Tag Archives: Hard Time

Do you Have a Dream?

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Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King day in our county and as I am writing this I am returning from D.C. I absolutely love going to D.C. and love visiting all the sights no matter how many times I see them, which brings me to what I want to talk to you about today. You see, Dr. King, as well as our founding fathers had a dream. They dreamed of freedom for all and a place where all people were equal. They had a vision for a better world. So, I am asking you today, what are your dreams? What do you want your life, career and world you live in to be like? You were put on this earth for a purpose and you should be dreaming of better you, better career, and a better world. I know not everyone considers himself or herself a dreamer, but you should be. That being the case there are a couple of things I want to recommend for you to start doing.

A few years ago I was listening to a CD by Jim Rohn, who was talking about having a better life. One of the mental exercises he had us do was to take a few minutes and imagine that there were no obstacles in your way and to write down 50 things you wanted to do in life. Write down every thing no matter how small or big. He said, to just let you mind wander and see where it takes you. Now, I have to admit I had a hard time at first coming up with 50 things, but once I started t o dream of all things I wanted to do in my life and what kind of legacy I want to leave the pen started to just write. It was a great exercise because today as I am writing this I still have that list on my desk. I look at it from time to time and am amazed at how much I have started to achieve. I have said it before and I will say it again you need to write down your goals and have it somewhere you will see them on a regular basis.

Now, having gone through that exercise was great but the next step I am going to recommend coincides with Jim’s exercise, but takes it a step further. You see, most of us learn better through visualization. That being the case you need to take those goals and create what is called a “Dream Board.” This will take a little longer but print out pictures of the things you want to have or accomplish in your life. Fill the board with as many as you can fit on there. Remember these are your dreams so go big!
So, in closing, celebrate and honor Dr. King by having a dream. Dream to become better. Dream to be more. And dream to make a difference in this world.

In health,
Coach Dave

P.S. If you want to be inspired I attached the speech by Dr. King, so go watch it!

It is Lonely at the Top

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The first two weeks of the college football season is over and my team is still atop the national rankings. I know a lot of my friends will give me a hard time for the teams we played the last two weeks but regardless of who we played there are always going to be people who will be naysayers or will try to bring you down. You need to avoid these people like the plague. And if you have personal training clients that do nothing but bring your enthusiasm or passion down every time you meet with them it is a must to cut ties immediately. In all the years that I have been involved in managing personal trainers I have never seen a positive outcome occur when a personal trainer has a client that does not connect with them. I know it is difficult to turn down a paid personal training session but let me tell you that in the long run you will come out ahead if you sever the relationship before it gets out of control.  So, the take away from this post is that there is going to be a time when you encounter someone who is going to try and take you down and if that occurs stand up and be a leader. Tell the personal training client that you can no longer work with them and move on. Trust me you will stay on top if you listen to me!

 

Coach D

You need to build this in order to get more personal training clients

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One of the biggest and most beneficial ways to get more sales and more personal training clients is to build rapport with current clients and prospects. Follow these five tips to build the relationship and friendship with your client.

1.) Be Real – If you put on an act or try to fake who you are then you are guaranteed to lose the client. People are not as dumb as you may think. They are already timid and have their guard up because they have been burned before, so the worst thing you can do is start to fake who you are. Also, a key point to being yourself is you will attract personal training clients who are like you and have things in common. Remember, you should not be everything to everyone. Use your personality and characteristics to attract people whom you fit in with.

2.) Quit being serious – It is important to build credibility but enough with all the serious stone face attitude. In the mind of the client personal training is already hard enough and the last thing they need or want is to have a personal trainer that is ALL business. Now, I know what your thinking and it is okay to be disciplined and consistent with your client but lighten up and show them you are human!

3.) Let your passion shine – If you love what you do and you show enthusiasm when you are with your clients then your clients will keep coming back to you. People are attracted to positive and energetic people and trainers that show this at every session gain the most clients.

4.) Listen and recall – It is so important that you listen to what your client says and talks about. You need to find out what profession they are in, if they are married, how many kids, birthday and etc… Make sure when you see them you recall things that they have told you. If you have a hard time remembering write them done, put them in notebook, set up reminders on a service like www.birthdayalarm.com.  

5.) Be honest and truthful – Do not sugar coat the relationship. You need to be honest and truthful about what you tell your personal training clients. Don’t lie and tell a prospect something that isn’t true just to get them to buy more personal training sessions. This will come back to haunt you one day and you will be sorry you lied and didn’t stay honest from the beginning. 

Building rapport takes work but if you follow these five tips then you will put yourself in a great position to build a long solid relationship with your client that can lead to endless opportunities.

What Business are You in?

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Duh! The Fitness Business, Dave! No, if you are a fitness professional you are not in the fitness business. You are in the business of changing lives. You are in the business of creating experiences for your clients. You are the dream realization business. Too many times have I seen fitness professionals fail because they believe that the business they are in is working out. They believe that it is all about anatomy, biomechanics, sets, reps, and soreness. This is one reason we are having a hard time converting people who currently do not exercise into gym members. Here is a list of things we need to keep in mind when trying to get a prospect to use our services.

1.) Clients buy for their reasons not yours.

2.) Clients want an experience

3.) Clients want their problem solved

4.) Clients buy when they TRUST you

Keeping these four reasons in mind when approaching your business will help when you are in the prospecting mode and trying to gain more business. Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking that you need to inundate a prospect or client with tons of scientific terms and movements. Keep it simple and remember that you are in the business of changing lives and solving problems. If you just focus on solving the client’s needs you will be guaranteed to generate more personal training sales.

Customer Service isn’t Dead

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I thought Customer Service was dead! I am happy to say it is not! You see every week in our staff meeting we have a time to share great customer service stories with the staff and for the last three months I have been on able to share any real great experiences but last night that all changed. My wife and I were out on “date night” and went to a brand new restaurant. Yes, I branched out and decided to try something new and different, which turned out to be great. Why, was it so great you may ask? Well, at first it started out a little shaky because we were sat at our table and five minutes had went by and no server had approached us. Now, one thing I always do is time how long it takes for someone to greet us and take our drink orders. This comes from my days of working in the restaurant industry back in college. Okay, so finally we were greeted and the first thing our server, Sloan, did was apologize for us not being greeted. You see, we had had a glass of wine from the bar and she thought that someone had already taken care of us, but nonetheless she felt bad and immediately tried to change the situation.

Lesson number one – if things start out bad you still have time to change the outcome but you must act fast. Apologize and start trying to create a memorable experience.

Okay, so once she apologized she started to create a memorable experience for us. First, she told a story about the wine we purchased, which was really cool. Then, she made some really great recommendations  on the menu. And finally, when we had a hard time choosing between two different items she offered to split both plates with half of each order. What was interesting about that was the couple next to us asked their server if they could do that and he had some lame excuse as to why it could not be done. So here is lesson two.

Lesson two – be different and create an experience. It wasn’t that I absolutely loved the food, but the service and memory that Sloan,our server, created for us.

I can not begin to tell you that in this economic time period “Customer Service” is going to make the difference between your training or someone else. People will buy but will buy great memories!!!

Coach Dave