Hustling for clients is no fun

Hustling for clients is no fun. I’ve been MIA lately because I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to figure out more effective ways to get clients. Anyone have any tips they would like to share?

In other news, I got my cert materials from UPS today, and it’s going to be fun studying for my exam in August. Yay!

If you haven’t read this post about the food industry from McBloggenstein, drop everything you’re doing and go here and look at those videos. Mind-opening and thought-provoking is how I describe them.

I’ll be back soon with more thoughts on health and fitness news as soon as I start feeling less stressed about clients. I’ll be hustling really hard this Saturday at our open house. Send some clients my way with your thoughts; the law of attraction is bound to help me out.

Speaking of the law of attraction, has anyone read The Answer by John Assaraf, one of the men featured prominently on The Secret ? I’m reading it now and it’s pretty much amazing.

Now I’m off to apply the law of attraction towards getting clients on Saturday.

What keeps me going

Today I had another session with my client. Since he does chemo on Wednesdays and is usually still recovering by Friday, training sessions on Fridays are light. We started off with a 10 minute warm-up, then went into a 20 minute yoga session. He really enjoyed the yoga, saying that he felt very relaxed once we were done. We then did a 25 minute brisk walk, and stretched after.

While we were stretching, I asked him about his chemo sessions and how he was feeling.

To my surprise, he said he was feeling great. He said that he’s usually not feeling better until Saturday, and, despite this week being a harsher dose of chemo, he felt better by Thursday morning! Although he has only done about a week and a half of sessions, he said working with me has already had a great impact.

Needless to say, this made my day and impacts like this one is why I wanted to be a trainer in the first place.

I met my first client today

I met my client today and did a consultation, what we call a JumpStart at One World Fitness. I like him a lot. He is fighting colon cancer right now and I want to help him with his fight. He has a gentle soul, and I hope he is able to sign on with me. It’s weird how the universe works though; I signed up to do the LiveStrong challenge in memory of my grandmother’s death from colon cancer and the first person sent to me for training is fighting it. That changes the purpose of my ride a little too.

I haven’t even begun training (I start next week since I graduate from college this week :)) and I already love my job!

Today’s motivational quote: That which does not kill me makes me stronger. ~ Nietzsche

So I had a personal trainer interview today…

My first personal trainer interview was today at One World Fitness on 14th Street NW,DC. I love the small, intimate environment of this fitness studio and the eclectic nature of the patrons and trainer, and the owner has a wealth of business and training knowledge that I just want to absorb for my own benefit.

The interview was short, fun, and non-traditional. I had to give the usual responses to questions such as why do I want to be a trainer, why I no longer want to pursue a career in politics, etc. But the fun part was when the owner pretended to be a stubborn, overweight prospective client that I had to convince to sign up for sessions with me. I never practiced marketing myself as a trainer, but apparently I did a pretty good job. The owner especially complemented me on my persistence. However, the exercise proved that I have a lot to learn about business. Although I know my stuff when it comes to training, I need to focus on the business side of personal training not only to become a successful personal trainer, but to eventually own and operate a successful fitness studio. That is my career goal in case you didn’t know that

Anyway, at the end of the interview, I was offered the job! I begin with a training session to learn more about the business and policies next Saturday, and I hope to be certified by July. I still haven’t decided which certification I want to get, but right now, to get me started, I’m choosing between ACE and NCSF. These two seem like the best certifications to get rolling; once I become established, I can go for the more costly and recognized certifications if I feel the need to.

So if you know anyone who wants personal training in that area, let me know! Better yet, just let your friends in the area know and get in touch with me. Also, feel free to leave any tips that you have for a personal trainer just starting out! I appreciate learning from others’ experiences.

I’m very, very excited to get started with this new stage of my life

What certification should I get?

If you’ve read my blog and my about me page, you know that I want to be a CSCS. But in the meantime, I want to be a certified personal trainer as well. But which certification should I get? Does it really matter? I’ve read about ACE, NASM, and NSCA certifications, but I have no idea which one should be my first one. I want to get it during the summer so I need to decide soon! I’ve already begun studying the basics of anatomy and I know a lot about form and program design due to my exposure from being an athlete all these years, so study time is not much of an issue for me.

What do you think? Which direction is the best for someone who wants to get started with helping people achieve their fitness goals?

Total Approach to Fitness

This is the kind of training that I absolutely love–a multi-dimensional approach to training. I hate programs that focus on one approach or old and outdated methods such as long cardio and isolated, single-joint strength exercises. My philosophy is about functionality, developing the ability to control one’s body, especially balance, and appreciating the art of movement.

I believe that the best way to achieve a fit body is when you take a total approach to fitness, like in this video.

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

66.3

People often ask me why I decided to change my academic direction from a promising career in academia to one focused on working directly with people on health and fitness issues. The reason: 66.3.

66.3 is the percentage of Americans that are overweight or obese. That’s almost 2 out of every 3 Americans. Wow.

I don’t know about you, but this number speaks to me. I always wanted to find a way to share my passion for fitness with others, with the goal of helping people develop healthy habits and live a healthy, happy, and long life. I thought that I could help people by working in public policy, developing better policies aimed at improving people’s health. But now I feel that I can better impact people by working directly with them. Besides, nothing really beats the feeling I get when I help people achieve their goals.

But back to 66.3. This number is just unbelievable to me and I want to do my part to help that number decrease. Think about all the money that would be saved from health expenses–billions of dollars. Think about how many more Americans would have better self-confidence, self-esteem, and just would be happier. That’s what I think about when I reflect upon my career decision.