Is Personal Training the Best Career Choice for me?

Is Personal Training the Best Career Choice for me?

Aug 26, 2022 mindpump

Personal training is a great career choice if the schedule flexibility, and money aren’t the top two reasons you are doing it. I can’t emphasize this enough because far too often it becomes the MAIN reasons people pick it up.

Being a long term successful trainer goes far beyond trying to make money. This is not an easy field to succeed in. Just because you got a certification, and had some luck transforming your own body, does not mean you are capable of generating a six figure business. There is so much more that goes into this career than that.

Helping Others

Your top reason has to be the joy you get from helping others transform more than anything else. That IS what this job is all about. When it comes to any job I always find the best question to ask yourself is:

“What would you keep doing even if you knew you weren’t making any money doing it?”

This is big because the first couple years of being a trainer may not be lucrative. You may spend a lot of time not making a lot of money and having to work the most inconvenient hours in order to cater to your clients work schedules. It’s these grueling times you have to love the fact that you are helping them transform over getting money from them.

Branding Yourself

This is also a super competitive field. Trainers get paid anywhere from $35-$200 a session and sometimes more! Don’t think you can just jump into the higher end without having proven who you are. In order for training to be the right career choice, you will have to most likely start at a big box gym and prove yourself. This means learning how to sell yourself as a brand, build and retain a clientele, and prove you are the top trainer there. Only once you can do THAT, can you expect to go private and continue to build your own business.

I’ve seen a lot of trainers fail because they thought they could do better than what the big box gyms offered them. They went solo, and ended up failing because they didn’t realize how much goes into continually marketing yourself, and bringing on new clients because your old ones eventually leave.

Likeability

The other biggest factor here is being likable. You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if your clients don’t like working with you because you’re too bossy, or just not enjoyable to be around then your longevity in the field will be short. Sessions oftentimes become more like therapy sessions than lifting, because clients get comfortable with you. They’ll tell you how hard their day was, and ask for advice. The best trainers are able to empathize and have good banter with their clients.

Building a successful clientele comes from word of mouth. Former clients will happily tell their friends and family about their trainer because they love showing up just for the trainer. Or maybe they hated coming in, but the trainer was so likable, they made the training bearable.

At the end of the day, becoming a personal trainer is probably one of the most fulfilling jobs you can obtain. It allows you to work with a wide variety of clients, and help them each transform into the best version of themselves. I don’t know any other job quite like it. Having said that, it does come with its drawbacks, and you just need to be aware of the kind of leg work that’s involved in order to become the best trainer you can be.