Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1715: Ten Mistakes Fitness Trainers Make

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover ten common mistakes that fitness trainers make. Ten Mistakes Fitness Trainers Make. (2:33) #1 – That people are lazy. (5:38) #2 – Training people too hard.... (8:47) #3 – Failing to individualize workouts. (13:29) #4 – Emphasizing fun or entertaining workouts. (15:55) #5 – Depending too much on the motivation factor. (20:43) #6 – Giving meal plans. (26:17) #7 – Too much emphasis on supplements. (31:59) #8 – Failing to meet people where they are. (36:26) #9 – Undervaluing walking. (43:33) #10 – Having a scarcity mindset. (47:38) Related Links/Products Mentioned EXCLUSIVE LAUNCH PROMOTION! (EXPIRES TUESDAY 12/28): MAPS Resistance $20 OFF **Promo Code – “RESIST20” at checkout** December Promotion: MAPS HIIT and MAPS SPLIT 50% off! **Promo code “DECEMBER50” at checkout** Visit Legion Athletics for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Mind Pump #1622: Nine Signs Your Trainer Sucks What to Look for When Choosing a Personal Trainer – Mind Pump Blog The Most Important Skill For Personal Trainers – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump #1245: Why Meal Plans Suck NCI Certifications x Mind Pump Mind Pump x NCI Mentorship Coaching What is NEAT and Why Should You Care About it? - Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump, right? In today's episode, we talk about the 10 Mistakes Fitness Trainers often make. In fact, these are the 10 Mistakes. We made a lot all the 10 mistakes we made a lot.
Starting point is 00:00:25 All the time when we first became trainers. So these are red flags if you're trying to hire someone or if you're a trainer or coach yourself. Listen up, don't do the things that we did when we first got started. Now this episode was brought to you by our sponsor, Legion. Legion makes some of the best performance
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Starting point is 00:01:23 This is perfect for those of you who are looking to get started on your fitness journey. This is perfect for those you who are looking to get going So the program is called maps resistance and there's three separate workouts in this program There's one with body weight and bands one with just dumbbells and one with dumbbells and barbells Okay, so it's a great program to get started But we also know getting started is much more than just workouts So here's what we're throwing in for free with this new launch. You get the Intuitive Nutrition Guide for free, which helps you with your diet. You also get two e-books written by Jason Phillips, he's the founder of NCI Coaching. One of the books is Macros Explained, and the other one is Macros Applied.
Starting point is 00:01:58 And we also know that support through this process is very important, which is why we're including one year of free access to our private forum. So you're gonna get all of that, which retails, if you bought it all separately, for $320, but you can get it with the launch right now for $77. That's it, one time fee you get all that stuff for life, but this particular offer expires on the 28th of December, so you have to act soon.
Starting point is 00:02:22 If you're interested, head over to mapsresistance.com and then use the code resist20. That's resist20 with no space for that offer. I was looking at the Qua Post, right? So on our Instagram, all the questions that people want us to answer. And one of them I thought was really good. I think it was one of the most popular ones
Starting point is 00:02:42 that people liked, which we normally try and answer those when they're liked the most, right? But instead of answering it in a quah, I thought it would be better if we did a single topic because I just think there's too much to talk about in relation to this, which is the mistakes that we made early on as trainers. I think five minutes is not enough time. Truth be told, we never end this. We never end it down to 10 because it's too long. That's a lot, too.
Starting point is 00:03:11 Yeah, I mean, again, all joking aside, you know, when I know I'll speak for myself when I start off as a trainer, I mean, I loved it, right? I love fitness, I love helping people, I loved being in the gym, but I just didn't know what I didn't know. And I had an idea of how I was gonna help people through fitness and a lot of what I thought turned out to be totally wrong.
Starting point is 00:03:35 And it took me a lot, here's the sad part, took me a long time to figure out a lot of stuff. I would say that I probably wasn't that great for the first, at least few years I was a trainer. I say five. Yeah, if not five, right? I ended up training people for, or, you know, directly or indirectly through owning gyms for over two decades. So that first, you know, quarter of the time I was a trainer, I made a whole lot of mistakes and would, would drove me to realize those mistakes. I think similar to what you guys say,
Starting point is 00:04:04 which is you really want to help people. At some point you look at everything you've done for the last three, four years, and you go, wait a minute, this isn't working. Well, it's not like our heart wasn't in the right place. So I'll give us a little bit of grace, but yes, if you look back, and everything we talk about now,
Starting point is 00:04:21 because of all these years of practice and application, and seeing how these methods play out amongst your clients, it's cringeworthy to come back and see what you're actually promoting when you're first getting started, especially those first few years. Well, the thing I like about this episode is when you look at the list that we have written down at first class, it actually doesn't look that bad. I mean, some of the things that we're going to go over first glance, it actually doesn't look that bad.
Starting point is 00:04:45 I mean, some of the things that we're gonna go over, well, you see this a lot still happening. That exactly, and that's why I think this is a good episode. That's why I thought it was a great question because there's a lot of things that, to your point, Justin, that we were doing with pure intentions. My goal was to be a good trainer.
Starting point is 00:05:02 It was in my best interest, right? To do that. I just think that looking back now, I think they were terrible at it because to your point, Sal, I didn't know that I didn't know. Yeah, it was unaware. It resulted in people,
Starting point is 00:05:15 by the way, this is valuable for trainers. This is also, and probably even more valuable for people thinking of hiring a coach or a trainer because if they're doing this stuff to you, then you know that they're making mistakes and they may not be the best trainer for you. So these things to look out for, and of course if you're a coach or a trainer, pay attention because we're going to explain why they were mistakes. Now the first one, this was a big one for me, which was, I just thought people were lazy.
Starting point is 00:05:44 I thought that's why they're not getting good results because you know what it is. And here's what it came from. What it came from was I knew the formula, right? Okay, you want to lose 30 pounds for yourself or for a couple of people. You want to be fit, right? You just follow the steps. And if you follow the steps, then you'll get the results.
Starting point is 00:06:00 And the reason why this was a mistake was because I completely was unaware of human behavior. And I was completely unaware that somebody would not be fanatical about fitness and nutrition like I was, right? So I didn't consider any of that stuff. All I thought was, hey, you came to me with the skull. Just do what I tell you. Oh, you don't do what I tell you. I've done this a million times. It's easy. What's your problem? Yeah. And what it did is it took the responsibility off of me. So, instead of me looking at myself and going, why isn't this working?
Starting point is 00:06:32 I would just say, oh, it's not working because they're just not working. It's not only that, I think that at this point, at least in my career, I didn't understand metabolic adaptation. I didn't understand how that works. So I assumed, you know, these people were lying to me or lazy, you know, either they were lazy or they were lying to me when I would look
Starting point is 00:06:49 and assess their results after, say, you know, four or five weeks of working with me and we weren't any closer to their goal of losing 30 pounds. And they're telling me, yes, I did all these things. And I'm like, one, you're either lying or lazy, or lying or lazy, but that's because I didn't understand that this person could have had severe metabolic damage because they had been in this crazy diet for years and years and years and lots of compounding strut. I didn't understand, because once you train enough people,
Starting point is 00:07:22 or I should say a handful or so of similar body type, similar goals, the mistake that I think you make as a trainer, is you kind of assume that, I've got to figure it out. Like, I train a client that need to lose weight. Just work harder. Yeah, exactly. Work harder, do these things, and we should be fine.
Starting point is 00:07:38 But, you know, this was the beginning of my realization of how individualized every case was, no matter how similar the goal was. And how ineffective I was being. You know when this really hit me? When I kept thinking this and I would have the same problems arise client after client, right?
Starting point is 00:07:57 Oh, they get results, but then they can't stick to it. Or for some reason it's not maintainable, they can't sustain it. And I'm like, oh, they're lazy. Oh, this next one, oh, it's just because they're lazy and so on. And then I looked and I said, wait a minute, among my clients, and there's a bit of a bias, right?
Starting point is 00:08:11 People who tend to hire trainers tend to have more expendable income tend to be more successful and so on. I looked at my roster of clients and I said, lawyers, executives, medical professionals, these are not lazy people. They're all accomplished in their lives and what they do, maybe it's my approach.
Starting point is 00:08:29 Maybe that's the problem. Maybe it has nothing to do with them, not being lazy. Maybe they're just not fanatical about fitness, which I took for granted with myself. And I said, okay, my approach is probably wrong. It's not a laziness issue. It's a lot more complicated. And that's really the answer.
Starting point is 00:08:43 The answer is it's much more complicated than that. It's not as simple as that. Well, and the crazy part about this one is it plays right into the second one, which is that I train people too hard. Oh my God. So this was the biggest mistake. Yeah, you first make the first mistake
Starting point is 00:08:58 and thinking, oh, these people must be lazy or lying to you. And your answer to that solution is, all right, when you see me on Tuesday, we're gonna burn all that shit off. And so you just get after them. I remember taking pride, this is embarrassing to say, but I remember taking pride in clients telling me how sore, how crippling sore
Starting point is 00:09:19 they were the day after, or how, and this was, this is, again, I'm embarrassed to say, but I'd have a client finish a workout, drenched in sweat, they're barely able to walk out of the gym, and I remember feeling proud that the other trainer saw my client could barely move, right? Oh, I did a great job, right? I just beat the crap out of them.
Starting point is 00:09:37 Oh, man, I mean, it's even hard to admit right now that this was something that I took pride in. Oh, I know, it is embarrassing. I mean, I built the reputation originally on like how tough my workouts were to accomplish, you know, it's like some kind of a bad you earn by training with me. And to the point where even I feel so bad about this, the lady actually was having just a terrible day and knew that I'm just, I just provide these tough workouts to get through and she was getting through half of it and broke down, started crying, got emotional.
Starting point is 00:10:06 And then I was just at a loss. I didn't know. I didn't think about like adjusting and completely changing course to what I had planned. I just kind of waited it out and be like, okay, are we ready? You know, and then just keep applying the same thing. It's the sportly. Are you trying to open up to me? I see more burpees.
Starting point is 00:10:24 All right, cool. That's great. But now let's the sportly. Are you trying to open up to me? 50 more burpees. All right, cool, that's great, but now let's get back after. Yeah, and the problem with this is that, this what you learn later on, is the right intensity will get them the best results. Too hard gets them there slower, or results in injury. I mistakenly thought,
Starting point is 00:10:39 the harder I train them faster, they're gonna get there. So I might as well just train them as hard as I possible can. Oh yeah. And don't hurt them, but train them super hard. Well, there's a bit of like a negative loop here too, or like a culture in gyms around this. At least this is what I remember is you would walk into like a busy time at the gym that
Starting point is 00:10:56 we've talked about four is the five, six, seven, pm at night. So at that time, gyms cranking, all the trainers are there. So you know, if you're a pretty good-sized gym There's 12 15 trainers moving around and signing clients in and out and there's a bit of this culture around like who trains They're they're clients the toughest and you want to be that guy and even clients come in like they would they would even Exad oh man you got me today. I don't know. Oh, yeah, and then other trains be like yeah, I want I want that guy Like he look out look how crushed his client is. You know, and send, oh yeah, then you feel like this,
Starting point is 00:11:30 but you said badge of honor. So there's this kind of this feedback loop that is happening. The clients think they like it. You know, other trainers see it as fire to be like it. And then so people think that this is the way to train people and it's tough to get out of that, especially in these big box gyms
Starting point is 00:11:48 where that culture's already been established. And it wasn't until I got out of that, and I saw like small private gyms, where you have typically have a higher class of trainer that's working on the other that have been experienced. And you see a different vibe going on. That was when I kind of went, oh wow, okay, these are some of the better trainers.
Starting point is 00:12:05 They're playing everything I learned and educated myself through certifications and different modalities out there. I'm like, oh wow, you guys actually use this stuff? Like I would learn it all. And then just apply the same hammer to my clients. Yeah, you don't wanna be the trainer in the gym that everybody says, oh, he gives easy workouts. You want it to be the one that's like,
Starting point is 00:12:24 oh, don't train with him. Ego. It's totally, and it's so wrong. It's so wrong because the right intensity gets you there faster. In fact, I got interviewed recently and someone asked me, what are some red flags of a bad trainer?
Starting point is 00:12:36 And one of them was this. I said, if they train you so hard that you feel like dying at the end of your workout or you're sort of the touch the following day, that's a bad trainer. How funny is that? Well, again, it's hard too. I mean, as for most of my career,
Starting point is 00:12:49 I was a fitness manager, so I oversaw trainers. And so I got a chance to meet like everybody's clients. And I can't tell you guys how many times I had to have a conversation with a client because they would come to me and say, hey, I don't want to train with someone's own anymore because he's not pushing me enough. Yeah, he's not pushing me enough. I want to train. I see, you know, yeah, I see what's his
Starting point is 00:13:08 name. I see Sal over there and he's just crushing his client. Like, I want, I want to train, yeah, I need that. I need that type of motivation and I'd have to talk them out of that. Like, no, trust me, you're with a great trainer. He knows what he's doing or she knows what she's doing. Like, just fall, but I had those conversations all the time because it's so ingrained in the culture and some of these gems. Totally. Now the next one is just failing to really individualize workouts
Starting point is 00:13:33 or training everybody the same, right? Oh, it's Chester. Here's the exercises we're gonna do. Oh, and the individualization was the weight. You lift this much weight, you lift that much weight. But the workouts look almost identical. I have my favorite exercises, my favorite combinations. And you're not really paying attention
Starting point is 00:13:50 to how you can individualize a workout because individualization will make a workout so much more effective. It's not as fun as a dream as a beginner. Oh, dude, I'm so guilty in this part of it. It's brutal. And I mean, this is something, I mean, even brought up in the athletic culture,
Starting point is 00:14:05 like this is something that we all experience because everybody trained from the chalkboard, whatever was written up there, everybody tried to apply it and figure out how best to, to accomplish this workout and individualize it for yourself, but it was just the same meat and potato workout every single time and no customization, no individualization anywhere. No, I'm so guilty this as an early trainer.
Starting point is 00:14:30 It's to the point where I even tried to organize my schedule so that I only had to write one workout for the whole day. I have, it's a lot easier. Yeah, 9, 10 people, you know, let's see that day and they'd all be on that exact same body part split or what do I write that so that I didn't have to do it more than once. You know what it is, 9, 10 people, let's see that day and they'd all be on that exact same body part split or whatever like that, so that I didn't have to do it more than once. You know what it is?
Starting point is 00:14:49 It's because you thought to yourself that your job was just to watch their form and make sure they use the right way. Not that the exercise made a difference, not that the technique necessarily made a difference, not that there was correctional exercise. It was just, here's the exercises, my job is to make sure you're doing right.
Starting point is 00:15:03 It's a good point you bring that up because we're laughing about it, I'm pointing, here's the exercise, my job is to make sure you're doing right. It's a good point you bring that up because, you know, we're laughing about it. I'm pointing out how terrible the trainer, but I actually didn't think I was that bad at the time because exactly what you just said, what I did think I was great at was attention to detail and form and technique. And that's where I thought a lot of my, my value was was, and I was that guy. So you'd see me train these clients, they'd always do the same routine, but I'd be walking around each of them and showing the detail and correcting their posture
Starting point is 00:15:28 and like really getting into it. And so I felt like I was really providing tremendous value even though I really wasn't. Plus, the thing we talked about right before, this also fed into this too, because you'd finally write this routine together that was a ball breaker. And then you would stick with it
Starting point is 00:15:43 because you're like, oh yeah, I got this. This heart has worked out. And then you wanted to run every client through it to see how they responded to it. And so that last problem fed into this one also. Yeah, totally. This next one is, I was really guilty of, which was just emphasizing these entertainment
Starting point is 00:16:00 or entertaining workouts, right? The fun factor. Now, at some point, this started to backfire because I started to run out of creative shit to do with my clients. You know what I said? Oh, I got Sally coming in. We're gonna try that physical ball movement.
Starting point is 00:16:15 And oh, I saw somebody use the battle ropes. We're gonna do that. Oh, there's this resistance band, rotational press that we're gonna do. And then I combine exercises together. And then it was all about like, let's make the workout so different that you're gonna show up and be I combine exercises together. And then it was all about like, let's make the workout so different that you're gonna show up and be like,
Starting point is 00:16:27 wow, this is really fun. And again, the clients also feed into us. By the way, as a trainer, you want your clients feedback, but they're not the ones that are driving the workout. And so the mistake I would often make is I would let them drive the workout because they'd say, wow, Sal,
Starting point is 00:16:41 I'd never done all those weird exercises. That was so fun. Cool, I'm gonna keep doing weird stuff. Well, the thing is, there's sort of a benefit and there's definitely a negative to this because the negative is that it deters you. It takes you off of the path that's gonna lead you to results, which is really what the client came in there in the first place to receive.
Starting point is 00:17:04 And the benefit to it is it is fun. It's engaging. It's something that they can talk about and look forward to the next wacky thing that you're going to have them do in the gym. And also on the trainer side, it's like you're trying out all these random tools and techniques. And I guess if I'm looking back, it was awful. And in that, some of the clients that I was taking through a lot of these tools and techniques. And I guess if I'm looking back, it was awful. And in that, like some of the clients that I was taking through a lot of these tools
Starting point is 00:17:29 and devices and things I was experimenting with, they were literally part of my experiment. And I hadn't really figured it out yet. And so I was able to weed through all that stuff and find out what was actually effective and what wasn't. But in terms of being as effective as a trainer as possible, I was definitely not there yet.
Starting point is 00:17:48 Well, when we talk about things like this, it always brings me back to how we all came together because this really is the first initial. I mean, if Sal would have never sent over MAP Santa Ball to me, the first rendition of it that Doug and him created. And if I would have never seen that, and I wouldn't have been at this point in my career where I'd have learned from this mistake, I probably would have never appreciated the programming as much as I did. I mean, that part of the beauty that I saw, and it was the simplicity of that, this is what most of my clients should have been training like, even though I went through
Starting point is 00:18:21 this long phase of always doing all these weird creative exercises that were way less effective. And I think a part of that is this insecurity as a trainer that you feel every time they come in, I gotta teach them something new. Yeah, they've already seen a squad. Right, right, they've already seen that kind of a tricep exercise. I gotta teach them a different tricep exercise.
Starting point is 00:18:40 So like I'm constantly feeling like I need to be showing them something today, they haven't seen before or else They're not gonna resign with me because if I keep doing the same, you know great exercises, you know that Yeah, they're not gonna need me they're they I need to be showing them something they don't know how to do or they've never done before They don't know why we're doing it so that I can explain it and I could teach it and if I kept doing that then they'd wonder like oh wow I stay with this guy wonder what next week will be week will be? He'll show me something new. And so that was my thought. That was that was the extent of my programming in my early years was literally like around that, like how creative and unique and different can I keep it going in a program so that people always feel like there's
Starting point is 00:19:17 something new. Again, I think there was good intentions behind it. I think the idea I was I thought I was providing a better service that way, but the truth is, to your point, Justin, they're showing up to get results. They sign up, they pay at the end of the day, whether they like you or don't like you, they're there. They're gonna do a good job.
Starting point is 00:19:34 That's right, yeah, I want to either lose fat or I want to build muscle or I want to be healthier. Like that's what they're paying you for. And there are exercises that are better than other exercises. That's a fact. And long term, especially, a hallmark of this is the trainer that follows the next fat. I could go over them.
Starting point is 00:19:54 I remember when instability training was a thing, all of a sudden the fat followers did instability training, then Taibo, kickboxing and getting all of a sudden trainers doing kick, with no kickboxing experience, holding pads, and doing kickboxing, right? Oh, the battle ropes, here's all the trainers doing the battle ropes, and you know, circuit training. Yeah, circuit training, oh, now it's all a circuit, oh, hit training, oh, now everybody's doing hit training. And it's that entertainment factor that is,
Starting point is 00:20:18 it's a problem. By the way, okay, when I became better with my programming and it became more simple and individualized and not so weird, my clients, by the way, they stayed with me longer. In fact, all of these mistakes we're talking about actually made me a less successful trainer. As much as I thought that they were helping me,
Starting point is 00:20:34 it actually hurt me, because later on when I figured these out, clients stayed with me much longer, had better longevity and sustained the results much longer. This next one was, this one I was so guilty of, and this is mainly because I, doing the whole motivation inspiration thing for me came very natural, I love it,
Starting point is 00:20:53 I love talking to people, hyping them up. And so this was my strength, my strength was to emphasize motivation and inspiration. Oh boy, I could talk anybody into working out more. I could talk to anybody into following my meal plan. I could talk to anybody into feeling motivated and inspired to get in shape. Now, there's nothing necessarily wrong
Starting point is 00:21:15 with motivation and inspiration, but here's the problem. What happens when that feeling goes away? Which it will? It doesn't stick around. Motivation is a feeling, it comes and it goes. And if I convince this person to work out in me five days a week, so I'm really good at selling the motivation inspiration,
Starting point is 00:21:29 when it finally does go away, which it will, they're gone, that client is gone. They're not working out anymore because they've relied so much on depending on that motivation factor. Now trainers that do this a lot, what do they look like? The boot camp trainers.
Starting point is 00:21:42 The people that yell at people, the hype, the excitement, right? They're relying on, you know, summoning this feeling or creating this feeling a client, and that is a well, that is very, very shallow, and it runs out of water very quickly, and then your clients don't do very well. Yeah, I'm for sure guilty of this one.
Starting point is 00:22:00 And I think part of the reason why is, because I liked it. I bought it into it, you know, I liked to be hyped up and motivated. Like you sell, it came very natural to me. I mean, fuck, I remember like, I had like what they called chafershams, where I had had this.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Well, you know, if sexy was easy, nobody would be it. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's seriously, yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm so inspired to work out harder. I mean, I totally, yeah. Everybody has the same 24 hours and everything. Yeah, I do. It to work out harder. I mean, I totally have. Everybody has the same 24 hours and everything.
Starting point is 00:22:27 Yeah, I do. It's up to you, yeah. I did, man. I definitely, I definitely, pain is weakness. I just definitely fell in his trap. I mean, even to, I would, I would text clients too, like obviously when that, because we were before that.
Starting point is 00:22:39 Oh, I said motivational quote. Oh, yeah, I'd sit randomly in the day too. And they ate it up and they loved it, you know? And so you get that feedback as a trainer. So you think like, man, I am killing it. I am doing great job. I'd sit them around. What are you doing right now?
Starting point is 00:22:51 Like get off the couch, go do this. Like I do stuff like that to get a moving. And people do. Some people like it and they give you that feedback. And so I think I'm doing such a great job because they're like, man, I just so appreciate you. If I was being lazy and then you sent that to me and I was fired up and then I went and did it.
Starting point is 00:23:07 And so as a trainer again, I think sometimes you mean well with what you're doing but you just don't realize. Well, I think this also feeds back sort of to the root of it, which is that you think that these people are just lazy, right? And it's like they need for you to constantly howon them about showing up,
Starting point is 00:23:29 like getting through this like, and crazy intense workout. Like, it's a total domino effect of all the ones preceding this. But yeah, I mean, I was guilty too, I've just like trying to make sure, like, you know, my clients would come back and so I'd have to text them,
Starting point is 00:23:47 like, hey, we're gonna have a great workout. And like, you're always like, this constant hype machine, which was exhausting. By the end of the day, trying to do, replicate that kind of energy with every single client, like after that. And man, I just got burned out trying to be that guy that felt like, well, they're not gonna come back unless I do this.
Starting point is 00:24:06 Yeah, no, I'm glad you said that because there's another reason why it's a failing strategy, because for you to be the motivation inspired, you're such a person, you also have to feel motivated and inspired, and you, the trainer, eventually you lose this job. Or also human, and you get burnt out.
Starting point is 00:24:21 You, I don't wanna do this at all. This is actually what led me to actually wanting to leave training. I was at that time, so I was only a pure trainer, only training clients for less than two years. And I was ready to be, I was done. Like I was, I was, I was burnt here. Yeah, I was done being a trainer
Starting point is 00:24:37 because I took a lot of pride in being this person with every client and I was such the hype man for eight to ten hours a day every day and having to be a chameleon for each one and I again thought I was really good at that so I put a lot of extra energy into it and I just remember after a couple of years being like, I'm tired man. I just want to be me all day and not feel like I have to mold my personality and bring out this crazy level of energy when I'm not feeling it,
Starting point is 00:25:05 not feeling it for the day, and that part exhausted me. And the truth is, when that starts to happen, whether you realize it or not, your value as a trainer starts to diminish. So, you're just not, you're not your full self anymore, and eventually it wears on you, and then that will be reflected in your programming and training. And the big detriment to this is that it takes the spotlight off of what's really important, which is learning how to develop the skill of discipline or teach the skill of discipline,
Starting point is 00:25:32 which is a slow step-by-step process, but it lasts with you forever. Because the skill of disciplines with you, whether you're motivated or unmotivated or tired or energetic, and if it's always about motivation, you have developed no skill to deal with the situation when the motivation's gone. You feel burnt out, you feel unmotivated.
Starting point is 00:25:50 How many times people say that? I don't work out some unmotivated. Well, yeah, it's a crush. Totally. It's a crush that you're providing your client that there's so dependent on you to summon and rally this feeling towards any obstacle that comes their way. A better trainer knows to equip them with how to deal with it when it's rough and let
Starting point is 00:26:14 them struggle through that themselves. So the next one is going to ruffle some feathers because it still happens a lot. It definitely happens a lot. It definitely happens a lot still and it also took This is one of the ones that probably took the longest for me to like really Come full circle and figure out how to do this better, right? And so and that is to is giving meal plans Giving meal plans is a is a terrible terrible idea like literally for client and I know there's trainers listening right now That I'm gonna go on a fight fight us every time we bring Yeah, because you get offended by it that way. Oh, you're gonna give no one eats this way That's the problem nobody wants to eat this well. That's why right? We had to explain why it's such a failing method to Write something out the you are you're not teaching you're giving the clients the answers to the test first of all
Starting point is 00:27:04 So like you're just doing that, you may get them to pass the tests that while they're working with you, but then when they go off on their own, they're not gonna have the tools and the resources to figure this out themselves. So the education process, when it comes to nutrition, especially how individualized it is,
Starting point is 00:27:20 is so crucial and figuring out how to teach that process is so much more important than just telling someone the answer. Yeah, to go a little deeper to that, you're not teaching them how to navigate the real world. Right? How do I navigate the real world? How do I navigate vacations?
Starting point is 00:27:34 What about going out to dinner with my husband or my wife? Or what about when I don't have the food that I have on my plan with me, right? It's almost like we thought that we could give everybody a pre-contest diet. It's like we're treating everybody like a bodybuilder. Here's your meal plan. Like this is what bodybuilders do for 12 weeks before show.
Starting point is 00:27:51 They don't even do this all the time. It's not a effect, and I thought, by the way, I thought with nutrition that this was it. Like, oh, all I gotta do is figure out their calorie burn. Here you go, here's the solution. Again, going back to the, I thought there were lazy, oh, you don't follow the meal plan? Well, of course you're not gonna lose weight
Starting point is 00:28:10 because you're not following. I gave you what to do, just follow it and prepare and prep your food and package it and bring it with you all the time. People don't live that way unless they're neurotic about it. And this is the other part, is I confused everybody with trainers. Like, what do you mean? Why aren't you neurotic about it? I'm a neurotic about it
Starting point is 00:28:27 You know, and I remember I had a client once once tell me yeah But if I was a neurotic as you were about it, I would be a trainer. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right You know, this is my choice to do this Yeah, so it's just it's and it's and I promise you this will happen to give someone a meal plan They'll follow it get results. They'll go off of it and they'll lose all the results Well, this is also another one that's hard because a lot of clients want this or demand this, right? So this is a tough one and now, shit, I was just,
Starting point is 00:28:52 this was earlier this year, I was visiting my uncle and my aunt, my uncle on the side that actually works within the company and so that, his wife, so obviously she knows what we do and stuff. And I went out and saw her and I hadn't done anything diet wise or talked to her about that stuff. And actually, years probably since I was a beginning trainer and she remembers I wrote her a diet, like way back when.
Starting point is 00:29:14 And so I'm out there not that long ago and she says, would you write me a diet? I go, and now I have a much better way of communicating this right back then. I would just, okay, write something where it's now like, yeah, you don't really want me to do that. I'm not really gonna help you if I do that. She's like, we talked about last time you did it,
Starting point is 00:29:30 it helped me great this then. She's so, we're getting this argument back and forth about it. And that funny, last time you did that, it helped me so great. Well, why are you here now? Right, you know? You know, and that's such a high,
Starting point is 00:29:39 and I actually lost, I really did, I lost the battle. So I'm emitting that I just wrote her down stuff because she would let me go unless I did. And she's like, listen, and her final thing was like, I don't give a shit, I don the battle. So I'm emitting that I just wrote her down stuff because she wouldn't let me go unless I did. And she's like, listen, and her final thing was like, I don't give a shit, I don't wanna learn. You know, I've actually gotten that a few times from clients. Yeah, they're just really adamant that, like, listen, like, don't give me all this work, just give me,
Starting point is 00:29:58 you know, the few things to focus on and make my life easier. So this is the part, I understand the trainers that get caught in the situation, okay? As advanced as I am and I have the words to communicate why she just wanna do that, I still lost this battle. Now mind you, she's not a paying client
Starting point is 00:30:18 that I'm seeing every day, so what it would look like had I lost that battle and then still be training her, is I would be working on that as we're talking. You'd be like wait for this to fail and then we have a great learning opportunity. Right, and I would teach her through sessions and that's what you gotta remember,
Starting point is 00:30:35 we are in a service business. So there has to be kind of this middle ground of knowing what I know is best for the client, also recognizing that they have this idea or perceived idea of what, you know, this relationship supposed to look like. And it's my job to convince them sometimes what is best for them. And sometimes that means I gotta meet them kind of where they're currently at. And that means I gotta go, okay, this is what she wants right now. I'm gonna give her what she wants,
Starting point is 00:31:00 but then I'm gonna explain to her as we're training some of that, like, hey, this is the reason why I didn't want to write you a diet. Here's an example of a day where I actually would have told you to bump your carbs or your calories because we did X, Y, and Z. Or, hey, this is a day where I would have said, you know what, we probably should scale back a little bit because of X, Y, and Z. So, take those opportunities if you do get put in those positions when you're listening to this and you're like, well, shit, I feel like my client made me do that.
Starting point is 00:31:22 Well, this is like when I talked to an NCI, it's chess not checkers, right? So it's chess. So sometimes you got to sacrifice a few pieces. Knowing that later, you're going to get that checkmate. It's like no different than your kid. You know, you're going out in the cold and like, hey, don't you want to wear a jacket? And they go, no, I don't want to jacket.
Starting point is 00:31:36 And so you're like, I could fight them and force it on. Or I could go outside and then they'll be like, it's really cold. Oh, that sucks, buddy, it's cold. You should, you know, maybe we'll get your jacket next time, time to deal, right? So it's one of those situations where it's really cold. Oh, that sucks, buddy, it's cold. You should, you know, maybe we'll get your jacket next time, type of deal, right? So it's one of those situations where it's chest not checkers, but make no mistake, giving meal plans,
Starting point is 00:31:50 unless you're training someone pre-contest, is really a failing strategy, because at some point you go off the meal plan and then, you know, forget about it, which leads to the next one. Say, I too much emphasis on supplements. Now, I blame, of course, I take responsibility for this, but I do blame the first certifications and classes
Starting point is 00:32:10 that I took when I became a trainer, because some of these courses were funded by the gyms that I worked in, which were partnerships with supplement companies. And when they would teach us how to make meal plans, which talks to the last one, they would teach us how to integrate supplements into the meal plans. With breakfast, they take their multivitamin calcium pills and then you get your protein and
Starting point is 00:32:32 creatine. Before you work out, your branching amino acids and afterwards your branching amino acids. And then in the evening, you take this and here's why it's so valuable. And I thought, oh man, the supplements really make a big difference. This is really going to make a huge difference with the person. And this is also when I thought it would make a big difference for me. The truth is, supplements make almost no difference whatsoever. I mean, unless you have an actual nutrient deficiency, in which case it could be life-changing,
Starting point is 00:32:57 for the most part, it's not gonna do much at all. If anything, except for making you spend a lot of money. Well, in your defense, too. And I think this is actually still true. You would know better than me, so correct me if I'm wrong. But probably a majority of the most popular studies that are circulating are around supplements. Because they have a desired outcome of selling something, they're funded, and it's hard to get funding for a lot of fitness related.
Starting point is 00:33:26 It's also easier to control. It's really hard to do a study on nutrition because they're so observational. And people are notoriously terrible at reporting how they eat. And then oftentimes you don't look at other behaviors. For example, somebody we may look at and find a correlation between, I don't know,
Starting point is 00:33:43 high salt intake and obesity, but it's not the salt, it's probably that they're eating a lot of heavily processed foods and eating a lot of calories. Just like in the 50s or 60s when they showed, studies showed that coffee caused cancer. We didn't realize that coffee drinkers smoked a lot too, so we didn't connect those two.
Starting point is 00:34:01 But when it comes to a supplement, it's very easy to control, take this, and that's all we're measuring, and then see what happens. So you see those too. But when it comes to supplement, it's very easy to control, take this, and that's all we're measuring, and then see what happens. So you see those studies. And the results are often, you know, they'll have a result, and then we'll extrapolate, and then we'll, you know, come up with our own conclusion. For example, you know, taking this stimulant causes more fat, you know, 10% increase in fat oxidation. Oh, this is going to help you burn body fat. Well, if we do a study that actually shows fat loss,
Starting point is 00:34:28 we find that it doesn't make a difference whatsoever because at the end of the day, it's about the calories that you eat and all that stuff. So you're right. And a lot of the studies that we would circulate amongst each other were around supplements and compounds and new things and we as fitness fanatics, right? Especially those of us who wanted to build muscle is you know skinny kids
Starting point is 00:34:47 We got hammered with all these ads too. I was like I thought my supplement knowledge was my most one of my most valuable things I know how which supplement stacks to put people on and yeah It's gonna make a big difference and my of course the gyms love me because I sold so many supplements I just I look at it a little bit different today right like and I think I always talk about like it does so many supplements? I just, I look at it a little bit different today, right? Like, and I think I always talk about like, just how much like spendable income that you have because, you know, if you got all the extra money
Starting point is 00:35:09 and you like testing out the stuff like that, there's, they're fun to try to add into, it's not a big deal, but I also go back to what it was like as a struggling kid trying to get by and buying $300 a month worth of supplements to get by. And what I know now is that that money would have been better spent on having someone prep my meals. You know, that right there, well, you want to talk about
Starting point is 00:35:32 someone having success with their diet, you know, the money that they're spending on these supplements, thinking they're gonna get the competitive edge of 5% more of whatever it is that they're taking it, versus, hey, I've got that the same $300. Now I could buy, pay for one of those services that delivers the meals to my house and I have macro balanced, perfect.
Starting point is 00:35:52 So much more valuable. Way more valuable. Like the success rate that that client is going to have by investing that money into something like that will trump any great supplement study all day and I'll take the Pepsi challenge on that all day long. So that's like where my mind has changed over years with supplements, it's not that they're all garbage. Yeah, they have some value.
Starting point is 00:36:12 We use a lot of different supplements here and there. But if I had somebody who's like, hey, I've got $300 a spin, supplements does not surpass things like that. They're far better off investing that when we're talking about, you know, creating good behaviors around eating. Totally. Now, this next one connected to some of the other ones that we talked about, and
Starting point is 00:36:30 that's really just failing to meet people where they were. It was this kind of all or nothing approach, and this is where the motivation aspect came in and the maybe they're lazy, you know, thoughts came in, but if somebody came in and hired me or wanted to work out, and they told me, you know what, Sal, I'm just getting started. I want to come in and meet with you once a week, right? I'm already thinking waste of time, once a week. You got to be in here at least four days a week. And so now I'm going to have this speech and this conversation with you and talk about
Starting point is 00:36:59 how you make this decision. Are you serious about this? If you're really serious and you got to make the time and fitness is this decision, and are you serious about this? If you're really serious and you gotta make the time and fitness is very important, and they would work with me four days a week because I was very convincing. And then they would fail because it was too big of a leap, it was too big of a jump from where they were.
Starting point is 00:37:16 I failed to meet them where they were. Now, I'll tell you guys a story, I've told this before, it just always stands out to me of when I started to figure this out. I had somebody who came to me, was referred to me by one of my other clients. And this lady literally, literally within the first three minutes of meeting her,
Starting point is 00:37:32 she gets referred to me, she comes in, I shake her hand, we start talking, and she goes, I'm only working out once a week, I'm not doing any exercise at home, and I'm not changing my diet. So if that doesn't work for you, then I'll go somewhere else.
Starting point is 00:37:43 Now early trainer Sal would have been like, peace, see you later. I only work with serious people. The wiser version of myself said, no problem. We will make that work and I think in one day a week I can do a lot with you, especially compared to what you're doing now, which is nothing. Now I understood that this was chess, not checkers at this point. And I knew that my odds of showing or something once a week was great, because it was more than what she was doing before. And I knew that doing that would probably get her
Starting point is 00:38:12 to eventually wanna do more on her own. And that's exactly what happened. Over the course of a couple years, she went from one day a week to two days a week, to three days a week to work it out on her own. She started watching her sugar intake, increasing her protein intake all on her own, and it was a very sustainable, permanent approach versus blowing her out of the water because I don't want to meet her where she was.
Starting point is 00:38:31 Well, this is always why I have a bit of a hard time answering this question that always pops up from other trainers is, when should I know into fire my client? And I'm like, I think you're asking the wrong question. Yeah. Like, where are you failing? Yeah. Yeah. Where are you not meeting them? Like, how are you not finding a way to get them more engaged and interested in, and, you know, pursuing their goals a little more intensively? And I, again, this is back to like my earlier self where I would fail and be like, yeah, you know, I've given them everything.
Starting point is 00:39:08 I gave them all the tools, I'm here on time, like I'm consistent, I'm kicking ass. And I wasn't ever just like, turn that around like, oh well, maybe I am not presenting this in a way that's really resonating with them. Maybe I'm not finding something else that will spark that and be like the catalyst to them, all of a sudden getting it, you know,
Starting point is 00:39:30 cause it does take a lot of interactions before sometimes that light bulb finally turns on for somebody. Yeah, my bottom line for this change a lot, originally it was like, you're gonna either work out with me, at least three days a week, you have to do a lot of my nutrition on my meal plan, you have to, otherwise I'm not gonna work with you. Later on, this is where the line went.
Starting point is 00:39:49 You have to not be a jerk, because I'm not gonna train someone as a jerk, right? Because that's my hour worth of you. So if you're an asshole to me, I'm not gonna work with you. But if you're cool and you show up, for whatever we decide on, so if you decide on once a week and you show up,
Starting point is 00:40:02 that's it, because I know in that hour, I'm gonna be able to do something that's better than you not coming to see me at all. And that's enough for now. And then I can work from there. If I tell you to kick rocks or piece out, how am I gonna help you? I can't do anything.
Starting point is 00:40:17 And is anyone else gonna be more successful? I doubt it. So my line totally changed later on. Your ability to do this with exercise and with nutrition, I really think is what takes you to an elite level as a trainer. And I think I've refined this over years on what does meeting somebody where they're at exactly look like. And what I've learned now is that if I can meet somebody, and sometimes you think meeting somebody is like where they learned now is that if I can meet somebody, and sometimes you think meeting somebody
Starting point is 00:40:47 is where their app is, they admit that they could do two or three times a week, and so you say, okay, well, we're gonna train two times a week. But if I also recognize that person has done nothing for fitness for years or ever in their life, that actually might not necessarily be meeting them where they're at. That's like the projected.
Starting point is 00:41:03 You're right, that's where they think they can go or they may want to go. What I realize is like this person has done absolutely nothing so I need to get this person some wins and that goes both nutritionally and with exercise. So if you got somebody who is eight like shit for their whole life, never track food, never done that, again, putting them on this crazy strict diet
Starting point is 00:41:22 right out the gates, even if they say they're ready, I'm ready to diet, I'll tell me what to do, I'll follow whatever you say. You have to learn as a coach to like, okay, be able to pick up on that and know the type of person that you're talking to and where they really truly are at and meet them in a place that they can start to see some wins
Starting point is 00:41:40 because once they start to see some wins and build some momentum, then they get kind of hungry for it. Then they want more and that's the place you want to be versus you starting out the gates where they think they are at currently right now and it's that's still hard as shit and way. And they're falling short. I didn't even make three times this week or yeah, eight two days this week, what you said on the diet, but then I had a bad day on this day.
Starting point is 00:42:04 It's like, and so they're failing. Okay, we'll try again next week, and then next week, and it's kind of, oh, I had a good week, but then the next week they fail again. It's like, we're still overshooting with this person. Let's pick one or two things in the diet that we're gonna focus on. A lot of times I prefer to add than to take away,
Starting point is 00:42:19 so I'm gonna try and add one or two things to enhance with their eating, knowing that we'll start to limit some of the bad choices that they're making. If they're telling me they want to go two to three, they'd never done anything. Maybe I'm only going to let them start at one and say, hey, let's be consistent with that. That's the good old time. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:34 And then from there, we can build upon that. Because guess what? You've done nothing right now for the last 10 years of your life. Us literally just training once a week, you're going to start seeing change between that and us making a couple different choices nutritionally. I'm going to start to show you results. That's gonna be awesome, right? So you start to do that and then build on that.
Starting point is 00:42:49 Huge, huge difference. You know what helps people understand this? Is if you think about the times this has happened to you, like have you ever like talked to a friend, let's say they're an expert in, you know, bow shooting. And you go to them, you're like, you know, I'm gonna kind of try it out. And then they throw everything out, okay, we're gonna do this, you're gonna do this.
Starting point is 00:43:05 And you're like, all right, and I don't wanna do this anymore. It's like way too much, right? Or if they're like, yeah, you know, why don't you try it out with me and see what you think and you try it out a couple times. And you're like, wow, I really like that.
Starting point is 00:43:14 And you know, your smart wise friend is allowing you to kind of fall in love with it rather than blow you out the water. I've had experiences like, you know, with that with investments or with spiritual practice or whatever, where I go to somebody and they dump so much stuff on me. It's too overwhelming.
Starting point is 00:43:28 It's too much. I'm not going to do this or I try and that it's not something I can stick to. All right, so this next one is, you know, this one is actually more damaging than it sounds because I later realized that this was one of the single most effective tools I could have at creating consistency with activity with people and getting them to get in better health. And that is undervaluing walking. Anytime I'd ask somebody, what do you do for exercise? If they brought up walking, it was like they said, they might as well have told me they
Starting point is 00:44:00 lay down on the couch. Oh, that doesn't count. That's not exercise, that's stupid. If you're not running or you're not lifting or doing something really hard, it's not really a workout. Oh my God, was I totally wrong. First of all, walking is one of the most today effective forms of activity anybody can do for a few different reasons.
Starting point is 00:44:19 One, it's still an activity that people can do. And I say still because who knows what's's gonna be like 30 years from now, maybe it'll be like Wally, we're all floating around on hovercrafts or whatever. But today, the average person who's at a shape and overweight still knows how to walk. Now, they don't know how to run. They forgot how to run at past the age of 10.
Starting point is 00:44:37 So we're not gonna have them do that. Swimming is gonna hurt them because they don't swim very well anymore. Riding a bike, maybe not. But walking everybody can walk. So number one, you can apply it to most people. Number two, I don't need to change out of my clothes. I don't need to schedule an appointment.
Starting point is 00:44:53 I don't need to get special equipment. Most people can just go for a walk outside. And number three, I would attach it to everyday activities. Like, hey, can you walk 10 minutes after breakfast, lunch, and dinner? There's 30 minutes of activity right there. And it's so stupid that I completely discredited this incredibly powerful tool
Starting point is 00:45:13 that later on became one of my most valuable tools that I could use. The same thing. I would scoff at somebody that told me that they walked for exercise. We had a park you thing that you'd fill out as a trainer and one of the questions on there was always, what are you currently doing for exercise and a very common thing that you'd fill out as a trainer and one of the questions on there was always,
Starting point is 00:45:25 what are you currently doing for exercise? And a very common one that I would get is people would say, oh, I walk and I'd be like, oh, no, I met real exercise. When I asked that question, right? And the irony of all this is that that's exactly where I start somebody now. And going back to the example I just gave
Starting point is 00:45:41 with the client who says they can come two or three days, but yet I know they haven't done anything. I would probably start them one day of meeting with me, lifting, and then I would actually prescribe walking the rest of the time. So I say, okay, if you can commit to three days of exercise, let's do this. One day a week, you're going to come in, train a full body routine with me. And then two other days a week, I want you to go for a 30 minute walk. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:46:01 And that's, so I would start them with that. And knowing that this person is so sedentary and not doing anything that's just simply getting them moving like that again, is already gonna send us in the right direction. And I know it's not a major commitment level for them. Getting them to just go outside and go for a stroll for 30 minutes
Starting point is 00:46:17 is really easy to get someone to commit to versus, hey, get in your car, come to the gym, take punishment under the way, it's be sore. You know, like that takes a lot more for somebody. Well, it goes back to providing them with small wins. And I do believe that walking is just one of those fundamental movements that anybody can get up and do if you're able-bodied.
Starting point is 00:46:37 And so it does provide that bit of spark of momentum and something to build upon. You want to find these opportunities for something that then you can build upon that's not too demanding and it's not something that when they come back to train, we're going to have to sort of medicate and deal with, it's just something that's going to provide excess activity that's good in terms of like the overall
Starting point is 00:47:04 body demanding more movement in general. Yeah, well the study's done on walking show tremendous value. It's 100% a valuable form of activity and it's the one that I reckon, aside from the resistance strain that I would take people through, it's the form of activity that later on I realized was the most effective thing that I could add to almost anybody. I didn't do that with any other form of activity, but walking, you can walk with your spouse,
Starting point is 00:47:27 you can walk your dog, you can do it for 10 minutes, three times a day, it's so valuable, and it's so stupid that I totally undervalued it completely when I first became a trainer. Now, this last one, it's about the scarcity mindset that a lot of trainers have early on, and I'll explain my process through that. I didn't really figure out the value of this.
Starting point is 00:47:48 Like I understood it. Like, oh, I had, you know, red books on, you know, leadership and I had red books on, you know, growing your business and they talk about don't have a scarcity mindset. I didn't really get it until I own my own wellness facility. So I owned a wellness facility. And in that facility, I had somebody who did nutrition and gut testing. I had somebody who did massage therapy, so I correctional massage therapy. I had an acupuncturist in there, right?
Starting point is 00:48:13 I had a yoga instructor in there and then there were trainers in myself and I would train some clients. Now because I owned the studio, it was partially in my best interest to bring business to the other people in my studio as well. So if I had a client that would talk about pain in their shoulder, I would also think who else in my facility could help this person. And I'd refer them to my massage therapist, or I'd refer them to the person who does nutrition.
Starting point is 00:48:40 By the way, these people paid me rent. I didn't get any commission or sales on it. They just, I just knew it was good for them to have their business so they can continue to pay their rent. Now, I also had a little bit of a fear, which was, okay, now my client's spending more money with these other people, which means they may spend less
Starting point is 00:48:54 with me, but I own this facility, so this is something that I have to juggle. What ended up happening, I did not anticipate. The client, the clients that saw me and the other people that were really good that I'd refer them to ended up being the most consistent, best customers I ever had. I started to realize that rather than having,
Starting point is 00:49:13 pretending to have all the answers, and this is where the scarcity of minds it comes from, they come to me with a question, I have to have the answer, and God forbid I refer you to someone else, because I'm the guy, I'm the person you have to come to, rather than being that saying, I don't know the answer to that, or I know somebody who I'm the guy, I'm the person you have to come to. Rather than being that, saying, I don't know the answer to that,
Starting point is 00:49:26 or I know somebody who can do that better than I can. When I could do that, I became a maven. I became one of the most valuable, it was like I was their fitness ambassador, or whatever, the person who could refer them to other people. And it was so valuable that it was incredible, I was blind to it before, right? Thought, if I refer people,
Starting point is 00:49:43 oh my God, they're gonna have less money to spend on me. It was totally false. Oh, I was paranoid in the beginning because I was so fixated on trying to keep and maintain clients and have all the answers for them. And so I stress myself out that, oh no, I don't know the answer. Well, you know, I'm gonna have to go get all this education
Starting point is 00:50:02 and I'm gonna have to do all these things to make up for that one fact that I don't know how to deal with somebody who has this condition or instead of just going to one of my colleagues at the time and just having them come in and bringing them into what I was doing to help out. And it took me a long time to learn how to do that properly. And even with other trainers realizing,
Starting point is 00:50:23 oh my God, this person literally specializes in getting your body to do well on stage. Like, that's just not my thing. And I even experimented one time with, you know, one of my clients who I was like trying to help them with that. And then later, was like, you know what, this just isn't my world.
Starting point is 00:50:43 And I know somebody who's amazing for this. And so I thought, you know, I was just gonna check that off as a loss. Like, okay, I'm gonna give you to, you know, to this other trainer who's really qualified in this. And what happened as a result was she ended up, you know, having such a great performance and got, you know, first place.
Starting point is 00:51:00 And was so thankful that, you know, I kind of referred that she ended up referring some of her family members to me That would work well with me for their goals and pursuits And it was just like one of these things, you know, you build good relationships with other Trainers in the gym like people know what your skillset are. It's not It's not that competitive like scarcity. I'm keeping all my clients over here and God forbid you steal one from me. So, of all the things that we covered today, this is actually the only one I didn't struggle with.
Starting point is 00:51:32 And maybe that was just because I was dumber than both you guys. And I had to ask everybody for help. So, I was forced to give other people my clients when I didn't know how they answers. I was always forced to learn from others and stand on other people's shoulders. I didn't know the answers. I was always forced to learn from others and stand on other people's shoulders. I didn't have, I was young, I was only 20 years old, and really quickly I was managing a team of people that were more experienced, more educated than I was. And so quickly I learned that I needed everybody else.
Starting point is 00:51:59 So I relied on that really early on. Now, where I did learn more about this or learn how valuable it was to not have this scarcity mindset was how much success I had because of that in comparison to a lot of trends because it's very common. This is a common thing. And I think that's because you work in a gym and trainers need clients. The clients are inside the gym. We're all fishing from the same pond.
Starting point is 00:52:24 Therefore, if I help you or give you what bait to fish with or give you any sort of advantage, you might catch the fish that I could have caught. So there's this competitiveness that a lot of trainers. Now, what I found was I didn't know any of that stuff. I'm trying to learn all these things. I had to learn by asking. I also found that when I gave my knowledge or taught people what I had learned, I got better at those things.
Starting point is 00:52:45 So I hacked into that early on that when I would teach somebody something that I had just learned, it was- You learned it again. I do. And I forget what the drop off was. I was just watching reading or watching something the other day
Starting point is 00:52:59 that talked about like, when you hear something, like 10- 72 hours. Yeah, like you lose like 80% of it within seven hours. Yeah, like a dramatic amount. Now it was with you. Yeah, most of it you lose within those first three days. And I mean, I don't know if I knew exactly that's how that worked, but I quickly hacked
Starting point is 00:53:15 into like, wow, I just learned something really fascinating. Literally, I was giving up that information like minutes later. I would turn right around and teach other trainers what I had just learned and it would make me better at that. And so it was selfish. It wasn't like, oh, I want to, this great guy who just wants to help everybody. I was like, oh wow, if I teach this,
Starting point is 00:53:33 it makes me even better at it. So I'm gonna do that every time I learn anything, I'm gonna turn right around and give that knowledge to other people. And it's just serve me in life and in business my entire life. And then you build relationships and people value that and trust you. And then that compounds. And so I learned this lesson not because I had this scarcity mindset because I saw it. And I kind of was the opposite
Starting point is 00:53:56 of it coming up. And it's a big reason why I was successful. Yeah, you know, the studies show that that when you teach something it's you remember it much longer than when if you just learn it. And this is actually a strategy that they'll have. So I had a client who sent her son to one of those camps. I was struggling kid, the link went, the whole deal, she caught him smoking pot all the time. She sent him off to this place and he was struggling and was just not doing well.
Starting point is 00:54:21 And so what they did, this was brilliant, is they put him in charge of some of the other campers. And once he ran the other campers, all of a sudden he has assumed a sense of responsibility. He learned all the stuff because he had to teach it all and it was super effective. Yeah, back to what you were saying Adam in the gym. You know it's funny.
Starting point is 00:54:36 So just owning and managing gyms, I'll tell you right now, for anybody who's listening who does that, it's if you're a trainer in a gym with a lot of successful trainers, you're more likely to get more clients than you are in a gym with a lot of successful trainers, you're more likely to get more clients than you are in a gym with a lot of trainers who don't do very well with clients. Even though you may think there's potentially more clients in the gym, it doesn't work
Starting point is 00:54:54 that way. The energy, the vibe, the success breeds more business and more clients. So you may think to yourself, like, I don I don't wanna work at that gym, there's 10 trainers in there who are full, and just, there's nobody left in that gym. No, that's the gym that you'll more likely to get a client, because the atmosphere in that gym is conducive to people hiring trainers. You go to a gym where all those trainers,
Starting point is 00:55:18 nobody's training, and they all suck. There's gonna be plenty of clients for me to scoop up. It's gonna be much harder in that environment. That's the irony of the whole thing. So that scare city mind's actually hurts you. In almost every way that you think it saves you, which is the irony of the whole thing. Look, if you like this information,
Starting point is 00:55:34 if you like Mind Pump, head over to MindPumpFree.com and check out all of our guides. We have fitness and health guides that can help you with almost fitness and health goal, with almost any fitness and health goal. You can also find all of us on Instagram. So Justin is at Mind Pump Justin, I'm at Mind Pump Sal and Adam is at Mind Pump Adam.
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