In this episode of the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast, host Richard Toutounji discusses how personal trainers, studio owners, and gym operators can achieve long‑term careers in the fitness industry without burning out. He shares personal anecdotes from his early days training a client at 3:30 am, then pivots to practical advice: the "Rule of 3" (guaranteeing at least three days off per week), structuring AM/PM sessions, and using a simplified "wheel of life" to prioritize personal versus professional commitments. Toutounji emphasizes the importance of saying no to unsustainable hours, setting clear client boundaries, and establishing early‑career limits. He also critiques the myth of perfect work‑life balance, suggesting a realistic, flexible approach. The episode concludes with promotional plugs for his Com Marketing Ninjas coaching program and a $27 Fast Lead Program that promises organic client acquisition. The overall message is that longevity comes from intentional scheduling, boundary‑setting, and aligning work with personal values rather than relentless early‑morning hustles.
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It's not about what time you get up. It's about what's the plan to stay long, Debbie, in the fitness industry. Hey team, welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. It's Richard Turturji. Welcome to the show if your first time. Hello, good to have you here. If you're regular, thanks for jumping back in. Team, if you are loving these episodes, a good way to let us know is leave us a review. That's a good one because then we know you're listening. Or even better, jump on our Instagram, Com Marketing, or hit me up on Richard Toutounji. Just let me know which episode you love the best just so we can produce some more good things for you. I, uh, today I jumped I was on a one of our group coaching calls. We run a program called Com Marketing Ninjas. So if anybody that sort of wants help to grow their business, little plug here: our only sponsor of the show, Com Marketing. And what we do here is we help people to grow their studio or their business or their gym or their personal training business. We have a whole different you know little program starting at 21 days and longer programs that. go for years, or whenever that person reaches that goal. Sometimes it's $500K, sometimes it's scaling to multiple, multiple locations. I've got a client at the moment who's got 5 locations and wanting to scale, moving into a franchise, and they're going that. And then we've got some clients that are just starting off in the fitness game, and they've got their first 2 clients, and we love all options. And today I actually want to talk about something that did happen, and I did a training on time— well, to get back more of your time. I'm not going to call it time management, to get back more of your time. And I'm not going to take you through the training, but what I do want to talk about is something really important so you don't burn out in this industry. And the topic of today, um, I had this topic sitting in my podcast topic ideas for a long time. And you know what? I just read through them today. I thought that that's what I'm gonna talk about because that's what I got something to really talk about today. And that is, is longevity in the fitness industry even possible? You know, we're coming off the back of COVID where there's so many businesses that have closed down. Like, I'm looking at a, I'm looking at a business broker's Instagram. The amount of fitness businesses that are selling up is ridiculous. Crazy. Um, but not just that I want to talk about, but I just also wanted to kind of go back to you personally. To have longevity in the fitness industry, I always like to go, you know, what's the game plan? Like, when, when I started the industry, I was, um, 17, and I was eager, and I wanted to, you know, literally just do— I, I didn't care what time of day it was, I'd be there doing trainings. Um, I remember my very first client One of my very first clients I had, I had to travel to them in the morning. And he was like super just he was just not particular. I would say particular, but he was just a workaholic. And he and he was just driven, this guy. And he wanted to do he wanted to start training at three thirty in the morning. And that was just like what I like to get up at three thirty, and then I like to. Get out the door at 4:30, go to work. It's like, can you do it 3:30? I said, of course I can do it 3:30. And I just shut my mouth. He goes, okay, I'll see you then. I said, okay, I'll see you then. And, um, you know, when we first start, we just go do everything right, and, and we should. But, you know, the question is, how do you have longevity in the fitness industry? Is it getting up at 3:30 in the morning every morning? Is it getting up at 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock? How long can you go like that? Now, Saying that, you know, the saying is people love getting up in the morning early. That's what the hour of power is, you know, and all those kind of things. But I guess it's not about what time you get up. It's about what's the plan to stay longevity in the fitness industry. And if you're a single base trainer, let's say, and that's, you know, you doing the business, PT, you love what you do. Amazing. Studio owner-operator, um, and you're doing every session, you have no other trainers, amazing, right? Um, gym operator, a little bit different, got a larger team. So I'm talking specifically to you if you've got 1, 2, 3 people working for you, or yourself, or yourself just by yourself. How do you have longevity when it's early mornings and late evenings? Well, there's a really simple process and rule book that I like to give anybody who's in that situation. And the situation is this, and, and the rule is this: it doesn't matter if you have any other— doesn't have any other trainers. If you want longevity industry, ensure that you focus on the rule of 3, meaning 3, um, 3 times off in a week. So meaning that if you're doing an AM session Or a PM session. You might do AM, PM. You could do Monday to Friday, AM, PM, and you could do Saturday, maybe AM, maybe even do PM, right? What you want to do is you want to give yourself at least 3 times off a week. So for example, let's say you do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday afternoon. You want to give yourself maybe 2 mornings off. And one afternoon off or 2 afternoons off or one morning off or 3 afternoons off, however you want to play it out. But that is going to help you to stop the burnout. It's going to help you to stay long during this. It's going to help you to almost like have a little mini holiday because I didn't have to, you know, get up some ridiculous hour in the morning. And I'm just going to start work 11 o'clock, right? Just that alone will love what you do the other mornings. And you'll be driving to get up. And I know it seems really basic, but it's very hard to consistently go and do AMs and PMs. You have your breather in the middle of the day and expect that you're going to have longevity industry. I have never seen it before. I know I lie. I've seen it a few times. I would say what I can count on a hand, the people that I know in the industry Trainers, experienced operators, and they've just been like workhorse kind of style. A.M.P.M.s, A.M.P.M.s, and even the ones that I do know, every other area of their life are imbalanced, meaning they're not in a good state in the relationships, in family. You know, in some cases, just like. Going through divorces because they've had zero time for anything else in their life. That's not a place you want to be. Um, and I always look at, you know, when someone says, oh, this, this person's crushing it and they're doing, you know, if you're a PT, you know, they're doing $5,000 a, a week just on their own sessions, no other, no other clients. And I'm, I'm, you know, I'm picking on PT in that example because I've seen it so many times. But then, you know, I always ask what else in their life do they have or don't they have? So, so what else is working? Because I can guarantee if they're doing that just in the PTs, there's other areas of life that are really, really suffering where you might have other areas of life that are really working okay, but you're not making as much money in your business because you've got other areas in your life that are more balanced. You know, it's funny because people talk about work-life balance and And that's why I didn't want to kind of talk this topic about work-life balance. But they talk about work-life balance like it's this holy grail and it's a thing you have to do. But it's not the holy grail. It's the decisions that you want to decide what to do. And we look at, you know, the life cycle or a wheel of life, Google wheel of life, and there's so many different parts in your life, um, relationships, personal relationships, spirituality, You know, work. There's a whole— you could Google and there's all different sections of your life. And sometimes I think those wheels are just stupid because you can't balance 8, 9 areas in your life to be amazing. But I do believe that if you break your life into, you know, like smaller sections, 3 or 4, let's say 4, You can balance them, but you won't be able to balance them all the time. There will be an imbalance when, you know, work, you need to work. There's a, there's gonna be an imbalance in family life or a family life, and you've been on holidays for, you know, 6 weeks in Europe. Guess what? Work life is gonna be a little bit imbalanced. But I do believe that you can get a really good balance, and the most simplest way To save money, not having to go on a holiday. Oh my gosh! I'm burnt out. Is literally take those three, those three work zones off. So choose the work you want to take off and say to your client, "Listen, we no longer. I can no longer train Thursday mornings. But hey, I got Tuesday. I got Friday. I've got this afternoon. Find a spot. Find a spot. Very simple. What's the worst case that happened? They say no. I'm not training with you at all." Because you can't do that session. Okay, we'll find another day that you can take off that's a bit more flexible. That's how you have longevity in the fitness industry, and we've seen it before. You know, people say, "I've been in the fitness industry, but I am now doing something else in the fitness industry." Yep, that that's that's a possible scenario too. But again, I always look at if you love the fitness industry. You love owning a gym. You love owning a studio. Do what you want to love to do. Why do we have to create other roles or or anything else if you love what you do? If you love what you do, do it and be proud of it and and scream from the rooftops. That's what you do. But knowing that you can't do it 24/7, you can't do AM PM split shifts and also have a great life as well, have some flexibility and, and have that. You can't do it. So tread carefully if you think that you can do it. I guarantee you can't do it. You can't do AM/PM split shifts every single moment, not have any, any time off. If, if, if You wanna have some kind of wheel of life. If that's not the case, you probably can, and you'll crush it hard. And well done to you. If you're a person that does have a family and does have other things in their life, I, I think you— we should be more commended around the times that we get in our life And the memories that we have and what we want to do versus having to just hustle and grind and hustle and grind. And it's better to do it early on the piece. So don't wait. Oh, I've got to build up my hours. That don't don't don't don't do that. Do it early in the piece. So even if you're a brand new trainer, say no, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that straight off the piece. And we have a great client that that I know is doing that straight off the piece. No, I'm not gonna do. those hours. I'm not gonna do those, those evenings, and that's okay, by the way. So good luck to you wherever you are. Hope that helps in this episode. Just a quick one just to remind you that you're awesome. Take some time out and not, yeah, not have to wait for that yearly holiday for you to actually take a breather. Alright. Thanks, team. Hope this has found you well. Hey, remember, if you are interested in you know, taking the next step in your business, gaining organic leads and fast leads. We have another fast lead program coming up, right? It's starting in a couple of weeks. And if you are interested, follow me up on Instagram or go to website.com/marketing, get all the details. It's literally only $27 to get involved. $27. It gives you 9 organic trainings. Most people are generating between 5 to 8 new clients, not leads, clients off existing database and using this strategy. And the good thing about it, you can actually repeat it every 21 days. Hello. So if you're interested in that, jump on our website, commarketing.com.au, and search the Fast Lead Program. I look forward to seeing you there. Thanks, team.
