Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1255: How Trainers Can Maintain Their Businesses While Gyms Are Closed

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

In this episode, Sal, Adam & Justin give actionable ways trainers can adapt to maintain their businesses and even thrive during this period of gym closures and uncertainty. How the coronavirus crisis has impacted society, affected the economy & MORE. (3:21) Why Mind Pump love trainers so much. (5:41) What a trainer's true role is for their clients. (8:32) Do not be reactive, be proactive. (11:42) The value a trainer can provide through Facetime. (16:35) Placing a focus on mobility and holding your clients accountable. (19:45) The importance of breaking up your client's sessions to build lifers. (25:50) How to be assertive, creative and communicate with confidence. (28:20)  How to accept payments. (37:50) Stay in your lane and build value. (38:30) Related Links/Products Mentioned March Promotion: MAPS Powerlift ½ off! **Code “POWER50” at checkout** Special Promotion: MAPS Anywhere ½ off!! **Code “WHITE50” at checkout** Visit ZBiotics for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Coronavirus pushes California unemployment claims to 80,000 in a day U.S. home sales race to 13-year high; coronavirus disruption looms How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer – Mind Pump Prime Bundle | MAPS Fitness Products - Mind Pump Media Mind Pump TV - YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind up, mind up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Clump, we're talking to trainers. You know, a lot of gyms are closing down right now. A lot of trainers are freaking out. How are they going to maintain their business? How are they going to maintain their business? How are they going to train their clients?

So we give you some solutions in this episode. Now we start out by talking about why we love trainers so much. We talk about what your true role is as a trainer, and how your clients need you now more than ever. And then we give you some solutions. We talk about how you can proactively call your clients and what kind of conversations you can have with them. We talk about using FaceTime to take them through workouts, how you should probably focus on mobility. Mobility requires no equipment. So this is a great time to work on something that's usually neglected

but extremely important for every client. We talk about breaking up their workouts instead of doing an hour session like you normally do in the gym, 20 to 30 minute sessions through FaceTime and do them more frequently. So instead of training them as a week, now you see them four times a week. We talk about how to communicate with confidence and of course how to accept payment so you can continue building your business even through these strange times. Now this episode is brought to you by our sponsor Zbiotics. Now Zbiotics is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic that breaks down a toxic byproduct of alcohol called acetyl aldehyde.

So acetyl aldehyde is widely believed to be the reason why we feel so terrible the day after we drink. The buildup of acetal aldehyde causes symptoms like upset stomach and headaches. Listen, this stuff really works. No joke. Justin, Adam, and myself have tested it on numerous occasions. In fact, on one of them, we went a little too far. We don't recommend that, by the way.

But we were blown away at just how good we felt the day after we drink. Super easy to use, by the way, but we were blown away at just how good we felt the day after we drank. Super easy to use by the way. You just drink Z-biotics before you start celebrating and drinking alcohol, and that's it. Now of course, because you're an impumped listener, you get a discount on any of their products. So here's what you do. Go to Zbiotics.com forward slash mind pump, you'll get 10% off their three pack, six pack, and 12 packs. Also, this month, we've put maps anywhere on sale, 50% off.

Now, we designed that program and we wrote it and created it a few years ago. This program is designed to give you a phenomenal workout without any exercise equipment at all. All you need are resistance bands and your body. We wanted to make a workout program that was effective without weights, without machines. Essentially without equipment, you can do this program anywhere and since you're probably

stuck at home, just do it in your living room. It's 50% off. So here's how you get that discount. Go to mapswhite.com, that's MAPS, WHITE.com, and use the code white50, that's WHITE.com, 50 no space for the discount. Just an hour talk about this this morning, as we're watching news.

This is the most news I've watched. Oh yeah. Maybe and Doug brought it up probably since 9 the most news I've watched. Oh yeah. Maybe and Doug brought it up probably since 9-11. I think I've watched more news for this than I did 9-11. It's depressing. Turn it off too much. Well you know what I'm watching like what we're doing is a country so I'm really I got a statistic for you right now. On an average day, California gets 2,000 applications for unemployment. Yesterday, they received 80,000. So, you know, I'm curious to those things, like what we're

going to do economically. I know I've heard rumors of people getting checks in the mail at one point. So, yeah, I'm curious to what we're gonna do about that. I just saw I read the article that you sent over about how sales decreasing by like 35% is what they predict into fall or something. Yeah, I mean, there's gonna be some economic ramifications, but we're such a wealthy country. And as we've proven time and time again,

when there's massive hardship, we all tend to come together. You know, you, you September 11th as an example, you know, that was, I mean, it was terrible, terrible tragedy, but the way people came together afterwards, I'd never felt anything like that before. I'd never felt so, so connected to the people around me, regardless of race, to create, or gender, or whatever, because of it. 2008, financial crash was crazy, but it led to the creation of some very dynamic, innovative businesses as a result of it. So, it's terrible as this is, and I'm not trying to make any light of it, by the way,

I think it's terrible. It's interesting. Yeah, I think it's gonna, I'm curious to see how businesses evolve after this, even, and how people have adjusted to, you know, even having more offerings with their business online, or, you know, like what that's gonna do for the workforce, even, like, because it's interesting to see when you have all this time,

how productive you can be, or how efficient you can be, and how much you can do at home, versus how much you really need to be at work, and businesses that are gonna evaluate that will be interesting to watch. So I got a DM today from a trainer, a fitness influencer, who's also a trainer.

She's really good, so she knows her stuff or whatever. And she sent me a message and she said, thank you guys for what you're doing because she goes, my gym closed down, I panicked for a few days, didn't know what to do. What was I gonna do, how was it gonna make ends meet? Because that's how she does for living. And she said, you know, and you guys are really helping. She goes, you know, a lot of us trainers are looking at

mind pump for leadership, you know, to help us figure this out during this time. And so I messaged her back and I said, you know, the sure gyms are closed, but the need for health, if anything, is higher. There's a higher demand for it. You know, I'm sure before when people were going to gyms and weren't so freaked out, you know, yeah, I want to burn body fat, I want to sculpt my body, I want to look good, I want

to be sexy. You know, right now, fitness is even more important than that. Far more important than the cosmetic. We're keeping people sane and healthy, keeping people's minds healthy. And as trainers, that's really your role. This is why we love trainers, right? It's what we talk about trainers all the time is, you know, when you ask trainers, when I went, when I go and do these, these, these seminars to trainers, I love opening the seminars by asking trainers, what made them

get into fitness in the first place. Like, why do you do this? And I've never, one time, have I ever had a trainer raise their hand and say, I did this for the money. Never, I've never one time have I ever had a trainer raise their hand and say I did this for the money never I've never heard that yeah The number one answer which is almost the only answer I ever hear is I have a deep passion and love for fitness and helping people And that's hasn't changed the context has changed the gyms are closed And that hasn't changed, the context has changed, the gyms are closed, but you're still the fitness leader for your clients. Well, no, and hopefully a lot of trainers are obviously remaining still in contact, right?

I mean, everyone's being quarantined to home, but hopefully if you are running a good fitness business, even if a majority or all of it was in person, you are starting to pivot and stay in touch with clients and find ways to still coach and help them. And I thought you brought up a really good idea to do an episode centered around that, where we can give some good tips on ways that we would do this if we were training clients in person. And that was the main way that we monetized, you know, something before we do start on

it though, I want to ask your opinion and give mine on what I've seen. There's a lot of people that are still pushing the weight loss and you know calorie restricted diets and Personally, I don't think Right now that's a really smart strategy as a coach With your client even if your client's main goal is to lose 30 pounds of body fat I would think at a time like this If there was ever a time that you would take a client and keep them at least maintenance calories, if not, surplus, I would think would be now to keep you well fed. What's your opinion on that? Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, I think it's really boils down to what's the healthiest thing for the client, which again, that doesn't change just because the gyms are closed. That's the same thing you would do when you work in a gym. If I work in a gym and somebody comes up to me and says they want to lose a ton of weight, and then I have them track their food, I look at their lifestyle, and I realize as the expert, this

is not a good time to cut your calories, your metabolism is slow, you're not very active, we need to build some muscle first, we need to work on strength. And it's my job to communicate that to the client effectively in a way that gets the client to understand that the best thing to do is to do the best thing that's for their health and to trust me as their fitness professional. It's no different today, it's no different, okay? The gyms are closed, that's still what you do. You are still the fitness leader for your clients. You know, I was, one of my friends, Eric,

he's a good friend of mine. He's a financial advisor. Very successful financial advisor. The sky, seven figures a year he earns. And you know when he started as a financial advisor, right before the 2008 crash. Oh, wow. That's when he started.

That's when he started. He started right before the 2008 crash. And when that all happened, people were, I mean, there were stock brokers and financial advisors jumping off rooftops, you know, killing themselves because they're, because they're, and he looked at it totally different. He said, this is when people need financial leadership. They need it more now than they

ever needed it before. And that's how he approached it. And he ended up building tremendous trusts among some incredible clients. And I was the guy, of course, extremely successful. So here we are, where gyms are closed, people can't go to the, they're stuck at home, they're really nothing to do. This is when you need somebody in your life that you trust who knows what they're talking about to lead you through health and fitness.

So if you're a trainer and you're scared right now and you're thinking, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? Look in the mirror, slap yourself in the face, shake it off. The reality is you need to step up. This is the time to step up and figure out how you can really help these people when they actually need this more now than they ever did before. And we're going to give you guys some suggestions on how you can do is don't be reactive, be proactive. In other words, don't wait for clients to call you or don't ignore them. I'm sure, you know, gyms are closing.

You don't want to sit. Oh, gyms are closing. What am I going to do? And then the clients are just like, okay, I guess I'm not training with, you know, my trainer anymore. I guess I'm just going to stay at home and whatever. Get on the phone and call them up and have the conversation with them. Hey John, it's, you know, it's south from the gym.

Look, I know the gym's closed, but we still need to stay active. In fact, it's probably more important now with all the stress and stuff that's going on. So don't worry, I'm still your trainer and I have some solutions for you. This is what we're gonna do You know saying have those conversations, you know maintaining that normal seas can be huge right now

especially if you have a time slotted where your clients that are Super consistent like I've had some life for clients that have always trained at that one time and to at least have a check-in Where we're calling in or you know as we talk about this further about how to virtually train or through FaceTime or just connect with them and try and stay as consistent as possible, I think would be a massive advantage. Well, that advice is really important for a lot of these trainers that are in the Midwest

or if you're obviously, if you are in like the Midwest or you know, if you're obviously if you're in Washington, California or New York, you're already being forced to pivot, right? You, yeah, gyms are shut down. You don't have an option. But there's a lot of trainers right now that are, you know, they're, they're starting to gyms are starting to roll through the country and closing down or they can still see some of their clients, some of their clients are paranoid about coming in, some of them are not.

And so they're still kind of trucking along like that. To me, this message is really to those trainers that it's inevitable, we're coming, it's probably coming to your city, your state at one point that you'll have to close down. And even if you don't have to close down, I'm sure everybody is feeling somewhat of a decrease

in traffic with their clientele because of this. So don't sit and wait until your business is shut down and you're getting nobody coming to see you anymore before you already start getting creative and thinking of ways to contact your clients virtually or over the phone, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. So what I would do is this, if you're a trainer listening right now, take your client list, you write out all your clients names on a piece of paper. And then underneath each one write down some details about them and what your

strategy is going to be for each individual client. Okay. You don't want to have a generic conversation with your clients. You know, hey, I know Jim's a closing, hey, don't worry, we'll do whatever. You wanna be able to call him up and say, hey, Suzy, look, I know we've been working on your lower back pain. Right. And we've been using this machine and this dumbbells or whatever.

I have some solutions for you. We don't need the gym to work on those things. In fact, I think this actually might be a good change for you. Normally, this is how we work out, but this is what we're gonna transition to. Or, John, I know we've been working on fat loss, and we've been doing these kinds of workouts in the gym, but since the gym is likely to close, or it is already closed,

I've come up with some solutions for you. That makes such a huge difference. I mean, you gotta remember, your clients don't just look to you to just show them exercises. They look to you to lead them through this process and part of leadership is being proactive and not reactive.

You know, don't sit and wait for your clients to call you. By the way, be assertive. You gotta be assertive in the situation. They're looking to be led. And if you don't be the trainer who's waiting to hear from your clients to tell you, hey, I don't want to come in, are you as a trainer going, hey, what do you want to do? Tell them what you think is a good idea to be doing right now during this time

and be assertive in this situation. I love revisiting and looking back at all the data that I had collected on clients. This is where I would go through all my paperwork, all the data that I had collected on clients. Like this is where I would go through all my paperwork, all the metrics and things that we've had tested, trying really identify even further what the needs are there. So you can really articulate that to your client now and have a deeper conversation. Because a lot of times we get caught up in the hustle of servicing,

and servicing our clients and making entertaining and doing all these things and to be able to provide like some more very specific answers for them in terms of like, well, here's actually probably the strategy that we're going to implement for now, but also when we get back into the gym, that's going to make you even more successful in your journey with this. Well, I know these are, you know, it's how you would take in some notes and the order of the advice, but I think what makes a lot of sense

is talking about, you know, what are some of the exact things that I would tell somebody right now? Because here's the thing you have to take in consideration, is people, even your clients, may be also affected financially by this. So there's also going to be a little fear factor in them of continuing to pay, you know, top dollar for their trainer. So I love the strategy of decreasing the time to 30 minutes.

And I also love the idea of it doesn't always have to be purely focused on Just exercise, you know, it could be a different different strategy For example, I would look in my client base and know You know and we can all recall like you know the client that is you know really good about showed up the gym and getting their weight lifting routine in But terrible about doing their stretching and stretching and corrective work weightlifting routine in, but terrible about doing their stretching and corrective work, or really good at doing all the stuff as far as exercise is concerned from mobility and training, but then really terrible to diet. I would even do stuff like cooking, cooking, facetiming, and cooking with my client.

Like saying, hey, you know what, this is a great time, we're all stuck at home. I've been trying to get you to do some of these healthy recipes that I tell you are really used to, we're going to make one together. You're going to FaceTime me for 30 minutes. We're going to put together a couple of recipes that I think will really help you out during this time. And it's been something that we've been talking about doing and you haven't got around to do it while we're home now. Let's do some of these. Oh, it's perfect. It's great. Imagine the value you're going to provide to these people. And let's say later on when the gyms reopen, you're going to have clients for life.

You're going to build so much tremendous value during this strange, weird time. But you know, you mentioned FaceTime. I mean, gosh, what a wonderful tool. I've been using FaceTime every single day because, you know, I'm self-quarantining, so I'm not even visiting with family members or anything like that. So it's just, you know, Jessica and I at home, just the two of us. So every single day I FaceTime, my parents, I FaceTime, my brother, my sister, you know, my kids right now, they're with their mom. And it's so valuable. You could look at the person's face. Well, as a trainer, I mean, it's almost as good

as being there in person. It's quite, but it's damn close. You got a live video with the person that you can watch. And so you FaceTime them literally have them prop the phone up. And you just, you got to direct them. So, okay, can you put the phone so I could see your whole body? Yes, okay, perfect. Yeah, put it right there. Now step back. Okay, you're that's that's the perfect position. Stay in that position right there. Okay, can you see me? Yes, I can. Here's the exercise

I want you to do. And then you train them. You walk them through. It's live training just like when you were in the gym, use FaceTime and it costs nothing. It doesn't cost anything to use it at all. So now you're literally in their living room training them. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if really, really good trainers who utilize this end up developing and building a huge business and decide to keep it this way, even when Jim's open. Well, not if you're being creative and actually think,

like really, would be I Wouldn't be generic about this right like I wouldn't just go okay. I'm not training in person Now I'm training all my clients virtually. Let's see if everyone will do that I would really try and individualize And I love the idea of the like the 30-minute session for like a discounted rate So if it gives them a little bit of a break then in addition to that I'm doing something that that person I know needs more than anything else. It's like, hey, I know we are right in the middle of running like a maps aesthetic and we were building your physique and that was important.

But you know what? I've been stressing to you so much how much we need to work on that hip mobility that you're not doing. So what I want to do with you is to do 30 minute mobility sessions where we're going to focus just on that. It'll only be this much instead of charging you this much, which I normally would charge you to do it. And that's what we're going to do for the next It'll only be this much instead of charging you this much, which I normally would charge you to do it. And that's what we're gonna do for the next two to three weeks

until we find out what's gonna happen longer. If we're gonna be stuck here for even longer, or we're gonna be back in our gym. So I like the idea of being assertive as a trainer and coach, knowing your client, knowing their other needs that they could be focused on, other than just working out. Obviously working out to easy one, right?

Like the easy go to, you keep your program going, you have them prop the phone up, you train them through there. But I think I would take advantage of this time of them being home to probably address, I mean, we know that I do this all the time in my very first session or two with a trainer or a client would be assessing, addressing all their mobility issues,

telling them, but then I would tell them, this is stuff that you need to work on. I'm gonna train you addressing all their mobility issues, telling them, but then I would tell them, this is stuff that you need to work on. I'm going to train you through all the compound lifts, the really advanced type of training, but I need you to end the reality of it is a lot of those people neglected that. Here's where I'm going to enforce that, now that we're stuck in our living room, and okay, maybe we're not going to prioritize the weight training as much, and now let's address mobility and work on that. And this is something too that I, whenever one of my clients would leave

on like a big business trip or something like, I would try as, as far as I can to provide value, so it wasn't just like a generic circuit that they're going to do in their hotel room or whatever, like it was a very specific three to four mobility exercises that are dressing the aches, the pains, the things that will really set them up for better movement patterns

and really dive into that specifically. So to even not just having that time of face time, but also adding in more value by filming yourself, doing those exercises and then texting it to them or emailing it to them so they can have a constant reference for those things because mobility is something that you practice constantly and it's throughout the day. It's not just that one time and so this is a good time to take advantage of. You have nothing better to do while you're at home and you have limited equipment at your

school. To that point Justin, you know it's your trainer. You're sitting at home and you have limited equipment at your school. To that point, Justin, you know, you know, it's a, you're a trainer. You're sitting at home all day long. So you got your phone or your TV in front of you. I mean, this is where I'm stepping up. Start building your library. I'm also stepping up my texting game on clients. If I just told a client that I want you to do 90, 90, three times for five minutes a day, I'm sitting on my ass on my phone anyways.

I'm going to, you know, have that already ready to post over. Did you do it? And just send manual reminders to my clients and stay on top of them. It's not something they're gonna be annoyed about. It's something they're gonna, especially if you can hold them accountable to doing it.

They could come out of this two or three weeks later end up thanking you for the service that you end up giving them and benefit greatly. Listen, you're not gonna annoy put, you're not going to annoy people. People were social animals that contacting them, talking them throughout the day. They're going to absolutely love it. Now, a lot of trainers, the way that they sell their training is in packages. They'll sell 10 sessions or 20 sessions or 30 sessions.

So now the gym is closed. You probably have a lot of clients who have remaining sessions. So, and they're typically done 60 minutes, right, an hour long. So if you have a client who's got 10 remaining sessions in hour each, call the client up and say, hey, look, I'd love to train you over the phone over FaceTime, but rather than doing your 10 sessions as one hour each, I'm going to cut them all in half, 30 minutes each. So now you have 20, 30 minute workouts with me. The person's going to love it, number one, and number two, it's more suitable to FaceTime

mobility workouts. And you're absolutely right. You guys are totally right. Like, I would 100% focus on mobility with every single client. First off, mobility requires no equipment anyway. So if I'm doing mobility with somebody I don't care if I'm in a gym. I'm not using equipment to do mobility work. It's all body weight. It's all intrinsic tension. By the way, if you're a trainer and you're listening and you need mobility, you know, movement tips and advice or whatever, our YouTube channel, we have tons of them on there and then of course like we recommend always

Maps prime pro. I mean there's a whole library in there pretty much everything you can think of for every joint in the body And you're taking the person through just 30 minute Mobility workouts throughout you know and do them every single day. So if you trained John for you know two hours a week So you know one hour on Monday one hour on Thursday Rather than doing that do 30 minutes on Monday and Tuesday and then 30 minutes on Thursday and Friday So you're still servicing those two hours But now you you cut it up and you're only focusing on mobility and of course you do that all

Through FaceTime tremendous tremendous value if don't, if you don't own Prime or Prime Pro or anywhere here where you can actually just walk your client through those, then you, and you don't want to, and you're afraid to invest right now, which I would totally understand, the YouTube channel is filled of stuff like this that we've already created for free for everybody. And how easy is that as a trainer that you just take the time to go through all the exercises that we have on YouTube and literally pluck all, and they're all categorized in mobility sections

so take all those out, put together a really good, you know, 30 minute routine for your clients, send the videos over so they have something to watch and then literally just check up on them. I mean, to me, there's a lot of different creative options that you can do as a trainer. I think the things that you have to take into consideration, and that's why I really love the idea and the recommendation

that you said of splitting them in 30 and extending them, that's a client that's invested hundreds or thousands of dollars in you, and that is just as probably stressed out as you are during this time. What a awesome way to give back to them by doing that, but making them feel like, oh wow, this is going to stretch me out longer during this time, what a awesome way to give back to them by doing that, but making them feel like, oh, wow, this is going to stretch me out longer during this time. And then you being assertive as a trainer, telling them how we're going to use these 30 minutes for you to get the biggest bang for your buck. Man, if you do a good job of this, a lot of clients, when we all come out of this, like

you said, it's, you're going to end up getting lifers, or you may end up having a side hustle or business that now complements your in-person business where you had no idea, you had a little model here of walking clients through recipes that people would have paid for. What a great way to transition your clients too, right? When you, you know, they're on their way out, or you have another offering of a way to still stay in contact with them and offer a service while you're still connected to them but it's not as financially taxing and so this is a whole other addition to the business that you just reinforced your business with. This advice doesn't just apply to trainers and their business. The same advice I'm giving to a client, or I'm giving to the population

that's listening to this podcast right now that doesn't have a personal trainer and doesn't have a personal training business. Like these are things that I would be doing if I were you. Like, right, I would be working on those healthy recipes that I haven't spent any time on. I'd be addressing my mobility, I'd be addressing my isometric exercises. I would make sure that I'm eating in a clork maintenance. So all the advice that we're giving for coaches, for how to keep their business running and operating, this same advice still applies to the average listener right now, that it doesn't have a training business

or doesn't have a client. These are things that I would encourage you to do and we have all the resources for free to utilize that. Totally, totally. Think of it this way, okay? Think of it, put yourself in the mind you do and we have all the resources for free to utilize that. Totally, totally. And look, think of it this way, okay? Think of it, put yourself in the mind of your clients' minds. So here they are, gyms are closed.

They know they have 10 sessions outstanding with you. They may be thinking, I'm never going to see that. I'm never going to see that money I invested. The gyms closed, the economy's taken to dump. What am I going to do? Then they get a call from you, hey look, here's how we're gonna use those sessions. Like that's massive value, that's incredible value,

the person is just gonna love you for it. So you absolutely need to be able to do that. And again, have these positive, assertive conversations with the client. But here's some strategies, okay. Here's some strategies if you're a little bit worried about how do I communicate this to my client? How do I present this? Try this out. Call them up, say, hey, John, you got 10 sessions left. They're an hour each. I'd like to break those up into 30 sessions. Excuse me, 30 minutes each session. So now you have twice as many. Here's what we're going to do.

Look, the first one I'm going to give you is free. I want you to just try it out. I'm going to call you up. Look, the first one I'm going to give you is free. I want you to just try it out. I'm going to call you up. We normally are scheduled at 9am on Thursdays, because that still works for you. OK, perfect. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to call you at that time.

I'm going to take you through a 30 minute mobility workout that I'm going to design specifically for you, because I know your body. I know what you need to work on. And then if you like it, we'll just keep going. And you can also present that to clients who don't have outstanding sessions. You can call them up. And the way I would present we'll just keep going. And you can also present that to clients who don't have outstanding sessions. You can call them up, and the way I would present it

is just like this, it'd say something like, hey John, this is Sal, look, I know gyms are closed. I know we're not training anymore, your sessions are up, but it's probably even more important to stay active and stay healthy. This is what I've been doing with some of my current clients. I've been getting on FaceTime with them and taking them through individualized workouts and mobility sessions.

They're only about 30 minutes at a time because mobility sessions only really last that long. And so what I'd like to do for you is I'm going to give you a free one. So I could call you up tomorrow. Let me know what's a good time. And I'll take you through a 30 minute free mobility session. We're going to work on the areas that I think, you know, you need to work on your hips or whatever. And then we'll take it from there. If it works for you and you like it, and we can discuss how we can continue further,

you can hire me and until the gym's reopened, this is what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be training people this way and working with people this way. And like I said, I think it's more important now than ever. I think that I think we need to elaborate a little bit on something that you just did that I think is really important. It reminds me of managing trainers for so many years and the ones that did really well naturally and the ones that I had to spend a lot of time coaching up. And if you're a good communicator and a sort of, you're probably not struggling so much right now because what you just did is that like, and this is an area where it seemed like it was a 50-50 split for me with my staffs always. I had half the staff that really got this and understood it

well. And then I had the other half that really got this and understood it well. And then I had the other half that were just so timid, afraid to ask for money, afraid to tell their clients. And they really treated it just like as a service business that I'm here for you. You tell me what you want and I'll do it. And in a situation like this, these are the trainers that are really going to be hurting right now if they don't figure this piece out. You've got to learn to be assertive and take lead in this situation and tell your clients the ideas that you have and what you would like to do with them versus waiting for them to tell you and hoping.

If you do that, you're really going to struggle in this situation. If you get creative, the worst thing that's going to happen is they say, no. The's right. The worst thing that's going to happen is they say, you know what, Sal, I'm stressed. My wife, her job is shut down right now. My job is shut down right now. I know I've got a couple of sessions left with you, but I'm afraid to even use those up right now. I'm going to hold for right now or I don't have any money to, that's the worst. So what, you're on to the next. You've hopefully, if you've been training for a while, you've got a list of already clients that you have or had, or potential clients that you can be reaching out to,

and that you start doing that. But the trainers that will be okay in this situation are the ones that aren't afraid to be assertive and tell your clients what we're going to be doing and force them to be the ones to say, no, I don't wanna do that or I can't do that. You'll be surprised. Many of these people are waiting for you to tell them that

and lead them in the right direction, you know? And by the way, you know, again, one of the, you know, I talked earlier about the seminars I do with trainers. One of the main things that I talk about is communication skills, which is another, you know, effective communication skills, which is another word for sales skills. And so my favorite, the number one best objection that you can get from a client or a potential client is the money one. Believe it or not, you know, oh, I don't really know. Money's kind of tight. I don't want to. I don't know if I can spend that much. That's great because you have a solution. You can just get creative. Now here's the reality. You're doing this all over the phone, right? So why not get creative and do a 15 minute session. Right. A 20 minutes. I love your idea of, don't be afraid to offer free service right now too.

Right. Don't be afraid of, hey, this is something that I'm doing for a lot of my clients. If you're not sure about it, let me take you through it. Let me take you through this 30 minute mobility session. Let me take you through this 30 minute cooking session. Let me take you through this nutritional coaching 30 session, you know, call.

Let come up with ideas. Don't be afraid to offer, you're, listen, we all got all the time in the world right now. You know what I'm saying? We're all cooped up in our houses all day long. You may as well be thinking of creative ways to help and service your people. Don't be afraid, and this is,

and I'm so glad that you said that because this was also another thing that always stifled trainers in the gym that, you know, if they weren't getting paid a certain hourly rate or somebody wasn't paying for their time They weren't doing it and that was such a weak-minded way to approach growing your business Do not be afraid to offer some of your time for free to build value to show the value That you have and the capabilities that you can still provide incredible value to these people's lives Even though you're not in person,

and then allow them afterwards to say, oh, that wasn't good enough. You're going to buy the trust at the end of the day. I think one thing that wasn't brought up in this list, that is still an option right now, is to actually drive to their place and train them in-house. That's something that might not be available for everybody, but you know, whether permitted outside or even, you know, just going and bringing a few items of equipment, I mean, you can get a lot done. I actually restructured my entire business, so half of it, I ended up starting to service

people at their house and provided even higher value of service. Dude, on that point, Justin, I used to have an all-acart to mine. And one of the all-acart options was for 250 bucks a week, I would come to your house with the groceries and prep your meals for a week. Oh, me. And you don't even gotta come to the meals houses. You could prep it at your house and then deliver it.

How sick is that right now when food and grocery stores are a shit storm for you to take and prepare your clients' meals for a premium cost over what the groceries cost you to do that and then deliver it to their house. I could tell you, too, there was like two options for me. I would end up like start introducing more pieces of equipment as we got more involved, but really, like just as your very basic kind of setup,

I'd have rubber bands. I'd have a foam roll maybe. I'd have a TRX strap. And you could do a whole lot with just that, and then maybe one set of dumbbells that was appropriate for their level. And then typically, they have a setup and have a bench, or just a designated area in their house

where you can set it up and you can even get like the pull up that goes in the doorway. So, you know, there's options out there if you wanted to look into it. And of course, Amazon is still, you know, doing just fine. And you can order from there and get it delivered so you could start your own sort of travel in business. Right. And again, you know, we're talking about getting creative here.

You could even offer your client, hey, you know, I know you're at home with your husband, let him join in. I'm going to take you guys both through buddy training. Yeah. Some mobility exercises together. You know, it's, it's, it's, I'm thinking about it right now. And I'm telling you, the trainers that are not afraid, the ones that really feel that feeling deep down inside of why they're trainers in the first place, which is to really help people become healthy, okay?

Those are the ones who get cut through the fear. I'm gonna tell you something right now. You're gonna see some of the most successful trainers ever come out of this situation situation because it's going to, it's gonna, the good ones, well, I mean, my wheels are spinning just a lot of this conversation obviously was not planned other than us wanting to cover this point and, you know, I haven't had to think like this as a trainer in a long time, but you brought up a point with the spouse or whatever. I mean, I know my clients,

I know who my single business man or woman is that needs to work on mobility. I know my family person, my person who's got three kids and they're very family-oriented. What a cool opportunity for you now to include the whole family. Say, hey, I'm gonna do something, put me on video so I can get the whole family involved

in some movement and exercise and make it creative and fun. Man, you do some shit with the right client that sees a ton of value in that. I mean, they're gonna love that. And that's, it's your job as a leader and as a trainer right now, to be getting your wheel spinning,

thinking about those type of points and who that applies the best to, and getting creative and doing that with them. That's it and you can structure your pricing however you want. You can do very very short sessions, 15, 20 minutes, you can do longer ones, 30, 45 minutes, you could charge less than you probably do now and you'll probably make more because it's all electronic. You could fit a lot of people in when you're doing it all electronically or when you're not paying a fee to the gym or gas and that kind of stuff. So you may actually find yourself doing better than you might have done before.

And then when the gym's reopened again, remember you got this incredible loyalty now for your clients. We're talking a lot about communicating with confidence and being assertive. And, you know, people, you know, that sounds good, but people may be thinking, well, you know, where does that come from? Well, it comes from speaking with through your passion and staying in your own lane. Remember to stay in your lane. You are the fitness expert. Talk about fitness. That's what you know and that's what you know more than they do. That's where your confidence is going to come from. That's where your assertiveness is going to come from. The other thing I want to tell you is, you know, this is something I learned as a trainer. This actually took me a little while to learn. You're going to hear a lot of conversation about the coronavirus and the stress and the whatever and the...

And it's your job to listen, but it's also your job to direct the conversation to something more positive. So they're going to tell you about the stresses and did you hear what happened and whatever, yeah, I did hear what happened. And then change the conversation and move it to something that's more positive. Be that because when I end up happening, here's what's going to end up happening. This person who's going to be working with you through FaceTime or over the phone, they're going to start to associate that good feeling that you give them every time that they're on the phone with you. They're going to look forward to your appointment. In fact, they're probably going to look forward to your appointment more than they did before because they have nothing else to do. They're stuck at home and

now they're going to be like, man, I can't wait till Wednesday when I get on the phone with Justin. He's kind of, and that makes me feel good. Like I, I'm not watching the news when I'm, when I'm, when I'm on FaceTime with him. And he's positive and he's giving, telling me jokes and he's, you know, my body feels good. I'm moving, you know, besides the times I'm with Justin, I'm on the couch, or, you know, working on my computer from home or whatever. You know, I think I might want more sessions with him.

I think I'm not going to work I think I want more sessions with them. I think I'm not gonna work more frequently with them. This is why I like the shorter sessions. I love the idea of breaking up in 15 minutes. I think it's a brilliant way to stretch their money out and little ways to build value that are quick that could potentially add to, could actually end up being more money like you said. Yeah, And honestly, you know, from a results effectiveness standpoint,

I think it's probably more effective right now considering the circumstances, considering that you're probably going to need to focus more mobility and that kind of stuff to do shorter, more frequent sessions instead of less frequent, longer sessions. I really do. It's how we're training. It's how we're doing it right now. We're all coming, we walk out to the garage,

get a couple squats in, go back to doing stuff, working in the house, doing shit, come back. I'm constantly pick stuff up, you know, move around and then come back to it. Yeah, dude, I bet you guys are getting great results. I bet you're feeling strong from that. Oh, I feel great right now. You know what's interesting, too,

have you guys taken payments from somebody in a while too? This is another thing like as an independent trainer, like I get a lot of questions about it, like PayPal or Square or these kinds of things. Well, have you used Apple Pay? You can actually basically text, they can text payment through Apple Pay and then it's just, you receive it right away.

So it's a pretty, it's so easy. Yeah, Apple Pay or Venmo or like, or Venmo, anything like that. Like if you haven't got, you know, if you haven't, if you're not familiar with it yet, like, familiarize yourself with it, and then you could just capture especially these low payments. You do like the 50-minute, 30-minute session. Boom, they just texted to you and then race that go. Oh, you can even accept toilet paper as payment these days. I think it might be more valuable than dollars. Holy shit, you're right. People are going to start wiping the rest with dollars.

Stupid. Give me that. No, I think this is a really wanted to do this because I know it feels scary, but we have to remember who we are as trainers. We are the fitness and health leaders for our clients. And so, okay, for a second, we're scared, we panic for a bit, but now it's time to stand up and be that person that you were born to be, that person, that the reason why you became a trainer in the first place, which is to lead people to fit and healthy lifestyles. And I'm telling you right now, they need it more than ever before.

So, yeah. And with that, go to mindpumpfree.com and download all of our guides, resources, and books that cost absolutely nothing. You can also find Justin, Adam, and myself on Instagram. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin. You can find me at Mind Pump Sal and Adam at Mind Pump Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy,

and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and aolic, Maps Performance, and Maps Esthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, The RGB Superbundle is like having Sal and I'm in Justin as your own personal trainer's butt at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com.

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