Mark Ottobri, a 20-year trainer and founder of Enterprise Fitness, identifies why trainers quit: they're either narcissists chasing social media hype and quick cash, or altruists who overdeliver and burn out. The answer is balancing fair pricing with real service quality.
How most trainers fuck themselves. Hi, my name is Mark Ottobri, and I'm the owner and founder of Enterprise Fitness. I run a 7-figure personal training business. I've been a coach for 20 years. In that time, we've trained former prime ministers, Olympians, Commonwealth Games gold medalists, and over 300 winners in physique sports. So there are two real types of trainers that I see in the industry. One is the narcissist, and the other one is the altruist. First, the narcissist. The narcissist is that typical trainer who's hashtag crushing it online and selling these programs at, you know, $100 a week, $50 a week, $50 a month, $50 a week, $50 a month, $50 a week, $50 a month, $50 a week, $50 a month, $50 a week, $50 a month, time on Facebook, Instagram, and not really providing the service. But as long as they're hashtag making bank, and getting clients in and making money, they are all the happier. The other trainer is the altruist. They are the one that gives the shirt off their back, goes over and above for the client, and that client doesn't pay them or pays late, cancels last minute, and shows up, shows up, shows up until the point where this trainer just hates the industry and hates everyone, gets burnt out, and goes into real estate. These two trainers are extremes, examples, but they are definitely out there. In the middle, between, and this is kind of metaphoric for, I think, the fight that goes on inside trainers who are trying to make it, trainers who are trying to have a career, that inside of all of us is the altruist and is the narcissist. So the fastest way to burn out is to love something and for it not to love you back, for it not to give you the reward, to put all your heart, your blood, your sweat, your tears into something and to get no reward and to have nothing to show for it. That will burn out everyone and make them all the more bitter. Because the truth is, you're not just doing it for the love of it. You're doing it, yes, because you love it, but you're also doing it because you want to make a living out of it. So you have to make money and you have to make profit. So the altruist will not have long-term success because internally they will burn out. Like the narcissist will not have long-term success because externally people will know that they are not good to do business with. And in the middle is what lies the balance. In the middle is where you lie the power. So instead of having this fight or picking between altruist and narcissist, you want to marry the two together. You want to be altruistic and make your service so attractive, and you want to really come from the heart and delight your client and get next level results for them and do everything that you possibly can. To help that person. At the same time, you want to be paid what you're worth because you're going to work a hell of a lot harder if you are, and you're not going to get into that level of burnout. Be in the middle. Don't want to be the altruist. You don't want to be the narcissist. You want to let these two fight. And if you're feeling undervalued, perhaps you let the narcissist speak up. I'm being undervalued here. And if you're not delighting your clients the way you feel you should, you let that altruist speak up and You give a better service, you work harder, you work longer, and you overdeliver every step of the way for your client. You let those two kind of wolves inside you fight and you will have a much better career. One that you serve people and get paid. And there ain't nothing wrong with that. If you've enjoyed today's clip, make sure you subscribe for my weekly insights, weekly insights. Make sure you subscribe for my weekly insights into all things personal training. And before you go, I have a free gift just for you. It is my checklist. It is a detailed checklist of everything that you need to do to optimize your personal training business, from sales, marketing, service, administration, nutrition, and training. It's all there. It is a very, very comprehensive checklist that I've put together. Head over to enterprisefitnessacademy.com and download your copy today. I'll see you next week on next week's video.
