How I got my First Personal Training Client

My introduction to personal training was somewhat lonely.

No fire truck ride, no welcome party. Just an awkwardly brief interview followed moments later with the presentation of a puce shirt with ‘trainer’ written in big obnoxious letters across the back.

When I first started personal training, I did not start off with a folder of clients. I had to go out and get every single one. Since I had only been taught what to do with the client, but not actually how to get the client, I was somewhat at a loss. It was like being in the big high school dance all over again, except this time I was the awkward new kid at school that might as well have had braces and stood in the corner chewing my nails all night.

I did happen to stumble upon a couple of clients who must have seen my childish innocence and taken me on as a dare to their friends – of course once I actually got the client, I was ill prepared for their many and varied questions of which I had not been properly schooled.

No, I didn’t know how to train someone for a tennis match.

I did not know what the difference was between one particular ‘lat pulldown’ grip and the others.

I furthermore did not know how to change the pre-set music station in the gym to something more pop/grunge/woodflute-y.

In short, I was quite helpless and every day grew painfully more so.

So I asked for help. I learned a long time ago never to be too proud to ask for help.

Just know that if you don’t get it at first, you should keep looking.

I looked at the numbers to find out who the best personal trainers were in our facility. Gathering my courage, I approached the trainer who had consistently been the highest producer the last 6 months, and asked with great respect and careful intonation (so as not to offend my imminent mentor):

“would you mind talking with me about some of the things you do that you found really helped you to get to where you are today with your client load”?

What kind of an answer should I have expected from such a question?

A dissertation of training techniques that would give me an instant fix and start me on the track to becoming a successful trainer just like her?

That would have been more than I asked for, but something I would have soaked up with gusto and sincerely appreciated. It might have even earned her a special mention in this post and perhaps a song written for her that I could sing around the campfire to my children.

What if she had just given me a brief breakdown of the personal training sessions she teaches and what she does that makes her a step above the rest? That might have been nice.

“You’ll figure it out” was her off-handed response as she flitted away for her next session.

Hamster Curls to get the Hamster Girls

As I said, I already had a couple of clients by now, but it was my very first client, John Damron, that really taught me what it meant to be a personal trainer. He would (unwittingly) end up being somewhat of a part-time personal training mentor to me. What did he do? Was he an exercise scientist? A local university professor? A former Mr Universe? No. He was anything but that…

My personal training mentor (also my client) sold crystal glass panes to Grandmas.

A lot of it. In stores across the U.S.A. In many other countries as well. He was the Microsoft of the handpainted crystal ornament world. He had raised the company from scratch and had learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way.

At first, I hated him. It probably more to do with how we met.

I was about 5 minutes into an impromptu demo of how to use a certain machine when he stopped me halfway through the set and asked me to train him.

Remember that this is in my first week of personal training, so this was actually my very first real client, and that prior to this I had been wandering around in the blissful world of training my clients from nine to five, having time to sleep in, get home at a reasonable hour, and live a normal everyday life like other regular occupations would allow people to do.

The stumbled conversation went something like this:

John: “Jamie, I like what you have shown me and I would like you to train me”

Me: “Seriously? I mean… Really? That’s great! How often do you want to train?”

John: “I would like you to train me 5 times a week”

Me: “Wow! Sounds great! When would you want to train?”

John: “what time does this place open?”

Me: “5am”

John: “Then let’s train at 5am every weekday!”

Me: “Crap”

Be thankful at this time, dear reader, that my gym was not a 24 hour facility. Who knows what depths of sleepless depravity this client could have driven me to.

What is the first lesson he taught me? That the job of personal training is not a regular one. That your clients will want to train when they are not working. Let me rephrase that:

To fill your schedule quickly, you want to be available to your clients at a time that suits their schedule

At least in the beginning. When you have a massive client load and a waiting list then you can start being choosy with when you train. As Linda Evangelista once said “I wont get out of bed for less than $10000 a day.”⁵ Until you start making near those kind of numbers in your bank account on a daily basis, know that you will have to be ready to go at anytime. Of course set boundaries for yourself. Just be truthful to yourself about your desire to succeed.

linda evangelista - the 80s never looked so good

Who is Linda Evangelista? Ask your father. She is some supermodel that was big in the 80’s. Of course, that was back then when big hair and bangles were in so she probably wouldn’t stand up to much scrutiny nowadays. The important part is that she made stacks of cash even with her superfrizz hairdo and wire-hanger earrings, but it was not until she was bringing in the dough that she decided to start calling the shots. You should do like Linda – but without the bulimia.

End of Part 1…

Jamie Atlas

http://jamieatlas.wordpress.com