The Show Up Fitness Podcast

From Crunch to $10K/ month | 23 yr old Poojan’s Personal Training Journey Towards Success

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 2 • Episode 201

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What does it take to build a $10,000 per month personal training business in just 15 months? The answer isn't what most certification programs teach you.

Meet Mr. Poojan, who transformed from a fitness enthusiast into a thriving independent trainer by rejecting cookie-cutter approaches and focusing on what actually delivers results. His journey reveals the hard truths about the fitness industry that few are willing to discuss openly.

"I'm not going to put my clients on a BOSU ball for a month of stability training," Poojan explains, describing the moment he realized traditional certification models wouldn't help him build a sustainable career. After just a few months at Crunch gaining initial experience, he made the strategic leap to independence at the perfect moment.

Now commanding $50-75 per hour with a full client roster, Poojan shares his remarkably effective two-pronged approach to building his business: accumulating 65 five-star Google reviews that position him among the top trainers in his area, while cultivating relationships that generate a steady stream of qualified leads. His story demonstrates how technical knowledge must pair with business acumen and genuine people skills.

The conversation delves into practical strategies for increasing your rates, adding revenue streams through nutrition coaching, and protecting yourself from industry uncertainties. Most importantly, it highlights the critical role of mentorship in accelerating your career trajectory—compressing years of trial and error into months of decisive action.

Whether you're considering becoming a trainer or looking to level up your existing fitness business, this episode provides a clear blueprint for creating a practice that's both financially rewarding and personally fulfilling. Ready to transform your passion into sustainable success? This

Want to ask us a question? Email email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

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Speaker 1:

I'm just going to run my gym out of my garage and that's why at the moment, I'm building up reviews on Google and I have 65 star reviews on Google. I think that puts me at either in top five in my area. So if I need leads that way, then I can just hit one paid ad Like I can just click the button and then I can start getting more clients in that way. What's your, what's your idea behind? Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time, with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy everybody. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Today we are here with Mr Pennsylvania, Mr Pajon, how we doing.

Speaker 1:

We are doing amazing. How are you doing, Chris?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing great. We had a great conversation prior to this, but we met in person in Atlanta. We met for the first time and you got a really cool story, my man. So let's talk about your success Only 15 months into being a trainer and you just cleared $10,000. That's pretty awesome, so congrats to that, thank you very much, thank you. Let's talk. So how did you start out and get to where you were at today?

Speaker 1:

Okay. So a couple of years back I was lifting and working out myself, right, and that was, I want to say, when I was like 19 years old. And then I just had a burning passion for it myself. And then a lot of my friends were like, hey, like you're really good at this, you should think about being a personal trainer. And at that point I'm like, no, I don't really know if I could do that type of thing. People kept pushing me and pushing me and then, you know, I was like, let me give it a shot. So I got my certificate, I bought the show fitness study guide for NASM and I got the NASM certificate. Then I applied at Crunch and I was at Crunch for like three or four months to get a little bit of in-person training experience. Then I could use that experience to kind of do my own thing. So I've been in business for 15 months and then I just cleared my first 10K month cash collected through the implementation of show fitness strategies.

Speaker 2:

All right, let's not get too excited too quick and just boost us that much. Let's take a step back and dissect some stuff in there. So you get some little flies in your head about becoming a trainer, and so is it late at night, is it during the day? When did you take the initiative to go to the Google machine and type in whatever it was? Was it how to become a trainer? I want to become a trainer. What's the best certification? Take me through that process of what your mind was thinking about that initiated that itch to start the process for this career?

Speaker 1:

That's actually a great question. I never thought about that. The first thing I did was I just went on Google and I typed in how to become a personal trainer and there was like 10 different certifications I could have gotten. I'm like, what do I choose? Like I don't even know where to go. So I looked up what is the most popular certification that personal trainers get and what can get you into the gym the quickest. There was like a size, to say NASM, and I saw NASM was like the highest or like most respected or whatever. So I'm like you know what? Let me click that. So what I did was I went and bought their bundle no-transcript back again.

Speaker 2:

So we have the textbook or you online studying NASA.

Speaker 2:

I had the textbook in person and start going through the chapters and what is going through your mind, because I'm trying to paint the picture for the listener who may be thinking about becoming a trainer because, as you're saying, we don't really process this a lot, but super, super normal. You're reading chapter one, you're like oh, health standards, blah, blah. Chapter two. And you're just like what the fuck? Like I Like I thought that you know, I'm going to be in the gym getting all sweaty and learning hands-on, but I'm reading a textbook. So when did it kind of click Like, okay, this is just. Does it add up? I need to go to the Google machine again and type in how to pass NASM faster, or what was it exactly that you typed in? What was it exactly that I typed in? Yeah, when did it come to the point where you're like weird sense that we're just like I know this isn't going to qualify me as a trainer, so when did that point come? So then you went to Google to find an additional resource to pass it.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm. So that came to me when I came across the OPT model. I don't remember the OPT model. I think the first phase was like stabilization, and then there's like three, four or five more phases and I'm like, no, my clients are not going to see results if I have them do a month of stability training. And then they were saying like, get on a BOSU ball. They had exercise like a BOSU ball squat, curl press. That is not going to get my class results and I'm not going to be a successful or a qualified personal trainer If I follow the OPT model. I needed a little bit more guidance.

Speaker 1:

Then I went on to Google after looking at the OPT model because something just didn't feel right. I'm like this is not how people are supposed to train. Like if I have a 70 year old, 70 year old elderly lady, I'm not going to put her on a bosa ball to work on balance. That's just not what we're going to do. And that clicked right then. And there I'm like this is there's something wrong with this. So I have to outsource and find another resource.

Speaker 2:

And so my mind is always going through a swift and even when we do this call right now, I'm learning more from you than you picked up from my book, and we'll talk about that more here in a second. But it's curious to. I'm not curious, but I understand why. Because, being a bro, you go into the gym, you lift weight, you do it for the most part right, even though your form may suck, whatever order of operations. But there's this rite of passage where it's like you understand Now I feel that with the ladies, we have a different mind in the sense that we want to learn everything, and so you know, you start going through this and it's like, oh, okay, I'm going to start implementing this and we go into that stabilization bullshit. And unfortunately, it's a harder to unpack, especially when you go to the Google machine where you can look at me being a bro, like, okay, this guy's a tool, but he's going to help me pass you. Can you get past it? But for the ladies it's a lot harder. Like this guy's a meathead, he's a chauvinistic asshole, blah, blah, blah. So I get that. I lose a lot of the audience when it comes to that. But the guys it's always funny because I typically find guys succeeding a lot faster because the proof is in the pudding, so you can go through basic programming.

Speaker 2:

You're like this is fucking stupid, like this doesn't add up whatsoever. Imagine if you were interested in math and you knew basic math. You didn't know all the crazy quadratic formula and advanced stuff. You want to learn that. But you have someone telling you that one plus one is eight. You're like nope, that doesn't work. I'm not. I've never in my life done a stability ball, squat, curl press. I'm not going to do all this and I'm just not bought into the whole posturing thing that I'm going to be broken. And so you fast forward. You get through that, you pass it.

Speaker 2:

And then you are smart and you're like I don't know how to get clients, I don't know how to build a book of business, I don't know how to really do anything, but you had the competence enough in the confidence to go into crunch. You get hired. They saw you as the young prodigy. You go there for three, four months, whatever it was, and then you're like you know what? I don't see my future being here. So you decided to then leave. Did you give like a two-week notice? How did that go? Did you just deuce, as I I'm out, or did you try to steal some of your clients? I mean, we're on the record, but we're off the record, there's nothing. There's nothing wrong with telling your part of it, but what was that?

Speaker 1:

you had that tipping point when you wanted to leave. So talk to me about that. Yeah, so the tipping point where I wanted to leave was I realized I didn't see many growth opportunities and I felt like I could do a lot more on my own. It was a lot of work that I went. The work to reward ratio wasn't there.

Speaker 1:

So this is what kind of goes on in my mind If I do X amount of work, I should get at least Y amount of results For the amount of work I did. I didn't get enough results that I wanted to, and that's what led me to get out of the crunch and kind of do things on my own and I left in a very professional manner. I gave my two week notice and I said thank you to everybody. And then the clients that I did have, I dispersed them to other trainers and gave my clients to them as a thank you for being like so professional and cordial with me, and I learned a lot from you guys. But it's always a time to move on and go for bigger opportunities.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome, man. I mean, I give you a lot of credit for that. But that was me. I would do the same thing, but I would be a little. I'd be like you know, make sure to follow my Instagram because I'm going to be posting a lot of cool videos and if you happen to come and follow me over here, that's on you. But I'm not saying but you young fucks, you guys. You're typically you're classified as a Z-er, right Generation Z. What are you?

Speaker 1:

Gen Z. I mean, I was born in 1999. I don't know if I'm Gen Z.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so you're a Gen Z the new population and I like that and I respect it because the mentality is definitely a level up from maybe my generation, which is okay. You got to earn your stripes and you got to go through and you got to work in a corporate gym for three to five months. And there's even a quote that I have in there from Tony Jenicore and I think it's a great one, because Andrew and I were talking about that Andrew Coates and we were going back and forth saying that was maybe acceptable in the early 2000s and that's what Tony did, that's what I did, no-transcript. But there's also a sop to the face and you can do the math pretty simple. You look at how many trainers there are. You're like, holy crap, this place is generating a lot of profits and what are you doing for me in the long run in the sense that, am I just a cog in your system or do you truly care about me? Do I have upper management sending me messages like, hey, you're doing really awesome, you're helping people, talk to me more about your clients and how you're helping them. Or you know, we're going to have a little retreat here for the trainers that are doing A, b, c and D and we want to celebrate your success.

Speaker 2:

You don't see that that well. I've seen a lot with it in the UK with Third Space. I'm really intrigued by them. I can't speak to it because I've never been there, so this is just what I've seen. It could be completely wrong, but I know what the Equinox is the Lifetime, the 24s it is a pecking order and as you start going higher up, they do treat you a lot better. I'm super biased towards Lifetime. I really do believe that they're the best gym out there. They blow Equinox away for pay, for comp and just the whole environment and the facilities are a million times better.

Speaker 2:

We saw that when we were in Atlanta, yeah, but there's also a sense that we have this entrepreneurial bug, and so then that's what got you to, and I got to give you a ton of freaking credit, my man, because a lot of people would take that questioning of should I do this or not, and they would just waste six months, another year and just get into the system. So you had the goal to be like nope, I'm doing this, I'm out, see ya, and let's go ahead and start kicking ass. And so you found an independent gym and let's talk about what that environment is like. You have to pay per month. How do you get clients? And let's get to the point where you're bringing home cash 10K, that is exactly what I talk about.

Speaker 2:

Where trainers should be making that You're making more than physical therapists who went to school probably a hundred, maybe 200 plus thousand in debt, and they come out and they start making $69,000. And I'm not saying that as that number's cool, it's because, literally, that is the mean for new physical therapists. You are almost doubling that. So way to go, my man, let's start with that independent spot and then get to where you're at now.

Speaker 1:

Okay, gotcha, so I guess we can speak about the facility first. Now, the place that I run my business from. It's called the Foundry Gym. It's a nice 24-hour gym with self-access. But their business model they want independent contractors and independent trainers to come and train people there, because. So what's in it from a business standpoint, what's in it for them is more memberships and more reviews and for more social media exposure so they can generate more revenue and then keep scaling their businesses. So all they care about is they want me to pay their membership and then for my clients to have a membership there as well, and then everything else is just free game. Now I got there.

Speaker 1:

I signed up to be an independent contractor there around the right time because this was near the cusp of when they were opening, contracted there around the right time because this was near the cusp of when they were opening. So I want to say they've been open for about two and a half years. I joined right after that and then at that time there was like maybe one other trainer there. But I saw the environment there and it's it's more of a community base right, you can just go up and speak to everybody. So I saw the opportunities. I'm like everyone here is super friendly. Let me just get my name out, let me make friends with everybody and then that way I can I'll be able to get more clients through my reputation there as well.

Speaker 1:

Now, does that kind of make sense so far as what I'm saying? Okay, and then the way I get clients is I have two streams that I get clients from. So one is Google. Whenever someone searches up personal trainer near me, I come up at the top, or like top third, of the Google results and then they click on my website and that's where they can fill out a personal training application. And I'm super upfront On my website. There it says you need to have a membership at the Foundry Gym. And then this this is what I require for my clients, like how many times you should train. This is this is the minimum requirement I have for my clients to train per week.

Speaker 1:

How much do you charge per hour? I charge well, depending on the package, and if it's like a couple's package or whatever, I charge anywhere from 50 to 75 per hour. Yeah, so that I get a lot of my clients off of Google. And then I also work closely with the gym. I'm at the whoever filled out a personal training application on the website.

Speaker 1:

Those leads get sent into my email and which then I'll call them and then fill out my book of business and then, once I get filled out, then I disperse the leads to other trainers and sometimes I even help set up an appointment in person so the client can get started and they can start seeing results and work towards their dream physique. So, yeah, those are the two main ways that I get clients at the moment and I've been trying to work more on my social media and Instagram as well. I think I've gotten like two or three clients from Instagram. That and then, yeah, just like I said, just talking to people and building getting my name out in the community, where people would know I'm a personal trainer, and then they would come out and reach out for me, reach out to me for my services.

Speaker 2:

So we'll get into that a little bit more, but before we do that, let me just give you an ad real quick. No, I'm just joking. Before we do that, let's talk about some fears that you encountered. When you left Crunch to, when you first started training people the assessment process, did you get no's. What was going on from a fear aspect?

Speaker 1:

from a fear aspect oh man, I had no clue what to do. From an assessment aspect, I was having people do an overhead squat, um dip shit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's okay, you learn, you learn. You probably don't do that anymore but, that's something that trainers definitely fall into the, uh, the mentality that you want to show people. They're broken. And then it's like you kind of realize that, through the people skills which you have, it just doesn't add up. And you see your client doing that and you're just like, oh, they don't really buy into it. So what do you do now?

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, now I do for the assessment. I do a. I do cat cows to test spinal mobility. I do a basic squat, maybe like a goblet squat. I do a hinge pattern and then I have the I can never pronounce it, is it that not? Dynamometer? Dynamometer yeah, for the grip strength. Dynamometer dynamometer yeah, for the grip strength. Those so hinge squat, spinal mobility. And then I also test pushing strength. So we just do a basic pushup. I tell my client don't even worry about pushing yourself up, I don't even want you to get your first pushup. Okay, we'll get down on the mat, we'll get into a pushup position and I just want you to see how long you can hold that position for and then just keep going lower and lower until your body hits the ground and don't even worry about pushing yourself up, right? So we do a basic push assessment like that. And then the last thing I do is a pull assessment, just a regular cable row to see if the traps kind of come up or not.

Speaker 2:

But I keep it very simple and that's all I do Push pull, do the patterns that your clients are going to do, check out spine stuff. I love that. That's great, and so you didn't have too much anxiety over starting your own thing, and now you're crushing your assessment and you filled up your book of business. How many sessions are you doing per day?

Speaker 1:

Per day I'm doing about eight to 10, sometimes 12.

Speaker 2:

So how many hours a week are you training?

Speaker 1:

I want to say a minimum of 50. I know that for sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when you're a young buck, you can do that. But put on another 20 years, are you going to be doing 50 sessions per week? The answer is probably not. So in my book at the end I interview a lot of the greats in the industry and you will see things like do this, do that. But we're essentially learning from our mistakes and you all are doing this significantly faster. Where I see trainers I've seen trainers in the past who are doing awesome. Now it takes them maybe seven to 10 years of doing that.

Speaker 2:

But what we're finding through the CCA, through the book, is that you're really just condensing everything. So imagine like you're playing, you know Mario world or whatever, and there's 10 worlds where it took us. We had to go through every world. You, young bucks and hunkettes, you're getting the little feather thing that's skipping worlds, and it's a good thing because you're learning from our mistakes and you don't have to be a victim of the system.

Speaker 2:

And the system says you got to go to the gym for five years and then you got to do this and do that. It's like, okay, let's figure it out more efficiently. And so now you're at a point where we're going to start looking at streams of revenue and so great, you're making 10 grand. But we want to be able to make 10 grand by working 20 hours a week. We want to be able to make 10 grand by working 10 hours a week and you have three to five grand coming in from another stream. And so what are some questions you have for me with the development of those streams and how you can start implementing them?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I guess the first question would be from your experience what was the first step that you took when you were training, say, 40, 50 hours a week, and then you knew that that was not sustainable and you had to cut back down the hours but either keep the revenue the same or even increase it. So yeah, what was that first step for you, Chris?

Speaker 2:

It happens to everyone.

Speaker 2:

You get to that it's the rat wheel of a trainer. You chase the dollar because that's what we do. We say we want to help people, but what's better than 6,000, 7,000, what's better than 8,000, 9,000. And so then you start looking at I wake up at four, I train all day, I go to bed and then we start thinking like, am I going to be doing this forever? And so the option that most people do is I'm going to start charging more. And when we start charging more, you may lose a couple of clients. And then when you do, it starts kind of talking to you in a negative way like oh my gosh, I'm going to lose all my clients. How do I get them? But lucky for you, you're in a position that you know how to get clients.

Speaker 2:

Typically, what you're going to find trainers leave a crunch, a lifetime equinox. They take all their clients. They don't realize that 20 to 30% are going to go right back, Even though you get the verbal commitment. If I have 10 clients and I'm making 10 grand and I leave with those clients, three of them are going to go back because the gym you're going to sucks. It doesn't have the eucalyptus flowers, the towels, it doesn't have the steam room and all those bells and whistles. And it's not cool when you're hanging out with your buddies to tell them that I'm working with a trainer at an independent gym. What is cool is saying that I'm working with a trainer at Equinox. It's a status thing, so you're just going to lose 30% back. You don't know how to get those clients now, and so typically what you'll find is those trainers are start struggling and then they go back to the big box gym with their tail between their legs. But that's not you, because you're smart. So what we really need to do is have conversations with our clients about our business. That may sound scary, but you have to do it because your clients are your number one fans.

Speaker 2:

If they weren't, how did I get $125,000 from one of my clients Because they invested in the show of fitness when we initially opened up San Diego? That's what happened. I had a client and I would talk to him about. These are things that are going on. You're smart. You're doing really great. What would you do? I'm writing a business plan right now. I need X amount of dollars. I'm doing this and he's the one who said why don't I just give it to you. And I was like really Holy crap, I didn't think about that.

Speaker 2:

So when you let your clients know, right now I'm training a lot of people and I'm really enjoying it, but at the same time, I'm not going to be able to do this forever. I want to settle down, I want to start having a family and so forth, even though how would you take that next step to generate more but at the same time not working more? And then you can start planting those seeds and you let them know. I'm taking the soft tissue course. It's really going to help level up my game and so the next six months, because of this course that I'm taking, I am going to increase my rates by 10, 15%. So you plant that seed now and then, when they have an issue, come up shoulder, hip, knee you implement that technique and they go holy crap, that was amazing. I see the value in that. Even better, you have your book of business and you say I'm going to become a nutrition coach. They have this certification. Show up in this nutrition coach program where you get to work with an RD. By the end of it, you're one of the top nutrition experts out there because you're working alongside of an RD. The course costs 600 bucks, and so, when I'm done with them, I'm going to start offering nutritional services. It's going to be 300 bucks a month. What I'm willing to do, though, if you sponsor me and you pay for half of it or you pay for the whole thing. They give you $300, they give you $600. I'm not going to charge you for nutrition, and I'm going to keep you at the same rates.

Speaker 2:

As the years go on, my rates are going to go up. If you invest in me now, I'm going to grandfather you in at these rates. You're going to have clients who are going to say, no, I'm not interested. Well, great, you go get it. And then you start bumping up your prices, because the ones that are stuck at the 50,? They're going to be pushed off, and it's not in a bad way. You can literally sell your clients off, and it sounds bad, but why not? Because the number one demand for trainers I need clients. So if you have an endless supply of clients, and as you start increasing your prices because you're having those conversations, you can say hey, frank, I'm going to give you my client over here. They've been with me for a year. I think it's a great mix-up. I'll give them to you for 200 bucks. A lot of trainers will say that's bad. You shouldn't do it. Just give it away, dude. I get both sides, but I'm a business guy now. I've been a trainer, another qualified trainer.

Speaker 2:

One thing you can start doing from here on out is charging for your assessments, which is really cool. It gives you that Neil moment, because you're at that point and I talk about that in my book where you can start passing clients off. So when new ones come in, you let them know that your assessment is $75. So when they do sign up for it, you have a very warm to hot lead. They know it's $75 from there on out. When you present $90 for one session, it's going to be 85 for 12, for a hundred sessions it's 75. So now your low end is your new high end and the leads that come in. They're going to be qualified and if you have someone who says I'm not going to pay $75, you say, oh, it's perfectly okay, I'm going to pass you off over to Jessica over here or Frank, one of the other trainers. They're still getting a lead, but you are the premier product and if people want to work with you, that's what they have to pay. And so then what will happen is, say, normally you're doing 10 assessments. Now you're going to be doing three to five, but they're qualified. You're going to be paying at a higher rate and every time you do that assessment now you very clearly communicate. These are my hourly rates. This is how much nutrition costs Right now.

Speaker 2:

My clients typically will do nutrition after the first month because my minimum requirements. You have to train me twice a week, three times a week, four times a week, whatever it is for you. Once you get that gold star, think of it as like bootcamp. You have to prove to me that you're serious about this journey, because I have so many clients and it's something you can voice to your clients in a non-gloating way. Just be honest, the clients who train with me the least. They don't get results. And what do you think they do when they don't get results? You think they look in the mirror and say I'm not working hard enough, I'm not being accountable and consistent. No, they point the finger at me. I'm the bad guy because they paid me money and I am now being held accountable for their lack of action, and that's not fair. I don't want that. So I tell my clients earn your stripes bootcamp for a month. You train regularly. You don't miss one session.

Speaker 2:

Now you can apply for nutrition, say, apply, we're going to go through a seven day food log, so you have to take photos of all your food. It's not going to be simple like these coaches online that call themselves nutritionists, and you're just doing a simple little food log log and then you're doing your macros and it's a cookie cutter program. No, you get access to me. We're going to dial in your TDEE, which is your total daily energy expenditure equation. We're going to find out how much you're currently consuming. And, the most important thing, when you work with me, I guarantee you do not have to give up your favorite foods. Now, we're not going to be having pizza every single day, but we're going to still be able to include them within your program. Take your photos of your food Once a month. You get to work with my RD and they're going to come into the gym or it's going to be an online Zoom, so you're going to get that true expert.

Speaker 2:

I'm like the teacher's aid I know a lot, but when it comes to stuff that's a little more technical. I want them to be the source. So if you do have metabolic disease, if you have an eating disorder, psychological stuff, I have the right person to refer you to. But for now, set those clear expectations because they're going to be like okay, I get it Because my last trainer, they incorporated it into their training Exactly. Did you get results with them? And you have to say it confidently. They go oh no, do you know their certification? I'd be willing to bet it's one of the 89% that come into the industry NASM, ace, issa 62,000 trainers per year get those certs. It's a textbook. They're telling you their anecdotes. I've been through an internship. I do hands-on learning. I am actually working with true experts. So that's why I'm a level up than what you're getting.

Speaker 2:

Think of it as no offense, but you're eating at McDonald's. Now you're coming to a high-end steak restaurant and you have to have the confidence to say it, but you don't do it in a demeaning way. So your clients are very, very clear on the expectations. So now you can start generating some revenue from your nutrition. You can also start generating revenue from your assessments. So as now you're making 10, doing 50, you could be making 12 by doing 40. You could be making you know 13, 14, 15 by doing 25. And then the big thing is you take that next step when you start saving up. If you're doing it properly, every month, take 10%, six, six months from now, a year from now, you could open up your own place. But if it's a clinic and you have therapists there, you have independent there, what do you want to do? The sky is the limit.

Speaker 2:

They I was talking to a client here and they were walking down fourth street in Santa Monica. They're like oh my God, there's so many gyms. The irony there is 81% quit within the first year. It is a hard business. If you follow what everyone else is doing, you get that textbook cert. You don't understand business. You go spend, you go pay fucking $10,000 and work with Wes, whoever in Miami, and he's gonna be your business coach and they don't know what the hell they're doing. They're just giving you their anecdotes. So when you work with people who truly understand the industry, you have the technical side which you do, you have the people side which you do, and then you incorporate the business side and you build that up. If you want to open up gyms, you can and they will be successful. So what is that long-term vision for you? What do you want to start incorporating?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's a great question. So for the long term vision for me is at the moment I haven't considered opening up a gym or anything like that, because the facility I work out of I have it super, super good it's. I just have to pay the membership and the client has to be a member there as well. So all my overhead costs, I don't have to pay the lease. There's no, there's very, very minimal operating expenses, right, I don't have to pay for the equipment, nothing like that, and it's 24 seven. But I know if I do open up my own facility there's going to be a lot more overhead. And then right now I'm thinking is that work to reward ratio there, right? So for how much I'm making right now, if I do open up my facility, is it going to yield me more of a reward for X amount of work that I put in?

Speaker 2:

It won't. It absolutely won't. So that is very smart that you'll be able to look at that, but now, when it's too good to be true, you need to have a little bit of hesitation, in the sense that look at worst case scenarios. Do you think a lot of trainers were going through? Well, what would happen if COVID were to come up? They weren't planning for that. So what happens if there's a change of ownership? What happens if they start charging significantly more or you get some hothead? New trainer or old trainer comes in and they say you know you should do away with this and they were just to sever it. How would you pivot? I'm not saying you have to pivot, but what if a pivot is needed? Have those steps ready, just so if it were just like when COVID happened, you have your online business already there. Covid doesn't affect you at all. You're actually probably going to be doing more than what you were doing prior to COVID. So think about those hypotheticals. So you can be ready. You have the lead generation, which is awesome.

Speaker 2:

I would challenge you to see how you can get your own lead generation without the gym, because that's really going to level up your confidence, knowing that right now you get the leads from your Google, which is good. I would like to know that ratio what percent are coming from Google? What percent are coming from the gym? What percent are coming from Google? What percent are coming from the gym? And I would want those reviews to be more in your favor. So if 70, 80% are coming from Google on your name, you're golden. You're set up for success. I'm not worried about it at all. If they're not, that's when you'd want to start figuring out you know, talking to coffee places and haircut places and whatever, spending 10% of your week planting those seeds. Because if you do want to be in your town forever which great. Then have those networking events set up. So you are ready for a pivot if you need to.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that you said that, because I actually. So I got this idea from when I was speaking with Josh when we were in Atlanta, that he ran his gym out of his garage, right, if I remember correctly. Yeah, so what I have is I have like a certain percent percentage of money set aside, um, in the case if there is an ownership change or in the case of something happens at the gym, like what would I do, right? So I thought I'm just going to run my gym out of my garage, and that's why, at the moment, I'm building up reviews on Google and I have 65 star reviews on Google. I think that puts me at either in top five in my area, um, so if I need leads that way, then I can just hit one paid ad, like, I can just click the button Um, and then, hopefully, um, I can start getting more clients in that way. What's your behind that? What's the name on Google? It's Shaw Athletics, s-h-a-h Athletics. And what town? Lancaster, pennsylvania.

Speaker 2:

Lancaster, pennsylvania. If you are a true avid listener, go to the Google, go to that page, click on the five-star review. Say this is the best trainer in Pennsylvania. Love working with him. I always call that fabricating the truth. Reach out to him on Instagram and say hey, I love what you're doing, you're inspiring, You're doing what I want to do. Leave a nice review. Don't say you heard it on a podcast, because then clients won't go there. But he's been doing this for 15 months and you're already kicking ass with 68 reviews. Let's get that second to 100. I'll leave one as well, but just keep on getting those numbers up there.

Speaker 2:

You can start looking at Yelp as well. I don't know if you have a Yelp page, but that would be the additional one. Maybe look into Nextdoor or maybe just have. I don't know if you have a Thumbtack or Bark account, but even though you don't have to get the clients, but just to have stuff set up, because here's what typically will happen. Worst case scenario an asteroid. I'm reading a lot of books to my son right now on planets, and so I'm obsessed with the whole solar system and let's pretend like an asteroid comes down and fucks up your town. So you have to start from scratch. God forbid if that happened. That'd be terrible, right. But if it were, would you be able to have stuff set up ready to go and most trainers would be starting from ground zero. And so if you had those reviews set up ready to go, so you just need to really literally just turn it on. Because think about if that were to happen to the average I'm the average trainer, I'm in your town, that happens. Well then, what am I going to do? I'm going to start opening my Thumbtack account, I'm going to start opening my Bark account and then I'm going to start reaching out to family members and friends for the reviews and then I'm going to start doing it. So if you already have that done it's in the network and the flow you'd be good to go.

Speaker 2:

I kind of see everything I'm saying right now. I'm so pissed off at you because when I was 25, I was barely making. I'm 1444. That's what I make every two weeks and I was working at NPTI as a teacher of trainers. I was doing 44 hours a week. So I was making roughly 2,800 bucks. Now it's a little different with inflation, but 20 years ago, but you are absolutely kicking ass and you have all your eggs in a row. I had one stream of revenue. Now you have you're working on more than that, so you're doing so well.

Speaker 2:

The advice I'm giving is literally like you got a 98 on your exam and you're asking for advice and I'm just like you don't need any. This is the extra 2%, so it's like everything you're doing is amazing. We need more trainers like you out there, because the reviews that you send me not from my book or the seminar, which you did do, but it's like so cool to see the reviews being you helped me get out of pain. I had knee issues, you implemented that soft tissue and now it's gone. I mean, you have so many cool stories that you've implemented from the seminar around the soft tissue and it's helping. So kudos to you. My man, that's just awesome. I really can't give you too much advice. I just wanted everyone to hear your story because you're kicking ass.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you very much. I mean that's the power of mentorship. I think everybody, in whatever field they're in, they should always reach out to someone that's doing a lot better than them so they can save five, 10 years off their career and get where they want as fast as possible. And I mean, I didn't find anything else Show Fitness was the only one and I saw one of your videos I forget which was the first video I saw, but it just spoke to me. I'm like all right, this is exactly what I need and, like I said, I just implemented, I executed all of the techniques and strategies that you've laid out and now we're here. So I think everybody should have a mentor in their life for whatever they're doing.

Speaker 2:

So are you telling me your NASM certification didn't get you to where you are today?

Speaker 1:

Should I do that?

Speaker 2:

I love it. But I will have to say one thing, because I had this last little nugget. You gave me a compliment before and it was pretty awesome because you were comparing. Oh hold on, I forgot what it was. You were comparing me to who, who was it? What were you?

Speaker 1:

saying this guy the initials are DG, would you guys happen to know? So the first name is David, last name is Goggins. Have you heard of him?

Speaker 2:

That's the first I've ever had that and I love it. You were. I was going through my book the story about how I was sued by my last boss and we had a hundred thousand dollar citation and that would have wrecked us, but we had a pivot and and talk to me about what you said earlier, cause I thought that was that was pretty cool to hear that, so I appreciate it?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, absolutely. I said the story that you had going through all like the trials and tribulations and still not quitting after that and still pursuing what you wanted to do in your life is super, super inspiring. That and still pursuing what you wanted to do in your life is super, super inspiring. And I got that from the first book that you that you wrote and I was reading that and that just stayed in my head and then I was reading Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins and it's still like the same fundamentals man. It's like no matter what you're going through in your life, like the trials and tribulations, the only way you're going to lose is if you quit and you didn't quit, chris. So that's why you're in the position you are right now and salute to that man. That was. That's one of the most inspiring things I've ever heard in my life.

Speaker 2:

I'm coming for you, David.

Speaker 1:

I'm joking, but that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

All right, well, I appreciate your time today. This is awesome. Make sure to follow him on Shaw Athletics on Instagram. Also on TikTok yes, no.

Speaker 1:

I don't have TikTok, just Instagram and then Google reviews. Maybe that's right. You're going to find them on SHAH Athletics Lancaster, pennsylvania, also on Instagram, and I'm going to see you again this year at a seminar because you signed up for it, right? Yes, yes, I will be attending the Miami seminar late May, early June-ish.

Speaker 2:

So, with our seminar schedule, reach out to me before. Make sure that it is going to be that confirmed date, because the website had tentative. I know that we are at the mercy of lifetime as part of the relationship we have and it's unfortunate, but we're very fortunate for it. But it is like we have our tentative date and they can move it around. So we had to push back Austin into the 4th and 5th of April. We are waiting on the final commitment for Sacramento.

Speaker 2:

I'm doing a private one in San Francisco, oakland, the 12th and 13th of April and that's going to be at a body mechanics in the mission and I'll start doing more of those. I like them because it's the thing about these right now is they're about 90% lifetime and then 10% show up, so this one will be a hundred percent outside of show up. So it's great working with just all different types of bodies, but I do have a New York one set up. I'm working on Toronto. I want to get to Colorado and I just have to put the request in and then we have a meeting with the managers and the managers they get to dictate that. So just make sure to communicate with me before you get any tickets and hotels and we'll make it all work out. So appreciate you, my man. You're doing awesome.

Speaker 1:

Any last words? Yeah, I have one more question, if you don't mind.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1:

Who was one of your mentors? That got me thinking like what? Was there anybody that you kind of looked up to when you first started your career, to get you where you're?

Speaker 2:

at. When I first started I was obsessed with my professor from the University of Connecticut, dr Kramer, and he is now at the Ohio State. He's revered to as pretty much the Michael Jordan of kinesiology. He wrote the book with Zatorsky and it's called Zatz and Kramer. I just love that guy to death. He's been my mentor from day one. I would reach out to him about stuff and I remember when I was at 2006, when I applied to Renaissance Club Sport, that was the first time I ever heard of NASM and I reached out to him and I was like Doc, what is this NASM certification? He's like I don't know, I've never heard of it. And that's right there. In academics If you are truly a respected individual, you understand a marketing company versus true science-based, which is NSCA, acsm. And after that, when I came down to Santa Monica, I linked up with the prehab guys. I linked up with Dr Waterbury and they've been huge influences on my life from the therapy side and just getting that business savviness and challenging myself to level up my prices.

Speaker 2:

Chad is an amazing smart dude and I was so intimidated to talk to him. I would see him in Santa Monica because he'd always be walking around in his camel pants and I would recognize him from T Nation. And I'm like, oh my God, this fucking tool, and I tell this to his face all the time. He just looked so damn intimidating. Every time I saw him he would just be having a great time in Santa Monica, but I never talked to him. And then John Russon introduced me to him at our seminar in West Hollywood, and it was after the seminar. We were the only ones drinking, so we just kind of bonded over that and he's beyond intelligent and then starts talking about how much he makes, and not like in a braggadocious way, he's just saying that this is how much I charge my clients. I'm like, holy crap, you are a DPT, I get that, but that's insane. And so then he would start challenging me to up my prices, and at the time I think I was like at maybe 175, barely 200. So then he challenged me to go to 250, and then 300 and 350. And he keeps on challenging me to improve my worth, because you're not just training someone for that out Like my workout.

Speaker 2:

I was thinking about this the other day I was going to do a YouTube on it where this kid I trained, you know, did a literally did chin-ups, did push-ups, did some ab stuff, cca, and did goblet squats into landmine press into some more ab stuff, and in the end we did some Aussie variations into some Bulgarians.

Speaker 2:

And then we did some farmer's carries nothing crazy and the amount that I charged him is, you know, probably five times more than what the average person would charge, and you could look at that like, oh my god, that's, that's, that's extortion, that's so much money.

Speaker 2:

But you're not paying for that one hour. You're paying for the 20 years of experience that I have and you're going to be getting the results where, if you were to be working with a newer trainer, that's going to take you two, three years to implement all of what I've learned on the beginning aspects and the stuff that I've forgotten in these new trainers are just learning, and so you're paying for the experience at that level. And so just surround yourself with as many mentors as you can, and if you get a mentor who starts getting a little old and they're not as sharp in the sense that they're not challenging, you find another one. It's almost like dating mentors. You got to go out there and get a couple of people who make you uncomfortable, and if they're not giving you those nuggets, then find someone else and, just like you would with a client who you've, you know don't want to train anymore, you fire them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome man. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's. Yeah, that was one of the questions I wanted to ask you to kind of see, like, who was your role model to get to where you are right now. So, yeah, thank you, chris. Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to piggyback one more on you. I like to talk, but I also want to throw it out there to everyone who's listening that you have to realize that you are, in a sense, my mentor. And it's not to sound kind of cliche or dumb, but literally when I go to seminars and I talk to people and they tell me their story and it just fires me up because how many trainers out there quit because they were frustrated? They felt like they weren't smart enough, and I did a little TikTok this morning. I wasn't smart enough to become a DPT. I failed physics three times. I cheated one time and I wasn't able to pass, and I didn't let that define who I am. I don't walk around thinking I'm a dumb ass. I cheated one time and I wasn't able to pass, and I didn't let that define who I am. I don't walk around thinking I'm a dumb ass, I'm not worthy.

Speaker 2:

I pivoted into something that I can do, still helping people, and so that's what fires me up is your, that's what fires me up is y'all's story.

Speaker 2:

When you tell me you came across us and you started implementing it, you're helping people.

Speaker 2:

So in a way, I am helping people by helping you become more successful, and so that's what really I mean.

Speaker 2:

Every time I do a seminar, I come back and I'm fired up to create more content, to get in front of more people, to become international, to help more trainers level up their game, to get more streams of revenue, and Selfishly, we need your help, and your help is going to be by posting in your story, letting people know you got the book and leaving a five star review for the book and connecting with other like-minded trainers and challenging the industry to level up. In a sense, it's going to make the trainers better, not more pieces of paper. So you have 15 certifications behind your name, but are you able to truly sustain what you like doing? Or is it just the whole social media bullshit where you feel like you're a qualified trainer because you had that next year and so just keep on trucking through? Get to a seminar that's really going to level you up because and I don't want to take credit for it but before the seminar, you weren't making 10 grand, were you?

Speaker 1:

No, not at all.

Speaker 2:

And so three months later, you're able to implement what you learned from that, and you were implementing it really aggressively too, because within three days when you got back to Pennsylvania, you were texting me saying there are screenshots of your client's results and they were getting the results, and that only builds your confidence to be more passionate and to help more people and to grow your business. So keep it up, man.

Speaker 1:

You're a rockstar, thank you. Thank you very much, chris. I appreciate you having me on it for this call means a lot.

Speaker 2:

All right, my man, have a great day and keep showing up.