After waiting another five minutes Steve finally arrives, coffee in-hand and chastises Doug for not starting his workout. Doug likes Steve so he ignores the comment. Steve gets Doug to do a circuit program stating that Doug doesn’t really need a full hour for circuit training because it’s high intensity and really thirty minutes is good enough. Doug wonders why he’s paying for an hour if thirty minutes is enough but he trusts Steve and doesn’t say anything.

Doug notes how popular Steve has become because his cell phone keeps ringing and from the conversations he’s having he seems to be booking a lot of new clients. Doug doesn’t mind Steve taking calls during his session. After all, he feels lucky that Steve is training him. After about twenty minutes into the circuit and three phone calls later, Steve tells Doug that he has to leave a few minutes early to get to an important client who has just bought a package of fifty. He comments that he doesn’t want to be late to their first session.  He tells Doug to finish the circuit and prances off to talk to the receptionist who is applying her lip gloss. He waves to Doug from the door and says, “See you next week” and heads out to meet his next client. This was their first session of the week and Doug wonders if they will have their second session that week because of his comment.

Demotivated and angry Doug makes an attempt to finish the circuit but calls it quits. Just as he’s heading for the change room he notices another trainer, Brenda working with his wife’s friend Tammy. They’re doing a medicine ball partner training exercise and Doug thinks to himself. “That looks like fun. I wonder why Steve doesn’t do that with me”. Then he overhears Brenda mention that she’s going to spend five minutes stretching Tammy to really get into her tight spots. Irritated Doug mumbles under his breath, “Maybe I should hire Brenda.” Doug considers asking for Brenda’s card but would feel bad about leaving Steve. Besides it would be awkward hiring Brenda while Steve still trained other clients there.

On his way home Doug starts to think that maybe he won’t renew his sessions with Steve and just take a break. He knows the routine because it hasn’t changed much since they started and he feels confident to be on his own. Maybe after some time has passed he can ask Brenda to train him. Maybe she trains somewhere else so he doesn’t have to run into Steve. 

So what do you think? Is this story real? I guess that depends how long you’ve been in the personal training industry and how much you’ve seen. It would seem incredible that a story like this would be true and it isn’t. Well not entirely anyway. But that doesn’t mean there’s no truth to the story. Let me ask you these questions.

1)      Have you ever seen a trainer coffee in-hand training a client?

2)      Have you ever seen a trainer taking calls or texting while with a client?

3)      Do you know any trainers that can’t seem to make it to their appointments on time or finish early?

4)      Have you ever seen a trainer idly standing by while their clients do the exercises?

5)      Have you ever seen a trainer leaning or sitting down while a client is exercising?

6)      Have you ever seen a trainer allow a client to execute an exercise and not correct their form or technique?

I could go on but if you answered yes to any of these questions then I have to ask, are personal trainers becoming glorified baby-sitters? Where they stand over clients dis-engaged, dis-interested and looking bored? I hope not but honestly I can’t say that this isn’t happening in our industry. Trainers who behave in this manner will have short lived careers and bring down the professionalism. Not to mention dangerously perpetuating the negative stereotypes associated with personal trainers.  

Perhaps you think since you don’t participate in any of these behaviours there’s no impact to you. Well, first let me say congratulations. I’m glad you have higher standards, but what about others who don’t? What message do you think this sends to the public looking to hire trainers? Do you realize how much harder it makes it for all of us to do our jobs? If the perception from the public starts to become that trainers are just overpaid baby-sitters then this will affect everyone in the industry. It will be more difficult to attract clients or get them to see the value in paying $60, $70 or $80 an hour.

What can we do about this? It’s not a fictitious problem. It’s real and must be addressed. Since it’s impossible to make anyone behave the way you want you must first start with yourself. If you do any of the things highlighted above make the commitment to stop right now. Show respect for your client, yourself as a fitness professional and the industry by eliminating bad training habits such as these. When you model good habits and behaviour your clients’ will notice. They will refer more people and other trainers will start to notice and wonder what you are doing differently.

If you already have great habits but you see other trainers acting in a less professional manner this can be tricky to deal with. First, do not approach a trainer during a session to chastise them about drinking coffee. This will only embarrass them, their client and leave a bad impression of you. Approaching the trainer after their session can be dicey if you don’t have a good relationship with that trainer. They may view your feedback as overly critical, none-of-your-business or worse, meddlesome.

If you work in an organization you can provide feedback to your supervisor or manager about some of the things you see going. Because you may feel like you are rating someone out, you can offer the feedback anonymously. The names are less important. The ability for the supervisor or manager to address the issue in a team meeting is more important than singling people out. Granted this is a tough situation because we want to do what’s best for the client and not point fingers at our colleagues. However, new trainers might think these behaviours are acceptable because they see veteran trainers modeling it. They may think, “Hey this must be normal so it’s okay.” Or if they have a client like Doug they may assume because he doesn’t say anything that he’s okay with it.

If we hold ourselves and each other accountable for upholding professional standards the value for hiring a personal trainer increases. Let’s not allow the perception of gloried baby-sitter to enter the conscious mind of consumers for if we do we may find ourselves out of a job.

She had a quiz to complete for homework and when we corrected it she ended up getting 5 out of 10. I could tell she was visibly distressed by her mark. We went over the quiz and reviewed the questions to make sure she knew why she got the questions wrong. In the end she saw her mistakes and understood the material better. But she was still unhappy with her result. I told her she had actually gotten the test perfect now because she understood where her mistakes were and why. She will be unlikely to repeat those same mistakes again and that is what true learning is all about. She kind of looked at me as if I had said the craziest thing to her. You see in her mind she still saw her original grade of 5 out of 10 and not that she mastered the material once she understood it.

I began thinking that when people take tests they focus more on what they get wrong then what they get right. They have the tendency to judge themselves and their self worth by a score on a test. Perhaps this has come from our school system but I don’t view learning in this way. I believe you write a test to see what you know and have learned. If you score anything but 100 percent it is an opportunity to fine tune your learning. If you understand where you went wrong them you have achieved success. If you don’t then that indicates you have a bit more work to do.

I also believe that a test cannot full assess what an individual knows. Some people do really well at regurgitating information and thrive on written tests. Others prefer to demonstrate their abilities in a practical format. I believe in order to understand what a person has learned, testing needs to be done in a wide variety of formats.

Where I am going with this? You see life offers us challenges and sometimes tests us. We don’t always get it 100 percent right and sometimes we fail miserably. It’s our attitude towards those challenges that makes the difference. See it as an opportunity to learn in order to grow as a person because that is what is important. You won’t always get an A but it’s the journey that counts more then the grade.

While all that “stuff” is great, people purchase personal training because of who you are and how you connect with them not because you have a fancy business card. Yes, you do need to give out your contact information and a post-it note probably won’t cut it but this isn’t the reason you should wait to start personal training. Really, the only step you need to take right now is to go out and meet lots of people, connect with them and start building relationships. Ask any trainer who has been in the personal training industry for awhile and they will tell you the same thing. Ninety nine percent of the business they attract is through word of mouth and meeting lots of people.

If there’s so much business to be gained through personal connection then why don’t more trainers do it? It takes effort to pull yourself away from Facebook, Twitter and the internet world and interface with people in the flesh. It’s much easier for trainers to stick up a poster up at a coffee house then it is to attend a networking event. Or to place an ad in the paper and hope the phone starts ringing off the hook. But what most trainers don’t understand is that this is actually the hardest way to find clients. It costs money and you have to break through all the white noise and clutter of other marketing messages that people are constantly bombarded with on a daily basis. An easier way to attract more clients is to connect face-to-face then you have their undivided attention and that’s more effective then posters and ads.

There’s one issue that seems to pop up for trainers when suggesting they get out and meet people and that’s the feeling that they have to sell. For most trainers as soon as you mention the word sell they immediately go into panic mode and say, “Hold on, I’m a trainer, not a sales person, I don’t like to sell”. Yes, I understand the feeling behind that statement however, unless you want to work for free how will you pay the bills? Selling is a natural part of the process of building a client/trainer relationship. After all, personal training is a service, you went to school to become certified and at some point were hoping to make some money from it, right? People know you aren’t going to work for free. They expect they will have to pay something for your time.

But wait, this about how to sell without selling. I have a distance education workshop if you are interested in learning more about that topic.This piece is about connecting with people first and not actually thinking about selling them anything. Use the following steps to get you started.

1) Meet lots of people

2) Connect with them

3) Build the relationship

Step One – Meet lots of people

The idea behind meeting lots of people is to get yourself out there and start connecting . The conversation will naturally gravitate to what you do. If you can clearly articulate what you do people will be interested and likely ask more questions. This isn’t the point where you start a sales pitch. Not at all because for now you are a stranger to that person and it will feel uncomfortable for them to be sold to. Instead your job is to turn that stranger into a friend and if there’s a good fit for your services then down the road you can turn that friend into a customer. Or if not then perhaps one of their friends might be interested.

Step Two – Connect with them

Once you meet and start the conversation your next step is to find a common interest .This is something you already know how to do because you’ve met strangers in the past and took the time to learn more about them. When you meet someone for the first time it’s natural to want to find out more about them. You explore a topic you both have in common so you can keep the conversation going. You see you already know how to do this because you’ve been in these situations hundreds of times. It’s no different when you’re looking to connect with a person with the hope that perhaps they would be a great fit as a client someday.

Good listening skills and the ability to ask questions is really helpful when striking up a conversation. No body likes an over-talker. Someone who dominates the conversation and never lets you say a word. You’re probably already thinking of a person right now who does just that. It’s so frustrating because you just don’t feel equal in the conversation. If you have a tendency to do all the lip flapping you might want to teach yourself how to listen more actively, trust me people appreciate it.

Being genuine in the conversation is important too. People can sniff out fake people from miles away. If you are faking interested, faking listening and are generally just faking trying to connect with a person then it won’t work. Just be yourself and be curious to learn more about the individual you are speaking too.

Step Three – Build the relationship

The beauty of building the relationship is that you aren’t hounding people to make a sale. You’re moving through the progression of meeting a stranger, turning that stranger into a friend and if there’s a good fit perhaps that friend will be a customer . There’s no rush.

Connect with that person often maybe over coffee, lunch or even a walk. Seek to help them in anyway you can and if they are serious about wanting to train with you, offer them a sample session and give them a taste of what you have to offer. Make that experience enjoyable and memorable and they will want more.

When you seek to build a relationship your intent is not to sell but to get to know someone. Your motives should be pure and focussed on making a connection. Take the time to build the relationship and don’t worry about selling.

The process I’m discussing doesn’t require a business card, brochure, flyer or website. Those things are nice to have. If you are blocked because you don’t want to get started until you have those things when you do get them you will still be blocked on how to get started. You might be using the excuse that you can’t get started because you don’t have the collateral material. You’re making excuses because you don’t need it. Think carefully about why you are doing this and you might see that it’s just plain fear or lack of confidence getting in your way. As the old expression goes, “feel the fear and do it anyway”.

I am sharing this information because as a business coach I find there are a lot of good trainers struggling to find clients and get discouraged because they can’t make their financial commitments. They think a business card will make the difference between getting clients and not getting clients and it doesn’t. If you think you can’t get clients until you have a business card then you’re right. Why? Because you’re not getting out there to meet people. You and not the card are the problem. I’ve never done business with someone just because of their business card, have you? I might like the card. The card may look professional and give me a sense of the person but at the end of the day if I don’t connect with you your card could be made of 24 carrot gold and it wouldn’t make a difference I won’t be doing business with you.

I hope you feel a little better about getting out there to meet, connect and build relationships. Sure take your cards with you but if you don’t have one right now don’t let that stop you. If people ask for your contact information get their card instead or be creative and bring a few personalized, hand-written VIP invitations for coffee, lunch or a sample thirty minute session. Be different, innovative and creative and trust me that says more about you then a generic business card.

If you need more help on learning how to network, connect and relationship build then you have a few options. You can email me and I can suggest a few books for you to read. Or we can book a one hour coaching session and I can go over some tips and we can do a little practicing or you can choose both options. Lastly, there’s the granddaddy of all offers, we can go to a meet-up or networking event together and I can coach you during the live event.

I leave it in your hands to figure out what you need but I’m always here as a resource. Now go out there and start turning strangers into friends and friends into lifelong, loyal customers.

Take a look at the picture below. What do you see? Probably a bunch of people but there’s nothing overly amazing about the picture, no one really stands out. What if I told you that this was a picture of a group of personal trainers and asked you to pick one of them to train with, which one would you choose?  How would you decide?

My bet is you would choose based on appearance. Why? because you don’t have any other information to support your decision so you have to make a decision based on something. You would probably look at their age or gender or decide based on looks if there’s someone you would want to train with.

So how do you as a personal trainer stand out amongst the thousands of other trainers in an industry that’s quickly become saturated? How do you set yourself apart from the crowd and get noticed? If you have a website, flyer, brochure what’s going to give a potential client the impulse to want to email you or pick up the phone to call you?

Not sure? Well that’s part of the problem isn’t it. And the answer isn’t because you’re a nice person who designs safe and effective programs that gets results. Sorry I just yawned while writing this very boring, bland and benign sentence. But sadly this is what I read on a lot of personal training websites.

Do you remember Macaulay Culkin from the movie home alone? What emotion is he demonstrating right now? Do you recognize this as shock or surprise? Then you would be right. Take a moment right now to think back to an experience you’ve had where you were surprised or shocked. Do you remember it? Can you see the event clearly in your mind? Is it something you will never forget? Does it bring up any other emotions? Do you remember a certain smell? More importantly did you share the experience with others?

Surprise and shock are very strong emotions that form strong engrams in your brain. You remember the experience forever because of the impression it makes. You also share this experience with other people allowing you to relive the surprise over and over again. With each telling of the experiences your body releases the same chemicals as when you first experienced the event.

One method you can use as a trainer to stand out in the sea of trainers is to use the element of surprise or shock. Remember you are still waiting to find out if I kissed a girl and liked it. You may have been surprised by the title and even a little shocked that I would write it. But I bet your were curious and still are and waiting to discover the truth. You’ll just have to wait a little longer to find out. Keep reading.

So what can you do to shock people to get their attention and have them start talking about you? You’ll probably have to think of something unexpected like handing out your business cards with a gift certificate to McDonalds or running a 10KM race in a sumo suit with your company logo on the back. These ideas might sound a little crazy but trust me at least you will get noticed.

Just recently I changed my signature line from

To;

Which one do you find more fun and memorable? Plus you get to learn a bit of personal information about me which I think makes it more interesting. I hope by now you are getting my point which is if you want to stand out you need to be different in a way that’s memorable. Think about how you can use surprise, shock or any other strong emotion to create an experience people won’t soon forget.

Now as for me kissing a girl and liking it, sorry I never kiss and tell.

Annually over 100,000 people tackle the Grind and the average time is about 1.5 hours. The trail is very well maintained. Steps have been built almost all the way up to the top of the mountain where there is a chalet and gondola waiting to take weary hikers down to the base. There are many reasons why people like to hike the Grind. Some do it because of its reputation for being a gruelling climb and they seek the personal satisfaction of just completing it. Others take on the Grind to prove they can beat their time and for bragging rights.

Serious grinders are in their own little world when hiking the trail. At the start of the hike they set their watches to keep track of their time. They hike with focus, intention and purpose. They keep their heads down, looking no further then a few feet in front of them. They don’t stop to take in the scenery or talk to other people but rather huff, puff, and grunt their way to the top of the mountain. Some get annoyed if people don’t move aside and give them the right of way. After all, doesn’t everyone know they are on a mission to get to the top as fast as they can?

If you look down the steep embankment of the trail what you see is appalling. Because the trail is so well travelled, many people think it’s acceptable to litter and cast their plastic water bottles down the side of the mountain. I’ve even seen people using hollowed out trees as a garbage can.  There seems to be no regard for people or the environment on this trail.

In stark contrast to the Grind there is another trail called the BCMC, short for British Columbia Mountain Club. It parallels the Grind and ends in about the same place. It’s a longer trail that meanders quite a bit and is not as steep. There are no fixed steps and the trail for the most part has been kept in its natural state. There are fewer people who travel this trail and those that do have a different mindset then the Grinders. You won’t find people doing the BCMC grunting and groaning their way to the top. No one is concerned about their time and the pace seems to be a lot more casual. You often see dogs on the trail happily running along side their owners. I rarely see any garbage strewn on this trail.

Then there is a secret trail that very few people know about. It’s called the Bluffs and it sits nestled between the Grind and the BCMC. It’s rugged, steep and mostly unmarked. It’s rare to see anyone on this trail making it a peaceful hike. I’ve seen deer the odd bear and various birds all adding to my outdoor experience.

What fascinates me about the three trails is the difference in the mentality of the people who travel them. Grinders put their head down, don’t look around and literally grind their way up the side of the mountain. People climbing the BCMC enjoy the longer hike and slower pace while people who do the Bluffs trail revel in the steep climb and peaceful tranquility of the trail. Three different trails, three different states of mind all leading to the same destination at the top of the mountain.

I believe the three trails leading up to the top is a kind of metaphor for the goals we set for ourselves. Sometimes you are focussed on a goal and grind your way towards it. You may not stop to look around or particularly enjoy the journey. You pass people along the way without giving them a second glance. You become impatient in your quest towards your goal and time seems to pass slowly. If you allow yourself to get pulled into this frame of mind where you never look around to enjoy the process towards your goal you may achieve it but will have missed so much along the way.

But if you allow yourself to meander for too long or are too relaxed about reaching your goal you may you get pulled off course. It may take you longer to reach your destination and along the way you may experience distractions, temptations or succumb to fears or doubts. This will block your path making it more difficult for you to attain your goal. And if you decide to take the more challenging route towards what you want you may have a steeper learning curve to contend with.

The next time you find yourself working towards a goal notice the path you are choosing and why. Are you taking your time to look around and enjoy the process or are you grinding away and missing life as it passes you by? As much as you will enjoy your final destination, realize that there are many paths you can follow to reach the same point.

So there I stood at the base of the three trails on this cold, Saturday morning in June. Not sure which trail to take, I started up the path where they all converge. I stood at the juncture and had to make my final decision. I chose to do the Bluffs. I didn’t want to deal with the crowds on the grind and I didn’t want to meander up the mountain. Instead I felt like enjoying the climb and the quietness of the trail.

I’m fascinated by the fact that there are life lessons to be learned in everything we do if we take the time to notice. On this day I learned that which path you take towards a goal is just as important as the goal itself.

For most small businesses even a small five percent drop in customers can mean the difference between paying your bills or not. Without your clients your business simply could not survive. Perhaps now you understand why I believe it’s so important you make every effort to go above and beyond customer expectations and to hug them as often as possible.

What does it mean to hug your customers? When you physically hug someone you show them how much you care about them. It’s a way for you to show your appreciation. In business, every time you do something unexpected for a client it’s like giving them a hug.

When I start my day I think, “Who am I going to hug today”. It’s the thought I place in my head at the beginning of the day and if an opportunity arises that I can say or do something for a customer that would make their day a little better then I do it. Or I create the opportunity by going out of my way to do something special for a client.

It’s not about spending a lot of money or d grandiose gestures. It can be something simple like buying their favourite bottle of wine, sending a birthday card to them, their spouse and kids. If the client travels a lot call around and find the gyms in the area where they are staying and pay for their drop in or give them a travel program without them having to ask. You would be surprised at what a kind word or some recognition does to boost someone’s day.

Make it easy, fun and stress free to do business with you. This is another way to hug your client. Review your policies and ensure they don’t annoy or inconvenience your clients.  If a problem arises resolve the issue quickly and do whatever it takes to mend the relationship.

At the end of the day people do business with people they trust and respect. If you can add little hug to seal the deal then you will create tremendous customer loyalty. The added benefit is that by hugging your clients your business will thrive, your clients will be happy and you’ll feel good because you’re doing something nice for people everyday. Now it’s your turn to go hug a client.

1)     Do you work ten to twelve hour days?

2)     Do you have a hard time getting your brain to slow down at night?

3)     Do you find your passion for your business waning?

4)     Are you starting to think it would be easier to work for some else instead?

5)     Are you dreaming of taking a holiday and getting away from it all?

Do any of these symptoms sound familiar? If they do, then you could be headed for business burn-out.

Business burn-out is like overtraining your body except it’s overtraining your mind. When we over train our body our performance suffers, we feel tired and worn out. We lose our appetite and may even fall into a bit of a depression. Sleep patterns are disrupted and where you were once passionate about working out you just don’t have the same enthusiasm.

When you work too much you could actually be experiencing some of the same symptoms as if you were overtraining your body. The remedy for both is the same.

• Take time off to recharge your batteries. Maybe it would be a good idea to go on holiday or take four to five days off.
• Restrict the number of hours you work in a day and take lots of breaks.
• Set aside time for yourself. Do something you enjoy doing.
• Make time for friends and family. Get out and be social.
• Get some help. Hire a virtual assistant to ease the burden of tasks you probably don’t need to be doing.
• Get more help. Hire a business coach to help you with difficult projects. There’s no need for you to do everything on your own.
• Set realistic goals about what you can accomplish in a day.
• Focus on tasks that give you the best return for your time and drop any projects that drain your energy.

Running a business is not easy. There’s always work to be done, processes to tweak and things to worry about. But that doesn’t mean you have to kill yourself to make your business successful. If the business is you and you are the business then you have to take very good care of both. You can start by first recognizing the symptoms of business burn-out and preventing a full blown attack from happening.

So I sat and stared at my computer screen. The cursor was blinking madly in front of me. It was taunting me, daring me to write something but it knew my mind was blank and that I had no words. It seemed as though every time I sat down to write the copy for my book I got stuck. I pushed away from my desk in frustration because I couldn’t find the right words. I looked at my drawer where I kept my secret stash of mini eggs. Maybe they’ll give me more brain power. I managed to control the urge to rip through the bag.

I paced my office with a million ideas bouncing around in my head. I’d read dozens of books and talked to so many different experts on the subject of web copy. It all felt like a big jumble in my head and I couldn’t seem to make any sense out of any of it. I tried three times to write the copy and each time it came out like a cheesy sales letter. That wasn’t me.

Last year I proudly gave birth to the How to Guide to Starting a Personal Training Business. The exact birthday is April 1^st. By the way the date was no accident. I figured if I published a book on April Fools Day I would never forget the date and I was right. In just a few days my book baby will celebrate its first birthday.  I feel like I’ve been trying to write the birth announcement for the last year.

On this particular Monday morning I was adamant that before I did anything else for the day I would get the copy written. Then Tuesday came, and then Wednesday and by Thursday I’d given up. I was convinced that this was one task I couldn’t do. I rationalized that I was too close to my own work so I couldn’t write objectively. I resolved to hire a professional. But then I remembered what a colleague of mine, Chris Fernandez, said, “The only person who can write your copy is you because you live it and are the best person to talk about it.”  These words kept haunting me. I knew he was right. I was a writer after all. So why was this so difficult?

I woke up early on Saturday morning after a tough week of trying to squeeze out the web copy. I usually get up about 5:00am even on the weekends. Crazy I know but my body is used to it from all the early morning personal training clients. I ate a handful of strawberries, half a grapefruit and poured myself a healthy cup of coffee. Yeah I know I wasn’t supposed to but I tossed in the towel on the cleanse. I flipped on my laptop and did my usual morning routine of checking email. Then I went to my Word Press site and without any thought clicked on to my book page.

I stared at the screen for only a moment and then my fingers took over. To my surprise words just starting flowing and I could hardly type fast enough to keep up. It was like a fog had been lifted and suddenly my brain knew what to say. It had miraculously sorted through all clutter and started to put it all together.

After an hour of writing I had a rough draft of the web copy and stared at it in disbelief. I wiped the tears from my eyes. I was crying out of a sense of relief and because I was finally able to get words to communicate not only the message but my passion for my book baby. I spent the next four hours massaging the words, adding pictures and changing things around.

So why was I having so much trouble getting the words to flow in the first place? What had been the issue? I was giving my brain another problem to solve. But then I realized, it was so simple and I could see it clearly now. If you aren’t true to yourself, if you try and be something you’re not or communicate in a style that isn’t you then you have little hope of succeeding. Even the simplest tasks become mountains to climb and you’ll never see the summit.

When I went to write my web copy my head was full of, “I got to sell this book”. I was writing sales copy and trying to use sales techniques to get people to buy it. While that may work for some, this type of approach has never worked for me. I’ve always been more of a people person and consider myself to be a coach and mentor. When I switched my thinking from trying to write sale copy to writing from the heart and telling a story, my mountain became an insignificant bump in the road.

I’ve heard the words, “Just be yourself” countless times in my life. I know what the words mean and I understand the meaning behind the words. But sometimes it’s still possible to get caught up in not being yourself and trying to be something you’re not. Maybe its peer pressure that throws us off track. Perhaps it’s the desire to be successful and thinking we have to act in a certain way to get it. Whatever it is that causes you to veer away from just being yourself ask yourself, is it worth it?

It’s only a few days until my book baby celebrates its birthday. I’ve learned a valuable lesson about just being yourself. So I guess kids can teach their parents a few things.

Take a moment and go to http://edgefit.ca/fitness-educators/products-and-services/start-your-own-personal-training-business/ and see where this story came from.

On my way home I was thinking about how great my day had been. I pulled into the driveway and just as I was about to reach to open the door I realized, “Darn I forgot to pick-up Bailey”. It was already 6:00pm and the daycare was closed. In a panic, I phoned them and apologized profusely at my blunder. Within ten minutes I was at the daycare but all the way there I thought about the irony of me continuing to think I was going to forgot to pick up Bailey and then actually forgetting to do it. Let’s just say I felt like a parent that just forgot to pick up their kids from school.

This got me thinking about the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy? It’s a statement that alters actions and therefore comes true. Like me forgetting to pick up Bailey. Here’s a little background on the origins of this concept. Robert Merton, a 20^th century sociologist, actually coined the term of self-fulfilling prophecy. In his definition, in the book Social Theory and Social Structure published in 1949, the prophecy or prediction is false but is made true by a person’s actions. In the modern sense the prophecy has neither false nor true value, but is merely a possibility that is made into probability by a person’s unconscious or conscious actions.

So if you think you’re going to have a “bad day” or a “good day” events will likely happen to reinforce these thoughts. While one’s attitude cannot necessarily influence the larger things, such as a hurricane or winning the lottery, (too bad on that one) one’s attitude can influence the smaller things, like the way we relate to other people and their responses to us.

If self-fulfilling prophecies do exist then we must be careful about the things we think and say to ourselves. If your personal training business isn’t attracting any new clients and you focus on that by saying, “I’m not getting any new business” then you may be unconsciously stopping yourself from getting clients.

Here’s an interesting research study that was conducted by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson. In 1968, they gave all the children in an elementary class a test and told teachers that some of children were unusually clever (though they were actually average). They came back at the end of the school year and tested the same class again. Guess what? The children singled out had improved their scores far more than other children.  The teachers believed they were instructing clever kids and they treated them differently from the other children in the class.  They challenged them more and gave them tougher material to work on. They had higher expectations of those particular children based on what they were told about them being unusually clever.

This research is interesting because it relates to how we think about ourselves and what we think of others. If you think you aren’t very good at something, you’re likely not going to try very hard. For example, if you struggle to market your personal training business you’re going to think you’re not good at it and probably produce poor results for your efforts. If you don’t feel confident in your ability to run your business you’re going to make poor decisions because you don’t think you know what you’re doing.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is very powerful in the sense that what you believe and perceive is likely going to become your reality. If this is the case then my suggestion is you start to think positively about events in your life. If you want to attract more clients to your personal training business then you must think you can. If you want to feel more confident in running your business then you must think it’s possible. As soon as you say to yourself, “I can’t, I don’t know how or It’s hard” then you’re right.

Imagine a client coming to you and saying, “I can’t lose any weight” or “I’m no good at exercise”. If your clients think this way then from experience you know it will be harder for them to lose weight and feel skilled at exercise. As a trainer you need to turn your clients’ negative thoughts into positive actions otherwise the journey to reaching their goal will be longer or even non-existent.

Do the same for yourself with your business. Whatever negative thoughts you have about running your personal training business, turn them around into the positive. Remind yourself that negativity won’t get you anywhere and will likely attract more negativity into your reality.

Bailey got extra cuddles that day because I felt bad about forgetting about him. Fortunately he’s not scarred by the event and loves me anyway. But it was a good lesson for me to remember that I must be careful about what I say and how I think because it will become my reality.

This got me thinking about our personal training businesses and how we can use our slow period in the same way as athletes use their off-season and build our business performance. Typically August and December are slower months for personal trainers. Instead of panicking about the loss of business during these months, use these months as your off-season.

Here are some things you can do during your off-season.

1)       Re-charge your batteries. You work hard all year so why not take some time off and re-charge your batteries. Go some place inspiring where you can be creative. You may just think up the next greatest program idea or add some needed spark to your existing programs.

2)      Assess ho w you are doing. Take a full inventory of how your business is doing. Go back to the basics and see if there is anything you could be doing better. For example, review your customer service. Is it working the way you want it to? How about your finances? Are you making enough money? Pick everything apart and then put it back together again.

3)      Go back to the drawing board. Look at the programs you provide and see if you can add more variety. Come up with better titles and descriptions to market your programs. When you go back to the drawing board you keep things fresh, new and exciting. People are drawn to novelty so use your off-season to create it.

4)      Set your intent. I like to use the word intent instead of goal but the premise is the same. If you take August as your off-season then set your intent for the fall and what you would like to manifest in your business during that time period. You can do this again in December for the New Year. By setting and reviewing your intention every six months you will be sure to stay on course.

These are just a few ideas that you can use for your off-season. I really like the idea of incorporating an off-season into my business because it gives me an opportunity to work hard during the in-season months and know that I’ve got a break coming where I can re-focus. Right now I’m in El Salvador for a month. While January is actually one of the busiest months of the year I’m taking this opportunity to re-design my workshop content, work on my website and write to my valued readers. So what will you do during your off-season? I would love to know.