Ep69: The 3 Systems You Need To Become A Successful Personal Trainer

Good morning team. Hope you're having an amazing day so far. It's Matt here from pt Profit, Leverage and Lifestyle show. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. And you know the, the podcast is, is growing, which is good. So it just goes to show that, you know, you guys are liking the content, getting a good amount of value, which is good. But the one thing I want to remind people as well, and not many people really understand this if, if you actually want to help implementing the strategies that I talk about on the podcast, just on the actual description, there's a link to booking a 15 minute call with either myself or Jason just to actually point you in the right direction to see if we can actually help or not. So if you are getting value from the podcast, then just a reminder that's in the show notes to do that completely free of course. Um, you can't actually buy anything on that call either by the way. It's not a sales pitch, you can't actually buy anything. So if you want some general advice, book it in and we'll, you know, point you in the right direction. So today's episode team, I wanted to talk about the delivery system for personal trainers. I ran a training for my clients on this probably a couple of weeks ago and I got some really good feedback. So I wanted to give you kind of the summary of it. So usually my training usually goes for about an hour with my client, but I'm not going to go into as much detail. I'm going to give you kind of the summary points in terms of what you should be doing to deliver results to your clients or how to actually track client results. So I'm going to give you like three little tips or examples here on, on what you could and should be doing for your delivery of your service as a personal trainer. So I'm going to give you a some things for face to face, some things for online. Now there's, there's three things, right? So there's like Google Sheets or Google Docs, there's an actual training software like Ever Fit, Trainerize, Kahunas, all that type of stuff and then like a CRM which are client relationship management software. Okay, so just to kind of do a little bit of a spoiler alert here, my suggestion is having all three, but not all people need that at the start. But like long term if you can, if you can have all three, then, then happy days, you're in for a pretty, pretty successful ride. So let's go through each one in a little bit of detail and Give you heaps of heaps of value here. So let's go through the Google Sheets or the Google Docs first. So I'm not going to share my screen and show you, but I'm just going to go through what some stuff you can actually have in a simple Google Doc that is just as good, not probably not just as good, but does the job similar to what like a training a PT software would do, like a trainerized ever fit kahunas, etc. In reality you just need to be able to track the same stuff that an app does. So for example, you want to be able to track goals, you want to be able to do photos, you want to do measurements, you want to do like fitness testing, you want to do like a weekly planner, you want to be able to do like some type of basic programming on Google Sheets. And if you guys want a copy of my version of this, then just send me a message. I'm happy to share the template that I use. And the other thing you want to do as well, you want to track the sessions that you do. Now for a little bit of a bonus, if you guys want a specific training on how to actually track sessions and also keep people accountable through Google Sheets, then just let me know. I can send you a training video on that. Not going to cover that in this, this podcast, this podcast is just going to give you the overall summary of what you can do to actually deliver results to your clients. So as I said, Google Sheets, you can make a super basic template, goals, photos, what I used to call like a PC session log, which you can also track like people's nutrition, you keep them accountable with like goal setting. You can also track when you're updating their programs and stuff as well. Measurements, of course, fitness testing. Now some trainers don't even do fitness testing, which is fine, but personally I like to do it do it because people don't usually focus on that type of stuff, but they're actually quite happy when you actually see an increase in their bench press or you know, planking or, or vice versa. So that's what you can do in Google Sheets. Now this is just for tracking client results. Now Google Sheets, Google Docs is super, super good for tracking heaps stats in your business, but also just general statistics, even on social media retention, obviously financial stuff with budgeting. So Google Sheets is super, super easy for that. You don't need to pay for like Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word or anything like that. You can of course if you want, but in my opinion, complete waste of Money in my opinion, just my opinion, you know, don't shoot the messenger. Okay, so let's go through. That's the first option. The second option is your training software. So I gave a couple of examples before, but a couple other ones. Trainerize, PT Distinction, True Coach. Now Trainerize, PT Distinction. Those type of softwares you actually pay based on how many clients you've got. So it starts off on a smaller subscription and then it goes up as you get more clients. So anywhere between like $10 and $60 a month. I think that's us as well. By the way. Something like True Coach. Actually not True Coach. There is a couple of ones that it's just like a set fee no matter how many clients you've got. I can't remember which ones they are though. I think PT Hub, my PT Hub does that. But like when you're actually deciding on which one to do here, right. In my experience, most of them are pretty similar. I personally use Trainerize. That's pretty much just the one that I started with and I haven't really changed, uh, cause it's just a pain in the backside to change, uh, pretty much all of them as well. Give you a free trial. So my suggestion is do a free trial, do some stuff for yourself for your own training and see which one you like the best and then go with that one. Now the advantages of actually using a training software, it's super, super user friendly for the clients and it's super easy for you to generate reporting on their progress. Whereas if it's Google, Google Sheets, you're gonna have to like manually track the data to see what they're doing. Like for example, like personally, and this is what I did for like the first two, maybe three years of being a pt, I just used Google Sheets and I actually only did very super, super basic programming for people. I didn't have like an app where I was like, cool, I want you to do this, this, this, this, this. I just gave them a very basic rundown of what I want them to do and I actually got them to track it. I didn't even track it myself. So key tip here, you don't have to do with that. It is obviously better if you can get the clients to track all their workouts, which is what the training software is going to do for you. So super easy for the client. It's all in an app. It's all done. They can, they can have notifications turned on so you can message them through the app as well to make it a seamless experience, it's going to make you more professional as well, because you've got, you can customize it to be your own app as well. So you don't have to make your own app. You can just rebrand, trainerize or Everfit or whatnot. Then what you can do as well, you can also put in their habits for them to like, reminders of habits, for example. So it is like, it is a lot better to have like an app that you can, you can use, but there's obviously a cost to that as well. So like, for example, for some people starting out, they might not want to have that expense, but at the same time, most clients are happy to pay like an extra $5 a week, $10 a week to have access to an app. If you want, you can give people the options. I have got an app as well. It just cost an extra five bucks a week. Or in an ideal world, you just say cool. Just increase Your prices by 5 or $10 a week and say cool. You included in the membership. You get an app to use as well for your programming, your, your tracking, your stats, etc. Etc. It does make your life a lot more productive and a lot simpler by having your training app. So I do suggest having it. The other thing that you can do in the, in the app is also like meal plans. If, if you want to do meal plans, you can give like basic nutrition advice. But the other thing, like what I used to do is actually just give macros and general calories, general advice. So I used to actually get my clients to add me as a friend on MyFitnessPal. And you can actually, if you're doing it the cheap way, you just do it this way. You just get them to add you. And then each session that you see, you just actually open up their MyFitnessPal and go through their food and give them some basic advice on what they could possibly change to improve their results. Otherwise, if you have an app like trainerize, you can actually sync my Fitness pal. So it all goes into the app, everything in the one spot. It's super, super easy to manage. And literally you can just, you don't have to ask the client to give, give you their phone or anything. You can literally just log into your account and it's all logged. The other thing you can also do, you can link like Garmin, Apple Watches, all that type of stuff if you want to see more data. So if you want more data, more analysis, then you need to have like a software that you're using. Otherwise, if you just want to basic, you can just use Google Sheets. I said if you do want a copy of the version that I use. Yeah, it was, it was, it was good because like at one time we had 150 clients using just Google Sheets. It was completely fine. We had no expense. If, you know, if you had 150 clients on Trainerize, it's probably going to cost you a couple hundred bucks a month. So yes, perhaps it would have increased, increased my retention, perhaps. Who knows, I'm just guessing if it would. But all I'm trying to say is there's this options as well. Now if you're an online trainer again you don't necessarily have to have to have a software but you know you're setting yourself a lot lower than the standard of the marketplace. Pretty much every single online trainer has an app that they use to tracking clients, workouts, etc. Pretty much everyone. I don't know any online trainer that doesn't have that. But if you're face to face, you can get away with just using Google Sheets. Now the next one that I'm going to talk about is the CRM. The CRM is for sales and marketing. So common things that people use the CRM for. You can do lead opt in. So like Facebook, Instagram ads, you can obviously make links into your bio, you can do funnels. So if you want to like a challenge or a lead magnet, just if this is going over your head, watch my podcast on CRM101. I go into a bit more detail on this. You've got like thank you pages that you can do. So for example, if you are going to run ads, this is more for online trainers. If you're running ads you can have everyone go into an opt in which is like a landing page which is then therefore goes to a thank you page which then is an automated redirect to like book a call. For example. Your calendar can be synced all into the one platform. So all if you're doing face to face, all your PT sessions can be in the one platform. All the automated reminders can happen, all your leads go into the one platform. You can bulk email, bulk text, you can obviously have your opportunity tabs in there as well. But at the same time all the stuff that I'm talking about here in terms of managing your leads and your database can be done in Google Sheets as well. But it's all a manual task. It's going to take a lot more time. But if you got more time than sweet, no problem. Like for example A CRM is going to cost anywhere from 150 to 300amonth. Like not super expensive, but it will help you long term. Some other things that a CRM can do, like client onboarding, all that can be automated. Workflows in terms of check in forms can be automated as well. And by the way, on the check in forms, you can actually automate check in forms through trainerize or through a training software as well. Super, super easy to do. So that shouldn't be done manually. With, with Google you can to a degree automate check in form. You can actually invite, invite your client on like Google Calendar for example to accept the invitation to fill in their check in form with the link in there. And you can actually send a, a task reminder like 10 minutes beforehand. So they'll get a notification 10 minutes before XYZ time to fill in the check in form. So that's where you can do it for free. Otherwise it's a little bit better if you can automate it through an actual software so it's a lot easier. You can even have like a client portal access. So if you're going to do like a membership area, like a school account, you can have it all in a CRM where you can have like courses that people can go into, extra curriculum stuff, all that type of, all that type of stuff. But essentially all your sales and marketing lead nurturing email campaigns, all that type of stuff can be in the one platform which, which is a CRM. So in, in, in summary, the solution is to have all three if you can. Now as I said, there is obviously a cost to this as well, but you know, welcome to the business. You need to spend money to make money like in reality. Okay, let's, let's say The CRM costs 150amonth. Okay, so what's that? It's like 35, 40, 40 a week. So if you get one new client from using the software, it's paid for. I was talking on the podcast a couple of weeks ago about the opportunity cost. That's the opportunity cost. So yeah. Okay, cool. It might save you five hours a week. Five hours a week of your time. How much, how much is your time worth? What could you be doing instead with that five hours? You know what I mean? So you're going to weigh up this stuff when you're thinking about investing something, like investing in a business coach or any type of coach really. Okay, cool. So if you want to try it on your own, and this is a really good point, this is probably for another Podcast episode. But here's a really good point. How long would it have taken me to get to 15k per week as a personal trainer? Like I got to if I didn't have multiple mentors teaching me what to do daily, weekly, monthly, yearly? I got there in 2 years from 0 to 15,000 per week, 60k a month. Like some of my clients, for example, one of my clients got 600 a week to almost 3k a week in 4 months growth. 0 to 5k a month in 3 months. We got so many examples. You know, you get, you get mentorship to fast track your results, save you the stress and effort and time and just do it right the first time. You know, I've had many failed businesses before and the common theme is the successful ones are when I actually got help in them. Some of them I got help and it still failed. Which is, which is normal. You're not going to be able to, you know, you're not going to have 100% success rate with everyone. But yeah, my advice when you're investing in this type of stuff is what's the return on investment for you? So like for example Trainerize or, or any type of software like Everfit, Trainerize, Kahunas, mypt Hub, any of those. Let's just say it gets by having an app, it keeps your client engaged and they get better results so they stay on board with you for, for an extra four weeks as an example. So how much is an extra four weeks for you? Let's just say your average spend is 100 bucks a week. That's an extra $400 a month added. Okay, cool. It cost you 50 bucks a month to have the software boom. It's a no brainer and like you know, so many people who scared to invest. But cool. What's the return on investment? You know, for a lot of, a lot of my clients, I help them get to 10k a month and they're like a 1 or 2k a month or even 5k. So okay, cool. Well if it cost you 1k a month to make an extra 5k a month, would that be a fair return on investment? Yeah, 100%. 100% it would. But a lot of people are obviously a bit too scared to invest in themselves, which I understand, but that was a little side tangent there, but I'll leave it there for that episode. So in summary, you can do Google sheets for face to face if you want to keep the budget, budget low. The training software, you scale up as you get more clients. So it's relatively cheap to start with. As I said, there is a free trial as well and then CRM, if you're working with me, we, we give a 30 day free trial on a CRM but if you're using a different one then anywhere from 150amonth to 300amonth for the CRM. And that's going to help the sales and marketing. More specifically sales and marketing but also automations, email campaigns lead nurture, all that type of stuff as well. So if you can have all three, especially online trainers. Online trainers need to have a CRM. It's like it's one of the vital things you need to do because you're competing against so many people. When you're face to face trainer, like all the, all the clients are right in front of you, you just go up and talk to them. When you're an online trainer, you've got a nurture, you've got a nurture for a long time. Well, not so much a long time, but you got to nurture a lot, a lot in a lot of different ways. Content, email marketing, Facebook groups, you know, podcasts for example for me. So hope that gives you some context. And you know, coming up we've got a few juicy interviews coming up with a few epic people. So I'm super pumped to deliver some value for you guys. And as always, if you guys want some extra help, book in a 15 minute call. As I said, you cannot buy anything on these calls. So keep your credit card at home and book in booking on time to have a conversation. See if we can point you in the right direction. All right, peace.