized that I was making a positive impact on not only myself, but my entire family. After a couple of months, I was getting friends and even friends of friends asking what I was doing because they were noticing a change both physically and mentally. I finally decided that I wanted to help others do the same thing. I know there are a lot of people that have a lot of work to do to get healthy, and it can be intimidating for them to get started, but I want to help them because it only takes one person, one motivating factor to finally open your eyes and make a positive change in your life.
I’m excited to continue learning as much as I can and help people, maybe even inspire people, to live a healthy lifestyle.
Matt
First off, I want to thank Pat (and everyone involved) for an AMAZING IYCA Summit! The speakers were inspirational, content – educational, and the people I met were all INCREDIBLE! As Pat said, everyone has a “story” and I felt blessed this weekend to hear so many great stories. I cannot even begin to express how this weekend has impacted me both personally as well as professionally.
I’ve had many bumps along the way since I started training. I call it “baby bird’s nest” moments – you know how the mama bird kicks the baby out of the nest before it is quite ready to fly? I have felt like the baby bird many times – my very first job was not what I had signed up for and it forced me to go out on my own and find my own space. Every twist and turn has led to somewhere better.
I’ve always believed everything for a reason and also that everything is a process. I got into training because others encouraged me to do what I love and I realized that if I can be a piece of a puzzle to help someone reach their goals then I want to help!
Pat, it was such a pleasure to meet you. I really look forward to getting to know you and learning from you!
Be well,
Keiko
Hi Pat,
First of all thanks for all the info you’ve being throwing our way. Can’t tell you how much i appreciate it, i’m sure many of your followers feel the same way. Now on to my story, not much, but here goes: Honestly when i was much younger (high schoo) i never thought for 1 second i would be in the fitness industry. I started in sports really early. Playing soccer in grade school, a lot of basketball in high school and college. I got really serious with basketball, played for my college and even represented my state sometimes. Anyway, to help me perform better in basketball i started lifting weights and then got something like a gym in the back of my home. And thus began my journey, long story short, i ended up with a rotator cuff injury which ended my basketball dreams. Around this time i started getting more in strength training and fitness generally. I started studying about exercise, nutrition, weight loss and all.
At some point neighbors, friends, relatives, and even strangers would come to my home to workout and get advice from me. I did that for a few years (absolutely free of course). It didnt even occur to me that it was something i could pursue until a friend of mine pointed it out to me. Over the next several months, i started really considering it. With more research and studying came more interests. I studied engineering in school, but i was never really into it or school generally. Graduated and then made the bold decision to pursue a career in the fitness industry. Struggled (still kind of struggling) for a while (some years) mostly due to inaction and not following up.
Now though, i’ve got 2 bootcamps (total of about 15 clients, shameful i know) and a few online clients. I’ve got a bunch of things i want to achieve and i know i’ll do it. I’m going to have several bootcamp locations by the end of the year and thousands of online clients (obviously i have to get people to help with this). I want to run a real business. A business i work on not in. Bottom line, i want to be like you when i grow up (laugh).
Okay, thats the little i can share about me for now. Thanks again for all the killer info. Cheers.
Nana
I always thought I was in shape. then I hurt my back bad. when I looked in the mirrow i realized that the reason I couldn’t move because I was so out of shape. My gut was big and I know it was pulling my back out of alignment. From there I said that was it. I spent time stretching to get my back stretched out and my muscle limber.
I then started to work out religiously never missing a workout. I got in shape and in the meantime got accepted to the police academy. At 45 years old I was the oldest one in there but I can honestly say one of the best in shape. We did hours and hours of workouts adn thats when I realized–I loved fitness–I mean really loved. After a year of going through tests and physicals and psych appts for the academy and finally making it–I left.
Now I am doing whatever I can to start a bootcamp and personal training business. I am trying to get certified and right now running a free bootcamp for my neighborhood to help get me started.
I love this industry and hopefully by this time next year will have avery succesful bootcamp and personal training business.
Gday Pat,
Not dissimilar to a couple of stories listed above, I had a life-altering event that became the catalyst for my fitness industry career.
A former overweight, under-trained, sports loving Civil Engineer, in 2003 a seemingly innocuous motorbike ride with my faithful German Shepherd by my side took a turn for the worse. After he’d spotted a rabbit or something similar to chase, he decided to cut across in front of the bike, causing me to T-bone him and fly over the handlebars. Fortunately, the dog was fine, but I wasn’t.
Knee reconstruction a few weeks later once the swelling had subsided slightly left me faced with undertaking a rehabilitation program consisting of physio and gym work. Needless to say I fell in love with the feeling of a good workout, the physical impact it was having on me, the self-confidence that flowed on from that. Shortly thereafter I completed the studies required to become a personal trainer here in Australia, and a short time after that I quit the Engineering industry, never to return.
I’ve since been based in the heart of Sydney, where I was able to build an large and loyal client base, which is flourishing to this day.
My short term goal is to open my own studio/gym, and no small part has been played in this by my learnings from Plummer, Cosgrove, Rigsby, and even to the strength coaches like Boyle, Robertson, Cressey, etc.
I love the continuing education process, and I hope to complete one of the mentorships over there in the good ol U.S.A at some stage this year. I’m excited by the transformation the industry is undertaking, and I want to be at the forefront of it in Australia.
Thanks Pat for your daily motivationals, your “dedication to our success” is genuine, and I for one am definitely inspired daily from your succinct gems.
Michael
Hey Pat-
As a former collegiate athlete I recognized early on the importance of a proper fitness and health program. As I graduated college and began my “real life” I began working for a friend of mine at the local gym.
As I spent more time there, it felt natural and I proceeded to study my butt off for my Strength and Conditioning specialist certification and then moved to Boston several months later.
When I began training in Boston I picked up many, many loyal clients right away. Some of those people are still with me 5 years later.
After a few years of the traditional 1 hour, 1 on 1 training model trading hours for dollars, I realized there must be more. I shifted my focus from reading about exercises, programs and designs to marketing, referrals, lead generation, and web design.
Today I have a successful training business with a small group training design, a huge group of loyal raving clients, a great referral funnel, and I think that I probably know about 1/1000 of what I should about the business.
It’s a constant learning process and I’m now in the process of my first info product, creating my own location later this year, and outsourcing my training so I have even more free time. Even though now, working 5 hours per day isn’t bad
Thanks for all your help and advice Pat, your team is amazing!
I started in this business to help myself first and foremost. I was a track and field athlete in college and was prepared to continue my career as a post-collegiate athlete. It seemed logical that starting my own training business would allow me the freedom to train for the Olympic Trials and allow for me to support myself while doing so.
A surgery or two later and my throwing career had ended and I wasn’t too sure what the path ahead held for me. I was a big, big guy at the time carrying over 315lbs for my sport (and due to my love for bad food and beer.)
After deciding that I would turn my competitive drive to my business I dove head first and truly became a fitness entrepreneur. I ingested and attempted to retain as much information as I possibly could from every source possible. I found PTU, Pat Rigsby, Jim Labadie, Nick Berry and a few others to really set themselves apart from the rest of the pack and decided to follow them closely.
The few years between then and late 2008 were filled with me investing everything I could into building a business that would make me proud. I spend hours reading and listening to all the products that the previously mentioned put out. I went to every conference and summit that I could attend. I emailed and called everyone that I thought might be able to teach me something. And most importantly I built relationships that are strong today.
I still remember the day that I had to make a very big decision. Would I travel down to Elizabethtown, Kentucky and possibly take a job with Pat and Nick or would I continue on my own. Well, I guess you have figured that I turned down that incredible opportunity and chose to continue on my own.
After this I decided that I truly wanted to own a training facility and begin brainstorming and mapping out a plan with my best friend and now business partner Wil Fleming.
In late 2008 we opened the doors to Force Fitness and Performance in Bloomington, Indiana and now are a very successful training facility. We did a few things wrong, a few things right and got very lucky a few times but the journey has been fun.
I am fortunate to have Pat, Nick, and Jim in my corner along with everyone else that has helped us along the way.
I have an incredible passion for helping people and being the best fitness entrepreneur that I can possibly be in the present and future. I have big plans in 2010 and will be working closely with the best in the industry to build Force Fitness, Athletic Revolution, AR Bloomington and many other projects that are in the works.
Hey Pat,
I kind of stumbles across fitness as a livelihood after figuring out Electrical Engineering wasn’t for me in college. I was told by a friend about the Kines program and it just sounded right for me. i had plans to go to Physical Therapy school after college, but because I was in ROTC, the Army had different plans for me so I spent several years on Active Duty overseas and in the states, whipping my soldiers into shape (both physically and mentally).
After I got out of the military I decided I would make a lot of money in corporate America utilizing my MBA that I earned while still in the military. So, I was fast tracked in this company to move up the ladder, but I just knew that this wasn’t the right fit for me. I was missing something in my life and although I was making good money, I wasn’t happy. So, I ran into a old boss of my at the Chicago Auto Show and he was telliing me about where he worked and how great it was, etc…., at the time I was somewhat content with my job so I kind of shrugged it off, but a few months later I gave him a call and started working at the same gym he was at.
This was a huge leap of faith because my wife was 5 months pregnant at the time and I was going to be taking a huge paycut (a lot to almost nothing). While I had another mouth to feed on the way and a nice size mortgage to pay. We really struggled for a while and we have yet to recover, but we will get there…
I started working at the gym and surely made my way to become one of the top trainers in the gym and really made a name for myself, but I needed more and I new working for someone was not going to cut it. After a lot of thought I decided to partner with another trainer to start a fitness bootcamp and things are going well with that . We have had our issues and we still do as we grow, but we are doing well and we look forward to the opportunities of the future. I am still at the corporate gym for now, but soon I will be free to grow my business to the point where I can work on the business and not in it thanks to great advice and leadership from you.
Thanks for all that you and your team do!
Shelton
Pat
We’ve talked several times but never broke it down for you…
Training for me started in 7th grade. Grew up a wrestler working on a 230 acre farm. Life for me was surrounded by ‘tough love’. I had jobs that needed to be done – and was instructed to do so. Never really realized any athletic potential until my senior year but enough to play FB in college.
I graduated from Slippery Rock University with an Exercise Science degree, honor student, and was selected as the first SRU advisory board member.
Through some stokes of luck and busting butt I’ve coached at the Olympics, Division 1, a major medical center, and started my own business at age 26.
All that sounds great but let me take it a step further… At the Olympics I earned $1.94 an hour after room & board and food. While at the University of Pittsburgh I earned $1200 a month, before taxes, paid the last day of the month. At Pitt Medical Center I was salaried $30k (the medical center is a $5 Billion company.. that’s with a ‘B’).
The good part is I’ve coached every arena where sports performance is found. Bad part… not for much cash. That is all starting to change. With the help of others and changing some personal actions, my business is really gaining ground. 2010 is a coming out year for me and I look forward to working closely with you and your team.
Hey Pat,
I will keep mine short.
I entered college thinking I wanted to be an electrical engineer. After my first 2 years of school and 2 summers of working a intern desk job, I realized that being happy with my job was more important than being well-paid and unhappy.
So, I switched my major to my passion, physical education. I am currently a high school PE teacher and I like my job but I don’t love it. What I have come to love is coaching high school football and training people who want to better the physical condition of their bodies.
Now I am on a mission to create a fitness business that allows me the opportunity to provide for and spend more time with family and time to dedicate to coaching high school football.
Thanks for the platform.
Since I’m still working on not doing everything myself, I have to keep this short.
I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, even after I grew up. Although I graduated from college with a degree in sociology, for a few different reasons, I never worked in the field. For years, I worked various temp jobs because I couldn’t figure what I wanted to do.
After one temp assignment that turned into a full time, well paying job I ended up getting laid off. Construction industry with no work = no job.
I started working out again at my local gym and after winning a fitness challenge based on accumulated time doing various types of exercise (something like that is pretty easy when you’re unemployed), they offered me a job.
I’d always been active as a kid but over the years had put on probably 40 pounds, at least. (Not sure of the amount because I wouldn’t get on the scale.)
I started working at the front desk and in the fitness center and went on to get certified. I worked as an independent trainer for a few years and opened up my own small women’s fitness center. It’s been a struggle and I really need to stop treading water and start making some money.
The good news is that although I’m no fitness model, I’ve lost most of the excess weight and my members love the gym. My evening bootcamp is picking up and I’m in the process of starting two daytime sessions.
Pat, thanks for all the free info you provide.
I had martial arts influence at an early age with my Dad as a black belt and TKD instructor. I began wrestling in 8th grade and played other sports, but wrestling, martial arts, and down hill skiing were what I really loved and was best at, and I even won a high school state wrestling title.
After high school, I attended college, was a youth ski instructor and coached middle school wrestling. I loved coaching, but soon felt the need to compete, so off to Colorado I went. I went to school for a teaching degree due to my love for coaching and working with kids. However, after a year of college wrestling, I kind of lost my passion for the sport and spent the next year skiing the mountains of CO while taking exercise physiology and kinesiology.
Then, after moving back home, I took up boxing, got married, and started a family. After 5 years of boxing and two state titles, I then started bodybuilding and won the men’s light weight state championship. I also took my first pt course then.
After the state bodybuilding show, a local gym manager asked me to teach a fitness boxing class at his gym. I did that for a year and coached my high schools wrestling team before moving to the interior of the state where I got involved with an mma team coaching them in boxing. Within a few months I was in my first mma cage fight at age 36. I had high hopes and dreams of yet another championship in another sport. However, I soon realized the risk I was taking, to my body and therefore earning potential, and with a family to support and bills to pay I decided after only my second fight that I should hang’em up.
A local fitness studio owner who attended my mma boxing classes asked me if I’d ever considered personal training and invited me to train clients at his gym. Currently, I work for Fedex Express during the day and train clients at the studio in the mornings before work.
Now, I’m working to transition from my regular job to full time helping others through group training, boot camps, and the like. I want a real business in the fitness industry.
Thanks for all you do!
I’m in on this late! My apologies.
Like most who train in the athletic world, I started out an athlete myself. I competed in college for 1 year in basketball (d III) and was perparing to transfer to a d1 school but I eventually got burned out. I hated basketball and actually decided to not transfer because I didn’t want to play. I’m not your typical basketball player, I’m 5’10″ (roster height) and weighed about 170lbs when I was transferring. So I’ve been below the radar so to speak my entire life.
After not transferring I decided to get into coaching high school basketball and did so for 4 years before my training business started to take off. Because training paid my bills and high school coaching didn’t, I had to give it up and impact kids through my coaching in the weight room instead of the court.
Shortly before that happened I was actually so close to giving up on training that I had sat down and applied for a desk job at a local corporation, thinking that I could earn decent money and get benefits. About that same time I had a co-worker at my gym sit down and give me a fatherly talk about how I was wasn’t good enough to make it in this business and that I should start to look for jobs in other places because they were more stable. I appreciate his comments, but in what seemed like 1 night (more like a couple months) my business literally took off. All of a sudden my reputation spread like wildfire and I started to make a good living off of training. Fast forward about 3 years later and I have now built a reputation so that we typically draw the most motivated athletes around and are helping athletes just like myself make their dreams come true. I am paid to speak and write regularly for multiple websites in hopes of helping to spread my love of coaching and teaching to others.
Some days it’s crazy to think that I was so close to giving up what I was doing and what I loved, but I hung on just long enough so that my passion turned into something that I now consider a “career.” I feel very blessed for that.