Marketing… the life blood of any online business. Actually no, it’s the life blood of ANY business, period! And it’s fair to say that I’ve spent a shit load of time learning online marketing from those crazy ass “gurus”. The problem was I always had to adapt their system to my niche… but now I don’t have to. Today I have a guest post by a dude named Chris Fernandez who is not only a PT himself, but has dedicated to creating a marketing program JUST for trainers and coaches that want to increase their income by a significant margin. So enough of my babbling, here’s Chris…

Whether you’re a grizzled veteran or thinking of dipping your toes into a career in the health and fitness industry, there are a few things you better know to ensure success in this industry.

Doesn’t a career personal training sound interesting and lucrative?

In fact, if you’re reading this blog right now (all hail the immortal Fit Jerk!) it’s because you are interested in health, fitness and supplements in one way or another…or maybe you just like listening to Mr. Jerk go off about random things like peanut butter.

But either way, I know that out of all this passion for health and fitness and working out, some of you have caught a bug…

It’s a bug that starts off deep within you, and springs to life as you watch your own body transform and you think to yourself: “You know what, I could be a personal trainer…”

And you know what?

You’re right!

In fact doesn’t it sound pretty cool to set your own hours, charge whatever you want for your services and share your joy and passion for helping people through the training you already do for your own body?

Perhaps you are already working in the health and fitness industry in some capacity, whether you are a personal trainer or fitness instructor, boot camp owner, massage therapist or are in some other way associated with helping people live healthier lives.

I started my career as a personal trainer after I went from Mr. Chubby – who couldn’t do 1 pull up or run 1 lap around the track before I would bend over clutching my sides wheezing – to understanding the intricacies of weight training, nutrition and creating the body I never thought possible.

I knew I was on to something when people would always seek my advice on training, nutrition and would ask if I would help them get in better shape.

The rest as they say, is history, but it isn’t all milk and honey.

What I found out was that being a personal trainer wasn’t as simple as proclaiming my mission to the world, printing out some business cards and opening up shop…if only it would have been that easy.

First the Bad News…

Let’s first talk about the biggest problem that most personal trainers face while working in this industry:

• 33% of personal trainers make less than $20,000 per year
• 60% of personal trainers make less than $40,000 per year
• 66% of personal trainers have 2 years or LESS experience

So what do all these stats mean?

First of all, it means that most personal trainers don’t make squat.

Second of all it means that if you are either thinking of becoming personal trainer or are already in the field, then more than likely you won’t be in this business more than 2 years!

Why, you ask?

It’s simple: Being a passionate, knowledgeable and amazing personal trainer doesn’t mean you know what it takes to run a successful personal training or fitness business!

For some reason as personal trainers, we love to work “in” our business rather than “on”  our business.

What I mean by that is that we love training people and showing them what it takes to transform their bodies, but oftentimes hate the other side of the equation when it comes to marketing, building, automating or growing our businesses.

So we spend more time working “in”  the business just getting by day to day, than we do “on” the business growing it and making it a success.

If you’ve been struggling with your personal training business or work for a gym or club making peanuts, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

But running a successful personal training or fitness business shouldn’t be complicated right?

I mean, aren’t there fitness professionals out there who make 6-figure income?

How do they do it?

I’m glad you asked…

Now The Good News…

It’s not all gloom and doom.

Heck, I wouldn’t even be writing this right now if there was no hope of you ever making it in the fitness industry doing what you love.

In fact, to really get to the top of this profession and master what you don’t know to start and run a successful fitness business, all you need is to pay attention and learn from the masters in this industry and supporting industries –  like information marketing, business marketing, and the like –  to cut your learning curve dramatically.

What I realized was that even though there are a ton of websites out there (like this one!) devoted to all things bodybuilding, working out, supplements and health and fitness, there’s also a huge part of you guys that would love to start your own fitness business or are already in this industry but just don’t know how to create a real and thriving business out of a career personal training.

Well, that’s where I come in.

Who the hell am I? [FJ: Yeah, who the hell are you dude? I demand you tell us!]

LOL…well, here’s a little background about me and what I decided to do for you.

My name is Chris Fernandez, and I’ve been a natural bodybuilder, cross-trainer and athlete for over 20 years and a personal trainer for over 13 years.

The first part of that life was spent making absolutely nothing as a result of limiting beliefs about my talent and abilities as a professional fitness instructor and an overall lack of knowledge and understanding about how to properly market, position and execute my business to become a trainer that made well into the high 6-figures by finally figuring out all the little details and stuff that nobody ever taught me.

The kind of stuff I want to teach YOU!

I mean basic things like how and where to market my business, how to get more clients, how to set people up for recurring billing, how to build a website that closes, and most of all, how to live a life full of passion and purpose only training clients because I chose to and not because I had to.

I loved being a personal trainer.

I loved helping people change their lives, their bodies and become more than they ever thought possible.

I just didn’t love never making any money, not being able to help my friends and family financially, and always being a slave to my business working too much and making too little.

I can tell you from personal experience that it’s not a fun place to be when you can’t help out your mom and dad financially for all they have done for you because you can’t even afford to pay your own bills.

I won’t go into all the details, that’s for another time, but this desperate need to turn my life and career around led me to become a fitness marketing and fitness business expert.

I studied and mastered best practices, learned what did and didn’t work, implemented systems and vehicles so that my fitness marketing and business would always be bringing in clients – which became so overwhelming that I had to start hiring other trainers.

It was pure relief and bliss when I finally “figured it all out” and understood all the complexities of marketing, mindset and business.

I thought to myself: “I know I’m not the only one out there that is searching for this type of information or wants to improve their fitness business…”

That’s when I decided that all this knowledge that I have was something that I just had to share with others.

In fact, my biggest passion outside of working out and treating my body like a temple, is helping other health and fitness professionals – YOU – figure out how to make a career and business out of something that we all feel so strongly about.

Are You Ready For This?

So here’s what I’d like do, if you’re up for it.

I recently launched my blog completely devoted to fitness business, mindset, marketing, positioning and execution strategies for personal trainers.

Basically, I want to be your guide and show you what you need to do to become a successful personal trainer – or if you are already in this business – how to become even more successful and live a more passionate and fulfilling life because now you’ll have the principles and techniques in place to show you how to properly build and maintain a thriving fitness business.

I’d love to take this journey with you, pass along some amazing business building tips, and help make the decision of whether or not you should become a personal trainer a very easy one because now you have the tools, resources and confidence to go out and make it happen for yourself.

Even if you are a veteran and have been personal training for years that’s cool too because I’ll help take your current fitness business to places it’s never been before.

So just click through to my fitness marketing blog, and you’ll get all the help and information you’ll ever need to make tons of money without wasting tons of time learning what you don’t know!

Looking forward to it.

Author Bio: “Chris Fernandez, B.S., CPT, has been a cutting edge author, speaker and celebrity personal trainer for over 13 years, as well as a natural for life bodybuilder, athlete and cross-trainer devoted to helping other personal trainers achieve lasting financial independence through a career personal training.”

[FJ: And that’s not the end of it. To make sure Chris isn’t bullshitting you all, I’ve decided to actually go through his entire fitness marketing course to bring you a one of a kind, balls-out review that you KNOW only I’ll deliver. I’m still in the process of going through it, but I admire anyone who has the balls to put their money where their mouth is… and in my opinion, that’s already a good start. The ETA for the review is too soon to tell, but I assure you… it’ll be up. In the meantime, be sure check out Chris’s free bonuses]

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