“Safe” fitness professionals might earn $30,000 - $50,000 per year. That may be OK if you’re 24 and someone else is paying the bills, but try to raise a family, buy ample health insurance, commit to a mortgage, enjoy some nice evenings out, and have a reserve in case there’s a sudden financial need and that $30,000 - $50,000 evaporates in a puff of smoke.
In this first decade of the 21st century, what was long perceived as “safe” may actually be a slow trot to uncertainty.
Our world is different than it was even five years ago. “Safety” in career pursuits used to walk hand-in-hand with a sense of entitlement. Someone who’d shown loyalty to a company for years was entitled to seniority, incremental pay increases, or a pension. The part of the brain that believes “safety” is in fact safe for the long term wasn’t designed for the 21st century.
I warn trainers blinded by the ability to “work” doing what they “love” to recognize that “work” should become a means to a better life. If it isn’t, that old reptilian brain can leave you wanting for more.
I’m not suggesting you give up the pure passion and desire you have to help people . . . quite the opposite. I’m suggesting that your passion and desire can feed off of each other at new heights once you begin to tap your own potential.
I’m also suggesting that if you fail to step outside the bounds of personal training convention, if you follow those who have toed the line before you, and if you have the mindset of a personal training missionary, your personal training career is doomed.
Honestly.
The perception of the Personal Training “Career” must be reframed if we are going to collectively grow and prosper. From this moment forward, let’s not allow anything or anyone to suggest that “making money” takes anything away from passion. Based on some of what I expressed moments ago, if you honestly love your work, you never feel as if you’re working, and if that “work” can bring limitless benefit to others, and if you only prosper by delivering extreme value, the more you earn, the more validation there is for your passion in motion.
I’ve seen well intentioned fitness professionals go to work for their fathers in law, get their real estate licenses, or even put on a tie every day and go out in the world trying to sell stuff they wouldn’t buy themselves. While they blame everything from accidents of fate to the state of our industry, the rotting of the personal training ambition always comes from the same place. That career paralysis induced by the evil part of your brain that deludes you into thinking there’s comfort in safety.
The willingness to succumb to the reptilian brain leads to the crippling belief, “you can’t really make money as a personal trainer.”
That belief can become a self-fulfilling prophesy, or it can be relegated to the pile of “stupid old beliefs you don’t have any reason to hold on to any longer.”
If you want to move as far away from that crippling belief as possible, you need to become acquainted with a different part of your brain.
The Pre-Frontal Cortex is sort of an eye into possibility. It’s the part of your brain that can literally create a future from pure nothingness. It’s the part of the brain that drove explorers to venture to what might have been the ends of the earth to discover new lands. It’s the part of the brain that allowed NFL die-hards like Jerry Rice and Terry Allen to come back from destructive ACL injuries when the overriding prognosis was “retire.” Anyone who’s been called “crazy” for pursuing a dream or idea that seemed to challenge an existing paradigm relied heavily on the enhanced activity of the Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC).
If you’re living a safe existence, your PFC is lying dormant. It’s analogous to an unstimulated muscle. Atrophy is a given. The more you get caught up in being safe, the less likely you are to ever leap forward and conquer your wildest dreams.
The PFC is the vehicle that I’m about to tap into in select fitness professionals. It’s the driving force that can take the absurd idea of making dreams come true and make it real. It’s the active initiator of the two-word campaign I’m attaching my entire career to for the remainder of 2006 and right into 2007.
Be Better.
If you have a desire to Be Better, a real desire that goes way beyond what others might view as a lofty wish, I'm glad you read this far. Read on, as I’m gong to invite you to join two dozen fitness professionals about to soar to new heights, about to ride the incoming wave of unprecedented success in our field, about to rattle cages, shatter the current paradigm, and redefine what we do for a living.
WARNING: If you’re presently comfortable, read no further.
Beyond this paragraph I’ll explain my latest project, and anyone living in the reptilian comfort zone will find the message in itself uncomfortable.
Cave dwellers, stop here. Find an article on better training techniques or 6001 things to do with a medicine ball. Those articles will allow you to develop your intellectual knowledge without asking you to move beyond “comfort.”
If you’ve continued reading you’re likely someone who has the ability to stir up the PFC, someone who knows that a place called “better” really does exist, someone who may in fact be willing to do whatever it takes to get there. Recognizing that at this point in the article we’ve already narrowed the field, I’ll share the preliminary details of the “Be Better Project.” I’ll then follow by discussing “my mistake.”
First, the preliminary details:
Beginning right now, with a commitment to activate this project in August of 2006, I’m going to throw a figurative rope around a select group of inspired fitness professionals who seek to rise way beyond what they presently believe to be excellence. I’m looking for fitness professionals who will never sit on their laurels, who will always realize that as high as they rise, they can always rise further, who understand that as many people as they help, they can always help more, and as dramatically as they change people’s lives they can take the idea of “life-changing” to an entirely new universe.
Be Better. That’s what I want the trainers who work for me to be.
Be Better. That’s what I want all of my personal training clients and seminar attendees to be.
Be Better. That’s what I want for my family, for my loved ones, and for my colleagues.
Be Better. Those words shall be instilled into the PFC’s of those who are bold, courageous, and adventurous enough to set an entirely new standard.
If we all strive to be better, there are virtually no limits that can be placed on how we can improve human existence.
At this point those who have continued reading with interest and a hint of excitement are beginning to activate the PFC at a very preliminary level, rising above the idea of safety, realizing that only those with the courage to break the rules will bring about true change. If we had electrodes monitoring brain activity we’d see that the Pre-Frontal cortex is starting a slow sizzle. If you want to go the next step, you’ll be thrilled to register as one of 20 trainers who are going to collectively reach new levels of achievement.
You’ll register as a participant in my Be Better Project.
You’ll become part of a group of fitness professionals I’ll personally coach through live teleconferences to help them grow by bettering the lives of others at a previously untapped level.
Here’s a simple summation:
20 trainers will accept this invitation, those 20 trainers will come to know each other through a series of 16 teleconferences that I will personally host and conduct, and all 20 will grow. As a result, the bar will be raised, a clear replicable model of what a personal trainer can be will emerge, and collectively we’ll rescue an over-fat nation desperately in need of a life preserver.
Now, moving onward, I’ll tell you what prompted this. I'll share some insight into "my mistake." It wasn’t my first mistake, and I’m certain it won’t be my last, but I can guarantee as every mistake I’ve made prior, it shall serve as a valuable piece of my education. The mistake allowed me to raise my own bar, and to work to take a team that was cursed by the plague of being called “great” and elevate them to “better.” It allowed me to realize that a focused effort on betterment can not only change individuals, but can reach out as ripples in a pond, ultimately turning the figurative pond into a raging sea.
I hate realizing I’ve made mistakes, but I always enjoy the education and residual wisdom I find on the other side, and this most recent mistake stemmed from believing my Fitness 21 Elite Personal Training Team was great.
I’d assembled many teams over my 25-year career, but the Fitness 21 Team was the one I was proudest of. I began about four years ago by working to connect committed trainers who already had a tangible passion, desire, and sense of responsibility with a common language, a common vision, and a common bond. I provided them a professional environment, professional respect, and a 25,000 square foot facility they would hopefully come to embrace as a panacea. At the time it was the primary project on my plate, and the team went from generating $8,000 in monthly revenues in the first month it was unleashed to $24,000 in monthly revenues only 3 months later. The momentum built until $60,000 per month was the expectation, and each member of the team was independently successful. We didn’t only preach “results,” we delivered. Without fail. We guaranteed it.
Then . . . I erred.
With a strong team I turned my attention elsewhere. I spoke to audiences from Brazil to Moscow, expanding the reach of my message rooted in excellence. I committed to over 65 speaking appearances in 2005, and I hadn’t any apprehension related to boasting about the Fitness 21 Team. I didn’t intentionally abandon the team, I just changed my field of vision, and although I expected greatness to continue, expecting greatness without inspecting progress (or lack thereof) is the root of the massive mistake I’ll never make again.
The $60,000 monthly training revenues continued for awhile, but internally changes were taking place. Complacency was setting in. Trainers were finding shortcuts that made “selling” easier at the expense of results. I left recruiting, hiring, and training to others and as the team grew in number it began a slow decline in quality. Commitments were traded for attempts.
Were there signs I should have paid more attention to? Of course, but my misplaced vision caused me to behave differently than I would have if I understood the magnitude of the problem. I accepted what appeared to be legitimate excuses such as last years round of hurricanes, a YMCA opening 2 miles away, and an in-house renovation that disrupted things a bit. Because I was looking elsewhere, I uncharacteristically failed to see the gradual decay, until an uncomfortably glaring sense of stagnation set in. I casually sat down with some of the newer trainers to get to know them and I realized they didn’t speak our language. They didn’t understand the value of some of our systems.
Like a curtain being lifted my re-examination of the day to day operation revealed an immense abyss between what I had built and what was being displayed. I turned my full attention back to the team and found something I hardly recognized. The trainers were forming cliques, gossiping, complaining, and commiserating with other employees about how things were changing. Revenues started falling. Clients started dropping off. Workouts weren’t being charted, results weren’t being documented, and because the trainers believed they were great, they didn’t see any virtue in working harder or bonding together. For me it was a wake up call and a reminder that excellence is a moving target.
I accept full responsibility for the decline as I clearly made the mistake of believing that “Greatness” had been bestowed upon these trainers and that a Great team would understand what got them there and do whatever it takes to stay Great. I now know better.
Greatness is not only fleeting, it’s an illusion. The “Greatest” boxer will only be the Greatest as long as he continues to get better, as others will be closing in at any point in time. The Greatest golfer will only be the Greatest as long as he realizes every championship further raises the bar. The Greatest personal trainers will be those who never stop at Great, but constantly seek Better.
I don’t want to be overdramatic, as my team was still enviable in a great many respects, and they were still delivering results at a level most personal training teams would deem impossible, but when I began lifting up the covers and exploring the day to day realities, my perception of Great was nowhere to be found.
In this large scale reframing I’m presently going through, I now understand that the sense of “being great” is an indication that stagnation is about to set in. Because stagnation ensures the world around you will surpass you, stagnation doesn’t actually keep you where you were, but it sneakily sets you backward. You don’t have to move back toward the starting line for the rest of the field to catch you. You simply have to slow down.
I’m not one to slow down so after putting my emotions aside I did what I do best. I directed my focus toward betterment and I crystallized a plan.
It started with an extremely aggressive meeting where I gave every member of the team a critical choice. They were either going to play 100% by the reinstated rules, stretch beyond anything I’d asked or required of them before, or they were going to work elsewhere. Commitments were reinforced again, but I started conducting regular meetings, incorporating direction, coaching, instruction, and motivation. I removed the Fitness Director position for the time being and brought in an administrator to make certain policies were adhered to, credentials were kept current and improved upon, and ensure “results” was the overriding motivation. I appointed an existing member of the team the “proprietary product knowledge coach” which is a long name for someone who serves as a resource for team members seeking greater mastery of our proprietary language and methodology. I brought in a “career coach” to help the trainers establish goals that ensured they could find fulfillment and prosperity operating in complete alignment with the vision of the team.
The most important thing I did was demonstrate that I’m not asking them to be better, I’m taking full responsibility for making it happen. I opened up my cell phone to any trainer on the team who needed help. I demanded production, but allowed for anyone to request assistance and committed to provide whatever was necessary to get a hungry passionate trainer to a new level of success. I eliminated those trainers who were anything less than 100% happy with their jobs and their daily responsibilities. After realizing the level of neglect I had been responsible for, the trainers appreciated getting to know who I am, what I do, and that we’re all driven by the same passion. The only thing that made me different than any player on my team is, through experience, trial and error, and lots of brick walls popping up in front of me, I’d learned how to maximize the power of fitness passion and I wasn’t about to settle for less. I was not only interested, I was entrenched in the success of every trainer on board.
Today only 8 weeks into the reconnection, I have a reignited team. Revenues are strong, profitability is at a new high, trainers are excited, clients are thrilled, and I’ve coined a new word, one my trainers have already embraced and internalized.
Contagiasm.
I don’t need to explain it to you as I did to them when they needed a serious kick in the glutes. You get it. My team is now blissfully infected with Contagiasm.
The exciting part is, we’re not striving to be great. Ever. We’re simply striving to Be Better.
Always.
Better tomorrow than today, better next week than tomorrow, better next year than ever before. I feel as if I’ve built this team a second time, and I know more about success than I did the first time around. I have proven strategies that serve me without fail. I have a driving burning desire to take this Contagiasm and spread it among all those who will appreciate its power.
I am going to spread Contagiasm, the “Be Better Mindset,” and the strategies for ongoing betterment with others who want to master the science of improvement.
I’m inviting you to share in spreading Contagiasm, not within my four walls, but in your own universe, taking the elements of growth and betterment that I’ve learned to employ and using them as tools to shape your own future.
Think carefully now. If that “move forward” part of your brain is sending signals saying “go,” you may have the stuff I’m looking for, but there is nothing safe about this. Cave dwellers dare not venture into this area, unless they’re prepared for an unparalleled adventure. You’ll be asked to go so far out of your comfort zone you might not even recognize your life 6 months from now, at least not when you compare it to where you might have been if you convinced yourself you were good, great, or at some false pinnacle of achievement. You’ll stretch as you’ve never stretched. You’ll grow as you’ve never grown.
If you think I’m blowing smoke, you don’t know me very well. I enjoy putting myself on the line. I don’t hide from anyone. I never go anywhere near the cave of safety. I’ll never ask you to do anything I’m not willing to do myself. I won’t throw around the random and novel ideas that speckle the preachings of those who promise “personal training riches.” I will instead immerse you in proven methodologies and prompt you to appreciate their power.
If you want to learn to prosper without limit by continually bettering the lives of others, The Be Better Project is the real deal.
I’m going to take 20 fitness professionals, and get each and every one of them to redefine their perceptions of excellence . . . and then I’m going to commit to help each and every one of them exceed the new perceptions.
Here’s the downside of the type of growth I’m talking about.
You’ll never arrive.
You’ll propel yourself forward, and there will always be a forward glimpse of a new horizon. Excellence is a moving target, and being “better” than today is only “better” until you set a new goal. If that scares you, this isn’t for you. If it excites you get ready to act.
If you want to be one of the elite 20, if you want to be a participant in The Be Better Project, you’ll invest $325 per month for 8 months. Keep in mind, I share strategies that generate $1200 per hour, strategies that allow trainers to give themselves $30,000 raises in moments, and strategies that allow fitness professionals to grow exponentially. If this sounds expensive you either need to raise your own bar or stay in the safe cave. This will be an investment in the truest sense of the word.
Each month, for the next 8 months, we’ll have two phone calls, the first will be instructional (60 minutes), the second will be interactive (90 minutes). If you participate in the project you MUST participate in the calls. If you believe that you can’t make that commitment, this isn’t for you. The group will thrive on interactivity so if you fail to attend even a single call, you’re doing yourself and the group a disservice. Much as I have my advisors, many of whom are peers, you’ll have 20 coaches all operating under an entirely new paradigm.
Is your schedule too consuming for you to make that kind of commitment? If so, re-think things. How will you ever get off of the treadmill if you can’t even commit to 2 ½ hours of telephone interactivity each month?
If you opt to join us, I’ll serve as your coach in the true sense of the word, and while we’ll all have our unique goals and aspirations, collectively we’ll bring about an unprecedented change in the industry.
Don’t even consider this unless you’re committed, unless you’re willing to follow through at all costs. The only way you’ll fail to grow is if you fail to act. Remember a part of the strength of this is the alliance of others with like-minds and attitudes. Not only will you have me as your coach, but you’ll have the ability to interact with everyone in the group.
We’ll establish a closed interactive message board with a group email system so everyone can be kept abreast of everyone else’s actions. I’m committed as much as a participant as I am as a leader.
This offering has never been made before. It isn’t a motivational seminar, it isn’t an idea to consider, it’s a commitment 21 people are about to make (20 plus myself) that will cause a groundswell throughout the fitness field, the world of personal fitness training, and the health club industry.
If you’re ready, just click here and commit a non-refundable $100 registration fee which will be credited toward your first month’s dues of $325 (you’ll be billed $225 on August 1). If you have a question, email me directly, phil@philkaplan.com and type BeBetterProjectQuestion as the subject.
The first call will take place August 3rd at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, 12 Noon on the West Coast. The call will be live and all 21 participants will be a part of it. If you’re ready to get outside of the safety zone and into the exciting unknown limits of your own true potential, it’s in your court.
Register before the 20 slots are taken, and commit to Be Better.
