The podcast (iTunes link): It’s Possible: Conversations with Successful Online Trainers
*Stream directly or watch on YouTube below
The episode: 20: “Relationship Building” with Thomas Madden
Thomas Madden had been a “starving gym owner” for five years before he realized something had to change.
He’d met someone—a single mom—and wanted to build a life with her and her kid.
“I was terrified,” Thomas recalls, “because I didn’t have any money.”
He left his gym, and got a full-time job as a personal trainer while trying to build a business online.
He was training nine hours a day, and spending the rest of his time looking for online clients. “It was a treading-water situation,” he says, “and I was getting more and more fatigued every day.”
Finally, he registered for the Online Trainer Academy (OTA). As he followed the course, his business began to grow.
The biggest game changer? Leveraging social media as a relationship-building tool for his online business.
It’s not about making sales, he says. It’s simply about connecting with people who like his posts.
“I think of Facebook posts as thought bubbles,” he says. “You just put out thought bubbles, and other people are like ‘I relate to that.’”
The strategy helped Thomas build a robust client roster—without spending a dime on ads.
“This sounds like a pitch for OTA,” Thomas says, “but it’s very hard to overstate how much better my life is.”
“People say money doesn’t make you happy,” he says. “Money makes me real happy, because it provides me time. And with that time, I do fulfilling things.”
Learn more of Thomas’s tips for getting clients, embracing authenticity, and dealing with imposter syndrome in this episode.
