I am going to share with you the one and only technique I used to get myself off of floor shift and training full-time in 5 weeks working at Equinox Fitness in Santa Monica, CA.
1. Notice what every other trainer is doing in your club, and do the exact opposite.
It isn't difficult to notice trends in personal trainers that work in health club environments. Each health club may have its own type of trends and or clientele based on the company that runs it, location, size, etc., but no matter what those variables may be, 98% of the personal trainers working there are all doing the same thing. They use the same sales techniques, they all have similar schedules, and most of them claim to specialize in so many areas of fitness, they really end up looking like "General Fitness" specialists (not so attractive).
It only took me a few days to notice all the popular trends and habits of the personal training staff at Equinox:
Observations
1. Most of the trainers wanted to train the same 5 days per week. Monday – Friday.
2. Most sessions were trained between 5am-12pm Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. (You can even ask your Fitness Manager for these details, trust me, he/she has them.)
3. Most of the trainers started training at 5am or 6am so they could be done with work by 12pm to 2pm.
4. Most of the trainers' schedules were unorganized, filled with random hour-long gaps between clients. They were willing to bend any which way for just one more session, even if it meant hanging around for a second 2-hour lunch break before their next client.
5. Most of the personal trainers claimed to specialize in everything. ie. Weight loss, Body Building, Muscle Toning, Corrective Exercise, Functional Training, Core Training, etc. This is an awful habit in every industry and the concept needs to be abolished entirely. You wouldn't walk around saying you are the "Wal-Mart" of personal training, would you?
With just these 5 simple observations, I already began to develop a working formula for success.
Analysis
1. Since every trainer wanted to work Monday – Friday, I immediately committed myself to working Saturdays and Sundays. Those we’re going to be my big days.
2. Since most sessions were trained Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 5am and 12pm, I refused to train clients during these times.
3. Since most trainers wanted to leave work by 12pm to 2pm during the week, I wouldn’t even consider training until after 2pm on weekdays.
4. My schedule was designed in 5-hour blocks with no gaps at all. I only took clients who could train during these hours. I refused to bend my schedule for any client.
5. Rather than having a long list of “specialties” I would try to sell to everyone, I committed myself to choosing only one area that I already had a breadth of knowledge in and was committed to mastering. If you didn’t fit in the category, you weren’t the right client for me.
Solution
1. I started working both Saturdays and Sundays. It was easy meeting clients these days, because I was one of the only trainers in the gym during these hours, and I was certainly the only trainer actually looking for clients to train during these hours. It was a monopoly. Within 4 weeks, I was training, on average, 5 sessions every Saturday and 6-7 sessions every Sunday.
2. Since I refused to train Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 5am and 12pm, I immediately set up my schedule so I would be training Tuesdays and Thursdays after 2pm. I wanted my schedule to be as opposite from the majority as I could possibly make it.
3. By starting work at 2pm during the week, by the time I got to the gym, most of the other trainers were gone, virtually eliminating most of the competition. Also, I got to sleep in every day of the week. Talk about a dream job.
4. I created four 5-hour blocks. 2pm-7pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-3pm on Saturdays, and 11am-4pm on Sundays. Since the requirement was 21 sessions per week for full-time status, and four 5-hour blocks only added up to 20 sessions, I added the extra 1-hour to my Sunday making my schedule more like 10am-4pm or 11am-5pm.
5. I stuck to what I knew best, Bodyweight Training. I was going to commit to teaching my clients how to workout and stay in shape without weights or machines. That was it. It was a great call because being located on the beach in Santa Monica, CA, I was capable of taking my clients outside on the balcony to train, or we would run outside on the bike path, or head over to the original Muscle Beach to work on the pull-up bars, ropes, steps, etc. I was offering something completely new at Equinox, and my clients loved it.
Summary
I asked management to schedule my mandatory floor shifts immediately before my Tuesday and Thursday training blocks, and because they needed trainers during those times anyway, it was an easy sell. Management had to set me up with a few more god-awful floor shifts during some god-awful hours of the day to meet my mandatory requirements as a newbie, but you just have to suck that up.
I stuck to my guns, trusted my formula, and out of the 20+ trainers they hired all within that same week, I was off god-awful floor shifts and working full-time day 1 of week 6. It took me 5 weeks.
But don’t take my word for it. Try it.
- X
1. Notice what every other trainer is doing in your club, and do the exact opposite.
It isn't difficult to notice trends in personal trainers that work in health club environments. Each health club may have its own type of trends and or clientele based on the company that runs it, location, size, etc., but no matter what those variables may be, 98% of the personal trainers working there are all doing the same thing. They use the same sales techniques, they all have similar schedules, and most of them claim to specialize in so many areas of fitness, they really end up looking like "General Fitness" specialists (not so attractive).
It only took me a few days to notice all the popular trends and habits of the personal training staff at Equinox:
Observations
1. Most of the trainers wanted to train the same 5 days per week. Monday – Friday.
2. Most sessions were trained between 5am-12pm Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. (You can even ask your Fitness Manager for these details, trust me, he/she has them.)
3. Most of the trainers started training at 5am or 6am so they could be done with work by 12pm to 2pm.
4. Most of the trainers' schedules were unorganized, filled with random hour-long gaps between clients. They were willing to bend any which way for just one more session, even if it meant hanging around for a second 2-hour lunch break before their next client.
5. Most of the personal trainers claimed to specialize in everything. ie. Weight loss, Body Building, Muscle Toning, Corrective Exercise, Functional Training, Core Training, etc. This is an awful habit in every industry and the concept needs to be abolished entirely. You wouldn't walk around saying you are the "Wal-Mart" of personal training, would you?
With just these 5 simple observations, I already began to develop a working formula for success.
Analysis
1. Since every trainer wanted to work Monday – Friday, I immediately committed myself to working Saturdays and Sundays. Those we’re going to be my big days.
2. Since most sessions were trained Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 5am and 12pm, I refused to train clients during these times.
3. Since most trainers wanted to leave work by 12pm to 2pm during the week, I wouldn’t even consider training until after 2pm on weekdays.
4. My schedule was designed in 5-hour blocks with no gaps at all. I only took clients who could train during these hours. I refused to bend my schedule for any client.
5. Rather than having a long list of “specialties” I would try to sell to everyone, I committed myself to choosing only one area that I already had a breadth of knowledge in and was committed to mastering. If you didn’t fit in the category, you weren’t the right client for me.
Solution
1. I started working both Saturdays and Sundays. It was easy meeting clients these days, because I was one of the only trainers in the gym during these hours, and I was certainly the only trainer actually looking for clients to train during these hours. It was a monopoly. Within 4 weeks, I was training, on average, 5 sessions every Saturday and 6-7 sessions every Sunday.
2. Since I refused to train Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 5am and 12pm, I immediately set up my schedule so I would be training Tuesdays and Thursdays after 2pm. I wanted my schedule to be as opposite from the majority as I could possibly make it.
3. By starting work at 2pm during the week, by the time I got to the gym, most of the other trainers were gone, virtually eliminating most of the competition. Also, I got to sleep in every day of the week. Talk about a dream job.
4. I created four 5-hour blocks. 2pm-7pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-3pm on Saturdays, and 11am-4pm on Sundays. Since the requirement was 21 sessions per week for full-time status, and four 5-hour blocks only added up to 20 sessions, I added the extra 1-hour to my Sunday making my schedule more like 10am-4pm or 11am-5pm.
5. I stuck to what I knew best, Bodyweight Training. I was going to commit to teaching my clients how to workout and stay in shape without weights or machines. That was it. It was a great call because being located on the beach in Santa Monica, CA, I was capable of taking my clients outside on the balcony to train, or we would run outside on the bike path, or head over to the original Muscle Beach to work on the pull-up bars, ropes, steps, etc. I was offering something completely new at Equinox, and my clients loved it.
Summary
I asked management to schedule my mandatory floor shifts immediately before my Tuesday and Thursday training blocks, and because they needed trainers during those times anyway, it was an easy sell. Management had to set me up with a few more god-awful floor shifts during some god-awful hours of the day to meet my mandatory requirements as a newbie, but you just have to suck that up.
I stuck to my guns, trusted my formula, and out of the 20+ trainers they hired all within that same week, I was off god-awful floor shifts and working full-time day 1 of week 6. It took me 5 weeks.
But don’t take my word for it. Try it.
- X