How do I become the best Personal Trainer?
My name is D. and I’m 18 year old (just last month) from Miami, Florida.
For the past 5 years I have been studying many of the best trainers like Alwyn Cosgrove, Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Joe Defranco, and Mike Boyle. At the same time also studying business as I very much love both subjects. Some people I listen to are Dan Kennedy, Jay Abraham, and Ryan Lee.
I have spent an incredible amount of money and time trying to learn as much as I can, as soon as I can, from the best. For the last 4 years I have literally not missed a day where I have not gone at least 1-2 hours reading training and business information. If I get the time, I sometimes spend 5-8 hours straight just learning. That is not including the time I also listen to many self development/motivational tapes/dvds. I try my best to always be at the top of my game every single day no matter what people tell me.
I never get tired of learning (can’t wait until I get the Peak Fitness Summit DVD’s)
I have created training programs for people before. Having helped 4 of my closest friends last year to build muscle (which was very successful) and answering more questions from others than I can count.
And of course, implementing what I learn to my own workouts.
I always take advantage of facebook Q&A’s held by Alwyn and others.
I have talked to other guys on the phone such as Pat Rigsby and Sam Bakhtiar.
I have had a short internship at a friends gym.
I also have a job as marketer for an online based business.
As well as, starting up my own t-shirt business.
My dream is to create a world class strength & conditioning facility. To have the #1 gym in the United States and if possible, the world. I also want to sell information products online, write books, hold seminars/clinics, create a world class martial arts studio, have a clothing line, have my own show and many other things. All fitness related and hopefully change how people look at fitness and make it a priority in the United States.
Right now I am in my last year of highschool. I will be getting my NSCA certification once I get out.
I’ll be heading to college a couple of weeks after highschool. From there, I plan to start training people on my own.
I’ll be conducting seminars, writing articles, get on television. Basically anything possible to get my name out. All starting the moment I get my certification.
I realized this is what I want to do with my life. I live for this and I have no reason why not go all out. Not leaving anything behind and do what I know I love to do.
So after that long winded explanation here are my questions.
I know my niche (combat athletes), but how do I find out if my area can support it? Baseball players are my second choice.
I want to sell my own information products online and blog. I have been told not too for various reasons but the fact is, I love business and I love to help people with fitness. I want to start reaching people from around the globe. At the same time, I don’t want to be just another online expert and not earn the respect of other coaches. I am training someone right now and will be training more people soon. This has been in my head for the past 2 years now. It’s hard to stay positive about it when many great coaches tell you not too but I don’t think they understand that I just want to start thing now rather than wait. I want to start blogging. I want to sell sell information products (a lot of them). I want to have an online presence as soon as possible. I want to help people who I normally can’t reach and give them better service than even their local gyms. So what do you think I should do?
On the same note, since I don’t know if my main niche will support me how do I pick a niche for the blog then?
Also, I am debating whether I should try and move to another state and become an intern for a great gym like Cressey Performance or save my money, keep buying products to learn more and be able to open a gym much sooner. I’m extremely eager to start my business as soon as possible. That is why I try so hard to become the BEST trainer and business man possible. What do you think?
Do you think I am going on the right path?
I’m trying my best to become the best I can be. I know there is no shortcut to success and I understand that there is a lot of hard worked involved but I am crazy passionate about this and waiting just hurts.
I want to open my own place as soon as possible. I want to be online as soon as possible.
The way I see it, I don’t have much money but if I start on things now instead of later, not only will I be starting my career earlier and loving every second of it but I would also be able to have the money to keep learning every single day from the best of the best (going to seminars, clinics, buying books, dvd’s, cd’s …etc) and one day become one of them.
Thank you for all of your help and thank you again for all the information you have given out. You help so many people including me and I cannot show how thankful I am in words.
I hope to hear from you!
[hr_shadow]
Hi D.,
There is a lot of info there so I’ll do my best to respond fully.
First off, my opinion is that any area can support any niche. MMA is huge now and isn’t going anywhere soon and every neighbourhood in North America has fans. But if you want to train professionals you may have to move. Celebrity trainers only exist in NY or LA. That’s not because there aren’t good trainers anywhere else — it’s simply a result of where the celebs are. Training high level MMA guys may be the same (I don’t know). What you will always be able to find are people who want to train like them and there is lots of opportunity to run group programs or MMA style workouts for average joe’s.
I love your passion that streams through in the email and you’re studying from the right guys. I famously read for minimum1hr/day and have catapulted past the competition as a result. You will do the same. What I will say is that you need to slow down a bit. It doesn’t matter how much you read, becoming the best and earning respect from the best takes time. Don’t move too quick on throwing your name and blog in the top dogs faces as they won’t care unless you can provide some value to them.
I realize it’s easy to create informational products but you won’t make a cent if you don’t have the respect of the influential people. You need one of two things for that to happen.
1) A truly great product. Truly. Something that only a career in fitness can make. Take Joe Dowdell for example. Nobody knew him a year ago but he’s been training successfully for 20 years. When he did his first workshop (which I am privileged to say I was at) it was truly amazing. Now he’s a World expert. [ED Note: You can purchase the dvd set of Joe's amazing workshop through this link]
2) Grinding for years. Nobody pops up overnight. You may think they do because once you hear about them all of their hard work is done. Nick Tumminello is a good example. He had his first T-Nation article published 5 years ago. Only now is he becoming known as a success. It took him 2 years to get a T-Nation article published. I wrote and studied the fitness internet world for 2 years. Then I wrote a book for 2 years. Then I launched the PTDC. A year later I’m starting to get some recognition but am not close to being referred to as an expert. That is going to take years of grinding. Lucky for me my book is going to take the training world by storm… that will help. I also have 10 of the best in the World contributing.
Where you’re at now I think your best bet is to do a high-profile internship. Not only because it will help you learn from the best but also because it will help you network with the best. Everybody with Cressey or Boyle becomes an internet marketer. That’s not because they know more information, it’s because they know more people. The minute you’re done the internship you have credibility and you know the top dogs. That’s what’s important.
My last piece of advice is not to open a brick and mortal studio. At least not yet. This is just my opinion but I think opening up a gym is a fool’s game. There is MUCH more opportunity on the web for a much smaller investment. Why waste your time cleaning toilets with massive loans for a small local clientele when you can be developing systems and informational products for the World. I have no plans to open a gym. My path is to build a large enough reputation that when I’m ready to settle down my reputation will fill my new gym instantly. It will be top notch from the start and bring in the best staff purely because they want to work with me. That’s how I plan to achieve success. Small gym owners have too much shit to deal with when nobody knows or cares who they are… just my two cents.
I’ll leave you with one line from an upcoming article which I love:
It takes a lifetime to build up a reputation and seconds to kill it
Don’t market crappy products or information and don’t start a crappy gym. It takes years and years of studying, networking, and writing to make yourself into an internet personality but one bad decision can kill it.
I hope that answered your questions. I really do love your energy and emails like this one make me excited for the next generation of trainers. Let me know if you have any more questions and feel free to contact me at any time.
-Jon
