This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Most personal trainers or fitness coaches that I've talked to, they tend to agree on one thing. And it is that there's not much money in just the personal training. So this is true even when it's expensive. Like if you're going to a trainer, if you're doing some coaching, it tends to be a fairly high hourly rate, but there's just not much money in it overall because you're not able to coach or do that kind of training 40 hours a week or even a good number of hours a week. You just kind of get burned out.
So most personal trainers, they tend to use that as a foundation for something else, at least the successful ones. One of my role models for this is Jill Fit. Jill Coleman, she's been a friend of mine for years. So she's Jill Fit on Instagram. She has built a seven figure coaching business with all kinds of products and subscriptions and masterminds.
I just, I respect the sheer ambition of it, even as I don't market myself that way. Like I don't have any masterminds you can pay for, but I respect what she's done and how she's scaled her business. So I thought about Jill because today's caller wants to transition from in-person individual sessions to online group classes. What's the best strategy to do that? How can we do that?
If there's no money in actual personal training, how do you build that foundation? That's what our question's about. We'll hear from our caller in just a moment. [Music]
Hey, my name's Noah. I'm from Miami.
I've been a part-time personal trainer for the last five years now. I'm starting to focus on mainly just one-on-one sessions. With the rise of virtual classes, I've been thinking about creating my own workout program and offering it as a recording or even live online classes. Could you give me some guidance on the technical aspects of setting up a fitness program? And how can I effectively market my class to attract clients from different places in the world?
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Noah, congratulations on getting this far and good for you as well to think about the next steps. Listen, as I said in the introduction, to make real money in this field, you need to transition from doing those one-on-one sessions to something else. And fortunately, Noah's already thinking that way. I really think that my friend Jill Coleman is a great example. I'm sure there are others as well, but just kind of maybe just spend some time looking and seeing what other people have done in this field.
Like who has actually gone from personal training to building something that you're able to reach more people and build up the potential for passive income? Because I guess that's the problem with personal training is it's the opposite of passive income. Like it requires very active involvement. So what do you wanna do, especially since Noah mentions doing something online, like online training, well create a signature online training program. Develop this comprehensive program that encapsulates your unique approach to fitness and could be marketed as a digital product.
So this could include some video tutorials, workout plans, nutrition advice, progress tracking. There's lots of different features that could be included. You just need some sort of brand to it. This is more of a marketing challenge than anything else. If you think about the big names in nutrition and fitness, they have all created as some kind of signature program.
So start with that. There might be a fitness app or platform that you could utilize to kind of streamline this process. So there's a few different examples here. No endorsements, just examples. Trainerize, True Coach, MyPT Hub.
I think there's more, these all allow you to set up your own program and communicate with clients. So you wanna do something like that. There might be group coaching, which is a little bit different than just individual coaching. It still is active, but it could be done online. It could be done through live streaming.
Those sessions can be more affordable for clients while allowing you to reach more people. And then ultimately, however you're doing all this, you want to build authority. You want to establish yourself as an expert. You want to be pretty good at social media. I'm often saying that social media isn't relevant or isn't required, let's say, for every business, but this is one where it kind of is, or at least it's gonna make things much easier.
So definitely spend some time on that. I think persistence combined with the right strategy is really important here. Noah, I'm cheering you on. I wish you well. Listeners, if you have a question, a struggle, an idea, something you're trying to figure out, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll continue to feature them each week in a new episode every single day. So grateful for you. Take care of yourself out there. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
