This post was pure magic, and I had to give it the credit it deserved. It was all about the issue of natural talent vs. the importance of mastery of something you love. The truth is very few us are born perfect (see picture on left). Everyone else, no matter who you’re talking about, had to put in a tremendous amount of effort before they reached the top of their game.

For those of you that don’t know Dave, he’s a mega-succesful trainer in Hamden Connecticut - he owns a studio, Results Plus, with over a dozen employees, has been on TV more times than you can count, and is now growing and transitioning into new, national level ventures.

I’m not one to go on validation, but the fact that he supports Super-Trainer is big - this is a guy that’s one of the OG’s in the business, so for him to agree with what we talk about here shows he’s not just about keeping up the status quo. Staying hip to the industry is what’s allowed him to succeed for so long, and he doesn’t appear to be resting on his laurels in any way. Here’s what he had to say:

Think Beyond Boundaries! by Dave Parise CPT

Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams.

Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential.

Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do.

The more goals you set, the more goals you get!

The proper way to change people is through genuine kindness and concern. Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.

It doesn’t matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it’s important to realize that whatever you’re doing, it is your first attempt at it. Remember, your attitude determines your altitude!

A Great Read for Fit-Pros

What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Warren Buffett the world’s premier investor? We think we know:

“Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune magazine not long ago, he was ‘wired at birth to allocate capital.’ It’s a one-in-a-million thing. You’ve either got it-or you don’t.”

Well, folks, it’s not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don’t exist (sorry, Warren). You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of smart work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that’s demanding and painful. Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets.

Talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great. Understand that talent doesn’t mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It’s an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well.

No Substitute for Smart Work

The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It’s nice to believe that if you find the field where you’re naturally gifted, you’ll be great from day one, but it doesn’t happen.

There’s no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.

Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need about ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established that researchers call it the ten-year rule.

What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16? Turns out the rule holds: He’d had nine years of intensive study. The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average. In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 10 or 20 years’ experience before hitting their zenith.

So greatness isn’t handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. Yet that isn’t enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better. What’s missing?

Practice Makes Perfect

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call “deliberate practice.” It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, which reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don’t get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - now that’s deliberate practice.

Consistency is crucial. Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends.

The Skeptics

Not all researchers are totally on board with the myth-of-talent hypothesis, though their objections go to its edges rather than its center. For one thing, there are the intangibles. Two athletes might work equally hard, but what explains the ability of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to perform at a higher level in the last two minutes of a game?

Certainly some important traits are partly inherited, such as physical size and particular measures of intelligence, but those influence what a person doesn’t do more than what he does: Some international chess masters have IQs in the 90s. The more research that’s done, the more solid the deliberate practice model becomes.

Real-World Examples

All this scholarly research is simply evidence for what great performers have been showing us for years. To take a handful of examples: Winston Churchill, one of the 20th century’s greatest orators, practiced his speeches compulsively. Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don’t practice for three days, the world knows it.” He was certainly a demon “practicer,” but the same quote has been attributed to world-class musicians like Luciano Pavarotti.

Many great athletes are legendary for the brutal discipline of their practice routines. In basketball, Michael Jordan practiced intensely beyond the already punishing team practices. (Had Jordan possessed some mammoth natural gift specifically for basketball, it seems unlikely he’d have been cut from his high school team.)

Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows. Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age-18 months-and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship at age 18. Also in line with the findings, he has never stopped trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to conditioning and practice, even remaking his swing twice because that’s what it took to get even better.

What It Takes to Be Great…

This Side of Business

Dave Parise had the idea of becoming an uncommon personal trainer. His passion was over and above the idea of making money. He developed uncommon exercises, he ridiculed most “body builders’ gym science,” he laughed at “Muscle & Fiction” magazine. He built his dream with customer service, continuing his education, and thinking instead of following. Today he has earned a dollar for every ounce of passion and desire he possesses.

He deliberately practiced relationships, nurturing, pampering, and giving people more than they expected to get. It worked!

The evidence, scientific as well as anecdotal, seems overwhelmingly in favor of deliberate practice as the source of great performance. Just one problem: How do you practice business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations… you can practice them all.

Still, they aren’t the essence of great managerial performance. That requires making judgments and decisions with imperfect information in an uncertain environment, interacting with people, seeking information-can you practice those things too?

It’s all about how you do what you’re already doing… you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes. The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it.

Being a Fit-Pro involves finding information, analyzing it, presenting it, teaching it, and observing it… and observing it… and observing it! (Did I say to observe it?) Anything that you do at work, from the most basic task to the most exalted, is an improvable skill. When you take service beyond the workplace and follow-up with your client, you take your reputation to a whole new level.

Adopting a New Mindset

Arm yourself with a new mindset; go at your job in a new way. You aren’t just doing the job; you’re explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense. Research shows you will process information more deeply and retain it longer. You will want more information on what you’re doing and seek other perspectives. You will adopt a longer-term point of view. A positive mindset persists and remains creative and clear.

Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it’s the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset.

Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business. Yet most people don’t seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won’t come. Without it, as Goldman Sachs leadership-development chief Steve Kerr says, “it’s as if you’re bowling through a curtain that comes down to knee level. If you don’t know how successful you are, two things happen: One, you don’t get any better, and two, you stop caring.” In some companies, like General Electric, frequent feedback is part of the culture. If you aren’t lucky enough to get that, seek it out.

Be the Ball

Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call “mental models of your business,” mental pictures of how the elements fit together. I call it “a preview of coming attractions” and how they influence one another. The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your “performance attitude” will grow. (Positive self talk…)

Dave Parise - Super Trainer Advisory Board

_____________________________________________________________________

Yeah baby! That’s what I’m talking about! Way to set a strong tone for the forum with that one Dave.

The problem with most people is they don’t have this “thing” to do that will allow them to develop their talents. They don’t have that “game” that they’re passionate about, that they can work on to take their own abilities and lives to a higher level. That’s why I love Personal Training, because it doesn’t have barriers to entry. If you’re passionate about it and you like what you do, in a very short time you can expand to a high income. I couldn’t believe that people were really paying for this stuff when I got into it, and in a few years was making more than I thought was possible outside of a traditional career. I then refined it to a point where it became so easy that my entire concepts of work and value have changed. I’ve seen other trainers in the same time as me grow their businesses to even higher levels because they took advantage of the same benefits.

The idea Dave talks about here,” the 10 year rule”, has gotten a lot of media attention through the media blitz by Malcolm Gladwell for his new book “The Outliers” (Malcolm’s a great writer and I’ve read his last two books, but for some reason I don’t think I can stomach a third). The idea is also covered in another book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin. It’s the idea that whatever your “talent” may be, it takes at least 10 years of focused work in that area until any individual achieves what can be identified as breakthrough success (multi-millions, world record, championship, etc.). Yeah you read that right - 10 frickin’ years! Better get started, and make sure you’re doing the right thing or you’re wasting your time - haha!!!

And that’s 10 years of balls to the wall effort mind you, not just a mild dabbling, waiting for the calendar to turn. You guessed it, that kind of effort is not possible unless you completely love what you do down to every fiber of your existence.

Speaking of effort, I don’t view Personal Training as a job (that’s why we talk about “dumping the gym” asap here). I don’t think Personal Training even has a definition. It’s about you getting better at human interaction, self esteem, business, and providing value. It’s getting better at the skills of mentorship. It’s excelling at your passions. If those passions relate to fitness, you’re in for a fun and worthwhile ride. If they don’t, you should probably be doing something else.

After this stage, when you’ve fleshed out all of your interests and passions, it’s time to focus your efforts. And by this time you should know exactly what to focus on. You’ll have a huge edge on 99% (probably more) of people who have chosen their life script and vocation arbitrarily. Any question why obesity, depression, divorce, and reckless spending are our societies favorite past times? Sorry, but I think I’ll pass.

Don’t you love this? Thanks to Dave Parise for putting this in words in a way few people can. If this busted your get rich quick bubble too bad. But if you really got the meaning, then this ride is much more fun!

_____________________________________________________________

The blog is just the beginning!
For the real-talk no one’s saying on the web, read :

The UNDERGROUND NEWSLETTER
Sign-up below (your email address WILL NOT be shared):

(just click the button labeled “Forum” in the right side bar or follow this link)

It’s a forum for everyone, from beginner to advanced trainers; from thinking about getting into training to way past it, and all places in between. We can learn from each other, sharing info as it happens, the way that you can only do through an online forum. And there’ll be plenty of opportunities for mindless chatter too, so don’t worry!

You can use your real name or make up a different username, and feel free to link to your site or leave a phrase in the space at bottom for your signature.

So enjoy - looking forward to hearing what you have to say (I think!) and if you’ve got any suggestions to step it up, just let me know - I’ll see you there!

I’ve gotten a few e-mails from S-T readers recently about the subject of what to wear. That’s cool because you don’t want to leave this area to chance. Although it’s largely a matter of opinion, and in extreme cases you can almost get away with anything, we still can’t underestimate it’s importance.

That’s because Training’s an intangible product, and your appearance is one of these intangibles. Top performers in every field of sales and consulting are meticulous about how they dress and their appearance for good reason - because a large part of the buying decision is based solely on it!

Here’s my first letter:

For Master Trainer, I’ve always looked to the high end celebrity studio owners and copied their wardrobes. These are the guys that are always on TV, so when people would come into my studio, I know they’re looking for a similar, high-end experience. Even though I was mostly “small time”, I still wanted to create the air of prestige and credibility of guys like David Kirsch, who’s the owner of Madison Square Club over here in NYC. They call David the “ass-man” for his work with models. I even branded myself as a body-specific type of trainer just like David, also based on the work of another trainer Edward Jackowski, the author of Escape Your Shape, a very good book for trainers.

For the Guru, I always think of a guy like Charles Glass who’s in a league of his own. He can basically get away with anything, yet you’ll still always notice him dressed tastefully and appropriately. But his assistant trainers wear logo’d t-shirts when training clients (there’s a video of Charles right now in the videos on right). LL Cool J’s trainer, Dave “Scooter” Honig is a guy I see around often and he’s similar, wearing just about whatever he wants. These guys are older and have the experience to get away with it.

The blog is just the beginning -
For the real-talk you CAN’T find on the web, read:
The UNDERGROUND NEWSLETTER
Sign-up below (your email address WILL NOT be shared):

FITNESS ENTREPRENEUR - that’s a term that gets thrown around A LOT, and is used to describe every Personal Trainer, anyone that’s ever written an e-book, or tried to make a buck in any way in fitness.

But I recently had the pleasure to speak to a guy that’s taken the term to a completely different level - John Spencer Ellis.

If I sound like a fan, it’s because the things John’s involved with will blow you away! He’s broken the mold and branded himself to a point where he has no competition, and set a new standard for making money in fitness.

Looking at John’s projects will make your head spin and open your mind up to a new way of thinking about fitness revenue. He’ll give you an entirely new idea of what’s possible when it comes to making information products, creating a passive income, and creating business systems. I mean, he just produced a movie with some of the all-time biggest names in the success industry - that’s info-marketing at a totally different level!!!

You’ll notice that all of his projects are built around the idea for massive time leveraging (more money, less time) either for the consumer (you) or himself (naturally). He has a largely “passive income” business, but not in the way we’re used to seeing out there. And he’s not like every other hustler, because he’s got the tremendous academic credentials to back it up, including two bachelors degrees (business and health science), a doctorate in education, and an MBA.

But if it sounds like he’s a goody-two-shoes academic born with a silver spoon in his mouth, you’re wrong - he knows about tough times and having a slow start in the business too. His story starts in a tiny apartment nearly flat broke. But through incremental improvement and a passion for fitness, John’s gotten to where he is today, as a celebrity in this industry.

Instead of listing all of the projects John’s involved in which will really make this post long, you’ll see some of the major ones talked about in this interview. And I have links to John’s sites at the end of this post so you can pour through his different online businesses and probably get lots of ideas yourself.

_____________________________________________________________________

Hey Whatsup this is Kaiser on another issue of Super-Trainer Radio – my guest today is the big dog in the personal training industry – and beyond that the fitness industry in general, and you’d have to say the success industry as well - I’m talking to Dr. John Spencer Ellis – thank you for coming on with me John.

Thank you for having me - I’m glad to be a part of it.

I’m sure most of my readers are familiar with you or at least your work, but I don’t know if they’re aware of how many things you’re involved in. Rather than go through the list I’m sure they’ll come up as we go along – but the brands I’m sure they’re most familiar with are the NESTA Certification that you’re the head of and also the Adventure Bootcamp program that you’re very well known for.

Now the first thing I wanted to talk about was the certifications. Beyond the NESTA Personal Training certification you offer many others, and looking through the list (John has certs and development programs in everything from success coaching, to Neuro-Lingiusitic Programming, to becoming a Personal Fitness Chef) they don’t look like the normal boring stuff we see out there. It’s a list of credentials that are actually usable – were they created with this in mind?

Well everything was done intentionally and specifically for the success of the trainer. Some things have to be fundamental – for example the NESTA personal fitness trainer certification. It is NCCA accredited; it is accepted at all the major healthclubs around the country and around the world. Things like that need to be fundamental – they need to have a structure because that’s what is required.

And after that fact, after you get the fundamentals …

… it’s like the foundation of a house: you have to start with that, and after you have it, you have to ask yourself “what’s most important to you?” “What do you like to do?” “What really excites you every morning?”

And I listen to people and think about what excites me about the fitness industry – and then those are the programs that scientists, researchers, physiologists, phd’s and everyone in between helps us develop.

I think sometimes the thought of what the Personal Trainer or fitness professional is; that focus or that thought is too narrow.

That’s what I’ve seen after developing NESTA – that’s when I created the SPENCER INSTITUTE FOR LIFE COACHING and created that opportunity, and then created the ADVENTURE BOOTCAMP and that business model. What makes NESTA and what we do at JSE as a whole different, aside from the science which is from the leading researchers from the top universities and the latest information, is we teach you applicable communication, sales, marketing and personal development which allow you to become successful once you understand the fundamentals of the science – and that is genuinely lacking.

Yeah that’s what I see here in what you offer – the science and the strong foundation, and also products that are highly usable. Now you got into it a little bit, but tell me what you feel the role is of a certification. Because that’s one of the interesting things about the industry, that trainers do have the potential to make a lot of money and have a strong career, but all that’s required is a certification to get started, which isn’t the same as a lot of other careers. I find that to be a positive by the way, but then what do you feel is the importance of a certification for a Personal Trainer?

I think it is essential to have a certification. There are some people that may have a degree and disagree with what im saying – but here’s the distinction: with a degree you learn more in-depth science, and it takes longer so you’ll have a wider base and greater depth of knowledge. The difference is it doesn’t teach you the application of the knowledge as well as a certification. And although there have been leaps and bounds in standardization and requirements in our industry such as the NCCA accreditation, there still is room to improve who we are as an entity, as an industry, and that’s one of the things we teach; that if you want to have the same respect and clout as an accountant, an attorney, a doctor, then you need to act it, you need to get the education, and you need to present yourself in a manner that allows people to perceive you as a professional of that level.

Certification is essential, but one thing I think is missing is that people think if they get 12 Personal Trainer Certifications its gonna make them the best trainer in the world. Yes there’s different methodologies to the teaching, yes there are different approaches, but …

… there’s only so many ways to do a squat, there’s only so many ways to do a bicep curl, and how many ways can you throw a medicine ball? So what is important is at a certain point stop and then say “what else?”

I need to learn marketing, I need to learn physiology, and then I need to learn about the internet, and then I learn about nutrition, and then I learn about public speaking, and then I learn about pre and post natal, and then I learn about creating information products. It has to go back and forth and the education needs to be well rounded and we have to present ourselves in the best possible light as a true professional if we want to be perceived as such.

I love it - we’re always talking about the same things on the blog - about breaking the mold of what it means to be a trainer, and look at yourself in a much larger light. I feel that’s essential for a trainer - if your view is too narrow you’re almost screwed from the beginning. And on this subject, and going back to your business programs, let’s talk about Adventure Bootcamp - tell me about it and what makes it different.

The Adventure Bootcamp actually started in the year 2000 and I started it in Orange County California. It is the fitness bootcamp that many have seen on Bravo’s show The Real Housewives of Orange County. That brought it to the national spotlight, however it was actually quite successful preceeding that time. We have over 350 licensed authorized, certified locations in 9 countries – and there’s still room available for other people to get licensed. It is not a franchise – there are no ongoing fees – it’s a complete turn-key business system from beginning to end. It is the largest fitness bootcamp system and it is the most successful, and by successful I mean that we have more success stories from participants – and we also have more career success stories from the fitness pros – and that’s all equally validated.

There are other bootcamp instructors that are not part of Adventure Bootcamp – I’ll be the first to say that. I’ve seen some incredible structures Ive been very very impressed with – but what works for Adventure Bootcamp is that it is a complete system – from, business, to practice, to marketing, to structure, to planning to execution, and all points in between.

I’ve made some mistakes and I’ve lost a lot of money – and now I know what it takes to be successful as a bootcamp instructor and I work with Kelli Calabrese who you you know - she is very intelligent lady and she and I together have created a wonderful program.

It’s so funny being an internet entrepreneur - you’ve seen other internet entrepreneurs make the claim that they teach other people to be successful in the fitness business – some are true and some are not.

What I can tell you is we teach fitness professionals to the extent of people quadrupling their income within one year – paying off their debt, buying a house, putting their kids in a private school, and being able to become a leader, a true leader, in the fitness industry in their community. I would say we have had 40 of our camps or more get on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and other cable networks as well. And we teach you how to do that – it’s really incredible and the stories you hear about people’s success is very very rewarding.

Yeah John I can vouch for the effectiveness of the bootcamps – I know several trainers that have done really well with your program, and they’re top tier trainers, so when you see them sign-on for something you know it’s got to be of the highest quality –

Getting back to boocamps, this is one of the debates you see going on in the industry about what’s a better business model for a trainer and whether bootcamps are the wave of the future – what’s your opinion on that?

If someone thinks that personal training is more time effective I would have to strongly disagree because the numbers speak for themselves – if you have people that you’re training and they’re each paying you $15 for that hour, and you only have to work one hour, think how many hours would you have to work during the day to earn that much money?

But there’s a system to it though – a lot of camps start up and they fail because they don’t have a system. They don’t understand the marketing, the promotion, and there are a lot of nuances that really, really make a difference between success and failure and if you goof up you’re going to waste your time money and effort, and it’s disappointing and frustrating.

I know some other camps that have opened up near ours and they had good instructors with good qualifications and they were fit and attractive people – they had what you think it would take to make it and they failed miserably and it’s because even though they were good people and had the proper qualifications they just didn’t know how to run the system and it’s unfortunate, because you imagine how much money they spent – and then to go back to what they were doing.

Yeah that sounds to me like a vital part that you hear about in books like The E-Myth and from other business coaches – that it’s all about the business system – that’s the advantage of your program, right?

I have made a lot of mistakes and I’ve had some successes as well and I teach you about all my failures first because I think it’s important. People just talk about the positives - yes, but if you don’t know the negatives - if you don’t know the errors, then you have nothing to compare it to. You need that contrast – you can’t move toward something without moving away from something else, so you must know both - definitely, there’s no question about that.

You know a lot of trainers still do Personal Training and still do a bootcamp – sometimes the bootcamp feeds their training business. Sometimes they do so well with camp that they don’t want to teach Personal Training anymore, and spend more time with their family. What we do also is I teach you how to leverage your bootcamp into making you a celebrity in your town or regionally, nationally, globally, and develop your brand. The Adventure Bootcamp gives you the platform to do that and also give you the time to be able to develop your program and information, dvds, and so on.

So I think the trainers, the message I want them to get is it has to be a continual process – if you do not work on you as a person and your business on a regular basis you will never be ultimately successful and I’m sorry to disappoint you if you think otherwise. There are people who are far more successful than I am who have taught me a great deal. I just had lunch Friday with T. Harvey Ecker, many of you know who wrote the New York Times best selling book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. We sat down here in a hotel in San Diego and talked for two hours about doing some work together. He’s in my new movie and I learned so much from him – I mean he’s REALLY successful – and so guess what, I shut up and I listened to him. I was able to teach him a few thing which was great – I was able to help him – but he has had tremendous successes, and I shut my mouth and listened. That’s why you have two ears and one mouth – so you can listen twice as much.

That’s some good advice – I like the part you mentioned about growing yourself personally along with your business – I always feel they both go hand in hand - that all your business is really is an extension of yourself personally.

Now the last thing I wanted to talk to you about – until now we’ve been talking about Personal Training and fitness, but you reach is actually much wider than that and extends deep into the success industry now as well – you mentioned your movie, The Compass - what other projects do you have on your burner that are cooking right now?

Haha – the burner is always going, and I invite everyone that reads your blog to be curious like a kid. That curiosity and that hunger for knowledge is essential.

Always be a student – always, always, always be a student – that’s what’s really important – so take that and put it in a safe place and retrieve it later.

Yes I have had a long career in the fitness industry since when I was 12 years old – and personal development and life coaching and those sorts of things. I was asked recently when I was on an Australian TV show about a week ago, how the heck did you get into doing what you’re doing now when you started in fitness?

I think it was a transition of when I used to watch the Olympic power-lifters as a kid with my father who was a bodybuilder and we’d watch them on TV in the Olympics or whatever it was. And the psych-up process and the mental alertness and distraction control and all those things, that psychology, started my transition into personal development. What’s so fascinating is that everyone at that level is a tremendous athlete – what separated them was someone’s ability to ask more of themselves with the right questions.

So that was my transitionary phase – what it has evolved to is The Compass which embodies all of my life’s work. The Compass is a documentary film, and also a book that I co-authored, and im the creator and executive producer of the movie and it’ll be out February 8^th of 2009 and will world premier here in Orange County. There are three parts to the movie – one part is about a parable journey, a novel of sorts where it takes someones journey through life with all these lessons and experiences and these teachers and the knowledge gained and it tells a story - it’s what guides them through life – it’s the compass. And then there are more stories that are told from plenty of people that have these tremendous compass movements – where their life shifted and the needle shifted and the needle changed direction. And then we also have commentary from the world’s leading experts on personal development – one who you know is Kelli calbrese who’s in the film. We also have T. Harvey Ecker, John Aseroff, Dr. Joe Vitale, Dr. John Dimartini, Tony Geery, Brian Tracy narrates the movie, and the list goes on. It’s unbelievable the cast we’ve been able to get – what’s most astonishing to me is that I was able really to get all of these people to be in my movie!

Hahaa – yeah because the people you’ve mentioned are really a who’s who, an all-time who’s who of people that have made money in the success industry that you’ve mentioned there –

Yup, im truly greatful to all of them – and there’s an online community, and Harv and I are in talks to do some live events – and it’s going to be abslolutely incredible. What we want to do is be able to give guidance and a path. And movies like this have been done in the past where there’s more of a spiritual overtone to it. And there is a component to that – but people get excited, and motivated, and pumped up and visualize and all of that is important, but if you don’t have the tools, the resources, a direction, and if you don’t listen to really what’s happening inside your body, and all the clues and cues that you have available to you you’re going to be motivated and jump up and down and run around in circles – it means nothing. But when you have the tools and the resources and the teachers to guide you then you will truly make progress in your life – and the whole “Compass Community” that was created allows that to happen.

That sound real cool and can’t wait to take a look at it – John I wish you a lot of success with it. You shared some great information here for my readers so on behalf of all of them, thank you.

Thank you so much.

________________________________________________________________________

The bottom line when you listen to John is the man thinks big!

When it comes to info products he’s not thinking e-books - he has a wide range of certifications. And he’s not thinking DVD programs - he has a turn-key fitness program that’s making money for trainers nationwide.

You can find John’s home page here: www.JohnSpencerEllis.com

You can find the home page to the Adventure Bootcamp Program here: www.AdventureBootcamp.com

And to see all of the programs that are part of The Spencer Institute, check here: www.TheSpencerInstitute.com

It’s important for us to pay attention to him so we can learn how to take our own careers and lives to the highest level - if not, why bother, right?!?!

_________________________________________________________________________

The blog is just the beginning -
Wait ’til you read what’s NOT being said on the web!
The UNDERGROUND NEWSLETTER
Sign-up below (your email address WILL NOT be shared):

You know what I’m talking about - New Year’s resolution time! It’s when everyone resolves to change their life-long habits and start anew. Does anyone really ever keep the weight off? Not really (see accompanying picture), but who cares? Someone’s gotta be there to help - I know I’m going to step up and you should to! Here’s how -

For Personal Trainers this time of year is marketing on steroids -anything you do, if done right, will get a response x 10. So certain techniques that may not have really been worth it or unnecessary other times of the year will get you a very good reaction around now.

Before you do anything else, the first part is understanding the mind-set of the public around this time of year. It’s a real important time for them which we as fitness enthusiasts often take for granted. The public views the turning of the calendar as a time to get their lives back on track and gain control of their bodies and lives in general.

The reason I think high-level fitness enthusiasts sometimes have such a hard time doing well in Personal Training is because they can’t think like their clients. I know that’s what held me back for a long time. You think fitness comes easy to you, so why would anyone else need or want to pay for this service? This is the critical factor - knowing what they want, how they think, and what they’re looking for. I’ll give you a hint, it isn’t how many certifications you have. Don’t assume everyone is like you and fitness comes easy to them - IT DOESN’T! We provide a valuable and essential service. It’s the trainers that get this that do the best (and that’s why a lot of times they’re not even the ones in the best shape.)

Back to my point, this all comes to a head this time of year. Someone’s going to get the business - LET THAT BE YOU.

If you’re looking to build a practice or just going solo for the first time, you can pretty much get going, 0 to 60, right now from scratch.

If you’re already going strong, now’s the time to try something new - a bootcamp, semi-private - whatever - if you do it right it’ll hit, and if you take care of the people that are in it, it’ll stick.

Or if you’re willing to work more hours now and hoard the money so you can lighten up on your schedule later in the year if client’s drop off, that’s fine. Let’s go into a checklist of the things we need to do as independent trainers for the New Year.

Get Your Bird-Dogs Ready

Your bird-dogs need to know that this is a big-time of year for you. These are the people that you depend on for leads, like private gym staff and receptionists, and the other professionals you’ve teamed with. Visit them or send them an email so they’re conscious of it. And take care of (bribe) them in advance with their Christmas gift or a staff lunch just so they’re prepped and ready to go to bat for you. And keep them stocked with business cards and brochures. Yeah this might all cost about fifty to a hundred bucks, but that’s less than one session. If they’re a solid resource that’s paid off for you before, they WILL bring you more leads around this time.

Get Your Answering Machine Ready

If you’re busy you probably miss most of your calls like me. My usual message is really basic: “Hi this is Kaiser - leave a message”, and that’s it. I know, really unprofessional, but I’m usually not looking for the extra work. But remember your answering machine is the first interaction that most clients have with you so you want to make sure it’s a positive one. Have a detailed message letting the client know who they’ve reached and that you’ll be getting right back to them.

And make sure you do follow up quickly. You know how people are with this type of thing - they’ll call a bunch of trainers and make their judgment based who gets back to them first. You want to be that person. And once you get them on the phone, don’t just look to close the sale as fast as possible. If you’re too slick, you might get the bounce back of buyer’s remorse. Look to give service and value. Look for little ways to help them out with their eating right now, and coach them over the phone with their training. Point them to a few good online resources they need to look at, and start the training relationship. Be giving with your knowledge now, and it’ll pay off by you converting almost every new inquiry you get.

Customize Your Marketing and Make a Strong Offer

On their websites just as in person, a lot of people have a fear of asking for the sale. When people finally wander onto your website, however it is, make sure the site seals the deal. Make a strong offer on your website. Let it known that you offer a New Year’s package for new clients - an 8 week body makeover or something like that. Everyone else is till going to have the same generic text on their sites - be different. Yours will be customized to take advantage of the exact mindset of the new client visiting it.

Also make sure you’re direct and to the point with what you want to communicate. There was a book written on this recently called In Search of the Obvious: The Antidote for Today’s Marketing Mess by Jack Trout. It’s point was that with marketing, sending a direct message is best. If you want to say something like you’re the best trainer around and they’d have to be crazy not to train with you, just say it instead of beating around the bush or trying to be coy.

The internet marketers have known this for a long time. You of course are familiar with their hypey marketing text. Well if you do it right, it works. I’ve gotten many highly educated, high-level clients from hypey marketing writing on my website. To tell you the truth, I have the feeling it performed better than my current site, which is more straight-forward and generally hype-free. I haven’t tested the conversions on this, but that’s my solid opinion. Others have tested these metrics on this type of approach and it’s clear that a strong offer and a measure of hype converts. There’s something about promising the world and offering a guarantee that gets people to say “heck, why not”. Admit it, you know you’ve bought some crap on the internet because of it! And the fat-loss product marketing people have been doing this forever and it never fails. The difference is that as Top-Level Trainers, we back up the hype with real value.

And the research also shows that long-copy sells. On first glance our common sense warns us that if we have too much information, no one’s going to bother to read it all. That’s true to some degree - the only people that read it are serious buyers! So make sure you give a lot of information on yourself and your services on your site. You’ll be able to out-punch a much more experienced and qualified trainer if you describe in detail all of the specific ways your mix of skills and experience can benefit the client.

Advertising With Google Adwords

I’m normally against paying for advertising but now’s a good time to do it. Like I said it’ll bring you 10x it’s usual effect. Google Adwords, those paid ads that show up in searches at the top and to the right, are easy to implement if you haven’t tried already. Those Google geniuses have made the process idiot proof, giving in-depth tutorials on every part of the process. They want you to succeed, because the better you do, the more advertising you’ll buy.

And playing around with Adwords now is a good learning experience for you. If you do new things in the industry or grow your existing business, Adwords is going to probably be a part of that. It’s expensive, but depending on what you’re doing it might be worth it. Just type in “personal training, your area“ into Google and see who’s already paying for ads, and take a look at how you stack up. If you feel like your site can compete, or you have a service offering like bootcamps or something that lends itself well to mass advertising, then give it a shot.

Advertising With Craigslist

Craigslist isn’t what it used to be - it used to be an absolute goldmine. That’s before every part-time $20 an hour trainer starting using it, the spammers took control of it, and people stared getting robbed and killed because of it. The Craigslist people has been fighting very hard to take back control of the site and it can still be a decent place to get strong leads. I used it as recently as this past Summer with VERY GOOD results, and will be using it again now.

Just be ready to get a lot of price shoppers and your inbox full of spam. Whatever you do, don’t send any money to Nigeria!!!

Print Advertising

Now’s a good time for Print Advertising too. It’s expensive, but new leads for us are very valuable so it’s worth it. Check out your local publications and advertising vehicles, and give them a call (you might have already missed the boat on this or will have to move fast to make their deadline).

When buying advertising, be sure to negotiate. Negotiating is the single highest income task a business person can engage in. That’s because in about 15 minutes of negotiating you can save more than $1000, which if you do the math converts to a $4000 an hour rate.

When negotiating with an advertising salesperson, which as a rule are the shadiest salespeople around, first allow them to negotiate against themselves. Show disgust and physical illness for any price they show you until they’ve gone down as far they are willing to go. This is now considered the starting point! After that, suggest a price that’s half of what they just told you was their lowest price possible. This takes balls to do so man up to it. Now it’s time for them to look disgusted. If you’re good, the two of you will end up splitting the difference. If it doesn’t happen, walk away. But make sure they have your phone number or your card, because you WILL get a phone call saying they suddenly got “permission from their manager” (bullshit). Never buy their sob story of how their manager won’t let them or their overhead is too high -these guys are worse than car salesmen. And if you don’t like the rep you’re speaking to right now, then switch to another one within the same publication.

Early in my career I used to pay too much for advertising. Naturally the reps loved me, but I’d rather not get screwed!

With your advertising, your offer is also critical. Rather than go into this subject for another ten paragraphs, here’s a short video from the fitness marketing expert Bedros Keuilian on designing ads that’s very much on point - here’s the video.

Get Your Website Handled

I’ve been telling you about the importance of this all along, but now’s not too late to start. This time of year your website’s REALLY important because the web is one of the first places people turn to find a trainer.

Yeah it’s true everyone has one, but in general most trainers are clueless so most of their websites suck. Here are a few simple rules to upgrade your site.

• Put tons of testimonials on there. Your testimonials will sell your services. You could pretty much have a site that consists of only testimonials and it’ll do really well. Take the time to get a testimonial from every single satisfied client, and video testimonials work the best. There’s a rule in consulting, that the income from any individual client is meaningless; their real value comes from their ability to GROW your practice. This value comes from their good word - their testimonial.
• Have a call to action. Have a good reason for them to call you - maybe it’s a special offer or program that’s expiring soon, or a low introductory price program that they need to take advantage. In most cases, you do not want to quote your full prices on your site. No matter what they are, if your client sees your full prices before they’ve had the chance to try out and experience your services, they’ll get sticker shock.
• Use your name and put pictures of yourself on there. Remember, the product is YOU. Sure a logo and business name builds credibility, but don’t hide behind them. Put yourself front and center on your site, have a lot of information about yourself, a blog, and maybe even a short video introducing yourself and describing your specialty and what you can do for them. If the client feels comfortable, you are MUCH more likely to be the trainer that wins the sale.

I can’t emphasize enough how important having some good marketing behind you is. Your image and marketing materials are what gets your affiliates, your clients, and most importantly YOU serious about what you do and how you do it.

If your clients are anything like mine, they’re used to best of everything. They expect excellence in everything they spend money on, from the places they eat to the services they consume.

For a Personal Trainer, creating an attractive, high-end image is easy. All you need is a clean site and a pretty card to keep them happy, not a million dollar gym and huge marketing budget. I’m sorry to have pulled the plug on the services I was offering on this site, but they were taking too long for me to work on. But getting your marketing handled is something you can do on your own. Talk to some people and do a little homework, and if you need any help hit me up.

That’s what Top-Level Training is about. In the quality of your lifestyle and your net income, you end up blowing out the gym and studio owners, even though they think they’re so cool because they have all of this responsibility. But they’re chained to their gyms for years on end with tons of headaches and overhead.

Last year my inbox was flooded with new leads around New Year’s time, but I didn’t accept any of them. I was already booked, partying almost every night, and it was around the time I started Super-Trainer. I’m glad to say I’ve chilled out a little with the partying since then, and I’m now getting ready to launch a group training program to take advantage of the New Years crush. I know Rivak is going call me a “sell out”, but after all the bragging I’ve been doing on here about how smart I am, it’s time to demonstrate some of this knowledge. I’ll fill you in on all the details once I’ve thoroughly field-tested every part of it (no mental shadow-boxing on this site).

In the meantime if you’re looking to cash in you’ll find tons of FREE information about bootcamps and everything else on the web. Bootcamps are fascinating, especially if you’ve paid your dues as a real trainer and learned how to sell yourself for high rates, learned what customers consider value, and all the rules on how to reach them. And I recently talked to John Spencer Ellis, the creator of the Adventure Bootcamp business model, and got him to spill a lot of good info I’ll be sharing in my next post.

This was just a quick list of things you can do right now to get ready. I hope each point gets you thinking and you do a little homework in each area yourself. And don’t be afraid to make some mistakes. Even with the best information, you’ll still blow it a few times and lose money every now and then. Look at the bright side - there’s always next year! HAHA!

_________________________________________________________________

The blog is just the beginning -
Wait ’til you read what’s NOT being said on the web!
The UNDERGROUND NEWSLETTER
Sign-up below (your email address WILL NOT be shared):

That’s because training is an intangible service that’s highly dependent on the person delivering it (the trainer, ie YOU) That’s what this blog is about by the way - if the product is YOU, then no one should be telling you how much to charge or be steeling any of your money. Dumping the gym is the first step to getting paid what you’re worth.

Back on subject, your rates aren’t dependent on the number of certifications you have, the kind-of shape you’re in, or how many years you’ve been a trainer. These are all factors that influence the price, but they don’t determine it.

The sole determinant is your own self-esteem - the belief you have in yourself and your training services. Yeah, you could say that about any field, but it’s the most true in this one. That’s both a scary and at the same time a liberating thought. What do you think, performing at your peak, you could get away with charing? That should be your rate. If you have no experience right now, charge 10-20% less than that until you become comfortable with closing sales and giving outstanding service. But on future training packages and all re-signs, begin to slowly raise your prices.

Psychic Value

What really determines the price you can set as a Personal Trainer is your psychic value. With pretty much everything we purchase, this is the deciding factor. That’s what makes a Maybach nearly 50 times more expensive than a Hyundai. Your ability to create that value is your primary asset.

But people don’t consciously know this. The reason most clients think they need a Personal Trainer is to improve their appearance or performance in some way. And surely, I and I’m sure you too achieve amazing results with the people we work with. That’s one of our key success areas of course. But it’s not the only one, and surprisingly it’s not really the most important one. Since results are largely dependant on factors that are out of our control, results can’t be the deciding criteria.

What Personal Training starts out as is a way to get in shape; what it actually turns into is a high quality, highly regimented activity to engage in on a regular basis. That’s what’s cool about it - in an otherwise boring life, it becomes something fun and challenging to do! It’s the training session and the trainer that are the products that the client is paying for, not the end result.

It’s the process.

The feelings the trainer and session can create will be what determines price. Of course, these types of sessions will also get better results, but it’s the experience that comes first.

Creating Value

In order to create value in your training sessions that you can charge more money for, you need to start thinking differently about them. We need to view it as a product, and just like any other product, we need to start thinking about what it’s made of.

• How does a great training session sound?
• How does it look?
• How does it feel?
• How does it taste? (take your mind out of the gutter)
• How does it smell?
• How does it make you feel?

My point is that you need to consider all of the factors that could directly, indirectly, and psychically affect your session. The reason Jackie Warner can charge over $400 for her sessions and some of her trainers can charge over $200 isn’t because they’re better trainers (if you’ve watched her show, you know that’s clearly not the case). The reason is because they train out of an exquisite studio in a posh neighborhood and they’re all good looking. These are factors that have nothing to do with the training itself. You don’t need to hit the same hot buttons, but you get the idea. There are a million and one ways to increase your session’s psychic value, and we’ll get into a few of them later.

Price

Yeah, so back to price - in most major buying decisions, price isn’t the deciding factor. I’d challenge you to identify a single thing you own that you bought just because it was the cheapest. People don’t by training like that either, so just lowering your prices isn’t the winning formula. Like we just talked about, it’s all perceived value. It’s only bad trainers that cite price as the primary reason that clients don’t buy.

Successful trainers doesn’t view price as the deciding factor. They pay attention to all the facets of the job, and instead spend more time and effort in justifying price, rather than arguing over it.

Price Shoppers

But no matter how justified your rates are, there’ll inevitably be some people that’ll think they’re too high. Maybe they had no idea how much Personal Training cost, or they’re just used to bargaining for everything they buy. But sure enough you’ll find ‘em - clients that’ll fight you on price.

You never want to get involved in a price discussion over your services. It’s tempting to do it, especially if you need the work, but don’t! Consultant and sales people in every field will tell you the same thing - people that fight you on price are usually the highest problem customers around. These are exactly the people you want to avoid. Just politely let them know that your prices have been set in competitive marketplace, and with all things considered you actually turn out to be a tremendous value over other trainers.

Interestingly enough, price is directly related to perceived quality - people expect to pay more for the best. For that reason, when something costs more, it’s considered better and will probably lead to even more demand - you can actually hurt yourself by charging too little!

I’ve noticed this first hand. A little while into my solo career, I went through a long dry spell. Because I wasn’t selling to a particularly affluent clientèle, I incorrectly assumed price was the reason. I eventually cut my sessions to a half hour and made my rates ridiculously low. This of course didn’t help business pick up in any way and killed my self-esteem and credibility.

Over the next year I got committed to fitness - I raised my prices, improved the quality of my sessions, and paid attention to my image. In about a year, in the exact same training environment, I had more than tripled my prices, and was so booked I had to hire 3 part-time assistants to help!

Making Concessions

If you’ve done your job of justifying your price through outstanding sessions, you’ll find clients won’t be looking for concessions on price, but instead on training frequency. They’ll want to cut back on the number of sessions they use per week so they can fit it into their budget. Unlike the price shoppers, these types of client are earnest in their desire to train with you, and usually turn into great clients and sources of referrals. They’d rather work out less than resort to an inferior trainer.

The only drawback is that this type of client may turn out to take more time per week to service, since they may call or email you more for coaching in between sessions. They also may take away peak time slots from other clients that are training at a much higher frequency. For these reasons, it’s up to you to decide whether you’ll allow less than twice weekly training in your practice.

Ways To Add Value To A Training Session

As we mentioned, justifying price is the key point. If you cost the most, on what basis? Here are a few:

• You’re in great shape yourself.
• You have a sound knowledge of all the key information to handle common client questions.
• You’re perceived as more busy and in demand than other trainers.
• You’re personal appearance indicates that you’re one of the best in your field.
• You have a professional attitude, like what would be expected from one of the world’s top trainers.
• You are punctual and prepared every single time.
• Your sessions are always challenging and excellent in every way.
• You have a positive personality.
• You have more experience than other trainers and this is directly obvious from training with you.
• You are more highly qualified than other trainers and this is directly obvious from training with you.

When you put all of these together you get a complete package that can easily go for more than what other trainers are charging in the marketplace - even twice as much. Through these factors and many more I haven’t listed, you can eventually grow into one of the highest earning trainers in this field.

If you’re having trouble getting people into your funnel in the first place before price even comes up, you probably have an image problem. That means people don’t have an interest in you and aren’t willing to take a chance on you in the first place. You’re probably not coming across as credible to them.

• Do you sound confident or needy?
• Do you appear to be a professional or an unskilled amateur?
• Did you clearly demonstrate knowledge or the opposite, a lack of experience?
• Did you get them excited about everything they’ll accomplish with you?
• When you’re training others, do these sessions appear to be the absolute best on the market, or just like everyone elses?

The Super-Rich

What’s funny is you might come across the opposite situation where your client’s are very wealthy and have absolutely no buyer’s resistance at all. They’re actually slightly insulted at any indication of price or any obvious sales techniques. And if you hang around this field long enough and keep racking up credibility indicators, you’ll get to a point where price is no factor - you can charge whatever you want and people will happily pay!

These types of clients are usually used to the best of everything, and paying for it isn’t a problem for them. This type of wealthy client is rare however. I’ve had to sidestep price discussions with clients who were multimillionaires many times. That’s because even the wealthy in many cases are very careful and shrewd about how they spend their money; that’s how they got rich in the first place.

So charging less isn’t the answer – it’s creating a climate where price is justified. There are some other minor tactics involved that can boost your prices, like having them in writing, having the price discussion in a private place that’s on your turf, and having your certifications hanging on the wall at the time when price is brought up. You need to be creative and think of ever little thing you can do that’ll add more perceived value to your sessions if you want them to be the highest priced. This ability to crawl into the mind of a customer and understand what they consider value is something that’ll pay off permanently.

__________________________________________________________________

If you liked this post, wait ’til you read what’s NOT being said on the web:
The UNDERGROUND NEWSLETTER
Sign-up below (your email address WILL NOT be shared):

Didn’t we just finish talking about how Personal Training wasn’t a business?!?!

Yeah, but we’re going to shift gears and get down to BUSINESS - we’re going to talk about getting serious about fitness!

Even though this blog is about passion and lifestyle, at a certain point you’ve got to make a decision: “Are you going to be a player, or are you going to keep riding the bench?”

I got the chance to pick the brain of a lady that’s made a career of kicking trainers in the pants and reminding them to wake-up - Kelli Calabrese.

She’s someone I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for - Kelli’s one of the top trainers and educators in the training industry who lives and breathes this thing. There’s really nothing about the business of training that she hasn’t done or experienced.

I’d like to tell you all about her industry qualifications, but that would turn this into probably my all-time-longest blog post and give me carpal tunnel’s to write, so instead you can find out for yourself at one of her sites right here: Kelli Calabrese Argyle Fitness Bootcamp (it’s also a wonderful example of how to market yourself and present your stats no matter what level you’re at as a trainer).

Looking at her resume almost makes you want to quit the business, huh?!?! But it’s clear she’s someone you’ve got to pay attention to.

So without further ado, here’s the link to the audio of our conversation:

> Kelli Calabrese Interview Audio

I’m sure listening to that clip got you thinking critically about your career. I know it did when I was talking to her.

But of course when it comes to starting a business, there’s a balance. I’m always telling trainers NOT to get too caught up in the business aspect of Personal Training in the beginning.

That’s because this business has a lot of potential at just the entry level, before you get yourself bogged down with too many business oriented tasks (major marketing, paying employees, complicated accounting, a business plan). You don’t have to think about too much business related stuff when your goal is to assemble a handful of clients you like to train and that pay you a high income.

That’s more of a personal project.

It’s built on the basics of self-discipline, competence, relationships, and mastery of your specific base of knowledge. If you noticed, that’s a lot of what Kellie was talking about.

It’s after that phase that starting a business comes into play. It’s after you have cash flow, connections, and belief in yourself. Training allows you to achieve that while you’re still at the entry level.

We’re talking about being an independent Personal Trainer of course, not slaving at a healthclub - if you haven’t dumped the gym yet, I’d get on that ASAP!

You hear this advice of developing your success characteristics along with your business from every success and financial guru out there.

A lot of people put the cart before the horse though. They start looking for investors on projects and pitching major business ideas before they’ve learned how to create value and please a single customer.

I spun my wheels for years with that kind of thinking, so don’t make the same mistake.

But once you start to achieve success on a small level, that’s when things start rolling. Look at any major success story out there, from Jay-Z to Rachel Ray, and you’ll see them parlaying a minor but still noteworthy first success into much bigger things (they both did it baking pies, incidentally!).

And it takes commitment. That’s what you see when you look at the a career of someone like Kelli - it’s the cumulative effect of action over time.

Like Kelli mentioned, she’s got several consulting projects for personal trainers that you can find out about at www.calabreseconsulting.com.

It’s fun to meet a real pro in this business isn’t it? Through Kelli’s example, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more!

_________________________________________________________________

If you liked this post, wait ’til you read what’s NOT being said on the web:
The UNDERGROUND NEWSLETTER
Sign-up below (your email address WILL NOT be shared):