“Be the devil’s advocate to your own inner curmudgeon.

It’s fine to disagree with someone. What’s not okay is to go through life never questioning your own reactions, emotions or biases.

Think ‘when might this be true?’, as opposed to going on auto-attack mode. You’ll get further.”
                                                                     - Brett Bartholomew (@Coach_BrettB) on Twitter

1. You’re going to save someone’s life – Lou Schuler

My brother has been in a coma, more or less, since his heart attack on November 22. He’s just starting to come out of it now, with a long road ahead to full recovery.

He’s the one who got me to start lifting, when I was 13 and he was 15. That someone just 18 months older than me came so close to death is a terrible and powerful reminder of why we do what we do.

Every day, somewhere in the world, a fitness coach is giving a client advice that will eventually save that client’s life.

The coach may never know how their training program helped prevent a future heart attack, or how their nutrition plan reversed a client’s descent toward type 2 diabetes, or how their support at a critical moment helped someone become a lifelong fitness enthusiast.  

Clients measure success in pounds lost and muscle gained. Coaches promise dramatic transformations in 12 weeks because that’s what clients are willing to pay for.

And that’s fine.

But what happens after the client drops two sizes or broadens their shoulders? What happens when they move more and eat better and continue doing those things for years?

What do they get from the weight they didn’t gain, the hypertension they didn’t develop, the blood sugar that didn’t rise?

I can’t prove this, but I believe it’s true:

If you stay in the fitness industry long enough, you will save someone’s life. And the world will be a better place because you did.

Here’s what podcast cohosts Jonathan Goodman, Carolina Belmares, and Ren Jones talked about this week on the Online Trainer Show:

In Episode 55, Why Your Story Is Crucial to Building Your Online Business, Jon cautions against staying inside the box.

Too many coaches tell a story they think people want to hear, rather than a story that’s unique to them.

The better move, Jon says, is to start on the fringe, finding clients who relate to you because you’re different, and you’re different in a way that appeals to them.

You can always move toward the middle as you build a record of success that increases demand beyond your original client base.

In Episode 56, What the Week of an Online Trainer Looks Like, Ren explains the live support options he gives his clients:

They can schedule a 15-minute phone call, if they want to talk one-on-one, or simply drop in during “office hours”—a videoconference he offers twice a week.

He also does a weekly check-in post in his Facebook group.

Altogether, he says he averages just 90 minutes a week of live contact with clients. But even with that minimal interaction, his renewal rates have gone up.

As Ren says, “Clients don’t need contact as much as they do the potential for contact.”

You’ll find every episode here:

--> The Online Trainer Show