James Breese: [00:00:00] Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
Josh Kennedy: Today's topic is flexibility and freedom. How to take a break without breaking your business. And I have to go freedom like that from Braveheart before we start a great, but wildly historically inaccurate movie. Um, in terms of flexibility and freedom, I think this is something we've all had experience with mine.
Um, in particular when I was doing one to one PT and a jobbing actor. back in London. I never took any time off. I went home once a year. I would only see my family once a year, generally, unless my parents came to visit me, which they did on occasions. Poor me. Get your violins out. But you couldn't take time off when you're self employed, because if you do, you don't earn any money.
And that's what we've... So this has come from one of our clients, how to solve this problem. That's what we're going to be talking all about today. James, you want to talk about, you know, the traditional Model and it's pitfalls and what we can do about
James Breese: it. [00:01:00] Yeah, absolutely. But first I'd like to congratulate you and pulling yourself together to do that intro very professionally after the hysterics we've had in the last couple of minutes.
So well done, Josh. Thank you. No waffle. Carry on. Exactly. So, uh, so yeah, so this is something that's across all personal trainers. And gym owners across the board, they struggle to take time and vacation off. So what you've got to try and focus on is like, what is your business model to begin with? Because if it is working 40 hours a week with doing 40 client sessions a week, and they're only with you in person, of course, If you go away and they can't pay you or they haven't got a membership option to come with you, you're going to struggle to pay the bills when you go away.
So you feel guilty about taking time off. So the first thing is, I think there's two tracks we have to look at here. One is the personal trainer in the gym and what we can do to help them. And the second is the gym or fitness facility owner and how we can help them do the same thing too. So there's two tracks we have to look at.
I think we start with personal trainer first. Andrew, what do you think? Yeah, let's start with
Andrew Wallis: personal training. Um, it's something that's close to my heart. [00:02:00] Um, also I had the boot camps as well. You know, it's something I've struggled with back in the day. So let's crack
Josh Kennedy: on. Yeah. What share your experiences, Andrew?
What did you do? I was
Andrew Wallis: mobile PT initially, um, realized that there was a cap on the number of clients that I could work with, and then I had to find a solution to be able to work with more, and that's when I transitioned then into, into the boot camps, much like yourself, Josh. Um, I was running them. I had six locations, but again, I hit that test, that standpoint, that thing that I can't take time off.
You know, I've, I've, I've got to serve as my clients because if I don't, I don't get paid. Yep.
Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. And that is what we are trying to solve today. James, back to
James Breese: you. Yeah. Same, same with me. So I started off doing personal training clients for strength matters or kettlebell fever kind of took off. I was doing one to one clients.
Working with them and say it in the same way and it's like it's hard to fit it all in and if I didn't go I Couldn't make an appointment and I felt guilty and then sometimes you [00:03:00] lose clients because he can't make appointments regularly So the key thing here now is to establish well what is your business model and if your business model is the old school version of training one to one clients and Just doing it in person.
You're going to struggle no matter what happens You've gotta go to this idea of what, which we're really passionate about and talking, sharing with you guys is this model of hybrid personal training where we want people to work with us in person and online and combine it together. So when you go away and take a break, now I struggle to go away and vacation.
Take a complete break. Uh, because I want to jump in and make sure everything's okay. And just because easier for when I come back as a business owner, I can solve the problems easier and quicker and faster. So it's just something I, I do to keep on top of things.
Josh Kennedy: But you know, you know, with me, James, I'm sorry to just jump in.
I also do as well, even though I do occasionally take holidays now, I still do work while I'm away. It might only be an hour, but I do quickly check in, make sure my clients are all right. And then, you know, [00:04:00] crack on with holiday. At least I'm on holiday.
James Breese: No, it's exactly that. That's the key thing here now, because what we're trying to do is to educate and train our clients to use both models so they don't miss out on the training.
You don't fall behind with things. Whereas the old model is, you're just, you're just pigeonholing them into this, like, training with you in person, only doing that. We're not educating them to take responsibility for the health and well being to actually give them some autonomy and train them outside it, too.
So the first step is to understand what a hybrid training model is and to do that you need to have training software, Trainerized, TrueCoach, PD6, whatever it is, have that and have a system of working with these clients in person and online and then getting them comfortable and used to this so when you do take time off Right?
All you're doing is you're giving them workouts to do on their own so they can keep continuing with you and you're just checking in with them at the same time. So it's, it's changing your whole modeling and your thought process, but to do that you've got to educate your current clients with this new system.
But also make sure that every new [00:05:00] person that comes in and every new client that comes into your system is adhering to this system straight away. So you may struggle with some of the older clients, but the new ones coming in, you're teaching them this new system, and it's the only method they'll have ever known once they come in to start working with you.
And that's what we're all about now.
Josh Kennedy: Yeah, absolutely. Andrew, how can we go about, because there will be objections and challenges, how can we go about overcoming
Andrew Wallis: those? I think, uh, with existing clients, it's going to be communication, just explaining the benefits of doing this. And it's, um, an increase in...
In the experience that they're going to get through this new program, but just asking them to trust in the process and trust in you give it a try. And I know when I transition clients, not to hybrid, but I wish I had hybrid back in the day. But when I transitioned from one to one PT to semi private, it was the same.
Conversation in essence, uh, just trust me, I believe that [00:06:00] this is gonna work better for, for all of us, and we will review it again in a few months time to see it, how you feel about it. We never did review it because they quickly grew to really love this, this new approach. And they were, they were, uh, all in, and it's, it will be the same with the hybrid training, as I'm sure you guys can attest to.
Yeah,
Josh Kennedy: absolutely. James, any tips for transitioning? As you said, you've mentioned technology. Obviously you need, you need some sort of app. As you say, PT distinction, trainerized, true coach ever fit. There's lots out there, but what else do you really, do you need? What's essential? What are the bare essentials?
Let's go with to do hybrid coaching successfully. Here's a special message from our sponsor.
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Don't wonder? Act now. Book your free strategy call at strengthmatters. com forward slash website today. Training software. I think that's the first thing. Having training software to put your programs onto this platform and thinking about their training in terms of a seven day process, not just one, two sessions a week.
What are we doing every single day? So they get used to checking into the app and following your homework for them, essentially. It could be drinking more water, eating more vegetables, taking more steps. Go doing a food shop on a Sunday to help meal prep. Whatever it is, you're setting tasks within the app for them to do.
Now, focus on, if you haven't done this before, focus on one client on one client only. Don't go to all the clients straight away. Okay, that's really important because otherwise you'll overwhelm yourself, overwhelm your clients, it'll be a complete disaster and they won't want to do it if you do it. [00:08:00] So focus on one, start small and adopt this method methodology.
Now it's great to do this because long term you can scale up your business a lot bigger than you can with one.
Josh Kennedy: Yeah, absolutely. I think what's important to point out is the work you do now, and this is something we point out in business and marketing as well, will affect you, will come to fruition. rather in 90 days. So if you put the work in now to transition, start transitioning your clients over [00:09:00] one at a time to keep it small, keep it simple 90 days, you might be able to in a position to go on holiday.
Wouldn't that be nice?
James Breese: Exactly. And we're not expecting you to do it straight away. If this is, this is bigger term picture, you're going to, there's a phrase. I can't remember who said this phrase live like no one now. So you can live like no one else later. I think it's Dave Ramsey actually. The, uh, the debt guru.
And I think that's a really important thing to understand is that you're going to put a lot of work into this now. So in a year's time, you can be able to do it, right? Think of it in terms of a year project to make it happen. So there's a lot of work now, but in a year's time, multiple years down the line, you can take multiple vacations and it doesn't affect your bottom line.
You can actually be less stressed, have that extra freedom and flexibility in your business and feel less tired and trapped. That's the phrase we keep going into. You don't be trapped by your business. You want to have this hybrid approach that gives you that flexibility and freedom if you're a personal trainer working on your own.
Now, of course, there are other things to think about if you're a gym owner, right, Andrew?
Andrew Wallis: For sure. Um, and I was just thinking about, [00:10:00] um, what you're saying. We work to live, uh, not live to work. So it's, it's important to get that into thing, even though we have a passion, uh, as we all have, uh, for, for the services that we offer.
Yeah,
James Breese: exactly. So in terms of, in terms of the gym owner. What are some of the things that they have to think about to be able to take vacations? How many gym owners do we know who don't take vacations? They don't have that thing. What's, what's, what are they going to think about? Personal training yourself, it's easy.
Adopt a hybrid model, get it set up, away you go. What are people who've got staff and everything going on? What's something that they can, they can do to think about having this vacation
Andrew Wallis: time? Discussing it with their client, with their members, with their staff I should say. Um, for one thing and just making sure that they've got the right systems and processes in place.
Everybody is singing from the same hymn sheet and that you've got an operations manual in place because if you've got that, that becomes the Bible to, to refer to. So, um, if you've got that in play and you're, [00:11:00] you're, uh, you've taken that step to, to go on vacation, then at least your lead, uh, trainer, uh, can oversee things for you, the, your trusted lieutenant, and they've got that operations manual to, as I say, to.
to, to refer
James Breese: to. I think that's a good point as well. You talk about your teams, your trusted lieutenants. It's about building out a team of staff, isn't it? So I think, you know, me personally, again, potentially down the line, we're trying to open up a facility involving cricket. And when I have that in place, I'm going to make sure we have a training system in place that everyone sings from the same hymn sheet from.
And then I'm going to start building staff accordingly to help scale it up. So the staff and having, just even an admin member of staff to help you do it. If you have a facility, it's important and key. But it comes down to the profit, it comes down to profitability first as well. It's like, you're going to struggle to take a holiday if your gym isn't profitable to be able to pay for the staff to help do it in the first place.
So there's lots of more considerations, and maybe it's a whole topic we can go into in a future [00:12:00] episode about, about this. But just something to consider that there are other things to think about. But I would always go back to this hybrid personal training model, because guess what? Your staff want to take holidays too, right?
You've got to find a way for your staff to go away on holiday and for other staff to train and coach these guys who are there working with them and don't expect to be training with them too. So this is where the beauty of hybrid training comes in. We've spoken about this on the podcast about how me and Josh are working with a talented young fast bowler from Cricket Matters.
How we're combining the two things. It makes no difference whether it's me or Josh working with them. The idea is that we're both working with him and he sees it like a seamless experience.
Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And if you want to find out what's holding you back from growing your fitness business, go to strengthmatters.
com forward slash quiz.